Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus. What a sweet, sweet subject to
sing about. I'm sure that as you listened
to those words, you were blessed by them, even as I was. You know, the special music isn't
to fill in a gap before the last congregational song and the scripture
reading and prayer and the message. It is a very vital part of the
worship service. And you should give the one who's
singing or the ones who are singing your undivided attention. Listen. Listen to the words. And you will be blessed, and
I'm sure you have been blessed already this morning. If you
would, open your Bibles once again to the prophecy of Zechariah
chapter 3. I go back to this marvelous portion
of Scripture. amazed by it. The more I read
it, the more I see God's revelation
to us of the wonders of His wonderful, marvelous grace to us through
the Lord Jesus, our Savior. here in this portion of Scripture,
Joshua. In many ways, of course, he's
a picture of our Lord Jesus, who is our great high priest.
But actually, in this portion of Scripture, this man Joshua,
he represents all of those that are guilty before God, those
whom God intends to save by His mighty free grace. If you are
interested in God's salvation, if you're interested, I can't
seem to find too many people really interested, but if you
are, Listen very carefully to this message. I know Joshua was
a picture of all of us and our sinfulness, because the Scripture
says he was robed with filthy rags. He was unfit for God. Kind of like the man during the
Great Depression standing in the soup line A person walked up to him and
said, well, how's it going today? He said, I've seen better days. That's us. We have seen better
days. That is, before Adam fell. But
now, we're fully dependent upon God's charity. Oh, that God would put us in
the soup line to make us know our neediness. See, we think
we're okay. We're not okay. We're in bad
shape. We're like Joshua filthy before
God. And if God would, by His mercy,
make us to know our condition before Him, that's when we'll
join the soup line. I need a handout. I've never
been dependent upon charity, or you'll be dependent upon God's
charity, or you'll perish in your sins. We need his mercy. And here's the issue, we don't
even know we need his mercy. We don't even know we need his,
to use the press illustration a little further, we don't even
know we need soup. We think we're okay. I'm not
okay, and you're not okay. You see, when it comes to the
gospel of the grace of God, the preaching of the gospel, the
listening to the gospel, this calls for utmost solemnness and seriousness. Certainly, it's very serious
to me. Because, see, I understand something that you probably don't
give any thought about. I have to give an account of
the message that I will bring to you today. That's my responsibility. I've got to be honest before
God. I've got to be honest with you
regarding His Word. Therefore, I And it isn't that
I'm nervous on account of standing before people. I've been preaching
for lots of years. But I know what's involved in
this. And if you had any inkling of
just how vital this very message is, you would, as it were, be
on the edge of your pew. And you would say, oh God, if
this is so serious to this preacher, make it serious to me. Luther, Martin Luther, famous
German preacher, he said, the preaching of the
gospel, he said, it is to me, it's so vital It's so much in
the now, it's what he said. And he said, I preach as though
Christ was crucified yesterday, and risen today, and coming again
tomorrow. He said, that's how vital it
is to me. That's how real it is to me. Another old preacher,
Richard Baxter, he said, I preach as though never to preach again.
He said, I preach as a dying man to dying men and women. So I'm going to endeavor to be
very honest with you today, as I always endeavor to do. Now,
that's me. What about you? What about you? I'll give an account of what
I have to say today. and you'll give an account of
the way you heard this message and either your reception of
it or your rejection of it. Will you listen very seriously
and honestly? Listen. I'm speaking to those
of you who are watching by the internet, too. Listen as though
your very life depended upon this. Because it does. We're talking about your eternal
future. There are four facts we can't
escape. Number one, we're all guilty
and helpless before God. Ours is a spiritual problem.
And this man Joshua, he pictures all of us because he stands before
the Lord in filthy garments. We're guilty before Him. It's a blessed day when the Lord
convinces us that we're guilty before Him. Because we tend to
brag upon our goodness. Hey, I'm a good person. I want you to know I'm a good
person. I've made some mistakes. You have no goodness in you,
not as God defines goodness. Ours is a heart problem. If we
had a physical issue, we'd go to the medical doctors and hope
that they have the wisdom to help us. But ours is not a physical
issue. Ours is a spiritual issue, and
the only one who can help us with a spiritual issue is himself
the great spiritual God. We have a heart problem, an inward
problem. If it's a drinking problem, I'd
say quit. Drink in moderation. If it's
a morality problem, I'd say clean up your life. You can do outward things to
improve the quality of your life and to make you a better person
before others. And that's all well and fine,
but our problem is an inward problem and we can't do anything
about it. That's the seriousness of it. So we're all guilty and helpless
before God. And secondly, being guilty before
God means we're condemned of being sinful. And the punishment
for our sin is unending death, for the wages of sin is death. Did you hear that? That's what
God's Word says. The Bible says you're under the
wrath of God. You're not under my wrath. You're
not under the wrath of the government. You're under the wrath of God.
Here's what Paul says in Ephesians 2. He says that we were by nature
children of wrath, even as others. That is, people who are deserving
of the wrath of God, just like everybody else. Has that ever
dawned on you? Deserving of the wrath of God? And here's the third thing, only
the Bible tells us about this salvation. Only the Bible tells
us how salvation was ordained, purposed, worked out, accomplished,
and how it is obtained. Only the Word of God can give
you this information. Not a history book, not a science
book. Those subjects are just fine
in the secular world, but when it comes to things spiritual,
there's only one book that is the authority of God, and it's
the Word of God. Put away your devotional books
and pull out the Word of God. Dust off the Scriptures. Get
acquainted with the Word of God. This is God making Himself known
to us and making ourselves known to us and making us to know the
way by which He shows mercy and grace to unworthy sinners, which
is the fourth thing. Only Christ can save sinners.
See, we're in a mess. I hope you acknowledge that.
We're in a mess. There's a vast distance between
us and God, and there's no bridge that we can build to bring us
to God. God's way out there in His infinite
purity and holiness, and we're down here just kind of wiggling
worms on this earth who are all full of sin. There's a vast distance. How are you going to bridge the
distance? You say, I'd love to stay with God forever in heaven. Well, how can that be possible? When you're the very opposite,
when I'm the very opposite of all that God is. Enter Christ Jesus the Savior. He is the bridge between the
guilty and a holy God. He bridged that distance by His
life and by His death upon the cross of Calvary. That's why we make so much of
the Savior. Oh, how desperately we need Him. And let me show you several things
right here from Zechariah chapter 3. Since we are helpless and
hopeless, in our sinfulness, life-saving help has to come
to us from above, from Christ Jesus, the only Savior. Number
one, Christ is Joshua's mediator. Look at verses one and two, chapter
three. And he showed me, he manifested
to 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, that is,
God the Father, Jehovah is here. And the Savior, the Lord, the
second person of the Trinity, says to Satan, The Lord rebuke
thee, O Satan. Here is our Lord Jesus, who is
the mediator for Joshua. I'll talk about how he's Joshua's
defense against Satan in a minute. But first of all, our Lord Jesus
is Joshua's mediator. He stands between Joshua and
a holy God. The Bible says, for there's one
God and one mediator between God and men, that's the man,
Christ Jesus. There is someone who's in the
middle. There is someone who can satisfy
every demand of God, who can, as it were, lay his hand on God,
knowing all of God's demands and requirements. The reason
he can appear in the presence of God himself is because he
is God. He's the only representative
that we could ever have before God. He knows every demand of
God, but he's also the man Christ Jesus. He was tempted in all
points as we are, and yet without sin. He was made flesh. He joined His deity to our humanity. He knows us. I read to you at
the beginning of the service, He is the friend of publicans
and sinners. Who did He choose to be His disciples
but sinful people? Who did He live for but for sinful
people? Who did He die for Sinful people. That's what all of us are, and
he laid down his life for his people. He's the only mediator. He's a mediator between two offending
parties. That's what a mediator is. It's
one who stands between two persons who cannot get along, to work
things out, to bring them together. You see, God will not compromise
His law or His justice. He says, His justice says, you
must die. And we cannot better ourselves
because as I've already established, we have a spiritual problem. So what is to be done? In steps
the Mediator. And I say in steps. He stepped
in in the covenant of grace in old eternity. He's always been
our middle man. He's always been the Mediator. He stands between the living
God and dead sinners. Isn't that something? You remember
when Israel worshiped the golden calf. And of course, Moses came
down from the mountain. He heard the celebration going
on, the dancing and all of that kind of stuff. And he threw the
log down, went back up. God gave him the log in. He came
down. God was angry. God killed 3,000
people. Thou shall have no other gods
before Me. He's angry. And Moses told the
people, he said, I'm going up on the mount, I'm going to offer
a sacrifice for an atonement, and I'm going to pray for you.
And he went up and he offered a blood sacrifice. That's always
presented in the Bible. See, that's how you approach
God, through sacrifice. And you know what he did? After
he offered that sacrifice, he prayed to the Lord and said,
Oh God! Oh God, don't take this out on these people. If you're
going to kill anybody, you know what he said? Kill me! Kill me! Boy, what a mediator he was. But, his death could not satisfy
the demands of God's law. It was a nice gesture on his
part, But his death wouldn't do the people any good. But he
was a picture of our Lord Jesus. He saw a dilemma, and the justice
of God said, they've all got to die. And our Lord Jesus stepped
in, in old eternity now. This is the way it's always been.
And then He stepped in the time and came into this world, and
as it were, when He hung on the cross, He said to the Father,
Take me! Let these go. That's how God
saves sinners. through the death of the Lord
Jesus. And we know his death satisfied God, because God raised
him from the dead. And he ever lives, and he reigns
over everybody and everything. Christ is Joshua's mediator. Secondly, Christ is Joshua's
defender. Satan is there. Here's Joshua,
he's the He's the one on trial. He's on the left and here's the
accuser, Satan, on the right. Well, who can deal with Satan? You got any idea how powerful
he is? None of us have any idea. We have a very vague, vague notion
of the authority and power of Satan. I know this about him. He is
no match for us. There's no way. I don't want
to deal with him. I don't want to deal with his
demons. It's really a dangerous subject in my opinion. to do
any diligent study on Satan or demonism. There's so much evil
in this vile world. And Satan is pure, unadulterated
evil. He's a deceiver. He's subtle. Man, I don't want to try to deal
with him. Boy, that's suicide. But Joshua, there stands there
beside of you one who is your mighty defender. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's all-powerful. He said, all power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth. and he has absolute authority
and power over Satan and all of his demonic forces. And our
Lord Jesus dealt to him a fatal blow at the cross of Calvary. So our Savior said in John chapter
12, now is the prince of this world cast out. What happened to him? one who
is almighty, one who is infinitely stronger than Satan, dealt with
Him at the cross and gave Him a blow of mortality so that He
is so wounded that He limps around. Now still a limping Satan, a
wounded Satan, is still more than a match for any of us. And his doom is sure. And when Satan comes to tempt
us with his fiery darts of temptation,
we have a mighty defender, Christ the Lord. Preacher, what do I
do when I'm tempted? Oh, the thoughts that I have,
preacher, You just can't imagine. Yeah, I can imagine because I
got an idea what mine are. We're all the same. What do I
do? Flee to your mighty defender. Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, I need
Thee. Oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Stay by me. Stay by me. Christ is Joshua's defense. Thirdly, Christ is Joshua's convictor. Look at verse 3. Now Joshua was
clothed with filthy garments. He stood before the angel of
the Lord who stands before Christ. Here's what our Lord Jesus does.
He convicts us of our sinfulness. He makes us to know We're filthy
before Him. You won't realize it until He
reveals to you exactly what you are. He made Joshua know his clothes
were filthy. You see, He convicts us before
He saves us. That's right, isn't it? He convicts
us before He saves us. Who will seek to be washed? Somebody
who's made to know that it's dirty. Who will want to be forgiven? Somebody who's made to know they're
sinful. Who will be made to want a change
of garments, to be spotless before God? One to whom God the Spirit
has shown them, you got on filthy rags. All your goodness, all
your loveliness, you think you're a good person? In the eyes of
God, it's all filthy rags. That's your Bible reading, your
praying, your church, all of it. because it all comes forth
from a rotten heart, a polluted source. Who will want this salvation? I'll tell you who will want it.
Somebody to whom God the Spirit shows them. I'm lost. I'm in a mess. It's a blessed
day. when the Spirit of Grace shows
somebody that they're sinful. An old hymn writer said years
ago, a sinner is a sacred thing. The Spirit of Grace has made
him so. That's a special thing. If God
shows you, you need it. Christ is Joshua's convictor.
Here's the fourth thing. Christ is Joshua's Savior. Now watch this. And He's going
to tell us how He saved sinners. Look in the second verse. He
says, "...the Lord rebuked thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath
chosen Jerusalem rebuked thee." Is not this a brand plucked out
of the fire? And then down in verse 4, he
says, take away the filthy garments. Behold, I've caused thine iniquity
to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with a change of
raiment. Here's what Joshua is made to know. Number one, God
saves sinners by free and sovereign grace. Jerusalem is chosen of
God. That won't be an offensive doctrine
to you. You may not understand it, but
you'll say in your heart, I'm glad the Lord chose somebody
to be saved. After all, salvation is due to
the choice of God. 2 Thessalonians 2.13, God hath
from the foundation of the world chosen you to salvation. If you're
a believer this morning, how far back is your salvation to
be traced? All the way back into eternity,
to God's sovereign election of you. to be one of His people. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, I don't
get upset at adoption of election. I'm so thankful He chose me because
the only way I know that I'm God's choice into salvation is
because I believe Him. Faith is the evidence of your
election. Don't seek to know your election.
Seek to know if you're a believer. Are you a believer? I believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's my only hope. His blood,
His righteousness, His faithfulness, His death, His resurrection,
Him representing me. Your faith is the evidence. God
chose you unto salvation. I'll tell you something else.
Here's this salvation. Not only due to choice, but due
to the fact that your sins were taken away from you, removed
from you, and put on somebody else. That's what the Lord says,
I'll remove. Look at verse four. Behold, I
have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee. It passed from
you. Who did it pass to? Your substitute. Your substitute. And then look
a little further over in the chapter in verse, the end of
verse nine. I will remove the iniquity of
that land in one day. Your iniquity has been removed. That's what he says to Joshua.
Well, how can that be? How can my sins, my iniquity,
how can it be removed in one day? By the God man. He who laid down His life for
His people. You see, Christ is Joshua's Savior. He chose Him. He died for Him. And then it says, He saved Him
because if you look at the last statement of verse 2, is not
this a brand plucked out of the fire? This is effectual grace
because you see that we're plucked out of the fire. It means to
snatch, to snatch away, to draw, to pull out. to rescue. That's what God does in His saving
grace. He comes to us through the preaching
of the Gospel of Christ, just like I'm preaching right now,
and suddenly, almost certainly unexplainable to you, The Lord
reaches into your heart, He reaches to you, and He, as it were, pulls
you out of the fire, and He pulls you, He plucks you from danger,
and He pulls you unto Himself. That's effectual grace. That's
what that is. That's the kind of Savior Christ
is. He chose sinners. He redeemed sinners. He draws
sinners unto Himself. He rescues us. I used to be a
lifeguard. Many years ago, I used to be
a lifeguard. I tell you what, when I saw somebody
going under, I didn't say to them, now save yourself. I'm waiting on you, do the best
you can. No, I'm in like that. I remember
years ago, I was about 17, 18 years of age, and I was a lifeguard.
And there was a man, his two sons were swimming, and he was
standing beside them. He was the postmaster in the
town Nancy lived in. His two sons were swimming, and
he said, my boys are good swimmers. They're good swimmers. I said,
well, that's good. We was in a lake, swimming in a lake. Also
known as a mud hole. So one of them said, I'm coming
over. Because his dad was standing with me. It was a lake. We were
standing on the dam. So I'm coming over, Dad. He said,
come on over. That boy started swimming. All
of a sudden, he started going under, flailing away. Of course,
I was in just like that. He's a little fella, and I didn't
have any trouble pulling him in. I brought him in. His daddy
was still standing there just frozen with fear. Did that boy
save himself? Now, you've got to lose screw
if you think that boy saved himself. You really lack understanding
if you think he rescued himself. I rescued. He was, as it were,
to use this language, he was a brand plucked out of the fire. I snatched him away from what
would be certain death. I did that. And his dad came up to me after
he hugged his boy and he hugged me. He said, I'll do anything
in the world for you. You saved my boy. Let me tell
you something. Christ saves, rescues sinners. Got that? And He does it all
by Himself. I was a brand that He reached
in with His mighty arm of grace and He snatched me from the fire. He saved me by His grace. He
brought me unto Himself. The Savior said, no man can come
to me except, oh I'm glad that word's there, except the Father
which has sent me, draw him, draw him. I'll raise him up at
the last day. That word draw means like you
hook a fish and you draw it out of the water. That fish ain't
coming willingly. We got some fishermen in here,
and you know that fish, he don't want to come in. You got to pull
him in. That's what the Lord does with
sovereign effectual grace. He pulls us in. And then, He
makes us want to be caught. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. That's what the Scripture says.
Christ is Joshua's Savior. Fifthly, Christ is Joshua's righteousness. I will clothe him." Do you reckon
Joshua clothed himself? No. He's got filthy rags on him. The rag's got to come off. That's
conviction. It shows you you're a sinner. Then he puts a new garment on
you. It's a garment of righteousness. What is wrong with a sinful person
who thinks, I'm good enough for God as I am? Now what's wrong? That's a fool talking, right?
I'm good enough for God as I am. If you're good enough for God
as you are, why in this world did He send His Son to die? If you're good enough for God
as you are. You would charge God with the
needless death of His only begotten Son because you feel like you're
good enough for God as you are? Oh, may God show mercy to you
and show you you're just a sinner like everybody else. You know
better than anybody else. The Lord Jesus is Joshua's righteousness. Somebody asked an old black preacher. His name was John Jasper. I just remembered his name. He
was a Baptist preacher in Richmond, Virginia, many years ago. And somebody talked to him and
said, John Jasper, he said, how'd God save you? He said, well,
he came to me and he said, John Jasper, you got on a filthy coat. And he said, I was made to know.
Yes, I do, Lord. He said, I'm going to take that
coat off of you and I'm going to put on you a brand new beautiful
coat. He said, that sounds good to
me. And he said, I put that coat on and I found out it's just
my size. It's like the father of the prodigal
son when he came home, put a ring on his finger. and a coat on
his back. That's the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. I don't want this old nasty coat
anymore. Rip it off of me, Lord! Wrap
me around with the beauties of Your Son. And you hear me, those
of you who are the Lord's people, in Christ Jesus, you're as beautiful
to God as His only begotten Son is. What grace is this? And Christ is Joshua's diadem. Verse 5a says, put a fair mitre
upon his head. That's a diadem of holiness. We're made to be Wisdom, we're
made to be in Christ, all that God demands. He's our wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification or holiness, and redemption. And one more thing. Look at the
last statement of verse 5. Here he's clothed them with garments,
put a mitre on his head, that's a diadem, and the angel of the
Lord stood by. Hear me. Christ Jesus is our
everlasting companion. Our everlasting companion. David
said in the Psalm, Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why not, David? Are you braver than most people?
You got more courage than anybody else? No. I'll fear no evil for
this reason. Thou art with me. If He's with me, I can live every
day. If He's with me, I can die in
peace. If He's with me. And He says
He is. That's what He told His people
over in Isaiah. He said, fear not. I'm with thee. Do you live by yourself? You a believer? I got news for
you. You don't live by yourself. There's
somebody always standing by you. Somebody always standing with
you. Somebody always standing for you before God. Thou art with me. and He's with you not as an idle
spectator, not as an idle spectator, but
as a reigning King, governing all things that happen
in this world for your good and for His glory. That's the salvation
of Joshua. That's how God saves sinners.
I don't know how anybody could walk out of here and say, well,
I don't understand what he said. Surely you understand the words
that I've spoken. I pray that God will do a work
of grace in your heart so you'll understand the message of salvation,
all of grace, and all in Christ Jesus. Let's turn to 258.