Church that are willing to come out and preach. We thank you for that. I want to give God praise for lifting him up and bringing him to us. His home church is Berean Baptist Church in Hiram and his elder is Jerry Slate. We thank you for coming this morning. Well, it is my pleasure to be back with you all this morning and. It's funny just going through the singing and the scripture reading and seeing how the Lord's providence works. Exodus 3, where the Lord appears to Moses, the angel of the Lord, and then all of a sudden it's God speaking. That's going to be relevant to our text. Romans 8, where God sent Christ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. That's going to be relevant to today. And one of our hymns is relevant. So it's just funny how God's providence works in that way. Well, I do bring you greetings again from the saints at Berean Baptist Church in Hyrule, Georgia. And as we get started this morning, if you would please open your Bibles with me to the book of Zechariah. Zechariah, we're going to be in chapter three this morning, looking at verses one through five. Zechariah 3, verses 1 through 5. If you haven't read Zechariah in a while, it's the second to last book in the Old Testament. But before we read those verses, I want to look at another situation that occurred in the New Testament on the day that our Lord rose from the grave. That day, he met two of his disciples traveling on the road to a village named Emmaus. And if you remember, Jesus conceals himself from them. They do not recognize him at first. And he walks alongside them as they converse with one another. And they're talking about all of the things that had happened in these days, namely Jesus's ministry, and then his arrest, his unfair trial, his crucifixion, death, and burial. And they were astonished that some women of their company had went to Jesus' grave that morning and found it empty. And they were disheartened because they thought that he was going to be the one to redeem Israel. And if you remember, our Lord gives them a bit of a rebuke. on the road. And he says to them this, oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And Luke continues and says this, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. So imagine what it would have been like to eavesdrop on that particular conversation, to hear the Lord Jesus himself opening up the scriptures to his disciples, going to the writings of Moses and to all the prophets, showing how they all spoke of him. Now, the Bible doesn't tell us what prophet Jesus began with, but I'm sure that the list included the prophet Zechariah. And as I hope we'll see, Zechariah chapter 3 is one of the clearest pictures in the Old Testament of the believer's justification. of the believer's justification. It's my understanding that you all have recently studied justification out of the confession. So this should be fresh on your minds. But as a way of reminder, justification is that act of God by which he declares a sinner to be righteous, not by infusing righteousness into our person properly, but by pardoning our sins and accounting and accepting our persons as righteous. Now God does this by imputing or by attributing Christ's active obedience unto the whole law and his passive obedience in his death as our whole and our soul righteousness. God pardoning sinners and accepting sinners because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. And brothers and sisters, without this divine act of imputation that our sins become attributed to Christ and his righteousness attributed to us, without this, we cannot be accepted before God. We have no hope of salvation. So this is a very important subject for us to grasp. When we read Zechariah 3, we'll see Joshua, who is the representative believer, the typical believer, if you will, standing before the judgment seat of the Lord. He's helpless. He's clothed, as we'll see at the beginning, in his own iniquity. But what we also see is an omnipotent and loving God who, in and of himself, removes Joshua's iniquity and clothes him with pure vestments. He clothes him with righteousness. This is a picture of the believer's justification. So this morning, for those of us who are in Christ, I pray that we would take much comfort from this vision of Zachariah, that holy affections would be stirred in our hearts and would overflow in praise to the Lord who loved us and gave himself for us. For those who may be outside of Christ, I pray that you'll see this gracious act of divine imputation and be irresistibly drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ. that you would receive this free gift of righteousness and be justified. So please think on these things as we read our text. But before we begin, let me pray and ask for God's help and blessing. Holy Father, I ask through the merits of Christ that you would pour your spirit out upon us this morning, that you would pour your spirit out upon me, that I might proclaim your truth with power and with clarity. Would you pour your spirit out upon your people that they might receive your word with faith and leave doers of the word and not hearers only. Above all, we ask that you would be glorified in everything that takes place this morning in Jesus name. Amen. Well, let's read Zechariah chapter three, verses one through five. Hear the word of 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 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. Amen. Well, Zechariah was a prophet called by God to serve during the time period of Judah's restoration. This was after the exiles had returned from the Babylonian captivity. And he was a contemporary of the prophet Haggai. But they had two different ministries. So Haggai's ministry was really focused on encouraging God's people to rebuild the temple. Zechariah's ministry, conversely, was centered on rebuilding the faith and the practice of the people themselves. And as such, His prophecy contains many encouraging promises for God's people, including the one we're going to read today. But the book begins not with comforting promises, but with a call for God's people to repent and to turn to the Lord. I think it's relevant for us to just make note of this as we get started. So in Zechariah chapter one, verse three, the Lord instructs Zechariah, therefore say to them, thus declares the Lord of hosts, Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you. The implications of this call to repentance preceding the visions is fairly clear. God's people are to repent. They're to return to the Lord and then receive the blessings foretold in these prophecies. And friends, God's truth has not changed in our day. The comforting promises that God gives to his people in his word are for his people, right? It's not for the world. The promises that God gives in his word are for people who by his grace repent and place all of their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the glorious picture of justification that we read of here in chapter three, it is for those who humble themselves, repent, and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. So directing our attention once again to Zechariah 3, what we see in this text is the fourth of eight night visions that the Lord sends to the prophet. And this fourth night vision, it begins in verse one of chapter three by saying this, 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. So right off the bat, we're introduced to the three main characters of this vision. We have Joshua, the high priest, we have the angel of the Lord, and we have Satan. Now, Joshua, as the high priest, he plays an extremely important role for God's people. As the high priest, Joshua was to represent before God not only the other subordinate priests, but the people as a whole. He was to stand before God, representing God's people to the Lord. And the most sacred duty of the high priest would occur once per year on the Day of Atonement. And the high priest alone was permitted to enter into the Holy of Holies and represent the people before God, where he would sprinkle the blood of a sacrifice upon the mercy seat of God to make atonement for all the sins of the people over the previous year. So needless to say, in this night vision, Joshua stands not only as an individual representing himself, but he stands as the high priest representing the people of God. And furthermore, I would submit to you that Joshua stands here in this vision as representative of the people of God in all ages, as a typical believer, as it relates to justification. That means that, brothers and sisters, he stands here representing you, representing me. So as we read this text, we need to understand that as goes Joshua in this vision, so goes you, me, and every other believer. Next in the vision, though, we're introduced to the angel of the Lord. And as is so often the case when the Old Testament speaks of the angel of the Lord, the messenger of Yahweh, it's referring to the pre-incarnate Christ. And I believe that's exactly what we read in our public scripture reading from Exodus chapter 3. The angel of the Lord appears and all of a sudden it's God speaking. OK. But we know from the scriptures that no man has ever seen God. And so the angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Christ, not only is he the messenger of Yahweh, right, when we think of the angel of the Lord, angel means messenger, Lord is Yahweh, the angel of the Lord, the messenger of the Lord, not only is he the messenger of the Lord, but he's also the messenger who is the Lord, who is Yahweh, because our God is three in one, okay? Finally, we're introduced to Satan, and he's standing at the right hand of Joshua to do what he does best, to accuse him before the angel of the Lord. So in this vision, we have something of a heavenly courtroom scene with Joshua the high priest standing on trial as the defendant before the judge, who is the angel of the Lord, with Satan himself acting as the prosecuting attorney. So with that context established, I'd like to preach this text to you under four different headings. Firstly, condemned, second, conserved, third, cleansed, and fourthly, clothed. In verse one, we're going to see Joshua, the representative believer in Christ, accused by Satan and condemned because of his iniquity, which is symbolized by his filthy garments. In verse two, we then see Christ, the angel of the Lord, conserve Joshua by pulling him from the fire of sin and misery. In verse four, we see Joshua's iniquity cleansed. It's imputed to his Lord. And then in verse five, we see Joshua clothed with pure vestments, with the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. So once again, our headings, condemned, conserved, cleansed, and clothed. starting first with condemned. In verse one, we find our courtroom scene beginning with Satan accusing Joshua before the Lord. And is this any surprise to us? When we consider that the Hebrew word translated here is Satan, it literally means adversary or accuser. So we could literally read this as saying the accuser standing at his right hand to accuse him. In other words, Satan standing at his right hand to do what Satan does. The accuser of the brethren, the great enemy of our souls, is standing before the angel of the Lord to bring accusations against Joshua. But remember, Joshua is the representative believer. So, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, Satan stands in the heavenly courtroom, as it were, bringing accusations against you and against me. But brothers and sisters, we can praise God that in Christ we do indeed, as Luther said in his famous hymn, we have the right man on our side, which makes all the difference. Well, we're not told exactly what Satan said in accusation against Joshua, but verse three, I believe, reveals the substance of his complaints where it says this, now Joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments. And the word filthy here is an allusion to excrement. And I'm not trying to be graphic, but it's as if Joshua had soiled himself. That is the level of filth and vile that is on these garments that he is wearing. The high priest of God, the one who had been set apart and consecrated to minister to the people of God as a representative of the people, he had his dress code clearly prescribed and regulated by the Lord. This same priest, Joshua, found himself standing before the judge of all the earth, but he was in violation of that dress code. He was dressed in filthy garments. He was totally unprepared for this moment that's described to us in the text. And there was a survey that was conducted last year. It found that 34% of American adults have a recurring nightmare of being unprepared for an important event or an important meeting, showing up not dressed appropriately or not prepared. Perhaps that's a dream that you can relate with. And when we think about that, what event could be more important than a meeting with God himself? Is there any more important event? Or to make it more specific for each one of us, what meeting is more important to you than the meeting you will have with your Creator as it concerns your eternal welfare? There is no other meeting that supersedes that meeting in importance. So I don't think it's an exaggeration to say here that Joshua's situation at the beginning of this vision, anyway, is truly the stuff of nightmares. And I can only imagine the dread that Joshua must have been feeling at this moment. And I think it's interesting that Zechariah does not record a single word spoken by Joshua during this vision. And I imagine that's because he knows there's no defense that he can make. There's no excuse that he can give for his violation of God's commandments. As Romans 3.19 says, being held accountable to God, his mouth was stopped. He had no excuse. He had no reason to give. So he remained silent. Joshua is scared. He knows the penalty for appearing before God dressed in this way. And he knows that he is rightly condemned. And if you will, for just a moment, turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Exodus chapter 28. Exodus 28 is important because in it, the Lord details the dress code for his priests. So he prescribes the dress code and he lays out the penalties for violation of those dress codes. In verse 43 of Exodus 28, we read God's expectation regarding compliance with this priestly dress code. And the text reads, and the garments shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the holy place, lest they bear guilt and die. This shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him. If a high priest were to enter into God's presence dressed inappropriately, they were to die. This was non-negotiable. The standards given by God in his word are not optional. And so Joshua finds himself here before the Lord in a real pickle. He knows the standards for his office, and he knows that he's fallen short of those standards. And kind of recentering again with Joshua as this representative believer and this vision being a picture of the believer's justification, here is Joshua representing the people of God standing before the judge clothed in filthy garments, garments that the Lord refers to in verse four as his iniquity, as his sin. These filthy garments are symbolic of his personal sin and his personal guilt before the Lord. Joshua is standing here clothed in the garments of his own works, as it were. Garments that are, as the scriptures say, filthy rags before the Lord, totally unprepared and unfit for this meeting. Consider Joshua is wearing the garments that he himself wove from the moment of his conception. The first threads of those garments actually being that mysterious bond, that genetic tie that Joshua and every other person that's ever been born has to our first parents, to Adam and Eve. The rest of his garment was made up of the threads. It was an elaborate tapestry of the misery and the transgressions that had marked his life. And when we consider this, why is Joshua's garment so filthy? Why is he clothed in iniquity? Is it because he was just a really bad guy? I mean, he was just the guy, you wouldn't wanna have him as your neighbor, just a terrible human being, always going around, flaunting the law. Was that why Joshua was considered filthy here? And it's not. When we consider Joshua in his context, he was a good man. He was an upstanding citizen. He was a respected religious leader. But friends, God doesn't judge by our standards. He judges by his standards. And his standard is his own perfect righteousness. And so we see the problem. No matter what Joshua comes to the Lord looking like, if he is in and of himself, he will be unprepared in contrast. So hear me here, even the best of men will be found condemned and guilty before God if they dare to stand before him dressed in their own righteousness. And friends, that means me and you as well. If we dare stand before the Lord dressed in our own righteousness, we are condemned already. So I have to ask this question. Are you prepared for the most important meeting of your life? Are you prepared to stand before the judgment seat of Christ? And here's a question to ask. What clothing are you wearing? Whose righteousness are you dressed in? And friends, if you meet God clothed in your own righteousness, you will be unprepared and you should likewise, just as Joshua was, be in dread of that moment, because you stand condemned before the Lord. So we've seen under our first heading, a sinner condemned, but the news gets much better from here. So I would encourage you, take heart. The rest of this text is so glorious, it's so comforting, starting in verse two, where a condemned sinner is conserved by a loving God. Verse two, and the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, O Satan, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Now, perhaps what's most disturbing to me about these accusations of the evil one is the fact that they are so often true. Are they not? Satan and his angels, they don't have to look very hard to find examples of us falling short of God's glory with which to torment us. Just an honest look at the Ten Commandments would reveal that we fall woefully short of God's standard, and we've given the accuser much material to work with. And like Joshua, because the accusations of Satan are so truthful, we find ourselves unable to contend with them. As it were, we cannot look inside of ourselves to offer a rebuttal to his accusations. When such accusations are made, we, again, in and of ourselves, we can make no defense, and we must remain silent, as Joshua did. However, the love of God is shown in that the Lord does not leave his children without a defense. In fact, the Lord himself steps in and acts as Joshua's defense attorney, rebuking the prosecutor. The Lord rebuke you, oh Satan. It's as if the judge in our courtroom scene has just hammered the gavel down and is declared to the prosecuting attorney, speak no more, I'm holding you in contempt of court. He's calling a stop to these accusations. And why? On what grounds is the Lord rebuking Satan? It's on the grounds of the Lord's own choice. We would say it's on the grounds of divine election. Again, verse two, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. The Lord is saying, I have a chosen people and Joshua is among them. He is their representative. These accusations against my chosen people will not stand in my courtroom. The Lord rebuke you, O Satan. It's worth noting that from this point forward, Satan is mentioned no more in this chapter. The divine rebuke issued by the Lord of hosts ensures that the accuser is silent. It shuts him up. The Lord makes it clear that Joshua, and indeed God's chosen people in all ages, are able to stand before him, not because of any goodness found in them, but because God has chosen them. God has set his love on them from before the foundation of the world. And we see this so beautifully represented for God's old covenant people, clearly in Deuteronomy chapter 7, Moses says this, it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it's because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath he swore to your fathers. And friends, I submit that this unconditional love of God, it extends in a more miraculous way, in a more glorious way to those who are members of the new covenant. Ephesians chapter 1 says this, in love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. So brothers and sisters, God has chose us. He has not done this because we're lovely, because we're not. He's chose us because he loves us. And why does he love us? And I assure you, it's not because we're lovable. Right? He loves us because God is love. So the doctrines of grace that we talk about and sometimes can get tempted into debates about, these are not just academic doctrines for us. These are not cold doctrines for our heads only. These are experiential doctrines. These are doctrines for our heart. These are practical doctrines for our life. Because of God's grace, we can take heart. The Lord is the defender of his people. and what a comfort this should be to those of us who are secure in Christ. And I would say to you, if this is you, if you're secure in Christ, and you find yourself being assaulted by Satan, or if you find yourself, which so often happens, being condemned by your own heart, I would encourage you, use these doctrines of grace to rebuke your own fears. Remember these words of our God, the Lord rebukes you, oh Satan, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Well, the Lord continues by asking the question, is not this a brand plucked from the fire? Now, we have to acknowledge the immediate context here. The return from the Babylonian exile. The Lord is saying, do you not know that if I restored my people from captivity, if I wanted them to be destroyed, I would have left them in Babylon. But he didn't, right? He plucked them from the fire. He saved them from that. And so he's telling Satan here, your efforts to destroy my people, to sink them forever, have failed. You've tempted them to sin against me, but my grace is greater than your temptations. And we can praise God that this not only is his way of dealing with his old covenant people, it's his way of dealing with all of his people. When God foreknows and predestines a sinner, we can be assured that the day, the hour, The exact moment will come when he plucks them from the fire. When God takes that man, that woman, or that child from the raging fire of the sin that had engulfed them and he sets them free by his grace. Now this should go without saying, but can a burning stick that is inside of a raging fire, can that burning stick remove itself from the fire? No, it can't. Unless we're watching a movie, right? But in real life, it can't. Unless outside action is taken, the stick is going to be turned to ash. It'll be unrecognizable. It'll be gone, perhaps in a matter of hours. And so we can praise God that He takes action. that he doesn't leave us to be destroyed by the consequences of our sin. He is the one who plucks sinners from the fire. And saints be assured that although God can pluck sinners from the fire, sinners can never be plucked from his hands. Okay? God's people will be given grace to persevere, to endure until the end. This should be a great comfort to us. Well, God choosing a sinner and conserving that sinner from the fire, it's only part of the blessings that we see in this text. As we see moving forward, God does not stop there. He then cleanses the sinner. Starting in verse three, 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 here we see the angel of the Lord, Joshua's judge, Joshua's advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, command that his servants remove the filthy garments from him. The emblem of his sin is removed. It is taken away at the command of Christ. The Lord, again, is the sole actor in this scene. Joshua is simply the passive recipient of the Lord's grace. He's yet to speak a single word or take a single action. And we can think back to the Lord's own statement concerning Joshua, indeed concerning all of his elect people, where he says, is not this a brand plucked from the fire? And in our Lord's illustration, we see clearly the inability of the sinner, not only to pluck themselves from the fire, but also to cleanse themselves from the result of having been in the fire. Now, the temperatures are warming up outside, so it's a little warm for this now, but when the temperature is a little bit cooler, the cooler months of the year, My family and I enjoy being outside around our fire pit and burning things and grilling hot dogs and marshmallows. That's what the kids are always asking for. Can we do the marshmallows? My son Henry loves fire like any other boy. And one of his favorite things to do is to take a stick and to shove it into the hottest part of the coal base in the fire. Let it sit there for a minute or two, pull it out, blow it off, and then just watch in amazement as the smoke just billows off the end of the stick. I mean, he could just do this for hours. And sometimes, I admit to my chagrin, he'll then take the burned end of that stick and start drawing on the stones that are around the fire pit. And you know what that does. It leaves this awful black drawing and these black marks that are just really impossible to clean off. And why does the stick do that? Well, it does it because the stick is what it is. It's burned. It's marred permanently. It's never going to be unburned. It's always going to bear the mark of having been in the fire. And friends, this is Joshua's reality. This is every sinner's reality. Our nature bears the marks of our sins against God. And these stains cannot be removed by us no matter how hard we try to remove them. And in fact, I would submit to you that if we try to remove these stains ourselves, all we're doing is adding more stains to an already filthy garment. The Lord must be the one to cleanse us. He must remove the stain of sin from us. And that's what we see here in this picture. The brand that was plucked from the fire, that was stained with soot and ash, has now been cleansed. The sinner has been made clean. What was impossible with man is possible with God. And Christ makes clear that he is the reason. Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you. This is, again, another reason why we should understand the angel of the Lord to be Christ himself. Consider for a moment, how is our iniquity taken away? Paul explains this in Colossians 2. And you who were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This, so our sin, our trespasses, our record of debt, With this, God set aside, nailing it to the cross. Nailing it to the cross. Our iniquity was nailed to the cross. It was imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was born by Him as He hung on the tree, becoming a curse for us. As the prophet Isaiah said, the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. God imputed the sin of all of his believing people, past, present, and future, to the sinless one, Jesus Christ, as he suffered on the cross. Indeed, Christ has shed his blood for sinners, and that blood is the most powerful detergent in existence. It is able to wash away even the filthiest of stains. And if you think that your sin is too great to be forgiven, you are mistaken. As the wonderful hymn says, truly there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Not some of them, not most of them, not 99% of them, all of them. Christ's blood is sufficient. all of the believer's sins transferred to the Lord Jesus Christ who endured in their place the full wrath of God that their sin deserved. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. And friends, if your trust is in him alone, Christ, he comforts you with these words. Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you. Brothers and sisters, this is your sin imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ. And although verse four here, it does not mention explicitly the shedding of blood, the washing away of sin, we do know that Zechariah's readers would have been well aware that forgiveness of sin required the shedding of blood. God's law stated that the life of the flesh is in the blood, and the blood is what makes atonement for sin. So they knew that principle, that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. But despite the fact that this shedding of blood is not explicitly mentioned in our text, it is certainly foreshadowed. Look down with me just a few verses from here to verse 8 of Zechariah 3, verses 8 and 9, actually. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign. Again, they're a representative believer. They're a type. They're a sign for God's people. Behold, I will bring my servant the branch. We've heard that name before, haven't we? 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. Joshua and his friends, most likely other subordinate priests, are men who are a sign. Just as the Lord has removed Joshua's iniquity in this vision, so he will remove the iniquity of the entire land and indeed of all of God's believing people in a single day in the future. And the removal of this iniquity, it's clearly linked with the coming of the Lord's servant who is named the branch. And Zechariah is not the first prophet to use this language of the branch. For example, Isaiah 11, "...there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him." And Isaiah goes on, "...righteousness shall be the belt of his waist." The servant of the Lord, the branch, is going to come from the line of Jesse, and he'll be full of the Spirit, and he will be righteous. Also consider Jeremiah 23. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch. And this is the name by which he will be called, the Lord is our righteousness. The Lord is our righteousness. The righteous branch from the line of Jesse, from the line of David, who will bear the name, the Lord is our righteousness. This is the branch promised in Zechariah three. This is the branch who will, as verse eight declares, remove the iniquity of the land in a single day. And friends, do we know what that day was? That single day where the iniquity of all of God's people was removed. It was the day when he who knew no sin was made sin for us. It was the day when the sky miraculously went dark for three hours. When the perfect, sinless Son of God cried out on the cross in agony. Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani, my God. My God, why have you forsaken me? Friends, this is the day when Christ declared, it is finished. This was the day when all the sins of God's believing people were imputed to Jesus Christ, to the branch and their iniquity removed. Christ declares to everyone who believes in him, behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you. And while as much comfort as we draw from this amazing truth of having our iniquity removed, the angel of the Lord is not yet finished. Joshua not only needs to be cleansed, he needs to have his iniquity removed, certainly, but he also must be properly clothed if he is to stand before the Lord. So far in this vision, in this picture of justification, what we've seen is Joshua conserved from the fire, we've seen him cleansed, his sin has been imputed to the angel of the Lord. But if all the Lord were to do was to remove the filthy garments from Joshua, he would be left naked. He would be left in a state of neutrality, as it were. But friends, neutrality is not possible with God. God's holiness demands holiness. His righteousness demands righteousness. Joshua needs to be clothed, and the Lord promises to do just that, saying to him, and I will clothe you with pure vestments. And in this picture of justification, the righteousness of the Lord will be imputed to Joshua. There's a transaction that occurs. Now, imputation in our day, if we were to venture outside the walls of Reformed Baptist churches or Reformed Presbyterian churches and go to the Southern Baptist Convention at large or evangelical churches at large, unfortunately, Imputation is often only mentioned as a one-way transaction. The imputation of our sin to the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. That is certainly necessary, but that in and of itself is not sufficient for our justification because we can't be neutral. We cannot be left in a state of neutrality. We cannot be left naked before the Lord. Just as the high priest must be properly clothed to enter into the Holy of Holies, we too must be properly clothed if we're to enter into the presence of God. If we are to have any eternal hope, the righteousness of Christ must be imputed to us. We must be clothed with his righteous robe. But what is the righteousness of Christ? Where does this righteousness come from? To be clear, it does not come from the divinity of Jesus. It does not come from his divine nature. Rather, it comes from his human nature. It is the righteousness that Jesus earned as a man. The righteousness that Jesus earned by perfectly obeying the law of God to its every jot and every tittle in his human nature. And this is something that is really impossible for us to comprehend fully. But think about this. Jesus always loved the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. Always. Never a moment, never a second where he didn't do that. He always loved his neighbor as himself. You know those nights when we lay down to go to sleep and we put our heads on the pillow and we say, I blew it again. The people who love me the most, I've sinned against them. How could I do that? I'll have to ask their forgiveness in the morning or maybe go wake them up and ask their forgiveness. Jesus never had that trouble at night when he laid his head down. Never had that. All the sinful memories that you and I have that haunt us, that make us red in the face when we think about them, Jesus is free from all of those things. The harsh word that we speak in anger, the white lie that we tell to escape trouble, the truth that we'll embellish just a little bit to make ourselves look better than we actually are, the prolonged glance that we take to satisfy inward lusts. These things are foreign to Jesus. He knows nothing of these things. He never cut corners. He never left any good work undone. As he himself said, I always do the things that are pleasing to my father. He always does the things that are pleasing to his father. And it is that obedience, friends, the perfect obedience that Jesus learned and practiced as a man. It is this obedience that is woven together, if you will, to make the pure vestments with which all believers are clothed. And whenever we speak of the advent of Christ, the birth of Christ, we should remember this first and foremost. The birth of Christ, it marks the beginning of his weaving, that robe of righteousness, those pure vestments that will be given to all who believe in him. That is the significance primarily of his birth. The scriptures say, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law. Jesus was born under the law, and Jesus obeyed that law. And it's often said, we have a children's book that teaches about the gospel. That's a wonderful book. And there's one line in it that stands out to me is almost incomplete. It says, Jesus was born to die. You hear that statement. And it's true. It is a true statement. Amen to that. Jesus was born to die. But friends, he was also born to live. He was also born to live. And without that life, without that perfect sinless life, we have no hope. We remain under the curse of the law. The law remains unfulfilled in us. Romans 8, our public scripture reading. God sent forth his son in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us. Central to our justification. If the law remains unfulfilled in us, we remain bound to our very first father in the flesh, to Adam himself. And we can have no hope of redemption, no hope of ever being adopted as children of God. But, as you might imagine, I have good news for you this morning. The best of news, in fact. Where Adam failed, Christ has conquered. Where Adam failed, Christ has conquered. Consider Romans 5, for as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. In other words, for as by Adam's disobedience, all who are in him will be made sinners. Who is in Adam? Every person who has ever been born is in Adam. The text continues. So by Jesus' obedience, all who are in him will be made righteous. Who is in Christ? Those who have been born again. Anyone who has been born is in Adam. Only those who are born again are in Christ. Jesus accomplished all that he set out to do when he declared, do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. And praise God, he did fulfill them. And in doing so, the Lord Jesus wove that perfect robe of righteousness, the only pure vestments that you and I need. And friends, if you've been clothed with that robe of righteousness, may the Lord give you joy overflowing to sing with the prophet Isaiah, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. Again, I did not know what we were gonna be singing this morning. When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. Dressed in his righteousness alone. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Christ declares to all who believe in him, behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you and I will clothe you with pure vestments. Well, quickly, verse five, let us see Joshua clothed with these pure vestments. Zechariah, he speaks audibly here, kind of injecting himself into this conversation that's been going on. And he says this, 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. Upon the removal of Joshua's iniquity, the pronouncement of the Lord that he would clothe him with pure vestments, Zechariah almost inadvertently speaks up. Let them put a clean turban on his head. Don't forget about the turban. Remember, Joshua being the high priest is required as part of the priestly dress code to wear a turban. And as it relates to this vision being a picture of the believer's justification, there's an important quality, there's a particular quality that this turban has that's important for us to take note of. Again, it's in Exodus chapter 28, verses 36 and 37, says this, 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." The turban placed on Joshua's head read, Holy to the Lord. He had been conserved from the fire. His iniquity had been cleansed. His nakedness had been clothed. And now he was to walk in holiness before the Lord. And I trust you see the connection to us. Brothers and sisters, if you have been washed, if you have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ, then you are called to walk in holiness before the Lord. You are called to live in a manner worthy of your calling. We must remember that our sanctification, our growth in grace, our being made more like Christ, it only begins by remembering our justification, right? Justification is absolutely central. We cannot be sanctified if God has not justified us. But some brothers, unfortunately, place the emphasis in sanctification on just remembering our justification. Just remember what God has done to you. Certainly, we cannot start without that. But it doesn't end there. Our sanctification doesn't end with just thinking about our justification. It starts there. We are to live in the joyful reality of knowing that our sin has been imputed to Christ and his righteousness imputed to us. But also, because we've been justified, we are now to walk wholly to the Lord. And that means God's moral law, those same commandments that Jesus obeyed perfectly throughout his entire life, those are our rule of life. They show us the will of God for us. They show us our duty to God and our duty to our fellow men. So we shouldn't neglect them, okay? I trust you understand I am not preaching work salvation to you. We are saved, we are justified by Christ's righteousness alone. But we are to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. We are to pursue holiness out of gratitude, out of love overflowing for what God has done to us. So may God be glorified not only in our justification, but also in our sanctification. I have one final application from the text this morning. And I'll ask a question that I asked earlier. Are you prepared to stand before the judgment seat of Christ? Are you prepared? If that meeting were to happen today, whose righteousness are you dressed in? And if you stand today dressed in your own righteousness, I pray that God would awaken you to the danger that you are in. Matthew chapter 22 records a parable that Jesus tells of a king holding a wedding feast for his son. In order to be a guest at this wedding feast, each person had to be dressed in the appropriate wedding garments. Well, as the king is walking around looking at all the guests at his wedding feast, suddenly one man stands out to him. There's one man who is not wearing a wedding garment. And Jesus tells us about this scene using these words. And the king said to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And the man was speechless. He had no answer to give. And the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Friends, if you were outside the Lord Jesus Christ, he has been freely offered to you this morning. He is near you right now because his word is near you. You don't have to come up and make any public profession at an altar. You don't have to raise your hand. You don't have to sign a card. You simply have to turn to him in repentance and faith. Would you refuse this gift? Would you refuse the robe of righteousness that my Savior freely offers you this morning? I implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gracious, beautiful, glorious truth of justification of the imputation of our sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and his perfect righteousness to us when we repent and place all our hope and trust in him. Without it, we stand no hope. We praise you, oh God, that you are love and you love your people, not because we're lovely or because we deserve it, but because it's who you are and you cannot stop being who you are. Thank you for this glorious truth. Would you have us leave this place more ready to walk in a manner worthy of our calling, more ready to be gracious and thankful for that wonderful gift of the imputation of Christ's righteousness that you've given to all of your people. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you Matt. What an awesome truth to see God's purposes. Lived out in our lives to see. These truths brought to us from the Old Testament. It's just a blessing. I hope everyone has an awesome week. We're not going to take in the supper this morning. So I just want to end with a benediction. If everyone would stand. This is from 2nd Peter. Chapter one, verse two. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord. Have a great week, everyone. No Wednesday. No Wednesday. Nope, we're done with Wednesdays. All Wednesdays go. School starts at the end of this. Have a great weekend, everyone.