Let's open our Bibles this morning
again to the prophecy of Zechariah, and we'll go to chapter 3. And I must confess that the more
I study and read this third chapter of Zechariah, The more I see
and the more the Word of God blesses me, and therefore, I
believe the Spirit of God has led me again to address especially
one great statement out of this third chapter, and then I'll
be preaching from it again tonight. Also next Sunday, the Lord willing. So, we're trying to wring out
every drop of gospel blessing that we can out of chapter 3,
and yet we know, because the Word of God is so exhaustless,
after we have wrung out every drop we can, there's a fountain
still left. for us to drink from and enjoy
our Savior. In this vision that the Lord
gives to His prophet, Zechariah, He speaks of Joshua and his fellow
priests, or his companions, or his fellows. Now, Joshua is a
twofold type or picture. And I want you to understand
this from the third chapter. Number one, he represents all
the people of God. You'll remember at the beginning
of chapter one, he's filthy. He stands with an accuser, Satan,
accusing him of sin undoubtedly. But he also stands with a mediator,
one who speaks to God for him, that is our Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord commands that this
man be stripped of his filthy garments, washed, robed, and
then put a mitre on his head. And of course, this is a picture
of what the Lord does for all of the people of God, of whom
Joshua and those fellows who sit at his feet are a picture.
The Lord, He finds us in our filthiness. He finds us in our
ugliness. He finds us in our sinfulness.
But He doesn't leave us in that state. He lifts us up from the
mirin clay. And He washes us. There is a
fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And we're
washed in that fountain. The Spirit of God washes us.
And by faith, as it were, we wash ourselves. Oh Lord, bathe
me. I plunge into this crimson flood
to lose all my guilty stains. While the dying thief, he rejoiced
to see that fountain in his day, and there may I, and there may
you, though vile as he, wash all my sins away." He washes
us. and then Joshua is robed. All
his filthy garments are stripped from him because the filthy garments
picture our own self-righteousness which is no good. It's not fit
for the sight of God. You're not fit for the sight
of God. I'm not fit for the sight of God. I can't enter into His
presence as I am by nature. I'm a filthy sinner. Well, what
does the Lord have to do? He has to wash me And then He
has to robe me in the garments of His salvation. And those are
royal garments. That makes us fit for the Lord.
And this doesn't teach that this is merely a pasted-on garment
or a pasted-on righteousness. He makes us to be the very righteousness
of God. Therefore, when the Lord looks
at His people who are washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, whose sins are forgiven based upon the substitutionary
sacrifice of the Son of God, when the Lord looks at us, He
sees no sin and no iniquity in us as far as His justice is concerned
and His wrath is concerned. He sees us in the beauties of
the Son of God. We're going to have read for
us this evening a passage in Ezekiel chapter 16, where the
Lord will say, you became beautiful through My comeliness. And isn't
it quite amazing that in the eyes of God we're beautiful?
It's because He makes us beautiful in the beauties of His own Son. So that when God looks at all
of His people, He sees us in Christ the Lord. And He's well
pleased. He's well pleased. So Joshua,
he represents Sinful people. He and his fellows represent
all of the sinners that God's going to save by His grace, and
He sees us in our natural state, and He sees us as God makes us
in Christ Jesus. But secondly, in another sense,
Joshua actually represents our Lord Jesus. You'll notice in
verse 8 of chapter 3. Here now, O Joshua the high priest,
thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, their men wonder
at. In another sense, Joshua represents
our Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest, with all of his people
being priests unto God. Joshua means Jehovah who saves. He's the only one who can save.
He is our Savior. Jesus is the New Testament name
for the Old Testament Joshua. The Lord Jehovah who saves, Father,
Son, and Spirit. Only God can save. Ask any child
of God, who saved you? The answer will come back with
this resounding declaration, God saved me. Nobody else could
save me. Could anybody else save you? Wasn't your condition so awful
and so bad that none could help you save one who is equal with
God Himself? Such is our condition. that the
blood of bulls and goats could never put away our sins. And
all of our efforts to do good and be good, they fall woefully
short. We can't live up to the standard
of perfection that God has set. But He saves. And He saves, hear
me, by grace only. Oh, to grace, how great a debtor! Don't you feel that way? Oh,
to grace, how great a debtor! Daily I am constrained to be. Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to Thee. Joshua represents our Lord Jesus,
the Great High Priest. and these fellows who set at
His feet are the priests of God. My dear brethren and sisters,
know this, you are a household of spiritual priests. You remember in the Old Testament,
under the Old Covenant, There was only so far into the tabernacle
that the regular priesthood could go. Because there was that inner
veil. And behind that veil, there is
the great Shekinah glory of God. There's the Ark of the Covenant
with the Mercy Seat on top, and that bright light, our God's
consuming fire, the light of His glory going forth out of
the Holy of Holies, up and enlightening and illuminating all of the children
of Israel at night. Priesthood couldn't go in there. In fact, if they endeavored to
do that, God killed them. There's only one man who could
go back behind that veil, and he could only go back behind
that veil once a year, and that's the high priest, on the Day of
Atonement, and then not without blood. But our Lord Jesus has come.
He lived for us. He died for us. And when He died,
something happened to that veil in the temple. It rent. It ripped. God ripped it from
top to bottom. And all of a sudden, the priests,
regular priests, could enter into the Holy of Holies, into
the very presence of God. And there's what that tells us.
Now, we're regular priests unto God by His grace. We don't need
a priest. Don't you dare, don't you dare
go to an earthly priest, a man who says, I'm a priest, he wears
some kind of backward collar and come in this room here and
confess your sins to me. Don't do that. That's pagan. You don't need a priest. You
are a priest. You have access through the great
High Priest into the very presence of a holy and eternal God. Avail yourself many times every
day, entering into the Holy of Holies, speaking to God through
your great High Priest. And I'll tell you, Christ has
ripped that veil in two. You can come to the Father anytime. And sometimes I'm fearful that
the people of God kind of feel this way. I'm just too sinful
to pray today. I'm not in the right frame of
mind. I've had people say that to me. I'm not in the right frame
of mind. Let me tell you something. Your
access into the presence of God is not due to your worthiness. It's not due to how you feel.
Your privilege, your access into the Holy of Holies is based on
who ripped that veil in two. You have access to God, though
sinful, don't be afraid to come to your Heavenly Father. His ears are always open to our
cry. He's always ready to receive
His people. and He receives us in, through,
and by the Lord Jesus Christ. We're priests unto God. He's made us kings and priests
unto God, the Scripture says. And so the Lord shows His prophet,
Joshua the high priest, and those who sat before him, and the Lord has a message for
Joshua as he's the representative of all of the people of God and
these priests, these fellows. You see the word fellows there
in verse 8. That means companions. People
really of the same household. They said before him, these are
men wondered at. I'm going to be addressing that
again tonight. And God says, I've got three
things to say to you. He's got three things to say
to us. Number one. Behold, I will bring forth My
servant. I will bring forth My servant.
Well, you know that's talking about Christ the Lord. I will
bring Him forth. And God did bring Him forth in
the fullness of time. Christ came into this world made
of a woman, made under the Law to redeem them that were under
the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Our Lord, our Lord Jesus Himself,
He is this One that God has appointed to be His servant. My servant. My servant. When our Lord Jesus instituted
the Lord's Supper, and you've read it many times in Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, He said to them concerning His... He talked to them about His flesh
and about His blood. And then, right after that was
over, you'd think people would be so spiritually minded that
they'd go out, they'd leave the service rejoicing in the Lord. When He dismissed them, you know,
they started arguing. Can you imagine the people of
God, as soon as they leave a worship service, talking about worldly
things? Can you imagine that? You know what they were fussing
about? Who's going to be greatest in the Kingdom of God? And He said to them, I am among
you as He who serves. He who serves. Perhaps they had
waiters and waitresses and cooks to prepare the meal, that Passover
meal. He said, who's the greatest? Those
that eat, or those that cook the meal, and those who serve
the dinner, the Passover supper, who's the greatest? Everybody got quiet. He said,
I am among you as one who serves. That's a powerful statement.
I am among you as one who serves. He is God's servant. He's God's
bond servant. He came to serve. He said, I
didn't come to be ministered to. I didn't come for you to
do something for me. People today in salvation, I
want to do something for God. No. No. He came and did something
for His people. He didn't try to do something.
He did something. He saved His people from their
sin. The servant. He's God's righteous servant.
Isaiah 53 says that. He's God's faithful servant.
He's God's wise servant. Isaiah 52 says that. It says,
Behold my servant. When he entered into the world,
it said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. I come to do thy
will. He's God's servant. Now, we are
all, in a sense, the servants of Jehovah. But He only had one
pure and faithful and perfect servant. That's the Lord Jesus
Christ. He served Him in His life perfectly. And He served Him in His death.
That was a death God appointed for Him. It was a death that
He volunteered to die. He's God's perfect servant. He's the one who rendered perfect
service to the Father. And then, the Lord says, behold
the branch! Behold the branch! Meaning a
little shoot, a little sprig. Back after the 4th of July celebration,
Joe and Jill's house and he gave me these little sprigs or shoots
of crape myrtles, three of them. And he had taken good care of
them, got them off to a really good start. I took them home
and I planted them and they were about, I don't know, this tall,
something like that. Just a little shoot. And I was
afraid, well, don't want to step on them when we mow. So I put
mulch around them. And be careful with them, they're
very tender. All you have to do is just put your foot on them
and you just mash the life out of that little fellow. Three
little shoots. As our Lord Jesus. God said,
behold the branch. I'll bring forth my servant the
branch, a little sprig." Isaiah 53 says, he shall grow up before
him as a tender plant. That's what he was, that little
baby. Your moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and great
grandmas and great grandpas, you know something about that
little sprig, that little shoot, that little infant. how easily life could be snuffed
out. You protect them. Our Lord Jesus was protected
by God Himself. And He grew up. God said, I will
bring forth My servant. Who is He? He's the branch. And I'll tell you, this branch
It has grown, He has grown to such a statue that He's like
a fig tree. Last verse of chapter 3. Last
line. You shall call every man his
neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree. He's the tree under
which we gather now. And that man Christ Jesus was
once just a little shoot. Just a little branch. But He
grew, and He gave His life a ransom for many. And He is the tree
of life. And we gather under His branches.
He's like an apple tree. In fact, He's likened to that
in the Bible. We gather under His branches.
There we find safety. There we find great consolation. And there we find food for our
souls. That little branch grew. God said, I will bring forth
My servant the branch. And then now look at verse 9.
He says, here's the third thing, for behold the stone that I have
laid before Joshua. Watch very carefully the reading. In verse 8, last of it, behold,
God says what He's going to do. In verse 9, He says what He's
already done. Now look at the last statement,
verse 8 again. Behold, I will bring forth. That's looking ahead to the virgin
birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. I will bring Him forth, My servant. We've got to love the I wills
of God. I will bring Him forth. The branch. I will bring Him forth. And God
did. But when we get to verse 9, and He talks about this stone,
He says, Behold the stone that I have already laid. The last
statement of verse 8 is looking forward. The first statement
of verse 9 is looking backwards. I've already laid this stone.
When did God lay this stone, this rock foundation? In old
eternity. God laid this stone. And I'll
tell you what, God built the great edifice, the great temple
of salvation and His people all on this stone that He laid back
in the covenant of grace. Now look at an interesting expression
in verse 9, and I'm going to camp out here for the rest of
my time. Let me read the first part of
verse 9. For behold, the stone that I
have laid before Joshua upon one stone shall be seven eyes. All eyes are upon this stone. That's what the Lord says. The
word seven presents the idea of perfection or completeness,
as in seven days and a week. And so He says, all eyes, all
eyes. That is, He says seven eyes shall
be upon this stone. All eyes. on Christ Jesus. Now, this may be the seven eyes. It may be an expression of the
omniscience of God. And by omniscience, we simply
mean God sees and knows everything. It's a good word for you to learn.
Students who are in here, the children who are in here, the
omniscience of God is the knowledge of God. He knows everything and
He sees everything. Upon one stone shall be seven
eyes. The eyes of the Lord look at
everything all at once." He said, preacher, I can't understand
that. If you've got a God, you can't understand. If you've got
a God, you can understand. You've got the wrong God. Our
God sees everything, everybody, all at once, and He sees all
that we are, all that we were in Adam, all that we are now,
and by His grace, all that we are in Christ Jesus, and He sees
us glorified in heaven with Christ Jesus. We read in Hebrews 4,
all things are open under the eyes of Him with whom we have
to do. All things are naked and open. So this could be a reference
to the omniscience of God, the knowledge of God. David said,
Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I go to heaven,
thou art there. Behold, if I go down to hell,
you're there. You see everything all at once. Isn't that amazing? Here we are,
a congregation of believers meeting together, and the Lord sees us,
and the Lord is with us. He sees everyone in this congregation. His eyes pierce through the exterior,
all past the religious garments that we're wearing, past our
Sunday best. I don't deny that we shouldn't
be wearing our Sunday best, but the Lord looks past that. He
looks past the exterior of us being religious and He sees the
heart. He knows all of us. But across
the other side of the world, He knows everybody over there
too. He sees every heart. There's not a word in your mouth
but lo, the Lord doesn't know what it is. In fact, He knows. Let me tell you something about
His knowledge. He knows the next thing that's going to go through
your mind before you even think it. I don't even know what I'm going
to think next, but He already knows. Because all things are
naked and open to Him. That's the reason. When you seek to approach God,
be honest. Be honest. You can't hide anything
from Him. I've visited people before. I
usually give them advance notice that I'm coming. Somehow the
presence of the preacher kind of puts some people on edge. I just dropped in to this couple
that had been visiting our church. They said, oh, that's the preacher.
I said, well, I just wanted to stop by and see how y'all are
doing. Went in. The husband was gathering a couple
of beer cans to come out of my sight. Emptying the ashtray. Get these things out of here.
I don't want the preacher to see it. Hey, I've seen a whole
lot worse than that. the Lord sees. You know, when Hagar left Sarah,
she was upset with her. Isaac had been born to Sarah.
Ishmael to Hagar. And Sarah said, get out of here. Leave. You've got to leave. Hagar
went out. You know what she said? Thou,
God, seest me. And I'm telling you, those of
you who are the people of God, you get down in the dumps, you just sit down and remember
this. Thou, God, seest me. He sees what I'm going through.
He knows the trial. He purposed the infirmity. Thou, God, seest me. And the
Lord opened her eyes and there's water right there. And she refreshed
herself. Tell you what, when we come to
realization of our neediness before God, He'll show us the
well of living water. And He says to us, as it were,
take your cup of faith and just dip in that well of living water
and just drink and be refreshed. Christ is your Savior. He's your
righteousness. He's your mediator. He's the
door. He's revealed Himself to you.
Drink of the water of life. Drink and drink and drink again
and be refreshed for thou God seest me. The stone that the Lord laid
on that stone shall be seven eyes. Let me go through this
real quick. Let me ask you, whose eyes are on the stone? Now you
know who the stone is. The stone is Christ Jesus. Other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is
Christ Jesus. He's the rock of our salvation. Well, whose eyes are on Him?
Number one. the eyes of God the Father. God has always looked to our
Savior for the fulfillment of His law and for the satisfaction
of His justice. I am so thankful to say to you
and to myself God has never turned His eyes to me and said, now
it's up to you. He's never done that. He's never
looked on me and said, now. It's up to you now. Oh no. He's always looked at the stone.
He's always looked to Christ Jesus for the satisfaction of
His law and of His justice. Secondly, the eyes of all who
are saved by the grace of God are upon Him. Look unto Me and be ye saved,
all ye ends of the earth. And all of you who are the people
of God and the people of God out there, you say, Lord, I'm
looking. I'm looking only to Christ Jesus. I'm like the Israelites bitten
by the fiery serpent. And Moses lifted up the serpent
of brass in the wilderness. He said, look and live. I'm looking,
Lord, aren't you? I'm looking. I'm looking right
now. There is in the vision of my soul no other one to whom
I look save Jesus Christ, the Rock of Ages. That passage of Scripture there
in Isaiah 6 that Ron read to us, Isaiah's eyes were upon the
Lord. When you feel so unworthy and
so ungodly, look to Christ Jesus. Proverbs 20 verse 12 says, the
hearing ear and the seeing eye. The Lord made even both of them. Now we're not talking so much
about physical eyes, though be thankful for your physical eyesight,
certainly. We're talking about spiritual
eyesight. I can't answer for anybody else
here this morning, but I'll tell you this. My eyes are on the
stone. I look to no one else. It's the
only foundation I've got. It's the only rock of ages. It's
the only shelter in the time of storm is Christ Jesus. Scripture says, the Lord opened
the eyes of the blind. I pray He'll open blinded eyes
so we see who He is, see what He demands, see what we are,
Tell you what, if we ever see who God is, to a degree, we can't
fully see who He is, but if we ever see that God's holy and
just and righteous, and He demands what we can't ever give to Him,
if He shows us our own ungodliness, open my eyes that I may see what
I am, Lord! If He opens our eyes to behold
Himself and eyes to see what we are, I promise you, He will
open your eyes, my eyes, to see this stone. See, right there's
your hope. He's your hope. But, you know, there is a generation,
Solomon said, that is pure in their own eyes. and yet is not washed from their
filthiness." Oh, that God would give us spiritual
understanding to hear His voice when He says, look unto Me and
be ye saved. Look to Me! Look to Me! And I'll tell you, if He does,
if He enables us to hear the Gospel and see the glories of
Christ Jesus, we'll sort of be like the Queen of Sheba. She heard an awful lot about
Solomon. She'd come to meet him. I've
got to meet this man. She came to meet him. She said
it was a true report. I'm quoting 1 Kings 10.7. It
was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts
and of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believed not the words
until I came, and mine eyes hath seen it. Behold, the half has not been
told. Thy wisdom and thy prosperity
exceeded the fame which I heard. You've heard! But some God has given eyes to
see the stone. You've heard of His greatness.
Oh, that He'd give you spiritual eyesight and perception and understanding
to see Him, see the King in His beauty. Oh Lord, open my eyes. Job said,
I heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear. But now, what did
he say? Now I see it Thee. I repent and
sackcloth and ashes, he said. The Lord said to Simeon laboring
in the temple, you're not going to die until you see the Lord's
Christ. And that old man saw the Lord
Jesus. He knew the Spirit of God said,
there's the one right there. I tell you what, if the Spirit
of God ever identifies Him for you, you'll know who He is. And Simeon took Him up in his
arms. He said, Lord, I'm ready to die. Listen to Him. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Not just these eyes. The eyes
of the soul. I've seen the King! I've seen
the Savior! You see, some of you, I fear,
have only heard of Him. Oh, God, give eyesight to see
Him, to see the King in His beauty, to see the stone that God has
already laid. and then the eyes of all who
read the Scriptures with understanding are upon Him." You read the Word
of God, you'll see throughout the Word of God, here's this
stone that God sits for. If the Lord will open up your
eyes, you'll see Him everywhere. And it may be a passage of a
Scripture we come to and you say, well, I don't see Him there,
and then I preach from that passage, say, well, I see Him now, And
it could be that way with this passage of Scripture. I didn't
see Him before, but I see Him now. Blessed are your eyes, the
Lord Jesus said, for they see. I once was blind. I'm not blind
anymore. I see. And I'll tell you, the
eyes of every Christian pilgrim is upon this stone that God has
laid. We look to Him for salvation.
We look to Him as we walk through this world. We look to Him for
constant help in our neediness. Psalm 121, I will lift up mine
eyes unto the hill from whence cometh my help. My help cometh
from the Lord, which made heaven and earth." Where's your help
come from? I'm looking up to the hill of grace. To the hill
of God's faithfulness. I'm looking up to Christ the
Lord who died on another hill, the hill of Mount Calvary. The
eyes of the Holy Spirit are upon this stone. He doesn't speak
of Himself, He speaks of Christ Jesus. And you know what? The eyes of all the world will
very soon see the Son of God. Revelation
1-7 says, Behold, He cometh in the clouds, and every eye shall
see Him. There's nothing secretive about
that. I know there are a lot of people
who believe in a secret rapture. If you want to believe that,
that's fine. I don't believe you're correct. Because that
verse in Revelation 1-7 says, Behold, He cometh and every eye
shall see Him. That's nothing secretive. That's
nothing hidden. Everybody's going to know He's
come. And in that day, the children of God will see
Him as He is in His glory. And here's the last thing if
you're keeping the list. I hope I've given you six so
far and here's the seventh one. The eyes of all creation will
be upon Him in that last day. You and I will be there. You and I will be there. We're not
going to be looking around saying, is so and so here? No. You're going to see the King
in His glory. Everybody. All eyes in that day will be
on the stone that God laid. And every knee shall bow to Him.
The eyes of Satan and all of the demonic hosts will be on
Him. And they'll bend the knee. They'll
say, He's the Lord. Jesus is the Lord of glory. And then Jesus, the Lord of glory,
is going to cast them into hell. The eyes of all of the angelic
hosts will be there. They'll fold their wings as they look at the Lord of creation. The eyes of every enemy of the
gospel. They'll be looking at Him. Those whom God generally called,
but they weren't interested. He called again this morning
through His preacher. Not interested. Well, you'll
be there and you'll be made to realize this One before whom
you bend your knees in the judgment. He's the stone God laid. And
you didn't want anything to do with Him. Isn't that awful? You didn't want anything to do
with Him. Oh, you'd use His name every once in a while. You'd
say, I'm glad Jesus came. But you didn't love Him. You
didn't believe Him. You didn't rest in Him. God said,
this is the stone that I laid. I laid it myself. But you won't
look to Him for salvation. You say, I'm a pretty good person.
I ain't as bad as He says I am. Probably the rest of these folks
in here, they're probably pretty bad, but I'm basically a good
person. I'm a good woman. I'm a good
man. You'll see the judge. You'll
see the judge. And the eyes of every chosen,
redeemed, quickened sinner will see the stone and look on Him and rejoice forever
and ever. God says, behold the stone that
I have laid. God laid it. By His grace, I'm
looking to Christ, the eyes of my faith, the eyes of my soul,
looking to Him only. Look and live, my brother. Look and live. Look to Christ
Jesus. Look to the Lamb of God. We sing
that song sometimes, don't we? Look to the Lamb of God. And
we're going to sing it right now.