Let's go back again this evening
to the prophecy of Zechariah chapter 3. I have not yet finished chapter
3. I'll be looking at it again next
Lord's Day and This passage of Scripture is
just so full of gospel truth. And very critical doctrines of
the Word of God are clearly set forth here in this third chapter. And I pray that the Lord will
continue to teach us from it. You know, the last book of the
Bible is the Revelation. of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know even in my Bible it says
the revelation of Saint John the Divine. It was a revelation
unto, unto John. But it wasn't a revelation of
John the Divine. It's a revelation of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It is the unveiling of Him. It is the uncovering of Him,
of the Son of God. It is the manifestation of the
Son of God, the last book of the Bible. But actually, that's
all of the Word of God. All of the Word of God is the
manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God is given
to us as the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the second
person of the Trinity. We read in 1 John 5, there are
three that bear record in heaven. The Father, and the Word, and
the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. Christ is Himself the
Lord. All of this book, all of the
book of God, All of the Holy Scriptures, all of the book that
we call the Bible is the book of Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus
promised. Our Lord Jesus prophesied. Our Lord Jesus manifested. Our
Lord Jesus revealed. Revealed as God. Revealed as
man. Revealed as the only Savior. Revealed as the Redeemer. Revealed
as that one who is the only mediator between God and man. That's the
man, Christ Jesus. This is the one who lived and
died to honor all of God's law and justice. His sacrifice is
what the old-timers used to call a penal sacrifice. That is, God was punishing him
for our sins. Therefore, he had to suffer greatly,
not only physically, but even more so in his very soul. Luther said his soul sufferings,
that was the very soul of his sufferings. When God the Father
laid stripes upon him within, and when all of the sins of all
of the people of all of the ages were made to meet on him, then
the very fury of the wrath of God fell on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he satisfied divine justice
for all of his people. And therefore, having taken our
sins to the cross of Calvary, He threw them into the very tomb
where His body was laid. And when He came forth, that
dead thing, our sins, stayed in the grave, and He is forever
released from, freed from all of our sins, and we're free from
all of our sins. He doesn't bear them. Somebody
would be a fool to say Christ still bears our sins. He bore
them away. Well, if he bore them away, certainly
he doesn't bear them, he doesn't have them, and neither do we. We don't have any sense, not
as far as the ledger of God's justice is concerned. We have
no iniquities, we have no transgressions, we have no sins. Search the books
of heaven and you'll not find one mark of accusation registered
against the people of God for who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect. It's God that justified us. It's
God who pronounced us righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of the majesty on high. The Bible is a book
about him. It is indeed a hymn book. Sometimes our Lord Jesus and
His gospel is presented to us by way of a miracle, like the
cleansing of a leper. That's a picture of the Lord
saving a sinner, purging us of our iniquities. We sometimes
see the gospel set forth in picture. Noah's Ark, that's a picture
of our Savior. He's the ark in which Noah and
his family found shelter from the wrath of God. You see, they
went through the storm, but they were in the ark, and therefore
the reins of God's judgment. In one way of looking at it,
they did follow Noah and his family because they fell on the
ark. They were in the ark. God put
them in the ark, just like God put us in Christ before the world
began. And when He endured the very
wrath of God, all the thunderbolts and the lightnings of God's anger
and justice, when God poured forth all of the great storm
of His wrath on the Son of God, we were in Him just like Noah
was in that ark. and the storm exhausted itself
upon our ark. Therefore there is no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus." How safe was Noah? He was as
safe as that ark was. If that ark was up to the standards
of God, Noah was safe. How safe are we, the people of
God, who are in Christ Jesus, put in Him by sovereign grace
before the world began? How safe are we? We're as safe
as the ark of God's salvation Christ is, powerful and strong
and durable to bear the wrath of God. We're safe for all of
time and for all of eternity. Now, sometimes the gospel of
our Savior and His redemptive work are put, are words just
put in a brief proverb, just a brief proverb. Proverbs 25,
25, as cold waters to the thirsty, so is good news from a far country. I see the gospel there, don't
you? It's just a brief proverb. It's not lengthy. But this gospel of redeeming
grace, of this gospel of salvation for sinners like you and me,
it's good news. It comes to us from a far country.
It comes to us from heaven above. It comes to us from God Himself. The good news that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief. In other times in the Word of
God, the gospel of the grace of God in Christ comes to us
by way of parables. The Spirit of God gives us understanding
like the parable of lost things, sheep, coin, and son. The shepherd who seeks and finds
the lost sheep, that's the Son of God. That's the one who came
to seek and to save, that which was lost. And then the woman,
the woman who finds the coin, searches and finds the coin fallen
in the dust, just like that lost sheep that wandered off, that's
us, we're the coin that fell in the dust. In the dirt and
mire and filth of our sinfulness. But the very Holy Spirit of God
takes the searchlight of the gospel. And in God's appointed
time, He finds us. We have the Son of God at work
as shepherd. We have the Spirit of God at
work as taking the searchlight who finds the lost coin. And just like the shepherd rejoices,
he says, Rejoice with me, I found my sheep. So the woman called
her friends and said, Rejoice with me, I found the lost coin.
And then you have in the third part of that, the lost son, the
prodigal, he comes home to the father. The father welcomes him
home. And he says, rejoice with me.
My son who was dead, was dead, is alive. My son that was lost,
has been found. And you see the gospel there
of the grace of God in that parable. Here's the point. Our Lord Jesus
and His just as satisfying work of redemption is everywhere in
this book. There is a road of free and sovereign
grace that runs all the way through this book, and the very basis
of our salvation, which was purposed in old eternity, is founded upon
the bloody sacrifice of the Son of God that had to be successful
because of who died on that cross. It wasn't an effort to save.
He did save his people from their sins. You know, the Spirit of God, the Book of God is just, it's
a great miracle. Because as we search, especially
the Old Testament Scripture, there's sometimes the Spirit
of God reveals the Gospel to us more clearly than at other
times. Sometimes we know Christ is there,
but sometimes it's a little more obscure. It's a little more hidden. And you read a passage of Scripture
and you scratch your head and say, I don't quite understand
how Christ is there. I know He's there, but I don't
quite get it yet. And this is why the Spirit of
God is continually teaching us and opening our eyes to hidden
truths. Sometimes it's just like a passing
glance of Him. And we get a little glimpse of
His glory. And then a little bit more. And
then a little bit more. Then other times the Spirit of
God It's like he hangs a big cluster of luscious, ripened
grapes before us, just gospel truths that hang heavy on the
vine. And you just pick one berry after
another, one grape after another. When we lived in Michigan, probably
got some Michiganders watching right now, we loved to go blueberry
picking. Man, get them blueberry bushes
loaded with blueberries, and you got your bucket there, and
you're eating some and picking some others and putting them
in the bucket. It's just, they're so luscious, and it's just like,
it's an endless amount. And lots of times, that's the
way portions of Scripture are. They're just loaded with gospel
truth. That is Zechariah chapter 3. I said all of that to show you
Zachariah chapter 3 is a portion of Scripture that it shows us
in a full-blown way the magnitude and the majesty and the matchlessness
of the grace of God to sinners in His salvation of Joshua, who
stood before the Lord in filthy garments at the beginning of
the chapter, and at the end of the chapter, he's robed in raiments
of glory. And he has upon his head a diadem,
a turban, being the high priest. And it has a golden plate on
it. It says, holiness to the Lord. The man who is filthy in himself
is holy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ain't that amazing? That's you,
my friend. That's me. I don't go in for
this. I said it this morning. This
idea you're progressing in holiness, that's not right. That is not
right at all. Progressive sanctification, that
isn't right. That's something you do. If progressive
sanctification is correct, that you, by your obedience, by your
right living, if you're progressing in holiness, that's on you. Then you should get credit for
that. But wait! The Scripture says Christ is
made of us, made of God to be to us our sanctification. He is our holiness. You're not
your holiness. He's your holiness. I said this
morning, how holy you got to be before God will accept you.
Let's just get right down to where the rubber hits the road
now. So I'm making progress in holiness. Well, are you going
to progress to the point to where you're absolutely holy so you
can stand before God in your own holiness? That's called self-righteousness
is what that's called. You're still filthy. The only
way God will ever accept a son or daughter of Adam is in His
Son. And in His Son, we're as holy
as God's own Son is. I know that's a pill that the
natural man finds really tough to swallow. But a Spirit-convinced
sinner says, hallelujah. Everything God demands of me,
my substitute, He's all of it. Because He's
made of God my wisdom, my righteousness, my sanctification, and my redemption. Joshua, I said this morning,
is not active in all this. He's being acted upon. Acted
upon. And the Scripture makes several
astounding statements about Joshua. Look in verse 4. He stood and spake, that is,
the angel of the covenant, the angel of the Lord, Christ the
Savior, Remember, and I keep on saying this, and I pray that
God will drive it home to our hearts. God's not going to speak
to you. He's not going to deal with you.
He's not going to have anything to do with you except through
a God-appointed, God-approved mediator. That's the only way. And you're not going to speak
to God without a God-appointed mediator. He's got to be approved
of God. He's gotta be proven to be God
himself, and he's gotta be proven to be a real man. That's our
Savior. Now look at what the Savior said
to him in verse four, chapter three. He answered and spake
unto those that stood before him, I believe the angels. Take
away the filthy garments from him. Take them away. And unto him he said, Behold, I stand in amazement,
Joshua. I know this is difficult to believe,
but it's the absolute truth. I have caused, I have caused,
not something you did, I have caused thine iniquity to pass
from thee. Well, who did they pass to? Your
substitute. He said, I caused that to happen.
You weren't the cause of it. You're the effect of it. You're
the result of it. The washing of your sins in the
bloody stream that flowed from Calvary's mountain from the veins
of our dear Savior, that's none of your doing. That's God's doing.
The debt has been paid. And he says, I'll clothe thee
with a change of raiment, washed in his blood, robed in his righteousness. And now look at verse 8. Or verse 9. For behold, the stone that I
have laid before Joshua." I'll be talking about that stone next
week. I'll be talking about that branch in verse 8 and the stone
in verse 9. Upon one stone shall be seven
eyes. Behold, I will engrave the graving
thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove. Don't you
love the I wills of the Lord? When God says, I will, mark it
down. It's as good as done. You got
that? When God says, I will, it's as
good as done. And all of His I wills really
were spoken before the foundation of the world. He's not making
any new decrees. All the things that come to pass,
your experience of grace, It's because God, before the
foundation of the world, said, I will. I will what? Watch this. Remove the iniquity
of that land. He's not talking about a geographical
location. He's talking about all of His
people. He says, I'll do it in one day. I will remove them in one day. What are iniquities? You see, that's said back in
that first verse that I read. I've caused thine iniquity to
pass away. And that's what he is. And then
here in verse nine, iniquities, iniquities. That's what we do,
what we do and what we ought to have done but didn't do, our
iniquities. What is iniquity? It means inequity. That's the way I like to remember
it. We're not equal to that which God demands. What does God demand? Perfection. That's what God demands. Now, he's not gonna settle for
anything less. That's why this idea of progressive sanctification,
he's not gonna accept that. Lord, I'm trying to keep you
low, but you're not keeping it good enough. You've got to be holy before
Him, and you're only holy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is our holiness, and He
is our righteousness. Iniquities. We're not up to perfection. See, preacher, nobody's perfect.
You got that right. And you know what God demands?
Be ye perfect. That's what He said, wasn't it? Be ye perfect, for I am perfect. I'm trying, preacher. You can
just quit trying. And the better off you quit trying,
The sooner you quit trying, the better off you'll be. Stop trying
and rest in Christ alone, who is our righteousness. Look over
at Psalm 32. Look at Psalm 32. Iniquities, inequities. You're not equal to perfection. And here we see in Psalm 32,
the first couple of verses, three different words that have to
do with our condition before God. Psalm 32, verse one. Blessed, what does blessed mean? Well off, to be envied, highly
favored of God. Blessed is he whose transgression,
What does transgression mean? Really, it has the idea of rebellion
in the word. Blessed is he, highly favored
is he, whose rebellion is forgiven. What does the word forgiven mean?
Lifted off, carried away. That's what forgiven means. Your
transgression is lifted off. Who lifted it off? Did you lift
it off yourself? No, God lifted it off and He
took it away from you and buried it in the depths of the deepest
sea. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven. Lift it off and carry it away.
And then He says, whose sin is covered, whose offenses are covered,
that is concealed, where God can't see them. Let me tell you something. Our
Lord Jesus has removed our sins as far as the east is from the
west. Our brother read that to us in Psalm 103. He separated
them from us as far as the east is from the west. He removed
them. And if they don't exist, then
God can't see them. There's nothing there to see. walking, talking, sinful person. I know you are in yourself, but
in Christ Jesus, you're the righteous one, the holy one who suffered,
bled, and died for us and rose again and represents us. In Him,
you don't have any sin. You don't have any sin. Look
at verse 2. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. That's what we're talking about
in Zechariah 3. Imputeth not. What does impute?
Impute means to charge to the account of another. And that
man who is highly favored of God so that his iniquity is not
charged to him. You see, look at this way. You've
been running up debts to God. All your sins, consider them
as debts. And you have an infinite amount
of debt that you owe to God. Debt that you can't possibly
pay. Blessed is the person whose debt
has been imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Charged to His
account. He had no sin, He did no sin,
He knew no sin, but our iniquities were charged to His account,
and God's justice finding our iniquities on His account charged
Him, and found Him guilty of iniquities by imputation, and
therefore He had to die. And in that glorious transaction
of imputation, His righteousness that He established for us by
His life and by His death, that is imputed to our account. So in the ledger of God, not
only do I have no sins recorded against me, no iniquities recorded
against me, no transgressions recorded against me, but I have
perfection recorded in my favor. You say, wow, that's amazing,
isn't it? No wonder Zechariah sent men
to be wondered at. What a wonder of grace. All of
these things that the Lord has done for us, He's forgiven us. He had the power to do it. He
had the ability to do it. and he has the legal right, the
legal right to forgive us, to carry our sins away, to not impute
iniquity to us. He has the legal right to do
that because Christ Jesus honored his law and justice. We're legally
in the clear. I was thinking about that this
afternoon. Legally in the clear. Nobody can charge us with anything
so as to have that charge to stick against us. I like that little story, I think
I've told it to you before, the woman who was in the hospital
dying. and a Catholic priest made rounds
in the hospital, and he inquired at the nurses' station how people
on this floor, they said, well, so-and-so called her by name,
gave her room number, said she's dying. He said, well, I think
I'll go and administer the last rites to her. So he went in,
had his backward collar on, you know, And he went in and said
to her, I'm here to administer last rites to you and to absolve
you of your sins. She said, what? He said, I'm
here to administer last rites and to absolve you of your sins. She was a little elderly lady,
and she just said, well, let me see your hands. The priest thought, well, senility
is an issue here, I suppose. So he just held his hands out. He'd satisfy her wishes. She said, you can't absolve me
of my sins. He said, why not? She said, there's
no nail scars in your hand, no prints of the nails in your hand.
He's the only one who can absolve you. Maybe I can forgive you. I'll try to forgive you if you
wrong me. And by the grace of God, I will. But I can't forgive you sins
against God. I can't do some kind of mumbo-jumbo
over you and say, okay, you're absolved of your guilt. There's
only one who can forgive sin. Who can forgive sin but God? That's the question. God forgives them, but He does
it in a just and honorable way, not compromising His justice
at all. The Lord says, I will remove
the iniquity over here in our text. You know, I like that passage
where it says, Isaiah 43, 25, I am He that blotteth out thy
transgressions, for mine own sake, and will not
remember thy sins. Sins blotted out. You know what
the word blotted means? Blotted out means exterminates. He's the exterminator. And think
of all your sins. Think of all your transgressions
as evil little bugs. Vile, loathsome, deadly. Our Lord Jesus, he came to exterminate
them from you. And I'll tell you what, what
does he use to exterminate these awful things, sin and iniquity
and transgression? His own blood. That's what he
uses. Sins are exterminated, blotted
out. The Lord says, I'll remove, I'll
remove the iniquity. I'll quote again that passage
in Psalm 102, Bill read to us, as far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Taken away. What has he removed? Let me just give you a few things
here. Number one, he's removed the punishment for our iniquities. How'd he do that? By being punished
in our stead. Number two, the removal of the
guilt of iniquities. By his death, we're justified
and declared righteous in the court of heaven. And if we ever come to really
understand the gospel, our own court, the court of our
conscience will say, bless the grace of God in Christ to me. I'm not guilty. You see, the
natural man, everybody, God gave everybody a conscience and the
conscience Unless it's been seared with a hot iron, the conscience
will be satisfied with nothing except perfection. That's all. And I'll tell you what, when
Christ makes real to you the fact that the deed was done in
one day, as the scripture says here, long ago, then your conscience
won't accuse you anymore. But now you start looking to
yourself, old conscience is going to raise up against you and say,
hey, now wait a minute. You're still a loathsome sinner. But then the only way to quiet
a conscience, say, yeah, I'm a loathsome sinner, all right.
But I've got a glorious Savior who's done suffered for me on
the cross of Calvary. He doesn't put my guilt away.
It's finished. And then there's the removal
of the defilement of iniquities. You know what the Lord said to
His disciples who washed their feet? He said, you're clean.
That's what He said. You're clean. Does the Savior say that about
you? You're clean. You're spotless. You have no iniquities. You're
holy and you're righteous. I read that little song today
again. Near, so very near to God, nearer
I could not be. For in the person of His Son,
I am as near as He. Dear, so dear to God, dearer
to God I could not be. For in the person of His Son,
I'm as dear as He. Holy, so holy before God. More holy I could not be, for
in the person of His Son, I am as holy as He. Isn't that good? I'm as holy as He. I'm near to
God, I'm dear to God, and I'm holy before God in Christ. And this removal of iniquity
also includes the removal of the dominion of sin. You see, the position of sin
in a natural man is a king on the throne. But the position of sin in a
believer is like a bandit who ambushes you. trying to get back
his throne, but he can't get it. The Lord said, sin shall not
have dominion over you. Not anymore! Because you're not
under law, you're under grace. And this is the removal of the
very existence of iniquity someday. When death lays hold to my body,
At the appointed time, and I give up the ghost, my soul will forever be free
from every effect of sin. No more sin. In fall, we're going to soon
be in winter, but if the Lord hears His coming, we'll have
spring again. In the springtime, we always
have a lot of robins. They build their nests. They
have a habit of building their nests in the bushes in the front,
and if I park one of my vehicles outside, it's bombs away from
them robins, okay? But they'll lay their eggs, and
after a certain amount of time, Those little blue egg shells
can be found on the ground. But what's happened? A little
bird cracked his shell and he's released. That's you and me in
death. We got this shell. But it's got
a crack. It's got to break open. and the
soul will fly away in the arms of the angels into the very presence
of our Lord. And then we'll be free from every
effect of sin. Notice one last thing quickly.
Well, when does this happen? Notice in verse 9 again. I will
remove the iniquity of that land, of that people, in one day. You know what day that was, as
the day our Savior died. He removed our iniquities in
one day. We become aware of that when
we're converted by the power of the Spirit. But make no mistake
about it, Our repentance doesn't put sin away, doesn't put iniquity
away. Your repentance can't do that.
You can cry a bucket of tears over your sins, and we all have. That doesn't put any sin away.
Religious duties, religious exercises, that can't put iniquities away.
I tell you something, not even the suffering of the damned in
hell can put iniquities away. That's why it's forever. Well,
how can iniquities be put away? By our Lord Jesus Christ, when
He suffered, bled, and died upon the cross of Calvary to honor
His Father, to satisfy His justice. He said it is finished before
he died. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. People of God, enjoy the blessed
truth that your iniquities, they passed
from you to your substitute. He died in your stead, and you
bear them no more. And I'll give you in closing
the words of 1 John 2 and verse 12. John said, I write unto you,
little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His
name's sake. Your sins are forgiven you. Our Savior said, and a woman
who was a sinner heard Him say it, her sins which are many are
all forgiven. Another woman in John, to her
He said, neither do I condemn thee. Who can condemn? There is therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. We can't be condemned. Christ was condemned for us.
Isn't that a beautiful gospel story there in Zacharias? It's just a bottomless well of
life-given water. And that's why I say we're not
through with it yet. I'm going to go back to it because
I want to talk about that branch. And I want to talk about that
stone with seven eyes on it. Everybody's looking at that stone.
And everybody will look to him sooner or later. Right? That's right. 495 is the
closing song. Number 495, unsearchable riches.