Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 205 Treasures From The Prophets - 3 To subscribe just send a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE FIRE Zechariah 3:1-7 MKJV And He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of Jehovah, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. (2) And Jehovah said to Satan, May Jehovah rebuke you, Satan! May even Jehovah who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked out of the fire? (3) Now Joshua was clothed with filthy clothes, and stood before the Angel. (4) And He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy clothes from him. And to him He said, Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with ceremonial robes. (5) And I said, Let them set a clean turban on his head. And they set a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the Angel of Jehovah stood by. (6) And the Angel of Jehovah charged Joshua, saying, (7) So says Jehovah of Hosts: If you will walk in My ways, and if you will keep My charge, then you shall also judge My house, and shall also keep My courts, and I will give you places to walk among these who stand by. This is one of my favorite Scriptures because it presents such a clear picture of the grace of God. 1. Even Joshua the High Priest is a sinner and a man beset with weakness. 2. All his righteous deeds are as filthy garments before the Angel of the Lord. 3. Satan opposes Joshua the representative of God and stands ready to accuse and to destroy. 4. God rebukes Satan and claims Joshua the High Priest as a brand plucked from the fire. 5. God takes away Joshua's iniquity and clothes him with robes of righteousness. 6. God bestows spiritual authority in the form of a crowning turban on Joshua. 7. Joshua is exhorted to walk in God's ways and lead a sanctified lifestyle. 8. Joshua is exhorted to keep God's charge and carry out his ministry. 9. If Joshua does this he will be given authority among God's people. 10. He will even be accepted and honored among the holy beings in the presence of God "among these who stand by". Joshua is not saved by his own good works - but by God's election, God's reaching in to the fire and plucking out this particular brand, and rescuing this particular sinner. All of us who are saved can say "God chose me, He reached down and took hold of me, why I do not know, but He loves me and has saved me." Now Joshua was the High Priest, and a good High Priest (unlike the corrupt Annas of Jesus' day) and yet even this man, who dwelt among holy things, was not able to claim his own merit before God. His deeds were insufficient, in fact they were iniquity, they are even called filthy garments. If such a holy man stands condemned, then how much more you and I. We simply cannot come to God on our own merits. Satan stands ready to accuse those who represent God. He is implacably opposed to the Lord's servants and makes war against them. Revelation 12:17 MKJV And the dragon was enraged over the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. But God and his mighty angels will have none of that nonsense. The Angel of the Lord rebukes Satan saying "the Lord rebuke you Satan". God will not listen to Satan's malicious lies and accusations against us: Romans 8:1-2 MKJV There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:33-34 MKJV Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God who justifies. (34) Who is he condemning? It is Christ who has died, but rather also who is raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. God brushes aside all the grounds of accusations and ignores the filthy garments, consigning them to the trash - and instead replacing them with fine clothes of dignity and authority. God is not unaware of our sin, but He has made provision for it, and knows what to do with it. He disposes of it. The person and the sin can be separated. For the born-again believer sin is like a filthy garment which can be taken off. Colossians 3:8-11 MKJV But now also put off all these things: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, shameful speech out of your mouth. (9) Do not lie to one another, having put off the old man with his deeds (10) and having put on the new, having been renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, (11) where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, foreigner, Scythian, slave or freeman, but Christ is all things in all. The new man, the Christ-person under the filthy garments, is the result of the saving work of God. In our deepest inmost Christian selves we are saints, holy ones. The best illustration I can give of this is the fact that if you were to shoot me right now, I would die, go to Heaven and have no further desire to sin. My desire to sin would vanish when my body died. It is located in my flesh, not in my spirit. That is why I can rejoice with the law of God in the inner man. Sin is actually an external intruder. It will not be part of us forever. That which is born of God, our new nature, cannot sin or even desire to sin because its nature is the same as God's nature. 1 John 3:9 MKJV Everyone who has been born of God does not commit sin, because His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. To clarify: I am not saying that born-again Christians do not sin - but rather that Christ within them does not sin. That which is born of God does not sin - and that which is born of God is my new nature. My old nature was "born of a woman" and not of God. Adam sins, Christ is sinless. The new nature is now hampered by the flesh but when perfectly expressed our new self, the born of God self, will not sin or even desire to sin. Thus sin is not intrinsic to Christians. It is not permanent, it is not truly us. It is the filthy rags we wear and will one day put off completely, though we certainly can put off some of those filthy garments even right now. (See Colossians passage above.) Now God does not just give Joshua a plain old white robe and that's all. Grace does not just take us from negative ten to zero.; to a sinless but ordinary state. Rather grace takes us all the way to glory, from the "guttermost to the uttermost" and seats us with Christ in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 2:4-7 MKJV But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us (5) (even when we were dead in sins) has made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved), (6) and has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, (7) so that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. God also trusts us and commissions us to do His work, and keep His house and take charge of His courts. He has deep intentions to make us princes in heaven, people who can be trusted with the very will of God and carry out His good pleasure. Ephesians 2:10 MKJV For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. Grace cleanses us from sin, grace declares us righteous, grace separates u from our sin, grace gives us new righteousness and honor and responsibility before God and grace calls us to good works for which we are rewarded with honor and authority in the heavenly realms in Christ! Glory be to God! Blessings, John Edmiston Were you blessed by Eternity Daily Bible Study? To subscribe just send a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org Visit the Eternity Daily Bible Study Archives - http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ Study at the Asian Internet Bible Institute- Free online non-formal, in-service, bible and ministry training: http://www.aibi.ph