A SINNER IN GOD'S COURTROOM
(ZECHARIAH 3:1-7)
INTRODUCTION:
1.
(Hebrews
9:27) states, "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face
judgment." Every person who walks the face of the
earth has two dates with destiny. First,
we have a DATE WITH DEATH, "Man
is destined to die once," (v.27). We are going to keep this
date with our body.
2.
But we
also have an APPOINTMENT WITH THE ALMIGHTY, "after that to face judgment" (v.27). We are going to keep this appointment
with our soul.
3.
One of
these days we are going to be standing in the supreme court of God. Have you ever wondered what it will be like
to stand in God's courtroom…
THIS
MORNING, WE HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF ACTUALLY GOING INTO GOD'S COURTROOM (KINDA
1.
This
drama is in the setting of a courtroom.
It is in the Supreme Court of the Universe. God is the Judge, Joshua, the High Priest, is
the defendant, and Satan is the prosecuting attorney.
2.
Satan
is bringing his case against Joshua before the Lord. We are told in (Zechariah 3:1) that Satan is standing at Joshua's
right hand opposing Joshua.
3.
Now
notice that Satan has an air-tight case against Joshua. He has the goods on Joshua. He is accusing him fairly. For we are told in
(v.3) that Joshua was indeed clothed with
filthy garments. Now, why wasn't Joshua
giving a defense? Why wasn't he saying
something in his own behalf? Well the
reason was because he had no defense.
Satan said to the Lord, "He's dirty." Well, he was dirty. Satan said to the Lord, "He is
guilty." He was guilty.
4.
Even
today, Satan is still an accuser.
The
Bible says in (Rev. 12:10), "Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven,
now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his
Christ have come: for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our
God day and night, has been cast down."
5.
Satan,
day and night, is standing before God accusing God's children. Satan not only loves to get us to sin, he
loves to point out our sin.
6.
When
Satan talks about God, he lies. But when
he talks to God about us he doesn't have to lie. He may oftentimes be telling the truth.
7.
Well in
this story, Satan was right. Joshua was
dirty, sinful and guilty. Satan knew it,
God knew it, and Joshua knew it.
8.
Many of
us today experience guilt…the piercing understanding that we are at times dirty,
sinful and guilty. We deal with Satan's
piercing accusations!
9.
So we
first see in the supreme court of God Satan standing around accusing God's
people of their sins.
II. SECOND, IN GOD'S COURTROOM, WE SEE THE GRACE
OF THE SAVIOR.
1.
Notice
that Joshua didn't say anything when Satan was accusing him…but the judge comes
to the rescue. It was the Lord who came
and rebuked the devil. "And the Lord said to Satan,'The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen
2.
There
is a wonderful lesson we need to learn here and it is this: God will never
defend His children's sins, but He will defend His children.
3.
If you
have ever read this story in Zechariah, have you ever wondered who is the
defense attorney in v.2 who comes to the aid of Joshua? Well, this is simply an Old Testament picture
of what we're taught in the New Testament.
In I John
2:2 we are told, "My little children, these things I
write to you that you may not sin, and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with
the father, Jesus Christ the righteous." The word advocate means
"lawyer." Do you know who this
defense attorney was who came to Joshua's rescue, to plead his case? None other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
4.
I want
to tell you something about our advocate.
He has never lost a case. Friend,
even Perry Mason can't say that. The
Bible says that "Jesus
ever liveth to make intercession for us."
That is, Jesus, day and night, pleads our case.
5.
But
notice very carefully, it was the Lord who defended Joshua. Joshua did not defend himself. Joshua did not rebuke the Devil. The Lord rebuked the Devil. I get amused at these so-called super saints
who talk as if Satan is a wimp or pushover.
They make it sound as if Satan has no power. Well, I want to say to you that we should
never overestimate the power of the Devil, nor should we ever underestimate the
power of the Devil. I would rather
overestimate the power of my enemy, than underestimate the power of my enemy.
6.
I'm
afraid many of us have been a poor judge of our enemy. We are never told in the Word of God to fight
the Devil. We're told to resist the
Devil, but never to fight him. The way
you resist the Devil is to let Jesus do the fighting. Even Michael, the
7.
We
can't fight Satan in our own power and we don't have to. We need to let our advocate do our talking
and do our fighting for us.
8.
Whenever
Satan wants to take your case to court you just let your advocate do all of the
talking. Your lawyer is plenty able to
close the case and to shut the mouth of your prosecutor. When Satan rebuked Joshua, Joshua had nothing
to say. But when God rebuked Satan,
Satan had nothing to say.
9.
Now you
would have expected a guilty sentence.
The evidence is there. Joshua is
Exhibit A. Yet, God says, "Not guilty."
His sentence was commuted. Oh, he
was guilty, but when his defense attorney raised those nail-pierced hands to
the judge and said, "In the name of my wounds, I command you as a
righteous judge, to set him free," three wonderful things happened:
A. He Was Cleansed
1.
In v.3 we are told that Joshua was clothed with filthy garments. "Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing
before the Angel." (v.3) Now that word filthy is a very poignant word
in the Hebrew language. It literally
means "to be covered with human
excrement." That is, these garments were not only dirty,
they were smelly. Sin is repulsive. It is obnoxious to a Holy God.
2.
Yet we
are told that the judge ordered these filthy garments removed. "Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him,
saying, 'Take away the filthy garments from him.'" (v.4a) Now why?
Was there new evidence? No. Had the law been changed? No. Well, perhaps the judge was crooked and had
accepted a bribe. But that is not true
because the judge is none other than God.
Well then, why was Joshua stripped freely of his filthy garments? There's only one explanation: the wonderful grace of God.
3.
It was
by God's marvelous grace, and God's sovereign choice, that Joshua was
cleansed. He said in v.2 that Joshua was a "brand
plucked from the fire." Joshua was burning up. His faith was sealed, and yet God in his
grace plucked him out of the fire. You
are not saved because you first chose God. You are saved because God first
chose you. If you have been cleansed by
the blood of the Lamb this morning, it is because of the grace of God.
B. He Was Clothed
1.
"And
to him He said, 'See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe
you with rich robes.'" (v.4b) These filthy garments not only needed to be removed, they needed
to be replaced. It is one thing to be
dirty; it's another thing to be naked.
Dirty garments are better than no garments at all. God reaches into his own closet and pulls out
one of his finest robes. Joshua went
from wearing his filthy garments to God's Sunday best.
2.
When
the Prodigal Son finally came to his senses and came home, he had been eating
with the pigs, living with the pigs, sleeping with the pigs; he looked like a
pig and he smelled like a pig. He was
ragged. He was dirty. He had become a bum and he looked like a
bum. But when he came trudging up his
father's driveway, and that father saw him, if you remember, the first words
the father said were, "Bring
out the best robe."
3.
Joshua
had been clothed in the robe of God's righteousness. The Bible says in Isa. 61:10,
"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.
My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the
garments of salvation. He has covered me
with the robe of righteousness."
4.
Joshua's
filthy rags represented his righteousness.
For the very best righteousness you have to offer God is filthy. Our righteousness is like filthy rags before
the Lord. God cannot accept your filthy
righteousness. He has to remove your
righteous rags and put on his righteous robe before He can accept you.
ILLUSTRATION:
Dr.
Harry Ironside told one time of a sheep ranch that he
visited down in
He
asked the sheep rancher, "What in the world is this?" The rancher smiled and said, "Preacher,
we had a little lamb to die and a mother sheep died. The lamb left a mother without a baby and the
mother died, which left the lamb without a mother. Well, we took the little lamb without a
mother and put it in the pen of the mother without the baby. But the mother didn't want this baby. She didn't want any part of it. She would lower her head and push it away.
Well,
some of the men here got the idea that if the mother thought that the little
lamb was really hers, she would adopt it and make it as her own. She would nurse it and raise it and solve the
whole problem.
So
they took the skin off of the little dead lamb and they put it around that
little orphan lamb. We tied it on and
that 's why you see four front feet, four back feet, and what looks like two
heads. When it was covered up with the
skin of that dead lamb we put it in the pen with the mother and she loved it
and cared for it. She accepted it
because it was clothed in the garments of her own."
5.
Ladies
and gentlemen, before you were saved you were an orphan sinner with no father and
no Savior, but robed in the righteousness of God, you have become accepted in
the beloved. That is why we can sing:
"Dressed in his righteousness alone Faultless to stand before the
throne."
C. He Was Crowned
1.
They put
on him a turban. "And I said, 'Let
them put a clean turban on his head.' So they put a clean turban on his head,
and they put the clothes on him. And the
Angel of the Lord stood by." (v.5)
That was the headpiece of the high priest. We are told in Ex. 38:26 that written on the
front of that headpiece were these words, "Holy to the Lord." Joshua was back in fellowship with God.
2.
Now
here is the point of the entire passage.
If God is for you, it does not matter who is against you. Rom. 8:33 says, "Who shall bring a
charge against God's elect. It is God
who justifies." When God brings his
gavel down and says, "Not guilty," it does not matter who says you
are.
III. THIRD, IN GOD’S COURTROOM, WE SEE THE GLORY
OF THE SAINT.
1.
Joshua
was not put on probation. He was put
back to work, put back to serving God.
Thank the Lord God does not hold a grudge. Joshua was received, reclaimed and
restored. Once again he enjoyed two
things he had lost through his sin:
A. Authority With God
1.
Then
the Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will
walk in My ways, And if you will keep My command, Then you shall also judge My
house, And likewise have charge of My courts;'" (vv.6-7) Joshua was told that if he would stay
pure and holy he could judge God's house and have charge of his courts. Now that is the job of the priest. That is his reason for being. That's what he is to do. You see, when Joshua was dirty he was not
only defiled, he was defused. He had
lost all authority. He had lost his
authority with God. When he lost
authority he lost his usefulness.
2.
You are
of no use to God unless you are exercising His divine authority in your
life. Many Christians are of no use to
God whatsoever because of sin in their life; they have lost their
authority. We are not to live in the
authority of the flesh, we are to live in the authority of the Holy
Spirit. Far too many Christians are
trying to function without unction.
ILLUSTRATION:
I
heard of a family that bought a little puppy and brought it home, and their six
year old son was so excited, he said, "I want to paint a sign and put it
in the yard so our neighborhood will know we have a dog." After he finished the sign he asked his
mother and father to come look at it, and the walked out into the yard. The dad looked at the sign and said to the
mother, "Somehow, beware of doggie, lacks authority."
3.
Well
that's what is wrong with many Christians today. They lack authority because they are laboring
under guilt, under sin, rather than under the forgiveness of God.
B. Access To God
1.
"I
will give you places to walk among these who stand here." (v.7b)
He had been given once again, access to the throne room of heaven. He had lost that access because of sin and
guilt. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear
me." (Psa. 66:18)
2.
The
heavens had turned to brass, the door of God's chambers had been closed shut
and locked. But when Joshua had received
God's forgiveness, the heavens became highways and God's door had swung open to
receive his prayer.
3.
You may
be a guilty sinner or a backslidden saint.
Either way you have an advocate in Heaven. This advocate will take any case. There is no case He will not take and no case
He cannot win.
4.
No
matter what you've done, whether you are saved or lost, if you will bring your
guilt and your sin to this great advocate, He will take your case, plead your
case, win your case, and commute your
sentence from death to life.
5.
This
court is different than any other court in history. Because in this court there are really no
attorneys. There is no jury. There is no case, and there is no
debate. There is simply a Judge and a
defendant. That is, unless you qualify
for a defense attorney. You see, not
everyone in this courtroom is guaranteed the right to legal counsel.
6.
But
there is something even stranger. If we
do qualify for a defense attorney, the defense attorney is none other than the
judge himself! Now that raises the
question, Will we qualify? Will the
judge serve as our defense attorney?
Well, that all depends on who we are and where we stand with the judge
before we enter the courtroom.
CONCLUSION:
1.
I hope
and pray that this lesson has been beneficial to you. If you have any needs, please come now as we
stand and sing.