(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Let's start this evening off in song number 377, Rescue the Perishing. Song number 377, Rescue the Perishing. Song 377, sing it out. Rescue the Perishing, care for the dying. Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave. We bore the erring ones, lift up the fallen. Tell them of Jesus the Mighty to save. Rescue the Perishing, care for the dying. Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. 377 on the second. Though they are slighting him, still he is waiting. Waiting the penitent child to receive. Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently. He will forgive if they only believe. Rescue the Perishing, care for the dying. Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Doubt in the human heart, crushed by the tempter. Feelings like glory, praise, gifts can restore. Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness. Chords that are broken will vibrate once more. Rescue the Perishing, care for the dying. Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Rescue the Perishing, duty demands it. Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide. Back to the narrow way, patiently win them. Tell the poor wanderer a solver has died. Rescue the Perishing, care for the dying. Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Father, we ask that you help us to sing out to your name, Lord. Help us to have a great service and to learn and to carry those things home with us for your honor and glory. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, next up we have song number 220. Jesus is all the world to me. 220? Jesus is all the world to me? I'm going to need you guys to sing this one out with me, okay? 220. Jesus is all the world to me. My life, my joy, my all. He is my strength from day to day. Without Him I would fall. When I am sad, to Him I go. No other one can cheer me so. When I am sad, He makes me glad. He's my friend. Jesus is all the world to me. My friend in trial's sword. I go to Him for blessings and He gives them more and more. He sends the sunshine and the rain. He sends the harvest cold and rain. Sunshine and rain, harvest of grain. He's my friend. Jesus is all the world to me and true to Him I'll be. Oh, how could I this friendly night when He's so true to me? Following Him I know I'm right. He watches over day and night. Following Him by day and night, He's my friend. On the last. Jesus is all the world to me. I want no better friend. I trust Him now. I'll trust Him when life's meeting day shall end. Beautiful life with such a friend. Beautiful life that has no end. Eternal life, eternal joy, He's my friend. Good evening. If you need a bulletin, you can lift up your hand. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. We are working on a new memory passage, Psalm 59. So if you can quote that to a non-family member, you can receive a prize on the inside. We have our service and soul winning times and our church stats. Make sure you're turning that in. Also on the right, we have several ladies that we're in prayer for, who are expecting. We have our prayer list. We'll go over that in just a second. Upcoming events this Saturday is going to be our final preaching class. May 19th is a graduation Sunday for high school and college graduates. If you have one that I'm not aware of, please just email me or let me know so that we can honor them on that Sunday. Also, June 8th is a wedding in honor of Joshua Garcia and Cynthia Navajar. So that's pretty much all I have as far as the bulletin, but we do want to go over our prayer list in detail. We've been praying for Brother Hall for his leg. We've been praying for the name's grandmother for her vision and health and salvation. We've been praying for the Carlson's mother, Miss Rebecca. We've also been praying for Miss Miller's friend, Tamara, for also dealing with cancer. We'll continue to pray for them, but we'll also say a quick prayer this evening. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for all these ladies who are expecting and all of our church members. I pray that you would just please be with these ladies in their pregnancies. Please just help these children's development and give them a timely birth. I pray that you would also help these chronic issues that we've been praying for. If you could please just give them just full recovery and health. I pray if possible, you could just give them a miracle. And I pray while they're going through this difficulty, you give them peace, you give them joy, and we just thank you for all that you do for our church. I pray that we just keep doing everything in the honor and glory of your Son. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we'll go ahead and sing our third song of the week, which is Psalm 147. There's a special handout for that. Or you could use your King James Bible, Psalm 147. All right, let's sing it out together, Psalm 147. He gathered together the outcast of Israel. He healed it, the broken and hardened findeth of their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars. He calleth them all. He calleth them all by their name. Great is our Lord and of great power. His understanding is infinite. The Lord lifteth up the meek, He casteth the wicked down to the ground. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praise upon the heart unto our God. Who covereth the heaven with plough to repair it. Rain for the earth who make it grass. Grass to grow on the mountains. He giveth to the beast his food. And to the young ravens which cry. He delighted not in the strength of the force he taketh not pleasure in. The legs of a man the Lord taketh. Pleasure in them that fear him and those that open his mercy. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. Praise our God, O Zion. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. For he hath strengthened the parts of thy gates he hath blessed. Thy children within thee he maketh peace. And filleth me with the finest of the wheat he sendeth for his commandment. Upon earth his work but it varies when he giveth. Stone like gold he scattereth the poor cross like ashes. Scattereth the poor cross like ashes. He cast it for his eyes like more. Souls who can stand before his foe. He sendeth out his word and melted them he caused his wind to blow. And the waters glowed he showed with his word unto Jacob. His statutes set his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation. And as for his judgments they have not known them. Praise the Lord. As the offering plates are being passed around please turn in your Bibles to Zechariah chapter 3. Zechariah chapter 3. The Bible reads and he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. And Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan the Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel and he answered and spake unto those that stood before him saying take away the filthy garments from me. And unto him he said behold I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee and I will clothe thee with a change of raiment. And I said let them set a fair mitre upon his head so they set a fair mitre upon his head and clothe them with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by and the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua saying thus saith the Lord of hosts if thou wilt walk in my ways and if thou wilt keep my charge then thou shalt also. Then thou shalt also judge my house and shall also keep my courts and I will give these places to walk among these that stand by. Hear now O Joshua the high priest thou and thy fellows that sit before thee for they are men wondered at for behold I will bring forth my servant the branch for behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua upon one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold I will engrave the graving thereof saith the Lord of hosts and I will remove the iniquity of the land in one day. And that day saith the Lord of hosts shall ye call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for another day of life, Lord. Thank you for allowing us to be in your house again, Lord. I just pray that you bless past Shelley, Lord, fill him with your Holy Spirit to preach unto us your word and that we'd be able to make changes in our life as needed. And I praise in Jesus' name, Amen. Zechariah chapter 3, the Bible says, and he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. Now this is really interesting imagery that we have here in this prophecy. He sees a couple of different figures. Joshua is the high priest that's going to be restored to the rebuilding of Jerusalem. And the high priest is of the Levitical priesthood. He's the one that offers the one sacrifice a year for the people who goes into the holy place. And so he's a special person as far as the children of Israel is concerned and the priesthood is concerned. But more importantly is what Joshua represents rather than it being specifically Joshua and just the picture of the high priest. The high priest is supposed to make atonement for the sins of the children of Israel. So that's kind of the position that he holds. And that's very significant because of the prophecies that would pertain to the Lord Jesus Christ. In this specific description we have an angel of the Lord and then we also have Satan at Joshua's right hand to resist him. It says in verse 2, and the Lord said unto Satan. Now I believe that this is pretty clear, but this is the angel of the Lord. So when it's talking about the angel of the Lord, it then calls him here in verse number 2, the Lord. And really when we think about the word angel, a lot of times from our perspective we think of it as being an angelic being. But angel is simply a messenger and that messenger could be an angelic being. It could be someone who's just a fellow brethren or it could be God and it could be the Lord. And in this context it seems very clear that it is the Lord. That's the one who's speaking. You have this picture of three, of Joshua, the angel of the Lord and Satan. And then we now have the Lord speaking unto Satan. And notice what the Lord says. It says, the Lord rebuke thee. That's really interesting because it's saying the Lord is saying unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee. Now that would be confusing unless you understood the Trinity. Which would be a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ rebuking Satan and who he's rebuking him through is through God the Father. So he's pointing to God the Father as the Lord and saying the Lord rebuke thee. Now this is interesting because this is going to happen later in the future in Luke chapter number 4. Keep your finger here and go to Luke chapter number 4 for a moment. And this is I believe prophetic of what we're going to see when the Lord Jesus Christ is on this earth. And he is going to be resisted by the devil. Look at Luke chapter 4 verse 1. And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing and when they were ended he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him if thou be the Son of God command this stone that it be made bread. So we have a famous portion of the New Testament where the devil comes and tempts Jesus Christ in the wilderness. And when they go back and forth Jesus Christ is constantly referring to the Bible and using the Bible to rebuke the devil. It says in verse number 4 and Jesus answered him saying it's written the man should not live by bread alone but by every word of God. If you skip down look what it says in verse 8. And Jesus answered and said to him get thee behind me Satan for it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. So when Jesus Christ is rebuking the devil he's using scripture. And specifically he's pointing to while he was on this earth even that we're supposed to only worship the Lord thy God. Which is again the Father specifically he says in verse 12 and Jesus answered and answering said unto him it is said thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. So what's interesting is that when Jesus Christ was on this earth he appealed to the Father every single time. He wasn't even necessarily appealing to himself he's appealing to the Father and he's using scripture to rebuke the devil. And that's another reference that we could even think about in the sense that the Lord is rebuking the devil with the Lord. Well this is the Lord and you know if someone were to rebuke the devil or to rebuke some kind of a false doctrine or the ministers of the devil. What we should appeal to is scripture is the word of God is the Lord and not our own reasoning not our own logic not our own devices. But rather we should rebuke them with the word of God with the Lord and we should allow the Lord to rebuke them. And it's funny because if you bring something up from the Bible you're not really rebuking them God's the one rebuking them. You know the Bible says the fool has said in his heart there is no God. That's not me calling you a fool that's God calling you a fool. That's God rebuking you. That's the Lord rebuking you. And so we as Bible believing Christians need to use the scripture as our sword. The Bible calls it the sword of the spirit and that's how we engage in battle is by appealing to scripture, appealing to the Lord and allowing the Lord to rebuke them. Now they'll get confused and say you're doing it but you know no it's the Bible. I heard someone tell me they said you know you're using the Bible like a hammer. Well the Bible is a hammer okay and if the Bible is a hammer then I should use it to do something. Like what do you think you use the hammer for? It's to hammer things right? I mean it'd be kind of silly to say well the Bible's a hammer but you should never hammer anyone. Well then why would God make it a hammer? Why would God make it a sword? If it's not a sword then there's no reason to slay but if it is a sword what else am I going to do with it? You don't give love taps with a sword okay? You don't necessarily punish someone. In fact I've never heard of a punishment with a sword that wasn't death. I mean it's not Monty Python where you just cut off your arm here okay? It's death right? We're slaying and of course that's what we do with the word of God. We're supposed to slay false doctrine. We're supposed to slay wickedness and evil and when it comes to the word of God sometimes it hammers out sin. It's going to be a weapon but we don't want to use our own weapons. We want to make sure that we're using the weapons that are from the scripture and we want to have the Lord rebuke the devil and rebuke false doctrine. Go back if you would to Zechariah. You know what I notice is a lot of individuals who are not Christian. They're not even saved or maybe even sometimes Christians get mixed up in this but mostly from the unsaved crowd when they go to warfare they don't use the Bible. You know what they use? The church fathers, a creed, some doctrinal statement. They just appeal to some other source. They don't actually appeal to the scripture. They don't appeal to the word of God. You say, oh well this is what the church fathers did or this is what tradition says or this is what the Pope says. Well I don't care what they say. I care what the Bible says. I care what the Lord says. And if we're going to successfully rebuke the devil we have to use what the Bible said. You know when Eve was in the garden she didn't necessarily use the scripture the best way that she could have and she kind of was using her own reasoning and logic and she ended up falling. She ended up falling victim and being tricked by the devil. But if we stick to the word of God then we'll be successful against the devil and his wiles. The Bible says in verse 2 again, it says the Lord rebuked thee, O Satan, even the Lord. Now the word even is just not a word that we typically use in this context. I always think of even in a mathematical term, okay, when I'm thinking like something being equivalent. But when we talk about even in this context the word that always helps me is the word specifically, okay. And in fact in my mind I usually just say that because then it helps me understand what we're talking about. Because just me personally when I read the word even it's just like this every single time just because it's not very familiar with me. I'm thinking again in mathematical terms, you know, 2 plus 2 is even to 4, right. Those two things are equivalent. They're even with one another. But when it comes to this context it's a little foreign. So if we think about the word even what it means is being specifically. He's saying specifically the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem before thee, I'm sorry, that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. So he's saying I want the Lord that chose Jerusalem to be the one that rebukes you. Well who chose Jerusalem? That's God. That's the Father who chose Jerusalem. He says is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now that's really interesting wording here. What does he mean by that? Well I kind of reference a few other passages to kind of get an idea of what this could mean. If we go, I want to go to Proverbs chapter 26 for just a moment. But what is a brand plucked out of the fire? Well sometimes we will use this term like a fire brand and that's actually used in the Bible a few different places. It's kind of just referencing maybe firewood, some kind of kindling, it could be coal. Just some kind of coal wood that's used in burning. It's something that's being burnt and so when you're plucking it out of the fire it's something that's been lit, it's on fire, it's hot, it's burning. And when we think about this imagery, you know it's not something that you would want to mess with loosely. You'd want to be careful with what you're doing. I know sometimes whenever I smoke brisket you can put a little too much firewood or a little too much coals into the smoker and so it's just getting way too hot. It goes like 300 degrees or 350 degrees and you all know it's 225. If you want to smoke brisket or ribs or something successfully it's 225. So if you kind of overdo it, which sometimes happens because it's getting too cold and then you're just like, man I got to stoke this up but then it just gets a little too hot. Well the best way to fix that is to take a little bit of the brand out. You take a little bit of the hot coals or a little bit of the extra firewood and you kind of just reduce the amount of firewood in there. And again it'll eventually burn out a little bit or cool down enough and then you can put it back in there later if you need. But you know to take that thing out you don't just put your hand in the fire and just grab that and rip it out. That would burn your hand. So you have to use some kind of device to be really careful. Use gloves, you know use some kind of a metal or something and protect it and get it out of there because the thing is dangerous it will burn you. Well this is a concept brought up in the Bible. Look at Proverbs 26 verse 17. He that passeth by and meddleth with strife belonging not to him is like one that taketh a dog by the ears as a madman who casteth firebrands, arrows and death. So talking about someone getting involved in an argument that has nothing to do with them is a really bad idea. That's the concept that he's trying to articulate. But the Bible uses a lot of analogies here saying it's similar to the same logic as someone just grabbing a dog by its ears. The other thing, dogs are typically pretty friendly especially in our society. Most of them are very domesticated. Unless it's a pit bull you can't domesticate those things alright. It's like the reprobate of dogs alright. And if you like pit bulls then you know you're not going to like what I'm going to say. But you know that's that's just honestly kind of the truth. They're dangerous animals no matter how much you love it it'll turn on you. But even even the most domesticated dog even if it's not a pit bull don't grab it by the ears either. Is what the suggestion is because it can feel threatened and it could turn and it could hurt someone. I remember when I was very young I learned about a dog that had injured a toddler greatly. But what had happened is the toddler was literally putting a pencil down the dog's ear. And because of doing that the dog just bit and attacked the toddler. Which again it's it's really kind of a mutual fault there in a sense you know but at the same time that's just what happened. And people were arguing whether or not we should put the dog down. And it's like well biblically yeah you'd put the dog down. It's not it's not like it's super fair because obviously the dog was being injured. But at the same time it injured a person and so you know it should just be dealt with appropriately. But at the end of the day you don't want to just mess with the dog. I had a dog when I was growing up that I loved and it was it was you know it was our dog we were friendly to it. But it was technically my brother's dog you know so it was both of our dog was mostly his dog. And it was mostly his dog to feed. But I didn't know I didn't ever pay attention to this. I'm like five six years old right. So my brother's the one that's supposed to feed it. Well my brother just doesn't feed it for like a week. Okay. And I go out there with the dog bowl and I forget like my parents didn't want me putting it right by the door. Because then he might mess up the house or something like that. And so like I set it down right by the door and then I think like oh yeah I'm not supposed to set it by the door. So I go to reach it to pick it down up and then like move it. And the dog almost killed me. And I was just like whoa. You know the dog's really friendly to me. But here's the thing if you don't feed the dog for a week. And then all of a sudden you try to take its food away. That's a bad move. Okay. Because they will just come after you. So what it's trying to say is like there's nothing wrong with the dog per se. But what's wrong is messing with it when you don't need to. Okay. And the dog, hey pet the dog. But you don't want to sit there and grab it by its ears and cause some kind of just unnecessary problem that you didn't have. You didn't have this problem. The dog was fine. The dog was never going to attack you. There was no issue. But as soon as you grabbed it by the ears now it's a problem that you just invented for yourself. So it's basically suggesting hey if other people are having a problem. Just leave it alone. It's not your problem. Don't get involved in that specific problem. That would be foolish just like the dog was your friend until you did something to it. These people will be your friend until you get involved in their argument and to their issue and to their strife. And just try to figure out what's going on. He brings up other scenarios though. It's just the same as a madman. I mean this person's crazy. This is a crazy person that would literally just take hot coals of fire and just start throwing them everywhere. Well that's how you start wildfires. You want to know how wildfires get started? People being careless and reckless with fire specifically. In fact many times in very dry areas or areas where there's been a lack of rain. It can be a very dangerous or hazardous situation where if a small fire gets just out of control. It can turn into a literal wildfire. And so it's just saying this person's crazy just grabbing burning coals and just throwing them. Or just being crazy with them. Just casting them. Arrows and death. Just as silly as it would be to just hey I have a bow and arrow. I'm just going to start shooting it randomly in my neighborhood or in public areas or near crowds. Like you could kill someone. Like you're just saying that's silly to just start messing with this stuff and just being so foolish with this kind of stuff. This stuff is something you have to handle with care. So in the same context it's just saying you don't want to just touch a firebrand because you might get burned. Right? Or you might cause a fire. You might cause some kind of an issue. Go to another place. Go to Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs chapter number 6. Let's see another similar mention of this particular word or kind of get an understanding of what we're talking about. Proverbs chapter number 6. Look at verse 26. The Bible says this. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread and the adulterous will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbor's wife whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. So what the Bible is saying is you can't mess with this and there not be a negative consequence. Meaning you can't just cast firebrands and there not be some kind of a problem or issue. You're going to cause all kinds of bad things to happen. Taking hot coals into your chest is just saying you're going to get burned. Like that's a bad idea. That's a dumb idea. Something's going to cause an issue for you here. You can't also walk on hot coals otherwise you're going to burn yourself. So saying this is something that you don't want to mess with. It's something that doesn't really make sense. So go back to Zechariah chapter number 3 and I'm going to kind of give you my understanding of what this verse is trying to allude to. But what is the context? The context is the Lord rebuking Satan. The Lord is rebuking Satan and telling him something specifically. He even says the Lord that chose Jerusalem, right? Even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. What is the context of Zechariah? This is going back to my first sermon. What is the context of Zechariah? The children of Israel have returned back to the Promised Land to rebuild the Temple. They've started. The work has been ceased by Artaxerxes' commandment. They have no legitimate authority to rebuild the Temple from a government perspective apart from appealing to the prior order of Cyrus, Cyrus' older order. And through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah, the children of Israel are encouraged and emboldened by faith to rebuild the Temple despite that conflicting order of Artaxerxes and Cyrus' orders. And so this vision is supposed to be coming unto Zechariah to then preach and prophesy unto the children of Israel to then rebuild the Temple again. And he's seeing this picture of Joshua there and he's seeing the devil there to resist him. That's what he says in verse number 1. And then the Lord is rebuking Satan and saying unto Satan, specifically in verse number 2, is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? So if we get the right context, what we're trying to talk about, if I am messing around or if you go and you talk to people that are not your spouse and you get too close to them and you get involved with them, it's saying, hey, aren't you going to get burned? Aren't you going to make some mistakes? Aren't you going to cause some problems for yourself? There's certain things you can't mess with, you can't get too close to, or it'll burn you, it'll cause you some kind of a problem. Well, this is what he's saying to the devil. To the devil, he's saying that Joshua is a brand plucked out by the fire. Meaning what? The devil can't mess with Joshua without getting burned. The devil is going to have problems for himself if he tries to stop Joshua because Joshua has been ordained by God, prophesied by God, he's chosen Jerusalem, he's going to allow them to rebuild the temple, and it's going to cause the devil problems for resisting and going against Joshua. Now again, there's an always on the surface immediate context of the Bible, and then there's prophetic. In this immediate context, we're talking about Joshua and this very recent prophecy that's about to happen, very soon to be prophecy, of the children of Israel being successful in rebuilding the temple and Joshua becoming the high priest, and the Lord's going to make sure that happens. But then additionally, what is the other prophetic significance of this is that Joshua is picturing the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the devil goes against the Lord Jesus Christ and resists the Lord Jesus Christ, he's going to fail, and it's going to cause destruction unto the devil. There's a little place called Hell, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. Why? Because they resisted against God, because they're going against the Lord Jesus Christ, and you know what? The devil is going to be burnt by this brand of fire, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's what I believe is being referenced here, and so obviously those verses I brought up in Proverbs, they're applying to us, and we need to be aware of the firebrands in our lives that we don't get burned by, but even the devil himself, he can have firebrands, he can have things that would cause him problems or cause him issues specifically, and the Bible even says about the serpent that his head is going to be crushed under the heel of the seed of man. And so the devil is going to be crushed and destroyed, and he's being rebuked here specifically. Look at verse number three. The Bible then says, Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel. We notice again that the devil is trying to destroy Joshua, and he wants to get him. And of course he's the accuser of the brethren, and he wants to attack us for our sin and accuse us to God for our sin. But keep your finger and go to 1 John 5 for a second. Go to 1 John 5. What I think is interesting is that we have the angel, the Lord, and specifically the Lord himself here defending Joshua, helping to rebuke the devil for Joshua's sake. And the Bible says that when you get saved, the same thing applies to you, that the Lord puts a special protection on people that are saved, and so there's a great benefit and a blessing to being saved. In 1 John 5, the Bible says in verse number 18, We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. Isn't that a nice promise that the Bible is saying that when you get saved, when you're born again of God, that the wicked one cannot touch you again? Now if we go back to Zechariah, chapter number 3, we see Joshua clothed with these filthy garments, which is a picture of our sin, which is a picture of the fact that we are filthy in the sight of God. Now, it's a little bit deeper than that, but just generally speaking it's talking about someone in a sinful state and not having true righteousness, having their own form of righteousness, but in the eyes of God it's still filthy. And it says in verse 4, And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. So this is a symbol or a picture of what salvation is like. Salvation is where you have filthy garments and they're taken away and Christ's imputed righteousness comes upon you and he clothes you with his righteousness and then we can stand before God in true holiness and true righteousness, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by his mercy he saved us. And what's interesting about this picture here is what it also says in Isaiah. Keep your finger and go to Isaiah 64, verse number 6. And this is kind of a more popular verse, a more famous verse that we think of when we talk about this subject, but the Bible brings up this idea of clothing in regards to our righteousness. Typically clothing is always in reference to righteousness in general, but when we talk about our clothing or our righteousness, the Bible has a description in Isaiah chapter 64 about this. Look at verse number 6. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. So a lot of times people will use that phrase, like our righteousness are as filthy rags. And it even says specifically all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Now it's not saying they're literally filthy rags, it's saying they're like filthy rags. What is this all symbolizing? The Bible essentially teaches in kind of a metaphorical picture that our sin is what basically causes us to be naked, in a sense. And we see that with Adam and Eve, when they sinned, their eyes were opened, and they became aware of their nakedness. And what they ended up doing was sewing together fig leaf aprons to cover their nakedness, to cover their sin. And this is a picture of our righteousness trying to cover sin. And when God looks at that fig leaf apron, he calls it filthy rags. And so they're not adequately addressing their nakedness problem. And this is similar in what we hear often today is this idea of repenting of your sins to be saved, or cleaning up your own life. But the problem is, from God's perspective, that all of your righteousnesses are as filthy rags, just like Joshua was standing there with filthy rags in a clothing that's not appropriate, it's not adequate. Well, that's never going to bring true salvation. Just like the man that came into the marriage without a wedding garment, he's going to be cast out. So are all the people that show up on Judgment Day without the right clothing. They didn't dress for the occasion, okay? And so they're not accepted. And because of their dress and because of their clothing, they are rejected. And that clothing is a symbol of how they're presenting their righteousness, their clothing. And the only way to be saved is to have a change of garment. And the only way to be saved is to have a change of mind. It's where you stop trusting your filthy rag garments and you put on his robe of righteousness, you put on his clothing, and that's what true salvation is. It's when you stop trusting in your works and repenting of your sin and your lifestyle or what you do, and rather being clothed only by his robe of righteousness, and that's what gives us true salvation. So we see a lot of pictures here with Joshua specifically because the fig leaves that are sown are inadequate to cover our sins. All of our righteousness are inadequate. They are filthy rags. And so in that sense, the only salvation can come through faith in Jesus Christ, and he gives us his robe of righteousness, and that's what gives us that salvation. Just like in this parable, and what I think is interesting is it said in verse number four, if we go back to Zechariah, is it said specifically that I caused thine iniquity to pass from thee. So not only did he get something to cover, the iniquity itself is departed from him. Now he no longer has iniquity either. This is also another picture of how when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, not only are we clothed with a robe of righteousness, we're actually born again. And we have a new man and a new spirit, and that new man and that new spirit has no iniquity whatsoever. It's completely gone. And in fact, we just never have it. That's why it's saying he that is born of God does not commit sin. And so in our new man, we can't sin. We have no iniquity. Not only that, we're clothed with Jesus Christ's robe of righteousness. And of course that doesn't mean, and of course people would then say like, oh, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And of course, what does the Bible ringingly sound? God forbid. No, of course not. We should then continue to walk in righteousness. And the Bible doesn't end here in verse four. It says in verse five, And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head, so they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed them with garments, and the angel of the Lord stood by. And the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by. So not only once we get saved are we saved forever, but Christ wants us to walk in newness of life. That's the point of baptism. You know, we're Baptists. And it would be a shame if Baptists didn't believe in following God's commandments, because that was the whole point of you getting baptized. The whole point of you getting baptized was saying, I no longer want to live to myself. I don't want just salvation to be free only. I want to also walk in newness of life. I want to be appreciative of what God's done for me, and I want to show him my appreciation by changing how I live, and walking in a new way, and walking in his ways, and dying to self, and coming alive now, even though I will be resurrected in the future, I want to already begin to walk in newness of life, already begin the sanctification process, already decide to commit my ways unto the Lord, and so that is the whole point of even being a Baptist. Oh, you guys are just fundamentalists. You guys just want to do what the Bible says, and just follow all the rules. Yes, I do. You know, I'm not a Pentecostal where I walk down the aisle, and it's automatic. No, it's hard work. It takes labor. It takes a decision, and in fact, it takes a daily decision, because that's why the Bible tells us to daily take up the cross, to die to self daily. You know, that's why it's important to try and do this on a regular basis, and it's a hard challenge. Many great men of the Bible who were really strong in their faith at one point in their lives slowly over time slid away from God. Slowly over time ended up falling away and drifting away. Why? It's because they weren't dying daily. It's because they weren't sanctifying the Lord on a regular basis, and what's sad is that we will, and we have seen people in our lives, and we will continually see this, that we're great Christians and on fire for God, but just over time, they just slowly fade and slowly melt away, and then it's like, who are you? And you know who it is? It's the old version of them. It's like, hey, I remember this other Jonathan. You know, I remember this other Pastor Shelley, and this is like a completely different Pastor Shelley, right? This is a completely different Jonathan than I'm seeing, and it's because you're just letting that old Jonathan, you're letting that old man come out a little bit too much, and it's like we can't even recognize you anymore. It's like, man, you're just not even the same person. You talk different, you act different, you have different affections. Well, that's because your old man does. Your old man does have different affections and a different attitude and a different desire, and when you stop killing him, he comes out of the grave. You know, he's that zombie that won't leave you alone, okay? Everybody wants to talk about the zombies that are going to come after you. Your real zombie is your old man who's trying to come out of that grave and trying to wrestle you for your life and trying to determine what kind of steps you're going to take. You know, we're not supposed to walk by sight. We're supposed to walk by faith, and we're supposed to walk in the Spirit, and we're supposed to not fulfill the lust of the flesh, and we're supposed to die to self, and we're supposed to be a completely different person. That new creation, we're supposed to walk in that, and he's saying to Joshua, Hey, if you'll do this, if you'll walk in my ways, if you'll keep my charge, then what does he promise him? Thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that sinned by. Say, hey, you're going to be in church. You're going to be in the house of God, Joshua, as long as you what? You're keeping my charge, and you're walking in my ways, and I'm going to let you even be a judge in my house. The people that are in the house of God are the ones that are walking in his ways and doing his will and keeping his charge. God's going to give them the favor to stay in that position, to continue in that process. Those who decide to willingly walk away, they're not going to be necessarily kept there, or people that just start to let things slip, they may end up finding themselves eventually not in the house of God. And so if you have a heart to say, I want to be in the house of God, not just today, but tomorrow, and not just tomorrow to the end of my life, well, you need to walk in his ways. You need to walk in his ways, and you need to keep his charge. Well, you know what? I don't like all of y'all's rules. I'm just going to kind of fade and do my own thing. There's other cool churches like Experience and Grace and Fellowship. But that's not even really church. Many of the times, the pastor's not even saved. You know, it's probably not even right on the gospel. And you see all these people, it's like they think they're still in church, but they're just not. You might get mad at a church like ours, but you don't have to go to this church to go to church, but most of the time when people start slipping and fading on the Word of God, they're just not going to church, even if they are going to church. Oh, I go to fellowship on Easter. Oh, so you just don't go to church, is really what you have to understand. Oh, I go to the Catholic church. I go to the Catholic church. You don't go to church. That's not church, buddy. There's so many fake churches out there today that aren't really a church anymore. And think about it this way. What if we looked at a church from God's view? What if we said, okay, I'm going to evaluate a church based on God's perspective. Well, what is Ephesians chapter, I'm sorry, not Ephesians. I was thinking about the church at Ephesus. What does God talk about the church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter one? He says specifically if they forget the first works, if they're not doing the first works, he's going to literally take away their candlestick. So from God's perspective, they're not even a church anymore. So here's the thing. If I took God's perspective, he's saying churches that don't even evangelize and aren't even going soul winning, they're not even a church. So yeah, these frozen chosen, these Calvinists that don't even have soul winning programs, I want to ask this question. Does God even think you're going to church? And is the real problem the fact that they've walked away from God's ways? Because the Bible says specifically, if you follow me, I'll make you a fisher of men. So I want to know, are these people following God? Are they really walking in his ways? Are they really doing God's commandments? Oh, well we go to this church where we learn about the sovereignty of God and all the doctrines of grace. You don't even have a doctrine of grace. Your doctrine is that God didn't even choose people to get to heaven. What kind of grace is that? That's not grace. That's damnation. You have the doctrines of damnation, okay? And it's just so silly to me how people are just getting mixed up and they kind of are falling victim of a lot of fake substitutes out there today. There's a lot of fake substitutes for church today that are just not legitimate churches even though they have church on the side. And that doesn't mean that the people in the building aren't Christians. It doesn't mean that some of them aren't saved. Don't hear me wrong on that. Don't hear me wrong on that. But the people that are really gonna walk in God's ways, they're gonna end up finding themselves in a church that actually has the word of God, that's actually going soul winning, that's actually doing the things of the Lord. And so when you see these people fade and then they're going to the nom, the nom, it's not like, oh, well we've just, we're not these fuddy duddies like you guys or we're not these hypercritical people. No, you just stopped serving God is what you did. Because when's the last time anybody in this room's ever had somebody from a non-denominational church come knock your door and try to get you saved? What? I mean, they've got like 10,000 people on a Sunday morning. They've got 30,000 people in their sanctuary. I mean, wouldn't you think that they would knock your door? How about this? Who's had a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness ever knock their door? Wow, almost everybody. Let me explain something to you. There is way more people that go to non-denominational churches than Mormon churches and Jehovah's Witness churches. So if they were going soul winning, they would be knocking on your door. We would have had all the same hands raised or even more would have been raised. Oh, oh, we don't, we're not like you where we're judgmental. Well, of course you're not judgmental because you know the people who are judgmental? The people that are in the house of God, right? What did he say about Joshua specifically in verse seven? Thus saith the Lord of hosts, if thou wilt walk in my ways and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge in my house. Oh, I don't want to be judgmental. Oh, so you don't want to go to church. You know why they don't like judgment? Because they don't want judgment to start with them. That's the only reason people don't like judgment is because they're not a humble person or they're guilty. And when you're humble and you're willing to just hear the truth, then you know what? You're not afraid of judgment. You actually desire judgment. The righteous desire judgment because they want to know what's right because they want to make sure they're doing right with God. You know, if a church cares about the judgment of God, they would want to know if God likes their church or is pleased with their church or how would God evaluate our church? You know, and what do most people evaluate their church on? Well, how beautiful is the building? How much money's coming in? What was our last attendance like? You know, this is how a lot of people will judge their church. They judge it based on these kind of metrics and these kind of numbers. But my question would be like, what's the soul-winning participation like? What's the spirit like? What's the doctrine like? You know, these are the type of things that God uses to evaluate. What's the love like? What's the charity like in the church? You know, those are the things that we should be considering and thinking about when it comes to a church, not these carnal metrics that have nothing to do whether you're right with God or not. It doesn't matter if you have a multitude or not. It matters if you're right with God. Again, there's nothing wrong with having a multitude. There's nothing wrong with wanting a church to grow. There's nothing wrong with having a nice building. Hey, I would love to have all those. You know, those don't even matter. What matters is are we serving God? Are we doing what's right in His sight? Are we going soul-winning? Are we elevating the Word of God? Do we have sound doctrine? Do we have charity in the church? Do we have the right spirit? That's way more important than any of these other carnal things that are going on. And when it comes to us and our personal lives, we have to recognize that this charge in Joshua also applies to us in the sense that if we want to be in the house of God, if we want to be doing the things that are pleasing unto Him, we have to walk in His ways. Christianity, you have to understand this. Salvation is free, but being in the house of God all the days of your life is going to cost you everything. It's going to cost you, it's that discipleship cost, which is everything. And so people think like, well, I just want to be half in, half out. Well, you'll probably end up finding yourselves on the outs. And you know, this is an important message to teach children because many children are in church simply because their parents are dragging them there. But here's the thing, if you don't have a serious walk with the Lord, if you don't actually care about God, you know what, we'll figure out where you're at pretty soon. You know, you have to decide that you love the Lord too and that you want to walk in His ways so that you'll be in the house of the Lord forever. I remember as a young child having a desire and having a zeal for God, and I believe because of that, that's kept me keeping going to church because there's been times in my life, especially when I didn't have my parents dragging me to church, where I ebbed and flowed a little bit and it was not as big a priority. And to be honest, that time in my life was the most sinful part of my life. You want to know the most sinful time in my life? When I was going to church the least. That was just the fact. And when I've been in the church the most, my life's been the least amount of sinful. That doesn't mean I've ever stopped sinning. No one will ever stop sinning. But if I were to just evaluate my life and say when was the worst times in my life from a sin perspective, when I was making the worst decisions in my life, it was when church wasn't as important, when I wasn't reading the Bible as much. That's just how life works. And so you say, hey, I feel like I'm slipping a little bit. I feel like maybe I'm getting into too much sin or I'm backsliding a little bit. Well, here's the cure. Get into church more and read your Bible more. It's that simple. And the problem is that people want some kind of a special answer, a new message. They want to hear this new fad diet. It's like everybody that wants to lose weight, they want to hear something other than eat less and exercise. It's like, how do you lose weight? Well, you eat less and you exercise. No, no, no, I don't want to do that. Give me something else. Keto. Give me paleo. Give me carnivore. Give me a diet pill. Just give me this pill. Give me this ab shaker, this thing. They have devices that you can literally just put on your body that just kind of vibrate and you're not even doing anything. It's like workout without even trying. You're just sitting here. They're all gimmicks, folks, and they're just substitutes for the real thing. Sometimes we just have to be reminded of the simple truths of the reality of the life we live that, hey, you want to lose weight, exercise and diet. And it's like, well, I don't feel like doing any of those. We are not going to lose weight. It's like, hey, I want to be more spiritual. Read your Bible more and go to church more. Why do I want to do those? Well, you're just not going to be spiritual. You can't really escape those fundamental truths. That's why we're a fundamental Baptist church. We're not here preaching an exotic message. I don't have some cool new truth to show you tonight that New Jerusalem is not this box on Saturn that you're going to find or anything like that. I'm not going to discover a new shape of the earth for you this evening. It's the simple, plain truths of the Bible, and we have to constantly be reminded of them. It's just the manna from heaven that we just get all the time. But, of course, there's a part of humanity that says, well, I want the cucumbers and the melons and the garlic and all this stuff. I'm sick of the manna. Well, you know what? That's a carnal problem that you have because the manna's great. There's nothing wrong with the manna. Just keep eating the manna and just keep staying on the right course and just keep denying the flesh and taking up your cross and crucifying that flesh on a regular basis. Here's another thing I want to bring up, though. Keep your finger here and go to 1 Kings 3 is the importance of desiring to judge. For the leader, this is really important, but it's important for all of us. And for Joshua, it's important for him to walk in his ways in order to continue being the judge, in order to continue being in a leadership position. If you find yourself in any leadership position, it's important to continue walking in God's ways so he'll keep you in that specific position, whether that be a soul-winning captain, a soul-winning lieutenant, whether that be just helping lead music at your church, whether that just be the household leader, just being the man of the house and ruling your house, doing any of these things, it's important that you walk in God's ways because then God will continue to keep you in that office, in that position. And when it comes to leading a wife or leading a family, your children and your wife are going to respond so much better to you when you're walking in the ways of the Lord. If you're very sinful and you're very selfish, it's going to be really hard to tell your wife what to do and she's just going to submit to that. It's going to be really hard to appeal to the Bible when you don't care about the Bible and you don't live a life that's similar to what the Bible teaches. When you don't take the things of God seriously and you're not modeling that for your family, then why would you expect your wife to take your commandments seriously or what you say very seriously? You know, people want to think like, oh, I'm struggling in my marriage for my wife to obey me, but they themselves are not taking the things of God seriously. Well, why don't you first work on you? And this is what they want. They want me or someone else to come in there and be like, listen, sister, you need to do what he's saying, okay? And it's like, typically, almost every time when someone comes to me and asks me advice, I pretty much just tell them what they need to do. I'm like, okay, well, how are you doing? What are you doing? It's like, you need to fix some things. And then people don't come and ask me advice anymore. It's just like, but that's the reality. You can only fix yourself. And again, it's not like, hey, I go to church three times a week and I read my Bible and I go soul hunting and I pray and I'm trying to do my best to serve God, so therefore my wife's gonna always do everything that I say. I'm not saying that. What I am saying is you're giving yourself the best chance and you're gonna motivate your spouse and your children to follow your example in the best way possible. Whereas when you're really weak in this point, sometimes God may take that away from you and your judgment and your leadership and your rule, and so it's important to walk in God's ways. Now, when Solomon is given an offer by God to have whatever he wants, this is what Solomon says in verse nine. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this, thy so great a people? Solomon wants to be able to judge well, lead well, make the right decisions. What does judge mean, make decisions? If you don't make the right decisions, then maybe God will put someone in your life to make the decisions for you, like Joe Biden, like the government. Hey, when you have a righteous nation, you don't need very many rules. When you have an ungodly and a wicked nation, you need a lot of rules. When the people in a church are really righteous, you need less rules. When they're causing a lot of problems, you need a lot more rules. When the kids are really obeying well, you don't need a lot of rules. When they're really rebellious, you need a lot of rules. The children of Israel in the wilderness, they need a lot of rules. Why? To make sin exceeding sinful. They were struggling in these areas, and God had to lay down more law and lay down more specific examples for them to understand. You know, the only commandments we truly need is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love thy neighbor as thyself. Upon these two hang all the law and the prophets, as the Bible says. You only need those two commandments, and frankly, you only need the one, just love the Lord. That's all you need. Every single thing is derived from that specific principle. But then God gets more specific every single time because they're somehow not loving God or loving their neighbor. But here's what you have to understand. It's not just only the law that spells those things out. Anything that violates that principle is a sin. Anything that's not loving the Lord or loving your neighbor as yourself is a sin. And when it comes to the life that we live, there's a lot of things that we do that are wrong, and people don't come up with rules until you do it. And they're like, oh wow, I didn't know we needed a rule for that, but okay, I guess people are doing it, so now we need to invent a new rule. And so you children, if you say like, man, my parents are constantly inventing rules. Let me explain why they're inventing rules. Because you're being bad. Because you're doing dumb things. They don't want to invent any more rules or come up with any more boundaries than they already needed to have. It's just simply you need to figure out how to love them more and love God more and walk in his ways more. And when it comes to Solomon, he knows that he wants to judge this people right and to give them the right kind of leadership, but when you fail to do right, God may sometimes bring in a bad taskmaster, might bring in Biden to make those decisions for you. So yeah, God likes to give you freedom, but when you choose the wrong thing, well then sometimes he'll strip that freedom from you, and he'll give someone else to give you the decision-making for you. And you know, we don't want that. I don't want someone else making the decisions for me. I want to make the decisions for me. But at the same time, I need to make sure I'm lining them up with God's decisions. This is what God is also telling him in verse 14. And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my judgments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days. Notice he's telling him, you're going to stay in office as long as you're doing right, but hey, you don't want to do it, I'm going to take you out of there. What do we know about Solomon? He was very young when he became the leader of this nation. Very young. I don't know exact age. I think it's probably likely around 18, 19, 20 years old. But I can't say with absolute certainty. Here's the thing. We know that Solomon reigned for 40 years. We also know that David reigned for 40 years. But here's the thing. If Solomon was 20, let's just throw out a number. If he was 20, that means he would have died at age 60. Well, when you look at a lot of the other people in the Bible, they just lived longer than 60 years old, didn't they? They lived to be 70, 80, even much greater numbers than that. And why would I think that Solomon died at age 60? Well, how did he end the rest of his kingdom? He did not walk in his ways. And so God did not lengthen his days. And in fact, he took the kingdom away from his son Rehoboam and gave it unto Jeroboam and gave him 10 of those tribes. And he gave one unto him for David and one for his own namesake. But he gave zero to Solomon for Solomon's sake. And so you can see a direct tie and a direct result of how someone lives their life and what it does in the end. And here's the thing about Solomon. Solomon started great, though. Solomon was the wisest man to ever live, according to the Scripture. And Solomon was someone that loved the Lord, did great sacrifices within the Lord, did walk in his ways for a while, but then later in life, he allowed himself to slip away. If Solomon can slip away from God, any of us could. And again, Solomon was great at a young age and started great. So that doesn't mean, like, oh, I'm good with God right now. I'm never going to fail or never going to slip. No, no, no, no, no. We need to take heed lest we slip and lest we fall. And we need to be humble about ourselves and say, I still need church. I still need the Bible. Say, I've read the Bible cover to cover a dozen times. Okay, do another dozen. Well, I've already memorized a lot of the Bible. Well, memorize more. Well, I already know a lot of the hymns. We'll learn all of them, right? Write a new hymn, okay? We want to make sure that we're constantly challenging ourselves and staying fresh in Christianity because you never can just be sure that you're going to stay on that course. Just like diet and exercise. When you're at your peak, it doesn't mean you're going to last that way forever. You have to continue eating right and continuing to exercise or you'll atrophy or you'll go backwards, you'll revert. So you have to stay strong and you have to stay strong in the spiritual fight. Go back, if you would, to Zechariah chapter 3. We'll finish here. It's an important commission that he's giving unto Joshua, the idea of, hey, you need to walk in my ways. Yeah, salvation was free. Yeah, your filthy garments are gone. Yeah, iniquity has been purged. Yeah, you're clothed with the robe of righteousness, Joshua. But let me explain something to you. If you want to stay in the house of God, if you want to stay judging, you better walk in my ways. And this thing, yes, salvation is free. You're on your way to heaven. But let me explain something to you. If you want to stay in the house of God, if you want to be used greatly by God, you've got to walk in his ways and you have to commit your life unto him. You have to commit your ways unto him. That's still the one that's going to be judging for a long period of time and staying right with God. Now it says in verse number 8, Here now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, for they are men wondered at. For behold, I will bring forth my servant the branch. For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua, upon one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall you call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree. Again, a lot of prophecy here about the Lord Jesus Christ. In my Bible, it has branch in all caps. Now again, I don't think that that's necessarily, it doesn't have to be that way. That's just the translators calling your attention to that particular word there, branch. But it's also referenced in other places. But what does the word branch mean in just our English vernacular? It's just a part of a tree. We think about it as stemming from the tree. It's not the root, but it's coming from the root. It's coming from the trunk. It's coming from the base of the tree, and it's stemming off. It's a part of that particular tree. It's not the beginning. It's towards the middle or the end of that tree as far as its cycle. And when we think about this prophecy, this is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ is a branch. Now, I want to go to a few places, but go to Revelation chapter 5 first, and then I want to go to Isaiah 11. Those are the two places I want to turn, but the Bible also brought up this idea of a stone and having on it seven eyes. And when it said this, it said, For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua. So it's not saying that the stone is Joshua. It's saying the stone is laid before Joshua, and on this stone, it has seven eyes. Well, in Revelation, which we've already gone through, but in Revelation chapter 5 verse 6, the Bible says, And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the other stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. So the Bible describes Jesus in the book of Revelation as having seven eyes, and then it tells us what that means. It's not so much a literal thing. It's a symbolic thing that it represents seven spirits. Now, go over to Isaiah chapter 11. Go back in the Old Testament to Isaiah chapter number 11, and we have kind of a final piece to this puzzle as far as what we're kind of describing here, but in Isaiah chapter number 11, we have, it's kind of in the midst, the context of Isaiah is in the midst of talking about a virgin conceiving and bringing forth a child, and we have the famous verses in Isaiah chapter 9 that talk about the Lord Jesus Christ coming and being the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. But then in Isaiah chapter 11, look at verse 1. It says, And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. So what is the branch being referred to here in Isaiah chapter 11, verse 1? It's referring to a descendant, a physical descendant from Jesse, a physical descendant from this tribe, and then it says in verse 2, And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, and the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. So we actually have a tie to both Zechariah and Revelation chapter number 5, because what it's referencing here is two different things. Specifically, it's referencing that branch that was a callback, and it's referencing the stone with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, and then did you notice in verse number 2, there's actually seven spirits that are mentioned, because the first spirit is the spirit of the Lord, number 1, the spirit of wisdom, 2, the spirit of understanding, 3, the spirit of counsel, 4, the spirit of might, 5, the spirit of knowledge, 6, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord is 7. So we see the seven spirits of God resting upon the Lord Jesus Christ when he comes as a physical descendant of Jesse. And so we have all of these great prophecies that are being tied back. Now, in Isaiah, there's another reference that's mentioned in the gospels, but what's interesting is in verse 2, notice what it says, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. You see that phrase that's in there? Go if you would like Luke, again, chapter 4. We went there earlier. Luke, chapter 4. Now, the book of Isaiah is quoted in Luke, chapter 4 here, and it's referencing a different place, but I think that the language is interesting, because he said that the spirit of the Lord is upon me, and notice what it says in verse 18. Luke, chapter 4, verse 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me. And we see when the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended as a dove and lighted upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bible says in John, chapter 3, about the Lord Jesus Christ that he did not give the Spirit by measure unto him. Meaning what? That the fullness of the Spirit was put upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and he had all seven of these spirits while he was on this earth and preaching the gospel. What does it say? Why does he have the spirits? He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. What was the goal of Jesus Christ? It was to preach the gospel and getting people saved, and then to fulfill the gospel message by literally dying, being buried, and risen again. Now, the Bible says that he, and in Zechariah, that he was doing all of this to take away their sins. Go to Romans chapter 11 for a second. He says, I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. So the iniquity was purged in a moment of time. Well, that's significant because the high priest, while he does take things away in one day, he still has to do it again the next year. But the thing about the Lord Jesus Christ is his sacrifice was a once for all sacrifice that purged all sins in that one event of the death, burial, and resurrection, and in that one moment of time, our iniquities were purged and we were saved. But there's another way that this applies because, of course, that's true that that event, the gospel message, gave us that deliverance. But there's also a literal message here of how the children of Israel in one day will have all iniquity purged from them. And what we're talking about is a physical Israel. Now, this did not happen in Joshua's time. Joshua didn't have this. There was never a time where that happened for them. It still hasn't happened. But there is coming a day when the Lord Jesus Christ will return and when he returns with his saints in the book of Revelation that we've already read, he's going to set up his millennial reign of Christ. And those who are ruling and reigning from Israel and those who are fellow citizens with the saints, those who are of the household of Israel, all of us will be saved and there will be no iniquity. Every single saved person will be a citizen of Israel and so all Israel shall be saved. That's what it says here in verse 26. And so all Israel shall be saved. If you read verse 25, to get that context, it says, for I would not rather than that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. So Israel is part blind until all the Gentiles come into the fold and then once all are made into the one fold, then in that day all Israel shall be saved. What does it say? As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. So there is a day when essentially just the full reconciliation of physical and spiritual Israel is realized and in that day, what does Zechariah say? He says, okay, then everyone's gonna call their neighbor under the fig tree and under the vine tree. So basically we're gonna all be saved and be in Jerusalem and it's gonna be peace and we're gonna just see our neighbor, he's just gonna be relaxing under the fig tree just enjoying life, just enjoying just being able to just have the fruits of the ground just be with him. That hasn't happened. There hasn't been this time where we just have perfect peace and everyone in Israel's saved and everyone's just at rest. But you know what? Jesus Christ is the prince of peace and he's gonna bring peace and there's coming that day when Israel will have all of its sins purged away and will enter in that millennial reign of Christ where we'll get to rule and reign with Christ and who are the ones that are gonna be in the best places of judgment? Those that actually kept his ways. Those are the ones that actually took seriously the commandments of God now and they walked by faith now, they are gonna be greatly rewarded in the new heaven and the new earth. And so it's a great thing that salvation is free but we don't wanna take that for granted. We wanna make sure that we understand the importance of continuing to walk in newness of life, the importance of dying daily, the importance of serving God now and that we walk by faith. You know, everything I'm saying, you can't see it. There's not gonna be a videotape to watch later. There's nothing that can really convince you from a physical carnal perspective. What you have to decide is you have to just believe what the Bible's saying by faith. You have to just trust that these things are true and God is gonna reward those who diligently seek him. But you know, without faith, it's impossible to please him. And people right now, what they wanna do is they wanna live for the vine tree and the fig tree today and they wanna live for their neighborhood now and they wanna live for the things of this world and they, you know, Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world. We shouldn't love this present world, love not the world, neither the things that are therein. We're supposed to love God and we're supposed to love the new heaven and the new earth and we're supposed to desire a heavenly country that is the heavenly Jerusalem where there's true peace and true joy and where you're not gonna have inflation and take your money, okay? There's not gonna be a bunch of greedy Jew bankers up in heaven, you know, taking all your money through usury. There's not moth, rust. There's not thieves that break through and steal and so we wanna lay up our treasure in heaven, okay? Not here on earth and that comes through taking the spiritual road. If you feel like you're slipping, read your Bible more. Go to church more. It's that simple but we need that daily reminder. Let's go some prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us the opportunity to not just be saved but also to serve you. I pray that any of us that are struggling or feeling like we're slipping that we would just be reminded of the importance of walking in your ways and committing ourselves unto your works and not necessarily getting focused on the things of this life but rather laying up treasure in heaven and I pray that we just keep serving you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, for our final song, we're gonna go to song number 140. It should be a familiar song to all of us. 140, We Have an Anchor. Song number 140. We Have an Anchor. We have an anchor that keeps the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll Fastened to the rock which cannot move Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love It is safely poured till the storm is dead The port is well secured by the Savior's hand Though the tempest rage and the wild winds blow Not an angry wave shall our mark or flow We have an anchor that keeps the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll Fastened to the rock which cannot move Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love When our eyes behold through the gathering night The city of gold, our harbor bright We shall anchor fast by the heavenly shore When the storms all pass forevermore We have an anchor that keeps the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll Fastened to the rock which cannot move Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love You are all dismissed.