Ezra #4: Reasons for an Incomplete Temple, Part 2 — Ed Miller

Another day to experience the infinite possibilities of our union with Him. Another day closer. Who knows? As we come to look at God's Word under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I remind my own heart, I remind you again of that principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable.

Total reliance upon the Holy Spirit. Helpless dependence. Child-likeness. There is no substitute for coming before the Lord empty, hungry, and just crying out, Lord, now dawn the Savior upon us. He delights to do that.

He wants to do that far more than we desire it. I want to read before we pray together the verse we began with at the beginning of our gathering. Ezra chapter 9 and verse 8,. Now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the Lord our God to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage.

Quite apart from anything we think that might mean, our prayer is that God will fulfill everything He's inspired it to mean. And so I'm going to ask you to bow with me again. We'll commit our time to Him and we'll look in His precious Word.

Our Heavenly Father, again this morning we pause deliberately. We bow before Thee and we praise Thee that You have given us the Holy Spirit, Your life in our hearts. We thank You that it is the delight of Your heart to reveal Your Son to us.

We know, Lord, there's no possibility apart from Your mercy and grace, apart from Your light, that we would ever behold in a living way, a transforming way, the Lord Jesus. But now we come and You've promised to meet us and feed us and find us where we are and take us where You desire to have us.

We wait now and ask You to minister the Lord Jesus to our hearts. Grant Thy life, we pray, to every brother. We pray that You would tie together all loose ends, accomplish Your full heart for us this morning.

Ezra’s Three Revivals and the Incomplete Temple

We ask in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Well, we come to our final look, not the end of the revelation, of course, but our little look at this wonderful book of Ezra and God's revelation of Himself in this wonderful book of Ezra.

It's the Lord's desire in this book to cause His people to live again. That's the word revival. That's what it means. To live again. And when we left off, our attention was on, as we've been looking all weekend, at the second revival.

The book of Ezra relates three revivals that took place in the last century. The second revival is in chapters 3 to 6. And we've been looking at those, the principles of that revival. The figure under which God describes this revival is the rebuilding of the temple.

Revival 1 is how to be free. His illustration is the decree of Cyrus, getting out of captivity. Revival 2 is how to go forward, how to build a temple, how to advance, how to grow, how to mature, how to give God His complete temple.

And the final revival is how to bear fruit from chapter 7 of Ezra all the way through chapter 10 of Nehemiah under the figure of the wall. God's desire to have a people right with Him and surrounded with the knowledge of God.

With that burden, He closes the Old Testament. We've been looking at this second revival. At this point in our little look, God's remnant, His escaped remnant, have been set free. They have returned to the city of peace from the city of confusion.

They have stood at the altar twice a day, every day, as death-deserving sinners. They have laid the foundation, but then something happened. And for 15 years, there was no building going on. And it's that that God addresses, so that His people can live again.

It's a terrible shame to taste of liberty and freedom. To stand at the altar and have entered into the finished work. To have a foundation. To have doctrine. And to stop along the way. And that's exactly what happened.

Chapter 4, verse 24. I think this, as I suggested, is one of the saddest verses in the whole book of Ezra. Then, actually, there's a sadder verse later on. When they make the vows in the effort of the flesh.

That's a sad one. Anyway, verse 24. Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia. They had such a good start.

Then the work stopped. And it stopped for those 15 years. Something happened that caused the work to stop. And that's what we've been looking at. What causes an incomplete temple? And what is God's perfect cure for everything that causes an incomplete temple?

Let me just get these verses before your heart again. And then we'll pick up where we left off. Ezra chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem.

In the name of the God of Israel prophesied they to them. Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Joshua the son of Josedach, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem. And with them were the prophets of God helping them.

And as I suggested, and you see it right here, chapter 5, 1 and 2. Something happened. They stopped building. Fifteen years went by. And then God initiated. And He opened the heavens. And He talked to His servants, the old prophet Haggai, the young prophet Zechariah.

And He gave them a word and they shared that word. And when they shared that word, though nothing had changed in their lives externally. Whatever it was that they saw. Whatever word God gave them caused the people to resume the building.

We need to hear that word. What is it that gets us going again? And then look at chapter 6, verse 14. And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo.

They built it and finished it according to the commandment of the God of Israel. According to the decree of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, the king of Persia. Under these two men, under these two servants of the Lord, Haggai and Zechariah, the work was not only resumed, but chapter 6, verse 14, the work was completed.

The work was finished. I was in the process of giving you at least four causes and God's wonderful, complete and perfect cures for those causes. If you read Ezra, you get the outside view. They had their reasons for stopping.

There are no legitimate reasons for having an incomplete temple. There are only rationalizations, only excuses. There are no reasons. God has made provision in our Lord Jesus to go forward in the heart knowledge of God in the Lord Jesus.

Last night we looked at the first real cause. See, what happened was in Ezra, if you read the history, Ezra gives us the outside view. He gives us the story. And this is, if you were to ask them, if you went to, in the book of Ezra and said, Why did you quit?

You started off so well. You're free. You've been to the altar. You have a foundation. Why did you quit? They would have said, for this reason and this reason and this reason and this reason. But God told His prophets, they don't even know why they quit.

And so God told His prophets, that's the real reason they quit. You go tell them, here's the solution. And when they heard the real reasons, they quit. See, their reason sounded so spiritual. We've got to submit to government that honors God.

We've got to take a rugged stand. It's not our fault they didn't like it. That they opposed us. That they came with force of our... It sounded so right. But God said, here's why you quit. And when they looked at that, they said, oh yeah.

And here's my answer to that. And as they embraced that, they went right back to building again. That's what we're in the process of looking at. Now last night we looked at the first cause illustrated by the command in Haggai 1 .8.

The command in Haggai 1 .8 is, go up to the mountains, get wood, rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and glorified, says the Lord of Hosts. The first cause of an incomplete temple is the absolute impossibility of living the Christian life.

Nothing was more impossible than that command. Go up to the mountain, get wood, build the temple. Right. 185 ,000 men working 20 years to build Solomon's Temple. And here are these, this little remnant that comes back unequipped.

They saw their own inadequacy. And once you see that you can't do it, and that God won't do it, unless God gives you His answer, you'll throw in the towel. You'll quit like they quit. And of course, what was God's glorious answer?

God’s Spirit Enables the Impossible

It was Zechariah chapter 4, verse 6. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. There's God's salvation. Himself. His life. His Spirit. I can't do it. He won't do it. But together. The plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.

The finger of God. My hand, His finger. His life through me. His life in you, through you. Oh, how His eyes rejoiced. The Bible says the seven eyes of God rejoiced when He saw the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.

When they learned it was by the Spirit of God. And you find any Christian who discovers that the Holy Spirit is living in them to live the Christian life. I tell you, they'll live again. They'll live again.

Without that knowledge, they're going to quit. Without that knowledge, the temple will not be built. But that knowledge brings life. And brings liberty. Alright, that's the first thing. Now, as I suggested last night, I left myself a big assignment.

So let's begin. We're looking at the four causes of an incomplete temple. The four real causes. Not what it looks like on the outside. Not what it looks like to these eyes. But what God sees. And what God addresses.

And what God exposes. And what God reveals. And that first one, God showed that it was an impossibility to obey God. And His Spirit, His indwelling Spirit, was the answer to that. Now let me give you the next cause for an incomplete temple.

Discouragement, Fear, and Insurmountable Obstacles

I called attention in our discussion in one of the messages yesterday to the verbs that are used in Ezra chapter 4, verses 4 and 5. The word discouragement. The word fear. The word frustration. The things that came into the lives of the remnant caused them to get discouraged.

That's why they quit. Caused them to get frustrated. That's why they quit. Caused them to be afraid. That's why they quit. As you know, there's a thousand and one things in life that can get a person discouraged.

A thousand and one things in life that can make a person afraid. A thousand and one things in life that can make a person get frustrated. Now in Ezra, the details are a little different than they might be in your life.

You probably never met a Samaritan. In their case, the Samaritans came in and opposed them. In Ezra chapter 4, verse 5, we see that they actually hired professionals to daily frustrate the plans of the Jews.

And not just for a couple of weeks or months, but for years. People were paid to ruin your life. You probably never had that. Somebody probably never. Maybe some of you do. That was their frustration.

Opposition. You read the record. Opposition. Intimidation. Accusation. Misrepresentation. Threats. Physical force. All of these things came against the remnant as insurmountable obstacles in their life.

As I said, the details differ. Your Samaritan may not be my Samaritan. But I promise you, you have Samaritans. You may never actually, literally, have an edict written against you that came straight out of the Oval Office.

They did. That's the thing they faced. You may never have someone hire somebody to mess up your life. And that's their full-time job. Just to ruin you. That's what happened there. Soldiers may never actually threaten to decapitate you.

However, I have fears in the direction our country's going that might come. But the principles are ever the same. There are things that discourage the people of God. There are things that cause the people of God to get afraid.

There are things that frustrate the people of God. Neighbors. Kids. Family. Co-workers. Bosses. Elders. Christian friends. Teammates. Unreasonable employers. All kinds of things. Discouragement. Fear.

Frustration. Intimidation. Misrepresentation. High pressure. Force. Like the poor, these things are always with you. These things are always with me. We're going to call the second thing that causes an incomplete temple.

You can name it whatever you want. I'm just trying to get some handle on it. Just insurmountable obstacle. Is there a cure? For all these things that so discourage and frustrate us. I want you to turn to Zechariah 4, please.

This is the same vision of the golden lamp stand. That great vision that the flame was supplied with that wonderful supply of golden oil flowing through the servants of the Lord, the olive trees and so on.

For my inadequacy, I have the Holy Spirit. No need to stop building. The impossible is possible now. Look at Zechariah 4, verse 7. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.

He shall bring forth the topstone with shoutings of grace. Grace unto it. In Zechariah's vision, God gave him a word to describe all of the stuff that was coming against the remnant, the escaped remnant in the book of Ezra.

And the word was mountain. You read that verse again, and you'll see that that word mountain is picturing that insurmountable obstacle that stands in the way. That circumstance that kept them from completing the temple.

Like a mountain in front of them. That mountain makes many quit. If you look at verse 7, it's not only a mountain, but it's called a great mountain. Great mountain. A great mountain in your way that can frighten you.

That can discourage you. That can frustrate you. That thing gets in the way, and it looks so unscalable. So impassable. And once again, we all have our great mountains. And your great mountain may not be my great mountain.

The great mountain is the thing, whatever it is. Doesn't matter, that's incidental. It's that thing that gets me discouraged. Gets me frustrated. And makes me want to quit. That's what the great mountain is.

You say, Satan's a great mountain. Yeah, he sure is. Indwelling sin is a great mountain. Certainly it is. Small resources. Personal weakness. Relentless, chronic, unchanging circumstances. The enemies of the gospel.

Great mountain. Legalism. The terrors and the allurements of this present evil world. So many great mountains. I love to relate chapter 4, verse 7. Oh, great mountain. To chapter 4, 10. The day of small things.

Don't despise the day of small things. Say, what a contrast. I'm so little, and in front of me is this great mountain. As a child, we used to sing a chorus. I don't really remember all the words of it.

But there was part of it. So high, can't get over it. So wide, can't get around it. So low, can't get under it. Something like that. I forgot the song. But I'll tell you, that's what the great mountain is.

It's something that comes up in your life, and you can't get over it. Something that comes up in your life, and you say, I just can't get through it. Something that comes up in your life, you say, I can't get around it.

There's another song. It wasn't spiritual. It wasn't religious. It's one of those songs that goes on and on and on and on. Like, row, row, row your boat, and a thousand cartons of milk on the wall. We're Christians.

We sing it the other way. The bear went over the mountain. You ever hear that song? The bear went over the mountain. The bear went over the mountain. And what do you think he saw? Saw another mountain.

Saw another mountain. Saw another mountain. And what do you think he did? Climbed the other mountain. Climbed the other mountain. And what do you think he saw? Saw another mountain, and so on and so on.

You see, that's fun when you're a little kid singing that. But when you're living a Christian life, and there's a mountain, great mountain. It gets you discouraged, and it gets you afraid. It gets you frustrated.

It just seems like you get over it, and you see another mountain. So you go up that, and after a while, there's another mountain, and another one. I'll tell you, the bear gets tired. And the bear gets discouraged.

And sometime, he lays it all down. He says, that great mountain, I can't deal with that. It's too much. That's the experience, brothers, of thousands of Christians, one mountain after another. And after a while, they just cry, Uncle.

God saw that. See, they didn't pray, Lord, show us the real hindrance of a complete temple. No, God was patient. He waited 15 years, and then He says, they need to see this. I'm going to talk to My servants.

I'm going to talk to My old servant. I'm going to talk to My young servant. And they're going to go back and share it. And so they came back, and they shared it. Verse 7 again. Who art thou, O great mountain?

Before Zerubbabel, thou shalt become a plain. Before I give God's great solution, let me just make a couple of observations about that. You say, there's this great mountain that makes me discouraged and makes me afraid, makes me frustrated.

And it's right in front of me, and it hinders the building of the temple. God promises it will become a plain. It will become leveled. Does that mean that the Lord promises every circumstance that towers in front of me as a mountain is going to be flattened, is going to be leveled?

If my great mountain is a physical sickness, is God saying that I'm going to be healed? It's what it looks like. The mountain will become a plain. If that mountain is a financial problem, is God promising that I'm going to hit the lottery?

That would be a miracle. I don't buy tickets. Is that what God's promising? Is He guaranteeing you're not going to go bankrupt? That mountain will become a plain. If your mountain is some unsaved loved one, or some person that's nagging in your life, or some unreasonable person that's causing you grief, God says the mountain will become a plain.

God will level that. You see, you must always see the principle in terms of the context. The context of Zechariah is the incomplete temple. Is God promising to level every mountain? No, what He's promising to do is to level every mountain that hinders the completion of the temple.

That's not quite the same thing. Any mountain that stands in the way, any circumstance, any obstacle that challenges your progress in the Lord will be leveled. There is no circumstance, brother, nothing that can come into your life, if we see God's solution, that can hinder your progress in the Lord.

Let me state the principle in terms of the context. I think what He's saying is this, that mountain, that block, that obstacle, that seemingly insurmountable thing that stands in the way is no longer an obstacle.

I think that's His point. It may still be a mountain, but it's no longer an obstacle. It's now a plain, level ground. In other words, it's as easy to get past that mountain as it is to walk down the street.

It's level ground. By God's miracle, there is nothing that can hinder, no circumstance, that can hinder my progress in the Lord. He will bring forth, verse 7, the topstone. What is that? I have one commentary who absolutely missed God's heart on this.

He said, the temple doesn't have a topstone. An ark has a topstone. A pyramid has a topstone. Temple has a cornerstone, but doesn't have a topstone. That brother not only missed the boat, he missed the ocean.

Absolutely missed God's heart on this. The topstone is a metaphor for the final stone, the finished stone. God says you're going to bring forth the topstone. It's going to be completed. It's going to be a finished work.

No mountain is going to hinder that. Look at God's cure for that seemingly insurmountable obstacle. Here's a mountain in the way. I'm discouraged. Here's a mountain. I'm afraid. Here's a mountain. It causes me to be frustrated.

The word frustrated in the dictionary is when it seems like there's no hope. When that thing keeps coming, it's so frustrating. It just seems like there's no hope. Look at the end of that verse. What art thou?

Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain. He shall bring forth the topstone with shoutings of grace, grace to it. There it is. For my inadequacy, I have His Spirit. For everything that stands in the way, I have His grace.

What an answer! I tell you, when you lay hold of that, in reality, you're going to live again. When you lay hold of that grace of God, it's sufficient. It's enough. It's adequate. You're going to go back and say, there is hope.

I don't have to be frustrated. I don't have to be discouraged. And the way he words it, the Hebrew, in order to get a point across, would repeat it. Grace. Grace. What follows grace? You see, as you go through the Bible, you're going to see expressions like strength to strength, and faith to faith, and glory to glory.

That's their way of saying ad infinitum, forever. Faith to faith. Trust the Lord. Faith. Say, what follows faith? Faith follows faith. And then what follows that? Faith. Faith to faith to faith. And you're going from glory to glory.

What follows glory? Glory. And what follows that? More glory. And what follows that? Glory. And you're moving from strength to strength. And what follows strength? Strength. And after that, what? Strength.

More strength. You know that verse in Isaiah, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. The Hebrew doesn't say perfect peace. That's an English translation. It doesn't say that.

It says peace. Peace. Thou wilt keep him in peace. Peace. Whose mind is stayed on thee. What follows peace? Peace. And what follows that? You trust the Lord. It's just peace. Peace. And glory. Glory. And grace.

Grace. And faith. Faith. And strength. Strength. And that's what He says. I have a solution. You say, oh, I'm getting so discouraged with this mountain. Before's a rubble. Who are you, O great mountain?

Before's a rubble. You'll become a plain. Brothers, there's nothing deep here. This whole weekend, what are we talking about? The Holy Spirit lives in your life. It's the grace of God. You've heard that.

When that insurmountable thing comes into your life, and it will, when you get discouraged and don't think you won't, you will. And when you get afraid and don't think that's not coming to you because you have a relationship with Jesus, you're going to become afraid.

You are. And don't think you're not going to be frustrated and think there's no hope. You will. And at that time, may God bring it to your mind again. That thing will not get in the way of my going forward with the Lord.

Shoutings of grace, grace. Paul's thorn did not go away, but it ceased to be an obstacle in the completing of the temple. And you know why? Because God came to him as he came to Zechariah, and he learned, my grace is sufficient.

I know we could go row to row and give testimony. He said, yeah, I remember, boy, I was stopped dead in my track. This thing came into my life, and I got so discouraged, and I was ready to throw in the towel.

Then I tasted the grace of the Lord, and I got through that impossible thing. So wide you can't get around it. I got around it. Got through it. But grace has brought you safe thus far, and grace will take you home.

The top stone. With shoutings of grace, grace. What's man's part in all this? You just shout. Shoutings of grace, grace. That means just receive the grace. Just be open to the grace of God. I pray that God will remind you of this when that mountain comes.

Cleansing from Condemnation

All right, what's the third cause of an incomplete temple? Boy, we've got to move on here. You see, God wouldn't have told us this if it weren't true. He wouldn't have come and given this great revelation if they didn't need it.

If you would have come to Ezra and you asked them, is this the thing that's bothering you? They would say, no way. That's not one of my problems. I'm going to ask you to turn to Zechariah 3, please. I wonder if some brother or maybe a couple of you would read the first ten verses.

Read it nice and loud so we can all hear it. Just the first ten verses of this chapter. Zechariah 3.

Joshua the high priest, Satan standing at his right, and the Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuked you, Satan. Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuked you. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel.

And he spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, Remove the filthy garments from me. Again he said to him, See, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and will clothe you with festal robes.

Then I said, Let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of the Lord was standing by. And 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 perform my service, then you will also govern my house and also have charge of my courts.

And I will grant you free access among these who are standing here. Now listen, Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who are sitting in front of you. Indeed, they are men who are a symbol. For behold, I am going to bring in my servant, the branch.

And for behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua. On one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of the land in one day.

In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and under his victory. Thank you very much.

Remember in our introduction lesson, or one of the lessons, I tried to show you from Ezra chapter 4 that there was a hint of this spiritual reality. They wouldn't have known it back then. But there was this hint that the enemy brought an accusation against them.

And to make it stand, they had to go several hundred years into the history and dig up what they used to be. And they dug it all up and they held that forth and brought them under condemnation. Well, now the prophet picks this up.

As I said, if it wasn't a problem, if it wasn't a real issue, God wouldn't have spoken on this. This really caused a problem. This is why they stopped building the temple. Even though they might have denied it.

Brothers, you've come far enough in the Lord to have tasted this already. I don't have to stand here and tell you that the enemy loves to condemn. Nothing would please the enemy of your soul and my soul more than that you lived under condemnation.

And that you lived under a cloud. And that you were on a guilt trip all of the time. And that you always felt unworthy and dirty and vile and unclean before God. God doesn't want His remnant to live in condemnation because of past sin.

Even though they might not have admitted it, He saw that as a problem. So He did again what He had done. We looked at it yesterday with Joshua the high priest. And in this vision, the high priest who represents the holiest of the people.

Who represents the Lord Himself and stands as a representative of every person in the remnant. They needed a revelation from God on how thoroughly they had been cleansed. I tell you, if you don't know, you're clean.

If you haven't seen yourself as God sees you, after a while you'll quit. You've got to see yourself thoroughly cleansed or else it hinders the building of the temple. Now this is a marvelous vision. It begins in verse 3 with their high priest dressed in filthy garments.

And it ends in verse 4 and 5 with the same priest dressed in festal garments. Festal robes. It's a court scene. It's a court scene in heaven. It's a vision of being in court. The accused was in court standing before the bar.

Joshua, the representative of the priesthood. And he was there. He was accused. Chapter 3, verse 1, the prosecuting attorney was there. Satan, accusing. Chapter 3, verse 7, the jury was there. Those standing by.

Chapter 3, verse 1, the defense attorney was there. The angel of the Lord. This is a marvelous picture. The judge was there on the bench. The Lord of hosts. And the prosecuting attorney comes and he makes his charge.

And he looks at Joshua, the guilty, standing there in his dirty garments. And he says, this man is filthy. And he deserves to be thrown into the fire. That was the charge. And I'll tell you, that object lesson was so important because very often, Christians who haven't understood how thoroughly forgiven they are, how clean they are, they get discouraged and they say, I am nothing.

I am so dirty. I'm so vile. I deserve to be thrown into the fire. How could God ever use anybody like me? How could God ever care about anybody like me? And so they give up. They say, why did you quit?

Man, you don't know what I've done. God can't use me now. I messed up, man. I ruined His name. Ruined His reputation. Ruined His cause. I got entangled in this thing and that thing. I embarrassed my family.

I embarrassed the Lord. I embarrassed the church. It's all over for me. I still love the Lord. But it's all over for me. I blew it. Or if you knew the coldness of my heart, if you knew the thoughts that come through my mind, I'm just a hypocrite.

I sing with the people of God.

I gather with the people of God. But I've got lusts. I've got foul thoughts.

Dirty things come into my head. I'm so dirty. You don't understand. I'm just a big hypocrite. I know He loved me. I know He died for me. But I'm a mess. ...attitude. That picture of yourself, when a Christian is living under condemnation, I'll tell you, he doesn't need a pep talk.

And he doesn't need someone giving him self-esteem and trying to build him up. He doesn't need a psychologist at that point. And he certainly doesn't need some kind of pill to balance his chemicals. I'll tell you what he needs.

He needs the revelation that God gave to His servant Zechariah to go give to the people of God. I've actually met Christians who think it's spiritual to go around feeling guilty. They actually think that's a spiritual thing.

I'll tell you, it is not humility to live in condemnation. It's unbelief to live in condemnation. It's not humility. What is God's cure? I'll tell you. For my inadequacy, the cure is the Holy Spirit, His life.

I can't, He won't, but together we can. God's cure for every problem that comes into my life, His grace. His grace. What is His cure for my defilement, for my guilt, for my sin? I'll tell you, I need the finished work and I need to see myself as God sees me.

I want to show you this vision again from God's viewpoint because it ends up with the seven eyes. The whole idea has to do with God's viewpoint. Don't read verse 3, la, la, la. He's clothed in dirty garments.

You know, the Hebrew is very much stronger than the English. Some of these words we're almost afraid to translate. Like in Isaiah 64 and 6, your righteousness is filthy rags. You know the Hebrew there, don't you?

Your righteousness is like menstrual garments. That's the Hebrew there. Strong. In the Hebrew in verse 3, Unger translates it, excrement covered garments. That's how He was clothed. In the Hebrew, you just say, well, that's a terrible thing to look at.

That's not the Hebrew nuance in that word. Is it a terrible thing to look at a man clothed in excrement covered garments? Sure, that's a terrible thing to look at. But it's a terrible thing to smell. That is the Hebrew idea here.

That He is clothed in those garments. If I stood before you, dressed the way Joshua appeared in that vision, if I looked as he looked and smelled as he smelled, I'd clear this room. You wouldn't stay here.

If I smelled like Joshua smelled in that vision, if I looked like Joshua looked in that vision, and Satan loves to call attention to that, and in the sensitive mind and the heart of someone who is sensitive to the Lord, when Satan accuses and you look at your heart, and you look at your life, and you look in the mirror, and Satan says, you stink!

Your heart says, I know I do. I know I do. I do stink. Look at you, the way you're dressed. You are so vile and so foul. And then we start believing that stuff. Because it's true. We look that way and we smell that way.

But we need to see our advocate rise up as the angel of the Lord rose up. Verse 4, I've taken your iniquity away. I will clothe you with festal garments. So they put a clean turban on his head, clothed him with garments, while the angel of the Lord stood by.

What a vision this! He didn't wash the old garments. He dumped them. Put on this new festal robe, royal robes, silk and satin and rich linen. In this vision, the high priest has a part. What's his part?

He just stands there. He didn't offer a defense. He didn't resist the accusation. He didn't deny it. He didn't try to argue his case. He didn't beg for mercy. He didn't even undress himself. He was undressed.