We'll come back with me to the
book of Zechariah, the next to the last book of the Old Testament,
and we're in chapter three, the next of the visions that was
given to Zechariah, and I want to break it into two messages.
I want to just look at the first five verses this week. I've said
repeatedly that the whole of the Bible is for God to reveal
to his people, his beloved people from eternity, his eternal purpose
of grace, to reveal it, to show us that which we could never
work out for ourselves. It's to show us how God has a
plan. to accomplish the triumph of
his kingdom over that of Satan and of this world. And all of
these things, all of these events that are recorded, the history,
the prophecies, the gospels, the epistles, it's all layer
upon layer, precept upon precept, to teach us these things concerning
the eternal purposes of God. Let me remind you of the scene.
It's back about 450, 500, I don't know, I still haven't looked
up exactly, but thereabouts before Christ came, 450 or 500 years
before. It's at the end of the 70 years
of exile that Judah was sent to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar came,
the big Babylonian empire, and took them away for 70 years of
exile, exactly as God had prophesied by Jeremiah. For their idolatry,
they would be taken away. their temple would be destroyed,
the gorgeous, beautiful temple of Solomon, the priesthood, the
sacrifices, the security of Jerusalem, all of that which was an earthly
picture of the kingdom of God would all be destroyed, and they'd
go into exile for 70 years, and they went into exile, and people
like Daniel went into exile. And then after 70 years, God
did what he had said 200 years before by the prophet Isaiah,
that he would raise up Cyrus. And Cyrus, the Medo-Persian emperor,
they came and took over from the Babylonians. They took the
empire from them. Cyrus would not only allow the
Jews to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild, not only allow it,
but he'd actually commission it, and he would actually pay
for it. He sent them back with the authority
and the means to rebuild Jerusalem, to rebuild the temple, to re-establish
the worship of God there. And he said, the God of heavens
told me to do it. We don't know what the state
of the man's soul was, but the God of heaven purposed it. And
he said, the God of heavens told me to do this. People like Ezra
and Nehemiah, if you read before the Psalms, before the book of
Job, those books of the Old Testament at the end of the history period
of the Old Testament, they came back to Jerusalem and Ezra was
instrumental in building the temple and then Nehemiah later
the walls around Jerusalem. And God gave them prophets to
support them and encourage them. And one was Haggai, the prophet
before Zechariah. And he encouraged them. He told
them, you know, stop being settled and stop being despondent about
the opposition that we're getting. We've got to get on and build
this. But they still kept losing heart. They were still tempted
to cease the work because of the opposition and the difficulty
all around them. it would have been so much easier
for them just to compromise with the society in which they were.
And well, you know, maybe it doesn't really matter that we
build this and perhaps there's no problem and let's just get
on with a nice easy life. But no, Zechariah was raised
up by God to reveal the heavenly perspective and the purpose of
God. So in chapter one, apart from
the first few verses, we then see a vision, Zechariah sees
that vision of the myrtle trees and the man on the red horse
and it's God with his people in the world and then the next
one at the end of chapter one we see the purpose of God in
what it says is fraying Satan's world powers, the horns of world
powers that come to try and crush the church. This is the kingdom
of Satan. But he raises up preachers, carpenters, to bring the word
of God to fray those world powers. And then in chapter two, we see
the next vision. We see the certainty of God's
eternal purposes of grace and the triumph of his kingdom. It's
all there in chapter two, how his kingdom will be successful
he he will accomplish his purposes it won't be frustrated and then
in chapter three we get down to this qualification for citizenship
of that kingdom of God. This is our subject this morning.
Okay, the big picture is that the whole elect of God is taken
to glory. But let's get down to the level
of you and me. Okay, we see that God has a people,
a multitude that no man can number. I saw in heaven a great multitude
that no man can number. and they're all going to be in
heaven, but let's get down to the level of you and me individually.
Here we see the picture of how we are going to be there in that
eternal kingdom. In the first five verses we are
shown what the best of us is in our natural state, and if
the best of us is only like this, what are the rest of us like?
And then we see the powerful accusation that is brought against
us, and it's a perfectly justified accusation in its bare essentials
until we learn something else, which is that The sin of individuals
is removed and righteousness is put on by the doing and the
dying of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God, our Saviour. So let's
just read these first five verses of chapter three. 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 rebuke thee. Is not this, he's pointing
at Joshua, 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 unto him he said, Behold,
I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will
clothe thee with change of raiment. That's the title of our message,
a 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. What do we see first of all?
He showed me Joshua, the high priest, in this fourth of Zechariah's
visions, showing these people with work to do, with bricks
and mortar and opposition and all of those things, real work
to do to get this temple rebuilt and to get these walls re-established. He shows him Joshua, the high
priest. Who shows him that? Well, I think
it's in verse three of chapter two. If you look there, behold,
the angel that talked with me went forth. This is an angel
sent from God, from the Lord Jesus Christ, sent from him to
speak and show him this vision. And this same angel showed me
Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord,
standing before Christ. And Satan standing at his right
hand to resist him. The angel that talked to him.
This is who is showing him these things. And Zechariah sees Joshua. Joshua. We're not talking about
the one who followed Moses back in the Exodus days. No, we're
coming into the promised land. This is after the exile. So this is Joshua, the high priest. Who is he? Well, look back at
Haggai. Just turn back one page to Haggai chapter one and verse
14. And there it says, the Lord stirred
up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor
of Judah. He was the rightful prince. He
was in the royal line who should have been the king of Judah when
Nebuchadnezzar came and took them all away. Zerubbabel was
in that line. He was the rightful prince. So
he's there. and the spirit of Joshua the
son of Josedek the high priest and the spirit of all the remnant
of all the people and they came and did work in the house of
the Lord of hosts is Joshua the high priest of the day Joshua
the high priest of this of this day when Zechariah was here and
they were trying to do the work of rebuilding. He showed me Joshua. He showed me the spiritual leader
of their day. He was respected and honoured
by the people, was this Joshua. He must have been, he was the
high priest. You know, in the trial of Jesus in John chapter
18, and you see Jesus before Caiaphas, the high priest of
his day then, and in response to one of the questions of Caiaphas
to Jesus, The way that Jesus answered, which was full of grace,
but nevertheless, one of the servants of the high priest hit
Jesus in the face for disrespect. How dare you talk to the Lord's
high priest like that? They had this great reverence
for these high priests. Witness today the millions of
Catholics, for example, who reverence the Pope, whom they regard as
infallible when he's just a man. There's just this strange reverence
and respect for these religious leaders. But God shows that the
prime example of the priesthood was actually a worthless, filthy
sinner. The people's high priest, Joshua,
was a worthless, filthy sinner. Verse three, Joshua was clothed
with filthy garments and stood before the angel. He was the
colleague of the rightful prince, Zerubbabel, yet he's clothed
with filthy garments. The high priests, the scribes
and Pharisees, were revered for their holiness, but here Joshua,
the high priest of this day, is displayed as nothing, just
clothed in filthy garments, just a sinner. The High Priest of
the Mosaic Order was to be extravagantly clothed. You read about all of
the specifications of the clothing in the books of Moses and it's
elaborate. It's what he calls cunning work. It's impressive. An impressive
spectacle is set before the people, picturing the presence of God
in the midst of the temple. But Joshua, this high priest,
Joshua the rightful high priest in the rightful line, Joshua
the high priest stands silent, clothed in filthy garments. He's come out of Babylon. He's
a primary instrument of God for the rebuilding of the temple
in the days of Ezra. But before he could be an instrument
fit for the master's use, for our Lord's use, his sin had to
be dealt with. However high and regarded he
was as the high priest, his sin had to be dealt with. Sin? What
is it? It's the heart nature of all,
without exception, as we're born. That's what we are by nature,
as the children, as the descendants of Adam. The scriptures rightly
tell us what we are. In Jeremiah 17 and verse nine,
you know this verse. The heart, heart of man, yours
and mine, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? We get up on
our high horses thinking how good we are, but the heart, yours
and mine, is deceitful above all things. It's desperately
wicked. Who can know it? There's one
who can know it. Verse 10. I, the Lord, search
the heart. I try the rains. even to give
every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of
his doings. That's what we are by nature. In the bulletin I put a little
piece that was written a long time ago by Robert Hawker, and
this is what it says. The Hebrews had in use several
words by way of expressing the nature of sin in the diversities
of it, the different ways it works out. But the truth is that
sin does not consist in this or in that act of it. It's not,
oh, he did this or she did that. It isn't in this or that act
of it. For the acts of sin, the things we do, are but the branches. The branches of the nature, the
root of sin is within each one of us. The root of sin is in
the heart of each one of us as we're born in flesh and blood.
And the sins that we do and think and perform are just merely the
branches that grow from that. So strictly and properly speaking,
says Hawker, in the fallen and corrupt nature of man, sin itself
is alike in every son and daughter of Adam. We're all the same.
And that it does not break out alike in all, that we don't all
do the same things, the only thing that causes the difference,
he says here, is the power of divine restraints. If this doctrine,
which is wholly scriptural, were but thoroughly and fully understood
by all men, What humbling views would it induce in all, and how
endeared to all would be the person, blood, and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ? I beg to leave this on the reader's
mind, he says. That's what sin is, and that's
what is portrayed with Joshua in his filthy clothing, his filthy
garments. He's standing before the angel,
but he's in filthy garments. What was the particular branch
from the roots of sin that Joshua and these others, this high priest,
what was the particular branch of sin that they committed? The
answer was, in their day, it was a corrupting of the pure
line from which the Messiah, Christ, would come 450, 500 years
later to accomplish salvation. Turn with me back to Ezra, the
book of Ezra, before the book of Job, even, to Ezra chapter
nine, and a few verses there. Ezra chapter nine. We're trying
to find out what is it that made Joshua You know, we're all sinners
with exactly the same root within, but what was the particular branches
of sin that grew out of that same common root in the people
of his day, which made it appear, and it was certainly true, that
Joshua was clothed in filthy garments? It was this. In verses
1 and 2 of chapter 9, Now when these things were done, the princes
came to me saying, the people of Israel and the priests and
the Levites, listen, this is it, have not separated themselves
from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations,
even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, et cetera. Verse
two, for they have taken of their daughters for themselves. and
for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves
with the people of those lands. Yea, the hand of the princes
and rulers hath been chief in this trespass." Even the best
of them, the best of these Israelites, these Judeans, they've intermingled
with heathens, they've intermingled with those who want nothing to
do with the kingdom of God. They've married their daughters,
they've given their sons to their daughters. It's an intermingling
of that which God said had to be kept pure, because from that
line would come the Messiah. And verse 11, go down to verse
11 of chapter 9. Which thou hast commanded by
thy servants the prophets, saying, The land unto which ye go to
possess it is an unclean land, with the filthiness of the people
of the lands, with their abominations. which have filled it from one
end to the other with their uncleanness. Verse 12, now therefore, listen,
this is the command from God, give not your daughters to their
sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their
peace or their wealth forever, that ye may be strong and eat
the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your
children forever. And then in chapter, let's just
see, chapter 12, chapter 10, that's right, chapter 10 and
verse 18. In chapter 10 of Ezra and verse
18. And among, these are the ones
who confessed that they were guilty of that offense against
God of mingling with the people of the land among the sons of
the priests were found that had they were found that had taken
strange wives these were the wives of these heathen people
who did not follow the They didn't follow the kingdom
of God and the edicts of God. And listen, namely, of the sons
of Jeshua, that's him, Joshua, same person, Jeshua, the son
of Josedach and his brethren, and so on and so forth. And they
gave their hands that they would put away their wives. Their guilt
was this. This branch of sin from the heart,
from the core of what they were, this guilt was because they had
taken, they had mingled with the heathen people all around
them. And that's how it worked out
here. This is why specifically Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments. He's named as one of the priests
that was guilty of this, along with many of their people. It
was uncovered as this branch of sin. just as David, King David,
the one who's known as the man after God's own heart, the sweet
psalmist of Israel, and he'd taken Bathsheba in adultery,
another man's wife, and then to try and cover up his crime,
he'd had Bathsheba's husband, Uriah the Hittite, he'd had him
killed in battle, and he thought he'd got away with it, and time
went by, and one day Nathan The Prophet comes to him and tells
him a story about a very rich man that had many, many flocks,
and his neighbour only had one little lamb, which he loved dearly. And the rich man had somebody
come to him, and He wanted to give a feast for the person that
came to him. So instead of using one of his
own animals, he took the little lamb. Of course, it's a story,
but Nathan's telling him like this. He took the little lamb
of that one poor neighbor and he killed that so that he could
have a feast for his visitors. And David was absolutely furious
and he says, the man that did this will surely die. And Nathan
looked at him and said, David, you are the man. You are the
man. You see, it's uncovered. It's
revealed. The best of us, the most respected
of us, even Joshua the high priest, even King David in his kingly
palace and his kingly robes, are filthy, filthy, filthy before
the holiness of God. As we are, we're unfit for his
kingdom. God has a kingdom that he's establishing.
Here's the visions of that great kingdom, a multitude that no
man can number, redeemed from the curse of the law, but each
one is filthy, dressed in filthy garments. So here Joshua, under
conviction of sin, you'll notice it says nothing about him saying
anything whatsoever. He's like this in Romans chapter
3 and verse 19. Romans chapter 3 verse 19 says
this, now we know that what thing soever the law says, the righteous
law of God, it says to them who are under the law, that's all
of us as we're born, why? That every mouth may be stopped. What have you got to say? What
excuse can you give? None. Every mouth is stopped. All the world becomes guilty
before God. All of us are guilty of sin in
our natural state. That's what we are. We're unfit
in our natural state of flesh for the kingdom of God. We're
unfit for it. So here we are. If God will confirm
you and me as citizens of his kingdom individually, he first
must convict you of your sin. He must put that weight upon
you, as Christian in Pilgrim's Progress did. He had a great
big sack, a great big rucksack on his back, and it was the burden
of sin on him, because he knew that that would keep him out
of the kingdom of God. He knew that he must meet God,
and he had this sin to give account for. And so likewise, the prodigal
son, in the parable of the prodigal son, you know, before he can
come back to his father, He must come to the end of himself. He
must find that there's no hope in himself before he comes back.
He must know that he's a sinner and has sinned against his father.
The Samaritan woman at the well, she's hearing about the water
of life. that Jesus says, I will give
him water. You're drawing water from a well
of stagnant water on the earth, but I will give you the fountain
of living water welling up inside. But before she can drink of that
water, her sin must be exposed. She must be found guilty before
the justice of God. The despised publican who Jesus
pointed to, praying by the wall in Jerusalem, praying for mercy,
crying, beating his breast, God be merciful to me, the sinner,
as if he was the only sinner, he must get to that stage before
Jesus says he went down to his house justified. He went down
to his house with his sin removed. He went down to his house fitted
for heaven. If God will surely take his elect
to eternal glory, how do I, how do you, individual sinner, barred
from God's holy presence, how do we get to be there? Could
I possibly slip in unnoticed? Maybe I could get in and nobody
would notice. No, there's a powerful accusation
standing by. In verse one, look at it. He
showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of
the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him,
to accuse him, to push back against his entry into the kingdom of
God. This is Satan. This is Lucifer. He's many names in scripture.
Abaddon is another one. He's the devil. this is the one
standing there in this picture as we see the picture in the
book of jobe Satan coming before God and God saying to Satan,
where have you been and what have you been doing? I've been
wandering through the earth and God says to him. Have you considered
my servant Joe? Well, I'll go and let you I'll
let you put him through trials here. He is he's Lucifer. He
was Lucifer the This beautiful creature of God, but he was filled
before the beginning of time with envy and rage at God's elevation
of man and to that place of honour in his kingdom. He was filled
with fury as to how could God do this. And so he fomented the
fall to bar people from God's kingdom. I know that's a very
simple summary of it, but in essence I'm sure that's what
the scripture is teaching us. He fomented the fall to bar people,
human beings, from God's kingdom. How? How did he do that? For
most people, how are people going to be barred from the kingdom
of God? For most of the people all around us, the vast majority
that we know, for most, he puffs them up to think that they're
too good to need God to save them, if there is a God. They
don't need saving, they're too good. They're pretty decent people,
they're far better than most others all around. And then for
some others, what does he do? Some who are becoming aware of
their sin, He tries to persuade them that they're too vile for
God, and God can never accept them. Because look at them, they're
sinners. They're unfit for the kingdom
of God. Satan is defeated. We must remember this. Look at
Revelation chapter 12. Look at Revelation chapter 12
and verse seven. Revelation 12 verse seven. There
was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon. and the dragon fought and his
angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more
in heaven. What were they fighting about?
I'll tell you what they were fighting about. They were fighting
about the qualification of God's people for his eternal kingdom. That's what they're fighting
about. Are these people fit to go to heaven? And that great
dragon, verse nine, that great dragon was cast out, that old
serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole
world. And he was cast out into the
earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard, a
loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength
and the kingdom of God, thy kingdom come. Now it's come, and the
power of his Christ. Why? For the accuser of our brethren
is cast down. Here in Joshua, in Zechariah
chapter 3, we see Joshua being accused by Satan of not being
fit for the kingdom of God, and in his natural state he wasn't
fit for the kingdom of God, for he was a sinner who had clearly,
blatantly, though he be the high priest, he'd broken the commandments
of God. And Satan accused him day and
night before God. He accused, as he accuses all
of God's people, he is the accuser of the brethren. But do you know
something? He's defeated. Look at verse
11. They overcame him. How was the devil overcome? He
was overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their
testimony and they loved not their lives to death. The blood
of the lamb overcame him. He accuses God's people before
God himself of them being unfit for heaven, but then the Lord
rebukes him. Why is it the Lord that rebukes
him? Because only the Lord is qualified to rebuke him. He alone
has won the victory. It's by his blood satisfying
justice. He is the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Our Lord Jesus Christ in his
death on the cross when Satan thought he was most victorious
in destroying this one the picture earlier in in Revelation 12 is
of a dragon standing before the woman which is the church to
give birth to the Christ and he's going to devour him before
he comes. But how is he going to defeat the strong man? How
is Christ going to defeat the strong man? It says in Matthew
12, 29, Jesus himself said it. How can you spoil the strong
man's house and his goods except you first bind the strong man? He came and tied him up. He's
tied him up completely. He's triumphed over him. Colossians
2.15 says he's tied up principalities and powers. He's tied them up.
He's triumphed over them. He's carried them bound over
the satanic principalities. Neither Satan nor his devils
can bring any charge against the elect of God. Is that not
what Romans 8, 33 says? Who shall bring any charge against
God's elect? Well, why can't they bring any
charge? We're sinners, we're clothed in filthy rags, aren't
we? Why can't they bring any charge? Because Christ has died. Christ has paid the penalty for
the sins of his people. The multitude for which Christ
shed his redeeming blood, there is no sin left on them, because
he shed his blood for them. We're having communion at the
end of this service, and we haven't got a specifically communion
hymn mentioning the bread and the wine, but the whole point
of the communion service is to take it discerning the body and
blood of the Lord. And in the hymns that we're singing,
the body and blood of the Lord is quite clear, and it's here
in this as well. The multitude for which Christ
shed his redeeming blood and accomplished their purchase from
the bondage of sin. Yes, the Lord agrees with the
basis of Satan's accusing resistance. Look in verse two. The Lord said to Satan, the Lord
rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem
rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out
of the fire? Do you know what a brand plucked
out of the fire is? When you have a bonfire with
logs and you'll find that a piece of wood is burning at one end
of it, but it's not yet consumed. And you can rescue a burning
log from a bonfire. You can pull it out of the fire
and put out its flame. A brand plucked from the fire.
Yes, he's worthy of the judgment of God. He's worthy of the consuming
fire of God's justice in his flesh, in himself. But he's plucked
out of the fire. He's a brand plucked out of the
fire. The consuming fire of God's wrath
has been spent somewhere else. So that fire goes out. The consuming fire of God's wrath
has been spent for Joshua and for all the people of God, all
united in Christ. It's been spent on the Lamb of
God. The Lamb of God who was slain
from the foundation of the world. And he orders that Joshua's filthy
garments are removed. Look, take these filthy garments
off him, verse 4. Take away the filthy garments
for him. Why? Because they've been paid for. It's been dealt
with by the blood of the Lamb. He has done that which is necessary
to remove that sin from him. The iniquity passed from him
as one of God's elect onto Christ, who is God in flesh. And he bore the sins of his people
in his own body, says Peter, on the cursed tree. He is the
one who knew no sin, who was made sin. He was made the sin
of his people. I don't understand, nor do you,
how it happened, but God says it's so, that in the justice
of God's purposes, The sin of his people was placed on Christ,
and he bore it in his body on the cross, and paid its penalty,
and shed it his blood, his blood which is the life. The soul that
sins, it shall die, and the life is in the blood. And he bore
it, and he took it away. And it being taken away, it cannot
be. It cannot be paid for again.
It cannot be called to account anymore. What does it say here
in the hymn that we just sang? Or was it the first one? Yes. Verse 3 of the first hymn. If thou hast my discharge procured,
Christ has. If you're his child, believing
in him, he has procured your discharge from the charges of
sin in the courts of divine justice, and freely in my room endured,
in my place as my substitute, the whole of wrath divine. He,
in my Place endured the whole of wrath divine. Therefore, look
what the conclusion is. And this is the conclusion of
scripture. And this is the gospel. Payment, God cannot twice demand. There are things that God cannot
do. God cannot demand payment for sin twice. First, at my bleeding
surety's hand, Christ on the cross, and then again at mine.
If Christ has borne your sins, who can bring any charge against
God's elect? It is Christ who's died. He's
paid for it by his obedience. His obedience. What obedience?
His obedience unto death. That's the obedience. Christ
was obedient. Yes, he obeyed God's law perfectly
because that was because he was God in flesh. He was without
sin. But it's his obedience unto death. that purchased the release of
his people from the curse of the law and he removed the sins
of his people from them as far as the east is from the west
He, as it says in Jeremiah 50 verse 20, in that day of judgment,
the sins of Judah and Israel, meaning his people, who were
represented in him as their substitute when he died, their sins will
be looked for and they will not be found because they're taken
away. So what's the judgment of God on his people? You and
me, sinner, how are you and me individually sure that we are
amongst that multitude which will be there in that kingdom
of God without any sin. Song of Solomon chapter 4 verse
7, God says to his people, God says to his bride, thou art all
fair my love, there is no spot in thee. You could read that
in Ephesians chapter 5 about the church, Christ redeeming
the church and presenting it to himself, a spotless bride.
Believer, frail, yes we are in the flesh. Doubting, yes we are
in the flesh. We have times of fear because
the flesh is weak. How can insignificant you and
me be in that number, as it says, when the saints go marching into
eternal glory. How can we be sure that we will
be there? Exactly as Joshua was, Joshua
the high priest, in his filthy garments. Those filthy garments,
take them away, take them away. How do we know he's taken them
away? Call his name Jesus, Savior. Joshua, again, that was the name
of Jesus, Joshua. Call his name Jesus. for he shall
save his people from their sins. All of them, individually, so
that each one individually can say, my sin, oh the bliss of
this glorious thought, my sin, not in part but the whole, is
nailed to his cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord,
praise the Lord, oh my soul. The accuser has nothing for which
to sustain an accusation against us. But, you know, having taken
the filthy garments away, God doesn't leave his people naked,
and I've got about three minutes left to cover this. Verse four,
clothe you with a change of raiment, at the end of that verse. Iniquity
is removed, but dressed fitting for the marriage supper of the
Lamb. You know we're all going to that marriage supper of the
Lamb, and there's the parable in Matthew 22 that Jesus tells,
of one appearing at that marriage supper who isn't properly clothed
and he's cast into outer darkness. Do you know something? None of
the people of God go to that marriage supper of the Lamb unclothed. We all go clothed in the righteous
robes of salvation that the Lord has put upon us. As it says in
Isaiah 61 verse 10, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul
shall be joyful in my God for he has clothed me with the garments
of salvation. He's covered me with the robe
of righteousness as a bridegroom, decketh himself with ornaments
and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels. God has made his
people perfectly clean, perfectly righteous, perfectly fitted,
perfectly dressed for that day, for that time, for that marriage
supper of the Lamb. He found us in our state. Ezekiel
16, he found us as a child born in filthy conditions and washed
us and salted us and did all that was necessary to make us
as 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, to make us the righteousness of
God in him, in Christ, by his obedience unto death. Christ
has made everyone of his innumerable elect multitude individually
as righteous as God is. And anything less can't be admitted
to heaven, so he must have done it. And this is marked, and I'll
just close with this, one more minute. Verse five, he said,
let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair
mitre on his head and clothed him with garments. You must turn
back to Exodus, which is where this is referred to. Exodus chapter... Where have I got it? Exodus chapter
28 and verse 36. So this is about the robes of
the priest. Verse 36 of Exodus chapter 28.
And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold and grave upon it like
the engravings of a signet holiness to the Lord. And thou shalt put
it on a blue lace that it may be upon the mitre, the mitre,
the hat, the bishop's hat. I know we don't use things like,
False bishops hats and dress these days but there in the Old
Testament order that the priest was dressed up like this to Display
the truth of God that it may be upon the mitre upon the forefront
of the mitre in it and it shall be upon Aaron's forehead he says
In Zechariah chapter 3 and verse 5, put that mitre on my people. Put that mitre, holiness unto
the Lord on my people. The Lord pronounces his people. I said at the start, the vision
earlier was of the whole multitude, but what about you and me? Here
it is. All of his people individually have holiness unto the Lord stamped
upon us by the eternal decree of God and the saving grace of
Christ. And the whole of the Bible, God's
confirmation to his beloved people that they are made by Christ
completely acceptable to him. We all are in him, qualified
for citizenship in his kingdom and certain to inherit it. Rest
your weary soul in that promise of God who cannot lie.