Zachariah chapter 6, and I'd
like to take the liberty of reading this entire chapter. It won't
take us long. And once again, would you please
forgive me if I mispronounce the words you already know in
here, the names. And I heard a pastor the other
day say, when you're reading those names, read it with authority,
and then people don't worry about it. Like, you know what you're
doing. Zechariah chapter 6 beginning
with verse 1 Zechariah says and I turned and Lifted up my eyes
and looked and behold there came four chariots Out from between
two mountains and the mountains were mountains of brass in the
first chariot were red horses and in the second chariot black
horses and in the third chariot were white horses, and in the
fourth grizzled and bay horses. Then I answered and said unto
the angel that talked with me, What are these, my lord? And the angel answered and said
unto me. Now I've read a number of commentaries on this very
subject and they all come to conclusions about different periods
of time and different kingdoms and different this and different
that and they fail to read verse five. Now I may not know what
verse five means all together, but that is what this is about.
And the angel answered and said unto me, these are the four spirits
of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord
of all the earth. Now we're not going to, when
we get to this passage, we're going to jump ahead tonight.
But when we get to this passage, we're not going to look at these
things as literal. These are very spiritual illustrations
by the Lord about what he has to do with this earth. That he
is all-knowing, he is all-seeing, he's all-understanding. In fact,
he has all-purposed everything that's taking place. So when
we look at that, now it says in verse 6, the black horses,
which are thereon, go forth into the north country. And the white
go forth after them and go forth And the bay went forth, and sought
to go, that they might walk to and fro through the earth. And
he said, Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth.
So they walked to and fro through the earth. Then cried he upon
me, and spake unto me, saying, Behold, these are they that go
toward the north country, have quieted my spirit in the north
country. And the word of the Lord came
unto me saying, now I cannot emphasize enough how important
it is to have the word of the Lord come to us. That is of all
importance, the word of the Lord. There is no substitute for it.
There is always the need for us to say, thus saith the Lord.
We cannot go on surmisings and we cannot go on things that cannot
be proven from the word of God. We must stick with the word of
God. If we stick with the word of
God, God is going to be glorified. Now we may not see any results
to it, but I am careful to remind me of myself. that the word of
the Lord goes as God directs it, and it will not return unto
him void, and it will accomplish that whereunto it was sent. So
the word is much more powerful than we could ever think to be,
and it has the ability to do as God had called people out
to preach that word. But the results of that word
is totally up to God. He's the one that has shared
with us that he must plow the good ground, and that seed will
fall there and bring forth fruit. Verse 9, and the word of the
Lord came unto me, saying, take of them of the captivity, even
Hedayah of Tobijah, And of Jediah, which are come
from Babylon, and cometh thou the same day, and go into the
house of Josiah the son of Jephunneh. Then take silver and gold, and
make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of
Josedek the high priest. And speak unto him, saying, Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is
the branch, and he shall go up out of his place, and he shall
build the temple of the Lord. Even he shall build the temple
of the Lord. And he shall bear the glory,
and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be priest
upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be in them both.
Now I didn't count the number of times that the word shall
is used in there, but we find out that God is the only one
that can say, I shall do something and it shall come to pass. He
is the all powerful. He has purpose to do what he
has purpose to do. And besides that, he has the
power to fulfill it. So he shall. Then verse 14, and
the crown shall be to Helam, and to Bijah, and to Jediah,
and him the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the temple
of the Lord. And they that are far off shall
come and build in the temple of the Lord, And ye shall know
that the Lord of hosts shall be sent me unto you, and this
shall come to pass. If you will diligently obey the
voice of the Lord, you're gone. We find in here some beautiful
types and shadows and pictures of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now
the sum and substance of this book What revelation chapter
1 verse 1 says it is the revelation the revealing of Jesus Christ?
Now we're going to deal with One person in this book tonight,
and his name is Joshua now I might say this greatly appreciate some
of the some understanding about the gospel and I appreciate commentaries
especially the older ones And I dearly enjoy reading them, but
I have to say, as Brother Gary Shepard shared with reading commentaries,
commentaries are like fish. You've got to get rid of the
bones. Now, I enjoy reading Robert Hawker. But still I have to get
rid of the bones. I enjoy reading John Gill. I
enjoy reading Matthew Henry. I enjoy reading some of these
folks. But I can tell you tonight that if those thoughts that I
glean from those writers are not according to the scriptures,
they are not to be brought. And I can say, that if those
men wrote and I read them, but I do not bring a message that
God has given me, I've wasted your time. The message must be
what God has given me. I cannot just do that. So as we look here tonight, I
would like to spend a little time on the subject of Joshua. Joshua, we find his name mentioned
many, many times in the Old Testament. We find one time in the Old Testament
in particular and the translators missed a point and they misspelled
it. They put Jesus and it should have been Joshua. Because Joshua,
that Joshua could not do what Jesus can do. That Joshua could
not give rest, but Jesus gives rest. So even though the names
are the same, one is Hebrew and one is Greek, if we intertwine
those, we're going to find ourselves stuck. So would you join me tonight
in this thought there are two, really two Joshua's mentioned
in the Bible. One of them is found right here
in the book of Zechariah and mentioned in some of the other
minor prophets. This particular Joshua is a high priest. And
you know what? We find so many types and shadows
in this Joshua as a high priest that points to the high priest,
our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. The other Joshua is found
over in the book in the Old Testament and his name is Joshua and he
is a captain of the host. He is Moses' right arm for some
time. And so let's read a few verses
about this Joshua as he depicts, as he pictures. as he foreshadows,
as he declares in his very being, and in the words that were about
our Savior. Because Joshua in the Old Testament
means Savior, just as Jesus in the New Testament means Savior.
So he is going to have much about him that shares some vital information
about the Savior to come, the promised one. So turn with me,
if you would, to the book of Exodus chapter 17. Exodus chapter
17. This Joshua is such an important
individual in the Old Testament. In fact, we're going to find
that he is the one chosen to take the children of Israel into
the promised land, and for good reason. I'm going to jump ahead
of myself just a little bit, but if you know anything about
the law, and if you know anything about what the law demands, that
the law demands justice, and justice to us is death. The soul
that sinneth, it shall die. The law demands it. Then we don't
want someone who typifies the law being our leader. We don't
want to look to someone who typifies the law as the one we're going
to look to. We want someone who typifies
Savior to look to. So here is this man Moses that
typifies the law and by the wonderful mercy and grace of God that was
prevented from going into the land that would have been promised.
God was gracious to give us this wonderful point. Don't go following
after the law when you have a savior that has fulfilled the law. That's what Jesus said about
himself. I came not to destroy it But to fulfill it, and guess
what, he did. Every jot and every tittle was
fulfilled. And in so doing, he fulfilled it on the behalf of
the elect, and that's, he is our righteousness. All right,
in the book of Exodus chapter 17, Exodus chapter 17 goes way
back to the second book of the Old Testament, in Exodus chapter
17. We find here several times listed
in this chapter, chapter 17 of the book of Exodus. Moses has
been set up as the official leader of the children of Israel. And
here in chapter 17 and verse 9, read with me here, chapter
17 and verse 9. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men and go out
and fight with Amalek. Moses said we got a problem here. A wary adversary. Now there's
only one way to deal with the wary adversary and that is to
send in the very best captain. Now God knew that you and I could
not deal with this adversary. We can't even deal with the one
that's listed here in Exodus chapter 17, the Amalekites. We can't deal with them. We are
having trouble dealing with ourselves. But there is a captain of our
salvation that is able to deal with every adversary that this
one is all summed up to be. Now notice here with me. In Exodus
chapter 17 and verse 9, he says, Moses said unto Joshua, come,
choose us out men, go out, fight with Amalek tomorrow. And I will stand on the top of
the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as
Moses had said unto him and fought with Amalek. And Moses and Aaron,
her, went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when
Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed, and when he
let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy,
and they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat thereon,
and Aaron and her stayed up his hands, one on one side, and one
on the other side, and his hand, until the going down of the sun.
Now notice verse 13. And Joshua disconfitted. I like that word, don't you? He made a mess of them. He took control of him. He overcame
him. Disconfitted Amalek and his people
with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said unto Moses,
write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the
ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out of
the remembrance of Amalek from under the heaven. Now, I like
the picture of this when we start looking at what Jesus Christ
did with our sins. I will utterly remove the remembrance
of them. They will not be remembered anymore. Now, there's one that that's
really important to have no remembrance of. It's not me. It's not you. It's God. If God has no more
remembrance of them. And the only way that that can
happen is that they've been justly dealt with. His righteous justice
been poured out. And we find that on the cross.
That the Amalekites are seeing that Joshua remembered that event.
The soldiers that were with him remembered that event. But there
would be no more remembrance of this man and this tribe among
Israel any longer. I remember what I am. It's on
a daily basis. I know what I am. But I'm thankful
that God has said there's no more remembrance of sin from
my standpoint. Why? They're paid for. They're
done away with. All right, and then it goes on
here. It says here, write this for a memorial, verse 14, in
a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. What a mighty
warrior was this Joshua. You know, I read the other day
something about someone saying, you know, the best prayer that
we can have is repeating God's word towards God. What great
God you are, what holy God you are. Well, I'm at words end,
because there's so much in the Bible about God. But he loves
his people to speak about him and glory. All right, turn with
me to the book of Numbers, if you would, at this moment. The
book of Numbers. Numbers Chapter 14 Numbers Chapter
14 Joshua Savior in Numbers Chapter 14 verse 6 We read these words
and Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh Which
were of them that searched the land rent their clothes now? Why did they rent their clothes?
Because they said, these guys are liars. These 10 that went
in, now they're the majority. They are the majority by a great
many. But these guys are liars. They're lying about God. And
they're lying about the ability of God. They're lying about the
land. They're lying about the inheritance
of the land. They turn everything upside down. And Joshua and Caleb
rent their clothes because, as we find in the scriptures, By
faith, they understood that God could take care of this land.
By faith, they understood. Yeah, there's some adversaries
there, but just like the Amalekites, they're going to fall. God's
going to, he's going to be there and cause them to fall. So they
rent their clothes. They tore their clothes at the
very thought that these back with a report. You know what? They were related to those 10. They're relatives. It's those of their own household,
my own familiar friend. That's what Lord said about Judas
in the song, my own familiar friend. These were relatives. They went in there with a relative
blood. They were all Jews and they went
in. It certainly tells us a lot about
what Paul said when it comes to being a Jew. It's not one
outward. No, it's not a Jew that's one
outward. It's one that's inward, one in the spirit. That's a true
Jew. That's one that worships God.
And these two men came back worshiping God. And we see the results of
their preaching. They declared the truth. They
said we can. And look at, did that turn a
soul around? Not one, not one. I heard a message the other day,
and it talked about that Syrophoenician woman, and I was reminded again,
Jesus said to that woman, I'm not sent, but to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. And that's not changed. Now,
here's 10 of them, and we know what happened. When we get into
this part of the book of Numbers, we'll spend a little more time
there. But in verse 30 of this 14th chapter, let's read that
together. Verse 30, doubtless ye shall not come into the land
concerning which I swear to make you to dwell therein, except
save. Caleb the son of Jephunneh and
Joshua the son of Nun. The rest of you will not go into
this land. They traveled all of this time. They spent their two years there
at Mount Sinai. They had witnessed the building
of the tabernacle. They had been there and witnessed
the counting of the people. They had seen what God had done
by asking that only those of this 12 tribes and the specific
aspect of who was going to be numbered, they witnessed that
all, they witnessed all the miracles that God performed with them
and for them, and yet when it came down to this very thing,
they had not a new heart. God said in the book of Deuteronomy
chapter 32, I did not give you a heart to believe. And these
are examples of that. And yet Joshua and Caleb, Joshua
and Caleb are the ones that are going to go into that land. Let's
go over to the book of Numbers chapter 26. Numbers chapter 26,
as Joshua here, the first Joshua shares with us so many types
and pictures of our Lord as the captain of our salvation. He
has the ability of dealing with the greatest of onerousness,
the greatest of enemies, the Amalekites, all of the nonsense
that they had. He has the ability of dealing
with them and dealing with them completely and in fact dealing
with even their memory that it would be taken away. And so our
Savior is so in his In his work of the cross, our Savior dealt
with all our sins so completely that they're taken from the memory
of God. Well, that's a picture, but it's
a wonderful picture. Dealt with it to the sense of
placing our sin in the deepest sea, taking it as far as the
east is from the west. The number of ways that God said
he dealt with our Amlekites, and he dealt with them completely.
Fully, completely. And now, the time is ready to
go in, and there are so many that follow after 10, the majority,
and nobody, or very few, follow after Joshua and Caleb. All right,
here, in the book of Numbers chapter 26, and we find there
25. For the Lord had said of them,
They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not
left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua
the son of Nun. Hebrews says, these all died
in unbelief. Jews, yes. Related to Abraham,
absolutely. of Jacob, yes, of Isaac, absolutely,
related to them, directly related to them, blood related to them,
and yet God said, I did not give them a heart to believe, and
they died in the wilderness, just like everyone else without
Christ will die, spiritually. It's amazing when we consider
all of the effects of Christ's death on the cross that he would
take care of our spiritual death. Spiritual death is an eternal
death, eternal separation from God, and yet our Savior was able
to take care of that, all of it, in a relatively short
time on the cross so that nobody that God has written down in
the Lamb's Book of Life will ever enter into part of it. It's amazing. Salvation is so
amazing. It's so gracious. It's so good.
So here we have the dividing line. Two men, Joshua and Caleb,
out of all that horde that came out of Egypt. Now there's some wonderful pictures
in the Passover. There's some wonderful pictures
in the children of Israel going across the Red Sea. There's some
wonderful pictures in all of this. The only two out of that
generation that's going to go into the land is Joshua and Caleb. Now, there's going to be a generation
that comes on. They're going to go in. They're going to be
the warriors. They're going to be those who fight the battles.
But Joshua will be their commander. In chapter 27 of the book of
Numbers, chapter 27 and verse 18, And the Lord speaking to
Moses, take thee Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is
the Spirit, and lay thy hand upon him. There's going to be
a succession here. It's not going to be one of Moses'
children. Not going to be one of Moses'
sons. It's going to be a special person out of a different tribe
chosen and identified a type of the Savior, Joshua, the son
of Nun. Joshua, who went in and spied
out the land, came back with a good report. Joshua, who was
there and defeated the Amalekites. And then in that same chapter
27, and there in verse 22, it says, and Moses did as the Lord
commanded him, and he took Joshua and set him before Eliezer the
priest and before all the congregation. You know, that's one of the things
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, anointed one. What did
they do with Joshua? They set him aside for the work
that he had before him. He is identified as the one that
will take the people into the land. And then in the book of
Deuteronomy, would you go there with me? Deuteronomy chapter
one, this Joshua that pictures the captain of our salvation.
Now, the other Joshua that we're going to look at is a picture
of Christ, our great high priest. And you know what? In Christ
they're together. He is the captain of our salvation. He is the king of our salvation. And he is also the high priest
of our profession, the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, here in the
book of Deuteronomy 1, verse 37. Deuteronomy 1, verse 37. He says, also the Lord was with
me for your sake, saying, thou also shall not go in hither. Now, this is the Lord speaking
to Moses. Now, there's a whole bunch of people, no doubt, going
to mourn that he wasn't going to get to go in. But in retrospect,
we look back and say, Lord, what a wonderful thing. In type, even
in type, you did not let the law be the master. Grace is the
master. No one is saved by the law. Even
the law. Moses could do nothing else.
He was asked to speak to that rock the second time, but the
law cannot speak. The law is only going to have
justice. It can't be peaceable. It can't be light. It can't be
merciful. There's no mercy in the law.
There was no mercy. God said, you strike that rock
and water flowed out. And he says, speak to it the
next time. And Moses just raised up that rod just like normal.
Whack. Now he's not going to go into
the promised land as a result of that, but he's demonstrating
there is no mercy in the law. Now water came out of the rock
and we're thankful for that. But the law can do nothing to
save. Just look at the man that the
good Samaritan dealt with. That Levite and that priest skirted
him Why? They could have no mercy on this
man. They couldn't help this man up. They couldn't put a bomb
on him. They'd be unclean, unclean, unclean. But the Samaritan, he
came. He took hold of him. He put in
oil and bomb. He took him to his hotel. He
paid for it all. And what a beautiful picture
of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, doing all for us. So this Joshua,
Moses couldn't take him in. It tells us there in the book
of Deuteronomy, chapter one in verse 37 and 38, it goes on to
say, Joshua, the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he
shall go in thither. Well, we're going to find out
that this, the true Joshua, is going to go into the realms of
death for us. Not only will he come to this
earth, not only will he go through all the indignation that mankind
could put out towards him. I heard tonight, those folks in his day and time,
even those folks, they didn't see Jesus in Jesus. Is not this the carpenter's son?
Well here, Joshua, but Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth
before thee, he shall go in thither, encourage him, for he shall cause
Israel to inherit it. I can just say hallelujah. He's
gonna cause Israel to inherit it. And Jesus Christ, the true
Joshua, causes Israel to inherit. We have an inheritance. It's
undefiled. It fades not away. And it's been
given to us by God Almighty in Christ Jesus. Moreover, your
little ones, they shall say, which ye said should be prey,
and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between
good and evil, they shall go in thither. Back there, it hasn't
been that long ago. We had all these people, and
those 10 tribes came back, and they said, You know, our children
are going to be just ravaged. Our children, they're all going
to die. We're going to die. God can't help us. Well, that
is no faith. It's amazing. The scripture says,
if we have faith as a grain of mustard seed. You know, I used
to hear preachers say, oh, boy, if you could just have faith
as a grain of mustard seed. You know what the Lord's telling
us there? You don't have any of your own. You have none. If you had faith as a grain of
mustard seed, look how powerful you'd be. And how much power
do we have? None. We have no power against sin. We have no
power against death. We have no power against hell.
We have no power against our own sin. We can't do anything.
So it must be his faith given to us. It's the faith of God's
elect. They have faith because they're
God's elect. And when he gives us this, We're
able to trust Him now. I was sharing that with a man
down at rescue, and you know what he told me? He says, well,
I'm not born again then. It's just something what the
Word will do. I was just astonished. What confession he made just
because God must give us the faith. Well, it goes on here
in the book of Deuteronomy. Chapter 31, would you jump way
across there to chapter 31? Deuteronomy chapter 31. Deuteronomy
chapter 31 and verse 3. The Lord thy God, he will go
over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before
thee, and thou shalt possess them. And Joshua, he shall go
over before thee, as the Lord hath said. Now who's the battles? It's the Lord's. You know, that
was one of the things that Jesus Christ asked Nicodemus. You being a, a, what's that word? Nicodemus,
oh. Master of Israel. You know not
these things? Well, what's he talking about?
He's talking about God doing everything in the Old Testament.
God created the heavens and the earth. God gave them the land. God did everything. And you,
being a master in Israel, don't understand these things? Well,
here we find in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 31 and verse 3, the Lord
thy God will turn thy cap... 31 and verse 3, excuse me. It says, the Lord thy God, he
will go over before thee. You being a master of Israel,
you knowing religion, you being related to Abraham, don't know
this? Well, no one knows this unless God has given them the
faith to believe it. They just cannot understand this.
The battle is the Lord, it's not ours. And he will destroy
these nations from before. He's gonna get rid of everybody.
Every, not one good word that God promised Israel did he not
fulfill. and thou shalt possess them.
And Joshua, he will go over before thee, as the Lord hath said.
Joshua is my commander, he'll go over. And then it tells us
in that, in verse seven of that chapter, 31 and verse seven,
it says, and Moses called unto Joshua and said unto him, in
the sight of all Israel, be strong and have a good courage, for
thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord
hath sworn unto their fathers to give them, and thou shalt
cause them to inherit it. God the Father speaking to His
Son, you'll cause them to inherit it. In the covenant of grace,
on your means, on your actions, on your doings, they shall inherit
it. We have an inheritance that is
undefiled and fadeth not away. We're heirs of God and joint
heirs with Jesus Christ. He has something for us. We cannot
comprehend it all, but he has something for us. And every day
when we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, we get a bit more. It's not something new
to us, it is God given to us, he just reveals some more. Everything
we have, all our sanctification, all our righteousness, all of
those things, we have them in Christ, complete and total. But
we get to see as we grow in grace. And then if you'll look there,
in that chapter, verse 14, verse 14. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Behold thy day's approach, that thou must die. Call Joshua, and
present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I will
give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went and
presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation. I'll give
him a charge. You'll go in, and they shall
inherit. And that's the words, the covenant
of grace shared with our Savior. You will be victorious, and they
shall inherit. And then in that same chapter,
one other verse, verse 23, it says, and he gave Joshua, the
son of Nun, a charge and said, Courage, for thou shalt bring
the children of Israel into the land which I swear to them, and
I'll be with thee. Isn't it wonderful the Lord said
during his own ministry, I shall lose none of them. It's not gonna
be very long as we get into the book of Joshua. Our time is about
up, but we get into the book of Joshua. Every one crossed
over the Jordan River. Not one was lost. Of all those
that were on this side, they crossed over successfully to
the other side. At flood stage, God wrought a great miracle. At flood stage. One other passage
in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 34 and verse 9. Chapter 34 and verse 9. And Joshua, the son of Nun, was
full of the spirit of wisdom. For Moses had laid his hands
upon him, and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and
did as the Lord commanded Moses. We will hear him. God has ordained him. We will
hear him. What did it say from the Mount
of Transfiguration? This is my beloved son in whom
I will please hear ye. And what does the scripture say
about those who are hearers? My sheep hear my voice and follow
me. What glorious activity is the
captain of our salvation on our behalf. He has to take care of
everything. all challenges all enemies even
ourself and put it down with a heavy hand and took himself
out of that tomb carrying every elect one with him successful
well the book of Joshua has a quite a bit more but I do want to turn
over in closing to the book of Hebrews and we'll come back and
visit this place but in the book of Hebrews chapter 4 Hebrews
chapter 4 There's something that Joshua, the human Joshua, could
not do. He's a wonderful picture, and
he's a wonderful type, and he's a wonderful shadow. God used
him to demonstrate from a physical standpoint what the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Savior, would do from a spiritual standpoint.
And here in the book of Hebrews, chapter 4 and verse 8, it says,
for if Joshua, Now the translators put in Jesus, but that should
have been Joshua. For if Joshua had given them rest, if this
human, now that's one thing nobody, nobody, no person can do for
another, is give them rest. Nobody can give someone else
rest. Now we can talk about it, we can share it. As one old preacher
said, we're just beggars, telling other beggars where they can
find bread. That's all we do. We're reporters. There's someone.
There's this one, Ken. Well, it goes on to say, if he
had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken
of another day? Now, there's one that can give
rest, and this is true rest. typified in the Old Testament,
realized in Jesus Christ as the one who truly gives rest. And that's against everything,
against every enemy. And God has purposed that in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we're gonna stop there
for tonight and we'll pick up a few verses out of the book
of Joshua that's shared with us as Joshua is the captain of
our salvation. And then we'd like to look at
a few verses about the Joshua of the book of Zechariah, who
is the high priest. He is our high priest after the
order of Melchizedek. Without mother or father or beginning
of days or end of life, what a glorious statement is said
about the high priest, Jesus Christ.