Well, I like doing puzzles. Anybody else out there like doing puzzles with your family? If you don't like puzzles, that's fine. But the reason I like puzzles is because my grandma bribed me ten cents apiece. So I got really into puzzles. And I got this puzzle that I'm looking forward to doing here. It's Washington Crossing the Delaware. Classic! Like American picture right here, right? And you can see him looking confidently across there. And you may not be able to see if I don't know if you ever studied this picture before, but it's actually like they're going right into ice. And on the border here, you can see ice and guys are poking ice with their sticks and their oars. And the reason I was going to do this puzzle thousand pieces, because anything less than a thousand is not really a challenge for some of us. And so, the reason I was going to do this is I was going to make this puzzle. And then instead of George Washington, I was going to kind of take a picture of my friend, Scott Shew, and put his face on George Washington. And Scott's not here with us tonight. But he does watch the Saturday night service. So, I'm sorry to talk about you, Scott. But Scott is our Executive Director here at the church. And I had this idea to give him a picture like this, because he directed the construction of the revival building, which was awesome. Well, yes, we praise the Lord. And then now he's directing the construction of the new auditorium across the way. And so, I was like, when that project is done, I'm going to do this puzzle, and I'm going to give it to Scott. Now unfortunately, the update is I haven't even started, everybody. And in fact, the pieces are still in the box. And that's not a good sign. Because I remember how we asked you to pray for these air conditioning units. Well, we really need you to pray for these air conditioning units. Because it seems like our construction is getting delayed, and when that news kind of comes in, which can be discouraging news, Scott, he is just like taking oars and cutting through ice. You know what I mean? He's like, this isn't a problem. This is an opportunity. You ever have one of those friends in your life, right? And so, I'm looking forward to finishing this puzzle as the Lord wills. But the reason I brought this puzzle up here is because I think that Zechariah 3 is the picture on the box that you need to help the Christian life makes sense. I can tell what happens to a lot of people is you just have some pieces of the Christian life. And it's hard to see the big picture. And if you just start with a thousand pieces, even if you get a lot of the pieces stuck together, if you can't see the picture on the box, you still feel lost and confused. And you could be looking at the sky, you could be looking at the eyes, you could be looking at the soldiers’ uniforms. But when you can see the whole picture, it's like, oh, that's how all the pieces come together. And Zechariah 3 is a picture that you could never see with your eyes. But the scripture wants you to see it with the eyes of your heart.
What we're going to study together right now is the Divine Council. This is a picture of a courtroom. But it's not just any courtroom, it is a courtroom in heaven. And so, everybody grab your Bible and turn with me to Zechariah 3, and let's study a picture that Scripture gives to us. That is the box cover. It is what all the pieces come together. It's this picture right here. This is such an epic chapter of Scripture. I'm so excited that you are here so that we can go over this together. Zechariah chapter 3. And out of respect for God's word, I'm going to ask if we would all stand up for the public reading of Scripture. I'm telling you, I think this chapter is of the utmost importance for your faith. And I pray you will give this your full and undivided attention because this is the Word of God. This is a vision that Zechariah had one night, and it's been written down so that you and I could see it here tonight together. Zechariah chapter 3.
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”
That's the reading of God's Word. Go ahead and have your seat. But you want to if you're taking notes, and there is a handout there in your bulletin, there's so much going on here at the church, you can read about in your bulletin, but grab that handout, and let's start taking notes about this Divine Council. And we've got three points, three things that we want you to see in this picture of what's going on that Zechariah he's been having these night visions. This is the fourth vision out of eight that he's going to have. We're working our way through him studying Zechariah together. And when he has this vision here, what he sees here, now he sees three different things that I want to make sure he gets kind of a heavenly vision, a vision into what is referred to as the Divine Council. So its council like COUNCIL; there's a getting together, some kind of meeting is taking place. It's God and the angels gathering around in the throne room of heaven, and some kind of trial is going on. And there's someone making an accusation, and there's someone who's going to defend, and there's someone who's going to be accused. So, if you've ever been in a courtroom, and you know how we have the defense over here, we have the accused, and then we have the prosecution, those who are making their case, we're going to see all of that play out. But this is in any courtroom here on Earth, this is something you can only see through the Scripture. This is what's going on in the spiritual realm, in the presence of God. And the first thing that probably stands out to you, that at least the first thing that stood out to me is when Satan is there, standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebukes you, O Satan. So, the first thing that kind of happens here is we see Satan get called out; Satan gets rebuked. Does anybody want to say Amen here this evening, right? We're off to a good start here in this chapter.
Now, when I say Satan, we think that's his name. And that's definitely a name that we have come to know him by. But see, this is why I feel like we have this piece I've got like this Satan piece, and I don't really see the big picture of how it all works with Satan. I just know Satan's bad. Satan's evil. Satan's like a lion going around, seeking to devour people, but I can't really see Satan. Satan, he's a fallen angel. He exists in the spiritual realm. So, I know scripture says things about him. I don't know what I can see with my eyes. And so, there's a little bit of confusion about Satan. What if I told you that the name Satan is actually just a Hebrew word? Like say time, right? And the Hebrew word means like, if you look at verse 1 there when it says Satan, standing on his right hand to accuse him, it's actually saying Satan is there to do some Satanizing. Right? Because when it says accusing, that's actually the Hebrew word satan; however you want to pronounce it satan. That Hebrew word means an adversary who comes to accuse an enemy, who comes to make an accusation. Now, this Hebrew word, if you and I were to be familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures, and we were to look up where the word Satan is used throughout the Hebrew Bible, we would see that it refers to many different accusations, not just this one fallen angel that we call by the name Satan. No, before it was ever his name, it's a Hebrew word that either means in the noun accuser or in the verb, someone who is doing the accusing, the action of accusing. So, when I say Satan, you should not just think of the fallen angel that we refer to, you should think Satan is an accuser. This is how we should know him. In fact, the reason we're even calling him Satan is because the main thing that the scripture wants to show you is happening is this guy is going into God's presence and he's accusing people of not being worthy of God, of being fallen, of being sinners.
And so, this is what you should think there is actually in the courtroom of heaven, accusations being made against people. There's someone who's making a case that people are not worthy of God and all of his glory in his holiness. Oh, this guy over here, he's not worthy. This guy, and now we're going after this guy, Joshua, the high priest. And so, the Lord is going to rebuke Satan, which is awesome. He's choosing Jerusalem, which is what the theme has been here. He's bringing the people back to Jerusalem, he's coming back to Jerusalem, his glory is going to arrive in Jerusalem. So, you want to come and accuse Jerusalem? Well, too bad because I've chosen Jerusalem, but you need to see that Satan is an accuser. That's an answer. You need to not just have your Satan piece but see Satan. And it shouldn't surprise you that Satan's before God, this is what Satan does. He goes before God to accuse God's people. And a lot of people think that job is the first book that was ever written in the Bible.
Well, turn to Job with me, because that's maybe the most famous story of Satan doing these kinds of accusations. Go with me into the book of Job right to the beginning. Job chapters 1 and 2, where they are having this Divine Council. We get introduced to Job in verses 1-5, and then it says this. Job 1-6. “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them.” Okay, so the sons of God, the angels, there's some kind of council, some kind of meeting happening with God and the angels, and one of the ones who comes is the accuser. And yes, we get the name Satan. But what Satan means is that he is there as an adversary, and he is there to accuse. That's what we should be thinking. And so, of course, there's going to be some kind of accusation brought. “The Lord said to Satan, ‘From where have you come?’ Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’” I'm covering that whole thing. I'm going all over the earth. “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth.’” Well, if you're walking all over Earth, you must notice Job, Job's a guy who's set apart; there's nobody else like him, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. Wouldn't it be awesome if God was thinking those kinds of thoughts about you, right? But then if God was thinking those thoughts about you, he might bring you up to Satan. That doesn't sound very good at all. But that's the conversation that's happened here. And Satan answered the Lord and said, and in the way that the accuser speaks here, “Does Job fear God for no reason?” Well, of course, he fears God, “Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” Well, of course, he fears you, you've been good to him, you've got to hedge your protection. You're not letting me get to him. You're not letting me come at him? Why don't you start taking away his stuff. And let's see, if he still is blessing you.
Go over to Job 2:1. Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves. So, this is so profound, this is so amazing. This is not something that you and I could find out any other way than through the pages of Scripture, from behind the wallpaper of space and time, outside of the realm of what we can see, we are getting a glimpse. Let me tell you what happens in the presence of God. The angels get gathered together; they have some kind of council. And one of the things that happens when they come to present themselves before the Lord is the accuser also comes in among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, from where have you come? And Satan answered the Lord and said, “from going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it, and the Lord said to Satan, ‘have you considered my servant Job?’” Now, when the story is repeated from chapter 1 to chapter 2, it's trying to put this image in your mind. We need to stop being Christians who are like, that's weird. Why is Satan talking to Job? I don't want to think about that. And we need to go to like, I think God is telling me something foundational that he wants me to see about life, that there is someone who's going to accuse me, there is someone who is coming after people and he wants to destroy their souls and he wants to accuse us of our sin. Wow. I need to really pay more attention to this. “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.’” Satan, remember the last time you brought an accusation, and you were adversarial towards Job? Remember how you told me about him? Well, guess what, he's still holding fast to his integrity. And there's God following up and now Satan's got another accusation. “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand and touch his bone.” Well, you didn't mess with his body, you didn't mess with his flesh, get after his body, and he will curse you to his face. And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.” again, God allowed Satan to do something but only so much.
Go with me to Revelation chapter 12. If Job's perhaps the first book written, let's go to perhaps the last book written here in Revelation, chapter 12, where it talks about this fall of Satan. This is a very fascinating chapter here in Revelation 12. There's a lot of imagery here. And one of the things that we get a clearer picture of you can see in verse nine is we get this picture of a dragon, a dragon who wanted to eat this lady's baby is the way the picture is presented. But this dragon, this great dragon, if you're looking at Revelation 12:9, “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan.” Okay, so this word, this guy goes by many names. Here in Revelation, he's a dragon, ancient serpent. What is that a reference all the way back to the Garden of Eden, all the way back to deceiving Eve coming in as that serpent. And then it says here, I've noticed it says the Devil and Satan. Okay, so Satan, if you're taking notes, you definitely want to get this down. Satan is the Hebrew word for accuser. Okay? So you want to see your thinking Satan's like a name, like, my name is Bobby. Right? And you call me Bobby. That doesn't necessarily mean something to you. That's just what you call me. Bobby doesn't have some deep, profound meaning, right? It's just a cool name, because it's Bobby. And then it's Blakey. And it kind of runs alliteration if you're into that kind of thing, right? But it doesn't see, that's the thing. All these names here. Satan, it means accuser. And what does devil mean? You think that's just the name? No. Devil, it's this idea of the Greek word. So Devil is like the Greek word here used and it means Diablos. It means slanderer. It means defamer, it means false accuser.
So, we're not just supposed to know who Satan is. No, see Satan in the whole box cover of the puzzle here. We're going to see the other players here in the picture. But one of the people in the picture is Satan, and he is coming to accuse someone else in the picture before someone else in the picture. And that's what it says here. It says, the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brothers, has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God, this isn't just some story of Job. This isn't just some obscure passage in Zechariah 3. That was never supposed to be obscure. It was supposed to be foundational box cover. No, this is how you're supposed to think what's going on in the realm that you can't see Satan's going into God's presence and accusing people. And he's not just accusing Job. And he's not just accusing Joshua, the high priest, he's accusing all of the brothers. How often is he doing this day and night, it's a never ending cycle of accusation, which means that at some point in eternity, I don't know how it works exactly outside of space and time, but at some point, you have an accuser. That's what it's saying. And this is what we're supposed to know that guy. That guy, finally he gets thrown down. And finally, the authority of Christ is going to reign. And this is a big statement we're making here in Revelation 12:10. You know why? Because that accuser, he's been asking for it a long time, because he's been accusing the brothers and he's been going before God night and day. This scene of the Divine Council where Satan goes to accuse this scene is on repeat, this is a loop here. This is what is happening, which should not make me think, well, that's weird, to happen with Job or what's this dream with Joshua, it should get somebody like me thinking, What would Satan accused me of? And what would Satan be saying to God about me? Like, what I mean is, is Satan going and accusing me of things and God is like, well, you're right about that one, Satan.
How is this whole thing working? Because this is something that you're saying. I mean, read that verse again. Look at Revelation 12:10. They're the accuser of our brothers as in the fellow believers, our brothers whose ancestors who all worship our Father in heaven. He's the accuser of all of us. And he's been thrown down. And he accuses them day and night before our God like, this isn't just for famous Bible characters. This is for people like me where I have an accuser. I remember that moment in Luke 22. Maybe you've heard this story where Jesus went up to Peter. I remember what he said to him. Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to have you. Do you ever read that? Like Jesus goes and tells Peter, Satan's after you right now. But don't worry. And this is right before he's going to deny him three times. And he's like, don’t worry, I've prayed that your faith won't fail. And afterwards, you need to strengthen your brothers. And Peter didn't later think, well, I was one of the special people that Satan went after. No, Peter, when he wrote a letter to Christians all over the place, he said, “Be sober minded, be watchful, stay alert,” because we have an adversary, we have an accuser. We've got somebody who's going around and he wants to find what's wrong with us. He's going all to and fro over all the earth and he prowls around like a roaring one, looking for famous Bible characters to devour? No. People who come to church on Saturday night, those are his favorite kind. People like you, that's who he wants. You have someone bringing you up in the holy courtroom of God that's supposed to get all of our attention that's supposed to get the world's turning. That's not like, well, Satan is out there doing something, no Satan's out there accusing you. And when Satan accuses you, does Satan have a point? There is Satan. I mean, clearly, we get what the point of Satan is. He's the accuser. But if Satan is going into the holy presence of God, when the sons of God go before the Lord, and if Satan's coming to make an accusation, and Satan is saying, hey, let's talk about so and so today. Let's talk about that person. They're at church right now, on a Saturday night, can you believe they're at church worshiping God on a Saturday night, when they're like this the rest of the week? Wow, is that conversation really happening? Is my name bank being dropped in the Divine Council?
Point number one. The first thing we want to see is Satan has a point. Satan has a point, and that he is the accuser. And Satan would have a point if he's bringing me up, and then he would have sins to accuse me of. And so, this is something that Satan is going and he's accusing Joshua, the high priest. Wow, that should be very arresting, attention getting, we should all look closer at this than we ever have before. So, we need to see that Satan has a point. We need to see his place in the picture of the Divine Council.
Now turn back with me to Zechariah chapter 3, because that's just our first character that we want to see is Satan. He's standing at the right hand, he comes to make the case, to prosecute, and he's going after now we want to look at the person who's being accused here. We want to look at Joshua, the high priest, okay. So, we saw that there are two prophets. And this is all happening now in the book of Zechariah. And is happening in post-exilic Israel. They've been judged by God. King Nebuchadnezzar brought them to Babylon for 70 years. Now, let me see if you guys are learning anything here. There were two prophets. What were the name of the two prophets during this time? One's obviously Zechariah. What was the name of the other guy? Anybody knows? Shout it up. It was Haggai. Just gave you half the name right there. The other guy, it's just Haggai. Right? That's easy to remember. Okay. Haggai and Zechariah are the two prophets. Now let's get this gets a little harder. This gets into round two here. There were two names that the leaders one was the high priest Joshua right there in our text, very obvious. The other was the governor. He was in the line of King David, has a very hard name to say. Shout it out if you know what the guy's name is. Zerubbabel. And if you know that, I love you. God bless you. Okay. May your pets be blessed. Okay, Zerubbabel. All right. So Zerubbabel and Joshua are bringing the people back now; Joshua is the high priest. Now let's get back to my whole puzzle idea. We're trying to get the picture on the box, because all we've got is some pieces. And we need to see the big picture when you let's say, I broke open this bag here tonight. And I said, we're going to start this thing right now. Let's start putting thousand-piece puzzle together of Washington Crossing the Delaware. If you've been doing puzzles, and if you're any good at it, what pieces are you looking for first when you put the puzzle together? Okay, you're looking for the straight edges, right? And now somebody cool is going to go buy me a puzzle with no border and ruin my life. But no, that's not what I'm talking about. Right? I'm saying, there's a certain way to go about your construction of the puzzle. If you want to do it the right way. And people who do puzzles, they can get very snooty about this, but people who do puzzles that we would all agree, you start with the border. Okay? See, the problem with many of us, as we come to understand the Scripture is we don't start with the border. We start with the end. We start with the last piece. And the last piece is like the face of Jesus in the Divine Council. And it's like, yes, awesome. Victory. Yes. It's like that piece of George Washington's face. It's like, I want to make Scott's face. It's like that piece right there. That's like the piece we know. And we then kind of build around the glory of Jesus that we've seen, but we're not very familiar with the border.
See, this is why the depth of a lot of this gets lost on people like us, because we say, oh, the high priest has filthy garments, the high priests and even Zechariah is going to chime in. Did you notice that in verse 5? Like he's seeing a vision of the Divine Council, and they're like, take those filthy clothes on him. Give him some pure vestments. I don't know when the last time you got excited about vestments was right, but Zachariah, he's like, yeah, give him some pure vestments. I like that and put a clean turban on his head. Let's go right. And so you read that and you don't get turbans? You know what I mean? You don't understand what is going on here with the turbans. See, the high priest, that's like a border piece. That's like a foundational piece. That's like, man, if the high priest has filthy garments, then how is anybody living in Jerusalem going to be right with God? If we've got dirt, so to speak, if we've got filth on the high priests, if we can come and say that the high priest is guilty? Well, the high priest, he's the one that goes before God on behalf of the people. He's the one who mediates between the people and God. If the high priest has got a filthy garment, then nobody coming back to Jerusalem is going to get right access to God. So, this is something that would affect everybody. It wasn't like, oh, Joshua, what? What's up with him? What did he do? It's like, oh, all of us. If the high priest is filthy, how can any of us be right? So, see, there's the foundational thought here of the law, and everything kind of builds off of the law in Scripture. And a lot of Christians today have this very snooty idea that we don't even need the law, because I already know where the last piece goes. But no, the last piece is a lot more awesome when you get all the border around it.
Go to Exodus 28. I would doubt that anybody has been doing devotions from Exodus 28 in a very long time. Maybe never. Because when you get to Exodus, chapter 28, you can see what the heading is here in your copy of the Scripture. Exodus chapter 28. What is the heading there, everybody? Shout it out when you get there. What does it say? “The Priest’s Garments.” You're like, yeah, kids gather around. Let's leave it. Read a chapter about the priest’s garments tonight before bed? Right? So, this is something that we kind of think, I don't know how important it is to really read about the priest’s garments. I don't know if I need to know this Scripture. There's a whole chapter in God's law, in God's revelation, about the priest’s garments. We're now seeing the whole night vision about the priest’s garments, I think there's actually something probably very important about the priest’s garments, there's probably a deep point here that we're missing, because we don't think it really applies to us, when it's like one of the border pieces of the puzzle. And so, it has this whole description about how Aaron is going to be the high priest. So, they're building the tabernacle. And they've been describing here. You can go back to Exodus chapter 26. You can see we're building the tent. And you can see before that we've got the golden menorah, the lamps, and we've got the table for bread, we've got the Ark of the Covenant. We're doing all these items that we're going to put in this tent, but then the priest, we got to get the priest ready because the priest is going to go in there. And so, you can see this is not a short chapter of Scripture about the priest’s garments. And it goes here for you can see it's over 40 verses; 43 verses about what Aaron should wear, because he's going to be the priest representing the people before the Lord.
Jump down to verse 36 of Exodus 28. And look what it says here in Exodus 28:36. Because this is why Zechariah got so excited. Remember, Zechariah comes in the priestly line. So, the fact that he's a prophet having a vision about the priests, makes a lot of sense. Zechariah is the son of Iddo; we know that Berechiah was his dad. Iddo was his grandfather. Iddo is mentioned multiple times in Nehemiah as a priest, and so Zechariah, he gets it. Hey, we’ve got to get this priest’s filthy garments. And we’ve got to change his clothes. We’ve got to get him ready and Zechariah is like, we’ve got to put the turban on his head. Why would Zechariah cry that out? Well, it says it right here in Exodus 28:36-38, “You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, ‘Holy to the Lord.’ And you shall fasten it on the turban by a cord of blue. It shall be on the front of the turban. It shall be on Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall bear any guilt from the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate as their holy gifts. It shall regularly be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord.” See, Zechariah, he gets what's happened and we’ve got to go from unclean to clean. We’ve got to go from sinful to atone for we’ve got to go from not right to “Holy to the Lord.”
And so, Zechariah, he sees what's happening. Yeah, he's got filthy clothes; he was given impure vestments. Oh, and let's, let's do it. Let's put the turban on his head. Let everybody see what it says on his turban “Holy to the Lord” that he represents that things are right between God and his people. He represents all the guilt of their sin and how it gets taken away, and how people can now have a right relationship with God. So go back now with that thought; let's go back to Zechariah 3. And let's try to go through the details a little bit. Now we’ve got another piece. We’ve got Satan over here. And we're starting to see him a little bit. We got some pieces around him. Now we're… wait, we forgot the border. Let's go back to the border. And let's see that it's Joshua, the high priest Joshua. We're not talking so much here about the man. We're talking about the man who represents all the people. So, if Joshua's got filthy garments what are we saying about all the people in Jerusalem, they've all got filthy garments; see, and we're saying he represents the people as a whole. So, what the accuser is trying to point out is these people are not worthy of you. These people are not righteous before you, these people can't have a relationship with you, this person over here, they can't be one of your people, this person, they can't hope to go to heaven when they die. This person over here, can you believe that? They're even at church tonight! Who do they think they are? These people, they're all filthy. That's the accusation. The accusation is it's at one man, but it's one man who represents all the people together. So, he bears the guilty, bears the weight of the entire people and, and when he's got the turban on, and he's going into the presence of God in the pure vestments, and he's gone through all the washings, and he's gone through all the sacrifices. You have to make sure you're clean, and you have to atone for all the sins of the people. And then he puts on these pure robes as the high priest. And you can read the whole chapter there in Exodus, all the details, that his robes have to be exactly like this. And he's got to put them on exactly in this way. And he's got to wash himself, and he's got to do these sacrifices. And then it's like, when he's all dressed and ready, you put the turban on his head, and now he's going to go into the presence of God. And now the people will be right with God and their sin will be mediated. And God will be pleased with them, because that's what the high priest represents.
So, Satan, he's coming after everybody here. Yes. Joshua, the representative and notice what it says he's the first one we see Joshua, the high priest. And notice where Joshua, the high priest is standing, he's before the angel of the Lord, we'll get to the angel of the Lord in a minute. And then Satan is at his right hand, ready to accuse him. And, we don't hear what Satan says. We don't hear anything from Joshua. It just goes straight to the Lord YHWH rebuking Satan. That's how it begins, because he's chosen Jerusalem. And so, you're not going to come and accuse Jerusalem of returning to Jerusalem. Jerusalem has returned to me. I'm coming to them. Jerusalem is going to see my glory. I'm going to go back in their midst; it's not going to work for you today. Satan, rebuke you is what happens. And after we get rebuked, then we see Joshua standing before the angel and when it says clothed with filthy garments. Okay, these are downright filthy garments. This is not just like, oh, he was a little dirty, like sometimes you wear your clothes too long. You get a little sweaty, they stink a little bit. This is more talking about like, if you've ever had a moment where you went to the bathroom in your clothes, that's the idea here. We're talking about when it says filthy here, we're talking about like, gross stuff is the idea. We're talking about, like the definition of unclean, like just look at Joshua, the high priest, he is unclean, he is not fit. And so, it's almost like we don't need to tell you what Satan would say or we don't need to really give you much about Joshua, all we’ve got to do is just tell you that his garments are filthy, he is not clean to come into the presence of the Lord. And so, we're just going to get straight to that issue. And so, Zechariah 3:4, “And the angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Remove the filthy garments from him.’ And to him he said, ‘Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.’” The main thing we see happen to Joshua, the high priest is his dirty clothes get removed, and pure clothes get placed upon him. And what is the statement there about this change of clothes? “I have taken your iniquity away from you. And then we put the clean turban on and what's the inscription on the turban, ‘Holy to the Lord,’ he is now set apart from all the sin and uncleanliness. And he has now set apart for the purpose of God.” So, what we see here is a cleansing. What we see here is a salvation, it's a forgiveness of sin, and a replacing with something that is pure, with something that is righteous.
Let's get this down for point number two: You need to see that you need clean clothes, you need to see that you need clean clothes. That's the idea here. Yes, Joshua, the high priest for sure. He needs to be clean. His sin needs to be atoned, for he needs to be holy to the Lord, if he's going to go and represent the sin of the people to serve God and make things right. But the high priest is representing all the people, and there's a transformation. Everybody, when you're going to go before God, you need to know that your iniquity will not be counted against you. You need to know that you will be pure, that God will declare you righteous in his sight. So, the high priest, he had clothes that he needed to wear and that's kind of teaching us you have to go before God a certain way.
But see, go to Revelation chapter 7. It's not just the high priest who wants these clean robes, these white clothes here. No, this is for everybody. Because actually, it goes from high priests to one great high priest that we'll talk about in a minute. And then the Scripture starts saying things like, oh, wait, God's going to have a kingdom of priests. And all of us can draw near before God, every one of us can be a priest, every one of us can go between God ourselves and go into his presence and call upon his name and approach his throne of grace and find mercy to help us like we have a high priest who's kind of made all of us priests. And so, this idea that you are going to need a transformation is what Revelation 7 gives us a glimpse of in the future. We can go back and study the high priestly robes of old but here in Revelation 7, we've got 144,000 who are sealed. And then look at Revelation 7:9-14, After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in” – what are they wearing everybody? “White robes.” So, you don't start out in white robes. That means there's been a change of clothes, that means the filthy garments were removed, and new clothes were placed upon you. And so, these people they’ve got “white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.’ Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’”
See, this is a sub-part of the picture. Who's being accused? Well, Joshua, the high priest is being accused, but he represents the people there in Jerusalem. Actually, this idea of the need of a change of clothes, this represents all people see, that all of us start out guilty with the stain of sin. And all of us need to be cleansed with the righteousness of Christ. And the only way that anybody gets cleansed from the crimson stain of sin is we need the blood of the lamb to wash us clean. See, there has to be blood sacrifice, there has to be death to atone for sin and Jesus, he is that sacrifice. So therefore, Revelation 7:15-17, “they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
We're describing people who are living with God in heaven, who actually get to go into the Divine Council, they get to go into the courtroom, and they get to be there clean, white, pure, because Jesus has washed them. Jesus has changed their clothes, and now they're wearing robes of righteousness when they used to wear filthy garments. And so, this picture here that we have Joshua, the high priest, this is not just a picture for one place in time. This is a picture for all people. I have an accuser who's coming after me, he's pointing out how filthy my garments are, how unclean I am, how sinful I am before a holy God. I'm not wearing a turban that says, “Holy to the Lord.” I'm not wearing robes dressed in white. I've got filthy the stain of sin in my life. And so, I've got an accuser, and I need a change of clothes.
Go back with me to Zechariah 3. And this is where we really get to see the picture. We had to see Joshua, we had to see Satan, but the one we really want to focus in on here as we go through this. Now the third time is the angel of the Lord. And who is this angel of the Lord? Well, his identity has already been revealed previously in the book of Zechariah. But if you're going through here, let's just try to think as we go through. First clue is notice where Joshua is. He's standing before the angel of the Lord. Well, you could write down Deuteronomy 10:8 says that the high priests are Aaron, he stands before God, he stands before YHWH. So, this would be clear if you knew who the high priest was, and you do what the high priest does, that the high priest is the one who stands before God on behalf of the people. Then if Joshua, the high priest, is standing before the Angel of YHWH, what are we saying about the Angel of YHWH? He's now in the position of YHWH himself. And you'll notice as you go through this, that this angel will speak, this is what the Lord says. But notice even what the angel says, in Zechariah 3:4, halfway through the angel to him, he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you.” The angel is claiming that he can forgive Joshua, the high priest’s sin. Who is the one who can forgive sin. What is his name, everybody? Jesus is his name.
So, the picture here is Satan on the right hand, Joshua in the middle, but Joshua is standing before the angel of the Lord and the angel of the Lord is Jesus. That's who he is. And he's the one who's making sure that Joshua's clothes get changed. Jesus is the one rebuking Satan because when Jesus died, he shed his blood, he sacrificed his body, Jesus made a way for every one of us to be righteous. So that's how Satan gets rebuked. Anybody want to say Amen to that? Like, don't you come and accuse this guy in front of me? I'm the one who declares him to be righteous. And so that's the picture here in the first five verses. So now let's get to Zechariah 3:6. Now let's start to really think this through because in verse 6, it says, “The angel of the Lord solemnly assured, Joshua, thus says the Lord of hosts,” and how can the angel of the Lord speak in such a profound and confident way about what the Lord of hosts says, because the angel of the Lord is the messenger is the Word of the Lord, is the very image of God. This is the actual Son of God speaking on behalf of his father, and he and the Father are one. And so, this is being spoken with all the authority that anything could ever be commanded that anything could ever be said. And it says here, I mean, it's gives you a whole verse, you could memorize this verse tonight, if you want, and the angel of the Lord silently assert assured Joshua, that's a whole verse right there though, that whole verse is meant to help you realize whatever's about to be said, is a big deal. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge.” Basically, if you're going to now be the high priest, as I've commanded the high priests to be, if you're going to be how you should be in the courts of the temple that you're rebuilding, then you shall rule my house you are going to be my high priest, and you will have charge of my courts and I but here's the awesome thing. Not only are you going to work in that temple you guys are rebuilding, not only will you be the high priests, organizing everything there in the courts, I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here, you Joshua will actually be able to represent those people in my presence. I will let you come into the Divine Council. That's the promise they've made to him. A promise that you need to let a human being know that we lack faith, we're prone to doubt, we're prone towards disbelief, we're prone towards what we can see, we're prone towards I'm a sinner. I don't know if I really got pure robes. We're prone towards Satan has accused me and he might be right. We're prone towards all of those things. And so, the Lord wants to speak in a very confident way. And not only are you going to be the high priest in that temple, but you can come into my presence is what the angel of the Lord tells Joshua. In fact, he's just getting started.
Zechariah 3:8 here now, oh, Joshua, the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, you and those other priests, that you've got there with you, you meant what you guys are doing in the temple that you guys are rebuilding in Jerusalem right now, you guys are just a sign. You guys are just a picture, you guys are just a type of the things to come. Let me tell you what this is really all about. “Behold, I will bring my servant, the branch.” So, there are a few things we want to see here. One, we want to see this servant coming. And what's the name of the servant, the branch which should start triggering in our minds all kinds of epic branch prophecies, how many branch prophecies you got coming right to your head right now. We're going to go over those in a moment. That's one thing he wants us to see is the branch. The other thing here in Zechariah 3:9, “For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes.” So, kind of an All-Seeing Stone, kind of the idea here. And that's interesting. What is that all about? There's a lot of speculation about that. But you can see here I will engrave its description declares the Lord, here's the point of this stone, “that I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.” So, we've got a vision of him removing the iniquity of the high priest, well, now he's saying there's going to be a day when the branch comes, that the whole lands will have the iniquity removed from it. And when the branch comes, and the branch removes the sin out of the whole land, well, you'll be under your vine, and you'll be under your fig tree. And everybody will get along and everybody will be inviting each other over. And it's like this idyllic a kind of Utopia scenario, where finally we could be in a place of peace and love and harmony in the world, because all of the iniquity will be removed in that day. So here, he says, what you're doing Joshua, right, now you're going to do it, you're going to come into my presence. If you walk in my ways, and you keep my charge, if you go about it the way that I'm telling you, you not only are you going to be my high priest and come into my presence, but you're you and all you the other priests, you guys are just a sign of what's really going to happen when the branch comes. And the iniquity is really taken away. And everybody can just go before God, and everybody can be right with one another. What a day that's going to be, Joshua. See, would Satan come before Jesus, Jesus didn't just want to beat him a little bit. He wants to crush his head. And that's what Jesus is doing here. Let me rebuke you, Satan. Because not only are you not getting Joshua, the high priest, and not only are you not getting the people in Jerusalem right now, but someday, I'm going to remove the iniquity and you're not getting anybody, Satan. That's what Jesus is saying.
So, there's a prophecy here of this future day of the branch and when it says the branch, you're supposed to be like, yes, the branch I love the branch. Do you love the branch? Do we all love the branch as much as everybody else loves the branch? That's what we're supposed to be thinking. Because this prophecy here from Zechariah, after the exile is following up on all the previous epic branch prophecies and it's been a personal bucket list item for me to preach on the branch here at Compass HB everybody. So go with me to Isaiah chapter 4, and let's fill in if you don't have your branch prophecy checklist already filled in. Go to Isaiah chapter 4, who is this branch that's going to come and remove the iniquity of the land, and then everybody's going to get along? I mean, this branch is it's almost like this branch is going to be so big. Everybody's got their own little vine, or everybody's got their own little fig tree coming off of this branch here. So, Isaiah 4:2, let me just take you through some references in Isaiah and some references in Jeremiah to the branch and what is this coming, this future day that Joshua, the high priest is just a sign of, but this is really what Jesus wants to talk about. This is Isaiah 4:2, “n that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. And he who is left in Zion,” so why all the God's people are going to be there in Zion, everybody who remains in Jerusalem, they will be called holy. See, do you realize someday it won't just be the high priest that wears the turban that says “Holy to the Lord,” someday everybody's going to be called holy. Everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, “when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.” And so on.
This day, the Lord will create over the whole side of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, there's going to be a cloud by day and smoke in the shining of a flaming fire by night, for overall the glory there will be a canopy, there will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and the rain way. You see, God removes all the guilt washes all the blood stain away there in Jerusalem, and he's going to set up a canopy, what a great place that's going to be when the branch of the Lord shall come.
Go over to Isaiah 11, because it kind of gives us the background here of the branch. And the idea is that it comes from it says here in 11, “one the stump of Jesse.” So, see, there are so many names we’ve got to kind of know for the whole big picture to come together. And one of the key border pieces and understanding the picture is that who is the son of Jesse, does anybody know his name? David is the son of Jesse. So, when it's talking about the stump of Jesse, it's expecting you to know the story where the prophet Samuel went over to the house of Jesse, and he was going to anoint one of his sons because they had been chosen. They were the men who had a heart after the Lord. And so, God was going to anoint one of the sons of Jesse to be king over Israel. And that son, it was the youngest son, they didn't even invite him because he was out watching the sheep. And so, he had to wait for him to show up. And it was David, the most famous king in all the history of Israel. And so, David's line see the tree coming from King David, there was a promise that God made that there would be a king in his line that would reign over his people, there would be someone who would sit on the throne of Israel forever. Well, the tree of David, it got chopped down when King Nebuchadnezzar came in, and when they went to exile, and so here's an amazing prophecy, hey, the tree got chopped down, but don't worry, that stump of Jesse from there is going to come forth from the from the stump, even after the tree got chopped down know from the from the stump, there's going to come forth a shoot, a branch, a branch is coming from the roots, and this branch shall bear fruit and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord and this branch that's going to come from the stump of Jesse, this one who will come in the line of David his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness, he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth, he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breadth of his lips, he shall kill the wicked, righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. Oh, listen to how great life is going to be the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, and the little child is leading all of these animals; the cow and the bear shall graze. Their young shall lie down together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the whole of the Cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder or the snake’s den, they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
See, here the picture is like, animals are getting along, babies are hanging out with very dangerous animals. Like there's this kind of peace where even people and animals are getting along, like everybody's inviting each other over to each other's homes. There's no threat or danger from any predator. No, everybody's just at peace, because the Lord has shown up the branches here from the stump of the tree of Jesse, this branch is shooting forth, and when he comes all the way to you see till the branch shows up. Go to Jeremiah 23:5, we pick up with this idea of the branch, after Isaiah prophesied, even closer to the destruction of Jerusalem was the weeping prophet Jeremiah. And he says here in Jeremiah 23:5-6, “Behold, the days are coming.” So, we're talking about this future day. In that day, the day of the branch, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: the Lord is our” – what? See, the beautiful thing is there's a picture of Jesus in all of his glory. There's a picture of somebody who's filthy. And there is a picture of somebody who's an evil accuser. And the accuser comes to declare the filthy, filthy, which they clearly are. But there's someone who comes to the defense of the filthy, and he declares them righteous. So, when you hear about the branch, the theme that goes along with the branch is God, YHWH, is our righteousness.
This is where our righteousness is going to come from. It's going to come from the branch, the king, the one who's going to come and make all things right. And when he makes all things right, he will declare us his righteousness, he will declare us to be right, because he will give us his righteousness. Go over to chapter 33 In Jeremiah, where it says this again, Jeremiah 33:14. And it says many branch prophecies as we can fit in to our time here together. Jeremiah 33:14, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel, and the house of Judah. And those days, see, and the day that is coming at that time, I will cause a righteous branch. Notice when you hear the branch, you're supposed to think the branch equals with a righteous one, the righteous branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days, Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called the Lord is our what, everybody? Our righteousness.
Point number three: You need to see Jesus as your righteousness. You need to see Jesus as your righteousness. That's the thing we've got, the accuser, we've got the clothed and filthy garments, we can put ourselves into the picture. Here, I am being accused for all of my uncleanliness, for all of my sin of which I am, by the way, guilty. And it would be right for me to be condemned in the presence of a holy God. But there I come to stand before God, and instead of declaring me condemned, he declares me to be righteous, he declares me to be purchased by his blood that he has already died in my place. And therefore, he is my advocate. I have an accuser. But I also have a defense attorney who has never lost a case, I have one who stands up in my defense. And when he says, I am righteous, there is no one that can say I am not righteous. Satan can't say I'm not righteous. You can't say I'm not righteous. I can't even say about myself, I'm not righteous, because if Jesus is my righteousness, then that's who I am. See, this is so important. This picture. We’ve got people in this room who are sincerely trying to live a righteous life. We’ve got people in this room, who on a daily basis are feeling wracked with guilt. And I get this piece that I know I'm supposed to be righteous. And I got this piece that I know I'm not righteous. And sometimes it's hard for us to put these pieces together because we don't have the big picture. Now, I don't hear people at this church say, the devil made me do it. But what I do hear people at this church say is I'm trying to do it. And there's nothing in the picture that's on the cover of the box that is about you doing anything. The only thing that you do that makes the cover of the box is filthy stuff. You don't do anything to get righteous. Somebody's accusing that you're not righteous, and that person with that angel, that accuser that evil one, he would be right about you. He would be right about you. He would be right about all of us. But then there's someone who says no, they are righteous, and I rebuke you, Satan.
See, this is a picture that you're supposed to put yourself in, it's a picture that you will be it because you will stand before Jesus. And you will hear Jesus say something about you. And what Jesus says about you will define you. It will not be what you have done. It will be what Jesus has done that will define your life. Your righteousness does not come from anything you do, you just stay in there, and you would get accused. But before you can get accused, the accuser’s getting rebuked, and your clothes are getting changed. And we're saying, hey, the Lord is your righteousness. This is good news. This is the picture that we're all supposed to see. Okay. So, I want to make this very clear. Okay? That there is nothing we talk a lot about, hey, let's go do what God tells us. In fact, we asked this question a lot here at this church, shall we continue in sin that grace may about? No. Okay. So, notice after he changes, Joshua, the high priest’s clothes, the filthy garments are removed, the pure vestments are placed upon him, the turban is put upon his set head, “Holy to the Lord.” What does he say? What does he solemnly assure Joshua to do in verse 6? Well, verse 6 is just the height verse, verse 7, he actually says it, the Lord of hosts says to you, “if you want, walk in my way.” See, we have been declared righteous. And now we're supposed to go walk in that righteousness, but we don't need to get it twisted. Okay? If I, it's not me walking in righteousness that makes me righteous. I get righteous, because Jesus said I'm righteous, and he gave me his righteousness. That's how it works. And so, what I think happens is sometimes people here among us, and maybe you're one of these people, maybe you think this way, when you sin, you start to think I got to do something to unsin myself, I got banned, I did something bad, I got to try to make it right. And then what that does is it puts all this pressure on you to go try and be righteous, brothers, sisters, that's not how this righteousness thing works.
Go with me to 1 John chapter 2. And I want to end with this, because this is a beautiful piece. But I don't know if we put it into the whole puzzle here. And 1 John 2:1. And 1 John is so clear, and we try to be so clear about this here at our church. I mean, 1 John, it says, if you're claiming that you're in the light, but you still walk in the dark, you're a liar, and the truth is not in you. 1 John says that anyone who continues in sin is not born in God, born of God. So 1 John is making it very clear. You can't keep living in sin and claim to be righteous. At the same time, it is drawing that line. This is like the book of lines. You're either in the light or the dark, which one are you? But he also wants to make it very clear that when you find yourself in sin, the answer to finding you are in sin is not to go and try and be righteous. The answer to finding that your garment is filthy is to go to the only one who can make you clean. See, look at what it says in 1 John, chapter 1. Let's pick it up here in 1 John 1:7. “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from,” how much sin does it say we're cleansed from there, everybody? All sin. Now if we say we have no sin, well, I'm perfect. I don't have any sin. Well, you're deceiving yourself; the truth is not in us. But when you see that you do have sin, you should try harder not to sin. Is that what he says here in verse 9? 1 John 1:9. If you confess your sins, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from how much unrighteousness, everybody? Are you telling me whenever I see that I'm filthy, all I need to do is go and acknowledge that I'm filthy. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Look at this, 1 John 2:1, “My little children,” he's writing to people that he loves that he wants to understand this. Either he knows maybe they don't have the whole picture yet. “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” Yes. Going Live your life walking God's ways. Choose not to sin. Yes, I'm writing so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the who, everybody. Hey, I want to always say as clearly as I can turn from sin. Don't continue in sin. Hey, you in Christ, you can walk in righteousness. Does anybody want to say Amen to that? But hey, if you do sin, can you just take a little look at the picture on the front of the box and go back to the Divine Council in your mind and realize that yes, you don't want to join the team of Satan and start accusing yourself. And yes, your garments are filthy. But if he, the angel of the Lord, speaking on behalf of the God who commands the armies of heaven, if he says you’re righteous, then nobody can argue with him. Who is to condemn you? Is he who justifies, if Jesus is your righteousness, no one should ever be able to convince you that you are not righteous. Don't let Satan convince you. Don't convince yourself. If you do sin, I feel like what 1 John 2 is saying here, hey, if anyone does sin, don't forget Zechariah 3. If anyone does sin, just go look at the cover of the puzzle. Just go remind yourself how this is all going to start and how this is all going to finish that Jesus, when you came to Jesus with your sin, he declared you righteous. And he's still declaring your righteous at this present hour. And he will declare you righteous on that day. The righteous branch from the stump of Jesse knows your name and has died in your place, remind yourself of that the next time you've sinned. That's what it's teaching us here.
So, if you're one of the people that I'm talking to, and when you send, you're like, I’ve got to buckle down, and try harder. Yes, take sin very seriously. Don't give into it again. Turn from it, I hear you. But don't think you're going to make yourself righteous, or you're going to get back to a right standing with God. Remember, you have an advocate, you have someone standing in your defense; you need to see Jesus as your righteousness before the throne of God. Above you have a strong and perfect plea, you have a high priest whose name is love, who stands to live and lives to intercede for thee. He stands in your defense; he claims you as his own. So, if you know that you have not really confessed your sin, that your garments are still filthy, they've never been cleansed, I'm so glad you're here tonight, because you could see the whole picture. I mean, it's worse than how bad you feel. Can you imagine people feeling guilty about their own sin. And then someday, Satan shows up and announces their sin to everybody in the Divine Council. What a terrifying picture. If you know you are still filthy in your garments, you've never come and confessed your sin. You've never been mate, given these pure vestments, and been declared righteous by Jesus, I'm so glad you're here to see this. You could confess your sin and you could be made righteous by Jesus tonight. And if you have trusted in Christ for your righteousness, then why would you walk around this week thinking you're not righteous? Because you sinned? No, when you sin, remind yourself, there's somebody who's saying, I rebuke you, Satan. And I'm going to take their iniquity away. And someday I'm going to come back and take all the iniquity away, and everybody's going to shout, YHWH, the Lord, he is our righteousness. Let's pray.
Father in heaven, we just thank you that even though we do have an accuser, and even though our garments are filthy, we praise the name of Jesus here in this place. And Father, we just thank you that we got to come together tonight at church. And we got to study Zechariah 3, what a blessing it is for you to give us this glorious picture in front of us. And Father, I just pray for all my brothers and sisters, that when we do sin, Father, I pray that we would find great comfort, great encouragement in the fact that Jesus Christ is our righteousness. And that that would give us confidence, to turn away from that sin, and to not stay to feed it or to stay feeling guilty, or to stay down and to start letting the accusations get to us and to start actually doubting our own righteousness that we never had, that never really came from us in the first place. So Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters who are feeling guilty or feeling unclean, who are feeling unworthy that they would not listen to the accusations of our adversary, but that they would listen to the angel of the Lord, that they would listen to the one who speaks for the Lord of hosts, to the one who declares us righteous because he has the authority and power to do so. Father, we give all glory praise and honor to the name of Jesus, the only name by which anyone can be saved, the only name by If anyone is declared righteous, we give all the glory to Jesus here tonight. And Father, I pray that you would open our eyes to see that Joshua, he's not the real high priest in Zechariah 3, that Jesus is our high priest, that Jesus is the one who brings us into your presence, that Jesus is the one who claims us as his righteous people. So let us sing to our Great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray this in his name. Amen.