Thank you, Joe. Let's go back
to the book of prophecy of Zechariah, and we'll go back to our last
message in chapter 3. Our subject is identifying the Messiah. Identifying the Messiah. If you want to understand the
Word of God, you need to have some knowledge of the fact of representation. It's a truth that is necessary
to be understood. Adam was not a private individual
in his actions toward God. He was a representative man.
that which he did had an effect upon everybody he represented. And who did he represent? Who
did he stand for? Well, he stood for the whole
human race. So that when he was obedient
to God, when he remained upright in obeying the law that God gave
him, not to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree, Well,
he represented us. We were all right then. But in his action of rebellion
and transgression against God, once again, he was not acting
merely as a private individual. He represented his wife, and he represented all of our
race. The scripture says, for by one
man, Adam. By one man, this thing we call,
God calls sin, entered into the world. And death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men. For we all sin in Adam. Like
it or not, agree with it or not, It doesn't make any difference
to the fact of it what Adam did affected you and me and all of
our race. The scripture says in Romans
5, by one man's disobedience, many were made legally constituted
to be sinners. One man was Adam. He represented
all of his seed, all of his posterity. So you understand that. Now,
let me talk to you a little bit about another representative
man. That's the God-man, Christ Jesus. When he came into this world,
once again, that which he did was not as a private individual. but as a representative man,
a man sent from God. So that everything he did, everything he did which was all
in the eyes of God, he did, he was himself the one who stood
for all of his seed. Well, who were his seed? Who
are his seed? Back before God ever made this
world, in covenant grace, God gave to Christ Jesus a chosen
race, a group of people, more numerous than the stars of heaven
or the sand on the seashore. And actually, in that covenant
of grace, and you do well to study that, it is a pity that
not too many people know about the covenant of grace today,
because most preachers themselves don't know anything about it.
That's the reason they don't preach about it. But our Lord Jesus,
in that covenant of grace, He represented all of those God
gave Him in grace, in electing free and sovereign grace. He
stood for us then. He was our representative. In
that legal binding council of peace between the three persons
of the Godhead, we had a representative. We had one who stood for us. And he was acting on our behalf
as one equal with God, and one who would come into this
world to be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. The representative
man. I tell you, this matter of representation
is key to understanding the Scriptures. You see, I quoted there from
Romans chapter 5, by one man's disobedience, many, literally
the many he represented, all the people he represented, we
became sinful people. The rest of that goes even by
the obedience of one. The obedience of one. Who's that
one? That's the man in Christ Jesus.
By the obedience of one shall the many he represented be righteous." You see, this is how you became
a sinner. This is how I became a sinner.
By representation. That's what God says. And the way we become righteous, is by this other representative,
God's own Son, who stood for us in His life, who died for
us to satisfy divine justice. He brought in for us, by His
obedience unto death, everlasting righteousness. We're made the
righteousness of God in Him, not through anything you do, not through anything you believe
even. You're made righteous by the
representative man, Christ Jesus, our God-man, the Savior. Now, that brings me here to Zechariah
chapter 3. Joshua, in this portion of Scripture,
he stands as a representative man. He represents all of the
people of God who are sinful by nature to be redeemed by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 8. Chapter 3, verse 8. He says, O Joshua the high priest, thou
and thy fellows, that word fellows means companions. That's a good
word to use there. Even thy companions that sit
before thee. Joshua, he stands as the representative
of all those who would sit before him. That is, he represents all
of the people of God. For then the Lord says, the Spirit
of God has the prophet Isaiah to write this, for they are men
wondered at. They're wonders of the mercy
and grace of God. These whom he represents, and
Joshua stands as the head of the vast group of people that
God gave to Christ Jesus. Like I say, He's a representative
man. And all of us are set forth as these who sit at His feet,
and we're people wondered at. We're a wonder to ourselves. We're a wonder to the angels
of God. Because we've been made beautiful
in the eyes of God. Our sins have been put away.
We stand righteous in the Lord Jesus. We're a people to be wondered
at. Do you not, as you think about
your own ungodliness and your own sinfulness, do you not find
yourself being a wonder even to yourself? How utterly amazing! I'm like Joshua who represents
us. Filthy garments? The Lord stripped
us of our filthy garments. He removed our iniquity in one
day by the blood of the Savior. And He robes us in pure white
garments. The righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I think about what I am by nature
and what I am by grace. And I'm a person who wonders
at what I've become. Oh, the manifold mercy of God.
Now, here's what the Lord says. He says in verse 8, hear now,
Joshua, God says, I've got something to say and I want you to hear. I want you to be listeners, he
says. And then as if those words aren't
enough, he includes the word there in verse 8, behold. And he'll use it again in verse
9, for behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua, upon
one stone shall be seven eyes. And he uses it again, behold. I will engrave the graving thereof,
saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove," and this is something
to behold, I will remove the iniquity of that land in one
day. He says, here now. Hearken. Consider. Behold. Be astonished, the Lord says,
at what I'm going to do. Not what you've got to do. This is what's wrong with religion
today. They talk about what God tries
to do. God makes an effort to do. And
then you've got to do the rest. How many times have we heard
preachers, not here, but you hear it on television, you hear
it on the radio, God has done all He can do. And now the rest
is up to you. Why, you mean God needs our help? God needs our assistance? Well,
what assistance could I render to the Almighty God? When I'm
a weakling, I'm a puny, sinful worm. How can I ever do anything
to help God to assist Him in the salvation of my soul? The
Bible says salvation is of the Lord. Does it mean what it says
or not? That's what I want to say to
some preachers, what I want to ask them. Does the Bible mean
what it says when it says salvation is of the Lord? Are those just words that really
don't mean that? They really mean what they say. Salvation is of the Lord. So
he says, here now, hearken and consider and behold, be astounded. God says it's what I'm going
to do. Number one, he says, I'm going to bring forth
my servant, the branch. I'm going to bring forth my servant,
the branch. That's what he says there at
the end of verse 8. Notice this. God will bring him forth. God will cause him to come. Who
brought forth the Lord Jesus into this world? I tell you what,
he came unasked for, unwanted, undesired, unsought. When He came into this world,
the whole religious world rejected Him. Had no use for Him. And yet, God sent Him. We read
in John 1, He came unto His own, but His own received Him not. God sent Him. God gave Him. God commissioned Him. For God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, he gave,
he gave his Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. God brought him forth in a miraculous
way, for so it was decreed in the covenant of grace. But when
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law. God sent Him forth. You see,
Joshua and these fellows who said before Joshua were signs
and pictures of what God was going to do for His people. By
Him sending forth the Lord Jesus, our filthy rags would be stripped
from us, and our Lord Jesus, by His obedience unto death,
would establish righteousness for all of His children. Secondly, He says, not only will
I bring forth this one I'll cause him to come, but secondly,
says God would bring forth my servant. God called him my servant.
This was the title of our Savior, especially in the second half
of the book of Isaiah, the second half being chapter 40 forward. He's called the servant of the
Lord, Jehovah's faithful bondservant. God promised to bring forth His
servant, the branch. The branch. Just a little sprout
that grew and budded and then brought forth great fruit to
the glory of God. Our Lord Jesus came to the world
as a tender, Isaiah 53 says, a tender plant. He grew up before
the Lord. He sprouted from the roots of
Jesse and David. And as he matured, he did those things always that
pleased God. And then finally, He died the
death of the cross of Calvary and thereby brought forth much
fruit to the glory of God through His death. He's God's servant. He's God's
servant. And He's the branch. The branch. Now watch this. Four very important
things about this branch. This servant who is God's branch. Four important things. I want
you to get these. If you get these, I think it'll
be a blessing to you. Number one, he's the royal branch. Now go with me to Jeremiah chapter
23. He is the royal branch. Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah 23, verse 5. Jeremiah 23, 5. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and
a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. In his days, Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. He is the royal
branch, the servant of God. He is the royal branch. He is
the king who would reign and prosper. And of course, our Lord
Jesus, by virtue of His substitutionary sacrifice, He was made both Lord
and Christ overall. You can't make Him Lord. God
made Him Lord by virtue of His obedience unto death. So here
He is. He's the royal branch. Remember
that. He's the royal branch. His lineage
is traced back to King David. Secondly, there in our text it
says, God says, my servant, the branch. My servant, the branch. God's own servant, who is his
bond servant, his bond slave, is the branch. Turn back to Isaiah chapter 42. Let me show you several verses
here in Isaiah. First of all, Isaiah chapter
42. Look at verse one. Here's God's servant. God says,
he's my servant, the branch. Isaiah 42. Behold My servant." Have you
beheld Him? Have you looked to Him? Are you
looking to Him for salvation, for redemption, for righteousness,
for wisdom, for sanctification? Are you looking to Him for all
things? He said, look unto Me and be
ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God, there is
none other. Behold My servant, whom I uphold, Mine elect, in
whom My soul delighteth. I have put My Spirit upon him,
and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Now go over
to Isaiah 52. Isaiah chapter 52. Look at verse
13. God says of his servant, Behold,
my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high. What does that word prudently
mean? Well, certainly it has the idea of wisely. But really,
there's a better word, and it's actually in the margin. If you
have a center column, you'll see there, associated with verse
13, it says, or what's the word? Prosper. Your Bible have that?
Prosper. Behold, my servant shall deal
prudently, that is, prosperously. He will be successful. That's
what the meaning of it is. He shall be successful. He shall
successfully defeat all of His enemies. He shall successfully
execute the redemptive will of the Father. He shall successfully
save His people from their sins. He shall successfully bring in
everlasting righteousness. He shall successfully, He shall
prosper in removing our iniquities from us as far as the east is
from the west. This is God's faithful servant.
The purpose of God and the pleasure of God prospers in His hands. Look over in chapter 53. Chapter 53. I'd call this chapter
53. It's the crown jewel prophecy
of the Old Testament. That's what Isaiah 53 is. I was
thinking about that today. This has got to be, in my mind,
the crown jewel, the crown jewel prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ
in all of the Old Testament. Look what it says here in verse
10. Isaiah 53, 10, "...Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief." Who
did? Who put him to grief? The Lord
did. Who bruised him? The Lord did. You say, well, oh, there was
Herod and Pilate and the Jews and the Romans. There were secondary
causes. Here's the first cause. God dealt
with him in the most severest of justice. He had to do that to put away
our sins. It pleased the Lord. What does
that mean? It satisfied the Lord to bruise Him. Tell you what,
if God bruises you in hell forever, that won't please Him. That won't satisfy. There's no way everlasting hell
can ever satisfy the justice and law of God. It can't be done. Satisfaction to divine justice
was only, only carried out when our Lord Jesus Christ died. That's
what satisfied God. It's not your faith that puts
sins away. It's the death of Christ. It's
not your repentance. I'm so sorry about my sin. Well,
you ought to be sorry for your sin. And you ought to be filled
with repentance. But there ain't enough power
in all the repentance of all the sinners who've ever repented
to put any sins away. It took the bruising of the Son
of God. God put him to grief. Watch this. When thou shalt make
his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall... What? What's that word? Prosper. In his hand. Prosper. It wasn't a failure. And the
cross of Calvary was not an effort. It was a prosperous act of the
Son of God that secured the everlasting salvation of everybody for whom
He died. Let me ask you this. Is there anybody in hell for
whom Jesus Christ suffered, bled, and died? Now you think about that. Is
there anybody in hell suffering the wrath and the agony of God? Is there anybody in hell for
whose sins Jesus Christ has already suffered, bled, and died, and
paid for them with His own precious blood? I'll answer that. There's nobody in hell for whom
He put away their sins, for whom His blood was shed. See, here's what's wrong with
free willism and you make your decision for Jesus. It makes
this salvation of the soul dependent upon you and not upon the Lord. That's wrong. It gives you the
glory. It doesn't give Him all the glory.
Hear me. If you believe there's somebody
in hell for whom Jesus Christ suffered, bled, and died, you've
got a Savior who's a failure. That's not the Christ of the
Bible. No, sir. No, sir. Back over there in Isaiah 42,
it says, He shall not fail. I tell you, the Savior you trust
may be a failure, but not the Savior of the Bible. He can't
fail. He's God. He's God. I wish people would think a little
bit. I wish you'd read the Bible a little bit. If your debt's been paid, why,
you're debt free. If Jesus Christ, if He paid my
debt of sin when He died on the cross of Calvary, I have no indebtedness
to God. Well, then how could God ever
hold me accountable? I have no indebtedness. You say,
but Jim, you don't know that you don't have any indebtedness.
Not until the Spirit of God gifts me with faith to believe Him. And it isn't my faith that puts
my sin away. But the faith that God gives
me causes me to look to that one who did put my sins away. God says, He's my servant. Look at the next verse here in
verse 11. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant, my righteous servant, Justify many for he shall bear
their iniquities. God says he's my servant, the
branch. The branch. Thirdly, go back over to the
book of Zechariah and go this time to chapter number six. Chapter 6. Chapter 6 and verse 12. He says, He's talking about speaking
unto Joshua and saying unto him, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts,
saying, Behold the man whose name is the branch. So now we
know, excuse me, now we know that this one who is the servant,
God's servant, the branch, he's royal. He's not only royal, he is God's
faithful servant. And now we read he's the man
who's the branch. He's kingly. He's the servant,
and He's the man who is the branch. This royal branch, this serving
branch, this servant who is the branch, He is the man, Christ
Jesus. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. He's the man, Christ Jesus. And
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Now, one more. Go to Isaiah chapter
4. Isaiah chapter 4. And I don't
have time to give an exposition of this passage of Scripture.
But in Isaiah chapter 4, In verse 1, he's talking about false religion.
The apostasy of the day. The apostasy of the world's religion. They all gang up on people. And
here we have seven women ganging up on one man. And women, these
sorts of women in the Bible, they're harlots. They're likened
unto false religion because that's what false religion is. It's
the harlot religion. Look at verse 1. And in that
day, and this is our day. It's true of our day. Seven women
shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, wear
our own apparel, not interested in the apparel of Christ, not
interested in his righteousness, we'll wear our own apparel. We're good people. We're religious
people. Only let us be called by thy
name to take away our reproach. And in this day of religious
apostasy, God says, in that day, and every
day in a sense is a day of apostasy, but this looks forward to the
time of our Lord Jesus, in that day shall the branch of the Lord,
or literally, the Lord who is the branch, be beautiful and
glorious. and the fruit of the earth shall
be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel."
The branch is Jehovah. The branch is royal. The branch
is God's servant. The branch is the man. The branch
is God. This branch is God. You've studied the Scripture.
Let me see if I can put this in the context for you. Here
we go. The branch is the king. The branch
is the servant. The branch is the man. The branch
is God. What does that make you think
of? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In Matthew, You know what
the branch is called? The King. He's the King. In fact, if you were to give
a title to the book of Matthew, if I were to give it a title,
I'd say, Behold the King. If I were to give a title to
the book of Mark, I'd say, Behold the Servant. If I were to give
a title to the book of Luke, I'd say, Behold the Man. If I'd
give a title to the book of John, I'd say, Behold the Son of God.
Because those are the themes of those four books. Matthew
the King. The book of the generation of
Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Matthew begins with our Lord
Jesus descending from Abraham. He doesn't give a genealogy that
goes all the way back to Adam. Because Matthew, he's writing
primarily to the Jews to tell them that Jesus of Nazareth is
the promised king, the king promised throughout the Old Testament.
The king has come. You get to Matthew chapter 2.
The wise men came from the east. What were they looking for? Where is he that is born? King
of the Jews. We've come to worship him. And
immediately, the mention of another king offended the earthly king,
Herod. He sought to kill him. sought
to kill him. You know, Matthew, Matthew records
more of the messages or the sermons of our Lord Jesus than does Mark,
Luke, or John. Because where the word of the
King is, there's power. And you have lengthy messages
of our Lord Jesus, just like Joe read a portion of a message
there in Matthew 7. The Sermon on the Mount. What
a lengthy message. Our Lord spoke with royal authority. He is the King. He's David's Son. And He's David's
Lord. He is the royal branch. He's the kingly branch. And then we get to Mark, and
here we see the servant of Jehovah. If the title of Matthew would
be, Behold the King, the title of Mark would be, Behold the
Servant. You know, you don't find lengthy
sermons of our Lord in the book of Matthew. You know what you
find? His actions. And Mark, more so
than Matthew, Luke, or John, Mark always has him on the move. He's always busy. He's doing. He's laboring. Because that's
what a servant does. So Mark has no genealogy. None
whatsoever. He's not traced back to Abraham.
No, Matthew did that. Mark is setting him forth as
God's faithful servant. Oh, thank God there was a man
in this world who faithfully served God in all things. We ought to serve him, and we
seek to serve him. But we're failures. But there
was a man in this world who served Him completely and perfectly,
our Lord Jesus Christ. When you read the book of Matthew,
you've got to get on over into what, chapter 3, before you find
our Lord Jesus doing anything, being active. In the book of
Mark, right from the get-go, you find Him baptized, going
forth to preach the gospel. Why? That's what a servant does. He's serving the cause of God.
He's the Father's willing, submissive, and voluntary servant. He served
Him perfectly. He served the cause of God in
truth. The Father sent Him on a mission
of mercy. to save His people. Behold, the
faithful servant of the Lord. He came and He labored. He labored. He said, Lo, I come to do Thy
will, O God. He said, I always do those things
that please the Lord. Well, if Matthew's title is Behold
the King, and Mark's is Behold the Servant, Luke's Gospel could
be called Behold the Man. Behold, he's the Son of Man. So in Luke, we find his promise
of being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. We find his
birth. We find him being dedicated to
the Lord in the temple. A real man-child. We find him at 12 years of age
in the temple. We find him throughout the book
of Luke as the man Christ Jesus. He said, the Son of Man is come
to seek and to save that which was lost. You see, in the book of Matthew,
I've already told you, Matthew begins by talking about the lineage
of our Lord Jesus from Abraham. He doesn't go all the way back
to Adam. Matthew chapter 1, Matthew, who is the publican that the
Lord saved, Matthew begins by stating that our Lord descended
from Abraham. Royalty! Mark has no genealogy, as I said. But you get to the book of Luke,
Luke is led of the Spirit of God to trace the lineage of our
Lord through the ancestry of Mary. And because Luke is setting
him forth as the son of man, it goes all the way back to Adam,
who was the son of God. Because Luke, you see, he's establishing
for us the reality that Jesus of Nazareth was the man Christ
Jesus. A man got us in this mess. It's going to take a perfect
man, a royal man, a faithful servant man, the Son of God,
the Son of Man, to get us out of this trouble. And then John, Well, Matthew is, Behold the
King. Mark is, Behold the Servant.
Luke is, Behold the Son of Man. John's title would be, Behold
the Branch of Jehovah. That is, Behold the Son of God. So in the book of John, there
is no genealogy. Where will the Spirit of God
have John to begin his book? In the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. He's the Son of God. He's the Son of God made flesh
who dwelt among us. It's in the book of John that
he said to the Jews before Abraham was, I am, that's what he said. I am. It's in the book of John,
he said, my father worketh hitherto and I work a ready to stone him
to death. Because he's claiming equality
with God. It's in the book of John chapter
10. He said, I and my father won.
They picked up rocks to kill him. Why do you stone me? For which
good work do you seek to kill me? Because you being a man,
you claim you're God. He is God. He is God. Only one who is royal, only one
who is God's faithful servant, only one who is real man, only
one who is real God could save folks like us. And here in the book of Zechariah,
we read God says He's my servant. Behold my servant, the branch. The branch. Jeremiah says He's
the branch of David. God says in Zechariah, I will
send forth my servant, the branch. The bond slave. Zechariah says
behold the man who is the branch. And Isaiah 4-2 says He's Jehovah
the branch, or the branch of Jehovah. He's God Himself. I'm going to stop right there.
Because I want to talk about He's the stone that God has laid. But my times, I've used it up. I don't know. I think, Dave,
when you changed that clock, did you speed it up or something?
What did you say? You better not say anything.
He's my son-in-law. I'm going to buy your lunch next
Sunday. Well, we won't have to buy it.
We're going to eat it. Oh, is that Joe said something? Oh, boy. What are you going to
do with these people? This is our Lord Jesus. He's God's servant. God's bond
slave. He did everything God sent Him
to do. And I know He did all that He
did to satisfy God's honor and justice and the Lord was satisfied
because God raised Him from the dead. God welcomed Him back home
to heaven and said, sit here at my right hand. to make the
enemy as your footstool. I'll get to that last verse. He's the stone. God said, behold,
I've laid this stone down. I'll get to that. That's a whole
message. As often I do, I bite off more
than I can chew. But we'll get to that, Lord willing,
two weeks from tonight. I look forward to seeing you
Friday. Let's close this service by getting
our songbooks and singing hymn number 11, When All Thy Mercies,
a good dismissal song, hymn number 11.