As we continue to worship this morning, as we come to the ministry of the Word, I invite you to take your Bibles and turn in them to the book of Zechariah. And this morning we're going to look at chapter 3. Zechariah chapter 3. Zechariah chapter three, if you're looking for that in your Old Testament, that's the second to last book in the Old Testament. And if you're visiting with us this morning, it's wonderful to have you with us. We have been working through the book of Zechariah, not with the intention to finish the whole book. We're specifically looking at the night visions of Zechariah. Before we read this passage, I just want to say sometimes in the Word of God you come across these passages, especially in the Old Testament, that really, I think you could say, sum up all of the message of the Bible. And I think that Zechariah 3 is one of those passages. Just in 10 verses, really in the first 4 or 5 verses, the whole message of God's condescension to mankind to save them out of the depravity of their own sin and clothe them with the righteousness of Jesus Christ is put on display in picturesque form here. So let us hear this morning the gospel according to Zechariah. Zechariah chapter three, I'm gonna read in your hearing verses one through 10. Listen carefully, this is the word of the living God. 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 bran 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. Thus far, the reading of God's word. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord stands forever. And we are grateful for it. Are we not, congregation? Let's bow our heads and ask the Lord for some help this morning as we come to his word. Father God, we have one simple request this morning as we sit under the tutelage of your word, and that is that we would see Jesus. Would you show us Jesus, Father? We have not come here to learn seven qualities of highly effective people. We have not come here this morning to know how to win friends and maintain influence and be persuasive. Father, we want to see Jesus. Because we want to see ourselves once again clothed in his righteous robes. And once again, Father, we want to imitate him, not because we have to, not because the Christian religion is a religion of do's and don'ts. It is certainly not that. Father, we want to be like Jesus because we love him. He is our champion. He is the one who has wrestled us from the mouth of the lion. And yea, he guards us even until the end of the age. So, Father, show us Jesus this morning. We would see Jesus. Help your servant to do this in such a way that Christ's name and glory and majesty is exalted, not only in the heavens, but, Father, in our hearts, we pray. In Christ's name, amen. So I want to take you back to 520 BC. This is post-exilic Judah. This is Judah after the exile, after 70 years of being out of the land of Palestine. And I want to recall, as we've been talking about, that the Jews are building the wall back, they're building the temple. And they are, as it were, licking their wounds after 70 years of losing their identity, their cultural identity, their linguistic identity. I mean, this is just about two generations after they had been kicked out of the land, and when they came back, they weren't speaking Hebrew. In fact, many of you are familiar with that passage in Nehemiah chapter 8, where for The better part of a whole day, Nehemiah and the prophet, or in the priest, Ezra, were reading the law before the people. And there's this text in verse eight where it says, Nehemiah 8.8, that they would read the law and give its meaning, okay? And many people think, well, they're just applying it. They're just interpreting it. No, what they're doing is they're translating it. That's what they're doing. They're translating it because the people of Judah have really, for the most part, lost their connection to Hebrew. So they are trying to get their identity back and they're going through something really of an identity crisis. And Zechariah chapter three is very important because what it forces the people of Judah to do is to deal with the elephant in the room. But instead of dealing with the elephant in the room, I'm gonna say they have to deal with the elephant in the Holy of Holies. Because the context here is Joshua the high priest. This was a real historic figure. And he has a problem, and we'll get to that in just a moment, but you need to understand that the setting, the setting is in this kind of cosmic holy of holies. What is it that the high priest did? He went into the holy of holies and he made atonement for the people of God. But there's a problem that God wants the people to see, and He's gonna reveal it in this vision. And the problem is not, okay, the problem is not that they're trying to get their culture back. The problem is not that the wall is not built yet, okay. The problem is not that the temple is not built yet. That's the least of their worries, okay. Even though they had returned from exile, the seven years in exile was not enough to pay for their sin. You see, they didn't leave their sin in Babylon. When they left Babylon, guess what? They brought it with them. There you go. Wherever you go, there you are. Wherever you go, there you are. You could take the Israelite out of Babylon, but you can't take the Babylon out of the Israelite. And the same could be said of us. You could take us out of whatever situation we find ourselves in. Sometimes people want to press the reset button and go 3,000 miles across the country and get away from influence and so on and so forth, but 3,000 miles on the other side of the continent, there you are. And here Judah finds themself with a sinful heart. And so what God wants to convey to them is the problem is not your culture, the problem is not your language, the problem is not the temple, the problem is not the building, the problem is not building back up some type of rapport with the community so that you, like a good Jew, can do business with people, no. The problem is your sin. And he's gonna deal with it right here in Zechariah chapter three. And he's gonna do it by A vision. Now, I want you to understand something, because if you don't understand what I'm about to tell you, you will not understand the importance of this vision. And what that is is this, the context of this vision is Judah still under the Mosaic Law. Now, you say, okay, what's the big deal? Well, here's what that means. The Mosaic Law was a covenant of works. Listen to me again. The Mosaic Law was a covenant of works, not for salvation, The Mosaic law was a covenant of works, meaning do this and you shall live. Leviticus 18.5, Paul quotes it in Romans 10.5, he quotes it in the book of Galatians. The covenant of works said Israel, if you will be obedient to me, if you will serve Yahweh and Yahweh alone as a good monotheistic people, if you will not go after the bales, if you will take down the high places, if you will be faithful from the king all the way down, if you will do all these things, Israel, then I will not only bring you into the land, but I will allow you to have tenure in the land, to remain in the land, and all of your enemies will be taken away, and every Israelite will sit under his own fig tree, okay? And there will be prosperity and shalom, peace, that will cover the land. Now, in the first go, they didn't do very well, did they? Assyria comes in 722, takes them captive. Babylon comes in 586, takes them captive. And something interesting happened. Ezekiel saw it. Ezekiel saw the Shekinah glory of the Lord lift up from the temple and go eastward over the Kidron Valley. It departed. Ichabod, the glory is gone. Now you must understand how important that is. You see, under the covenant of works, under Moses, in order to keep that Shekinah glory with them, they had to be obedient, and that's exactly where God wants them. And this morning, it's exactly where God wants you to be. To understand this vision, you need to understand that it is happening in the context of a covenant of works. So, with that being said, I want you to go with me into this holy of holies, this kind of cosmic holy of holies, because remember, the temple's not built yet. So this is a vision, but it's an odd vision. There's Joshua, Joshua, the high priest. This is a real figure, and you could find that later in chapter six, verse 11, and Ezra, chapter three, verse two. He is the accused, the son of Jehozadek. He is accused of being sinful. Now, what's interesting about this holy of holies is that Satan is there. Isn't that interesting? Satan is there. Where else did you see a servant of God and God and Satan in the same place, so to speak? Well, it was the book of Job, right? The book of Job, Satan comes into the divine council room, if you will, of God, and he throws accusations toward his servant Job, God's servant Job. We're seeing something very similar here, which means Satan is able in some sense to come into this divine council room of God and hurl accusations at the people of God. And what does he say about Joshua? Well, we read that his garments were filthy. Now, listen to me very carefully. I'm gonna go PG right here, okay? So just follow me, and I'm doing it with intentionality because I wanna paint a picture for you. This adjective, filthy, in the Hebrew has a root word that is only used two other times in the whole Old Testament. And one of the times is found in Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 13. It's that weird passage where God says, when you Israelites go out into the camp to go number two, I want you to take a shovel with you. because the Lord your God walks among your midst. Okay, all right, fine. We'll take a shovel, we'll bury it up. But that word for excrement is the exact same word that is now in Zechariah 3 being used as an adjective to describe the garments that Joshua the high priest is wearing. And I wanna paint that picture for you, boys and girls. That means he's got poop spread all over his vestments, all over his garments. Yeah, isn't that disgusting? And we need to see that. And even now, and I'm still in PG mode here, okay? You might even conjure up smells from experiences that you've had. Just imagine Joshua the high priest standing before God in the holy of holies. with filthy garments, holes in them, and excrement spread all over them. And this would have been unthinkable to the people of God. Because in Exodus chapter 28 and chapter 29, there are law after law after law of all the things that the high priest had to do to make himself ready before he went into that holy of holies. Even before he put his vestments on, he was cleansing himself with water and some form of soap. He was washing himself, he was praying, he was sanctifying himself, and then he put the vestments on, and those vestments were squeaky clean. They smelled fragrant. They were fitting to go into the Holy of Holies, but not with Joshua. And so, if you were a Jew in the 6th century and you were reading of this, or you were hearing this from Zechariah, that Joshua had filthy garments on, it would be appalling to them. Absolutely appalling. And it was appalling to Zechariah as well. So we have the accused, but now who is the judge? I want you to notice in verse one that the judge is the angel of the Lord. Now remember, who is the angel of the Lord? The angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Christ. But I want you to notice one very important thing about his position in verse one. It says that Joshua was standing before him, which means that the angel of the Lord is standing before him, just as you might imagine in a court where the accused is standing before the judge, and the judge is about to render a sentence. We're gonna come back to that, but I want you to tuck that away, the position of the angel of the Lord as he stands before Joshua. So we have the accused, we have the judge, but there's another figure here, and that is Satan. Now in the Hebrew, Satan's name is literally Hasatan. It's really a title, the Satan, the accuser, the adversary. It's not used that often in the Old Testament, but it is used. And what is Satan doing? He is pointing his, metaphorically speaking, his bony finger at two people. First of all, at Joshua. Joshua's garments are filthy. Here we come back to the Mosaic Law. According to the Mosaic Law, according to the covenant of works, this is absolutely unacceptable. In fact, oftentimes what they would do is they would tie a rope to the high priest so that he could go into the Holy of Holies, and if for some reason he didn't make the adequate preparations so that he was holy enough and God struck him dead, The servants wouldn't have to actually go into the Holy of Holies because they couldn't go into the Holy of Holies. They could just pull Him out with fear gripping their hearts. And Satan is saying, he is smothered in filthy garments, in excrement. But the second person that he's pointing his finger at is God. God, how could you let this man stand? Because according to your own law, the law that says that he must be perfect, he is guilty. And so God, not only is he guilty, but you're guilty. Imagine the audacity of Hasatan. Imagine the audacity to bring a charge against God. Well, that's exactly what he did. He's accusing God for not following his own law. But you see, there's two things you need to remember about Satan in this scene. Number one, number one, and I wanna speak to what he says about Joshua. Number one, Satan is theologically correct. Satan is theologically correct. You say, what do you mean? Well, what Satan's doing here is what Satan does with you and me. You know what Satan does with you and me? He points his finger and he accuses and he says they are guilty. And you know what? He's 100% accurate. Every time he accuses you, every time he accuses me, he is 100% accurate. You know, Satan, a lot of us fancy ourselves as these kind of lawyers, especially the teenagers in our congregation, right, with their parents, like they're arguing as prosecuting attorneys, and we think, we fancy ourselves as good lawyers. You know who the best prosecuting attorney is? Satan. He knows how to make a case. He watches you, he and his hordes, and they can mount up a case against you. That's pretty satisfying. For some of us, they don't have to look very far. They don't have to look very hard. It's just right there. So, I want to say first off that Satan is theologically correct, but then I also want to say this, he's deceptively selective. He's deceptively selective. Why is that? Well, Satan is arguing upon the basis of the covenant of works. Covenant of works that was the arrangement under Moses, the covenant of works that really goes all the way back to Adam when God put Adam in the garden and he says, you can eat of any fruit you want, of the trees, but don't eat of this one and in the day that you do it, dying you shall die. Which means that if he would have been obedient, he would have lived. And Satan's saying, you know, according to this covenant of works, you need to damn them. But what he's forgetting about is the covenant of grace. More specifically, the covenant of redemption that the Father before the foundation of the world made with the Son. by which he would send the Son into the world, the Son would become man, we're right around the corner from celebrating that, and he would be born of a virgin, born under the law to redeem those who are under the law. You see, Paul said in Galatians 3 that when the Mosaic law came, listen to me very carefully, very carefully, when the Mosaic law came, Galatians 3, 17, it did not annul a prior promise given. What was the prior promise given? It was the promise given to Abraham. That through his seed, the seed of Abraham, he would conquer the world. Through the seed of Abraham, many would be brought to faith. Through the seed of Abraham, many would be saved. You see, the Mosaic Covenant, when it came, it did not annul a prior promise. Why did it come then? To increase the transgression, to shut everybody up in sin. That's why you should not look for grace, saving grace in the Mosaic Covenant. It is not there. It is a fool's errand to go and find it. Some of the greatest theological minds have echoed this sentiment, for you theological nerds. The Mosaic Covenant is a republication of the covenant of works in the garden. John Owen said it. Some of our finest theologians have said it. Presbyterians have a hard time figuring it out, but there's some who get it, okay? But we get it because Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3 that the ministry of Moses was a ministry of death, a ministry of condemnation. Now, how do you get a ministry of death and condemnation and make it a ministry of grace? That's like putting lipstick on a pig. It just doesn't work, you see. They are like oil and water, they don't mix. Grace and works, they do not mix. Do this and live, the one word of the Bible, the law, do this and live, is the diabolical opposite of Christ has done it for you, which is the gospel. So Satan is theologically correct, but he's deceptively selective. So we see that the problem is that Joshua is clothed with filthy garments, but I want you to notice what the solution is. Number one, look at verse two, I love this, I love this. Verse two, what does God do? He rebukes Satan. He rebukes Satan. Now that word in the Hebrew, it can also be rendered in other contexts, roar with laughter. That's what God does. God roars with laughter as he rebukes Satan. And upon what basis does he rebuke Satan? He rebukes him on two basis. Number one, on the basis of election. He said, I have chosen Jerusalem. When you hear the word Jerusalem here, don't think of the city. Think of the people who inhabit the city. Think of God's people. I have chosen Jerusalem. This is pointing to God's electing love before the foundation of the world. His electing love that He set on those yet not born. But in his mind, those who would be recipients of grace, those whom he would give the ability to believe, those who he would make appealing the gospel such that they would accept it with that irresistible grace that comes by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He had set his electing love on them, and he's basically saying, Satan, who do you think you are to even breathe in the general direction of my elect? Keep your hands off them. He roars with laughter. But also, not only election but grace. Look at how he describes Joshua and by extension his people and by extension us. This is a bran plucked from the fire. A bran plucked from the fire. Boys and girls, it's like a piece of metal that is in the fire, and just before it could be melted or consumed, it is taken out, so it is saved, it is redeemed. And this could be, this really is an accurate depiction of each and every one of us who have tasted of the grace of God. We are brans plucked from the fire. I mean, can you imagine what we would have been Can you imagine what our eternal lot would have been had we not been brands plucked from the fire? Not those who figured it out with our own intellect, not those who were able to just kind of hunker down and figure out the mysteries of God, but those who were subjects of the ministry of the Holy Spirit who went into the deadness of our hearts and made us new and made us love and made us feel and made us see Jesus Christ as glorious and splendid and majestic. really seeing Him for who He is. This is what God has done, and that's why He has called us a brand plucked from the fire. And why? It is to these brands plucked from the fire that He does two things. Look at verse four. He does two things to these brands plucked from the fire. Number one, He removes their filthy garments. Look at verse four. He says, 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. He takes his garments away. He takes his filthiness away. What is this pointing to, beloved? There's part of me trying to follow the homiletics courses that I was learning in seminary that I gotta wait, I gotta build this up and then get to Jesus. I don't care. I'm just gonna get to Jesus right now. This is the blood of Jesus Christ. This is the blood of Jesus Christ. And it takes away your iniquity. Now think about this for a second. Boys and girls, listen. Your mommy or your daddy's, whoever's laundry detergent, what does it do? It takes stains out of garments, right? It takes stains out of garments. It takes stains out of your shoes. It takes stains out of whatever goes in that washing machine. Strange detergent staining blood. Strange detergent staining blood. Boys and girls, can you imagine blood taking away a stain of Jesus Christ does? Strange detergent staining blood. It takes away your iniquity, not your hunkering down and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and trying to atone for yourselves. We do that as Christians sometimes, don't we? We do something stupid, and then there's a scale, stupid, stupid, or stupidest. And then we do something stupidest, and we're like, oh my goodness, I'm gonna read my Bible every day for 30 days. And I'm gonna pray every day for 30 days. And I'm gonna fast for five minutes. And that'll do it. You know what we're doing? We are intrinsically trying to atone for something for which we cannot atone. We do it, beloved, that's who we are. And isn't that interesting that that's human nature? It's human nature to try to atone for our wrongs. But what this picture is showing us is that those garments could not be cleaned by Joshua. In fact, every attempt that he made to clean them only got them more soiled. Strange detergent, staining blood, that takes away the iniquity of our offenses before a holy God. Strange detergent, staining blood. But, I love this picture. I love this picture because boys and girls, go ahead and answer this, okay? This may be dangerous, here we go. If you, if Joshua's clothes are all taken off, then what is he? Naked, or naked if you're in the South, right? He's naked, that's right. He still needs to be clothed. So his sins are atoned for, but he still needs... Would Joshua go naked into the Holy of Holies? Only if he had a death wish. Only if he had a death wish. You see, the cross of Jesus Christ is two incredibly important things for us. Not only does it take away our iniquity with that strange detergent of staining blood, but as we see here in verses four, B, and five, it also gives us pure vestments. And so what we see here is Christ is clothing Joshua, and by extension, beloved, you and me. He's clothing Joshua with clean, fresh clothes. Did Joshua get those himself? No, they were given to him. And what are these garments? These garments are the perfect obedience of Christ. The perfect obedience of Christ under the law, the obedience that, by the way, you need to give to God. You wanna get into heaven? Be perfect. Luke 10, 28 and 29. The young lawyer comes to Jesus and says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He says, you know the law. You know the law. What does the law say? Well, it says, love God and love man. That's a summary of what? The Ten Commandments. What does Jesus say? No, no, no. Paul says in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, for you are saved by grace through faith and not of your own, but it is the gift of God. Now that's true, but Jesus doesn't say that. You know what he says? He says, you're right, do this and live. You wanna get into heaven? Be perfect. Here's the bad news, none of us can be perfect. The bad news is all of us are Joshua with excrement covered clothes covering our naked bodies. And what Jesus does is he takes the punishment for the iniquity that we deserve. We give him our punishment. What does he do in return? He gives us his perfect obedience, and now we hide ourselves in that perfect obedience of Jesus Christ, and we get accepted before God on the final day. Not Jesus's righteous robes and my righteous acts. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You want to talk about your righteous acts? Let's talk about it for a second. They kind of look like Joshua before he got naked. Your righteous acts, even the best of them. are soiled. I'm not saying they're not good. I'm not saying they're not important. They are very important. My whole job is to exhort you and exhort myself to good works, which are a model and an example and the logical and cardiac outflow of what God has done for us in Christ. Good works are important, but they pale in comparison on the day of judgment to the works of Christ. And it is the works of Christ that will cover us as we believe in Jesus. So this is a picture for you theological nerds of the imputation of Christ's active and passive obedience to the account of the believer through faith. How do I get my iniquity taken care of? How do I get the righteous robes of Jesus Christ? By turning from my sins and believing in Jesus Christ, and then there is that great exchange. Now, you look at this and initially you say, oh, well this picture of Joshua getting his dirty clothes taken off and his righteous clothes put on, it's a picture of me. Well, not quite. Only by extension it's a picture of you. I want you to look that this is primarily a type or a picture of Jesus Christ. I wanna show you three things very quickly, four things very quickly, okay? In verse six, Zechariah says, and the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua. So he's going to assure Joshua that this taking off of the dirty clothes and putting on of the clean clothes will stick. It's not just a kick. It's not just a fit and a start. It's gonna stay. Why? Because number one, Jesus is a type of one who stands in our place. I want you to look at verse seven. Okay, this is what he tells 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. So we just see this scene, right, of this great exchange. Christ takes our punishment, we take his righteousness. And I'm like, good, all right. Assurance of salvation, everything's good. And then all of a sudden in verse seven, what's he start talking about again? If you will keep my charge, and if you will rule over things, then I will give you the right. Well, now we're talking about obedience again, and not just like garden variety obedience, but perfect obedience. In fact, this language right here comes right out of 2 Samuel chapter seven, with the Davidic covenant, where God is telling David, and through David, Jesus Christ, that he will rule over his house if he is perfectly faithful. So are we back into a covenant of works? Well, not for ourselves, but we are into a covenant of works with Jesus. You see, Jesus had to work to save us. Jesus had to be obedient to save us, because the obedience with which he saved us is what he transfers to our account through faith. So when we look at this, we shouldn't look at it as, oh, this is me. No, this is Jesus. Joshua the high priest is a picture of Jesus, not of you. It's only a picture of you insofar as you are in Christ through faith, and then that picture sticks. But the faithfulness that he is requiring in verse seven, the faithfulness that you cannot give, the faithfulness that I cannot give, even on my best day I might be able to give something, but it's gonna be stained and soiled with excrement, but Jesus's will be perfect. Then let me show you another way really quick that this points to Jesus in verse 8, this is interesting, "'Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who will sit before you, they are men who are assigned. Behold, I will bring my servant, the branch.'" Now in some of your translations, branch is capitalized. And the reason why is because oftentimes, in fact, I think I saw a meditation up here from Isaiah 11. There's other places in the book of Isaiah where Jesus' coming as Messiah is described as a branch, a shoot that comes out of a stump, a shoot that comes out of a little baby tree. It's a shoot, a branch, that is going to blossom in its obedience unto the kingdom of God. And so we're looking here at the branch. Thirdly, third way in which this is pointing to Jesus, He says in verse 9, this is interesting, Now we know from even the book of Peter that this picture of a stone is used by Peter to say the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The stone is a picture of Jesus, right? But what about these seven eyes? Well, this is talking about the omniscience of Christ. He knows all things. He sees all things. But then what about this engraving? Well, I will recall to your attention, if you're not familiar with it, that the high priest, when he had all of his vestments on, on this shoulder and on this shoulder, he had an onyx stone. And engraved on those onyx stones were six tribes of Israel over here and six tribes of Israel over here. Well, really, it was Israel and Judah, 10 and two. And then on his breastplate, there were 12 stones, precious stones, and engraved on those stones, on each one of them, were the names of the tribes of Israel. And so why is that significant? Because when the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies, he's atoning for these people, for his people. He's atoning for their sins. He's representing them. He is an advocate, a lawyer for them. And the reason why this points to Jesus is because Jesus has our names engraved upon his hands, does he not? And he goes before the Father and he intercedes before them, not only by his death and by his life, but even now, beloved, even now through his prayers, he is interceding as the greater and the better Joshua, the high priest in the heavenly places. This is our mediator. And then finally, verse nine, he stands in our place as the one who removes iniquity in a single day, in a single day. For almost 1,000 years, beloved, the high priest was in the temple, standing up, sitting down, standing up, sitting down, making atonement, making atonement, all the blood of bulls and goats that he saw. Can you imagine like ocean, ocean of blood? And the book of Hebrews says that the blood of bulls and goats could never, could never atone for sin and never assuage the conscience. All it does is it kicks the atonement down the road another year until the next day of atonement, and then the next day of atonement, and then the next day, a thousand years, year after year, century after century. But one day, some 2,000 years ago, one day on Galgotha, God removed the iniquity of all his elect people in one moment. And that's why Jesus said, to Telistai, it is finished. So this morning, beloved, let me apply this. This is just the gospel. But there are two kinds of people sitting in this place right now. Well, three, okay? Of believers, there's the kind, and you're here, you know who you are, and you know that I know who you are. You have very sensitive consciences, very sensitive consciences. And I know because we've sat together and we've talked about, you know, pastor, should I feel guilty for this? Should I feel guilty for that? And sometimes like, yes, yes, no, yeah, no. Some of you have extremely sensitive consciences. I wanna tell you something. I wanna tell you about a good counselor, okay? You think I'm gonna say Jesus, but I'm not. Despite his efforts to the contrary, you know who's a good counselor? Satan. You say, uh-oh, I don't know how he's gonna get out of this one. I'm gonna follow Luther here. When Satan tells me that I'm a sinner, he encourages me because Christ died for sinners. When Satan tells me that I'm a sinner, he encourages me because Christ died for sinners. You see yourself as Joshua. You see yourself as that high priest. You see yourself with clothing smeared with excrement, and yes, that's you, but. Those garments were taken off, dear child of God. They were taken off. They were taken off. And though you stood naked, God clothed you with the righteousness of Christ. And for that reason, I don't want you, you could run to your Bible, you could run to your prayer closet, you could run to fasting, you could run to whatever you want, that's fine. But all those things should be taking you to one place, and that one place is the foot of the cross. And you come to the foot of the cross, and once again, you get reminded of who you are. Yes, you're a filthy sinner. Yes, we're scumbags. Yes, we deserve the wrath of God. But holy of holy and wonder of wonders, God condescends in the person of His Son, and He slayed Him on the cross so that your sins might be rolled back, what, for another year? No, for eternity. And that you might be clothed with the righteousness of Christ And so what does God tell you to do? He tells you to come. He tells you to come to this place where you find strange detergent, the staining blood. Come through repentance and faith. Don't let your pride keep you from a clear conscience. Do not let conscience make you linger, nor a fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requires is for you to fill your need of him. Do you feel your need of Jesus Christ this morning? Do you feel your need as righteous as you think that you are? And maybe you are. Maybe as you think about your righteous acts in this category of sanctification, you say, I'm a pretty good guy, I'm a pretty good gal. Especially when I compare myself to some of the other miserable sinners in this place. I'm a pretty good guy, I'm a pretty good gal. But if that haughtiness is such that what is waning day in and day out is your need for Him, your feeling of your need for Him, then, beloved, you need to come right back to the foot of the cross and be humbled by it and be amazed by it. All you need, all the fitness you need comes in Jesus. And if you wait till you're better, as the hymn says, you'll never come at all. Jesus doesn't call the righteous this morning. He's not looking for the righteous. You know who he's looking for? Sinners. I'm gonna tell you something scandalous this morning. You listen to me. You listen to me. Can Jesus save murderers? Yep. Can Jesus save adulterers? Yep. He could wash their sins away. Here comes the scandalous part. It's gonna offend your white middle class sensibilities. Can Jesus save a pedophile? You bet he can. You bet he can. Is he gonna remain a pedophile? Nope. Jesus is gonna change him. But when he comes to the foot of the cross broken, a mess, a hot mess, Jesus is going to accept him, and he's gonna put his robes of righteousness over him, and that man, that woman, whoever it is, they're gonna become a new creation, but they are not getting into heaven because they are a new creation. They're getting into heaven because God made them a new creation through the portal of the cross. They come to the foot of the cross where everything is leveled. So that's the first kind of person. The second kind of person, very simply this morning, is this. Those who don't feel their need of Him. Those who don't feel their need of Him. Those who, maybe you've been walking with Jesus for years and years and years and years, but guess what? You are hiding sin. You're hiding it. You're lying. You're lying through your teeth to people. You're living a double life. And God is speaking to you this morning, and he's simply saying this. Listen to me, if I could extend this picture. Dear child of God, those excrement-covered clothings have been taken off of you, and you've been robed with the righteousness of Christ. Why is it, why is it that you keep trying to take off these pure vestments and run back to that pile of stinky clothes? You keep trying to go back and put them on. And you can understand why God would be screaming out through his servants, what's wrong with you? Why would you put those filthy garments back on? But I have good news for you this morning, listen to me. There is something so freeing and so liberating to just be able to say, I surrender all. I surrender all, I've been lying, I've been cheating, I've been lying to my wife, I've been lying to my husband, I've been lying to my children, I've been lying to my boss, I've been lying to everybody. Who I am, at least who I portray myself to be, is not really who I am, but I just have to keep perpetuating the lie, I'm perpetuating the lie. I have good news, you don't have to. You don't have to this morning. You can run the opposite direction of those filthy garments. You can stop putting them on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and you come to the foot of the cross on Sunday or any day, and you say, Jesus, take them away. Just take them away. If it means I gotta confess, I'm gonna do it. I don't care because I can't stand the stench. I can't stand the feeling of a guilty conscience. I want a clean conscience. Jesus, give it to me. He stands ready to give it to you this morning. What do you need to do? You need to repent and you need to come to Jesus. And the third and final category this morning is pretty much like the second, but those of you who are not saved, if you're here this morning and you say, wow, where do I fit into this? I'll tell you where you fit into it. If you don't believe in Jesus Christ and on the day of judgment, When God sends his son to judge the living and the dead, you will stand before God like Joshua in the first scene with garments covered with excrement. That's how you will stand before God. I'm gonna tell you right now, dear friend, you will not stand. You will be judged, okay? Around here, we're not afraid, we're not ashamed, we're not proud, but we're not ashamed to say you will go to hell forever. You will perish forever in the lake of fire away from the goodness of God, but God's presence will be there. It'll be the presence of His wrath. But you don't have to this morning. This morning, you too, like that backsliding Christian, you too can have a clear conscience. You too can have your name or know that your name has been written before the foundation of the world in the Lamb's book of life. If you will turn from your sin, just be done with it and believe in Jesus Christ. The foot of the cross is open this morning for you to come, and I bid you come. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for the good news of the gospel. How good it is, Lord. How good it is. And how often we need to hear it, Father. How haughty we get when we think, okay, I've got this gospel thing now, what's the next thing? There is no other thing, Father. It's just the good news of Jesus Christ day in and day out. It's not only what identifies myself with the righteous God, but it's also what fuels my desire to obey you day in and day out. Lord, we don't see this Christian religion as a list of do's and don'ts. We see it as a life given on the altar as a sacrifice to you because of what you have done for us in Jesus Christ. And Father, if there be those of us here this morning that don't see it that way, Father, give them eyes to see. Restore to them the great romance of their salvation. That first time, Father, when the scales fell from their eyes and their ears were unstopped, and they didn't care what was before them, Father, all they could see is heaven opened up, and your glory ascending and descending, and the person of Christ hanging on a tree. Father, open their eyes again, and as David says, let them know the joy of their salvation. Let all of us know this morning the joy of our salvation, especially as we come to the table, we pray, in Christ's name, amen. I'm gonna ask the deacons to do whatever you're gonna do. We're still trying to figure things out. But we're gonna come to the table this morning. And I am so grateful to share this table with you all this morning. I see a lot of new faces, and it's for that reason that it's very important for us here at Grace Covenant Church that we fence the table. And what that means is we wanna make it very clear to you what we are and are not doing here. So first off, you're gonna get a little cup. This is the days of COVID now, right? We're gonna have a prepackaged cup, and on the top, you're gonna unseal it. There's gonna be a piece of bread, and then after that, you unseal the other part, and you'll have juice. What does the bread represent? The bread represents the perfect life of Jesus Christ, his life of obedience and his life of sacrifice. And then the wine or the juice represents his atoning sacrifice on the cross. what He gave up to take away your iniquity, that strange detergent staining blood. And here at Grace Covenant Church, we do not believe that the bread and the juice actually turn into the body and blood of Christ, but we do believe that through faith, we are spiritually feeding upon Jesus Christ. As Paul says, we are catapulted into the heavenly places. I can't tell you that I understand that, but I believe it. We are catapulted to the heavenly places where Christ is seated at God's right hand, and we are communing with and upon Jesus Christ through faith. Not corporally, but spiritually. Now who may come to the table? Well, if you're a Christian, I want to invite you to come, but I just want to make a few things clear. What we understand a Christian to be is one, number one, who has turned from their sins. Number two, who has believed in Jesus Christ for their salvation. Number three, one who has obeyed Jesus and undergone the waters of baptism, so you need to be baptized. Number four, you're a member of a local church. You're not the lone ranger. Just going around, you know, like the Lone Ranger Christian, thinking you could do whatever you want to do, submitting to who you want to submit when it works out for you and it's convenient. No. You've made yourself accountable to a body of believers and to a group of elders because you care, not only about yourself not wandering, but you want to participate in going after others who may wander. You want to strengthen them, you want to comfort them, and you want that to go both ways. If this is you this morning, And even if you're not a member of this church, but you're a member of another Christ-centered, Bible-believing, gospel-centered church, we invite you to come. There will be gluten-free bread in the bowl, and when your deacon comes around, if you need that, just let him know, and he can get that to you. So the last thing I wanna say this morning is to you believers, you don't have to be perfect to come to this table. Remember, as I always say, if he had to be perfect, nobody would come, okay? Christ was perfect, and that's why we come to him who is perfect. But what we do call you to do, which is what Paul calls us all to do, is that the prevailing disposition of your heart be one who wants to give his or her life to Jesus. Every area, nothing closed off, just give it all up to Jesus, I surrender all. So we wanna encourage you to examine your hearts, examine your hearts as we come to the table, And then when you lift your eyes after a time of reflection, we will partake together. So, in just a moment, deacons are going to pass things out, but before then, would you bow your heads with me and let me pray for us. Father God, we do thank you for these elements and we pray, Father, that even in this time, we would recognize that we're worshiping right now. We haven't stopped worshiping, we're still worshiping. We're worshiping of physical elements that give us pictures of the gospel. How gracious are you, Father, to condescend to your church and give us visible emblems of the gospel. We could see the gospel, we could show it to our children so that they might have their spiritual appetite more wedded as it were. to believe in Jesus. So, Father, give us teachable, pliable, soft, humble hearts in this moment, we pray.