Now as you followed along as
I read Zechariah chapter 3, I hope and I'm pretty confident that
many of you can see as you go through these verses the certain
phrases and titles and descriptions that just glaringly set forth
the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his glory and in his honor. And that's what this whole vision
is about. It's what all the visions that Zachariah received from
the Lord. He received eight visions from
the Lord. This passage here is one I've
preached on quite a bit. And what I'm going to do, I'm
not going to try to get through all ten verses tonight. I could
do that, but the reason I want to divide it into two messages
is this. I've entitled the message, The
High Priest Before the Lord. the high priest before the Lord
and this is the part one and I'm going to go down through
about the first five or six verses here and then come back and do
the rest of it and the reason I want to do that is because
I have a lot of scripture that I want you to turn to and I know
sometimes I'll ask you to turn and I'll you know try to go quickly
so we won't eat up the time you know just turning so if you can't
get to all these scriptures that I'm going to reference tonight
write them down and use them in your own private study. But
this is such a full passage of scripture. Let me introduce it
this way. I was reading something the other
day that's very interesting and I think is very telling. It's
the real issues of religion today and how things are going, especially
among those who call themselves Christians. It's dealing with
false Christianity. False Christianity today, one
of the major problems with it is that people who call themselves
Christian, they've minimized the problem of the guilt and
the defilement and the depravity of sin, and they've done that
by portraying God as a very loving and tolerant God, one who's very
loving and tolerant of sinners, and by viewing themselves as
really not being that bad after all. We're just not that bad
after all. After all, everybody's got a
spark of goodness and they just need a preacher or a Sunday school
teacher or an evangelist to come along and fan that spark every
now and then. And you know the Bible doesn't
teach that. The Bible doesn't teach that at all. But in false
Christianity, they see God primarily as a sympathetic ear or sympathetic
friend And I know Christ calls His people His friends, don't
get me wrong, I rejoice in that. I preached on that last Sunday
in John 15. He's the friend of sinners. But the kind of friend that most
people view God as is not really a friend at all. It's just somebody
who listens to Him and feels sorry for Him, but really can't
help Him. And so He may sigh and He may cry over our sin,
But he'd never get angry or deal severely with us. Never do that. That's the mean God of the Old
Testament. You've heard that kind of thing,
you know. And again, that's such a misconception of God in the
Bible. Somebody said one time, well,
after all, we all make mistakes. That's what sin has been boiled
down to, been filtered down to. It's not sin, it's not rebellion
and transgression against God that deserves eternal damnation. It's just a mistake. We just
made some mistakes, you know. And, you know, we've been hearing
on the news about this Penn State mess, and it's tragic, isn't
it? And I heard somebody say, well, the man who's being accused,
said, well, he just made some mistakes. No, he sinned against
God and against man. That's what he did. He just makes
a mistake. Yeah, we all do make mistakes,
but we're sinners. And all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And so don't lessen that. And
thanks to the insights, and I'm being sarcastic here, thanks
to the insights of so-called Christian psychology, people
now think that the high calling of Christians is to love ourselves
and build our self-esteem. After all, God chose us because
of the great potential he saw in us and because he needs us.
Now that's what they'd say, isn't it? And it's not so. So just
think positively and aim for your full potential. And that's
what false Christianity teaches. Well, that's far from scriptural
truth. It's far from reality. And when we examine the scriptures,
when we look into the Bible and the language of the Bible, the
preaching of the law and the gospel, the preaching of the
prophets, the preaching of the apostles and the evangelists,
We find that God is a holy God. He's a holy God. We read here
in Zechariah chapter 3 about a fair mitre, verse 5, talking
about the high priest Joshua put a fair mitre on his head. Well, that was like a turban.
And I'm going to show you tonight. Remember what was on that turban?
It was a plate, gold plate, and it was written on it, holiness
unto the Lord. God is holy. And he must punish
sin. God would not be God if he failed
or neglected to punish sin. He's just. And we're far more
sinful and depraved than really we could ever know. I've said
it before, you've probably said it before, that we don't even
know the depths of depravity of our own heart. We know something
of it because of what God's Word says, but we don't know the depths
of it. Oh yeah, we're far more sinful and depraved than we could
ever know. And we know this, the scripture
teaches this, that if God were to judge the best of us by our
best deeds and our best efforts, we would all without question
deserve and earn eternal damnation. Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, who would stand? Now, somebody says, well, I don't
agree with that. Well, that's all right. You just don't agree
with the Bible. You don't agree with God's word. So here's the question, then.
The question, then, is not, will you accept Jesus as your personal
Savior? That's not really the question.
Now, don't get me wrong. When God brings a sinner to salvation,
we do accept Christ. We receive Him. The Scripture
says that. But that's not the question that you need to deal
with, or I need to deal with. That's not the question Israel
needed to deal with here. Will you accept Jesus as your
personal Savior? The question is this. Here's
the question. How can a holy and just God save
a sinner like me and still be holy and just to do so? Now that's
the question. That's right. How can such sinners
as we are be accepted with God and serve Him acceptably? How
is that even possible? Now, the Jews to whom Zechariah
ministered here felt the sting of that question. They'd just
returned from the Babylonian captivity. And that reason they
had been in captivity was because of the nation's gross, persistent,
unrepentant sin. That's why they were in captivity
for 70 years. It wasn't because they just made
a few mistakes. It was because of gross, persistent,
unrepentant sin, man by nature. That's it. That's where we are,
by nature, but for the grace of God. Isn't that right? Now
a remnant was back in the land. Here they are back in Judah,
back in Jerusalem. And they're attempting to rebuild
the temple and reestablish the proper worship of God. And here's
what this vision in Zechariah 3 tells them. That that issue
This issue, this question of God's holiness, God's justice,
and our sin, and what we deserve by nature and by practice, has
to be settled. It has to be settled. Doesn't
matter who you are. You might be Zerubbabel, the
governor. You might be Joshua, the high priest. That's who Zechariah
saw in this vision. Joshua, the high priest at that
time. Remember, Zerubbabel and Joshua
came back together and they were the leaders. Zerubbabel was the
civil leader, the governor. Joshua was the priest, the high
priest. So your name may be Joshua the
high priest, but before you're accepted of a holy God and before
you can serve God acceptably, this question has to be set,
this issue of sin has to be settled. And it's not going to be settled
your way or my way. Man doesn't know how to settle
it. The only thing man knows is the way of Cain. That's the
way man seeks to settle the issue of sin. Work hard, do your best,
that's got to count for something. Now, understand now, listen to
me. And I tell our young folks this
all the time. Yes, work hard. Yes, do your best. But that's
not going to settle the issue of sin. That's not going to save
you. That's not going to make you righteous before God, you
see. And if you think it is, that's
the way of Cain. That's the way of Cain. So, it
doesn't matter who you are. So, here's Zechariah's fourth
night vision. Joshua, the high priest of Israel,
standing before the angel of the Lord. And you know this is
a courtroom scene? Did you notice that going through
it? Look at it again. He showed me Joshua verse 1.
The high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. And Satan
standing at his right hand to resist him. That word resist
there means to go against him. It means to be his adversary.
It means to accuse him. There's an accusation being brought
up here. And it's a courtroom scene. And
then somebody steps in to speak for Joshua. And it's this same
angel of the Lord, and he's none other than the Lord Jesus Christ,
the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, the
advocate. John said in 1 John 2, verses
1 and 2, when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. But this is a courtroom scene,
and I want you to listen to me very carefully about what I'm
about to say here next. And I don't want to be misrepresented,
I know you wouldn't misrepresent me, but I have been on this issue
quite often. And that's this, what this shows
you now, when it comes to salvation, when it comes to being accepted
before God, settling this issue of sin, God's justice, God's
holiness, salvation is first and foremost a legal matter. It is first and foremost a matter
of law. Now the reason I said don't misrepresent
me is because I've been accused of saying that salvation is nothing
more than a legal matter. And I have never said that. Salvation
is a lot more than a legal matter. Salvation involves everything
from election before eternity to final glory in heaven and
everything in between. But salvation is first and foremost
a legal matter. That's the foundation of salvation.
The ground of salvation is a legal matter. And unless this legal
matter is taken care of, let me tell you something, unless
this law issue between God and His people is taken care of,
there'll be no new birth. There'd be no life, there'd be
no obedience, there'd be no service, there'd be no proper prayer,
there'd be no worship, and there'd be no heaven, and there'd be
no glory. Unless this matter's taken care
of right here. This right here is the heart
of the gospel, my friend. And we who are sinners saved
by the grace of God, if there's any one issue that we should
be well, well versed on, it's this right here. This right here. It has to be settled. Why? Because God is holy. God must
be just in all His dealings with sinful men. Did you hear that
now? God must be just. in His dealings with sinful men. He must be just with you, He
must be just with me. Those He takes to glory in heaven,
He must be just. Those whom He sends to eternal
damnation, He must be just. Shall the God of the earth do
right? Yes, He will. He judges according
to truth. There's no lies here, there's
no pretense here, there's no outward reformation or false
religion here in this vision. It's just the bare facts, here
they are, laid out in the courtroom of God's justice. How's it going
to take place? How's this issue going to be
settled? God's holiness, God's righteousness,
God's justice must be honored in every way. As I said, that's
the heart of the gospel. How can God be just and yet justify
the ungodly? Joe Baskett. I know it is of
a truth, he said. It is of a truth, he said. You
can't argue this. You can't debate this. There's
no opinion here. It is of a truth. But how should
man be just with God? That's the issue. Job 9 and verse
2. Job 25, how then can man be justified
with God? How can he be clean that is born
of woman? Behold, even to the moon and
it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in God's sight.
How much less man that is a worm and the son of man which is a
worm. How can it be? How is it possible? Now this
vision in chapter three is given to show how the issue is settled.
It's given to encourage the people to serve the Lord in rebuilding
the temple, because you want to know something? What's set
forth in this vision, that's what that temple was all about.
That's what that tabernacle of old was all about. That's what,
listen, that's what the Holy of Holies was all about. That
Ark of the Covenant, that Mercy Seat, that priesthood, that blood,
that lamb, all, this is what it's all about right here. This
is the foundation of it all. It's all about Christ. That's
what he's saying. It's all about His coming to
settle this issue between God and His elect people. That's
why He's called the Reconciler, Christ the Reconciler. That's
why He's called the Peacemaker. That's why He's called the Surety.
That's why He's called the Advocate. That's why He's called the Mediator.
That's why He's called the Great High Priest, whose priesthood
never ends. That's why He's called the Lamb.
That's why He's, listen, that's why the blood was shed, right
here, right here. And it's from this that we get
life by the Holy Spirit from this right here. Life issues
forth from this right here, from Christ who is our life. He is
the representative of his people. That's what the high priest did.
He represented the people before God. But not only was he the
representative, he is the substitute. He's also the lamb. He actually
took my place under the justice of God for my sins. Now, how
could God be just and punish Christ for my sins when he knew
no sin? Christ knew no sin. He did no
sin. Listen, Christ was not a sinner
and he was never made a sinner. And yet God punished him for
my sins. Now, how could God be just to
do that? Well, one word answers it, and it's a word that people
don't think much of, and it's a word that many people are confused
on, and it's called imputation. That's how God could be just
to punish Christ for my sins. That's how God could be just
and take me into his bosom as a righteous person. and then satisfaction. Christ
satisfied the law. That's what this is all about.
Well, let's look at it. Verse 1, Joshua. He showed me
Joshua, the high priest. Now, you know that whole office
of high priest was a symbol, a type of Christ, the great high
priest. Over in, and I'll get to this
next time, but look at verse 8. He says, Here now, O Joshua,
the high priest, thou and thy fellows." That's the priest that...
You know, you had the Levitical priesthood. You had the priest.
And then you had one high priest. You had many priests. Then you
had one high priest. The high priest typifies Christ. He typified Christ, the great
high priest. The other priest typified the
church. We're made priest unto God. We have access into the
holiest of all by the blood of Christ. And so he says, thou
and thy fellows, those other priests that sit before thee,
for they are men wondered at. Do you see that? If you've got
a concordance in your Bible, when it says, it may say something
like this, they are men of wonder or a sign. What that is literally,
it means they're types. In other words, this priesthood,
this high priest, this earthly high priesthood and these earthly
priests, they weren't ends in and of themselves. They represented
something future, something better, something more glorious. They
were types, they were symbols, they represented something better.
That's what he means when he says they're men wondered at.
So when you look at Joshua the high priest here, We see him
as an individual who's in a position of responsibility, but he's one
who represents and typifies the Lord Jesus Christ, our great
high priest. And he's standing before the
angel of the Lord. Now this angel of the Lord is
Christ himself, a pre-incarnate vision of Christ. He's sitting
here as the judge, Christ is the judge, but we're going to
see also he comes in as the defense attorney, you might say, the
advocate. And that's his acting as mediator
between God and his people. And then there's a prosecuting
attorney, his name is Satan, he brings the accusations. You
see what's going on here? Satan, that adversary, that's
what that means, he's the great opposer. And he says he stands
at his right hand, that is at Joshua's right hand, to resist
him, to be his adversary. Now, how does Satan become our
adversary? Well, you know, what are Satan's
two main weapons in his warfare against Christ and the church?
Number one is deception. That's Satan's main weapon, deception.
Number two is accusation. deception and accusation. So now that tells you something
there. When men seek to deceive and accuse, what are they doing?
They're fulfilling a lust inspired by Satan. So don't ever, that's
why we as believers, we're to be honest with each other, upfront
with each other. We're not to go behind each other's
back. We're not to gain followings for ourselves and accuse people
without going through the proper process. You see, if somebody
actually has a matter that needs to be brought before the church,
we have instruction in the scripture by our Lord on how to go about
that. We don't just stand like Satan and accuse. And see what
that shows us is that our only hope is Christ. Because when
Satan accuses, when somebody accuses you of something, the
only thing you've got to worry about is this. Am I guilty or
am I not guilty? Does the accusation stick or
does it not? It either does or it doesn't.
And that's why we as brethren in the Lord, we take confidence
in Christ because we can say as Romans 8 instructs us to say,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who can
accuse us? It's God that justifies. All
right. So there's Satan standing there at his right hand to resisting. He's the accuser of the brethren. That's what Revelation chapter
12 calls him. He accuses him day and night.
That's what he... Remember when he accused Job?
And so in verse 2, now look, he says, And the Lord said unto
Satan, And he said, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the
Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this Abraham
plucked out of the fire? Now, first of all, notice here
how Joshua doesn't open his mouth. I love that. And you want to
know why? Because we're sinners. And once
we realize by the power of the Holy Spirit what we are, what
we deserve, what does it do? Romans 3 19 shuts our mouths. We cannot excuse it. We cannot
justify it. We cannot defend it. We're guilty
before God in Adam. We fell in Adam. We're born dead
in trespasses and sins. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that doeth good. There's none that seeketh
the Lord. There's no fear of God. That's man by nature. We're
guilty by nature. And we've got nothing to say
because we can't excuse it. We can't defend it. We can't
justify it. Joshua doesn't say a word. The
high priest doesn't say a word. A man of high religious authority
and position doesn't say a word. He doesn't go like the old Pharisee
and say, well, I thank God that I'm not like other men, that
I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess,
I pray and all this. He doesn't speak like the false
preachers of Matthew 7, 21. Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied
in you? You see, that's the problem with
those fellas. They're standing before the angel of the Lord
and they're justifying themselves with their religious activity.
But Joshua doesn't do that. He just stands there. Guilty
as charged. And the Lord steps in. And he
invokes the name of the Lord. This is not Christ denying that
he is Lord, it's Christ acting as mediator between God and men. That's what he's doing. And so
he says, the Lord rebuke thee. Now the word Lord there twice
in verse 2 is the name Jehovah. So who's he invoking here? He's
invoking the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's invoking
the Lord God of the covenant of redemption, the covenant of
grace, the God who saves sinners by His mercy and grace. That's
who He is, the God of promise. And we could go on and on with
that, couldn't we? He's the God of promise and His promises. The Bible says all the promises
of God are in Christ, yea, and in Christ, amen. He's the God
of the Messiah. who's going to send the Messiah. And it says, he says, the Lord
rebuketh thee, O Satan, the God of the covenant. And look here,
he has two points in Joshua's defense. Now Joshua doesn't have
these points, but Christ does, you see, the Lord does. And what
are his two points? Number one, election. God chose
this fellow. Look at it. even the Lord that
hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee." And what does the Bible
tell us about election? Does it say that God looked down
through the telescope of time and foresaw what Joshua would
do? Well, I can tell you exactly what he saw in Joshua. When he,
if God did look down, he didn't look down through a telescope
of time, that's silly, it's not scriptural. But if he did, here's
what he would see. It says in verse three, now Joshua
was clothed with filthy garments. That's what he'd see, filthy
garments. Not to be too crude, but the
word for filthy there is literally excrement. That's how Joshua appears before
the Lord in his natural state. That's a pretty bad description.
And you know the scripture even goes further than that in many
ways. Refuse. Dung. But he chose Joshua, he
chose Jerusalem, that's his people. Now we know according to the
terms of the Old Covenant and Moses that had a national application
to that national people. But as it applies to the church,
it's God's elect from the foundation of the world. And what does the
Bible tell us about that election? Romans chapter 11. It's an election
of what? Grace. Grace. Not works, not foreseen goodness,
foreseen belief, foreseen reformation, but grace, grace, grace. Grace is for sinners. If you,
listen, if God would choose you based upon what he foresaw you
would do in responding to him, coming to him, believing in him,
working for him, then if that's what you believe, that's fine.
I mean, it's not fine, but if that's what you believe, just
don't call it grace. It's not grace, friend. Salvation's by grace. And that's
the first point. God chose this fellow. That's
electing grace. Unconditional election, the old
writers called it. Total depravity, unconditional
election. And then the second point of his defense is the redemption
of grace. Look, is not this a bran plucked
out of the fire? That's redemption. This fellow
was in the fire, like a hot coal getting ready, like a piece of
wood getting ready to burn up into nothing but cinder and ash.
And the Lord by grace reached down and plucked him out. That's
redemption, Christ. That's speaking of the redemptive
work of Christ. Who did this? Well, the Lord
who chose him redeemed him. And he plucked him out of the
fire. And notice here, now this redemption here is not potential. It's not, well, I'll pluck him
out of the fire if he'll cooperate or he'll believe or if he'll
come to me. No! The Lord, who chose him before
the foundation of the world, redeemed him in Christ by grace. Now, when did that take place?
At Calvary, on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is
the Redeemer of His people. The church, the Bible says, is
bought and paid for by His blood. And you're not redeemed with
corruptible things like silver and gold from the vain traditions
of your father, but you're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. His blood means His death. That
death had some value. That's what that means. Eternal
value. Infinite value. You can't even estimate the value
of the blood of Christ. We read in Romans chapter 3,
it was through faith in His blood Now, what that means is we believe
in who Christ is and what He accomplished for us to declare
His righteousness. And so, there's the two points.
You see, you've got, listen, sinners, we have two points.
If we're saved, we have two points, basically, to defend us that
the Lord Himself invokes. He chose us and He redeemed us. But look at verse three again,
now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the
angel. And again, you know, again, Joshua's not speaking here. Joshua's
a picture of every sinner who's chosen, redeemed, and called
and converted by the grace of God in Christ. We are by nature
guilty before God. Joshua had no merit before God. Turn over to Philippians chapter
three. Now I told you, That word filthy means excrement,
literally what it means. Well, that's what Paul saw when
God converted him. Look at verse 7 of Philippians
3. But what things were gained to
me, those I counted lost for Christ. Well, what did he see
as gain? All of his religion, all of his heritage, all of his
pedigree, all of his zeal, all of his efforts to obey. He said,
now I count them lost for Christ. He says, yea, doubtless, and
I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of
all things, and do count them but dumb, excrement, that I may
win Christ. Do you mean Joshua the high priest
is standing here before the angel of the Lord wearing excrement,
filthy, filthy garments, that's what it's called. Somebody said,
well, you'd think the fool, he'd put on his best to stand before
the angel of the Lord. That is his best. You believe that? Surely he can
come up with something in his closet better than that. No,
he has nothing better than that. That's what Paul was saying.
I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was touching the law of Pharisee. I was zealous. Men could not
accuse me except falsely, he said. And I thought that was
my best, that it would recommend me unto God. But it was nothing
but dung, he said. When you compare it, with the
obedience and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. People today will invoke everything
that they can invoke to set things right before them and God, except
Christ and Him crucified alone. Tending church, joining a church,
tithing, service, missionary, anything and everything except
Christ and Him crucified alone. It may be Christ plus this, Christ
plus that, but it won't be Christ alone. And let me tell you something,
when you claim Christ as your Savior and you add your best
to what He accomplished as far as saving you or keeping you
safe, you have defiled that garment that you claim to wear from Him. Think about it. That was His
best. That's why God says that which
is highly esteemed among men is an abomination unto God. Joshua's mouth was shut guilty
before God, but now look at verse 4 He says and he answered and
spake unto those that stood before him saying Now this is the angel
of Lord speaking. He's issuing forth a command
from the covenant here. This is a command from the covenant
This is God keeping his word of promise because he swore an
oath and That's right, he swore an oath,
he engaged his glory here, and here's what he says. Now listen
to this, this is grace. Take away the filthy garments
from him. Take them away from him. And
unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass
from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment,
change of clothing. What's he talking about? He's
talking about guilt, That's what he's talking about.
Guilt removed. He says, I've caused thine iniquity
to pass from thee. How did he do that? Righteousness
imputed. That's what he's talking about
here. And he says, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee.
You didn't cause it. I didn't cause it. God did. He
caused it. Now how did he do that? It's
by imputation. We who are saved by God's grace
stand before God not in our own good deeds, we have none, but
in the righteous merits of Jesus Christ imputed to our account,
charged to our account. And it's not a lifelong process
of God infusing or imparting enough righteousness into us
that we eventually qualify for heaven, as some teach. That's
not it. It is a judicial decision and
declaration of God Almighty. It's His part that takes place
in an instant, as the clothing of Joshua here pictures. God
justifies the guilty sinner by grace alone, through Christ alone.
Our good deeds have nothing at all to do with it. Imputed righteousness. Get hold
of that. David did. Turn to Romans chapter
4. Look at Romans chapter 4. Now
Paul is quoting from Psalm 32. I want you to look at verse 6,
Romans 4. Now Psalm 32, if you go back
and read Psalm 32, the first two verses, and then you come
over here and read Psalm 4 verses 6 through 8 that Paul is quoting
from, they seem different. And what I want you to understand
here is that God the Holy Spirit is not inspiring Paul here to
misquote David. What God the Holy Spirit here
is doing is inspiring Paul to tell you what David meant. when
he wrote Psalm 32. In Psalm 32, it goes something
like this, blessed is the man whose transgression is covered,
blessed is the man in whose heart there is no guile, blessed is
the man to whom the Lord imputeth, chargeth, accounteth, not iniquity. Well, listen to how he puts it
in Romans 4 in verse 6. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth, charges, accounts
righteousness without works. saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. He's just giving a commentary
on it. What is righteousness? Well,
it's the value, the merit of a work. Now, for example, if you come
to my house and say, I need a little help, I need some gas for my
car, And I say, well, here's $10, go get you some gas. I better
say $20, that $10 won't get you much these days. He'll give you
$20, go get you some gas. Now, that's a work. Now, does
that work in its merit equal righteousness? No. Does it equal perfect satisfaction
to God's law and justice? No. If you join a church, or
you give your tithe, or if you go on a missionary, does that
work equal righteousness? Is the merit of that work righteousness? The answer would be no. No. That's what Paul meant in Philippians
3. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. Does that merit righteousness?
I did this, I did that. The false preachers of Matthew
7, 21, we preached in your name. I'm preaching in his name right
now. Right now I'm preaching in the name of Christ. That's
what I'm doing. And I hope, by God's grace, I'll
do that Sunday and Wednesday morning. Now, does one message
that I preach in his name or does all the messages that I've
ever preached in his name, does that merit, is the merit of my
preaching those righteousness? The answer is no. It doesn't
measure up that high. What am I saying? I'm saying
I can't make myself righteous by anything I do or try to do. You say, well, I'm going to go
home and get on my knees and I'm going to pray all night.
Okay. Go do that. That's fine. Pray
right. Pray in the name. But is the
merit of that work, does it equal righteousness? The answer is
no. No. It falls short, doesn't it? It
falls short. Somebody says, well, how does
God accept our works? There's only one way He does.
Through one whose work does merit righteousness, the blood of Christ. Did you know that in that tabernacle,
everything had to be sprinkled with what? My prayers? No. My intentions? No. The blood, the blood, the blood. The blood equals righteousness.
The merit of Christ's work equals righteousness. It's like the
value of a dollar, a value of a hundred dollars, or a million
dollars. You put that on my bank account, that's what I've got.
I may not see the paper. But it's real. And that's why
I cannot understand people who say that's fictional or God pretending. That's foolish. They don't understand
these things. Joshua standing there with filthy
garments on. You know what that is? That's
the demerit of his works. Sin. Sin imputed. Adam's sin
imputed. Our sins charged to us. That's
the demerit of our works. And God says, take them away.
and give him another garment. Now in the Bible, in the Bible,
the ground of salvation, the righteousness of Christ is often
symbolized by using the analogy of a garment that you wear. That
doesn't mean that Christ's righteousness is literally put on me like this
coat. I put this coat on and I can
take it off. That's not what it is literally. That doesn't
mean that it's on the outside of me, His righteousness. It's not on the outside of me.
I'm righteous in Christ, but it's not on the outside of me.
I know it sounds foolish, but you've got to deal with these
things because people just go crazy with it. It's not a pasted on
righteousness. God doesn't paste it on you.
He doesn't lift a ball of righteousness or or a big bucket of righteousness
over here and put it over here on top of you. That's foolish. It's the merit of a work. It's
what God puts to the account of his people like he did Joshua
right here. And it comes totally from what
Christ accomplished in His obedience unto death. It's called the righteousness
of God. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believe it, to the Jew first and the Greek also. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is
written, the justified shall live by faith, looking to Christ. It's the righteousness of God.
that He gives to us, for God made Him sin, Christ who knew
no sin, for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. It's put to our charge. Our sins
were put to His charge. How did He take them away? Back
here in verse 4, He said, I've caused thine iniquity to pass
from thee. Well, what did He do with them?
What did he do with the demerit, the deservedness of damnation
of my works and my wickedness, my sin? What did he do with it?
He didn't just forget it. He's just. He's not going to
ignore it. What did he do? He imputed them
to Christ. He charged them to my Savior.
Christ became accursed for me. Christ was made guilty before
His Father based on our sins imputed, charged, accounted to
Him. That's how He took them away. And He died. That's what
sin deserves. That's what sin earns. That's
what the law demands. He died. And it's taken away. And in exchange, what do we get?
Well, look at verse 4. I will clothe thee with chains
of raiment. Turn over to Isaiah 61. Now, I pray that God will set
this in our minds and in our hearts. Look at Isaiah 61 and verse 10.
He says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be
joyful in my God, for He hath clothed me with the garments
of salvation." Same symbolic language. He hath covered me
with the robe of righteousness. That's not literal. It's not
something you can see. It's not something on the outside
of you. It's the merit of all that Christ
accomplished in His obedience and death laid to your charge. So that God no longer holds you
guilty. So that Satan, when he accuses,
you can say, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. It's like in Revelation 12, when
Satan accuses, what do they do? How do they turn back his accusations? By the blood of the Lamb. That's
what that's talking about. Same thing. And he says, as a
bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, as a bride adorneth
herself with her jewels. And then look over at Revelation
19. Look here. And I could show you a bunch
more on this. Aaron read Isaiah 52. I spoke of the garment, didn't
I? The garment of salvation. You remember the parable of the
king's marriage supper for his son, and they found the guest
there that didn't have the right garment on, the wedding garment?
What was the problem? He didn't have Christ. He didn't
have the righteousness of Christ. He came there in his own garments,
the filthy rags, the excrement, see? And they said, bind him
hand and foot and cast him out. But look at Revelation 19 and
look at verse 7. He says, Now what is the righteousness of saints?
What is a saint? Well, go back to Zechariah 3.
He's a Joshua standing before the Lord in excrement. And whose
sins God has caused to be taken away and given him a change of
raiment. That's a saint right there. That's
a good description of a saint right here. He's a sinner saved
by grace. The righteousness of saints is
not the saint's good works. It's Christ's work for the saint.
You see? All right, let me hurry, and
then we'll pick back up here next week, because this is going
to overlap. But now, as a result, now look at verse 5 and 6, and
I'll just read them. But as a result of the merits
of Christ imputed, charged, accounted to us, what's going to happen?
Well, there's going to be spiritual life given. There's going to
be new birth. The Holy Spirit's going to come and do His work
of regeneration and conversion. That's the fruit and effect of
this change of Raymond here. Verse 5, and I said, let them
set a fair mitre upon his head. I'll show you some scripture
on that next time, but the head speaking of the mind. And he
says, they set a fair mitre upon his head and clothed him with
garments. That is, he put on Christ. That's by faith. What
God has already accomplished for us in Christ, by the power
of the Holy Spirit, He, by faith, by God-given faith, enables us
to put Him on. I'll show you that too. And then
He says, And the angel of the Lord stood by, and the angel
of the Lord protested. That means charged. He gave Him
a charge, a command. Unto Joshua saying, Thus saith
the Lord of hosts, If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou
wilt keep my charge. Talking about the gospel. Then
thou shalt also judge my house and shalt keep my courts, and
I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by." And
we'll pick up there next week. But what he's talking about is
that one whom God has justified, he will also regenerate, convert,
bring to saving faith in Christ, and he'll walk in the ways of
the Lord by God-given power and grace and faith. All right.