Buenas tardes. Good afternoon. Great to see you all. Today's passage is Zechariah chapter 3, verse 1 to 10. Today's passage is Zechariah chapter 3, verse 1 to 10. You can find it on page 1311. If you have a Bible, I encourage you to open the Bible and then just read together. I will read it, verse one to 10. Then he showed me Joshua, the high priest, and 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 rebuked you, O Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuked you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? Now Joshua was standing before the angel, and 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 then clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And then 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. Here 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, declare the law of hosts, and I will remove the iniquities of this land in a single day. In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbors to come under his vine and under his fig tree. Y dijo Jehová a Satanás, Jehová te reprenda. Oh Satanás, Jehová que ha escogido a Jerusalén, te reprenda. ¿No es este un tizón arrebatado del incendio? Y Josué estaba vestido de vestiduras viles y estaba delante del ángel. Y habló el ángel, y mandó a los que estaban delante de él, diciendo, Quitarle esas vestiduras viles. Y a él le dijo, Mira, que te he quitado de ti tu pecado, y te he hecho vestir de ropas de gala. Después dijo, Pongan mitra limpia sobre su cabeza. y pusieron una mitra limpia sobre su cabeza, y le vistieron las ropas, y el ángel de Jehová estaba en pie. Y el ángel de Jehová amonestó a Josué, diciendo, Así dice Jehová de los ejércitos, Si anduvieres por mis caminos, y si guardares mis ordenanzas también, tú gobernarás mi casa, también guardarás mis atrios, y entre estos que aquí están, te dará el lugar. Escucha, pues, ahora, Josué, sumo sacerdote, tú y tus amigos que se sientan delante de ti, porque sus varones simbólicos. He aquí yo traigo a mi siervo el renuevo, porque he aquí aquella piedra que puse delante de Josué. Sobre esta única piedra hay siete ojos. He aquí yo guardaré su escultura, dice Jehová de los ejércitos, y que ataré el pecado de la tierra en un día. Let us pray Heavenly Father helping us to understand your will Leading our lives in obedience to your word In nombre Jesus Amen. Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we gather before our God to gratitude and celebrate his love for us. However, do you truly grasp how much God loves you? Do you believe in that love? But what if you came to worship God with a conscience? Burdened by your aware of your awful sin? Imagine standing before God just like Joshua the high priest in today's message. Wearing filthy garments and how do you think God sees us? Sinners at the same time, his children. For those who find it hard to believe that through Jesus Christ, our sins are truly washed away, today's passage presents a vivid vision in which the Book of Zechariah speak about the reality of Jesus cleansing us and making us new. I desire we truly believe Jesus washed our sins and then God truly can remove all our iniquities. Question one, Why did God show the vision to Zechariah? Let us go to verse 1 again. Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing in his right hand to accuse him. So the Prophet Zechariah sees Joshua, the high priest, accused by Satan. To understand the situation better, it is necessary to be referred to go back to the Book of Ezra. This is because Joshua, the high priest, appears in both the Book of Zechariah and Ezra. So in Ezra Chapter 3, 2, it says, then arose Jeshua, the son of the Josadak, And his fellow priests and Jeroboam, the son of Zedekiah, with his kinsmen, they built an altar of the God of Israel. So according to Ezra chapter 3 and 2, Jeshua, the son of Jehoshaphat, same as Joshua, was a priest who built an altar for worship and leading worship of the people. And then this is Ezra 9, 1-2. I will read partially. We are going to go to the books of Ezra, page 677, chapter 9. We are going to read verses 1-2. Ezra, chapter 9, page 677, verses 1-2. The people of Israel and the priests and the revites have not separated themselves from the people of the land with their abominations from the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the people of the land. And if this is a facelessness, the hand of the official and a cheap man has been for most. After these things, the chiefs came to me, saying, The people of Israel and the priests and the devotees have not turned away from the peoples of the earth, from the Canaanites, the Ethiopians, the Pharisees, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites, and they do according to their abominations. because they have taken their daughters for themselves and for their children, and the holy lineage has been mixed with the peoples of the earth and the hands of the princes, and the rulers have been the first to commit this sin. So here we see that priests marry the foreign woman violating God's command. Not just themselves, but causing people to sin together. So in Ezra chapter 10, 18, Now there were found some of the sons of priests who had married a foreign woman, Masaiah, Elisra, Zareb, and Getaliah, and some of the sons of Joshua, the son of Josada, and his brothers. So the son of the Josadak is the same person as today's message, Joshua. Not just himself, but he brings some foreign women to his son too. He was a high priest, head of the priest, but he causing people to sin. Thus, so in contextual understanding, help us to see why Joshua in the Zechariah is depicted wearing filthy garments. So representing that he is impurity and the sin of the people of Israel too. And then second question. How did God see Joshua and how does God view our people stained with sin? In verse two, and the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuked you, oh Satan, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuked you. Is not this a brand pluck from the fire? Now Joshua was standing before the angel and clothed with a filthy garment. So truly Joshua wore the filthy cloth, we should not neglect this fact. Sin causes problems in the community, misery and pain. Here filthy clothes' original meaning is that you cannot bear to see this person. who wear the filthy clothes spiritually, mentally, physically, all filthy, so it is unbearable to see. However, despite the people's sin, which is described as a filthy cloth, God does not focus on accusation of Satan. Instead, he bewilks Satan. Por lo contrario, él exhorta o regaña a Satanás. Satan, I rebuke you. Satanás, tú eres exhortado. Whose Satan's nickname is accuser. Y el apodo de Satanás es el acusador. But God emphasizes he is chosen people. Pero Dios enfatiza su gente elegida. what on earth that burning sticks is worth, but God was expressing his intention that he's chosen people. God confirms that he is my chosen one. Question three, How does God respond? Verse four and five. 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 iniquities 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 And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. So we can see that God showed a vision of the Joshua's problems. And then just when he showed the vision and then we can see he just not saying he is my chosen one and stop accusing but he didn't finish there but he changed. the filthy clothes of Joshua. But we need to pay attention to this expression in verse 4, that I have taken iniquity away from you and I will clothe you with pure vestments. Here, I, the subject, is not Jehovah, but as a verse 4, the angel. It appears as a verse 1, the angel of the Lord. Who can wash our sins? Angel? No, only God. So do you remember the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man in the gospel? In the story, two Jesus' friends bring their friend who is paralyzed lying on the bed. And Jesus says to him that, son, your sins are forgiven. However, the people around Jesus are responding with, He is blaspheming. How can He wash somebody's sins, forgive sins? In response, Jesus explains that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. To demonstrate this authority, he tells the paralyzed man to take up your bed and walk. As a result, this paralyzed man rise and takes his bed and then walk. In connection with this Jesus' story and then today Zechariah. The angel of the Lord in today's passage is believed by biblical scholars to represent the second person of the Trinity. This is why the angel can say that I have taken iniquity away from you. So God did save Joshua through a second person of Trinity, which is the angel, Jesus. and changed the filthy cloth to white and put the turban on his head. Filthy cloth is really washing his sins of the Joshua. And a clean turban, clean turban symbolized the restoration of his priestly status. And then this is a charge and action point of the Joshua that after he changed his clothes. And then the angel of the Lord solemnly charged Joshua. It is verse six and seven. The angel of the Lord's psalm assures Joshua, thus says the Lord of hosts, if you will walk in my ways and keep my charge and you shall rule my house and have a charge of my courts and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. So who gives this charge? The Lord of hosts. Easily it is the whole army of the host. It is emphasizing how much powerful authority it has. So we can infer that when Jesus washed our sins, We are also charged to corresponding behavior action. Be feeding our new status. And that's one that I want us to focus on God's promise in this verse eight. Hear now, O Joshua, high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign. So I want us to think about God's promise in verse 8 showed up as a sign. So Joshua has a friend, Jeroboam, who seems lack of leadership, but he appeared as a king at the time of the Israelites. And the second person was a young prophet Zechariah who wrote this book. And the second friend was Zacharias, the young prophet who wrote this book. And Joshua himself, who wore the filthy garments. So you can see a lack of leadership king, and then young prophets, and then who had a filthy garment, a priest. Three people. A king who lacked leadership. Someone who had... So these three individuals are a symbol, a sign. God promised to bring the branch. What does this branch do? One day it will remove the iniquity of the land in a single day. And this is from Isaiah chapter 53 verse 1 to 6. It is a little long, but when you hear, I encourage you to get some image of there. I will read it for you, verse 1 to 6. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of the dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement, and that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. ¿Quién ha creído nuestro anuncio? y sobre quien se le ha manifestado el brazo de Jehová. Subirá cual renuevo delante de él, y como raíz de la tierra seca no hay parecer en él, ni hermosura, le veremos más inatrativo que los deseemos, despreciado, desachado entre los hombres, parón de dolores, experimentando en quebrantos y comiendos del rostro, fue menospreciado y no lo estimamos. Ciertamente llevó nuestras enfermedades y sufrió nuestros dolores, And we had him beaten, wounded by God, and slain. But the wounded was for our rebellions, died for our sins, the punishment of our peace, Jesus' story might be very unimpressive to you. According to today passage 53 that he is marred and he is not have a majesty. And then people think that he's too young and then he doesn't have a lack of leadership. But in reality that he bore our sins Pero en realidad, Él cargó nuestros pecados, and then through His death on the cross, y a través de su muerte en la cruz, He cleanses us. Nos limpia. Completely. Completamente. So why did God show vision to Prophet Zechariah? ¿Por qué Dios demostró esa visión al profeta Zacharias? God wants you to recognize that He really loves you, each one of you. When Satan accuses you that you are so bad, how can you stand before God? God does not condemn each one of us, whether God rebukes Satan, Is that end? No. Jesus, our Lord, changed our dirty garments and then changed our status to become his children as a friend And then that's not it, Jesus took our sins, completely erasing them on the cross so that what remains, us, is peace and joy. May today's message be the base for true believing that God really loves you, And Jesus washed our sins. And His Spirit continued to dwell in us to bring us peace and joy. So would you respond to yes to God? Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for truly loving us. Even though we are truly filthy and inadequate, you do not condemn us, but instead you made the way, Jesus Christ. for us to wash away our dirty clothes and restore and change and charge us to follow the honorable way of life. We are so grateful for the love we have received, remembering that it is not just a free gift, But the precious love obtained through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. No more accusation. No more condemnation. But you now grant us the grace through peace and joy and hope. We confess that it all comes from You. Please grant us the belief on You, so that we genuinely thank You. In Jesus' name, Amen.