gems are scattered throughout
these ten verses. Joshua, the high priest, is here
standing before the Lord, Satan, at his right hand to accuse him.
His garments were filthy, but this man was chosen of God. The Lord God himself undertook
for him. The Lord God himself took up
his call. Blessed is that man who calls
God has undertaken. Joshua stands before us in this
chapter as a representative of God's elect. His experience here
is a picture of the conversion of chosen sinners, the revival
of God's church, and the restoration of fallen believers. the entire
work of grace, that is, everything that we as sinners experience
in the grace of God, arises from and is based upon the redemptive
work of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it is particularly described
here in verses 8 and 9. Let's read those two verses together.
Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit
before thee, for they are men wondered at. For behold, I will
bring forth my servant, the branch. For behold, the stone that I
have laid before Joshua, upon one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the graving
thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity
of that land in one day. God's church, his kingdom is
a great host of men and women who shall be wondered at. Do
you see that here? Men wonder at. Now that strikes
me as a little strange considering what I'm looking at now. There's
not much here to wonder at. There's not much here to impress
a man, much less to impress all men. Not much here to impress
men, much less to impress the angels of God. But here, God's
church is described as people, men, wondered at. Wondered at
forever. Wondered at not because of what
we are. Not because of what we have done
or experienced, or may yet do and experience. But rather, wondered
at because of what God and His grace has wrought for us, upon
us, and in us. And what He shall yet work for
us, upon us, and in us. So that in the last day, the
Lord God will stand his church, all the countless multitude of
his redeemed, and he will say, look here what my grace has done. And for eternity, wandering world
shall wonder at God's people. Then the Lord Jesus is described
here as the stone, the stone of Israel. the rock of our salvation,
the headstone of the corner, the chief cornerstone. He is
called the foundation stone that has been laid by God. He is laid
before God's Joshua's in the day of grace. And we build upon
Him as we have been built upon Him. So that in the experience
of conversion, the Lord God, He has from eternity laid Christ
as the foundation stone. But He comes to chosen sinners
in the time of grace and lays Him before His Joshua's and calls
His you to build upon this foundation, casting aside all other hopes. To the unbelieving he is a stone
of stumbling and a rock of offense. Listen to this. But to you who
believe he's precious. This is how Peter put it. Unto
you therefore which believe he is precious. This one who is
the headstone of the corner. But unto them which be disobedient.
The stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient,
whereunto also they were appointed." Now then, look at the next line
here. Seven eyes. Upon that one stone shall be
seven eyes. What on earth does that mean?
That's talking about the eyes of all God's elect. You see,
all true believers, now listen to me, all true believers have
the same hope. All of them do. If your hope
is not such as I described in the preaching of the gospel,
you and I don't have the same hope. You don't have a good hope
through grace unless your only hope is Christ. Mentioned about
it this morning in the Sunday school class, teaching out of
Romans 15. Our God is the God of hope. Now, the only hope a
sinner has is this foundation stone that has been laid by God
himself. Jesus Christ, the Lord, his blood,
his righteousness, his atonement, his grace, he alone is our hope. If you place hope anywhere else,
If you have hope before God in anything else, you've missed
Christ. You've missed him altogether. Upon this one stone shall be
seven eyes. The word seven is the word used
in Scripture to imply grace, perfection, completion, fullness,
entirety. The word with regard to the Antichrist
is six, six, six. That's the word of man. It's
the word that implies imperfection. Incompletion. No success. Oh, but the word of grace is
seven. Seven eyes. That is, all the
eyes of all God's elect are fixed on Jesus Christ and Christ alone,
looking to Him. We live. He says, look unto me
and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and
beside me there is none else. Now look at the engraving of
the stone. Behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the
Lord of hosts. The Lord God himself has engraved
the names of his elect from eternity upon this stone, this foundation
stone which he has laid from eternity. He has engraved our
names upon the palms of Christ's hands as our surety in the covenant
of grace. You remember in the Old Testament
the high priest wore the breastplate with the names of the twelve
tribes of the children of Israel. That breastplate represents the
breastplate of Christ, our high priest, bearing the names of
the twelve tribes of the true Israel of God, the 144,000 of
God's elect, a specific number given for an indefinite number
to tell us that God Almighty has chosen a specific people
and engraved our names upon these stones as our great high priest
engraved from eternity. The names of God's elect were
written on his breast, engraved upon his heart as our representative
as he stands before God. Now then, let's look at the last
sentence of verse 9 and this will be my text this morning.
The Lord God says, I will remove the iniquity of that land in
one day. Now that's what I want to talk
to you about. Iniquity removed. What a subject. Our text speaks
of the blessed removal of sin by the Lord our God. You keep your Bibles open on
your laps, and we will look at this sentence word by word. First, the Lord God says, I will. I will. I love that. I will remove
the iniquity of that land. Let's think about those two words
for just a minute. How I love to hear God Almighty
say, I will. For when God says, I will, probably
the work's as good as done. Our God, when he puts his hand
to something, the work is done. God says, I will remove the iniquity
of that land in one day. Now when we speak of the removal
of sin, understand the work is God's work alone. None but God
can remove sin, forgive sin, and pardon sin. He says, I will
remove the iniquity. It is God's prerogative alone
to remove iniquity. Absolution belongs to God, not
to a preacher, not to a priest, not to some No absolution belongs
to God alone. When our Lord Jesus Christ said,
neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. When he said,
your sins are forgiven you. He was claiming himself to be
God. And the Jews understood that.
They said, who can forgive sin but God? Only God can forgive
sin. And any man, now listen to me,
any man Who dares to stand in the place of God and say, I forgive
your sin, is a blasphemer and a deceiver. Any man. Only God
can forgive sin. Bless the Lord, O my soul, the
psalmist said. All that is within me, bless
his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. Who forgiveth all thine. What a word. Who forgiveth all
thine iniquities. It's interesting, the word is
used in the present tense, who forgiveth, and yet forgiveness
is declared as being something already done. I often hear fellows
quibbling about nothing. They debate, say, well, should
we should we pray for forgiveness if God's already forgiven us?
Well, that's kind of silly. That's kind of silly. Yeah, we
pray for it. We pray for it on the basis of
the fact that God's done it and his forgiveness is a continual
thing. It's done, but it's perpetual. He forgives all your iniquities,
past, present, and future. Listen to this. He says, I, even
I am he that blotted out thy transgression for mine own sake,
and will not remember thy sins. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel,
for thou art my servant. I have formed thee. Thou art
my servant, O Israel. Thou shalt not be forgotten of
me. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud by transgressions, and as a cloud by sins. Return unto
me, he says, for I have redeemed thee." He will abundantly pardon,
and on that basis he says, come unto Come, turn now to the Lord. Seek Him, for He may be found.
He will have mercy. He will abundantly pardon. Will
you hear me? You who are heavy laden with
iniquity, come now to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our God declares
He will abundantly pardon. Now pause for a moment to consider
the word I. Let me translate it for you.
The I here is God Almighty. One God. Behold here, O Israel,
the Lord our God is one Lord, but three distinct persons, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, has removed the sins of his people by the sacrifice
of himself. Listen to Hebrews 1.3. When he
had by himself purged our sins. I love that word, don't you?
Purged them. These shirts. I get spaghetti on them every
time I eat spaghetti and get gravy on them every time I eat
gravy. If somebody else is eating it, I'll get it on them. And
Shelby, she just throws them in the wash and they come out
clean. Oh, no. Now she puts a shout out and
Clorox and all that stuff in there. She scrubs them and scrubs
them and scrubs them. And look at that. You might find
one, but I don't think so. Not a spot there. She's purged
them. The spots go. Every spot of the
field. Every spot of the corruption. Will you hear me? James Jordan,
that's how Jesus Christ purged yourself. Thoroughly, completely,
absolutely, one time, forever, with his blood. And he said,
on the right hand of the majesty on high. God the Father, having
received the sacrifice of Christ, His justice now being satisfied
by the blood of His own dear Son, has removed our sins from
us. Listen to the Scriptures. As
far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions
from us. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. The psalmist
said, there is forgiveness with thee. that thou mayest be feared.
He said, if thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who
shall stand? But there's forgiveness with
you that you may be feared. Blessed be his name. I'm so thankful. He said he removed our sins from
us as far as the east is from the west, not as far as the north
is from the south. I can find the north pole, I
can find the south pole, but not the east pole or the west
pole. He's removed them from us infinitely they're gone, cast
behind his back forever. The Lord God describes this forgiveness,
this removal of sin in so many ways, but he illustrates it so
beautifully in Luke chapter 15. He gives us a parable with three
pictures, a lost coin, a lost sheep, and a lost boy. And that
lost coin, that's valuable, valuable. So is the souls of chosen sinners
valuable to God. And like the woman swept the
house, so the Holy Spirit sweeps through this earth, finding God's
lost coins and gathers them in all their joy, great joy. But
then the lost sheep, that's more valuable than the lost coin.
That's something else than sheep in a land where shepherds are
dominant. Sheep are something else. And
the Lord God speaks of one lost sheep whom he seeks and seeks
till he finds it and lays it on his shoulders and brings it
home. And oh, there's great joy when the sheep is brought into
the fold. But then the most valuable of all, here's a picture of God's
elect, that lost son. That prodigal son, due to his
own ungodliness, due to his own choice, due to his own rebellion,
due to his own corruption of nature, due to his own corruption
of life, he leaves his father's house, and takes his father's
goods, and wastes his substance in riotous living, and is brought
to earth, destitution. And God in his providence brought
him there. Oh, blessed is that man, Rod,
whom God has caused to come to himself. And he says, how many
hired servants are there in my father's house who have been
enough to spare? And here I perish with hunger.
In his, in his filth and corruption, he says, I'll arise and go to
my father and I'll say, I'm not worthy to be called your son.
Make me as one of your hired servants. And when he did, his
father saw him when he was a great lay off. I can't get over this. I just can't get over this. The
only time in this book, the only time, Gary, when God ever is
pictured as getting in a hurry, he got up and ran to that prodigal
son and fell on his neck and kissed him. Woo! Kill the fairy
tale! My son's come home. Let's rejoice
together. God Almighty, will you hear me? Delights in mercy. He delights
in mercy. God rejoices to forgive sin. God rejoices to put away sin. God rejoices to remove iniquity. That's His pleasure. And God
the Holy Spirit, when He comes to the sinner in the day of grace
and mercy, and sprinkles the blood of Christ on the guilty
conscience, He removes iniquity. He takes it away. Now it was
taken away when Christ died, yes. It was taken away in the
decree and purpose of God when God ordained it. But none of
that's going to do you any good personally till God the Holy
Spirit comes and sprinkles blood on your conscience and says your
iniquity is gone. And I'll tell you how he does
it. When he the Holy Spirit has come, you can read it in John
16. He will reprove, he will convince He will convict the
world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Now, when the
scripture says that he will reprove, or as we translate the word,
convict, conviction does not mean just that he's going to
kindly get you in a notion of thinking this way. That's not
it at all, Merle. It means when he comes to you,
he will convince you by his word, by the power of his grace, of
your sin. Now, I can't do that. I can't
do that. No man can do that. But I will
tell you right now, if God Almighty ever comes to you, there won't
be any question in your heart and mind about your sin. God
be merciful to me, the sinner. You'll quit justifying yourself.
You quit saying, well, you know, I'm not so bad. I haven't. I'm
the sinner. And I want to tell you something.
You will never find God's grace. You will never experience God's
mercy. You will never know God's salvation
until God convinces you of your sin. But he won't leave it there.
Oscar, he'll convince you of righteousness. Not yours, you
ain't got any. His. He'll convince you that
Jesus Christ, by His obedience to God, as the God-man, has brought
in everlasting righteousness, and He is the righteousness of
God. The only hope you have for righteousness
is Him. And He'll convince you of something
else. He'll convince you of judgment. Not future judgment. Everybody
knows that. You know, if you can find some
tribesman in the heart of Africa or down in New Guinea who's still
eating his neighbors with bones running through his nose, he's
convinced of judgment to come. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about when the Spirit of God comes, he will
convince you of your sin, of his righteousness, and of judgment
accomplished in Jesus Christ the Lord. So that when the Spirit
of God convinces you of sin, he convinces you it's gone too.
He comes and declares not guilty. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Now then, look at the next part
of this text. The Lord God says, I will remove
the iniquity, look at this, of that land. Now we don't have
to guess about what this is. If you want to turn back to Isaiah
chapter 8 for just a moment. That land here is not the land
of Judea or of Chaldea or of the city of Jerusalem. God is
not concerned for all lands or for any geographical land. God's
concern is for that land. That land is Emmanuel's land.
That land is the church and kingdom of our God. It's a spiritual
declaration. And you know this from Isaiah
chapter 8, because in Isaiah's vision, chapter 8, in verses
1 and 2, this man Zechariah is himself a witness to what Isaiah
here reveals. And he says in verse 8, this
is the land. And he shall pass through Judah, and shall overflow
and go over, and he shall reach even to the neck, and the stretching
out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land. Oh, Emmanuel. Not physical land. Not some earthly place. Oh, no, no, no. He's talking
about the church and kingdom of God. That's Emmanuel's land.
Whether it's here in this little assembly, or whether it's yonder
in heaven, or whether it's the whole of Emmanuel's land. I wish
somehow I could get this world to understand that Judaism is
over forever. As far as God's concerned. This
business of God returning to Jerusalem, Christ returning to
Jerusalem, sitting on a little peanut throne over there in Jerusalem,
and coming off the throne of glory is utter nonsense. Jesus
Christ came here to remove the iniquity of God's elect, that
land, His church and His kingdom. Our sins and iniquities are described
as the iniquity of that land. You see, God's grace is sovereign,
distinguishing grace. The Lord Jesus Christ came here
to suffer and bow for that land of his elect. His forgiveness
is distinguishing forgiveness. It is for that land of people
for whom he died. I want so much for everyone here
to understand. The greatness of our sins is
no barrier, however, to God's grace and his forgiveness. It
is written where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. The
word iniquity is a comprehensive term. It means inequity. It includes everything that is
not right and righteous. Everything that is not equitable
toward God and man. It encompasses the entire gambit
of sin. Outward transgressions and inward
transgressions. omissions as well as transgressions. Iniquity means everything that's
evil, everything that falls short of absolute holiness. And the
Lord God says, I'll remove the iniquities of that man one day. One day. There is no evil that can be
named among men, for which you will not find numerous examples,
in God's church. Indeed, most of them right here.
The iniquities he removes are many, committed by many, often
repeated, but they are completely removed. Now the inference is
clear. This is what I'm saying. Will
you listen to me? Your sin is no barrier to God's forgiveness. In fact, Your sinnerhood is the
only grounds on which you can ever obtain God's forgiveness.
This is how David prayed. Pardon my iniquity, O Lord, for
it is great. That doesn't seem like much of
a way to ask for pardon, does it? Oh, it does to folks who
know what sin is. And it does to folks who know
who God is. Now, if you go into the court, hide it. If you're
going down here to appear before Judge Shoemaker, don't tell him
everything. But when you come to God, tell
him everything. And pardon my iniquity, for it
is great. Your sin is no hindrance to God's
grace, for he will abundantly pardon. Old John Newton, the
hymn writer, the former slave trader, that great, great preacher
in his day. He said when he was a very old
man, he said, I'm an old man. And I can't remember much, but
I remember two things. I remember that I am a great
sinner and Jesus Christ is a great savior. And he says, I will remove. There stands the mountain of
my sin. I can't get through it. I can't get around it. I can't
get over it. And God can't touch it. So he
says, I'll just take it out of the way. And he did. as the heavy,
heavy burden of my sin. They nearly crushed my soul to
hell. When I was 14, 15 years old, my sin lay so heavy
on me. And I would have committed, I
don't have any question about it, I'd have committed suicide when I was just a boy,
were it not just for the terror of the fear of hell. The only
thing that kept me from killing myself. And I couldn't do anything
to get rid of the burden. Now, I couldn't do anything. I know what it is to spend sleepless
nights tossing and turning, terrified, terrified of God's wrath. And
I know what it is to try to drive a Jew bargain with God. Lord,
if you'll just let me wake up tomorrow and live one more day,
I promise I'll serve you. And the next day, you just go right
about your sin, right about your iniquity. And I know what it
is for God to step in and take away the burden. He said, I'll
remove it. And he did. And I'm telling you,
my sin is my gall. But it's no more a burden. Not
before God's judgment. He removed it. He'd taken it
away. so that Jesus Christ, like the scapegoat, you remember when
Abram would take the Lord's goat and the scapegoat, he'd lay his
hands on both the scapegoat and the Lord's goat, and the Lord's
goat he'd kill, and the scapegoat he'd send by a fit man out into
no man's land, and that fit man would carry a scapegoat with
all the sins of Israel, ceremonially imputed to him, and off he would
go. You'd see him going, just two
dots out there on the horizon, and soon nothing. Late in the
evening, one dot coming back. That fit man. What happened to
the goat? He's gone. What happened to the
sins? They're gone. That's Christ our
Redeemer. He carried our sins in his body
on the cross tree and he carried them to the tomb. And here comes
a fit man in resurrection glory with no sin. He was delivered
for our offenses. and raised again for our justification. And thus he has in one day removed
our sin. Blessed be his name. Oh, may
he be pleased this day to remove your iniquity.