SNATCHED FROM THE FIRE

 

Is this not a brand plucked from the fire? (Zechariah 3:2b)

This is one of my favorite pictures of salvation portrayed in the Old Testament.  It was how John Wesley described the preservation of his life and ultimately of his soul.

Wesley was about six years old, when a fire broke out in his house, and he was stranded in an upper room of the burning building.  Two neighbors barely got him out before the roof caved in and John would have died in the flames.  He would later refer to himself as, “a brand plucked out of the fire.”

John and his brother Charles became great evangelists.  From them the Methodist church began.    John never forgot how God saved him and saw it as an illustration of the sinner’s rescue from the flames of hell.  The result has been untold multitudes won to Christ from this Gospel ministry.

Let’s examine this text that a grateful John Wesley loved so dearly.  Then, it ought to be that gratitude to God will rise in us also, and though we may never have the impact Wesley had, we can be moved by God’s deliverance of us, to a desire to see others snatched from the fire.

This text paints a picture of REBUKING (Zech.3:1-2a).  Joshua as High Priest was a representative of the nation of Israel.  Satan stands there, pointing an accusing finger and levels the charges against him.  But, God rebukes Satan and makes provision for Joshua—and thus, by extension to all those whom God has chosen.  Our sins are hidden under the blood of Christ!  So, when Satan begins to try to dredge up the dirt of our past, and name our sins, just say, “What sins are you talking about?  They are gone, old Devil!  May the Lord rebuke you!”  The Accuser has no answer to that.

Our text also provides a portrait of RESCUING (Zech.3:2b).  We are a dry limb that is engulfed in flames, about to be consumed, snatched from the fire.  Hell would have been our final destination—the Lake of Fire our everlasting place of torment—had not God reached out the hand of grace and saved us!  Every child of God can take John Wesley’s self-description as his or her own.  I am a burning stick snatched from the fire!

Then Zechariah also paints from his palette of truth a word about REMOVING (Zech.3:3-4a).  Joshua stood there, dressed in filthy robes, defiled and disqualified from entering the presence of the Lord.  That was the spiritual condition of the nation—soiled by sin.  It is also an accurate description of any who are outside of salvation.  God has removed the filthy robe I was wearing.  He has bathed me in Christ’s cleansing fountain—washed in the blood of the Lamb. 

On the Biblical canvas, we also see a portrayal of ROBING (Zech.3:4b-5).  If our soiled attire was removed that is good, but not good enough!  We are moreover clothed in the righteous robe of Christ!  On Heaven’s golden streets, we will stroll among those dressed in white linen.

The final word picture is one of RESIDING (Zec.3:6-7).  God invites Joshua in.  He is given access to God’s courts, and by implication to abide in the presence of the Almighty.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) That way is open.  The truth is clearly presented.  The life is offered.  Have you been snatched from the fire?

SHADOW OR SUBSTANCE?

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.  (Hebrews 10:1)

Imagine you are returning from a long trip.  It’s been two weeks since you have seen your spouse.  As the plane taxis down the runway, you feel the anticipation beginning to build.  You exit the plane and coming down the ramp, you see a shadow from the terminal—you would recognize that shadow anywhere—it is the shape of your mate—and your heart races at the prospect of holding them in your arms again.  Now, I ask you, would you fall down and kiss the shadow?  Would you try to hug the shadow?  It holds the promise of something real, but of itself it cannot satisfy the longing of your heart.  Yet, there were Hebrews who were trying to embrace the shadow and exclude the Savior. 

When the writer of Hebrews spoke of the law in 10:1-4, he echoed Paul’s words in Colossians 2:17, where he spoke of the Mosaic rituals and regulations as, “a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”  

God is utterly holy and unless we meet His perfect standard we cannot be accepted by Him.  No matter how religious we are or how much ritual we observe, we cannot do enough—our sins are still with us, and those sins will condemn us.  The blood of animals being sacrificed cannot blot out our sins!  The Old Covenant pointed people to the Savior but could not provide their salvation.  Then, how were the Old Testament saints saved?  The same as you—by faith—but their faith had to look for a Savior to come, while ours looks back at One who has come.  

Sin haunts the conscience—guilt being the ghost.  Our conscience feels guilt in the same way our body feels pain—it is a warning system.  The thousands and thousands of bloody sacrifices offered could never take away sin.  In fact, they were a reminder of the sin and its penalty of death!  It remained for Jesus to take away sin.  Twice it is stressed in Hebrews 10:5-10 how Jesus came to do His Father’s will.  The shadow has been forever replaced by its substance!  The Old Testament offerings gave a promise of salvation, but couldn’t provide it.  It made demands for holiness but couldn’t deliver it.  In Jesus we are made sanctified—that’s how God views us now!

The cross is the symbol of our faith—it is central in our message.  I read of a chapel where the arch was engraved with the words, “We Preach Christ Crucified.”  Another generation was repulsed by this and focused on the example of His life—not the efficacy of His death.  They allowed ivy to grow over a portion of the inscription and all you could read was, “We Preach Christ.”  The next generation was even more liberal, the ivy covered more and it only read, “We Preach.”  That is what the church has done today—even among evangelicals

There were many priests with much activity and they never sat down because they never were done.  But, One Man—Jesus—offered one sacrifice, once and for all, and sat down—mission accomplished (Heb.10:11-14)!  We have a New Covenant (v.15-18) that made us righteous positionally—in Christ; progressively—Christ in us; one day perfectly—with Christ and like Him forever!

Don’t trade the substance for the shadow!

THE REQUEST OF REDEMPTION

 

And he said, "Who are you?" So she answered, "I am Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing, for you are a close relative."  (Ruth 3:9)

Every religious system tries to present a path to reach its deity—some means of self-effort that can make a person acceptable to whomever or whatever they believe that deity to be.  Christianity is the one radical exception—for it says God has taken the path to reach humanity.  He has provided in Christ the way to be accepted—not through what we do, but what He has done!  This is the great story of redemption, and it is illustrated in the third chapter of Ruth.  Ruth’s redemption was totally dependent on a man from Bethlehem—and that is true for us!

This chapter is the turning point in this drama.  Ruth had known about Boaz, and now she will come to know him personally.  While our redemption requires knowing Christ is the Savior that is not enough.  We must come to know Him as our Savior.  Ruth was aided by Naomi—the matchmaker (v.1-5).  She told Ruth how a girl with a pagan past could enter into a wondrous future with Boaz.  God still uses people like us who know the Man from Bethlehem—Jesus Christ—to introduce others to Him.

Naomi’s guidance for Ruth was grounded in the Word of God (Lev.25:47-55; 27:9-25).  The Law provided for a kinsman-redeemer, and that is the truth that will form the basis of this new relationship.  God uses His Word as the seed of salvation, sown in the fertile soil of a soul that the Spirit has cultivated to bring forth the fruit of eternal life.  That is the power of the Gospel (Rom.1:16; 10:13-17).

Her relationship with Boaz is a private act before it becomes a public announcement (v.6-10).  Ruth responded in faith to the Word.  The testimony of Naomi is accepted and she comes personally to seek Boaz.  She comes to a worthy man, though Ruth herself is so unworthy, for she is helpless to change her situation, but knows Boaz can if he will.  If we would be saved, it is when we enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  His response is one of love.  It is amazing grace for a man like that to embrace a wretch like her—and that is the story of our Savior’s love for us! 

It is not sufficient for Boaz to love her—as wondrous as that is.  The demands of the law must also be satisfied (v.11-18).  Boaz will be her kinsman-redeemer, meeting the legal demands she could never fulfill.  That is what Jesus did for us on the cross!  He assures Ruth of the redemption she has sought.  We are reminded that Jesus promised, “The one who comes to Me, I will by no means cast out.”  (John 6:37) 

It would be 2000 years later that what was foreshadowed in Bethlehem would be fulfilled in the same city.  That dark night when a redeemer was revealed to a needy soul prefigured the arrival on another silent night in that little town One who would be our Kinsman-Redeemer!  Through Him and Him alone can the legal demands of righteousness and the loving desire of redemption become available in the Man who was born in Bethlehem—one of us and yet more than we are!  Fully God and fully man—Jesus is our Redeemer who reconciles unworthy sinners and Holy God.  All we need to do is ask Him and He will save us!

SACRIFICE AND SALVATION

“This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never come.’”  (Numbers 19:2)

There is no salvation apart from the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  His death on the cross was unneeded if there were any other way we could be saved.  The horror Jesus went through—what would be God’s complicity in allowing it and Jesus’ futility in submitting to it—is nothing but a tragedy, if by some other means even one person could obtain entrance to heaven.  That can never be!  We receive salvation as a gift based on the work of Christ on the cross or we will die in our sins—hell bound and hopeless.

That message is underlined in red throughout the Old Testament.  In the many sacrifices and shedding of blood, God was saying to Israel that the way of salvation would be the way of sacrifice.  It isn’t that those offerings could cleanse from sin—they had no power to do so.  Rather it was by faith in the sacrifice yet to come that they—and we—could be saved.  The difference is that their saving faith had to look forward to the finished work of Christ, while our faith can rest in what He has already accomplished.  The repeated offerings under the Old Testament were an object lesson to communicate this truth.  The particular sacrifice in view today is that of the red heifer.  This red heifer symbolizes God’s supreme Servant—the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was a SPOTLESS SACRIFICE (v.1-2).  The red heifer had to be examined, and found to be without flaw, it was qualified to become a sacrifice.  From His supernatural conception, by the work of the Holy Spirit within the womb of the virgin—which meant He was born without a sinful nature, as all other descendants of Adam possess—and in His sterling compliance to the word of the Holy Scriptures—which meant He lived a sinless life, which no other human has done—He was examined and found to be without defect, fully qualified to be the sacrifice.

It was a SUBMISSIVE SACRIFICE (v.2b).  No yoke had ever rested on the red heifer’s neck.  The yoke symbolizes a breaking of a stubborn animal’s will, but in Christ there was instead a willing submission.  He did not need to be forced into a mission He wished to avoid.  It was voluntary devotion to death.

It was a SEPARATED SACRIFICE (v.3).  The red heifer was slain outside the camp.  That was the place of excommunication and symbolized how Jesus would be taken beyond the city walls of Jerusalem to die on Calvary.  There He would suffer the worst separation, cut off from His Father as He endured hell for sinners.

It was a SATISFACTORY SACRIFICE (v.4-22).  The blood was sprinkled seven times—the number of completion.  The ashes were stored up as a memorial—a perpetual reminder of the work accomplished.  Christ would cry from the cross, “It is finished!”  God’s justice was satisfied, and we can now be justified by trusting in Jesus.  Rest in Him—salvation is by His grace alone.  Full and final cleansing is ours at the cross!

ATONEMENT

This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.” (Leviticus 16:34a)

Yom Kippur—it is the Hebrew term for the Day of Atonement.  The root of the word, “atonement,” is “to cover,” and is first found in Scripture when Noah was told to build the ark of gopherwood, and place “pitch” inside and out (Gen.6:14).  No matter how well Noah tried to fit the wood together, there would be some holes through which water would come—and that would prove deadly.  The pitch waterproofed the vessel, covering the holes.  We all have flaws in our character—holes in our conduct—and are subject to sink in sin and experience God’s just condemnation.  We may try to put our life together, but are sunk unless a covering—an atonement—is made.  Thank God, this is what He has done through the work of His Son!  Christ has accomplished the atonement for us by His cross.  Someone has described atonement this way: “at-one-ment,” that is, we who were separated from Holy God by our sin have been made, “at one,” with Him though Christ!

The events of Yom Kippur serve as a divine demonstration of Christ’s atoning sacrifice.  Yom Kippur is set in the context of the wrath of God that had been poured out on Nadab and Abihu (16:1).  They had polluted the priesthood and perished as God’s punishment.  Aaron would suffer the same fate should he dare to enter behind the veil of the tabernacle, into the Holy of holies, sinner that he was.  The glory of God was there in the cloud above the mercy seat, and any sinner would wither before such purity.  The mercy seat would be that in name only unless someone brought the blood to sprinkle it there and make atonement for the nation’s sins!  The choice was to experience that place as a judgment throne or a mercy seat—and the difference would be the blood!  God established the terms by which He might be approached and still does. 

This is what Jesus did for us through His atoning blood, shed on Skull Hill!  According to God’s decree this is the only way to enter His glory and be accepted by Him.  Whereas the blood of the sin offering in the Old Testament dispensation could only secure a once a year entrance by only one man—and he must offer sacrifice for his own sin—the blood of Christ is so potent as to give us continual access—that blood of the New Testament offered by One who was Himself without sin.  The sin offering was not needful for Him; it was essential for us.  It is enough—gloriously sufficient for all people of all time who receive that precious gift by faith.  The throne of judgment is transformed into the mercy seat by the blood of Christ.  This was signified when Christ finished His sacrifice on the cross, and God reached down from heaven, took that massive Temple veil in His hands and ripped it from top to bottom.  The Holy of holies was opened once for all.  Atonement was made!  Sinners can come to Holy God without fear (see Matt.27:50-51; Heb.9:1-28).  So we celebrate such amazing grace and plenteous mercy as we sing:

Jesus paid it all,

All to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain—

He washed it white as snow.

GOD WITH US

And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.  (Exodus 25:8)

There is a place where God meets with us.  In the Old Testament Era, His glory was seen in the cloud that resided over and within the tabernacle (later replaced by the temple); in the New Testament dispensation that glory was seen in the Son of God.  John wrote, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)  In the Greek text, this literally translates, “and ‘tabernacled’ among us.”  The tabernacle is a type of Christ—rich in symbolism.  The writer of Hebrews affirms this in chapters 8-10—that the tabernacle is “the copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (8: 5a).  In that ancient meeting place with God, there is the shadow of which Jesus is the substance.

We should grasp THE PURPOSE OF THE TABERNACLE.  Its purpose was to be a place of worship and witness.  The tabernacle was an elaborate tent, which went with the congregation wherever they traveled and pitched in the heart of the camp when they rested.  This underscores that worship is to be central and consistent for the people of God.  The tabernacle was a testimony to the presence of God among the people.  Since it could not be entered without a sacrifice being offered, it was a witness to the holiness of God and sinfulness of man—as well as to the need for the shedding of blood to make atonement for man to approach the Lord.  That is why Jesus came—God made flesh—to reconcile Holy God to sinful man by His blood shed on the cross.

We can see THE PREVIEWS IN THE TABERNACLE.  The tabernacle was a temporary tent—later replaced by the solid construction of a temple meant to endure.  Thus, Jesus “tabernacled” among us for less than four decades.  The tabernacle speaks of the first advent of Christ and the temple to His second coming.  The tabernacle was a movable structure—never resting in place for long.  We certainly see Jesus on the march in the gospel accounts.  The tabernacle from the outside was a tent—and not even an ornate one—very plain.  One reason Israel had difficulty recognizing their Messiah was His humble appearance.  The tabernacle on the inside was a different matter.  Within the veil dwelt the glory of God.  Likewise, within the simple Carpenter resided the God’s glory—and three disciples got a peak on the Mountain of Transfiguration (see Matt.17:1-7).  The tabernacle, as previously mentioned, was the place of sacrifice, where forgiveness of sins was secured.  Only in Christ and His sacrifice can we be saved—the blood of the New Covenant fulfilling what the blood of the Old Covenant foreshadowed.  The tabernacle contained the Ark of the Covenant and the Ark contained the two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments.  Christ fulfilled that law in His perfect obedience.

Further, we note THE PATTERN OF THE TABERNACLE.  You entered the tabernacle by first offering a sacrifice on the altar of burnt offering, then washed in the bronze laver, entered the Holy Place where the table of showbread, the gold lampstand, and altar of incense were found, and then inside the veil to the Holy of Holies and the ark.  We are taught that God is only approached by sacrifice, cleansing, intercession and invitation—through the blood of the Lamb of God—Jesus Christ (John 1:29).

THE ANGEL AND THE AGONY

Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.  And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. (Luke 22:43-44a)

The Gospels reveal a close connection between the mission of Jesus and the ministry of angels.  Before His birth, the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would miraculously conceive the Son of God.  Joseph—betrothed to her—only believed it when  the angel explained it.  At His birth, a host of angels flooded Bethlehem’s skies proclaiming the event to shepherds.  Later, wicked King Herod got wind of it and moved to kill the Child and an angel warned Joseph and Mary to escape to Egypt.  Likewise, when Herod died, and the threat removed, the angel told the holy family it was time to return.  Jesus went into the wilderness at the outset of His ministry to do battle with the Devil, and we read how angels attended Him after the conflict.  At His resurrection, an angel rolled away the stone, sat on it, and declared to the good news to the disciples.  One other occasion of angelic ministry to the Son of God is that found in Luke 22, as Jesus prays in agony in Gethsemane.

An angel came to offer Christ HELP.  Jesus fell on His face under the old olive trees, pressed to the point of being crushed by the load of humanity’s sins that He is taking upon Himself.  Human help fails, as the disciples snore rather than support Him.  One of them is coming with a bloodthirsty mob to betray Him.  Heavenly help arrives even as human help abandons Him.  Soon, Jesus will be forsaken by all—even by His Father—as He hangs on the cross, but that time has not yet come and until then He has this celestial being to aid Him.  On Golgotha, He will experience Hell for us and be without comfort; preceding that, in Gethsemane, He receives a last comfort from Heaven, brought by the angel.  Doubtless, as He prayed, Christ offered praise for angels that had attended to Him throughout His earthly sojourn.  His heart must have raced with joy in the midst of this cosmic sorrow, that when His mission was accomplished, He would be welcomed into glory by angels.  He looked beyond the cross to the crown—returning to reign in power and glory, leading angel armies as reward for His obedience unto death (Phil.2:5-11).

Yet, this was also a reminder of Christ’s HUMILIATION.  We marvel that the Creator was helped by a creature, until we recall that the Son of God has become the Son of Man.  He was fully God and merited the service of angels, but also totally man and needed the support of them.  When He was born, there was a host of angels, but now only one.  They lit up the skies at His arrival in Bethlehem, but this one is present while the darkness only deepens.  The skies were filled with angels singing in joy at His birth, and if there were a song in the olive grove it would have been a dirge for His death.  The angel was not there to take His suffering from Him, but to strengthen Him to suffer even more.  The agony in Gethsemane was so great that He might have died then had not the angel attended Him.  Never forget that this great suffering would be for you and me—paying our sin debt—so angels can care for us as saints, rather than condemn us as sinners!  Hallelujah!  What a Savior!

SAVED BY GRACE

 

“But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”  (Acts 15:11)

How can we know that we have eternal life?  If there is a God (and all creation testifies to that), and if we must one day give an account to Him (and our conscience testifies to that), then there is no more crucial question.  Every religion tries to provide an answer to how to be accepted by whatever deity—or deities—into whatever destiny they portray heaven to be.  Though there is this similarity in all: you must do something to earn the god or gods approval, there is also so much different in them all that they cannot all be just different roads to the same end.  That can’t be—they exclude one another because of their religious systems—and you don’t end up with the same god or the same afterlife in them.  One faith stands out unique from all the rest.  It teaches that we cannot get to God, so He has come to us.  This Way isn’t in keeping precepts and earning the right into a happy eternity, but is in knowing a Person who gives you the right into Heaven’s bliss!  That Way, of course, is the One who did not merely show a way, but said, “I am the Way;” who did not just teach the truth, but said, “I am the Truth;” who did not only offer eternal life, but claimed, “I am the Life”—and that is Jesus Christ (John 14:6)

There are—and have always been—those who would distort and dilute that message, by adding additional requirements to faith in Christ.  Early on, the proponents of Judaism wanted to make Christianity into a Jewish sect.  Their teaching might be summarized this way, “Sure, you must believe in Jesus, but you must also follow Moses.”  They wanted to merge the Old Covenant with the New, instead of seeing that the Old was fulfilled in the New Covenant.  It was an issue that had to be met head on—and the early church did in the first Church Council recorded in Acts 15.  Gentiles had been converted by faith in Christ alone—and now there were those demanding that Jewish institutions be accepted before Gentile inclusion was approved for these former pagans. The church could promote legalism or liberty—but not both.

The Jesus plus crowd is still with us.  They say:

• believe in Jesus, plus Mary;
• believe in Jesus, plus keep the Sabbath on Saturday;
• believe in Jesus, plus be baptized;
• believe in Jesus, plus work like a beaver to keep yourself saved.

When Jesus said, “It is finished!” on Calvary—He meant that!  All that was required was to look to Him in faith—and we will be saved.  Some say, that’s too easy—you are giving people a license to sin.  No! Liberty isn’t license.  The church also warned the new converts that the New Covenant made us a new creation and this would lead not only to Heaven, but to holiness (Acts 15:19-21).  Idolatry and immorality that marked paganism would be set aside—not as a requirement of salvation, but as a result of it!  The decision produced great celebration (v.22-31) and an open door to world evangelization (v.32-41).  Amazing grace—how sweet the sound—that still saves wretches like us!