Let's go again this morning to
the book of Zechariah, chapter 3. Zechariah, and we'll go to chapter
3. At the beginning of this chapter,
the prophet of God is shown a sight. which can only be described as
miraculous. He saw a man whose name was Joshua. He was a man loved of God, a
man who was appointed to enter into the very presence of God,
and yet he was a man filthy and polluted and sent for as we read
in these verses. Chapter 3, verse 1, 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. And the Lord
said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Even the Lord
that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee, is not this a brand plucked
out of the fire? Now Joshua, Joshua was clothed
with filthy garments and he stood before the angel. Here is some good news for anyone
of you, for me, for those who are watching, for anyone who
has been enabled by the Spirit of God to see that in and of
ourselves we're filthy before the Lord. We are polluted. We're unfit for heaven. And we're fit for hell. It is to such people that I want
to preach the Gospel. What is it to preach the Gospel? I'll give you four things just
to tell the truth about God. Who He is, in all of His glory,
in all of His holiness, in all of His justice, who He is. He's the creator of all things. You say, I know that. He is that
one who sustains all things. You say, well, I know that too.
And He is also the one who demands that we be absolutely holy to
be accepted by Him. What is it to preach the gospel?
It's to tell the truth about God. That He is the sovereign God. He does as He pleases. This is
the God of the Bible. This is the God we need to know.
This is the God before whom we're going to stand someday. What is it to preach the gospel?
It's to tell the truth about God. Secondly, it's to tell the
truth about ourselves. Not trying to gloss over our
failures and just say, well, everybody's made mistakes. No,
it's to tell the truth about us. We're fallen creatures. We're sinful. I don't care who
you are. You're a sinner. And you're not
a sinner because I said so. And you're not a sinner because
you kind of feel like you're a sinner. You're a sinner because
God says you're a sinner. That's what He said. He said,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And
He said, for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It's to tell
the truth about us, tell the truth about man. A man hadn't
preached the gospel unless he's honest with people about ourselves. In and of ourselves, there is
no goodness. There's none good but one, and
that is God. That's just the way it is. We're a people who fell in our
representative, and we became sinners. We're born sinners. We don't become sinners when
we sin, when we violate God's law. The reason we violate God's
law, the reason we do wrong things, the reason we don't do correct
things like we should, the reason we kind of curb the truth, the
reason we have vile thoughts sometimes and vain imaginations
is because we're born sinners. Do you understand that? I wish
that the Spirit of God would convince all of us that we're
sinners. The songwriter said, a sinner
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. If I could find somebody who
says, you know, Jim, I am a sinner. Well, I've got good news for
sinners. I don't have good news for those who are self-righteous.
Those who feel like they don't need a Savior? An Almighty Redeemer? There's no good news for you,
but there's good news for people who are Spirit-convinced sinners. And I'll be honest with you,
I'm on the trail of sinners. I'm on their trail. And the Gospel
is the very message you need to hear. It's the truth about
God. It's the truth about ourselves. It's the truth about Christ Jesus,
who He is, what He did, why He did it, and where He is now.
It's the truth about the Savior. He's God and man. And He came
down here. He left heaven's everlasting
glory. He who created all things, He
who made all things by the Word of His power, He came down here. And he came on a mission that
God sent him to accomplish that was to save his people from their
sins. And the good news is, the glad
tidings of the gospel is, that he, the Savior of sinners, he
lived an absolutely perfect life before God in the eyes of the
law of God. and then having demonstrated,
having shown his own perfection, that he's the blameless Son of
God, he then took upon himself all of the sins of all of the
people of all of the ages whom God gave him in covenant grace,
all who would ever believe him, He took those sins upon Himself,
and the wrath of God punished Him in the stead of those for
whom He died. That's what He did. All of the
anger, all of the fury, all of the vengeance of a holy God. Could you possibly ever imagine
how much vengeance and anger and wrath God has against sin? Well, we could never imagine
that. You see, sin would put God out of business. Sin would
kill God if it could. Sin is rebellion against God. Sin is missing the mark of perfection
that God demands. That's what sin is, missing the
mark. And it would take God right off
His glorious throne of sovereignty if it could. Sin's an awful thing. Our Lord Jesus took all of the
sins of all of His people upon Himself. And He let His people go free.
And justice dealt with Him as though He were the guilty one
because in the eyes of justice, He was guilty because all of
the sins of His people were charged in His account. That's why He
died. He suffered the wages of sin
that I would have suffered forever, but He suffered it Himself upon
the cross of Calvary. So how could the sins of so many
people have been paid for by one man when He died on the cross
in three hours of darkness? Because of who that man is. He's
no normal man. He's the God-man, you see. Salvation is of the Lord. We're telling the truth about
Christ and His work of redemption. He didn't try to do something
or other. He didn't open the door so that
then you could, if you wanted to, walk through the door of
salvation. He saved His people from their
sins. That's what we read just a little
bit ago when we opened the service. Call His name Jesus. For he shall
save his people from their sins." Who did He save? His people.
Did He save them? He said He would. And if He said He would, then
He did. Because He can't lie. It's the
good news of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus. And not only
of His death, but of His resurrection. He conquered death. His resurrection guaranteed that
all of the rest of us, all those in whom we were found when He
died and was risen again, it guaranteed that we'd be raised
from the dead. Our bodies are sure to go back
to the grave, sure to go back to the dust. Our souls immediately
go to be with the Lord Jesus. At His second coming, He will
raise these vile bodies and He'll make our bodies liken to His
own glorified body. And then in a perfect body, our
souls will worship and adore Him and be with Him forever and
ever. All because He lived, He died,
He arose, He ascended, He's coming back, and He saved us by His
grace. You can't preach the Gospel without
preaching Jesus Christ and His work of redemption. Tell them
the truth about it. And fourthly, what is it to preach
the Gospel? It's to preach It's to tell the
truth about salvation. It's not of the sinner. It's
of God. If the Bible says anything, it
says it's the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. Now
who are you or who is some preacher? Who is some priest? Who is some
pope? Who is some cardinal to say otherwise? When the Bible says salvation
is of the Lord, that means it's of the Lord in the beginning,
it's of the Lord in the middle, and it's of the Lord in the end.
I'm smart enough to know that. I can read that in the Word of
God. Poor old Jonah, swallowed by a great fish, and there he
was in the depths of the waters, in the belly of the whale. Why don't you just come out of
there, Jonah? Make your decision for God. Wow. That's all you've got to
do? Well, what if I'm in the whale's
belly? You see, it should be obvious
to anybody who's really thinking in anybody who's honest, and
it will be obvious to anybody whom the Lord teaches that this
salvation of the soul and the salvation ultimately of the body,
it has to be of God. It's got to be. You can't save
yourself. This is good news for us. this gospel, the truth about
God, the truth about self, the truth about Christ, the truth
about salvation. This is good news for us. Because
what it means is that in this matter of the salvation of our
souls, nothing is left to us. It's all of God. Isn't that good
news? You say, man's got to believe. Now, you're right about that.
Say, the Lord's not going to believe for me. You're right
about that. But do you know what He does? He
gives the gift of faith. Isn't that something? He gives
the gift of faith. You say, a man's got to repent.
You're right about that. Peter said there in the book
of Acts that the Lord grants repentance. Repentance from sin. He gives repentance. Repentance,
break it down this way, maybe I'm kind of a simple-minded person,
but I break down repentance and faith this way. Repentance is
kind of going in the wrong direction, and then what faith is, is turning
and going in the right direction. That's the reason why I talk
about repentance of dead works, repentance of your idols, We
did believe idols. We're going in the direction
of false religion. And what is repentance? It's
the Lord gifting us to do an about face and start going in
the right direction. What is repentance? I was on
the broad road that leads to destruction. Here I go. I'm bound
for hell. And if I have my way, that's
where I'm going to go. Not because I want to go, but
just because that's the way I am by nature. I'm going the wrong
direction. And God gives me faith, and I
turn from the broad road to the narrow road of Christ is the
way, Christ is the truth, Christ is the life, no man comes unto
the Father but by me. That's what repentance is. That's
not so complicated, is it? And faith, faith is this, repentance
is turning from this way, faith is going this way, turning this
way. Now you've had a theological
exercise in something that's needed. And most people don't
know that. But you see, the Lord has to
give repentance. So one of the things, if you
ever read the Life and Diary of David Brainerd, and he ministered
to the Native Americans up in New England area many years ago. He died a very young man. But
when the Lord was teaching him the gospel, it aggravated him
that God demanded him to believe, and yet he did not have the ability
to believe. And he struggled with that. I
ought to read his diary." And then the Spirit of God convinced
him of this. Salvation is all of God. That
includes faith, David. David Brainerd, that includes
repentance. Even that's not of you. You know
faith's not of yourselves. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by
grace you're saved through faith. That's not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
most. It should boast, faith is a gift
of God. It's a gift of God. That's good
news. I want to give this to you, and
I found this in some old notes I had. I actually forgot about
this. At least part of it I forgot
about. Back in 1768, one of my favorite
preachers, of all time. He was a great songwriter,
Augustus Toplady. If you got the works of Toplady,
they're rich. I appreciate what he had to say.
He was a real courageous soldier of the cross. But in 1768, he
was in London. It was a very hot afternoon.
He wrote in his diary, and he He sat down with an older preacher. His name is only Mr. Brewer.
That's all Top Lady said about him. Top Lady was a young man. And Mr. Brewer, he was a preacher
of many years of age. And he listened, Brother Top
Lady listened what the older brother had to say. And such
was the impact of the words of Mr. Brewer, and I don't know
anything about him, but such was the impact that Augustus
Toplady wrote them down in his diary. Four things Brewer told Toplady. You want to know what he said?
I'll keep you in suspense no longer. He said four things. Number one,
he said, preach Christ crucified, young man. He said, dwell on the blessings
of His righteousness, His atonement, and His intercession. That's
the very first thing. I try to remember that every
time I get up here. Preach Christ crucified. Dwell on the blessings that we
receive from His righteousness, His atonement, His intercession. Secondly, He said avoid needless
useless controversies. Avoid needless, useless controversies
unless your subject demands that you deal with it or because the
very truth of God will suffer if you don't deal with it. That's
good advice to preachers and teachers as well. He says, when you ascend the
pulpit, leave all of your learning behind
in the study. He said, preach more to the heart
than to the head. That's sound wisdom. I'm not here just to impart to
you some knowledge, although that's necessary. And I know
this message, my words, the Word of God's got to go in your mind,
got to go in these ears. But my goal is not so that you'll
know more, My goal is that you might know
Him and you know Him from the heart. That's why some of us have quoted
Brother Barnard when he said, some people are going to miss
heaven by 18 inches. What in the world is he talking
about? This old man, what's with him? He's going to miss heaven
by 18 inches, what's that? He said, it's the distance between
the mind and the heart. Of course, we're not talking
about the literal brain and the literal heart. We're talking
about our thinking, our reasoning abilities, and real love and
affection for the Lord Jesus Christ. When you ascend the pulpit, when
I ascend the pulpit, there's a lot that I study in there. And I love to study it. I try
not to take all that in here with me. In fact, as I study, as any preacher
of the Gospel, any man who stands up here to speak to you, he studies
and he tries to digest it all. studies the Scripture, runs cross-references,
and then reads a few authors if he's so led to do it, but
then in his mind and in his heart, he digests it, he prays over
it, and then he presents it, not to educate you, not to make
you smarter, but to fill your heart with love and joy in Christ
Jesus. I'm not your professor. You're
not students in a classroom. I'm a preacher of the Gospel.
My goal is to speak to your heart. Somebody walked out one time
at the end of the service greeting me in the vestibule and said,
boy, you really got on my toes today. That's a common saying. Preacher stepped on my toes today.
I said, boy, I'm a bad shot. I was aiming for your heart.
If I just hit your toes, that's not too good. I'm aiming for
your heart. Solomon said, my son, give me
thy heart. That's what he said. And the last thing that Mr. Brewer said to the top lady was,
do not do too much to affect oratory. That is, don't seek
to profit your hearers through your words, or to be admired by them. I'm not trying to win your affection
from me. I don't care a great deal what
you think about me, but I do care a great deal what you think
about my Lord. You don't need to know me. Because quite possibly, the more
you get to know me, the more blemishes and faults you'll see. Because I'm just a sinner too.
Don't put me under the microscope or that preacher. How would you
like somebody to examine your thoughts? I don't want anybody
to examine my thoughts. You don't need to know me. I'm
just a sinner saved by grace. You need to know the one who
saved me. And here's Joshua. He's clothed in filthy garments
and that testifies to his filthiness before God. To your filthiness
before God and mine as well. And Zacharias sees this. He sees this man. The Lord loves
him, yes. He's got a Redeemer, yes. But
there he is in his filthy rags. He's polluted before God. You
know what the high priest, you know what his job was on the
Day of Atonement? He had to go into the very presence
of God. And here he is, filthy, polluted,
He's vile? How can He go into the very presence
of a holy God? You tell me, and if you know
the answer, you know what the gospel is. And here I am, here you are,
here we all are. filthy by nature. How are we
going to enter into the presence of a holy God? This is what concerns
me and the older I get and the longer I preach, the more I'm
convinced this is what people need to hear. They need to hear
the gospel of the grace of God, how we can be ready to die and
meet God in glory. Folks say, what are you preaching
over there? What are you doing over there?
What's your goal over there? My goal is to tell you the truth
so that you won't go to hell. You go to be with the Lord Jesus
forever. I don't want you to perish. I
was laying awake last night praying. I'm praying for you. I'm praying
for me. Lord, I'm talking to eternity
bound sinners. Oh God, help me. Help me to convey
this message that I'm convinced you put on my heart about Joshua
and his filthiness. Help me to convey this message
that you cleaned him up and you've got to save sinners. Lord, help
me to show these people that I'm serious about this and I
want you to be serious about this too. See, I know we preach the Gospel
for the glory of God. That's the first reason to do
anything and everything. And I know we preach the Gospel
for the edification and growth of the children of God. But we
preach the Gospel urging sinners to come to Christ the Lord. I just don't feel like a message
is complete If we don't urge people to close
with the Savior. The Lord said in His parable,
go out into the highways and byways and compel them to come
in. You don't hear much compelling
these days. I want you to die. Why will you
die? Why will you die? When there's
a great physician, and he's the expert healer, You're spiritually
diseased. You see, we're all like Joshua
here. Stands before the Lord. What
are you going to say? I'm innocent? No, you're not
innocent. You know better than that. I'm
not innocent. I stand and you stand before
the Lord and we must say, Lord, I'm guilty as charged. Like the half had not been told
about Solomon's wisdom, the half has not been told about our sinfulness. And not a one of us in here really
know exactly what we are. How bad off we are from God. How opposite we are to this holy
God. We don't know. We just have a
little inkling of it. And here's Joshua. And the Lord
says about him, he's a brand plucked out of the fire. You see, here's what the Lord
is doing here. He's rescuing a firebrand. Look at verse 4. He answered
and spake unto those that stood by and said, Take away the filthy
garments. Oh, this is good news. Show him
he's got filthy garments on and then strip him. Behold, tell
him this. Behold, I've caused thine iniquity
to pass from thee. There's a Savior. as a substitute
who died in the stead of the guilty. I will clothe thee with
a change of raiment." That's the beautiful righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said He's a firebrand plucked
out of the burning. Take it literally, first of all. Joshua, like all of the rest
of the Jews, was in bondage in Babylon. He couldn't get himself out.
You know what the Lord did? He raised
up a king by the name of Cyrus. And he was over the kingdom of
the Persians, the Medes, the Persians, and the Babylonians,
because the Persians had conquered the Babylonians. You know what
Cyrus did? He said, I'm going to release
all these Jewish captives. Cyrus was raised up by the Lord. He's a picture of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who sets the captives free. And here's Joshua. in the fire of bondage. Lord said, I rescued him out
of Babylon. That's the little. That actually happened. But there's
a spiritual lesson here. There's a spiritual captivity
that Joshua and all of the Lord's Joshuas are in. And that's a
fiery trial that none of us can get ourselves out of save the
Lord only. Josh was a firebrand. I'm talking
this morning to firebrands rescued. Rescued by the power of God.
No wonder we love to sing, to God be the glory, great things
He has done. He pulled me out of the fire.
He pulled me out of the fire of captivity. He pulled me out
of the fire of sin. Because sin will consume you
if it can. Sin will consume you. It's a
fire. I tell you, the word fire is
a fearful word. It's a very fearful word. 1856, give you another little
story out of history. 1856, in a place called Surrey
Gardens Music Hall, a great crowd of people gathered to hear preacher
whom some people called, at that time he was 25 years of age,
the greatest preacher to ever preach in London. His name was
Charles Spurgeon. They didn't have a church building
large enough to hold him, so they rented this. That building
was designed to hold 10,000 people. 14,000 people were there. 14,000 people were there and they said
hundreds and hundreds outside, windows open, listening. And Spurgeon had not yet stepped
up behind the pulpit. But all of a sudden, and there
were balconies, envisioned balconies all around this massive hall.
concert hall, you know, musical things, ballets, orchestral gatherings
and concerts, so forth, and it's just packed full of people. All
of a sudden, people started running for the exits, so much so that
the balcony shook. It was reported that somebody
yelled out, fire! Fire! Though there was no fire. Who made those cries? Spurgeon
and the leaders of the church felt like it was the enemies
of the gospel, whose design was to interrupt the service, which
they were successful in doing according to the purpose of God.
People started stampeding. Eight people were trampled to
death. Spurgeon heard the ruckus going
on and he came out and stepped behind the pulpit. He said, be calm, be calm. And he called on the choir. He
said, sing the doxology. But they're running out. The
choir's running out. Because they saw everybody else
running. There's something bad going on. And then Spurgeon began. He preached
as loud as he could. He said, I warn you of another
alarm that's coming. It's a judgment day coming. But
he couldn't get their attention. He fainted. He passed out right
there behind the pulpit. You see the word fire is a frightening
word. There's a reason we have fire
extinguishers. They go into public buildings
and pull the fire alarm. It's deadly. It's deadly. Hear me. Fire! Fire! Run for your lives! Oh, that God would work grace
in your heart, you'd run into the arms of the Savior. Now that, in Spurgeon's time,
and by the way, he never got over that. Those of you who have
read his biographies and his autobiography, that haunted him
until he died at, what, 57 years of age or something. He wasn't
an old man when he died. He never really got over that. I'm warning you of the wrath of God to come. There's safety, however. Oh, Lord, do for me what you
did for Joshua. Strip me down. Show me myself. and save me by Your grace just
like You saved Joshua back here. Lord, You can do with me what
You want to. My life, my destiny is not in
my hands. Lord, it's up to You. Like that leper. He saw the Lord Jesus coming
down from preaching that sermon on the mountain. I'll tell you what, he just camped
out at the foot of that mountain. He said, I saw him go up there
and I know he's coming back the same way. And when he saw Jesus
of Nazareth coming back, he fell on his knees and he said, Lord,
if you will, you can make me whole. And I say to all of us, this should be our attitude.
Lord, if You will, I'm a leper by nature, Lord,
but You've got the fire to heal. Make me alive. Wash me in Your
blood. robe me in the beautiful garments
of Your salvation." And it's like the fellow said
when the Lord saved him, or upon the thought of being saved, he
said, if the Lord saves me, he'll never hear the end of it. Meaning,
I'll thank Him all the rest of the days of my life, and I'll
thank Him through eternity. Isn't that your attitude? I'll
thank Him forever. I'll thank Him forever. Because
you see, Jesus paid it all. He paid all the debt I owe. 125, that's the last song for
this morning. I'm 125. Oh, that God would be
gracious. Talk to our hearts. Lord, talk
to me. Talk to me in my heart. If you
will, you can make me whole.