Sing and rejoice, O daughter
of Zion, for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of
thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined
to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people, and I will
dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord
of hosts hath sent me unto thee. And the Lord shall inherit Judah,
his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. Listen to this. Be silent, O
all flesh, before the Lord. He is raised up out of his holy
habitation. And he showed me, this is what
the Lord showed me. Be silent. Well, Joshua was silent. And he showed me Joshua, the
high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan
standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said
unto Satan, The Lord rebuked thee, O Satan, even the Lord
that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuked thee. Is not this a bran plucked
out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake
unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy
garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold,
I have caused thine iniquity passed from thee, and I will
clothe thee with change of raiment. And I said, Let them set a fair
mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon
his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the
Lord stood by. And he says there, Let me read
these few verses again. And he showed me Joshua. Who
did? The Lord did. The high priest
standing before the angel of the Lord. And Satan standing
at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan,
The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuketh thee. Is not this a brand plucked out
of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments and stood before the angel. And the answer spake unto
those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy
garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold,
I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will
clothe thee with the change of rape. Now the historical setting
of this of course is when Israel was brought back out of captivity.
God had led Israel into captivity for 70 years down in Babylon. And the reason he did that was
because of the sinful ways. Because of their false worship.
They had the one true and living God. gave them everything that
they could possibly desire and need. And yet they turned from
Him and served idols, worshipped Baal, worshipped the sun, the
moon, the stars, everybody but God. And so God led them 70 years
and left them in captivity. And then He started bringing
them back. And when they got back, They're going to institute
the temple worship again. They're going to set up the temple.
And Joshua is the first high priest that came out of Babylon
that's going to institute the worship again. And he's the one,
the first high priest when they return from the people from their
captivity. And Joshua here, I tell you what,
he represents everybody in this building this morning. He represents
All, especially folks that don't know Christ. But this is the
way that God saves sinners. The method of God's blessing
and grace is revealed to us here very plainly, very clearly. And
there's three people here. First of all, there's Joshua.
He's accused, and he's filthy, and he's guilty. Secondly, there's
the devil, Satan himself. He's the adversary. He's the
accuser of the brethren. He's the one. He's the liar and
the father of lies. He's the thief and the robber
that came before Christ. And He's the one that says just
as soon as the seed is sown, if it don't fall on good ground,
He's right there snatching it away. And every time the children
of God meet, He meets with them. He certainly does. In fact, he's
not particularly who he uses. He used Simon Peter to even rebuke
our Lord Jesus Christ. So he's a formidable foe. And it's somebody you and I can't
handle and can't deal with. And if the Lord don't deal with
him, we're in trouble. We're in trouble. And secondly,
thirdly, we have the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel of the Lord,
Jehovah Himself, the One who stands up and clears all of His
people. Now we can see, here's God's
method of grace of how He saves sinners. First of all, we see
Joshua. Joshua. And where's he doing? He's standing before the angel
of the Lord. Standing there. What's He doing? He's come to the place of judgment.
He's come to the place where He's standing before the Lord.
And that's where we all are, whether we know it or not. And
that's why He says, Be silent all you flesh before the Lord,
for He's raised up out of His holy habitation. This generation
that wants to run up and down the aisles and wants to start
whooping and hollering for Jesus and giving great big hand claps
and big waves, I tell you what, God's people, they want to be
silent. They want to worship God. They
know that God is high and holy. They know that they got to prostrate
their hearts and prostrate their souls. That God himself is the
one with whom we have to do. People talk about holiness, and
I tell you what, God is holy. God is holy. And he said, you
just be quiet before me. Just be silent. And that's what
Joshua's doing, he's standing here in the place of judgment.
And look what he says, and this is the title of my message, down
in verse 3, the last part of verse. Is not this a brand plucked
out of the fire? That's what we're talking about,
a brand plucked out of the fire. And that's what he says he has
won, is a brand plucked out of the fire. And he's standing here
in the marks and smell of smoke. And fire is on him. All the marks
of sin, all the marks of the sin that's on him and the judgments
on him. And then it says here that he's
clothed with filthy garments. Ain't that what it says in verse
3? Joshua's clothed with filthy garments and standing still,
standing before the Lord. Filthy garments. I'll tell you
something else about him. He never opened his mouth. God
says that the whole world become guilty and every mouth must be
stopped. When God stops a man's mouth
and he knows he's standing guilty before God, he will not say one
word to justify himself. He'll not say one word to clear
himself. He'll stand there guilty, filthy,
accused with the smell of smoke on him. As long as people still
arguing with God, still saying God's not the way, and they go
to fuss and fight with God and say God's not this way and God's
not that way. My God's a God of love and all,
and go on and on about that. But I'm telling you, when God,
you stand before God, and you stand there with the smell of
sin on you, and the smell of smoke on you, And you stand in
there in your filthy garments, and you stand in there with your
sin from the top of your head to the sole of your foot, you
are hard deceitful above all things in death. Your mouth will
shut up. And then look what he says, he
said he was a bran plucked out of the fire. And oh, the mark
of fire was on this bran that God plucked out of there. You
know, fire is destructive. Fire is devouring. Fire is hurtful. Fire leaves its mark wherever
it's at. And it leaves its mark for years
and years and years. It's according to how intense
it is. And before the fire, what was it like? I mean, fire leaves
its mark. It destroys. It burns. It leaves scars. It leaves marks.
And before the fire, what was it? It said it was a brand. You know, over in North Carolina,
they have what they call fat lightning. I don't know if y'all
know what that is or not. What they'll do is they'll go
out and they'll find a stick of wood that comes off of a pine,
a limb. And on that limb, there's a big
old round thing on it, full of resin. You put that in a fire,
it will start a fire just like that, just like gasoline. And
they collect that stuff, and he said, that's what you are,
you're just a stick in the fire. Just a stick in the fire. And
your own fire. And then he says, a brain plucked
out of that fire. And that's what God has to do.
He has to pluck it out. You ever seen a stick pluck itself
from the fire? You ever seen a stick pluck itself
out of the... No, you never have. You ever
seen a stick plucked out of the fire and the fire put out of
it? And that's the way you and I are, beloved. We can't put
ourselves out of the fire. You know, people make jokes all
the time, saying, boy, he can't keep himself out of the fire,
he ain't got sense enough to get out of the rain. But now,
this is the way, God's got to point out. And this is the way
fire is. Sin leaves its mark on us. The
smell of sin is on us. Darkness of the fire is on us. Isn't that like that darkness
after it's put out? The smell is still on us. And
sin is just like a gasoline in us. It's combustible. How much does it take to cause
somebody to get stirred up over sin? How much does it cause for
that sin to get stirred up in us like a fire and it don't take
our passions to get away with us? And I tell you, nobody escapes,
nobody escapes the destructive influence of this fire and the
destructive influence of sin. You look down through history,
you look at the men of the Bible. Men of the Bible. Moses, and he was called, God
said he was the meanest man on the earth. And yet, God says,
you're not going into the promised land, Moses. You know why? Because
you didn't sanctify me in the presence of the Lord. You stumbled,
you smoked that rock twice, and Christ was only smitten once.
And you didn't sanctify God. You took it upon yourself. to
do that in your anger. And then there was David, a man
after God's own heart. Oh, my soul. What did he do? He committed adultery and murder.
And that stench stayed on him the rest of his life. It stayed
on him, God said, the sword will never leave your house. Solomon
called the man the wisest man on the earth and there were all
these proverbs and oh what a wise man he was and yet the scripture
says that he was led astray by a multitude of women and worshipped
false gods by a multitude of women and but every not one of
them escaped and that's why God said they're all just like rams
plucked out of the vermin if God would have left them in their
sins left them the way they was what would have happened to them
Abraham, the father of the people. He goes and he tells two lies.
And let me tell you something. There's
something about what God and how God deals with people. We
see their sin in the Old Testament. When you find them in the New
Testament, not one thing is ever mentioned against them. You know, when they talk about
David, man, after God's own heart. God's chosen. Find Moses, by
faith, by faith, by faith, Moses. He followed Solomon, our Lord
Jesus Christ talked about Solomon in all of his glory. Never said
nothing negative about him. And he said, but a greater than
Solomon's here. Oh, bless his holy name. I tell
you what, And let me tell you some people who God didn't pluck
out. There are some people that God didn't pluck out. Do something with that thing. Just put it on the mute button
or something. I don't want to let that happen
again. Well, I don't either. That's a brand plucked out of
the burning. Told you don't take much, stir
you up. I know you're sorry, sweetheart.
I know you didn't mean to do it. That's the way, now that's what
my kids, I got all over them, but when it's a grandbaby you
know, oh bless her heart. You all don't do that do you?
Oh boy. But let me tell you some who
weren't plucked out of the fire. Some that God didn't pluck out.
He didn't pluck Cain out. He didn't pluck Cain. He didn't
pluck Esau out. He didn't pluck Ishmael out,
Ahab, or Nebuchadnezzar, or any of the Pharisees. And He certainly
didn't pluck Demas out. So there is people that God doesn't
pluck out. There is people that God leave
in the fire. There is people that God leave
in the sea. You surely, surely, surely wouldn't
want God to leave you in the fire, would you? You surely wouldn't
want God to leave you as a breath who He wouldn't pluck out of
the fire. What if God wills to leave you in your sin? What if
God wills for you, if He says you are an Esau? What if He says
you are Cain? What if He says you are Demas?
What if He says you are Judas? What if He says that about you? Ain't nobody knows but God. But
I tell you what I would do, I'd stand right before the Lord right
now. And I'd say, Lord, I'm sitting here filthy. In my heart I'm
filthy. And please, please don't leave
me in this fire. Don't leave me in this sin. I
don't want to be an Esau. There's a little old chorus that
we sang, I don't want to be a Judas. In my heart. I don't want to
be an Esau in my heart. Oh my. Turn with all your heart
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you something
about fire. Fire. Go ahead and put down the fire. Fire sometimes starts at the
very top and burns down. Sometimes it starts in the basement
and goes up. And it burns all the way through.
And ain't that the way sin is? Now I mean it starts in the mind,
goes all the way down. Starts at the bottom and burns
all the way through. I tell you wherever you find
a man, you know fire sets, it'll set on fire passions in us. And
then fire has to, this thing called sin has destroyed bodies.
It's destroyed minds. It's destroyed homes. It's destroyed
hearts. It's destroyed lives. It's destroyed
churches. It's destroyed. Now I want you
to keep this and look with me over in James chapter 3 just
a minute. James. It's the first book after Hebrews.
And look what he says here. James chapter 3 and verse 5. Oh my. How many of you got children
that just absolutely. Oh how sin is destroyed. Sin has destroyed. It makes young
women look old. How many homes have been destroyed
by sin? How many churches have been destroyed
by sin? How many bodies, bodies, bodies
have been destroyed by sin? How many babies right now are
in neonatal intensive care because their mothers took drugs all
the time they were carrying them and them babies have to stay
in there month after month after month and be weaned off of drugs
because their mothers has no natural affection. How many fathers father a baby
and walk off and leave it and won't even care for it, won't
support it, won't have any money to take care of it? Oh, sin is
a horrible thing. How many people has it wrecked? It's a horrible thing. And that's
what we were and that's what we are, but God reaches down.
And I tell you what, He's got a reach. He reached way down
to get you out of that. Look what he said here in James
chapter 3 and verse 5. Even so the tongue is a little
member. Considering the whole body it is, it's just a tiny
thing, a tiny part of your body. And oh how it boasts great things. It tells of all it's going to
do, all it's going to accomplish, where it's going to go, Brags
about itself, brags about its righteousness, brags about its
religion, brags about its relationship with God. Behold how great a
matter a little fire can be. Take just a little matter and
you put it in the right place, a fire in the right place, next
thing you know everything is on fire. Now watch this, and
the tongue is a fire, a world full of iniquity. A world of
iniquity dwells in a man's tongue. So is the tongue among our members,
and watch what it says, it defiles the whole body, and setteth on fire the course
of nature. I mean, you let somebody say,
you know, you let somebody say the wrong thing and use their
tongue the wrong way, and next thing you know, everybody's upset
about it. And everybody's talking about
it. And everybody's upset, but watch what he said. Every kind of beast and birds
and serpents and things in the sea is tamed. Been tamed of mankind. They've been tamed lions, they've
been tamed tigers, they've been tamed
elephants, snakes all by, but the tongue can no man tame. Oh, God! Oh, you think we ain't? Let me tell you something. Let's go back over here quick
to Zechariah 3. So, oh my, he's got the smell
of smoke on him. He's got sin. Then look what
it says down here in verse 3. It says, Joshua was clothed with
filthy garments. Where's he at? He's standing
in the Lord's presence. He's clothed with filthy garments.
standing before the judge. And let me tell you something. He don't have to say a word.
You know why he don't have to say a word? Because his clothes
speak for him. He stands there accused of how he's dressed in
the sight of God. That's why he don't need to open
his mouth. His very garments he's got on
tells him that. It's like a man going in court,
standing before the judge, and he just murdered a man, and all
the blood of the murdered victims is on his clothes. He's like
Cain when God says, where's your brother? I said, my brother?
I said, I smell his blood. And it's like a Judas coming before
the judge. Here's 30 pieces of silver. What's
he going to say? I'm a thief. I'm a betrayer. And that's why Joshua is standing
there in his filthy clothes and he's standing before the Lord.
He don't need no witness. He don't need no witness to stand
up to help him out or do anything for him. He's standing there
and he knows he's filthy. He knows his garbage is dirty.
He knows standing before the God that he hasn't got anything
in the world. His own conditions is his condemnation. His filthy garments speak for
themselves. When the prodigal came home,
his father didn't have to say, where you been? What you been
doing when he got there? He smelled the hogs on him. Smelled
that far country on him. Smelled the stench of pigs on
him. Oh my. Oh, his appearance told
it all. And I'll tell you Joshua, listen
to this, Joshua doesn't appear here as a criminal, but as a
priest. A man in religion. Oh my! How many people, he said,
is there a labor in religion? That's what Paul said, you know.
He said, I was a Pharisee of Pharisees. A Hebrew of Hebrews. But now I count all that I believed
and all that I ever done, but done. Look over in Isaiah 64
with me, just keep on Zechariah, look in Isaiah 64. We quote this all the time, and
I tell you we need to look at it, if you haven't got it marked
in your Bible, you need to mark it, and don't forget it. Don't
forget this verse of Scripture. Isaiah 64 and 6. Oh, look what he says. But we
are all as an unclean, and listen to this, and all of our righteousnesses
as filthy rags. All of your righteousnesses.
All of them. Oh my. What's your righteousness? It's the best that you could
possibly offer. to God outside of Christ. Sin is so deceptive. Religion
with its sin is so offensive to God. For somebody to stand
up, if Joshua stood up here and said, you know Lord, I'm doing
the best I can. You know, I didn't mean to get
in this condition. Lord, I'm going to go over here
and I'm going to wash my clothes and I'm going to make myself
better and then I'll come back. And then you put me in the priesthood.
Listen, I'm going to go over here and there's a fuller over
here. He's got a lot of soap and he'll take my garments and
he'll wash them up and he'll make me ready to come back into
your presence. Ain't that the way sin is? It
always tells us what we need to do before we come to God.
But here, Joshua kept his mouth shut. He didn't say, I'm going
to go do this. No, no. He just stood there guilty.
Guilty. And that's why Luke said the
Pharisee prayed thus with himself. I'm not like this fella. I'm
not like that fella. And I don't do this and I don't
do that. When a man's religion is nothing
but negatives. I don't, I don't, I don't. He's
a Pharisee. You know. I'll have you look at it, but
I'll just tell it to you. When the Pilate priests and men
left Herod's judgment hall and they took Christ over to Pilate,
the scripture says that they wouldn't go into Pilate's judgment
hall. They wouldn't go where Pilate was, into the governor's. You know why? Lest they be defiled
and they couldn't eat the Passover. They could lie and hire people
to lie on Christ. They could sell Him for 30 pieces
of silver. They could beat Him and slap
Him and blindfold Him. Put a purple robe on Him and
crown of thorns on His head. And ridicule Him and curse Him
and spit on Him and pluck out His beard. But they couldn't
take him into Pilate's judgment hall because they would defile
him and they couldn't eat the Passover. Have you ever seen
any saint so deceitful in your life as religion? And God have mercy on a preacher that goes around saying, I ain't
going to be defiled with this, I ain't going to be defiled with
that. I tell you what, if it wasn't for God, we wouldn't be
like a snowball in a blast furnace if it wasn't for the grace of
God. I mean, we're all in the fire. And if God don't reach
down and get us out of the fire, we're going to perish. And oh,
listen. Our righteousness, our works,
our best prayers, our best praises are just nothing but filthy rags.
We need to weep over our tears, repent over our repentance, Pray
God forgive us of every prayer, and I'll tell you, religion without
Christ is nothing but a sham and offense to Almighty God.
Now look what else happens here. Look what happens now. He's got
an adversary. This is Joshua. That's us, oh
my, that's the condition. Now wait a minute. And then look
what he said in verse 1. It's Satan standing at his right
hand. Standing at whose right hand?
Joshua's right hand. What's he doing there? to accuse
him, to resist him. He's his adversary. And oh my! Joshua stands there, he's got
no defense, he's got no excuse. His adversary stands at his right
hand to resist him. You know what? He's called the
accuser of the brethren. And there he is, he's there to
misrepresent. He's there to accuse. This man
is guilty! You can't possibly let him go.
He said, you know why he's in captivity? Because he's such
an awful man. Our adversary goes about his
arroyed line, seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast. How? In the faith. In the faith. And oh, listen. He misread. Look what he did to men. Look
what he did to Eve. He come into Eve's presence and
beguiled our mother Eve. Deceived our mother Eve. And
he always stands to accuse men before God. And let me tell you
something about it. I'll tell you what they talk
about, you know, just good and evil in this world. Satan is
the reality. He's a real person. He's not
anywhere near equal with God. No, no. And his works is always
a deadly work. And here he is in the very presence
of God Himself, standing at Joshua's right hand, to accuse him, to
resist him, to keep God from doing anything for him. He's
there to exaggerate his offenses. Mary says to me all the time,
and somebody says something about her too, and she'll say, now
the truth's bad enough, don't lie on me. It ain't just the
way it is, the truth's bad enough. Oh, but listen to what he said
here. He's there to exaggerate. And if possible, he's got plenty,
plenty to use against him. And his enmity, oh, his enmity
is so great, he hates the Lord's people. He hates everything that's
righteous and just. And you know what his greatest
ammunition is? Lies. Lies. Sits and whispers
in your ear. Oh, listen, that's not too bad.
You're not too bad. You're not really that... Your
garments are not really that dirty. Yeah, you know, you ought
to stand up and defend yourself. You ought to stand up and talk
about all the good things you've done before you got these clothes
dirty. Huh? And I tell you what, our Lord
Jesus told Simon Peter, He said, Simon, Satan has thought to sift
you as wheat. Why didn't he? Why didn't he?
I prayed for you that your faith fail not. And I'll tell you something
about him, buddy. He lies on God. He has no pity. He has no remorse.
And he accuses everybody alike. He has no respect to others.
And he knew Joshua's condition. He had him red-handed before
the throne. And when we come into God's presence,
Satan goes right with us, always, always hindering us. Prosecuting us, persecuting us.
Oh, Christmas Evans, let me show you over in Job. Turn with me
to Job chapter 1. You know, Christmas Evans was
preaching a message. And I read when he got through
preaching, a fellow met him at the foot of the... They had a
big pulpit and they ascended the pulpit and he was coming
down out of the pulpit and the fellow met him and said, Oh, Mr. Evans, that was absolutely wonderful. He said, I know it was, the devil
already told me. Does he ever do you that way?
You do something nice, do something good, and the devil tells you,
boy, that's really a good thing you've done. If you do anything
and somebody brags on you in your mind, it's either you or
the devil. Look what he said here in Job
1.6. Now there was a day when the
sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and watch this,
and Satan came also among them. Where are you coming from, Satan?
The Lord said to him, Satan answers from going to and fro in the
earth and from walking up and down in it. Look over here in
chapter 2. And again, there was a day when
the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and
Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.
And you know what he was there for? To accuse Job, to accuse
all them men. And he came to destroy Job if
he could, and he'll destroy us if we can. And I'll tell you
this, what's going to happen to Joshua? He's standing there
with his mouth shut. Well, I'll tell you what's going
to happen to him. Look down now in verse 4. And he answers, spake unto those
that stood by. You see, Joshua never says a
word. Never says a word. He says, Take away the filthy
garments from him, and unto him he said, Behold, I have caused
thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with a
change of rain. He has somebody standing there.
He's got more power. And you know what the Lord said?
The Lord rebuked Satan. The Lord rebuked him. You hear
these preachers all the time say, Satan get behind me. Just
rebuke the devil. Listen, I can. The scriptures
tell us to resist him. They'll say, every time you find
Satan rebuked, the Lord does it. These preachers, you know,
say they're going to cast out devils and they're going to rebuke
the devil. It's like those sons of Sceva, you know. They saw
Paul casting out devils and casting out demons, just speaking to
them, and they come out. These seven sons of a priest named
Sceva, they said, boy, we're going to go over here. They know
the fellow that was crazy in a bed bug, acting wild. And they said, we'll go over
here and do like Paul did. And seven of them got around
this fellow. Have you ever seen that happen on television, some
of those big, big outfits, you know? Oh, about seven of them
got around that fella. And they said, Paul, Jesus, whom
Paul preaches, we have surely come out of him. That fella whipped
all seven of them. That's what happens when we take
it upon our hands to... If God don't rebuke the dead...
And listen, I'm going to tell you something else. God's got
him on a chain. God's done whipped him. God! Listen, Old Budden was going
along and it was dark and he was scared. He was trying to
get to this house where there was a light. And he got close
and he said there was lions. And he heard them lions roar.
And he got up close and those lions were roaring. It was dark
and he could hear them and he could barely see them. And he
was scared to go on. And then he finally got over
there and got over there and those lions charged at him. And
they was on a chain they could only go so far. And so he just
eased around him. And that's the way God's got
the devil on a chain. Christ has already put his heel
on his head and crushed it. And I tell you we're not going
to give him any credit. Christ whipped him. But he still
wants to accuse us. And that's why he's a liar and
a father of it. The Lord said, rebuke them. Then
he said, I've chosen Jerusalem, the city of Zion, the place where
the church is at. And then he said to that saint,
and he said to everybody else, is not this a brand plucked out
of the burning? I did this. No man can come unto
me except the Father which hath sent me drawing him. And oh, he answers and says,
now take away the filthy garments. And oh, listen, this is the most
blessed thing that God can say to a man. Behold, I have caused
thine iniquity to pass from thee. For God to say, I have forgiven
your sins, I have put you still away. Your iniquities are gone. Put them so far away that God
said, I can't remember them. Of all the things God can do
for a man, is to put away sin. Is to cause them to go away.
And where God puts sin away, He says, I'll never remember
them against Him again. Never. And then look what He
says, and down there He says, take away the filthy garbage
from Him. You know, and Joshua hasn't done a thing yet. He's
just standing there. He said, take... You know, when
you take garments off of a man, he's left standing naked. But God ain't gonna leave you
naked. He didn't leave Adam naked, He
clothed Adam. And then He says, now I tell
you what, you take this beautiful, glorious garment here, and you
put it on Him. You put it on Him. Take the whole
filthy one away. Take that nasty one away. Take
that one that's got sin on it. Take that one that's got smell
on it. Take that one that's got the
rottenness and corruption on it. Take it away from him. And
take this beautiful robe of righteousness and put it on him. It's like
the prodigal. He said, bring the best robe
and put it on him. And I'll tell you what, They
don't clean them up. And I'll tell you what happened
here. Joshua, all he done was took. He never done anything. He just received. And that's
the way it is with us. God picks us, His hands out and
burns us. And then He takes all the filthy
garments away. Clothes us with the righteousness
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what a change. Our filthy
rags for the righteousness of God. Who did this? The Lord Jesus
Christ. Let me show you a verse of scripture
and I'm done. Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61. Who did this? I'll tell you what,
the Lord did it all. All we sung at this morning.
Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. People, that's a sad, sad state
that we're in today. And people tell people all the
time, they say, God sure needs you. God needs you. I heard a preacher preach the
other day. A fellow sent me a little link. I sent some others just
about five minutes long. And the preacher started talking
about, I can't stand this sissified Jesus. Sissified Jesus. He said, He's just standing and
begging and pleading and crying. Got tears in his eyes, can't
hardly live without you, just can't hardly get by without you.
But he said, I'll tell you who he is. Lord of Lord and Kings
of King. And you'll find out one of these
days, this one that's sissified ain't no Jesus at all. And it's
a crying shame, it's an awful, awful sin for preachers to stand
up and tell men and women that God needs them. that Christ needs. God has everything and we can't
give Him anything. He dwells in the heavens of heavens.
He don't dwell in temples made by hands. He's not worshipped
with silver and gold or the works of our hands. And there He sits
in His glory. And if we give Him anything,
He's got to give it to us. He's got everything, we've got
nothing. We ain't got no nothing but filthy clothes. He puts a
robe of righteousness. We got nothing but sin. He's
the only one that can put it away. We got a heart of stone. He's the only one that can give
a new heart. We got a spirit that's full of enmity and hatred.
He's the only one that can give us a new spirit. He's the only
one that can. And He's the only one that does.
And that's what we do. We just say, Lord, to God be
the glory. Great things He had done. You
say, Preacher, what have you done for your salvation? Nothing. Well, how did you get it? Christ
bought it and paid for it. How did you know about it? Somebody
preached the gospel to me. What did you do? I cast all on
Christ, who did it all. He did it all. All to Him I owe.
What are you going to do tomorrow for your salvation? Same thing
I've done today, nothing. I'm going to look to Christ.
I'm going to look to Christ. Well, you're going to pray ain't
you? Yeah. And you know what? He enables me. You're going to
preach ain't you? God which worketh in you both
to will and to do. But what in the world have I
got to glory in if I say or do anything if God works it in me?
I'll tell you what I can do without God. I can sing. But I can't put it away. Only
God can do that. Well, look here at verse 10. Isaiah 161 verse 10. 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. He hath covered me with a robe
of righteousness, as a bride groomed decketh himself with
ornaments, and as a bride adorned herself with her jewels. That's
why I'm all rejoiced. Oh my! What are you going to
say? What are you going to say?