full ten verses. We'll be in
this again tonight in Zechariah chapter three, but for this morning
I'd like us to look at the first four verses of this chapter here.
So let's read, actually let's read verses one to five. 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 rebuke thee, O Satan. Even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuked thee. Is not this a brand 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 this is the Lord speaking
here in verse 4. It's not Joshua. It's the Lord speaking in verse
4. It's the angel of the Lord. And we know who the angel of
the Lord is, don't we? That's the Lord Jesus Christ, before
he came to this world. 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 to pass 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. Now the text before us is the
fourth vision which God gave Zechariah on the 24th day of
the 11th month of the second year of King Darius. And in the
three versions Preceding this vision, which Zacharias said,
the first one was the Lord Jesus riding on a red horse in the
midst of his church. And it pictured a grove of myrtle
trees, which is in chapter 1, verses 7 to 17. And in the second
vision, a four horns representing those who oppose and persecute
God's elect. and four carpenters representing
gospel preachers raised up by God to smash and scatter the
four horns. That was found in Zechariah 1,
18 to 21. And next, the Lord showed Zechariah
a vision of Christ represented by a man with a measuring line
going out to measure Jerusalem, assuring Zechariah and us, and
us as believers today, that God will build his church. He will
build his kingdom. He will do it. He will do it. And he provides for it and he
protects it as long as this world stands. So as long as we're in
this world, God will protect his church and he will provide
for his church because it's his. This church is his church. And
again, the church is the people, isn't it? It's not the building.
This is the building we meet in. It's a nice building, but
it's not the church. The church is the people, the
ekklesia in the Greek, the called out ones. And he has promised
to protect us. Now that brings great comfort
to my soul. Does it to you too? Because each sheep of God is
part of the church. We're part of the ekklesia, the
called out ones. And He has promised to protect
us and provide for us. And it's not like those health,
wealth, prosperity guys claim and spout that poison out. It's
not like that at all. No, He provides for us and takes
care of us. And He gives us what we need,
not what we want. Because we often ask and miss,
the scripture says. But He always gives us what we
need. Always. Always takes care of
His people and always protects His people. Now these visions
were timely and encouraging visions because they comforted the people
of God. They comforted God's people.
And they comforted Zechariah, too. They comforted Zechariah,
who is the prophet amongst the people, that the Lord God was
among his people. It assured Zechariah and it assured
the saints of God that God was among his people. We can be assured,
as God's saints, as God's sheep, that He is among us. He is among
us. He's ever watching over us. He's
ever taking care of us. And at the time, again, it assured
Zechariah and those who are the people of God that God raises
up faithful men as they're needed. There's never more gospel preachers
than what the Lord wants in the world at once. Never. Never. There's never too many. And there's
never too little. There's the exact amount that
God has appointed. And they're appointed as watchmen
in Zion to meet every enemy or apparent danger that might threaten
God's people. And by these great visions, by
these visions which the Lord gave Zechariah, our God assures
the people of God. And who are the people of God?
The born-again, blood-washed saints of God. You must be born again. You must
be. One is not a child of God if
they're not born again. Because when you're born again,
you're granted life. You're taken from that dead state
naturally that we were in and given life. How? By the life-given power of God
the Holy Spirit. By God the Holy Spirit. These visions that the Lord gave
Zachariah again assures the people of God that his church and kingdom
shall continue. That he shall keep them. He shall
keep them. And we can be assured of that
fact at all times. And another wonderful thing for
the people of God is it's not based upon us. And we see that
today. We're going to see that in the
text, that the chains of Ramech, Joshua's just standing there.
He's not doing anything. He's not doing anything at all.
He's not praying a prayer. He's not bowing his head. He's
not walking an aisle. He's standing there before the Lord in his
filthy garments. And we'll see who changes those
garments. And it's a picture, if you're a believer, if you're
a born-again, blood-washed saint to God, it's a picture of us.
of what God's done for us. Oh, it should cause us to rejoice.
That's my hope, is that we leave here rejoicing. Rejoicing over
our wonderful, merciful Savior. Now, Zachariah, just like we
are, was a sinner saved by grace. We'll never forget that. All
the prophets of God, David and Zachariah and Isaiah, they're
all just sinners saved by grace like we are. They've been given
a message. from God, and it's incredible,
isn't it? But they're just sinners saved by grace like you and I.
They suffered with the same trials and tribulations and temptations
that you and I do. Again, sometimes we vault these
characters to a position where we shouldn't. They're just flesh
and blood like us. Suffered the same things that
we do. And he was a saved sinner, saved by the grace of God. And
he probably wondered, as we often do, how can the holy Lord God
bless his people? How can he bless his elect? Because
we're such a sinful people, aren't we? We're still sinners, aren't we?
We who are saved are still sinners. We're just saved sinners now.
It's wonderful. It's wonderful. Praise God. But we often say, how can a holy
God save us? Well, by his power, by his grace,
and by his mercy. It's all in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's salvation in no other.
There's no other way. It's not church membership. It's
not a certain church. When I was a Catholic, I used
to think, oh, I'm a Catholic. I'm saved. No. I was lost as a white
goose in a snowstorm. I had no clue. Didn't have a
clue who the Savior was. Had no idea. I wasn't born again.
I was dead in trespasses and sins. Born the same way everybody
else is born. Dead. Dead in trespasses and
sins. With no hope. Now my hope was
in myself. Was it so for you? If you're
hoping in yourself today, cast that hope away. It'll take you
right to hell. There's only one hope for sinners.
There's only one hope for sinners, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him alone. No other hope. No other hope. So we as, say,
sinners, we ask, don't we? We ask this, how can He bless
us even though we're sinners? How can He bless us even though
we're sinners? How can we dwell among Him? We're sinners. How can He accept
us the way we are? Well, praise God, the answer
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're accepted in the blood,
aren't we? And we're seeing something today that you often hear me
speak of, the righteousness of Christ. And think of Israel. They'd been
led captive into Babylon, and it was their sin that laid the
city and the temple to waste. Yet the Lord God assured his
prophets And we who are the purchased people of God, that the gifts
and the callings of God are without repentance. Those he saves here
never unsave. Isn't that wonderful? Why? Because it's not based upon our
doing. We're gonna see, we're just like
Joshua, standing there before God. When the Holy Spirit convicts
us, we're just like that publican, aren't we? God, be merciful to
me, the sinner. That's what we are. And we'll
see Joshua just standing there before the angel of the Lord,
and it's the Lord that does all the work. It's marvelous. And the Lord God assures his
prophet and assures we who are the purchased people of God that
we are his, that we are his. So what comfort we can glean
from the truth The assurance that a sinner saved by the grace
of God will always be saved. Turn, if you would, to 1 John
1 9, and then we'll read into verse
2. Or then we'll read into chapter
2, I'm sorry. 1 John 1 9, it says this. Look at this. We're seeing chapter
2, our great advocate. 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse
us from what? All unrighteousness. All my sins. All of them. And look at this, it says, my
little children, chapter 2, these things write I unto you that
you sin not, Now, John's not saying there that you're never
going to sin again. See, people who believe in sinless
perfection, they grab a hold of that, and they just say, oh,
we're going to run. But in 1 John 1, it says, if you say you have
no sin, then you make God a liar. So we know John's not saying
that. Now, do God's people hate sin? Absolutely. We'll see that
tonight. We hate sin. We hate it. We hate more in ourselves. We
hate the sin that we do more than anywhere else. But look
at this, my little children, these things write I unto you
that you sin not. And if any man sin, look at this,
okay? So we're sinners, saved by grace,
right? We who are God's people. But look at the marvelous words
here, and it says, and if any man sin, we have what? An advocate. We have an advocate. Who is he?
We have an advocate with the Father. That's with God. That's
with Jehovah. We have an advocate with the
Father. Who is he? Jesus Christ who? The righteous. Now, it could never be said of
any one of us that we're righteous in our natural state. The scripture declares here that
Jesus Christ is the righteous. He's the righteous one. He's
the sinless one. He's God incarnate in the flesh.
That's what makes his salvation so incredible. That the sinless
one died for sinners. He is the, and who's our advocate?
Who's our, who's our lawyer? With the Father, who stands before
us and pleads our cause to the Father, to Jehovah? Jesus Christ,
the righteous. What comfort that brings us.
is God's people. And look at that. It's not a
question that was, it's not like, well, if you make a decision,
you have an advocate, is it? Or if you do this, or if you
do that, you have an advocate. It doesn't say that. It says
we have an advocate. And we have that advocate only
by the grace of God. It's not based on anything we've
done. God's people have an advocate, and his name is Jesus Christ
the righteous, and it's by the grace and mercy of God alone.
Ain't nothing in us because there's no good in us. Is there? Before we're saved and even after
we're saved. Now, people don't like to hear
that, but it's true. Scripture declares there's none
righteous, no, not one. None. My oh my. And then look what
it says here. And He is the propitiation. Look
at that. For what? For our sins. For our
sins. And every believer can look at
that and say, for my sins. For mine. And I know what I've
done. For my sins. And that's just
not past sins. That's not just present sins.
That's also all my future sins. It's glorious. He's the propitiation,
the sin offering for all our sins. And not for ours only, but for
the sins of the whole world, for all the elect of all the
ages. Isn't that wonderful? Let's go
back to our text in Zechariah then, with that in mind, right
there. Zechariah chapter 3, we'll read
verses 1 to 4. So this is the fourth vision
that Zechariah has received. Look at this, it's wonderful.
These words are so comforting and so wonderful. Zechariah 3
verses 1 to 4, 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 rebuke thee, O Satan. Even the Lord, and every time
we see Lord there, remember too that is Jehovah, Jehovah, 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 that can be said of every
child of God. We're chosen by God, look at
that. And we're brands plucked out of the fire, beloved. 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 to pass from thee. Look at that.
And I will clothe thee with a change of raiment. So what a picture
we have here before us of we who are the redeemed of the Lord
being clothed in the perfect, spotless righteousness of Christ. It's so clear here. Have you ever wondered why you
do not hear about the righteousness of Christ amongst the religious
people and people of this world? Have you ever wondered why you
don't hear about the righteousness of Christ? Now, we grace preachers, we proclaim
the righteousness of Christ, don't we? We proclaim it. We proclaim that the only way
that we can even stand in the presence of a holy God, the holy
God, the one true living God, is to be clothed in the perfect
spotless righteousness of Christ. But you do not hear a whole lot
of preaching on the righteousness of Christ in the evangelical
world. You know why? Well, they're going about trying
to establish their own righteousness. That's why. That's how I was
before the Lord saved me. With the words, well, when I
stand before God, he's gonna judge me, my good will outweigh
my bad. You know what that was doing? At that time, I was establishing
my own righteousness. But you don't hear a whole lot
of preaching anymore on the righteousness of Christ. The old timers used
to preach on it a lot because it's so important. Again, it's
our only way we can stand before our great God is being clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. But the religious people of this
world are trying to establish their own righteousness by their
works and their own supposed merit before God. They say, well,
if I do this good thing, and little do they know, everything
we do is tainted with sin. But if I do this good thing,
then God surely will honor that. Well, that's called establishing
your own righteousness. See, the marvel, the marvel about
God's sovereign grace and the salvation that we have in Christ,
the marvel of it is that it's absolutely free. And it's not
based upon anything we do. Nothing. That's the marvel of
it. that we are saved, we who are
the people of God, are saved by the Lord Jesus Christ in Him
alone, plus nothing. And all we do is stand, as we
see here, all we do is stand before God in our natural state,
clothed in filthy garments. See, that's what that's picturing.
When Joshua's standing before the Lord in his filthy garments,
That's picturing us standing before the Lord in our own righteousness. And God will not accept us in
that state. He will not. He's a holy God. He's a righteous God. And again,
the filthy rags which the angel of the Lord commands to be taken
off Joshua in our text, pictures the filthy righteousness of our
own supposed good works. and the filthy garments of our
supposed goodness. And again, we're not even fit
to be in God's presence in that state. God must give us a change
of raiment. You must be born again. And beloved of God, there's a people
in this world called God's elect. us, a remnant, redeemed by the
precious blood of Christ, purchased by the precious blood of Christ,
to whom the Lord God will never impute sin. That's good news for sinners,
isn't it? To whom the Lord God will not impute sin. Well, why
not? A people who being clothed in
the righteousness of Christ, God sees no sin in them. Remember
last week we looked at as far as the East is from the West
so far as he removed our transgressions from us They're gone the scapegoat.
He carried him away didn't he? Sister Carolyn I would talk about
that into an unknown land a sister. They're gone Praise be to God
they're gone Never to be bought up against
us again I Why? All because of what Christ, all
because of this. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he is the propitiation for
our sins. He's the one who died in our
Roman place. He's the one who bore the full
wrath of God for our sins in our place. He's the one who did
this. Is it any wonder we sing how great thou art? Oh, what a great God we have. What a great Savior we have.
And oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus. You cannot measure it,
beloved. You can't measure it. It's vast
and unmeasurable, the love that Christ has for his people. And
marvel at this. For the elect of God, the scripture
proclaims that God has given commandment that all who are
in Christ are blessed with all spiritual blessings. And that's
only in Christ. And those blessings can never
be reversed. Think of that. You get people
out here who say, well, you can lose your salvation. Well, you
can lose it if it's man-based salvation, because you never
had salvation in God. But if God keeps us, which he
does, the scripture says, if we're saved by the Lord Jesus
Christ, the scripture declares that he's our propitiation, that
he's our advocate. And that never changes. Therefore,
we can look at the precious doctrines of the scripture and say, well,
we're justified before God in Christ. That is unchanging. Why? Because Christ is God, and
God is eternal. That means we're redeemed by
the precious blood of Christ. And that's an eternal redemption,
isn't it? Ain't it wonderful? Saved by the grace of God, according
to the mercy of God, because it pleased him to do so. Oh,
how great thou art, Lord. How great. No wonder our souls
just sing. No wonder they just sing. And God is the one who's done
this. God's the one who has made this so. The scripture declares
this. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen
perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him. So God looks upon his people
now clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and he does not see
iniquity. That's incredible, isn't it?
He sees us clothed in Christ. F.W. Cromacher used to say that
when God looks upon the believer clothed in the righteousness
of Christ, he sees Christ. Oh my. Praise be to God. Again in this fourth vision,
we see the church of the living God pictured and how our great
God dwells with us and blesses us and uses such sinful humans
as we are. And God does this because There
is one, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has undertaken and who pleads
our cause, who pleads our cause before the Father. And he is,
again, our advocate in heaven. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 1, Zechariah 3,
verse 1. 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. So we see Joshua here, the high
priest, performing the work of a priest before God in the holy
place, standing before the angel of the Lord. And we also see
that Joshua performed his priestly work, representing the people
before God, and Satan stood at his side to accuse him. Now Satan
is the accuser of the brethren. He's the accuser of the brethren.
Note Joshua silently stands before the Lord. But we see he's clothed
in filthy garments, which represents his sin. And this is a picture
that scripture gives of all of us in our natural state. It says all our righteousness
is like filthy rags in the eyes of the Lord. And we see then
that though we are God's holy nation and royal priesthood,
his people are, save sinners, we're still sinners, aren't we?
We're still sinners. Look at verses 2 and 3. And the
Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuketh thee, O Satan, even
the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuketh thee. Is not this a
bran plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments and stood before the angel. Satan pointed his finger
at Joshua's filthy garments, declaring that such a filthy
wretch was unfit for God's presence and unfit to serve in the holy
place. unfit to stand before God, unfit to offer Him anything. And so, Satan is the accuser
of the brethren, and he does this of all God's elect. And
note, Joshua said nothing. He stood before the Lord, and
he said nothing. He didn't even utter a word. He didn't even utter a word.
What could he say? What could he say? What could
he say? He was sinful and he knew it.
He could say nothing in his defense. He's standing before the holy,
the angel of the Lord, which is God. He can't hide his filthy
garments, can he? He can't hide them. They're in
plain sight. He couldn't utter anything in
his defense. He couldn't pretend that he didn't
have any sin. Although people like to do that,
don't they? People in this world like to
do that. Ask them. Tell them they're a sinner and they'll
say, what? What? I'm a good person. No, you're
not. No, you're a sinner just like me. Just like me. So he didn't pretend that he
didn't have any sin. He didn't even make any attempt
to cover it up, did he? And he didn't find any ways and
speech of lessening his sinfulness, did he? No. He just stood there
in his filthy garments confessing his sin completely before the
law. He just stood there. He knew
he was guilty. What could he say? Scripture says this, listen
to this, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ,
his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no
sin, now here, I've ran into many people who say, oh, I'm
not a sinner, I'm a good person, okay. This is what the scripture
says, this is not Wayne Boyd's opinion. This is what the scripture
says. This is what the holy word of
God says. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. We deceive ourselves. And the
truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And to what? Cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
now listen to this, this is an even greater charge. If we say
that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And his word is not in us. So
no one will be able to stand before the Lord at the great
white judgment throne and say, I wasn't a sinner. I did some
good. No. All are sinners. And Joshua knew
that he was in himself utterly unworthy. And he acknowledged
it by his silence before the Lord. Again, what could he say
in his defense? What can anyone say clothed in
their own filthy righteousness? I remember when the Lord was
dealing with me about my sin. And I, for the first time, saw
myself as a sinner. True sinner, too, not just the
one I told you guys about before where, oh, Lord, I'll never do
that again. And the next two days later,
I'm doing the same thing again. No, I mean, like, really, to
know that I'm a sinner. That's what God does with His
people, doesn't He? He reveals to us our sinfulness in our natural state. Now, the angel of the Lord is
the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Redeemer. And He alone
is the Redeemer of God's people. He alone is the one mediator
between God and man. And note in verse 4 here, it's
the angel of the Lord who speaks for Joshua. Look at this. Remember, we have an advocate,
right? We have one who pleads for us.
We have one who speaks for us. And He's in glory. And he's Jesus
Christ the righteous, right? Look at this in verse 4. This
is wonderful. And he answered and spake unto those that stood
before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him.
Speaking of Joshua, take the filthy garments from him. And
unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass
from thee. We'll look at that in a little bit. And I will clothe
thee with a change of garment. The great advocate of God's people. speaks. And note, there is only
one who speaks for us. There is only one who speaks
for us. There's only one who speaks for Joshua, right here.
Only one. Yeah? Because there's only one advocate
for God's people with the Father. In His name is Jesus Christ the
righteous. And we see that Joshua's advocate
was the angel of the Lord. We know from study in scripture
that that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous one, the one who's
called the propitiation for our sins. And this advocate is himself
the Lord God. Look at verses two to five. And
the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuketh thee, O Satan,
even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuketh thee. Well,
that's Jehovah speaking. See, Jesus Christ is God. Is
not this a bran plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed
with filthy garments and stood before the angel of the Lord,
or 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 to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with the
chains 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." Now, there's so many things revealed
in this chapter. We could literally spend months
here. And in this picture, there's so many things revealed. We can
clearly see that Christ, the angel of the Lord, is himself
God. He's God. And it is he who speaks to Satan
and says, the Lord rebuke thee, in verse 2. He's called the Lord. The Lord
said unto Satan, look at that. The Lord said unto Satan, the
Lord rebuke thee. Who's speaking? The angel of
the Lord. Another doctrine which is brought
forth in this wonderful portion of scripture is the doctrine
of election. And this doctrine brings great
comfort to God's people, doesn't it? Note the words in verse 2, the
Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem. That's another name for the church,
beloved. Now marvel at that. If you're
a child of God, the Lord chose you. Old hymn writer wrote this, it
is not that I did choose thee, for Lord, that could not be.
This heart would still refuse thee, hadst thou not chosen me. Thou from sin that stained me
has cleansed and set me free. To a sovereign mercy called me
and taught my opening mind. The world had else enthralled
me, to heaven's glories blind. My heart owns none before thee,
for thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing, if I love thee,
thou must have loved me first. Rejoice, ye who are the people
of God. Rejoice. Our great God is the God of electing
mercy. He's the God of electing grace.
And he is the God of electing love. And it says here, the Lord that
hath chosen Jerusalem. If you're a child of God, God
chose you. When? In eternity, before the foundation
of the world. Think of that. We were chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. How can we have
anything to do with our salvation? It's God's mercy and grace from
beginning to end. He's the author and he's the
finisher of this great salvation. It was not Joshua who chose to
serve the Lord, but the Lord chose Joshua to serve him. And
this is said of every born-again believer. You have not chosen
me, but I've chosen you. Isn't that wonderful? That's
wonderful. To think, to know what I was
and who I was before the Lord saved me, and even now, a saved
sinner, and what I, oh, our sinfulness, and to think that God chose us. and He chose us in eternity,
which we have nothing to do with, but because it pleased Him to
do so, the Scripture declares. What a great God. What a wondrous
Savior. What a wonderful Redeemer. Again, no wonder we sing, O Lord,
how great Thou art. He's so great. And the mercy
of God is brought forth in these verses, as well as the mighty
saving grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And remember, if
you're a child of God, you're a child of God by the almighty
power of God. You're washed clean from all
your sins. How? By the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And you're a brand plucked from
the fire. Isn't that wonderful? All of our salvation is of the
Lord. It's all His doing. It's not
by the will or the work of man, but it's by the will and the
work of God. It's not by the will and the
work of man, but it's by the will and the work of God. Romans chapter 9 says this, so
then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. And I mentioned earlier, you
don't hear a whole lot about the righteousness of Christ in
modern day religion. Because man is constantly trying,
whether they're religious or not, trying to establish their
own righteousness before God by what they do. Turn, if you would, to Romans
chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. And then put
your finger in Romans chapter 3. Again, this is not my opinion
about man going about trying to establish their own righteousness.
This is what the scripture declares. The scripture says this in Romans
chapter 10, verses 3 and 4. for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness. That was me, and that was you
in our natural state, because we were trying to establish our
own righteousness by our works. The only reason now we know about
the righteousness of Christ as God's people is because God's
revealed it to us, that Christ is our righteousness. That's
the only thing that made us to differ is God. For they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. And the righteousness of God
is Christ. For Christ, look at this. This is so wonderful. Oh, I love this verse. For Christ
is the end, E-N-D, the end. You can't go any further. The
end of what? The end of the law for righteousness.
He did it all in the room and place of his people, to everyone
that believeth. Now, there's the clause. To all
who he grants faith to, to all his people who believe on him,
who trust in him, who rest in him. Oh. Now, this is what. That which
is brought forth in this vision is that God's grace is always
exercised in perfect righteousness. That's what we're seeing in Zachariah.
It's always exercised in perfect righteousness. Listen to these
words in Isaiah. First, okay, turn to Romans chapter
three, and then I'm gonna read a portion of scripture from Isaiah. Romans chapter 3, we'll be looking
at verses 21 to 26 there. But I'm going to read you Isaiah
first. Isaiah chapter 45 verse 21, the scripture declares this.
Tell ye and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that
time? Have not I the Lord, that's Jehovah,
and there is no God, that's Elohim, beside me, a just God, Elohim,
and a Savior. There is none beside me." So
in Isaiah 45, 21, it tells us that the true and living God
is a just God and a Savior. Now look what it says here in
Romans chapter 3, verses 21 to 26. But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifest. Being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there
is no difference." Now here's the level playing field in the
world. We're all born sinners. The scripture says here, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've all
missed the mark. We've all missed the mark. That's
what that means. But look at this, this is here
we see the free grace of God, just in wonderful, wonderful,
being justified freely how? By his grace, how? Through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, through the shedding of
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God has set
forth to be what? Again, a propitiation, a sin
offering for his people through faith in his blood to declare
his righteousness. We know Christ is the righteousness
of God for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say at this time,
that he might be just. He's a just God, isn't he? That
he might be just in what? And the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus. Oh, our Lord, he is a righteous
God. He's a just God. And he is a
Savior. Because God himself came to this
world, the Lord Jesus Christ came to this world to redeem
his people from their sins. And you know what? He did it.
He did it. He accomplished that which he
came to do. Our great God is a just God and a savior. And
notice the angel of the Lord. Let's go back to Zechariah chapter
3. Notice the angel of the Lord who commands Joshua's filthy
garments to be taken off of Joshua. And it is God who will clothe
Joshua, too. Now, see, people in religion,
when I was in religion, I was just trying to establish my own
righteousness, right? So you're trying to do all these things.
You think, well, I'm doing this good, I'm doing this good, and surely
I'm gaining merit and favor with God. But meanwhile, all you're
doing is weaving a garment of filthy rags. That's all. Look what it says
here, though. Look at verse 4. And again, it's
God who will clothe Joshua in this new raiment. We can't do
it ourselves. 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 to pass from thee, and I will
clothe thee with a change of raiment. Now listen to these
wonderful scriptures in light of what we see happening here.
Psalm 132, verse 9. Let thy priests be clothed with
righteousness. All God's people are kings and
priests. Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness, and thy saints
shout for joy. Isaiah 11.5, and righteousness
shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of
his reins. Isaiah 59.17, for he put on righteousness
as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon his head, and
he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing. and was clad with
zeal as a cloak. Isaiah 61 10, I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. With the garments of salvation,
he hath clothed me. He hath clothed me with a robe
of righteousness. As a bridegroom decketh himself.
with ornaments as a bride adorneth herself with jewels, Isaiah 61,
10. He hath clothed us with salvation. He hath clothed us in his righteousness. And then in Revelation chapter
19, verse 78, it says, let us be glad and rejoice and give
honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his
wife hath made herself ready, and to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen. You know what that fine linen
is? That's the righteousness of Christ, beloved. We're arrayed
in fine linen. That's the righteousness of Christ.
Clean and white. Oh, my. For the fine linen is
the righteousness of the saints, Revelation 19, verses 7 and 8. God's people are made righteous
by Christ, clothed in the perfect, spotless righteousness of Christ. And it's brought forth right
here before us in verse 4. Again, let's read that again.
And note again. who commands this to be so? And he answered
and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away
the filthy garments from him. Now this is the angel of the
Lord saying this again. 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 chains of
raiment. Note these wonderful words. Note the wonderful words in that
verse. Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee.
Isn't that wonderful? How? By the precious blood of
Christ. And then it says this, and God
himself is saying this, and I will clothe thee. And every one of
God's people can say, look at this, this is me. And I will
clothe thee with the chains of raiment. The filthy rags of our
righteousness are taken off of us by God, and he clothes us
in the perfect, spotless righteousness of Christ. And it's all God's
doing. It's all God's doing. He did
it all. He did it all. I will clothe thee with a change
of rags. Joshua's clothed in the chains
of remnant, clean garments. And it's God himself who's done
this. Well, this can be said of every single born-again blood-washed
believer. Wonder of wonders. God has caused
our iniquity to pass from us. That's what the scripture declares.
That's good news for sinners, isn't it? That's really good
news for sinners. Sinners who've been saved by
the grace of God. God has caused our iniquity to pass from us.
We are washed clean in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And though we are redeemed, we're still sinners,
but praise be to God, God remembers our sin no more. That's amazing. That's amazing
grace, isn't it? That's amazing grace. Truly,
truly, that's amazing grace. God saves by grace, and grace
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. In all our works of righteousness,
all our works of righteousness which we tried to do, we acknowledge
they're but filthy rags. And God's people are made the
righteousness of God in him, in Christ. Christ is all to the believer.
He's our all in all. He's all our righteousness. He's
all our justification. He's all our salvation. He's
all our redemption. He's all our wisdom. He's everything. And it is the righteousness of
Christ alone that can make us worthy to stand in the presence
of a great holy God, the great and holy God, the one true living
God. Are you robed in the garment
of God's providing? Are you? Are you robed in the
garment of God's providing? Are you robed in Christ's righteousness? When he shall come with trumpet
sound, O may Then in him, oh, may then I in him be found, dressed
in his righteousness alone, faithful or faultless to stand before
his throne. So let we who are the redeemed
of the Lord, let we who are the redeemed of the Lord rejoice
in the fact that Christ is our advocate. And let we who are
the redeemed of the Lord, Remember these truths that we've looked
at this morning, all through this week. May we bring them
to remembrance. And may we rejoice in the fact
that God has done this. God has taken our filthy garments
away and clothed us in the righteousness
of Christ. And let us remember these things
here. If Christ is our advocate, He is our appointed advocate.
He's appointed by God to be our advocate. If Christ is our advocate,
then rejoice, because He is our accepted advocate. God accepted
the sacrifice of Christ. If He is our advocate, then rejoice,
because He's a sympathizing advocate. He knows. He was despised and
rejected of man. If Christ is our advocate, then
rejoice, because He's an able advocate. If Christ is our advocate,
then rejoice, because he's a ready advocate. He ever pleads for
us before the Father. And if Christ is our advocate,
then rejoice, because he's a successful advocate. There's never been a case, there's
never been a sinner, too much of a sinner, that he hasn't glanced. And how do we know this? Because
every believer can say, well, he saved me. He can save anyone
he pleases. Right? Yeah. Glory be to God. Heavenly
Father, we thank you again for your mercy and for your grace
and for your goodness. Oh, how, how great thou art,
oh Lord. How merciful you are to your
people. How wonderful you are to your people. We love you and
we praise you in Jesus name, amen.