The Village Church
A Brand Plucked From The Fire - Audio
All right, as always, this is God's Word, so let us give our hearts our attention to it. Does Denny show 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 clothe 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." Let us pray and that's God to bless our time this morning, let's pray. Almighty God, we thank you for your word. Thank you that you did not leave us in the dark, in the terms of knowing you, in terms of drawing near to you, we thank you for giving us the good news of your son, Jesus, even as it is proclaimed in this passage. So Lord, we pray that you by your spirit will work in our hearts this morning to hear your word, pray that for myself, pray that for the people who are gathered here this morning to worship you, would you, O Lord, work to advance your kingdom in the hearts of good people, even through me, a sinner, and I pray, God, that you would be glorified, that Jesus would be exalted, and pray all these things in Christ's name. One of the things I think that we all have is, I think we all have these moments in our lives where we kind of look back on our path, we kind of think to ourselves, why in a world would I do such a thing, or why in a world would I think such a thing. I have many of those moments, but one I want to share with you this morning is, in particular when I was maybe like seven or eight years old, I decided that I was going to make a career out of being a bully. So I thought, hey this is a good way to get things done and get things my way, I'm going to bully people around, and whenever I don't have what I want, I'm just going to be people up and take it from them. So this one day my brother and I were going to a park and I decided to live out my new career goals and dreams, and there was a little kid on the swing, on the swing, and I decided hey, let's test this bully thing out, and so this kid was on the swing and I went over and I asked him, I was like hey, can I get off the swing and give to me, and of course the kid is not going to give a swing, he's like no, I'm not giving you my swing. So what I decided to do was, I pushed him off the swing, took a swing, and then just kind of gently got on and started swinging, and my younger brother the whole time, he just kind of been like no, don't do this, it's wrong, and I just kind of kept swinging. Well, there was this other kid who was maybe two swings down from where we were, he saw the whole thing, and he kind of, you know, suckered me in really, he kind of suckered me in and said, you know, I saw you take that kid, swing, I bet you won't try to do that with me, and so I decided, okay, I got to make another example of somebody else, and you know, the last thing I remember was kind of sliding out my swing seat and walking over to him like I was about to hit him, and before I got to him, he hit me like five times, and so, that dashed those dreams very quickly, being a bully, and so, you know, this kid kind of humiliated me, he embarrassed me, my younger brother saw the whole thing, so I told him, you know, let's leave, we have to go, you know, this guy humiliated me, and this park, everybody saw it, and so I forced him to come with me and leave the park. The weird part about the story is, as we're leaving, you know, the guy wasn't, he decided he wasn't done with me, and so he started throwing oranges at me as we're leaving, and the weird thing about it is there were no orange trees in the park, I don't know where this kid got this orange from, but he found the orange to throw at me, just to kind of, you know, add the insult to injury, but, so I decided that day, you know, as I'm walking away with my brother, you know, nobody else could find out about this, we couldn't tell our parents, we couldn't tell my karate teacher, and so I kind of, I made, I made a pack with him, I said, hey, if you don't tell anybody about this, then I'll be your personal servant the rest of my life, and, you know, of course, that sounded like a wonderful idea, he's just like, yeah, sure, you know, I'm not going to tell anybody, and of course, you know, that didn't last too long, because it was probably like two weeks, and he told everybody I got beat up at the park, but the, my reason for starting this way is, and kind of thinking about that situation, and thinking about wanting to be a bully, and thinking about wanting to rough people up, and especially considering it, considering it in light of, you know, what bullies have driven teens to these days, you know, some teens have committed suicide as a result of being bullied, when I kind of look back on that event, it kind of, it agrees me, it really does read me to know that that's what I was wanting to do, and sadly, this story, this event, it's only a small fraction, an account of my sin, it's only just a tip of really, of what my heart is like, and some of the things I've done, there's some of you this morning who kind of hear that story, and you can kind of, it resonates with you, because you know, I've been there, and I've tried to bully you, I've bullied my sister, I've bullied my little brother, and you kind of recognize, looking back at it now, this is an awful thing to do, that it was wrong, that it was horrible, there's some of you who are here this morning, you kind of look at a story, and it's kind of, it's funny, you know, it's child's play, it doesn't hold a candle to some of the things that you've done, and you kind of recognize this sense of guilt, this sense of shame, this sense of really, that doesn't measure up to some of the things I've done, and then there still may be some of you who kind of think, I have it all together, but there's nothing I've ever done that's been wrong, or that horrible, and one of the things that scripture does is, it kind of levels the playing field, and it speaks about all of us being sinners, of all of us deserving God's wrath and God's judgment, for the smallest of sins, for the sins that you don't think even matter, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount would say to those who were listening, you know, you've heard it said do not murder, but I tell you that anyone who yells an insult to their brother, who says you fool, you're liable to hellfire, and this point is that the law crushes us, that God's law condemns us all to hell, that everybody in this room, everybody you know, because they're a sinner, they deserve hell, but one of the things that's so glorious about this passage, and so glorious about this time of the year, is it tells us that God has an answer for our condition, that it tells us that God has an answer for our sin, and that's in the gospel, and so as we consider this passage, I kind of want to look at it in just three ways, one of the things that the gospel does is that it addresses our sin, and secondly the gospel addresses our righteousness, and then finally the gospel addresses our works, so the gospel addresses our sin, the gospel addresses our righteousness, and the gospel addresses our work, and we're gonna look at this passage and kind of unpack those three things, all right, if you look at this passage, I know it's probably a passage, you've never really read, and it's kind of one that's obscure and doesn't make sense, it's in the minor prophet section, you didn't, you probably didn't even know this book was in the Bible, I know that, that's fine, you know we're here to learn, we grow in God's Word by reading it, but Zechariah 3 just kind of to give you some of the context of what's going on, God had chosen the people for Himself to be His people, He redeemed them, He saved them from their sin, from oppression in Egypt, and had taken them to Himself, and wanted them to be witnesses to the world, He wanted them to show the world that the Holy One of Israel is the true God, and one of the things that happened with this people is you know things were well, they conquered the nations, they converted people over to true God, and as things got better for them, what they kind of did was they decided you know we don't need God anymore, things are well, things are okay, we're doing fine, just with, I mean we're doing just fine without God, so one of the things that God did was He sent these prophets, which are all these weird names that you guys kind of go what, who was that, these prophets to kind of proclaim the same message, God is saying repent turn to me, repent turn to me, repent turn to me, or there will be judgment, but the people kind of you know disobeyed the prophets, kind of thought hey those guys you know they're crazy, they don't know what they're talking about, we're okay, and so what ends up happening is God decides to use the other nations, the nations that worship false gods, the nations that worship idols really, to bring judgment on His chosen people, and so one of the things that happens is they are captured, they are defeated, you know, in its graphic language the Old Testament uses, but in a word God takes them into slavery, into exile, so this book Zechariah, what is what happens is God had been promising that He would bring them out of exile, and He does, and one of the things that God wants to do in particular in this vision is to show them that worship is important, and He's wanting to show them that we are going to establish, re-establish worship, and I'm going to be God to you once again, but the problem in His passage comes as we see this high priest Joshua, if you know anything about what the high priest was supposed to do was he's supposed to atone for the sins and people of God, so he represented the people of God, and he's the one that mediated between God and His people, because God is so holy, because people are so sinful, this high priest was the one who was going to stand before God and people and make their relationship right, all right, so that's why when you read the Old Testament, it's all that sacrificing of blood, of bulls and goats, the point of it is just to say that our sin, you know, is costly, and this high priest was the one who performed all these rituals and sacrifices, all right, but the problem when you read this passage is it tells you that the high priest is standing there in filthy garments, the whole purpose of that is to say this guy is unfit, that the people he is representing is unfit, that they are filthy, that word filthy in the Hebrew is a word that kind of refers to something being defiled by excrement, so it kind of adds this edge of disgust to it, it adds this sense that the sins of the people of God are disgusting to God, that they are offensive to God, and what you see is Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord, and he's supposed to be the one that represents the people of God, and of course verse 2 tells us that Satan is standing there to accuse him, that Satan is looking at this high priest and saying really this guy is going to atone for the sins of the people of God, that really he's going to be the one that's going to make the people of God right with him, Joshua is going to do that, and kind of the irony of this passage, I don't know if you recognize this is, you know, we read a scripture about Satan being the father of lies, but when you actually think about it, you know when he's actually speaking the most truth, it's when he's talking about the sins of the people of God, I mean think about that, you know this guy standing there and Satan is saying look at what he's done, look at the evidence, and of course that could be the same thing for us, that Satan could look at us and say look this girl slept around in high school, this guy slept around in high school, he's a racist, she's a racist, he hates his wife, he loves money more than he loves you God, he loves stuff more than he loves you God, he has committed adultery in his heart, God, and really this is your people, this is the people who was supposed to represent you really, and a part of that is to say these charges this evidence is valid, that he has a rap sheet on each and every one of us, Charles Spurgeon who was a Baptist preacher wrote about this passage and he says truly dear friends if Satan wants to accuse us any page of our history any hour of any day will furnish him material for his charges, yesterday you were impatient, the day before you were proud, another day you were slawful, on another day angry, or what a den of unclean birds the human heart is, if the old accuser wants reasons for accusation he may indeed find as many as he wills and continue to accuse as long as ever he pleases, for we are all together an unclean thing, what it's saying is really that we're guilty, but what you see that so beautiful about this passage is you see God fight for his people, you see Jesus fight for his people, it's in verse two it says in the Lord says it's Satan the Lord rebuke you oh Satan the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you is not this a brand plucked from the fire, the angel of the Lord figures one that shows up a lot of times in Old Testament at a critical event and scholars kind of look at this character and see some of the ways that he's described and he's described as God himself, but one of the things that that's also noted is you know this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus himself that before Jesus took on flesh it was born of Mary that this is God giving us you know showing us Jesus Christ, one of the things you see this angel the Lord does is he kind of put Satan in his place he says shut up yes you have all this stuff shut up has not the Lord chosen Jerusalem is not this a brand plucked from the fire the point of it is to say his not judgment already fell upon this people they have been judged in exile that God had brought his judgment on them that many of them died in exile God is saying I have dealt with their sin I've put it away and the thing about scripture is what it ultimately says about any of us is the reason that we are forgiven the reason that we are part and the reason that our sins are covered is because of Jesus Christ alone that for the person who trust in Jesus all that stuff that people know about you all that stuff that you know in your heart of heart that if people found out about what you did in this church they would kind of put you off what it says is Jesus has really dealt with that that really there is no condemnation upon you that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus what it's saying is you are cleared of those charges and you know you deserve hell but Jesus has forgiven you that for anybody who's trusting in Jesus no matter where you come from no matter what you done that there is forgiveness to be found in the cross and so as God is judging us through his son on the cross some 2,000 years ago the punishment has been been dealt with the penalty has been paid and so if you are a Christian if you are one who is trusted in Christ you can rest assured your sins have been dealt with regardless of what people would say about you regardless of them saying oh I saw her what she was doing last night well I saw him you should see him you know we should saw him ten years ago what he was like in high school regardless of what they could say that the one to who it matters the relationship to who it matters that's been dealt with your sin has been dealt with and so some further application of this truth is that there's some of you who kind of have deep guilt over things that you've done what I want you to hear this morning is Jesus is for you that the gospel is for you and you need it and I need it everybody in this room needs it I guarantee you that everybody you know really needs the gospel they really do need Jesus why it's a big deal for us to celebrate his birth because God has been faithful to his promises to redeem his people to save his people there are some of you who kind of you know are in this perfectionist face that when you mess up it crushes you that when you do something wrong it crushes you and part of it is because you don't want to need grace you don't want to need Jesus and what I want you to hear this morning is the gospel is for you you need Jesus that's why he came so instead of getting to the cycle of self pity and beating yourself up recognize that that's just why Jesus came it's exactly what he said I came not to call the righteous but sinners came not for the people who are healthy but the sick as far as the safe you think you have it all together you don't you really don't and you will miss your need for me but if you do recognize that you are sick that you are unhealthy that you are poor in spirit then come to me this is the exact reason why I came to save my people so the gospel addresses our sin and one of the things that I want you to hear is the gospel is for you and be it for the first time that you've heard this recognize that that Jesus came for you for the center I pray that you would trust him secondly the gospel addresses our righteousness and my point in saying that is this is kind of the I think the trap that we fall into is Christians but we think okay now that Jesus has saved me now let me work hard so so you know let me do my part let me do the rest now that Jesus has saved me and part of that part of the area in that is one of the things that you have to understand is God requires a perfect righteousness that God requires you to be perfect I hope you understand it that's his standard for holiness but you need to have never sinned not only that you would need to never sin ever and if you are honest with yourself you know you cannot live up to that standard you cannot live up to that law you cannot you just can't because you're a sinner but one of the things that's so glorious about this passage as well is it speaks to God giving us a perfect righteousness where do we see that in this passage well if you look at verse 4 this is in the angel said to those who were standing before him remove the filthy garments from him I was talking about Joshua the High Priest and he's to him he said behold I've taken your iniquity away from you and the point of that is to say that God has taken away that sin but then the second clause of that is that and I will clothe you with pure investments I want you to know it's not Joshua clothing himself it's not Joshua saying okay I know these clothes are dirty I want to get some more clothes but it's God saying I'm going to give you pure clothes pure investments and the whole point of that is to say this righteousness is something that comes completely you know out of us that it's not in and of ourselves that we are righteous before God but the God has given us a perfect righteousness the God is saying this is the righteousness you need so the new testament you know we often hear about Jesus dying for sins one thing that also needs to be emphasized that Jesus lived a perfect life not just because he was God but because we needed it and so theologians should kind of speak of this great exchange that happens the moment a believer puts faith in Christ that Jesus takes our sin and the penalty of our sin but at the same time he gives us a perfect righteousness where do we see that in a new testament one verse I can think of is second Corinthians 5 which says God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God so the whole purpose of that is just to say that you if you are a believer in Christ but you are perfectly righteous in God's eyesight that there is not spot spot or blemish in your righteousness that God loves you because you are in his son Jesus is why the New Testament speaks so clearly about us being seeing in Christ Jesus was perfect and that's the only way that you and I can be called son or daughter of the living God because we're seeing in him we're seeing as perfectly righteous as he was so some application to take from that is the fact that when you think about you know your sin in a ways you mess up in a ways you struggle with sin one of the things that you can be confident of is that there is not a moment in your existence where God hates you for the true believer you are always his child you are always his daughter you are always his son and so when you mess up don't fall into the trap of thinking well God hates me so much right now because I did this why did that and I'll misunderstand I'm not saying that what we do does not matter or that sin does not grieve God what I do what you understand is it's not this wishy-washy relationship that one moment God loves me now God hates me because I did this or that one moment God used to love me but now did this God hates me now God does not like that it's why the New Testament speaks oftentimes in past tense saying things like you are saved declaring that it's already happened that you are a child of God it's declaring that you are that for the believer you really can have that promise you really can have the hope of knowing that God is your father and so hear me God does not love you based on the things that I mean things that can be good things God does not love you more or less based on you know whether or not you read your Bible for the past year every day or whether or not you prayed for the past year every day your relationship with God is not built on what you've done but it's built on what Jesus has done so for the believer you can know that God's love is upon you at every moment that his love is faithful that it is constant but it is never changing and you can rest in that and then finally the gospel addresses our works and so we've seen already that on the gospel address our sin and then not that the gospel address our righteousness but then what about works what place does works have in the Christian life and one of the things we see in this passage is that God is promising blessing for obedience on me verse six and seven it says in 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 should rule my house and have charge of my courts and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here and what God is promising to Joshua the High Priest is that for obedience that you will have fellowship with me that I'll give you charge of my course that you will perform the duties of a priest and God is promising but that's going to bring blessing God notice that God is not saying if you do these things that's how you're going to maintain your relationship with me notice that God is not saying these things save you or make you any more right before me but he's saying that there will be blessing and so to us one of the things that we can take from this is knowing that when we follow God's law and we live by what God has called us to live then there will be blessing and God is promising that so what God is doing is he's showing us it's not only about head knowledge there's not only about you being able to quote scripture and you being able to you know kind of communicate deep doctrines of the faith but also living matters that the way that you talk to people at a drive-through matters the way that you relate to people outside of church matters that the things you do in everyday life matters that it's not just about right thinking but right living as well and so what God is saying is be what I've called you to be I've made you holy I've made you righteous and be holy be righteous and that manifests itself in everyday moment-by-moment you know very the very little things of our lives the things you know where we think nobody's looking that it affects all of that it speaks to all of that and God is saying you understand the gospel you understand that it affects this that it affects you being honest with your tax what it affects you being honest with people who work for you and it affects the way you relate to your children that it affects the way you relate to your spouse that it affects all of that God is saying be what I've made you and he also goes to show that you know if if we're doing these things then it should give us great assurance that the fact that you are here this morning to worship God that's a big deal kind of showing you that God is doing something that God is working in you that God is advancing his kingdom in your hearts and you should take heart means take great encouragement by that if you are here this morning and you're seeking God if you are here this morning and you are paying your tithe if you are here this morning and you are loving your spouse you're loving your children and you're being faithful in your work one of the things you can take courage in that God is doing something in me the God is changing me the God is showing grounds of gospel living in my life and so these works kind of assure us that God is doing great things and what God promises is that there will be blessing for that that you will see the fruit and to kind of wrap us up Joshua this high priest is one who ultimately points to you know the great high priest and that's Jesus Christ that Joshua was only a shadow of Jesus is the one who stands between sinful humanity and for people like us and God and makes us right with God so you and I can have hope you and I can have peace you and I can have joy this season you and I can celebrate this in a way that the world does not celebrate it we can know that that boy being born some 2,000 years ago with our hope that boy who grew to be a man and died on the cross is for us that the gifts if they're good they're fine that God gave the greatest gift as Jesus God gave his son for us so be it for the first time this morning or the millionth time believe the gospel trust in Jesus Christ Father we are humbled to know that you love us that much did nothing to deserve your grace and nothing to deserve your mercy yet you are gracious and you are merciful we thank you for remembering us and remembering our need giving us Jesus fulfill our every need our every longing our every desire please Lord help us to remember the truth of the gospel is we let's be wrestled against our flesh we wrestle against the world please help us to be encouraged to be changed by the truth that we're forgiven that we are righteous that our righteousness does not lack in any way to help us to live for your glory this we ask Jesus name