simply a field of diamonds. 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 whose call 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 wondered 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 wonder at because of what God in his grace has
worked for us, upon us, and in us, and what we 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 Joshuas in the day of grace, and we build upon him
as we have been built upon him. So that in the spirits 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 under you therefore
which believe he is precious this one who is the headstone
of the corner children the same is made the head of the corner
and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense even for 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? Let's talk 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. Then you talk 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. That is seven. Seven 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 Trinity 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. The 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, our 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 11, 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. Now 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 as 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 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 iniquities."
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 him?
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
affair. 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 blotteth out my transgression for mine own sake,
and will not remember thy sins. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel,
for thou art my servant, I will form thee. Thou art my servant,
O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out as
a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. Return
unto me," he says, "'for I have redeemed thee.'" He will abundantly
pardon, and on that basis he says, 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 distant 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 These shirts, I get spaghetti on them every time I eat spaghetti,
get gravy on them every time I eat gravy. If somebody else
is eating it, I would get it on there. And she just throws
them in the wash and they come out clean. Oh no. Now she puts
her shower cap and Clorox and all that stuff in there and she
scrubs them and scrubs them and scrubs them and look at that. You might find one but I don't
think so. Now the spot there, she's perfect. The spots go. Every spot of the field. Every spot of the corruption. Will you hear that? James Jordan,
that's how Jesus Christ purged himself. Thoroughly, completely,
absolutely, one time, forever, with his blood. And it's that
act. On the right hand of the majesty
of God. 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 hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like to the Father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." The psalmist
said, there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be filled. He said, if thou, O Lord, shouldst
not connect with his own Lord, peace of mind, then there's forgiveness
with you that you may be filled. Blessed be his name. I'm so thankful. He said he removed our sin 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! Give forgiveness! 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. 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 coir. That's something
else. Sheep in a land where there's
shepherds, a dominant sheep or something else. And the Lord
God speaks of one lost sheep whom he seeks, and seeks to find
him, and lays it on his shoulders and brings it home. 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 life, that lost son, that prodigal son. Due to his own ungodliness, due
to his own choice, due to his own 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 senses
in riotous living, and is brought to earth destitution. And God,
in his providence, brought him there. Oh, blessed is that man, Ron,
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 guilt and corruption, he says, I will rise and go to
my father and I'll say, I'm not worthy to be called your servant.
Let me be one of your hired servants. And when he did, his father saw
him and he was a great way off. I can't get over there. I just
can't get over there. The only time in this book The
only time, girl, 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 this happened. Woo! Kill the 32! My sons, 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. For 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 here 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 by the power of his grace of yourself. Now I can't do that. I can't
do that. No man can do that. But I'm going
to tell you right now, if God Almighty ever comes to you, there
won't be any question in your heart and mind about yourself. God be merciful to me. You'll
quit justifying yourself. You'll quit saying, well, you
know, I'm not so bad. I haven't, I'm, I'm, I'm, etc. 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 yourself. But he won't leave it there.
Oscar, he'll convince you of righteousness. Not yours, you
ain't got any. He is. He'll convince you that
Jesus Christ, by his obedience to God, as the God-man, has very
little lasting 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
judgment 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, that the Lord Jesus Christ, God
said, 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 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 notice from Isaiah chapter
8, because in Isaiah's vision, chapter 8 in verses 1 and 2,
this man Zachariah 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.
That's it. Whether it's here in this little
Ascender, or whether it's down here 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 up 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 die 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 inequity 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 iniquity of that prayer 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 character. Indeed, most of them are here.
The iniquities he removes are committed by many, often repeated,
but they are completely renewed. 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's in it. And it does to folks who know
who God is. Now, if you're going to the court, hide it. If you're
going down here to appear before Judge Shoemaker, hide it. Don't
tell him everything. But when you come to God, tell
him everything. for it is great. Your sin is
no hindrance to God's grace, for he will abundantly forgive
you." 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
you. 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. There's
a heavy, heavy burden on my soul. 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 that I'd have committed suicide when I was
this boy, were it not just for the terror of the fear of hell. Only they can't make a killing
now. And I couldn't do anything to get rid of the burden. 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 would let me wake
up tomorrow and live one more day, I promise I'll serve you.
And the next day, you just go right back to your cell, right
back to your neck. 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 God. But it's no more a burden. Not
before God steps in. He removed it. He's taken it
away. so that Jesus Christ, like the scapegoat, you remember when
Abram would take the Lord's goat and the scapegoat, he would 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 fifth
man out into no man's land, and that fifth man would carry a
scapegoat with all the sins of Israel, ceremonially imputed
to him, and off he would go. You can see him going, just Two
dots up there on the horizon, and soon nothing. Late in the
evening, one dot, two dots. That's it now. What happened
to the goat? He's gone. What happened to the
sins? They're gone. That's Christ started
doing that. He carried our sins in His body
on the cross tree, and He carried them to the tomb. And here He
comes, that's it now. 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. Or may he
be pleased this day to remove your iniquity.