In this episode of ‘Through the Bible,’ join Steve Schwetz and Greg Harris as they embark on a profound journey through the Old Testament book of Zechariah. Listen as they share inspiring stories from radio home groups worldwide and marvel at the transformative power of faith. Be moved by real-life testimonies from listeners in India whose lives have been changed by the gospel.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome to Through the Bible. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’m glad that you’re here as our five-year journey through God’s entire Word continues in the Old Testament book of Zechariah. So as you grab your Bible and turn it to chapter 3, Greg and I have some great stories to share from our home groups from around the world.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is a ministry I think you and I never get tired of enthusing about. Yeah, yeah. It’s just so fun.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and it’s so viral. I mean, we hear about it starting in various countries, and we set up some foundational teaching and instruction on how to do it and some leadership training. And the Lord just continues to bless it all over the world. And it always gives me joy whenever we’re able to go hear stories from India because that’s really the birth country of our home groups.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and we’re getting such quality, amazing responses. You want to read this first one?
SPEAKER 04 :
Sure. This is from a listener who joins us in the Manipuri language of northeast India. Yeah, so much more we could say there. Let me continue on. Before I gave my life to Christ, this letter starts, I was devoted to false worship. My father-in-law was a priest, so we lived a comfortable life. But after his passing, we began to experience poverty and face difficulties. To meet the family’s needs, my husband began traveling for jobs. He came back accepting Jesus Christ. He started teaching us the word of God. And finally, my children and I accepted Jesus. We began serving the Lord by making our house a place of worship for fellow believers and listening to God’s word together as a group with the media player. And that’s the reference to the radio home groups. Continuing to this day, we continue to live joyfully serving God together as a family.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, man. And like we have said a thousand times, we never get tired of watching God do things that are always validated in his word. You know, every response you and I run that through. Yes. Is this what the word says? These folks were transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. And it changed their life in practical ways, not just the eternal and spiritual ways.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. How about this next one?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, so this listener is in Telangana, India, which I’ll freely admit I don’t know where that is. I’d have to look it up. But listens to the Through the Bible Lombardi broadcast. Well, the programs. Excuse me. This is a home group. Yes. I came to know about Christ and accepted him. My real test of faith came when for the first seven years of our marriage, my wife and I had no children. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Around that time, I was introduced to the concept of Radio Home Group from your ministry. I felt encouraged to become a leader in my area. I received a kit and started a group with seven people, and we began to meet regularly to listen to God’s Word each week. Steve, you want to pick this amazing story?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. This listener continues. I am truly grateful to the Lord at a time when I was deeply discouraged and on the verge of despair. His word gave me strength and renewed my hope. One day as we were listening together through the media player, I heard a message about faith and prayer. It deeply touched me. From that day onward, I began to pray with a renewed dedication and consistent faith. I praise God for answered prayers. Recently, he blessed us with a child. God’s works are truly wonderful and awe-inspiring. Those who once mocked us are now witnessing the power of God and saying, truly, he is great. Glory to God. I continue to lead the Radio Home Group faithfully. The members of our group are regularly listening to God’s word, growing in spiritual understanding, and drawing closer to the Lord.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, as we just said, this tracks what’s in the scripture. This is like reading a story out of the Old Testament, isn’t it?
SPEAKER 04 :
Greg, we need to get to the study, so why don’t you pray for us as we begin?
SPEAKER 03 :
Father, we never get tired of watching your mighty hand move in people’s lives, and we pray that you’ll move in our lives as we study your word today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
SPEAKER 04 :
Here’s Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study of Zechariah 3 on Through the Bible.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, friends, we’re back in the third chapter of Zechariah, and we have here this vision of Joshua, the high priest, who’s standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan was standing at his right hand to resist him, to oppose him. Generally, the defense is there on the right hand, the one to support you and help you. But Satan’s not there for that purpose. He’s there to resist, there to make an accusation. And the Lord was the one that rebuked him. And the reason was, God says, the Lord hath chosen Jerusalem. Now, it’s true that Joshua was clothed with dirty clothes. And he needed to be cleaned up, not only on the outside, but probably on the end. But he is representative of the nation because God makes it clear, “…who hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee.” In other words, God is saying here that the accusation made against Joshua is he’s the representative of the nation. Now, you and I have an accuser of the brethren today because we are told, John writes and says, my little born ones, these things write I unto you that you sin not. And I wish we couldn’t, but I do. I don’t know about you. But if any man sinned, We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He’s the one that’s standing here. He’s the angel of the Lord. The Lord says, the Lord rebuke you. And why? Because this city as the capital of the nation is a brand that’s been plucked out of the fire. In other words, it looked as if that city could never be rebuilt after the Babylonian captivity, after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it. And for 70 years, it lies in dust and ashes. And then out of that dust and ashes, it’s rebuilt again, a brand plucked out of the burning, if you please. It was John Wesley. by the way, who you will recall, called himself a brand plucked out of the burning. And I’m of the opinion that many of us think of ourselves in that particular connection. I know as I look back, it seems to me like an accident that I got saved. It just didn’t seem that it could possibly happen. But it did happen. And I know now it was no accident at all. So that it can be said of most any sinner today, we’re a brand plucked out of the fire. Now, will you notice verse 3? It says, Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel. Now, there was one thing that the high priest was to be clothed. He was to be clothed with linen, fine twine, bisous, Egyptian white linen, and his undergarments were of this white linen, and over it were the garments of beauty and glory that were placed. Now, I take it here that he’s there just as a priest, but a high priest representing the nation But his garments that should have been clean, they are very much unclean. And it says that he’s clothed with filthy garments. Now, very frankly, friends, it’s worse than filthy. It actually means that there was excrement on him. There was the awful excrement of human beings. on him. He not only was dirty looking, but he smelled bad. You couldn’t be any worse than this man was. And actually, here he is with this excrement on the garments, and he’s dirty, he’s filthy, he smells bad. And that’s the way the sins of this nation look to God. How in the world can this be remedied, by the way? How is this man or this nation, or how is it possible for you and me to stand before Almighty God? Now, will you notice what he says here? And he answered and spoke unto those who 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 the change of raiment. Now here is without doubt one of the most beautiful pictures that we have in the Old Testament. And this man He just couldn’t stand before God, a righteous, holy God, with these dirty garments on. And it also revealed his weakness. You see that when he’s dirty and filthy as he was, it gave Satan a hold on him. It gave him an advantage because as the adversary, he could point his finger And my friend today, my feeling is that it’s not the sin of the lost world that is before God that is as terrible as the sin of believers. The devil doesn’t even mention the sins of the world. But he sure will be after you, my friend, if you as God’s child drop into sin. And that’s the reason it’s so tragic when a child of God drops into sin. It causes the world to become skeptical and cynical. You can’t blame them. And it gives the devil an advantage over the cause of Christ. And it means also that God can’t accept you, friends. You see, if you’re a child of God and get into sin… You’ve lost your fellowship. Now, you didn’t lose your salvation, but you sure lost your fellowship, and there can be no joy or blessing in your life. Now, what is going to happen here? Well, this is the thing that’s going to happen, and I’d like to change this just a little here. And I want to read verse 4 now. in a little different translation, “…and he answered and spoke unto those that stood before him, saying, Take the filthy garments from off him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with rich apparel.” Now, as I said, here is without doubt one of the most interesting pictures that you have in the Word of God. Here is actually the sin of a believer. This man is a priest before God. God appointed priest. Every believer today is a priest before God. But some of us are standing before God in dirty garments. Yes, but somebody says, I’m clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Yes, you are, if you’ve been saved. And that’s exactly the picture that’s given to us here. You see, the dirty garments must be removed from him, and then there must be put on him the clean garments. And these clean garments that are put on him represent the righteousness of Christ. Now, this is the picture of your salvation and mine today. And that’s one of the things that makes this such a precious passage of Scripture. By the way, let me turn to the third chapter of Romans. Having set before mankind in the first three chapters that man is a sinner before God. We all stand dirty before it. And our righteousness today is filthy rags. We stand like Joshua did. Yes, man is a sinner. Man’s clothed with filthy garments. What are we going to do? Well, here is what Paul says in Romans 3, 21. But now God has done something. Will you listen? A righteousness from God apart from the law is manifested today. being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. And it’s like a garment. It’s by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there’s no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified without a cause.” by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ. Why? Because he died, shed his blood, that it might be possible for you to come in our filthy rags to him. Our righteousness is that, even the best of us. And he takes that off. He’ll not accept it. And he clothes us with the righteousness of Christ that you and I might stand before God. Clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And when we stand like that, my friend, nobody, no created thing can bring any charge against God’s elect. Listen to Paul in 8, the Romans, verse 31. What shall we then say to these things? Yes, and what can you say to these things if God be for us? “‘Who can be against us? “‘He that spared not his own son.'” but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely, that is, without a cause, give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It’s God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It’s Christ that died, yea, rather, that’s risen again, who’s even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. We have a Savior today.” And when we trust him as our Savior, he not only takes from us our sins, removes the dirty garment, but he puts on us the robe of his righteousness. And no one can bring any charge against God’s elect. But wait a minute. Can God’s child get into sin? Yes. Then what is the child of God to do? Well, if we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us. That means you don’t go back into the mud. Cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And when you and I are out of fellowship with God, we’ve lost a great deal. We’ve lost all joy in our life. We’ve lost all power in our life. We have also lost, I think, our assurance I’m of the opinion that there’s many a person today lacks the assurance because of sin in their lives. And certainly, we’re not serviceable to him anymore. He’s not using us. You see, Joshua, if he’s to stand before God as God’s high priest, he must have on clean garments. And God provided those. How? By mercy. Because you see, there was a mercy seat there. And that mercy seat, as we’re told there in the third chapter of Romans again, that he is the propitiation for our sins. What is propitiation? Mercy seat. He’s the mercy seat for our sins. Now, if you have any objection to God choosing the nation Israel, He has. Are they attractive? No. He didn’t choose them for that reason. I think probably very unattractive. And you ought to know me, by the way. He certainly didn’t choose me. Ruth could ask a Boaz, why have I found grace in thine eyes? Well, I could tell her why she did. She’s beautiful. She has a wonderful reputation. And all I’d have to tell her, you go home and look in your mirror, sweetheart, and you’ll find out why he fell in love with you and why he’s extended grace to you. You’re lovely. Now, don’t tell me to look in the mirror. I’ve already done it. And what I see, sinner friends, May I say to you, I need to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Now, let me move on, because this is a tremendous chapter. and it has the interpretation for the nation Israel. But again, the application for us today is so beautiful. Verse 5, And I said, Let them set a clean turban upon his head. So they set a clean turban upon his head, and clothed him with garments, and the angel of the Lord stood by. Now, I think this is something that is just a little something that’s added that’s quite beautiful. Now, the garments of the high priest had included a turban that he was to wear. And on that turban, it was in Hebrew, holiness unto the Lord. And don’t you see that this man didn’t have a turban? Because he certainly knows dirty garments is not holiness unto the Lord. But this is just something added. holiness unto the Lord. The turban is given to him now, and it will have on it holiness unto the Lord. He’s going to be used of God now, just as this nation in the future, after the church is removed, will be the witnesses for God. And then in the millennium, they will be the priesthood, the entire nation of priesthood down here upon this earth, just as the church is a priesthood of believers today. Let me keep reading now. 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 those who stand by.” Now, I think the interpretation there is quite obvious. He says to Joshua, you’re dirty. He says to the nation Israel, you’re dirty. Now, I have a redemption. And that redemption will enable me to extend my grace and mercy to you. And I’m going to save you. Now, if you want to be used, though, you’re going to have to stay clean. You’re going to have to walk in my ways. You will have to be obedient unto me. Now, he’s not only saying it to Joshua, he’s saying it to this nation. He’s not only saying it to this nation, but he’s saying it to you and me today in the New Testament, is he not? That if you love me, keep my commandments, he says. If you want to enjoy and rejoice in the love of God. My friend, you’re going to have to be obedient to Christ. There’s no other way. This idea today that somehow or another, I’m saved by grace and I’ll do as I please. If you do as you please, you’re not saved by grace because that’s too inconsistent. They don’t go together. If you’ve been saved by grace, you’ll want to please him because he said, if you love me, and certainly you’re going to love the one who’s died to save you. And if you’ve really accepted Him and truly trusting Him, you’re resting upon Him. And if you’re resting upon Him, my friend, you’ll want to walk in His way. You’ll want to be obedient unto Him. You’ll want to do what He wants you to do. Couldn’t be any other way. Now, will you notice? Here now, verse 8, I’m reading, “…O Joshua the high priest…” Thou and thy fellows who sit before thee, for they are men wondered at. For behold, I will bring forth my servant the branch. Now, this is a figure and a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it’s a marvelous picture. And I take this as being the sixth vision that’s given to him here, because now this is altogether different. I will bring forth my servant the branch, and it’s a familiar figure of Christ, and I’m not going to take the time today to look up the many passages that we could look up, but this is a picture of of the one who came as the branch. And you will find that Isaiah spoke of the one who is the branch. You will remember that there would be a root out of the stem of Jesse, and that is the branch. And he is to be the king. He is to be the ruler. The branch sets him forth as the Savior. It sets him forth as the one who protects and keeps his own. And the branch represents him as the coming king to this earth. Now, he says, “…for behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua, upon one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the engraving of it, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” What we have here is the picture of Joshua, the high priest, and Satan before him. And the fact that the one who’s coming is the branch. He is the savior of the world. But not only that, The branch here is the stone, the stone that Daniel talked about, cut out without hands, and it has eyes in it, we’re told, seven eyes. Seven is not the number of perfection, but the number of completeness. He has complete knowledge, and eyes speak of wisdom and knowledge. The Lord Jesus Christ has been made unto us wisdom, because he is all wisdom, if you please. We have here For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua. Now we’re speaking of the second coming of Christ. The branch here and the stone represent the second coming of Christ to the earth. For he saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. Has that happened today? No, it certainly has not happened in our day. It is yet to happen. When the Lord Jesus comes, it’ll be removed in one day. And in that day, now that day is the day of the Lord. Saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree. In other words, they’ll be dwelling in peace. and enjoyment in that day. But that day has not yet come for them. What a picture that we have here and what a vision this man had. Now, next time, we’re going to see the golden lampstand and the two olive trees. There’s going to be plenty of oil because there’s no middleman, no filling station you have to go to. So until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, I love the connections that Dr. McGee is making between the Old Testament and the New Testament, don’t you? And why don’t you share these messages with a friend? You can do that by sharing our app or tell them about our website, ttb.org, or just have them call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you maybe find a local radio station to share with them or just give them the number to call to get some additional information themselves. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll save a seat on the Bible bus for you next time.
SPEAKER 02 :
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 04 :
Through the Bible exists to take God’s whole word to the whole world. And we invite you to stand with us with your faithful prayer and financial support. Where will God’s word go today?
