Let's turn in our Bibles tonight
to Zechariah chapter 3. Zechariah chapter 3. 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 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 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. And the angel of the Lord protested
unto Joshua, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts. If thou wilt
walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou
shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and
I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by. Here now, O Joshua the high priest,
thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, for they are men
wandered 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. In that day, saith the Lord of
hosts, shall you call every mannish neighbor under the vine and under
the fig tree. Let me just do a little background once again. Several
weeks ago on Wednesday we began studying in the book of Ezra
and we know that we are looking at the Israelites who came back
into the land after 70 years captivity in Babylon and they
were charged with building the house of the Lord. The King Cyrus
with his decree charged them to build the house of the Lord. He said that God had charged
him to build that house in Jerusalem. And he gave freedom to those
who wanted to come back out of the land of captivity. And we
studied there in the book of Ezra, until we came to this verse
in chapter 6 in verse 14, which reads, And the elders of the
Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai
the prophet and Zechariah the son of Ido. Now we saw in our
studies that the work on building the temple, at first it faltered.
They laid the foundation, yes, but then several years passed
by and they were not working. They were not building the temple
of the Lord. And remember Haggai, his prophecy,
we looked at first that encouraged them to begin the work, to do
the work, and it would be accepted. The work of building the temple,
as I said at first, it came to a halt. But then through the
prophesying, the preaching, I might say, the preaching of these two
men, the work prospered. And so we've been looking at
these prophecies in the book of Zechariah. Now, both of these men, Haggai
and Zechariah, are called minor prophets. And I've reminded us
before The reason they are called minor prophets is because of
the length of their prophecies. They were just as much called
of the Lord, anointed of the Lord, and wrote by divine inspiration
as the major prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. But they're called minor prophets. There are 12 of the minor prophets.
But it was through the ministries of these two Haggai and Zechariah
who prophesied after the Jews returned into the land of Palestine
that the work prospered through their prophesying. Now God gave
Zechariah nine visions. We've been looking at these visions
and I'm sure that as God gave these visions to the prophet,
he gave them to the people And this encouraged them. This is
the reason the work prospered, because of the word that God
gave through the prophet to them. And he received that word through
these visions. We've looked at three of the
visions, and tonight we just read the fourth vision, here
chapter number three. Now one of the writers made this
comment on this vision, and I quote, It is designed to show the people
of God that their personal demerit is no ground for distrusting
God. For he receives them not because
of their own righteousness, but that of another. And that at
that particular period, The unworthiness of the priesthood was no reason
for their destruction and overthrow of the temple, as they were typical
and the end of their institution was not yet served." That is,
the priesthood was typical. We know it was typical of the
person, the priest after the order of Melchizedek. He was made a priest with an
oath, an everlasting priesthood, the Lord Jesus Christ. And until
he came, that Old Testament priesthood, that Aaronic priesthood would
continue until the antitype, those were just types, those
high priests were just types of our great high priest, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now looking at this vision tonight,
chapter three, I'm going to divide my message into these two parts.
The first part is verses one through seven. And I want us
to see the Lord, Joshua, and Satan. Let's identify these three
beings. They're all mentioned here in
these first few verses. The Lord, and that title, Lord,
Each letter is capitalized so we know who that is. The Lord,
Joshua, the high priest, and Satan. Let's identify these three. First of all, the angel of the
Lord in verse one is the Lord in verse two. And he showed me
Joshua the high priest standing before, notice, the angel of
the Lord. Then look in verse two. And the
Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. The angel
of the Lord of verse one is identified in verse two as the Lord, the
Lord, that is Jehovah. Now we know the Lord Jesus Christ
appeared several times. It was the Eternal Son. The Eternal
Son of God would be made manifest. The Father, God the Father, He
was not made manifest. The Holy Spirit, He was not made
manifest. But we know that in the fullness
of the time, it was the Eternal Son who would be made flesh and
dwell among us. He would be made manifest. But
over those years that preceded his birth, that preceded the
time when he came into this world, he appeared several times in
the Old Testament as the angel of the Lord. The angel of the
Lord. I want you to look back with
me to Judges chapter 13. At one of these times, at one
of these places, when he, that is the eternal son of God, Before
he became flesh, before he became incarnate, he appeared as a man,
as the angel of the Lord. In Judges chapter 13, he appears
to this man by the name of Manoah and his wife. And they were,
of course, to be the parents of Samson. Judges chapter 13, we're not
going to read all the verses, just a few of them to bring out
this truth that he appeared as the angel of the Lord. The first
verse in chapter three, let's read verse three. And the angel
of the Lord appeared unto the woman. Now this is Manoah's wife. They'd been married for some
time and they were childless. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren,
and bearest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Well, this woman was alone when
the angel of the Lord gave her that message, wonderful message.
Every Israelitish woman wanted to have a son, wanted to have
a child, especially a son. And they had been married, and
she was barren, and now an angel, the angel of the Lord, appears
unto her and tells her, you're going to have a son. Well, she
tells her husband, well, he wants to hear it. He wants to hear
it. So notice down, you know the
story, but notice down to verse 12. her husband now. And Manoah said, Now let thy
words come to pass. He, the angel of the Lord, came
again, and she ran to get her husband. He told her, when he
appears to you again, come get me. Come get me. I want to hear from the angel
of the Lord. And so that's what we have here.
And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall
we order the child? How shall we do unto him? And
in other words, how are we going to raise him? Instruct us, tell
us. Well, the angel of the Lord had
already told the woman that she was not to eat any grapes. She
was not to drink any wine because this Samson was going to take
the Nazarite. He was going to be a Nazarite. And Manoah said, now let thy
words come to pass. How shall we order the child
and how shall we do unto him? And the angel of the Lord said
unto Manoah, of all that I said unto the woman, let her beware. Now look down to verse 17. And Manoah said unto the angel
of the Lord, the point I'm making, and I know I'm preaching to the
choir, But I'm emphasizing this, the angel of the Lord. In the
Old Testament, many times, this was a pre-incarnate appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel of the Lord. He appeared
to Abraham. Remember, those three men came.
But one of them, one of the three, was the angel of the Lord. One
way you can usually tell if it is just an angel or if it is
the angel of the Lord, if worship, if worship is given and accepted,
it's the angel of the Lord. If it's just a regular angel,
they're not going to allow men to worship them. Just like in
the book of Revelation, when two times in that book, remember,
John An angel spoke to him and he would have worshipped that
angel and that angel quickly rebuked him. See thou doest it
not. No, no. Worship is to be given
to God and God alone. We don't worship idols. We don't
worship the saints. We don't worship the Virgin Mary.
We worship the Lord our God. Now notice here in this passage,
verse 17. And Manoah said unto the angel
of the Lord, what is thy name? That when thy saints come to
pass, we may do thee honor. And the angel of the Lord said
unto him, why askest thou thus after my name? See, it is secret. You have a marginal reading in
your Bible. I have a little number two before
that word secret. And when I look in the margin,
I see wonderful, wonderful. Unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. And his name shall be called,
what? Wonderful, counselor, the mighty
God. the everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. Saying, why do you ask my name?
This angel says, saying it is secret and it's wonderful. So Manoah took a kid with a meat
offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord. And the angel did wondrously
and Manoah and his wife looked on For it came to pass, when
the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the
angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. Now notice
this, and Manoah and his wife looked on and fell on their faces
to the ground. You know, the word worship actually
means to prostrate oneself, doesn't it? That's what the word worship
means, to bow down before the being. So, back in our text now
in Zechariah, we identify the angel of the Lord. This is the
Lord. This is Jehovah, Yahweh. The second person we want to
identify is Joshua, whose name was written. In the first list
that we came to in the book of Ezra, it listed all those people
that came back with Zerubbabel, the governor, Joshua, his name
there is spelled Jeshua, but he is one who came back, Joshua,
the high priest came back with Ezra and those others, and they
came back with the king's order, to build the temple. But here
in this vision, the high priest, Joshua, he appears as a representative,
both for the people and for the priest. As a priest, he represented
all the people. As a high priest, he represented
the priest. Now that's important. And then
third, Satan. We see Satan here, the adversary. And again, if you have a marginal
reading, I believe you will find in the margin two times that
he is identified as the adversary. Now, in this context, what would
Satan attempt to do? Well, his attempt would be to
keep them from building the temple, to stop the work on the building
of the temple. That was his desire, that the
temple not be rebuilt. Now, listen to me. I think we may see one of the
ways that Satan tried to hinder the work in building of the temple. It was through discouragement. through discouragement. He appears
as an adversary to discourage the people of God, represented
by Joshua. I think we can all relate to
this method. Joshua, who represented the people
and the priest, he was clothed, notice, with filthy garments.
He's clothed with filthy garments, representative of the people
and the priest. Well, the people knew that it
was because of their iniquities, because of their sins, that they
had been sent into captivity. And the priests, they also knew
that it was their unfaithfulness that had brought them into captivity. Now, here comes the adversary. Here comes Satan. And I would
just imagine that he suggested things like this. Do you really believe? Do you
really believe? He's talking to the people of
that day. Do you really believe that God will accept a person
with a heart like yours? Do you really believe that? That God will accept a person
with a heart like yours Your heart is so prone to unbelief,
unbelief is so prone to sin. Do you really believe that? To
discourage them in the work. Do you really believe that he
will accept your half-hearted service? Do you? If you build
the temple, maybe he said this, if you build the temple, don't
you know that you going into the temple immediately will defile
the temple because of your defilement. All of these suggestions, no
doubt, to discourage them and to hinder them in the work of
building the temple. I can think of many more ways
that Satan had to discourage them in the days of Ezra. And let me just say this, with
the passing of time, he's only found more ways to discourage
you as a child of God, to discourage me, and especially in the Lord's
work. Do you ever have thoughts like
these? Do you ever think, If you really
were a child of God, you wouldn't have done that. If you really
were saved, you would have never said that. Do you ever have thoughts
like that? Thoughts, adversary to discourage
you in serving the Lord. But now I want you to look at
how the Lord rebukes Satan. Notice in verse 4 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. Verse 2 And the Lord said unto
Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Even the Lord that hath
chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a bran plucked out
of the fire? Now three things I want you to
notice about this rebuke. Who chose who? Who chose who? Did Jerusalem
choose the Lord? Or did the Lord choose Jerusalem? Did I? This is the word of the
Lord. Did I choose Jerusalem because
they had no sin? Did I choose Jerusalem because
they were not guilty of any iniquity? Is that the reason that I chose
them? Am I a respecter of persons? Remember this, God's sovereign
election is unconditional. Those that He chose, those of
you here tonight who know your election of God because you believe
and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't choose you because
of any foreseen faith. He didn't see you because He
knew you were going to be an excellent person or anything
like that. His choice, His election, the
same is true here. Did not I choose Jerusalem? The
Lord rebuke thee, Satan. Did not I choose Jerusalem? Did not I choose my people? I'm not a respecter of persons. The children be not yet born,
having done neither good nor evil, that the purpose of God
according to election might stand. It is written, the elder shall
serve the younger. Now notice the second thing.
First of all, who chose who? Now, you choose the Lord. Don't get me wrong. But you choose
Him because He first chose you. You love the Lord because He
first loved you. Had He not loved you first, you
wouldn't love the Lord. And if He had not chosen you
first, you would never choose the Lord. Notice the second way
he rebuked him. Does the hand, here's the hand. Does the hand pluck the brand
out of the fire? Or does the brand pluck the fire? Does the brand pluck rather the
hand? Which, what happens here? Does
the hand pluck the brand out of the fire? Or does the brand
pluck the hand? In other words, is salvation
of works the works of the brand? The brand plucks the hand? Or
is salvation by grace through faith the hand plucks the brand
out of the fire? You see that? How he rebukes
Satan. Let's get this right. Is salvation
by grace or is it by works? Is it a mixture? That's what
many people believe, don't they? They think it's sort of a mixture
of grace and works, God and man together. No, salvation is of
the Lord and it is of grace. Well, notice the third thing
here. Who causes the filthy garments? The filthy garments represent
the sins and iniquities of the people. Who causes the filthy
garments to be taken away and, at the same time, takes away
the filthy garments but gives a new garment, a change of raiment? Satan is thus rebuked by the
Lord, and God's people are encouraged in knowing that we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Now, notice what
Zechariah said in verse five. 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. Now, you know, The
priest, the high priest, he had a mantra. If you read how the
garments of the priest that were given, the instructions were
given by God to Moses concerning the high priest for glory and
for beauty. The very last part, the breastplate,
the other things that were part of that, the very last thing
that is mentioned is that mantra. that tiara that was like a turban
that was placed upon the head of the high priest. That was
the very last thing. It was a place there for crown
and for glory. Now here, when the Lord placed
this matra upon the head of the high priest, it told the Israelites
that yes, they would officiate, they would work, they would serve
in that temple. It's going to be built. And the
priesthood would be purified, and they would minister unto
the Lord in the new temple when it was finished. And then there
are the last two verses in that section, verses, six and seven, they contain a
conditional promise for the priest. But I want to go on to the second
part. In the last part, verses eight through 10, and we have
one, two, three, four. Four things we want to identify
here. First of all, the branch. You
notice each letter is capitalized. The branch, the stone, the removal
of iniquity, and the fig tree. Number one, concerning the promise
of the coming of the branch to the high priest and his fellows,
the other priest, you notice they are said to be men wondered
at. In verse eight, hear now, oh
Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before
thee, for they are men wondered at. That word actually means
they are like an omen, they are signs that this priesthood, this
priesthood would continue until the branch came. And the branch,
we know, is the Lord Jesus Christ. When we think of Christ our Lord
as a branch, it pictures to us, first of all, the simplicity,
the simplicity and the littleness that he is seen in this world
as a branch, as a root out of a dry ground, as a tender plant. When people Especially when our
Lord came into this world, everybody who was somebody, as they always
say, you know, everybody hands down on him. He's a nobody from
nowhere. He can't be the Messiah. Pictured
by just a branch. We don't think much of a branch,
do we? Picturing the littleness of Christ
when he came into this world. As far as the world was concerned,
he wasn't little in the eyes of God. We know that. Number
two, the stone. The stone that God laid and upon
it are seven eyes. Now the commentators are divided
here as to what this stone represents. Some believe it represents the
church, the church. And the number seven, which is
a number of perfection, pictures to us that he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep, that his eyes are always upon
his church. Like he said in Isaiah, I, the
Lord, do keep it. I will water it every moment,
lest any hurt it. Will keep it night and day. Seven
eyes on that stone, the church that's built upon the rock. Now,
others believe it is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the rock. And I tend to believe it is Christ
that is spoken of here as the stone. And notice, I will engrave
the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts. Did you know that
you're, that you, not your name, that you, a child of God, are
graved on the hands of the Savior. That's true. Read that in Isaiah
chapter 49. Your name is written on his hand.
You are written on his hand. Not just your name, but you.
He's never going to forget you. Every time we look at our hands,
like you tie something, you tie a string around your finger to
help you remember something. God's never, he's never going
to forget one of his own. You're graven upon his hands. Then notice the third thing,
the iniquity of that land is removed in one day. Well, who
can't understand that? In one day, that day that the
Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary's tree. Iniquity, sin, was put
away by that one offering, by that one sacrifice. It took place
in one day. That's what Hebrews 10 tells
us, isn't it? And then the last thing, the
fig tree and the vine, here we have neighbors. Neighbors, the
animosity has been slain. People love one another in this
kingdom of God. And we have peace. And that's
what's typified by the vine and the fig tree and some other passages
of scripture. We have security in the kingdom
of God and we have peace. We have security. Amen. I encourage you, look at this
vision. I entitled the message, A Very
Encouraging Vision. Every one of these nine visions
are encouraging, but to me, this one especially, A Very Encouraging
Vision, because it speaks to us so much. Speaks to us. It does refer to them back there,
no doubt, but it certainly refers to us today. We have an adversary,
Satan, and the Lord rebukes him. Who chose who? He chose you. Who plucks the brand out of the
burning? God does. And who takes away your sin and
clothes you with the righteousness of Christ? He does. He does. May the Lord bless His word.
We'll sing just one verse of a hymn and we'll be dismissed. We'll be dismissed with the singing
of the hymn. What hymn is it, Bill?