Zechariah chapter 3. It's an easy book to find because
you just go to the division of the Testaments. The last book
of the Old Testament is Malachi, and then go to the one before
that. That will be Zechariah chapter 3. will actually be studying today
in this third chapter of Zechariah. Just a few verses this morning,
and then this evening I'm going to move into the fourth chapter. So if you want to put a ribbon
there so you won't have to look for it again, those who are going
to be here this evening if you have difficulty finding it. But
I'm sure you know your way around the Word of God. Alright, we're
in Zechariah chapter 3. By the way, his name means Jehovah
Remembers. Back in those days when moms
and dads gave names to their children, they were very significant
and they gave them names that had meaning. They didn't go like
we might would do, go buy a book and got all these names of boys
and girls, and then you pick out, well, I like that one, or
I like that one, or whatever. But they chose names based upon
the definition of the name. And this man, one of the prophets
of God, his mother and dad gave him this name, Zachariah. which
means God remembers. And aren't you thankful God remembers
you? He thinks of you. He hasn't forgotten
us. He remembered us in the covenant
of grace. He remembers us in everlasting
mercy. He never forgets us. We're never out of His mind. We're never off of His memory. Everything God does is in remembrance
of His people. even of us individually. And it will do the people of
God good to think about the fact that God remembers you. That's enough to get you through
the day, isn't it? That's enough to encourage the
children of the Lord that He remembers us. And so this is
the name of the prophet of God And we'll go to the third chapter,
verse one. And he showed me, that is, God
showed me. Chapter three of Zechariah, verse
one. And God showed me Joshua. This is not Joshua who took Moses'
place and who led the children of Israel into the promised land. This is Joshua, the high priest. And I'll go into it a little
bit more in a few minutes, perhaps, and certainly more even this
evening. He was one of the ones who came
out of the captivity of Judah. They were held in captivity.
And then he was one of the ones released from the captivity to
go back to Jerusalem. And he would help in rebuilding
the temple. Here's Joshua. So, God showed me Joshua, is
what Zachariah says. He's the high priest, and he
showed me Joshua as he was standing before the angel of the Lord. That is, standing before Christ.
And then he saw Satan standing at his right hand to resist him,
to oppose him. Here's the scene God gives to
Zachariah. Here's Joshua. He's the high
priest. He stands before the angel of
the Lord. That's Christ. That's Christ. And then off to the right side
of Joshua is the accuser, Satan. You know, if you look
at these television programs or movies, when they have a defendant,
and then they have the prosecutor or whoever's bringing the charges,
as they face the judge, to the left is always the defendant,
and over there on the right is the accuser. So that's the picture
here. And the issue is concerning Joshua. Joshua. And the one who is the
judge, the one who is presiding over this is the angel of the
covenant. That is Christ Jesus. So you
have the picture in your mind. Because Satan is over here as
the prosecuting attorney to resist him, to oppose him. to accuse
him. Second verse, and the Lord said
unto Satan, the Lord rebuked thee, O Satan,
even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuked thee. Is not this, this man Joshua? Is not this a brand, a dried
stick, has no sap? In fact, it's ready to be burned. It can already feel the, it's
already beginning to feel the heat of the fire. Is not this a brand who's been
plucked out of? The fire, it looked like he's
gonna be burned up. It looked like he's gonna be
destroyed. It looked like he's going to
perish. But effectual grace took him out of the fire. Now, verse three. Now Joshua
was clothed with filthy garments. These are tattered garments.
They're dirty. They're useless. And he stood before the angel. And then verse four, and he answered
and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, this angel
spoke. He said, take away the filthy
garments from him. And unto Joshua he said, behold,
be amazed, be shocked. Here's something that is absolutely
astounding. I have, I have caused thine iniquity,
thine inequity, all of those transgressions against
God's law. I have caused all of them to
pass from thee. You don't bear them anymore.
And I will, I will clothe thee with a change of raiment. And you'll notice that throughout
this, Joshua has nothing to say. He has no input. That which is
said is said by the Lord of glory. That which is spoken is the voice
of God. I've caused your iniquity to
pass away. Joshua didn't know it, but that
had already happened. And then the Lord says, and here's
what I'm going to do, I'm going to clothe you with a change of
raiment. And I said, let them set a fair mitre upon
his head. And so they set a fair mitre
upon his head, they clothed him, with garments, and the angel of the Lord stood
by, because He always stands by His
people. He never leaves us. He said, I'll never leave you,
and I'll never forsake you. In the book of God, The Lord Jesus is revealed to
us in a multitude of ways. He's indeed the surety of the
covenant. He's the mediator of the better
testament. He is the savior of sinners.
He is the head of the church. He is the husband of the bride. He is that prophet of God greater
than Moses. He is that priest who's after
the order of Melchizedek, a never-ending priesthood. The one who does
business with God for us. The one who prays to the Lord
for us. And the one who presented to
God the sacrifice that put away our sins. And He's presented
to us as the very King of His people. And the King of kings. And the Lord of all lords. In some portions of the Old Testament,
He is set forth in type and picture in which He's just barely perceptible
to us. And I'm sure this has been your
experience as you read through the Scriptures and perhaps some
of you follow the daily Scripture readings that are listed for
you in the bulletin. You read those and I'm sure there
have been times when you've read the Word of God and you say,
I'm looking for Christ Jesus here in this remote part of the
Old Testament, but I just, I can't see Him. I have difficulty seeing
Him. Or if I do see Him, I just get a glimpse of Him. And it
often is that way to me as well. At other times, however, we see
great clusters of truth concerning the Son of God. And the Spirit of God, He takes
some of these portions of Scripture, and all of a sudden, as we read
them, and perhaps as the servant of God begins to kind of make
a few comments about the passage of Scripture, all of a sudden,
in your own mind, and in your own heart, you say, oh, I see
Christ Jesus here. And if there's ever a portion
of Scripture in the Old Testament that is full of Christ Jesus,
it is this one that is before us this morning in Zechariah
chapter three, verses one through five. Here's a precious word
picture that describes our Savior, Off to the side is Satan, always
filled with enmity toward the work of the master, always filled
with hatred toward God, and always that one who is the accuser of
the brethren. He sees us in our defilement. He sees our sins of omission,
the things that we didn't do that we ought to have done. And
He sees our sins of commission, the things that we've done that
we ought not to have done. To some degree, He knows of our
own defilement and He's always ready to make accusation against
us to God. Look at that one. Here's Joshua. There he is, set before the Lord. And Satan is there to accuse
him. And by the way, when I mention
the name here of Joshua, could I make a recommendation to you?
Put your name in the stead of Joshua. And he showed me James Bird. standing before the angel of
the Lord. And over here to prosecute, to
accuse, is Satan at his right hand to oppose him, to resist
him. You see, this is each one of
the people of God. And Joshua stands before us as
a representative of, or as a picture of, all of the people of God. all of God's true Israel. And before him is one who is
his advocate. Joshua's advocate. Our brother
read to us, we have an advocate. We have somebody who represents
us. We have a lawyer. We have legal
representation, and His Word is powerful. And His Word means
everything, because that which He says is the Word of God. For He is Himself the Word of
God. He's the Living Word. In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. And here Joshua stands. And over here is his accuser.
And there before them is the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel
of the Lord. Here we have in Joshua, here
we have in myself, here we have in you, a man greatly greatly
beloved of the Lord, but also greatly despised by Satan. Here we have a sinner who is
soiled with ungodliness, but he's saved by the grace of God. Here we have a true transgressor,
yet here we have a marvelous, child of God. Here we have a
fallen, guilty rebel and yet he is one who has been lifted
out of the miry clay and his feet have been established upon
the rock, Christ Jesus. Here is a brand that it seems
to be ready to perish. And yet here is a brand pulled
out of the fire, as it were, by sovereign effectual grace. That's you, isn't it? That's
you. Here is a man with filthy garments. They're tattered. They're wore
out. They stink. They're filthy. And the Lord doesn't come to
him and say, Let's sew up your clothes there. Let's throw them
in the washing machine. Oh no, no, no, no, no. That'll
never do. He's a man who has filthy garments
and yet God clothes him, God robes him in the very righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's you. That's the righteousness
that was established by the obedience of our Lord Jesus, His obedience,
even unto death, the death of the cross. That's how He established
righteousness for us. Here is a man who is under satanic
assault, and yet he is one who's rescued
by Almighty grace. I would have you note, first
of all, as we look at this, just the first few words of verse
one. And he showed me. He showed me. Or the Lord manifested
something to Zechariah. Because Zechariah is the one,
he's the original receiver of the message from God. And of
course, Zechariah is led by the Holy Spirit to write this book,
and then this has been preserved by the providence of God down
through the years for our benefit here this morning. He showed
me, the Lord manifested, the Lord revealed truth to Zechariah. Mark well those words, He showed
me. Don't just read over those very
simple words and think, well, I know what that means. He showed
me. Listen, all the truth that we
know about God, He has to show us. All of the truth that we know
about ourselves, He has to show us. All of the truth we know
about Jesus Christ and His substitutionary sacrifice, the Lord Himself has
to show us. He has to show us. Nobody naturally
knows the things of God. Nobody is born into this world
and then in and of themselves come to a knowledge of the truth
of how the God of the Bible saves sinners. It has to be showed
to you. He showed me. He showed me. This is what Zechariah says. That which he knows of God that
which he knows of God's salvation, that which he knows of this righteousness,
that which he knows of the sinner's desperate condition, God has
shown him, has shown him, oh, that God would show us truth. Don't you love the story there
in the book of Acts where, you know, Philip had been preaching
Samaria, and the Lord was saving hundreds and hundreds of people.
It was a great revival going on. But there's a man out in
the desert who needs to hear the Word of the Gospel. He is
reading the Bible, but he can't make heads nor tails out of it.
He cannot perceive the Son of God or the Gospel of God's grace
from what he's reading. He's an Ethiopian. He's a eunuch. He's been to Jerusalem. He didn't
get any help there. He didn't get any spiritual understanding
there. He didn't get any spiritual education
there. And he's going back to Ethiopia
as empty as he can. And the Lord says to Philip,
I got one man out there I want you to go preach to. You mean
leave all this bunch here? I got a big crowd of people here
who are listening I'm sending you out here in the desert to
preach to one man. Ways of God are strange to men,
aren't they? But how shall they hear without
a preacher? An Ethiopian eunuch, he's a chosen vessel. He's been
redeemed by Christ Jesus, oh yes. But he's got to hear of
the Savior. And so Philip goes out there.
And you know the story. Philip comes alongside of him
and the man's reading. And Philip says, what are you
reading? He says, Isaiah 53. He began
to read to Philip concerning that portion that he was reading.
And Philip said, do you understand what you're reading? And I love
the man's response. He said, how can I except some
man show me? I need somebody to show me. And
God does use the voice of preachers as they preach the gospel of
God's grace to show us the truth. To show us the truth. You remember
Moses back in Exodus chapter 33. He said, Lord, we don't know
which way to go. Lord, he said, show me the way. I'm not going to know the way
unless you show me. And this is our great desire. Lord, show
me the way of salvation. Show me the way to heaven. Show
me the way to life everlasting. Show me the way to righteousness.
Show me the way of forgiveness. Lord, show me how I can be accepted
by you. Lord, show me how you can be
a just God and a Savior at the same time. Show me. I won't know
unless you show me. And we've all got to be brought
to the place by the Spirit of God that we acknowledge we can
know nothing except the Lord show us. He's got to reveal truth
to us. There's a marvelous passage of
scripture in Luke chapter 10, where the 70 had, they had come
back from, Well, they had great success.
They came back, told the Savior, said, we've seen, we've seen,
we've cast out demons. And they're just rejoicing and
kind of high-fiving one another. This is wonderful, all this power
that we've got and all this authority. And the Savior said, yes, I saw
Satan falling from heaven. I know what you've been doing.
But in this, rejoice not. but rejoice that your names are
written down in heaven. And then, and then, the only portion of Scripture
in all of the four Gospels where the Savior is said to rejoice,
it follows right there in Luke chapter 10. It says, in that hour, Jesus
rejoiced in the Spirit. I'd like to know what He rejoiced
in. If in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John, only one time the Savior is said to rejoice, I want to
know what made Him happy. I want to know what caused Him
to rejoice. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced
in spirit and said, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank
Thee that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and the
prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in Thy sight. Our Lord rejoiced. and that God hid these things
from one group of people and yet revealed them, the word is
showed them to others. He's rejoicing in sovereign grace. There are a lot of churches in this area. If a man, if I got
up and preached to them sovereign grace, effectual grace, God made
a choice, God made a difference. It's like it says in the book
of Exodus, the Lord made a difference between Israel and Egypt. Between
the Israelites and the Egyptians, the Lord made a difference. He
made a sovereign choice. All men are not created equal
by God. Some are created for His glory
to inherit His grace, and other men are created and they will
taste of His vengeance forever and ever. That's what the Bible
says. Well, who makes the difference?
Who goes to heaven and who doesn't go to heaven? You know who makes
the difference. The Apostle Paul asks that question
in I Corinthians chapter 4. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? Why is it that you're in here
this morning with an interest in God's grace, and you love
Christ Jesus, you have no confidence in the flesh, you're not trying
to work yourself into God's good graces, your total belief and
confidence is in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, while others
are trying to establish a righteousness of their own by their praying,
by their Bible reading, by their doing, by their giving, by all
of these things that they do, they think God is pleased with
them. Who makes the difference? God makes a difference. He hides the truth from some,
and He reveals the truth to others. And the Lord Jesus rejoiced.
He rejoiced. And not too many people rejoice
in that truth. But the people of God do. The
Son of God rejoiced. Because here's a group of people. Here we are this morning. And
if we have some degree of comprehension, of understanding, the way of
salvation, the necessity of blood redemption. If we understand,
if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, he showed it to you. Just right from the get-go here
in chapter three, it's such a powerful statement. And He showed me. He showed me. That's what Zechariah
says. He showed me a filthy sinner. A sinner who has been rendered
speechless. A man, a sinner who has a strong
adversary, Satan. And the fact of the matter is,
Satan in claiming this man's guilt is absolutely right. It isn't that he's wrong, he's
right. Because Joshua stood there clothed
in filthy garments. He's a sinful man. And this is
showed to Zechariah. I tell you, it'd be a blessed
thing if God would show you what you really are. That'd be a blessed
thing. What the hymn writer said, a
sinner is a sacred thing. The Spirit of God has showed
him that, made it so. My friend, I love you, but you're
defiled. And so am I. Now here we see
in this passage of Scripture briefly, Here we see the Savior. He's the angel of the Lord. The
angel of the Lord. He's not a created angel. This
is the same one who spoke to Moses out of the bush that burned,
but it wasn't consumed. The one who said, I am that I
am. That's my name. Why is he called the angel of
the Lord? Because he's the messenger sent
from God. He's God's ambassador. He's God's
representative. The Pope is not God's representative. I'm not God's representative.
Jesus Christ is God's representative. He's God in the flesh. He speaks
for God. For He is God. He's the Word. He's God told out. He's Alpha
and Omega. He's the whole alphabet of God. And if you would know God, You must know and you must hear
from this angel of the Lord. This is the only one by whom
we can draw near to God. He's the full revelation of God. It says here in verse two, the
Lord said unto Satan, that shows you who the angel is. He's the
Jehovah who saves. He's the full revelation of God.
So here we see the Savior. And secondly, here we see the
sinner, Joshua. Oh, he's got a good name too.
Jehovah who saves. Translated in the New Testament
as Jesus. But Joshua stands there portraying
a guilty sinner who, though he didn't know it in his natural
state, he's always had an advocate. He's always had a protector. He's always had a savior. He's always had a mediator between
him and God who represented his cause to God. And Joshua didn't even know about
it. This Joshua was one of the ones
I said taken from the Babylonian captivity, Babylonian bondage. As I'll get into it more fully
tonight, the Jews who were taken into captivity in Babylon were
released in two waves, and Joshua was in the first wave that was
released, as was another man who's very significant, and we'll
get into that in chapter four, Zerubbabel, who was the governor.
He became the governor of Jerusalem, who was in the lineage of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Joshua was the one that the Lord
will use in helping to rebuild the temple that had been destroyed
when Nebuchadnezzar and his army came in in 586 something like
that, 586 B.C. and destroyed Jerusalem, destroyed
the temple. These men will be used of God
Zerubbabel and Joshua, the high priest, in rebuilding that temple. But here he stands. Here he is. And he's, though he's going to
be used of God, and though he's one of God's choice vessels,
he's chosen of God unto salvation, yet in his own natural state,
he's got filthy garments on. He's as sinful as anybody else.
And before God is going to use him in a mighty way, he's first
of all going to wash him in the blood of Christ Jesus and robe
him in the Savior's righteousness. He stands as a picture or a type
of an entire elect people. He's as a brand plucked from
the burning. And this shows us the only way
God saves sinners is through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me say something. Let
me say to the young people who are here this morning and the
older folks alike, live a moral life. Sure. Be honest. Be above board in all your dealing.
Tell the truth. Be a truthful people. Be fair. Live right. Don't lie. Avoid the vices of wickedness
and ungodliness. But know this. Know this. Even if you attempt to live right,
which you should, you are still in yourself just a brand. Dry in what way? Dry spiritually. You're lifeless. You're a stick. See, a brand
is a dry stick. It's cut off. It's not connected
to anything that has life. That's you and me by nature.
And the picture of a brand is that which is about to go in
the fire and it's already beginning to get hot because the flames
are beginning to leap up toward this dry stick. That's an apt
picture of you and me. We have no spiritualness to us,
no spiritual life to us, no goodness to us. We're just dried up, ready
to perish in the fire. And the fire, the jaws of hell
are opening up her jaws to swallow us up. And we would go down to
the pit except for a mighty rescue. That's the Lord of glory. And He reaches down and He pulls
us up. And in Him we have life and life
more abundantly. Now who did that? Did Joshua do anything here? Is Joshua contributing to his
rescue? No. He just stands there with
an adversary over here saying he's such a hell raiser. That Joshua is. Look at him.
He's got tattered garments on. His righteousness is as filthy
rags. Yes, that's true. But the Savior says, I plucked
him out of the fire. And I've made his iniquities
to pass away. I take off him tattered garments,
he tells his angels, take those off of him. I can just see it,
took all those tattered garments off Joshua. The Lord says, now,
put that new robe on him. Oh, is that a picture of the
righteousness of Jesus Christ or not? You can see him put a
robe on and then put a miter on his head. That's not a crown.
That's a turban. Such is the priesthood war. He's a priest of God. Oh, let the adversary make all
the accusations he will, and they're true. We are ungodly,
we are dried up, we are wretched, we are poor. All these things
are absolutely true, but we have a mighty advocate. We have a
glorious Savior. And Ron read to us there in 1
John 2 verse 1. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that ye sin not. Don't sin. If any man sin, We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteousness. And then he
goes on to say, because the sentence isn't finished, he is our propitiation. You see, his advocacy, his representing
us and our cause before God is based upon the fact he's a propitiation
for our sins. What does that mean? He made
satisfaction to God's justice for our sins. and everything's all right. Yeah, Satan, everything you accuse
me of, I'm guilty. You're right. You're right. But I've got a mighty advocate.
You see what this is? It's another story teaching us
the salvation of sinners by the doing and the dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And you can see that now, can't
you? He showed me Now He's shown you. He's shown you. Oh, what a marvelous Redeemer
we have. May God bring us to trust Him
and believe Him and rest in Him.