back in the office when Brother
Bobby Estes read and prayed for us. And again, Brother David
read and prayed for us just a few minutes ago out here. Both mentioned
the great privilege of hearing the gospel of God's free grace
and worshiping with his people. What a great privilege this is. What a great privilege. I told the men back in the office,
I met a family this weekend. Shortly after God turned the
Soviet Union upside down, a man from the Ukraine and a woman
from some other part of Russia, I don't remember where Natalie
said she was from, both came to the United States. They got
in contact with one another. He was living in California,
her in Colorado. He started listening to radio. One night he heard
a strange sounding voice, some fellow from central Kentucky,
preaching on the subject free will or free grace. And God got
hold of his heart. He called up his girlfriend and
said, you got to hear this. Put the tape recorder up to telephone
and Talking long distance, she heard the first sermon she told
me the other day. I said, that was an expensive
sermon. She says, it's worth every dime, and he paid for it. They've
got two children attending church in Morrisville now, or Huntersville,
where the Ralph Dales pastor. These two boys, I guess they're
eight or 10 years old. Before I left there Sunday afternoon,
I said, I want you boys to hear something, and I hope God lets
you hear it when you get old enough to appreciate it. Our
God turned the world upside down so you could hear the gospel
of his free grace. And he still does. He still does. What a great, great privilege.
I take it serious, the privilege of hearing the gospel and preaching
it. I promised you 25 years ago almost You would never come to this
place and hear anything other than the gospel of God's grace.
And you wouldn't hear something warmed up and reheated and given
to you without preparation and care. I seek a message from God
for you. Not only for you, but wherever
I go to preach. I just, I take it serious. And I believe God's
given me a message for you tonight. Turn with me to Jude verse nine. In this ninth verse of his epistle,
Jude refers us to something that was obviously a matter of common
knowledge in his day. I say that because he speaks
of it just like you and I might speak to one another and say
when President Reagan was in office. I don't think there's
any need for us to specify all the circumstances you folks all
remember when President Reagan was in office. And Jude mentions
something here he doesn't bother to explain at all. He just mentions
it as a fact that was commonly known among God's saints in those
days. In our day, that which Jude refers
to here has become a matter of debate and controversy and confusion
for only one reason. Because men, I'm talking about
preachers now, love debate and confusion. Love to find something
new, something novel, something strange, something unusual from
the scriptures. I sometimes listen to fellas
try to make the scriptures say something they don't say, and
I say, why don't you just turn to John 3, 16 and tell us about
the love of God in Christ? Why don't you tell us something
plain and clear that's helpful? This love for the new, the strange,
the novel, the unusual is nothing on this earth but proud flesh
seeking to strut before men, nothing else, nothing else. God's
servants are not interested in showing you something new or
showing you what they know, how learned they are, how greatly
they have delved into mysteries that you couldn't otherwise understand.
God's servants are interested in declaring the old, old story
of Jesus and his love, that's all. the wondrous things of redemption
and grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. It is that old, old story
of God's great salvation in Christ to which Jude refers in this
ninth verse of his epistle. He is referring to a very well-known
example of how it is God saves sinners by his matchless grace
in Christ our mediator, the angel of the covenant. Read the verse
with me, Jude verse 9. Yet Michael the archangel, when
contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses,
durst not bring against him. against the devil, a railing
accusation, but said the Lord rebuke thee. Now here's the title
of my message, Michael the Archangel or Christ our Advocate. They're one and the same. Michael
the Archangel here is none other than Jesus Christ, our Advocate
with the Father. In the eighth verse, Jude denounced
those false prophets who creep into the church claiming to be
the messengers of Christ, but preachers of works and grace
mixed together. He denounces them as filthy dreamers
who defile the flesh. That is, they cast the flesh
in a different color. They dye it another color. They
make the works of the flesh, which are nothing but unrighteousness
and sin and filth to be works of righteousness by which men
and women hope to earn favor with God. These filthy dreamers,
he tells us, despise dominions. They despise the fact that God
is God. He's talking about religious
folks, religious leaders, who can't stand the fact that God
Almighty rules everywhere and everybody and everything all
the time, despise particularly the fact that Jesus Christ, the
God-man, our mediator, sits as Lord over all, and they refuse
to bow to Him as the Lord God, our Savior, and they speak evil
of dignities. That is, they blaspheme the glories. They blaspheme the name of God
and the glory of God revealed in Christ. Blaspheme him, denying
all that is vital to the glory of God in the salvation of his
people, in the character in which he reveals himself. These men
who love to speak evil of dignities. In a word, Judas is saying to
us, these lost religionists, love and promote strife and contention. They're never reluctant to speak
evil of and to blaspheme God. And that being the case, they're
never reluctant to speak evil of and to slander any other authority. God's servants and God's people
must not be such. God's servants and God's people
must not behave like this. Our Lord tells us that the servant
of the Lord must not be contentious, must not strive. but be patient
in meekness, instructing those who oppose themselves, if God,
peradventure, will grant them repentance in the acknowledging
of the truth. God's servants must not be people
who arrogantly slander others, particularly those who are in
authority. The Lord teaches us to be subject
to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready
to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers,
but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. And here's the
reason. For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lust and pleasures,
living in malice, and envy, hateful, and hating one another. Now here
in Jude, the ninth verse, Jude gives us a marvelous example
of that humility we ought to exemplify. He does so by referring
us to the meekness and humility of our Lord Jesus Christ as the
God-man mediator, our Savior, who sits upon the throne of glory. And I said it exactly as I intended
to. Read the text with me again. Yet Michael the archangel, when
contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses,
durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, the Lord
rebuke thee. Now, there are many who imagine
that Jude is here referring to something that was passed along
by Jewish tradition that has long since passed out of memory
unless you go back and read the ancient Jewish writings. Others
suggest that he is referring to a fable recorded in one of
the apocryphal books. Those apocryphal books are books
that have been added to the scriptures. If you get you a Roman Catholic
version, a Dewey version of scripture, you'll find that they have books
of the apocrypha. These are books approved by the Pope, because
papal doctrine can't be taught from the scriptures. They add
other things to it. And so they imagine that this
is referring to one of those apocryphal books called the Ascension
of Moses, where there is a record given of how that Satan and the
Lord Jesus, or Michael the archangel, are supposed to be disputing
about the resurrection of Moses' body and his burial place and
such as that. The Holy Spirit tells us otherwise.
The Holy Spirit tells us that Jude wrote neither by tradition
nor by giving us some apocryphal fable, but rather he wrote as
he was moved by God the Holy Ghost to write exactly as he
did. Now being convinced that those
who wrote the scriptures wrote by divine inspiration, I refuse
to look anywhere else to find that which they write about except
in this book. So we will tonight look only
in the scriptures to find the meaning of what Jude's talking
about here to find this event. Turn first, if you will, to Revelation
chapter 12. You're familiar with the passages
talking about the Christ and his church, and the persecution
against them, the warfare that continually goes on between the
seed of woman and the seed of the serpent, between Jacob and
Esau, between Ishmael and Isaac, between God's elect and the rest
of the world, between heaven and hell, a constant warfare.
In the word of God, we'll find out by looking here and elsewhere
who this archangel is. And the word archangel, is only
used five times in the scriptures, just five times. Every time it's
in the singular, never in the plural. This archangel is named
twice in the text we read in Jude, and again here in Revelation
chapter four. It can be only one person, and
that one person is our Lord Jesus Christ, here again called Michael. Look in Revelation 12 verse seven.
There was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels. Referring
to the same thing we saw in Jude verse 6. And the dragon and his
angels prevailed not, neither was their place found anymore
in heaven. And the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world. He was cast out into the earth
and his angels were cast out with him. Now, this is the first
thing to understand. Michael is none other than Christ
himself. The name Michael means one who
is God. The word archangel means chief
or head of the angels. Michael the Archangel is our
Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, our mediator, who by virtue of
his obedience to the Father, having accomplished all the Father
sent him to accomplish, has been raised up and given power and
dominion over all things, so that he is declared to be the
head of all principality and power, the head over all things
to the church or for the benefit of his elect. Without question,
the work described here in Revelation 12 is the work of Christ himself. It can't possibly refer to someone
else. It is Christ who bound Satan
and cast him out. Notice the reproachful names
that are given here to our adversary. Because he is furious with rage,
he's called the great dragon. Because he is the deceiver of
the whole world, the prince of this world who constantly deceives
men, he's here called that old serpent, the old serpent who
deceived Eve in the garden. And because he ever accuses God's
saints, and seeks to turn God against his people in vanity,
but seeks to turn God against his people and seeks to turn
his people against our God again in vanity. But he seeks to turn
us against our God. He is called the devil, the accuser,
Satan, who is as a roaring lion going about seeking whom he may
devour. The accuser who was cast out
of heaven has been cast out of power in the earth as well. You
remember our Lord spoke in John 12 and said, now is the Prince
of this world cast out. In Revelation 20, he's described
as the angel who comes down from heaven, having a great chain
in his hand, and he binds that old serpent, the devil, and he
binds him for this purpose, that he should deceive the nations
no more. so that by virtue of his obedience
and death as our substitute, having crushed the serpent's
head, the Lord Jesus has destroyed his power and influence to deceive
the nations of the world. Satan, up until the time that
Christ died and rose again and sends the gospel into all the
nations of the world, held the whole world in darkness and blindness,
in superstition of every kind, so that our forefathers, Jindal
nations, all of them, walked and groped about in darkness,
in the stupidity of the most blatant forms of idolatry and
religious superstition imaginable. There's nothing to compare, nothing
to compare in the most remote corners of Africa or New Guinea
with Greek mythology. Now you talk about idolatry,
and that's the idolatry with which the whole world was engulfed
until the Lord Jesus cast him out. And in the blinding of Israel
sends the gospel into all the world to gather his elect out
of the whole world, north, south, east, and west, until all Israel,
that is all God's elect, shall be saved. We shouldn't be surprised
to see the word angel used in reference to our Savior in his
mediatorial capacity. Now I realize that some folks
We'll jump all over this, say, well, that's Russellite doctrine.
That is Jehovah Witness doctrine. Jehovah Witnesses, those who
call themselves such, Russellites, they say that Jesus is Michael,
the archangel, and that means that he's not God. He's the first
and greatest and most preeminent creature of God. Well, let them
say what they want to. The scriptures teach plainly
what I'm talking to you about this evening. I'm not talking
about Christ, a created angel. I'm talking about Christ, the
angel of God, the angel of his presence. The word angel simply
means messenger. If you read Revelation 1, 2,
and 3, you'll find this man talking to you. Your pastor referred
to as an angel, as an angel. No wings, no halo, but an angel.
called the angel of this church. What's that mean? the man God
has gifted and placed here to bring his message to you, the
angels of the churches. Our Lord Jesus describes these
churches as those among whom he walks, and he holds these
angels of the churches in his right hand. Christ is preeminently
the angel of the Lord. He's the head, the chief messenger
of God Almighty. He's called the angel of the
Lord in the Old Testament. How often you read about the
angel of the Lord appearing to men. We read just recently in
Judges 13, how that the angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah
and his wife and they bowed down and worshiped him. Because the
angel of the Lord who appeared in the Old Testament was none
other than Jesus Christ himself, our God-man mediator in one of
his pre-incarnate manifestations of himself in the Old Testament.
Our Savior is called in Isaiah 63, the angel of God's presence
by whom we are saved. And he is described in Malachi
3 verse 1 as the angel of the covenant. Again, not a created
angel, but the eternal angel of God's presence. The angel
who is himself God, a man who is God. He is that great prince,
the archangel, before whom Daniel trembled, who came to help Daniel,
and by whose grace Daniel was given strength. You can read
about him in Daniel chapters 10 and 12. It is he who stands
for his people as our great advocate and defender. Now Jude here would
have us to behold Christ as Daniel did, to behold him as Michael,
our prince. and look upon him as our great
defender, our advocate, and our savior. And then he turns our
minds to a very familiar example of our Lord Jesus behaving as
Michael the archangel. You'll find it back in the book
of Zechariah. Jude speaks in verse nine about
Michael the archangel contending with the devil. Disputing about
the body of Moses. Now, if you're interested in
reading a bunch of words about nothing, try reading what men
say about this contention. Those words, the body of Moses,
let me help you with them. They weren't, they're not talking
about Moses' physical body. They're not talking about Moses'
physical body. Throughout the scriptures, particularly
in the New Testament, Moses is held before us as synonymous
with the law. You remember in John 5, our Lord
said, do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There's
one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom you trust. They're not
saying the Jews trusted Moses to save them, or saying that
Moses is going to stand up in the day of judgment and verbally
accuse them, but rather he's saying the law by which you think
you have access to and acceptance with God stands to judge you.
In Acts 15. The church or the council at
Jerusalem, we read Moses of old time hath in every city then
that preach him, not preach Moses' physical body, but preach the
law that was given by Moses. The apostle Paul in second writing
to the Corinthians speaks of him in exactly the same way.
So the contention here spoken of was a contention that had
something to do with the law of God and that contention was
so commonly known among these people to whom Jude is writing
that there was no more need for him to specify it than if he
had said, now I'm talking to you about God bringing Israel
across the Red Sea. Everybody knew what he was talking
about. It's found here in Zechariah chapter three. Begin reading
with me in verse one. 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. Does that look like what
Jude said? He durst not bring a railing accusation, but said,
the Lord rebuked thee. The Lord rebuked 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 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 on his head. So they set a fair mitre upon
his head and clothed him with garments, and the angel of the
Lord stood by. First, we see here Joshua standing
before the Lord in filthy garments. Joshua. Now, this is not talking
about Joshua, Moses' successor. This is talking about Joshua
who lived in the days of Ezra. He is named in Ezra 10 and verse
18. This man is one who came out
of the Babylonian captivity with the children of Israel, and he
was a primary instrument of God for rebuilding the temple in
the days of Ezra. But here he stands before us
as one who is clothed with filthy garments. Why? Because in Ezra
10, 18, we're told that Joshua and his sons had broken God's
law openly, taking to themselves heathen wives from among the
Babylonians. And the sin must be dealt with,
must be dealt with both for the sake of Joshua and for the sake
of the children of Israel, for whom he was appointed priest
by God himself. Here, Joshua stands before the
Lord, conscious of his sin and his guilt. He is here said to
be standing verse one before the angel of the Lord. Look at
verse three. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments and stood before the Lord. What? Did Joshua make a
mistake? No, he wrote exactly what he
intended to. He who is the angel of the Lord is here called the
Lord himself. In verse five, Zachariah tells
us, and the angel of the Lord stood by. The angel of the Lord
standing by is our all glorious savior, our advocate, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the son of God. Again, not one of the created
angelic host, not one of those whom he created, but he's the
angel of the Lord because he's Jehovah's messenger, the one
by whom God speaks to his people. the word of God in whom God reveals
himself. He is the angel of the covenant.
This one called the angel of the Lord in verse one, we're
told in verse two, is himself Jehovah. This man who is God,
the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ is our almighty
advocate and our effectual intercessor before God. Now look at verse
one again. Back here in Zechariah chapter
three. Satan stands here at Joshua's right hand to resist him. Here's Joshua standing before
the Lord, fully aware of his guilt, fully aware of his sin,
fully aware of his filth because of that which he was and that
which he had done. His garments are defiled because
he's broken God's holy law and Satan stands at his right hand
to resist him. Have you ever been there? I've
been there a bunch. Matter of fact, I stand precisely
in that place right now all the time before God. filthy in myself. Knowing everything
I am is filthy. Knowing everything I do is filthy. Knowing everything I think is
filthy, filthy before a holy God. And Satan loves to remind me and would convince me that I
ought to turn from God because God will never accept me. How
does he resist us when we stand before God? I don't need to tell
you, I don't expect. But let me remind you, he resists
us by accusing us. He resists us by attempting to
conjure up again the body of Moses that would condemn us. By attempting to raise up the
law and thereby condemn us before God. The law, he says, demands
perfection. And you stand before the Lord. Moses demands that you must die
for the soul that sinneth it shall die. And you stand before
the Lord in hope of mercy. The law demands holiness. Holiness. And you know full well
you don't have any. The law says it shall be perfect
to be accepted. And yet you stand here in your
filth hoping that God will accept you. What a sad, sad picture. If that's all there were to the
picture, it would be sad. But bless God, that's not all
there is to the picture. Look at verse two. The Lord said
to Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke
thee. Is not this a brand plucked out
of the fire? Now here's a picture of the Lord
Jesus. making intercession for his elect as the archangel, the
angel of the Lord, the angel of his presence, our advocate
and intercessor. Satan's our adversary, but Christ
is our advocate. Satan is our accuser, but Christ
is our intercessor. Turn over to Joshua, if you will.
Hold your hands here in Zechariah and turn to Joshua. I'm sorry,
not Joshua, but Micah, the book of Micah, chapter seven. Here's
Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord. Now, read Zechariah
3 again carefully at your leisure. I read the chapter over and over
and over again preparing this message. Do you know what Joshua
said in this chapter? Nothing. Do you know what Joshua
did in this chapter? Nothing. Nothing. He stood in
silence before the angel of the Lord, and the Lord took up his
cause. The Lord, the angel of the Lord,
pleaded his cause. Just as Micah speaks here in
Micah chapter seven, verse eight. Rejoice not against me, O mine
enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord
shall be light unto me. I will bear the indignation of
the Lord because I've sinned against him. I won't deny it,
I won't say it's not so. Charge me whatever you want to,
I'm guilty. Say whatever vile thing you will
about me, it's true. Make any accusation you wish,
I'm guilty. I'll bear the indignation of
the Lord because I sinned against him. But bless God, I won't bear
it before him and I won't bear it forever. until he plead my
cause, now watch this, and execute judgment. The word, Larry, is
righteousness, justice. Until he plead my cause and execute
justice for me, then he will bring me forth to the light and
I shall behold his righteousness. No wonder he says what he does
in verse 18. Who is a God likened to thee
that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever
because he delighteth in mercy. When the Lord Jesus here says,
the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, back here in Zechariah 3. And
when Jude quotes this and says he durst not bring a railing
accusation, but said the Lord rebuke thee. There is no indication
that our Lord yielded ground to the devil. There is no indication
that he somehow lacks the self-sufficiency of absolute omnipotence, but
rather he is speaking as our mediator. And he's speaking as
Joshua's advocate in the court, declaring the basis upon which
Satan's accusations must fall to the ground. Let me see if
I can illustrate. Should I be charged with a crime? And I go to court. And the prosecuting
attorney attempts to charge me with a crime that took place
on Tuesday night, March 1st, 2005, at 815 in Harrodsburg. Well, I would either have a lawyer
appointed or get you to hire me one, and we'd go to court,
and the lawyer would call you to the stand. And the lawyer
would say, that can't be. That can't be. That can't be. Because these witnesses saw him
standing in Danville, Kentucky, Grace Baptist Church, at that
exact hour. And the justice of the court
demands that the accusation be cast out. That's what he's doing
here. Our Lord Jesus, when Satan would
accuse his own of sin, whether in your conscience or before
God, says, God, shut him up. Shut him up. See here the price
of his ransom. And my own life laid down for
him. See here, the righteousness of his deeds and the righteousness
I perform for him. And declaring the basis of divine
pardon to be justice, righteousness, and truth, our Lord contended
with Satan, silencing forever his legal accusations against
Joshua and against us. He speaks as the angel of the
covenant, as Michael the archangel, our mediator and advocate. And
he points to the irrefutable ground upon which Joshua must
stand accepted before God. Now hear me. He points to the
irrefutable ground, Bob Dove, on which your wretched, worthless
soul must stand accepted before God. His own blood and his own
righteousness. His own perfection as your mediator
and redeemer. This is the thing to which Jude
refers in our text. The Lord Jesus durst not rebuke
Satan, not because he dared not rebuke Satan, not because he
didn't have the power to rebuke Satan. He is Satan's God. but rather because he is here
speaking as one in his mediatorial character and it doesn't belong
to his character to rebuke Satan, but rather the character of God,
the just sitting on his throne, who says, I behold no iniquity
in Israel and no sin in Jacob. And I look and there is no sin
in Israel and no crime in Judah, for I know whom I have justified. Rather, as our advocate, our
Lord Jesus pleads merely his righteousness and justice according
to the very demands of the law, which have been fulfilled. And
when he does that, When he does that, he sends the
old serpent slithering back to hell with nothing to say. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Listen to what it says. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? Who
shall lay a charge against me? before my God who has declared
me just in his sight. Who is he that shall condemn
me? It is Christ who died, yea rather,
who's risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Now back here in Zechariah
again. Here the angel of the Lord, the
Lord Jesus Christ, Michael, the archangel, The Son of God, our
Savior, speaks to Satan, our accuser, and declares three reasons
why Joshua, the high priest, and every believing sinner must
be cleared of all charges. Three reasons why God will not
and cannot and shall never impute sin to his elect. Here's the
first. He says, the Lord rebuke thee. The Lord rebuked thee, as if
to say, God will forgive my people because I said it. Because I said it. The Lord Jesus
stands before our father, read his prayer in John 17, and calls
upon our father to keep us from evil. and to keep us from the
evil one and to deliver us. And you know what God's going
to do? He's going to keep us from evil and keep us from the
evil one and deliver us perfectly into his kingdom. The merits
of Christ forbid the possibility of anything else. His presence
in heaven is a perpetual plea for our pardon. Here's the second
thing. Our accuser is silenced by God's
purpose of grace and election. He says, the Lord rebuked thee,
O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuked thee. It's as though he laughed in
the devil's face. Yeah. And said, uh, these are chosen. These are mine elect whom the
father has given me. My friends, when you stand before
God, aware of your sin, fall back on Christ's redeeming merit and God's eternal
purpose of grace in him. And if you can't fall back on
that, you've got nothing to fall back on. Your free will won't
do you much good when you're aware of your guilt and your
sin. Your pretense of good works won't do you much good when you
stand before God naked in your filth. Oh, but being aware of
my corruption and my depravity and my sin, I fall back on the
blood atonement and perfect righteousness of God my Savior, the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, in whom God Almighty from eternity
has blessed me as his chosen. And therefore, I pray like David. You read it back there in the
office a little while ago. Did you ever notice how often David prayed for forgiveness
for thy namesake? Lord, for your name's sake, your
name's at stake in this. You chose me, you redeemed me,
you bought me, I'm yours. And God's name's at stake in
the saving of his people. And then thirdly, our accuser
is silenced by the immutability of God's grace and the humble
state and condition of God's elect in this world. Look what
it says. Our Savior looked at Joshua standing there with his
filthy, tattered garments and he said, is not this a brand
plucked out of the fire? I read that for years and I thought,
that ain't much of an argument. That's not much of a reason for
Satan to shut up. But I think otherwise now. Our Lord is saying, I won't charge
my people with sin, and here's the reason. I've saved them,
and my grace is immutable. There stands Don Fortner. I plucked him out of the fire,
and I didn't pluck him out to cast him back in. I am the Lord,
I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not concerned. And more than that, I'm not done with him yet. It is as though the Lord said
to Satan, what can you expect from a bran plucked out of the
fire but filth? Thank God, he remembereth our
frame. He knows that we're just dust
and ashes. And he hath not dealt with us
after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. He who plucked us out of the
fire will finish his work in us and for us. And when he gets
done, he will present us to himself a glorious church, not having
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. No spot of sin, no wrinkle of
infirmity, but holy and without blemish before Him, exactly as
He predestined it should be before the world was when He chose us
in Christ, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him. in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. In a word, Jude is assuring us,
as Zachariah does, as Paul does, as all the scripture does, God
Almighty will never charge his elect with sin. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Yes, thank God, Moses
is dead and buried forever. Yes, Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, and insofar as
God's people are concerned, nobody will ever find Moses' dead body. He will never be raised up against
us. Satan tries, but he can never raise the body of Moses against
the redeemed. Now look at the commandment that
was given back in Zechariah 3, verse 4. Michael is still speaking. Here's
the work of grace effectually applied to the hearts of God's
people. In verse 3, Joshua was clothed with filthy garments
and stood before the angel, verse 4. And he, the angel, answered
and spake to those that stood before him, saying, take away. the filthy garments from him.
And unto him he said, behold, now watch this, I have caused
thine iniquity to pass from thee. I put away your sin. And I will
clothe thee with a change of raiment. Verse five, and I said,
now frankly, I don't know who that is. Maybe it's God the Father. Maybe it's the triune God. Maybe
it's the Spirit of God. Maybe it's Christ, the angel
of the Lord. But it seems to me most likely the one speaking
here is the prophet Zechariah. He's observing this thing, and
he heard all that the Savior did, and he said, Amen. Take him to glory. Amen! Let it be so. even with this man who is by
nature nothing but one clothed with filthy garments. Let him
set a fair mitre on his head. What is that? You can read it
back in Exodus. Holiness to the Lord. Holiness to the Lord. We come
to God, accepted by Jesus Christ, With this fair miter in the forefront
on our heads, God declares holiness to the Lord. Holiness to the Lord because
Christ is our holiness. Read on. So they set a fair miter
on his head and clothed him with garments. fine linen, clean and
white, the righteousness of the saints, the garments of salvation. And the Lord Jesus stood by smiling. The angel of the Lord stood by
with approval and delight and satisfaction. Amen. In your hymn book number 217.
217. We'll sing the first, second, and third.