Let's go back to the book of
Zechariah, and this morning we begin in chapter number three. This is the fourth vision that
our Lord gave to his servant, Zechariah. They were all given,
all nine visions were given to him in one night, and they cover
from chapters 1 through 6. We have studied the first three,
of course. The first one was the rider on
the red horse. Our Savior, who then dismounted,
and He stood among the myrtle trees. The myrtle trees, they're
a picture of all of God's people of all ages. And that first vision
speaks to us of our Lord's presence with us. He's always with us.
He said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. He is
present with His people. He's present with us this morning. because He said where two or
three are gathered together in My name, I'll be in the midst. And we welcome His presence indeed. The second vision that the Lord
gave to this prophet of God, He saw four horns, powers, to
the Jew, a horn was the emblem of might and power and strength. He saw four of them and they
were in all different directions because you see the people of
God, we are virtually encompassed by the enemy. But then God showed
him four skilled craftsmen that he spoke of as being carpenters. These indicate God's gracious
provision for His people because those skilled craftsmen, those
carpenters, they're preachers of the Gospel. They deliver us
the Word of God. And of course, the Word of God
is the hammer. It is the hammer that breaks
the hardest heart. I think of one of the horns that
stood against the people of God in the book of Acts, and that
was Saul of Tarsus. And yet the Lord dealt with him
in pursuing grace. And in that pursuit of grace,
God used the hammer of His Word to break his hard heart. God
humbled him. This is a gracious provision
that God has given to his people. He sends to us men who tell us
the truth about God, the truth about ourselves, and indeed the
very truth about that one whose name is truth, even our Lord
Jesus Christ. And then we saw last week that
in the next vision, the third vision, he saw a man that had
a measuring line. And he's measuring all of Jerusalem. And this man who measures Jerusalem,
of course, is the Lord our Savior. And here he gives a very His
own promise that He is our protection. And He says, I will be to you,
I will be to all of the people of God, and this is all of the
people of God gathered together as it were, and yet to every
individual person who knows the gospel of God's grace, God says,
I'll be to you as a wall of fire to protect you. He measured Jerusalem
and it's just a vast city. This indicates the people of
God. These are the ones who are born
again of the Spirit of God having been redeemed by the blood of
the Son of God. And as you hear all of these
wonderful blessings that God pours out upon His people, as
I read these once again this week, then this is what I began
to consider. How can God be so merciful to
people who are so sinful? Here He promises His presence,
His provision, He gives His promise. He gives His protection. I'm
with you. I'm for you. I'm your protection. And yet we know that these particular
people, and certainly all of God's people in general, we are
a fallen people. Consider these folks that the
prophet of God spoke to initially. They had been released from their
captivity. They have gone back to Jerusalem.
They have erected again the brazen altar where the sacrifices were
offered to God and things went well for a little bit, but then
opposition came and they stopped the work. Their duty was to build
the temple again, resume the worship of God. And yet, when
some opposition came against them, they stopped. And they did nothing for 18 years. And yet, here's the Lord making
all of these promises to these people. I'll be with you. You have my presence. You have
my assurance. I will send you preachers of
the gospel who will take the hammer of the Word of God that
breaks hard hearts. And I'm building my kingdom,
I'm building my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it, and I'm the wall of protection for them. And you
say, well, how in the world can God be so merciful to people
who are so sinful? People who are so rebellious.
People who have done nothing regarding worship for 18 years. And yet, God gives forth these
blessed, merciful, gracious words. It brings to my mind the questions
of Job. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? Or this one, how can He be queen
who is born of a woman? And what this next vision is
all about is this. Here He tells us the way that
God justifies sinners. It's really very simple. It isn't
complicated at all. Now, in God's infinite wisdom,
He ordained salvation and He purposed the gospel of His grace
to sinners through the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus.
In infinite wisdom, God made His purpose of redemption and
salvation. But as He lays it out for us
here in the third chapter, in the first five verses, really,
It's quite simple. Let me read these verses to you.
And we'll only be able to look at half of the vision this morning. Verse 1, "...and he showed me
Joshua the high priest." He's standing before the angel of
the Lord. Who is that angel of the Lord?
That's Jesus Christ our Savior. the messenger from God. He's
the angel of the covenant, the messenger of the covenant. But there's another one there,
and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him or to accuse
him. Have you ever noticed in a court
of law, as you would enter into the courtroom, not from the judge's
viewpoint, but from the gallery viewpoint. Those who do the accusing,
right side. That's where the prosecution
sits. On the other side, on the other
side is the defense. that is the advocate or the lawyer
of the one who is accused. Get the picture in your mind. It's as though it were a courtroom
scene. Here's Satan over here. He's
the accuser. But on the other side is the
accused. who is Joshua, but he isn't by
himself. He has a lawyer. He has a mighty
advocate, even our Lord Jesus Christ. So you have the picture in your
mind. Verse 2, And the Lord said unto
Satan, to the adversary, The Lord Jehovah, my Father, rebuke
thee, O Satan. Even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this, this sinner, this one who has been accused,
is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now, look at verse 3. The prophet
of God gives us this information. Now Joshua, he was clothed with
filthy garments, and he stood before the angel of the Lord. And the angel of the Lord speaks
up on behalf of Joshua. You'll notice in all of this,
Joshua has nothing to say. He doesn't do anything. That's very important to remember.
He is accused And then he has an advocate who
speaks up for him. And the Savior answered and spake
unto those that stood before him saying, take away the filthy
garments from him. And unto him he said, now he
speaks to Joshua. Oh, what words of grace. What words of mercy. And he said
unto him, Behold, be amazed, be astounded. I, I have caused
thine iniquity to pass from thee. and I will clothe thee with a
change of raiment." And then the prophet of God speaks
up. And I said, let them put a fair
mitre upon his head. And so they put a fair mitre
upon his head and they clothed them with garments. And the angel
of the Lord stood by. I give you five things that I
want you to remember. Five points to this message. The message is from filth to
purity. From filth to purity. First of all, there is the accused. That's Joshua. You remember the
name Joshua means Jehovah is salvation. Now, this man is guilty. The
evidence of that is he has filthy garments. But there is, first
of all, the accused. Secondly, there is the accuser.
That's Satan, who is the adversary of our Lord and of all people. He's everyone's adversary. And He is a very formidable adversary. One who is so powerful, you can't
deal with Him. 2 Timothy 2 says that He holds
all men captive at His will. There's the accused. There's
the accuser, number three. There's the advocate. Our Savior. our lawyer. One who speaks for us, one who
works for us, one who always makes intercession for us unto
the Father. And then the fourth thing is
action. In this portion of Scripture,
there's someone who is active. But it isn't Joshua. It isn't Joshua. Number five,
I'll call this Amen or the Approval. Because in essence, that's exactly
what Zechariah is doing. When he says here, and I said,
let them put a fair mitre upon his head, it's as though Zechariah
said, Amen! I approve! This is wonderful! So let's go
through this. and see what the Lord has for
us this morning. I begin with those very first
three words. And He showed. And He showed. That is, God showed to Zechariah
this gospel truth of what the Lord did for Joshua. And He showed
me. That is, He manifested to me. He revealed to me. I can, in every preacher of the
gospel, let me rephrase this, every preacher of the gospel,
we can fill your minds as best we can with gospel truth of our
blessed Redeemer, our Savior, the necessity of His death, the
necessity of His blood shedding. I can show you that. I can show
you that so as you have it in your minds. But he says here,
and he showed me, he has to give us a heart understanding of these
things. The Lord's got to show us. You
say, Jim, I hear you preach and I listen to you and I try to
follow along, and yet, I still don't really get it. The only way you'll ever get
it is if He shows you. See, that's who's showing this
to Zechariah. It's the Lord Himself. I can show you and I will show
you as best I can how a filthy sinner can be made pure. But that won't work its way into
your heart. Not my words. All but the hammer
of His Word. That can break a hard heart.
If the Lord's pleased to use it, to use it to your heart. First thing, two things I want
to ask. The first one is this. Are you
a sinful person? I'm really looking for sinners.
That's who I'm looking for. I'm on the trail of sinners this
morning. Someone who is polluted. Are
you polluted in your soul? Do you perceive that? Do you understand that? Do you
want cleansing? Do you see that before a holy
God you are filthy? Would you like to know how you
can be pure? And the second thing is this.
Are you a believer? Are you a child of God? And yet, don't you so often feel so sinful and so unworthy and so filthy that you think, I dare not approach
God like I am. I'm so ashamed. Are you ever
ashamed of yourself? I'm often ashamed of myself. and embarrassed. You know anything about that?
If you're one of God's people, you know something about that. Your sinfulness, it troubles
you. Oh God, I long to be like Christ. It will never happen in this
life. Oh, for that glorious day when I enter into eternity and
I see Him face to face, and then I will be absolutely liberated
from every effect of sinfulness. My sin. And if you feel embarrassed,
if you feel ashamed as a child of God, and you're in good company because
we all feel like that. So let me go through this real
quick. Here's the accused, Joshua. He is the high priest in this
time of the Jews being in Jerusalem, having gone back there. Evidently,
this vision kind of takes place with the backdrop of the temple,
perhaps Solomon's temple or the temple that is going to be rebuilt. I don't know about that. But
he is the high priest and as such, And you need to understand
this vision. It is necessary for you to get
this. This man Joshua, he stands as
a representative of all of Jerusalem. He stands as a representative
of all of the people of God. You've got to get that. Because
you see, that's exactly what the job of the high priest was. For instance, on the Day of Atonement,
and you remember that from studying it, when that high priest, the
first one was Aaron, and then down the line, when that high
priest went into the Holy of Holies, he was not there as an
individual person, but rather he was there as the representative
of the whole nation. I know that's right. Because everything he did had
an effect upon all of the people of God. And you see, Joshua stands
there in his filthy garments, and he stands as the representative
of all of the people of God, the way we are by nature, filthy
before God. Absolutely impure. Now it is a fact that in many
ways, Joshua the high priest was a picture of our Lord Jesus
who is our great high priest. So he represented all of the
Lord's people. When he died upon the cross,
he was dying in the stead of all of the ones God gave him
in the covenant of grace. He wasn't dying as a private
man, as a private individual, but as the representative of
all of his people. So it's true in that sense. In
that sense, every high priest pictured our Lord Jesus. But
in this vision, first of all, Joshua represents all of the
people of God by nature. We're robed in filthy rags. That's our ungodliness. That's our filthiness. Look over
at Isaiah chapter 64. Isaiah chapter 64. Let me read you two verses here.
Isaiah chapter 64, verses 6 and 7. Isaiah 64, 6. But we're all as an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. That's what Joshua was dressed
in. Filthy rags. And that's all of
us by nature. And we all do fade as a leaf. You see the leaves this time
of year. A lot of the trees are so beautiful. It's really unusually beautiful
this year. And they're the leaves and they're
beginning to fade. And then they're going to fall
off because there's no life in them. We all do fade as a leaf, but
our fading is not beautiful. It's terrible. And he says, "...and our iniquities,
like the wind, have taken us away." Taken us away from where? From God. Our iniquities have
taken us away from the Lord. The Lord said, your sins and
your iniquities, that's what separated you from Me. Look at verse 7. And there is
none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take
hold to thee. For thou hast hid thy face from
us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities. Our iniquities. And here is Joshua. He's like a... His garments,
His own righteousnesses, the best that He can do, His religious
deeds, it's all filthy in the eyes of God. Because you see,
the only way anything or anybody can be accepted and received
by God is for that person or thing to be perfect. Leviticus 22, 21, and it shall
be perfect to be accepted. Are you perfect in yourself? Well, I've made some mistakes.
Well, then you can't go into the presence of God then. And
I've got news for you. It's more than mistakes. Iniquities. Inequities. You're not equal
to what God demands. God demands holiness. God demands
perfection. God demands righteousness. And
you're anything but those things. Iniquities. Hey, it is a fact. As it says here in the second
verse, that the Lord had chosen Jerusalem. There is a matter
of divine election, an election of a people unto salvation. And yet these people who were
chosen unto salvation, because Jerusalem didn't choose the Lord,
the Lord chose Jerusalem. Let's get that straight. But
these people that He did choose were like dead leaves. We have filthy rags on us. The
best that we can do is just filthiness in the eyes of God. So the question
is, how can we go from being filthy to pure? Being pure. Because that's the only way God's
going to receive us. This is the accused. And you know what? You know what
I say to Joshua? I'm right there with you. I'm
right there with you, brother. That's me. Impure. Filthy rags. Not fit for the
presence of God. Secondly, there is the accuser. Who is the accuser? Well, that's
Satan. The words to resist means to
accuse. Revelation 12. Satan is referred to as being
the accuser of the brethren. He's so malicious. Oh, he's so
cruel. He is a tyrant. Here's Joshua. Joshua has an
opposer over there. And though Satan doesn't speak
in this vision, We know that him being the accuser, what he
says to the judge is, look at this man's filthy racks. He's
not fit to serve you. He's not worthy to come into
your presence. And he could say to Joshua, look
at you. You're supposed to be the high
priest. Look at those filthy garments, which indicated his
sinfulness. You're too bad to come into the
presence of God. That's the accusation of Satan. You've messed up too many times.
And I would say to you in some manner that I cannot comprehend. This is a scene that goes on
time after time after time before the court of God. Satan is always
accusing us. And here's the thing. The accusation,
look at this guy and his filthy rags, it's accurate. He's right. Because Joshua doesn't speak
up and say, hey, well, wait a minute. I'm a prophet of God. Or Joshua
doesn't speak up and say, look at me, I'm the high priest. He's
speechless. When you read the biblical description
of you, is there anything you could possibly say or do other
than guilty as charged? I have no defense in and of myself. He's right. The fiend of hell
is right. I'm filthy before God. I'm unfit
for His presence. How would I dare to go into the
Holy of Holies and represent these people as I am? He has no defense in and of Himself. And I'm sure that Joshua like
any sensible sinner, just shivered in the presence of God. Has the Holy Spirit made you
to know your sinfulness? Your defilement? If you still hang on to the idea
that you're not too bad, The Lord has not showed you Joshua. And He hasn't showed you yourself.
Oh, that He would do that. But thirdly, there's the advocate. Someone speaks up for Joshua. Someone has something to say
for Joshua. For all of his Joshuas, Here's
one. I'm one of the Joshua's. I'm
a sinner. It's like one little preacher
said, sinner is my first name and sinner is my last name. But
you see, if the Spirit of God convinces you that you're a sinner,
there's good news. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I'm chief. The more you can convince me
from the Scriptures that I am a sinner, the more qualified
I am for the mercy of God. Isn't that wonderful? You say,
oh, you hurt my feelings, preacher. Really? I'll tell you what, get to know yourself and you won't like them when
you get to know. That's the truth. I'm a pretty bad sinner, preacher.
Leave the pretty out. No, you're not pretty bad. You're
not pretty. You are bad. You are evil. The
Scripture says there's none that doeth good. No, not one. Not
a one. There's none righteous. No, not
one. But there's an advocate. Someone
speaks up. And he says, the Lord rebuke
you. This angel of the covenant is
none other than our Lord Jesus. We read, if any man sin, We have an advocate. We have an advocate. We have
somebody who suffered and bled and died for our sins. We have
someone who brought in by his obedience unto death everlasting
righteousness for us. We have an advocate. I'm not
fit or worthy to speak to God, but He is, because He is God
Himself. And He speaks up. And He says,
now, this is a chosen vessel here. I chose Him in covenant
grace. I've redeemed Him by my blood. All of his iniquities which were
innumerable, which drove him away from God, all of his iniquities
were laid on my head. And I bore them away. I paid
his debt. I settled the issue for him. This is a brand plucked from
the burning. an old preacher, many years ago. The story he tells or told was
that he was in an orphanage, and the orphanage caught on fire.
They were getting all the little kids out, and he was just a little
fellow. Somebody told him later what
happened. And he was in his bed. He was in the second floor, on
the second floor. Flames were around him. And then
one man helped another man stand on his shoulders. They didn't
have a ladder. And he reached up and he took
that little toddler in his arms. And when that man learned the
Gospel, he said, I'm a brand plucked from the fire. He said,
I know what that means literally, and I know what that means spiritually. plucked from the burning. Let
me tell you something, you're like a dry stick, ready to be
ignited on the very fires of hell. But somebody came and said,
no, not this one. He pulled you, as it were, from
going into the flame. Who pulled him out? Who plucked
him out of the fire? The advocate. That's the Savior. That's what He's done. The action
is not on Joshua's part. The action is on the advocate's
part. It seemed Joshua was ready to
perish, but the Savior says, I rescued.
Have you ever been in that position where the Lord convicts you and
you feel like, I'm surely going to perish? Then it's as though
a mighty hand reached down and pulled you unto Himself and said,
no, you're not going to perish. Why not, Lord? Because I died
in your stead. And there is therefore now no
condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God that justifies on the
basis of justice and law, satisfied through the doing and the dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he says, who is he that condemneth? If Christ had died, yea rather than is risen again,
God approved of what He did. Who intercedes for us at the
right hand of God. So here's the action. Verse 4. Take away the filthy garments
from Him. Strip those garments off of him. You know anything about that? My garments are filthy. I'm not
fit for the presence of God. The Lord says, strip them off
of him. He doesn't say to Joshua anything
like this. You take your filthy garments
off, so strip them off of him. I'll clothe you with a change
of raiment." And that is His perfect righteousness. That's the action of the Lord. That's salvation. And in verse 5, the prophet of
God says, let him put a fair mire upon his head. Amen to everything
here. Put a fair mitre upon his head.
So they put a fair mitre upon his head. What was the mitre? That's what the high priest of
Israel wore. It was a turban. It was not a
fish hat like the Catholic Pope wears. That's related to Dagon,
the fish god of the Philistines. That's pagan. The high priest
of Israel didn't wear a fish cap. He wore a turban. And with blue lace, there was
a solid gold piece across that turban that said, Holiness to
the Lord. And I'll tell you what, they
put that turban on Joshua's head. Holiness to the Lord. Oh, now
with that turban and with that change of raiment, now he's fit
for God's presence. And I'm telling you, you who
are the people of God, he stripped you of your self-righteous rags,
and he put on you that righteousness that he merited for you by his
obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. and He puts
on you a mitre. And believe it or not, hope that
you can get a hold of this. Across your forehead, as it were,
on this mitre are these words concerning you, holiness to the
Lord. Now you're worthy to enter into
the presence of God through that imputed righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And see, this is the Gospel story.
One more thing. One more thing. Look at the last
statement of verse 5. And the angel of the Lord didn't
leave him. He stood by him. And I'm telling
all of you who are God's people, the Advocate stands right by
you. and every accusation from the
evil one, or even the accusation of your own troubled conscience,
He answers this way, I freely, fully, all forgive, because I
paid you debt. And your holiness to the Lord. And that, my friend, is how the
filthy are made pure. through the doing and the dying,
the action of our Advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ. We need Him
always, don't we? We need Him every hour to be
our representative. And that's the song we're going
to close with this morning, 318.