I asked him to sing that. That's one of my favorite songs,
written by one of my favorite writers and preachers, Augustus
Toplady. And that was a great blessing.
Every time I hear them sing that song, because usually Gail sings
it with him, but the two of them singing, or just you singing
tonight, It sure does bless my heart. I'm a debtor to mercy
alone. Of covenant mercy I sing. Amen. So good. If you would open your
Bibles tonight to the book of Zechariah again, and I think
we will bid farewell to the third chapter this evening. And I won't
actually get into the fourth chapter until the first of the
year, the Lord willing. Zechariah 3, let me read verses
8, 9, and 10, and then speak to you on this monumental subject,
one that's way too big for me, But I try to preach all the time,
iniquity removed in one day. Iniquity removed in one day. Zechariah 3, verse 8, Here now,
O Joshua thy high priest, Thou and Thy fellows, Thy companions
that sit before Thee, for they are men wondered at. For behold,
I will bring forth My servant, the branch. For behold, the stone
that I have laid before Joshua, Upon one stone shall be seven
eyes. Behold, I will engrave the graving
thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity
of that land in one day. In that day, saith the Lord of
hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbor under the vine and
under the fig tree. Iniquity removed in one day. Without any introduction, I want
to go immediately into this portion of Scripture and say, number
one, this is the stone that God has laid as set forth in verse
9. the stone that God has laid.
Now, he says, behold, look to be concerned about, be taken
up with this stone that God has laid. Now let me give you several
things here about this. Number one, literally and physically. And we're thinking about the
rebuilding of the temple that the Jews have regathered in Jerusalem
to rebuild the temple. This stone has already been laid
physically by the builders of the temple. I won't take the
time to turn to it, but if you want to write it down, it's Ezra
chapter 3 and verse 10. the builders had laid the stone
for the foundation of the temple. But the second thing that I want
you to notice is that in our text here in Zechariah, the Lord
didn't say, the builders have laid the stone. The builders
have laid the foundation. The Lord says, behold the stone
that I have laid. I laid the foundation. I laid the stone. Well, did God
lay the stone for the rebuilding of the temple, or did the workers
lay the stone upon which the temple will be rebuilt? Look
with me over in chapter 4, the next chapter of Zechariah, when
we're introduced to a man called Zerubbabel. And Zerubbabel, he
was appointed by Cyrus to be the leader or the governor of
that first wave of Jews who went back to Jerusalem when he released
them from their bondage. Notice here in chapter 4 and
verse 9, the Lord says, the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
of this house. And Ezra chapter 3 verse 10,
the builders laid the foundation. The builders laid the stone.
And here we read that the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation. He has laid the stone upon which
the temple is going to be built. And indeed he did, and he must
have led the workers in laying the foundation of this. But yet
the Lord says, behold, I've laid the stone. I have laid the foundation. Now how can this be? Well, this
literal foundation for the temple that's going to be rebuilt, it
is laid according to the purpose of God. It is laid according
to that empowerment of God, and it's laid according to the providence
of God. So even though God used men to
lay this stone, to lay the foundation for this temple, it was all done
because of God, because of God's purpose, because of God's power,
and because of God's providence. And you see, that's the way it
is in all things that God uses men for. He uses us to accomplish
His purpose. It's been the purpose of God
all along that this literal temple be rebuilt. Now it's not going
to have the glory of the temple in Solomon's day. And as we shall
see later, some of the older men who were alive to remember,
they remembered the glory of Solomon's temple, they kind of
mourned over the fact, they even fretted over the fact that this
rebuilt temple doesn't have the glory of Solomon's temple. And
it didn't. But the fact still remains that
men laid the foundation, men laid the stone according to God's
own specifications by His purpose, by His power, and by His providence. You see, God uses men to do good
things. Our brother read to us there
from Ephesians chapter 2, and you're very familiar with verses
8, 9, and 10. For by grace you say, through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. You see, man did lay the stone
for the foundation for this literal temple that's going to be rebuilt.
But it's all because God ordained for them to do the things that
they did. Therefore, these men must not
be given credit or glory for what they did. They only did
what God Almighty purposed to be done. I'll give you another
reference on this. Hold your place in Zechariah
and look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. I know there are a lot of folks who want to take credit
or get some glory, even get some rewards for their obedience to
the Lord, for their good works that they do. But the good works
that you and I do, number one, we don't set out to do them.
We don't get up in the morning and say, I'm going to do some
good works today. I'm bound to determine I'm going
to do good works today. No, we just live our lives led
by the Spirit of God, and we do those things that God has
ordained for us to do. Those things that God has purposed
for us to do, those things God has empowered us to do, and those
things that God, by His divine arrangement of all things, by
His providence, He causes us to do. Listen to the words of
the Apostle Paul. 1 Corinthians 15, I'm sure you're
there. Notice what he says in verse
8. He's talking about people that our Lord Jesus appeared
to after His resurrection. In verse 8 he says, And last
of all, He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
For I am the least of the apostles that am not meet to be called
an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the
grace of God I am what I am." Don't misquote this verse as
a lot of people tend to do. A lot of people tend to quote
it this way, I am what I am by the grace of God. Nothing starts
with I. Don't start things with I. He
didn't. He said, but by the grace of
God, I am what I am. Now watch this. And his grace,
which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. God does nothing
in vain. But, watch this, I labored more
abundantly than they all. Who's they all? All the rest
of the apostles. Yet, yet, Not I, but the grace of God which was
with me. He absolutely refused to take
any glory, to take any credit for the good that he had done.
He had preached the gospel, he had established churches, he
had suffered persecution, he had labored, and his own words
inspired by the Spirit of God are these, I labored more abundantly
than they all. Yet, he's quick to say, it wasn't
me. It wasn't me. It's the grace
of God which was with me. Of Zerubbabel and the rest of
the builders, certainly they laid the foundation for the temple,
they laid the stone down, and yet, that which they did, they
could never have done, had not God released them from their
bondage, Had not God brought them by His sovereign grace and
by His providence back into the land of Israel, back into Jerusalem? They could never have accomplished
the work that they accomplished had not God given them the wisdom
the knowledge and the wherewithal to do the things that they did
in laying the foundation. These men, and I'll show you
later in another message, Zerubbabel, of course, is a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ, because he not only laid the foundation,
he puts the top stone on it, as we shall see, and we'll get
into that in the new year. But God used these men to do
that which he had purpose to do, that which He enabled them,
He empowered them to do, and that which He, by His mysterious
providence, in working all things according to His own counsel,
arranged for them to do. They could not have lifted a
hammer. They could not have mined the
stone out of a mine. They could have done none of
those things were it not to God Almighty's glory. Everything
was done according to His purpose. You see, the good works that
we do, oh God help us to do them, were works that God purposed
to be done, works which God empowered us
to do, and works which He so arranged
everything including giving us the ability
to do them, so that really, we can take no glory. We can't take
any credit. It's of the Lord. You remember the words of the
Lord there in Luke chapter 17? After you've done all that is
required of you, Just say this, I'm an unprofitable
servant. I'm just serving the cause of
Christ. Have you been blessed today through
the preaching of the Word? We give the glory to the Lord.
Were we blessed by the reading of the Scripture by Brother Allen
a while ago? We give the glory to the Lord.
where we're blessed by that outstanding hymn that he sang, we give the
glory to the Lord. Were we blessed by the words
of that song that Augustus Toplady wrote? We give God the glory
for leading him, for his purpose in teaching him the gospel, for
his power in leading him to write those lyrics, and for his providence
that arranged things so that Brother Toplady would write that
and men would preserve those words so that even now, But hundreds
of years later, we're blessed by words that were written a
long time ago. All to the glory of God. That's
the point. Not to the glory of men. This stone had already been laid,
but the Lord is the one who purposed for it to be laid. And remember
this, This foundation stone for the building is the foundation
stone of a spiritual house, the living temple of God. That was laid in the purpose
of God. You see this stone, which is
the foundation of the temple, the church of our Lord Jesus
Christ, it's already been laid. Notice the language. For behold
the stone that I have laid. God says, I've already laid it.
Now you get down to verse number 9, at the end of verse 9, God
says, and I will remove the iniquity of that land. Notice the difference. I have laid, I have laid the
stone. and I will remove the iniquity."
The stone has already been laid. When was that laid? It was laid
in covenant grace before the world began. God founded everything,
God built everything upon His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. All of our salvation was fashioned
by God, established by God, purposed by God in old eternity, and He
laid the foundation, Christ is the rock upon which our salvation
is built. And God says, I've already laid
the stone. And on that stone and by that
stone I will remove the iniquity in that day." What day is he
talking about? The day of redemption. The day
that our Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life for His sheep.
See, all things in the covenant of grace were dependent upon
the Son of God fulfilling the mission that God committed to
Him, a mission which He voluntarily entered in to do. It wasn't like He was drafted
for it and He was reluctant in any way. No. No, no, no, no. Perish the thought. God said,
I give you a people. I entrust these to you. They
will be from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. You're the foundation for this
great edifice, this great living temple of God. It's all built
on you. And I give you these people.
I entrust them all to you. You see, God trusted His Son
before we ever trusted His Son. God trusted Him in old eternity. Here are the people that I give
you. The triune God has loved those people with an everlasting
love. Go back in the dateless past,
way back into eternity when none existed save God the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit. That great three in one. Even
then, even then, our Lord Jesus, the Son of God was the foundation. He was the stone upon which our
salvation rested. It doesn't rest on you. It doesn't rest on your faith. It doesn't rest on your will. To the contrary of what preachers
are saying today, nothing rests of your salvation upon you. It's
all rested upon that stone that God laid before the world began. God laid it in the covenant of grace.
And we're built upon that stone. We're built upon the same foundation
as the prophets and apostles. That passage of scripture Alan
read to us in Ephesians chapter two, built on the foundation
of the apostles or the prophets and the apostles. He's not saying
the prophets and the apostles are the foundation we build upon.
No, we're built upon the same foundation they're built on.
The stone that God laid in the covenant of grace. Now, this
temple that the Lord is building, turn to 1 Peter chapter 1, is
made up of living, living stones. Our Lord Jesus Himself is the
chief cornerstone. He's the foundation stone. He's
the one who holds it all together. It's all built upon Him. It rests
upon Him. How long would the church of
our God last? As long as the foundation lasts. This great spiritual temple of
God, this great edifice that He's building to the glory of
His grace, This great living temple that will praise Him forever
and ever for His grace and mercy to us in Christ Jesus. This is
the temple that He's building. Watch here in 1 Peter 2. Verse one says, wherefore laying
aside all malice and guile, all guile and hypocrisies and envies
and all evil speakings as newborn babes desire the sincere milk
of the word that she may grow thereby, if so be ye have tasted
that the Lord is gracious to whom coming as into a living
stone. You see, this foundation that
God has already laid, it's not a dead stone. He's a living stone. He's the eternal God, the same
yesterday, today and forever. Now He's disallowed or rejected
indeed of men, but He's chosen of God. Isaiah 42, He says, this
is My elect, what God says. Behold My elect. God chose Him
first and chose us in Him. and precious. Now we'll look
at verse 5. Ye also as lively stones, that
is living stones, are built. You know what the Lord's doing
today? He's going into the vast quarry of mankind. And He's digging out stones. chiseling them out of the world
by sovereign effectual grace. Then He hues the stones. He makes
them alive. We're alive through that living
stone that He laid before the world began. We're made living
stones in Him. Then He puts us, each one of
us is a living stone put into the temple of God. You're a stone. You're God's stone. He's the
one who dug you out. You didn't dig yourself out,
did you? You didn't chisel yourself out. You didn't make yourself
righteous and holy and suitable to be put in this glorious temple,
did you? You didn't do that. That's God's
work. Your living stone. All of us. All of the elect of God. The
very first living stone that God dug out was Abel. Made him perfect in the Son of
God. The Lord Jesus would redeem him,
would justify him by his righteousness. By his obedience unto death.
Even the death of the cross. And Abel died. First living stone. God made Him alive. And then
another, and then another, and then another. And you know, when
this great temple is finished, it will be made up of a multitude
which no man can number, but God has numbered them all. He's
named them all. He chose them in grace. He redeemed
them by the blood of His Son, and He calls them to faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ by the very power of the Spirit of God. Here, saints of God are likened
unto stones, living stones, living stones. Now, go back to our text
here in Zechariah 3. We've learned about the foundation.
Now, secondly, the seven eyes. Seven eyes are upon this stone.
The seven eyes, and I've addressed this already, upon one stone
should be seven eyes. I'll say this, our perfect God
has always looked to this stone. He's always looked to Him for
the fulfillment of His law. He's always looked to Him for
the righteousness to be established for His people. He's always looked
to this stone for the holiness that God demands. God's eyes
have always been on this stone. That's been His purpose. That's
been His intention from old eternity. And you know what? Every living
stone in this, what is going to be a perfect temple, seven
is a number of perfection or completion. All of the saints
of God, we have this in common. Two things really. We're all
sinners. But we're all sinners saved by
grace looking to the same stone. looking to the same foundation. We have no hope in ourselves.
We don't look to ourselves. I know what a lot of modern day
preachers are saying today, just believe in yourself. Just believe
in yourself. Well, that's not even kind of
hope for me, believe in myself, believe in a sinner. I'm building on the rock. I'm
building on the stone. The stone that God laid. And
the very fact, based on Matthew chapter 7, A little chorus. Wise man built his house upon
the stone, the rock. Wise man built his house upon
the rock. Wise man built his house upon
the rock. Rains came tumbling down. Y'all sing that? Rains
came down, the floods came up. Rains came down, the floods came
up. Rains came down, the floods came up. The house on the rock
stood firm. But the foolish man, he built
upon the sand. You're not building upon the
sand, are you? Here's this stone that God laid. He laid it in
old eternity and that stone will still be there when eternity
and the future comes. That's a stone that will last
forever. And nothing is going to wear out that foundation.
But you're not building on the rock, you're building on the
sand. Rains came down and floods came
up. Rains came down and floods came
up. Rains came down and floods came
up and the house on the sand went smash. That's what's going
to happen to you if you build on sand. Those whom God makes wise unto
salvation build upon the stone and all of our eyes are upon
Him. We're not looking to the church. We're not looking to the ordinances.
We're not looking to our repentance. We're not looking to our faith.
We're not looking to our obedience. All eyes in this temple of grace
are fixed upon the stone. That look to Him began when the
Spirit of God gave us life. Spiritual life. We looked unto
Jesus. We look to Him who is the author
and finisher of our faith all through our earthly journey.
We go to glory. We're going to look to Him and
see Him for the rest of eternity. Here's the third thing. So we
have a foundation, we have all eyes fixed on this stone, this
foundation. The third thing is the engraving
upon the stone. It says here, behold, I will
engrave. God says it's what I'm going
to do. I will engrave the graving thereof. I'm going to engrave
on this stone. There's going to be something
written on this stone, but not just written on the surface,
actually engraven in it to where it becomes part and parcel of
the stone. That's us, you see. We're part
and parcel with the stone. I can't remember what it was.
Nancy and I were looking at something the other day. Oh, it was a Christmas
ornament. and something was kind of engraved
on it. I said, I wish I could get that
off there, then we could put whatever that decoration was
on it, because we didn't like what it said. I took my thumbnail
and said, no, it's engraved in it. That's part and parcel of
that. You're not going to get that
out. That's the way it is with the Lord and His people. We're
joined to Him. We're engraven into Him. Our
names are engraven into his heart. You remember the high priest
of Israel? He had this attire that God had appointed and he
had a breastplate on. And the breastplate had rows
of four, four stones in three rows. And on each of the stones
was the name of the tribe of Israel. And when he went in to
do business with God, The names of the twelve tribes of Israel
were on his heart. Think of our high priest. He
went in to do business with God. He did business with God that
we can't really even enter into understanding or comprehending.
He is our peace. He made our peace. He did business
with God, but when he did that, Our names were upon His breastplate,
engraven there in strokes of almighty grace. Indelible grace can't be erased. You know what something that
is indelible is? I'm not going to get it out. Someone gave me, this years ago,
probably, oh my goodness, probably 40 years ago, gave me an ink
pen. It was called a Rapidograph. Dark Indian ink. Indelible. And as I typically
do on Sundays, I had a white shirt, On Wednesday nights, I'll wear
a colored shirt. No matter what Tim James says,
I still wear white shirts on Sunday. And I had that rapidograph
in my pocket. And it leaked. Nancy said, I'll see if I can
get that out. Well, I don't believe in luck,
but lots of luck with that. You can't get indelible ink out.
Our names are engraven upon the heart of Christ and upon the
palms of His hands, as Toplady says, with indelible, indelible
ink. Never going to come out. Our names are written there.
written on his heart from all eternity, engraved upon the palms
of his hands. And I got to thinking about this
this afternoon, because Isaiah, the Lord says, Isaiah 49, Behold,
I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually
before me. Graven in the palms of my hands? That sure sounds painful to me. Does that sound painful to you?
It was painful to Him. He bore the cross of shame for
us. Oh, the pain and the agony. The
wrath of God poured out upon His holy soul. And He bore all that for us. Because you see, when He was
bearing that, our names were upon His breastplate. When He did business with God,
we did business with God. That's right. When He endured the cross of
shame, we endured the cross of shame. When the wrath of God
exhausted itself upon our glorious substitute, it exhausted itself
on us because we were in Him. Written on His heart. Written
on His hands. And you know what? Written on
His shoulders. Because you see that high priest
of old had two onyx stones. Upon one was engraved six of
the tribes of Israel, and upon the other one engraved the other
six tribes of Israel. He bore them upon his shoulders.
Our Almighty Savior, He bears His people on His shoulders.
He finds us as lost sheep. and He picks us up, and He puts
us on His shoulders, carrying us all the way home. That's the
kind of salvation I need. Not somebody who says, now I've
saved you, now you do the best you can through this wilderness
journey here. Oh no. I need somebody to carry
this poor lost sheep that He has found to carry me all the
way to glory. And that's what He's doing. Because
you see, not only are our names engraven upon His heart and engraven
upon His hands, but engraven upon His mighty shoulders. God
said, I've laid help upon one who is mighty. He's carrying
us all the way home. Christ is the head, and we're
the body. We're one. We're one. And then here in verse 9, iniquity
removed. Iniquity removed. What is iniquity? It's really a broad subject to
cover what iniquity involves and what it includes. The old
writers have said, think of inequities. We're not equal to the law of
God. What does God say? Be ye perfect,
for I am perfect. Are you perfect? Well, no. Not in myself I'm not. God says,
be ye holy for I'm holy. Are ye holy? No. Not holy either. Not in myself. I'm not equal to God's demands. Think of it that way. I'm not
equal to God's demands. But my inequities have been removed. That's good news. Removed. That means taken off me, moved
to another location, and then someone else took them away. That's what this means. I will
remove the iniquity of that land, not every land, just that land. The true Jerusalem. The true
Israel of God. And He says, I'll do it in one
day. What a mighty work that was.
Who could do this work in one day? Only one. It's that stone that had been
laid. He's the one who satisfies all
of the justice of God. and removes the iniquity of His
Jerusalem, of His Judah in one day. And He did that when He
died upon the cross of Calvary. I love the words of the Lord
when He says, I will. Because if God says, I will,
Well, it's as good as done. You can go to the bank on that. You can go to the bank on that
promise. And God says, I will remove the
iniquity of that land, not every land, not all lands, but that
land. This is a specific redemption. This is a removal of iniquity
from a specific people. I'll remove them in one day." I love the story of the high
priest on the Day of Atonement. He cast lots. He had two goats. He cast lots upon two goats. And one lot was for the Lord
and the other lot The other goat then was to be released. The goat for the Lord had to
die. And the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies, presents
the blood of that goat. That picture is the death of
our Lord Jesus. With the other goat, he brings
that goat out, the living goat, before the people. He lays his
hands on the head of that goat. And it was a symbolic gesture
indicating the transference of guilt from all of Israel to this
goat. In other words, in a symbolic
way, all of the inequities, all of the iniquities of Israel were
transferred to this scapegoat, it's called. And then the high
priest would choose a fit man and say, now take this out into
the wilderness and release it in the wilderness and come back
without the goat. In that way, God pictured what
he was going to do with the sins and iniquities of his people.
Number one, with that first goat, Christ's gonna die. See, that
first goat pictured the death of Christ. That second goat,
the scapegoat, that pictured the results of his death. What
were the results of his death? God said, I will remove the iniquity
of that land in one day. And that goat upon whose head
Aaron had laid his hands, or whoever the high priest was that
particular year, that goat was led out of the wilderness and
released. And that fit man came back without
him. Our Lord Jesus, He took away
our sins. They were removed from us. Actually,
they were removed from us from the foundation of the world. And our Lord Jesus Christ bore
them in His own body on the tree. They were taken off of us, put
on Him. God actually transferred them
to Him. And as it were, when He died,
He took them out in the wilderness. He died. He rose again. He threw
them all in the tomb. They're gone. What happened? God removed them from us as far
as the east is from the west. That is such good news to the
ears of a sinner. God says, I'll do that. I'll
do that. And then here's the last thing.
What follows the removal of sin? The removal of iniquities? Verse
10. The enjoyment of peace and salvation. Look at verse 10. In that day,
saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbor,
literally every man a fellow citizen, I read that back in
Ephesians 2. So you call every man who's of
that land his neighbor. And you sit under
the vine and under the fig tree. The vine had big, broad leaves. Sit under the vine in the heat
of the day. Oh, how cool it is in the shade. And then you drink the fruit
of the vine. The wine of the gospel of God's
grace. See, we're fellow citizens in
the kingdom of God. Here's what we've been doing
today. Sitting under the fig tree. Feasting on the fruit of the
labors of the Lord Jesus Christ. Drinking the wine of the gospel. That's what we do every time
we gather together. Because we're fellow citizens
in the Kingdom of God. Built upon one stone that God
laid. And made in Him living stones. Put into the temple. And one
of these days, He's going to put us on display to all the
world. This is my church. These are
my people. Behold what I have done. Look at these vessels of mercy. And boy, we'll sing of the greatness of our God. We'll
sing salvation to our God and unto the Lamb. We'll sing the
song of Moses, the song of Miriam, that is, the song of redemption.
Well, let's get our songbooks and we'll sing a closing song. 235. Pass me not, O gentle Savior.