TITLE: ONE FILTHY RAG TALKING TO ANOTHER FILTHY RAG
SCRIPTURE: ISAIAH 64:6 / ROMANS 3:10 / ROMANS 3:23 / ZECHARIAH 3:1-4
The title of this morning’s message came from a rather exciting and spirit filled Bible Study we had here at ‘First Church’ a few weeks ago. Rev. Finley actually threw out the thought and it set the Bible Study hour and my spirit ablaze. If you are not attending our Bible Study, you are missing a true blessing and a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow in God’s Word.
This text for examination helps us understand all of us are in pretty bad shape as it pertains to believers. The Apostle Paul is rather blunt when he writes to us as a reminder - “NONE IS RIGHTEOUS, NO NOT ONE.”
• Talk about redundant
• We see three negatives in this short section of Scripture
NONE, NO, AND NOT. This is a complete universal declaration against humanity. There is not one single person who is righteous. REVELATION 5:2-3 “AND I SAW A STRONG ANGEL PROCLAIMING WITH A LOUD VOICE, WHO IS WORTHY TO OPEN THE BOOK, AND TO LOOSE THE SEALS THEREOF? AND NO MAN IN HEAVEN, NOR IN EARTH, NEITHER UNDER THE EARTH, WAS ABLE TO OPEN THE BOOK, NEITHER TO LOOK THEREON.”
• Everyone on the planet and there is not a single one that is righteous
• I am not righteous
• You are not righteous
• Your children are not righteous
• The Pope is not righteous
• No one
• The only person who walked the planet that was righteous was Jesus
• Him and him alone
This is why Jesus in ST. LUKE 18:19 when Jesus was called good teacher responds by saying, “WHY DO YOU CALL ME GOOD? NO ONE IS GOOD EXCEPT GOD ALONE.”
• Only God is good, and who is Jesus?
• He is the Son of God, therefore, he is God
• Jesus was not denying his goodness, he was pointing to the reality that he is the righteousness of God revealed
• That no one is good except Him alone
The truth that no one is good is a truth that few people hold. Most of the world sees themselves as good. If you want to test this theory, just go out and ask people if they are going to go to Heaven. A vast majority of the people you talk with will say ‘Yes.’ When you ask them, why do they think so, they will say something about their goodness. They believe that God will reward them for being good. And they are right, if they were good, if they were righteous, God would reward them by allowing them into his presence. But the problem is that no one is righteous, no not one. They fail to see their wickedness, and therefore fail to see their need for Jesus.
• Good people don’t make it into the Kingdom of God
• Saved people do!
Let me park here for a moment - You cannot be saved by your good works, because no matter how hard you try, your “Good” is not good enough for the perfectly holy and completely righteous God who alone grants salvation.
• Nor can you be saved by your moral perfection
• No matter how moral or how perfect you are
• Consider with me what PETER said -- I PETER 4:18-19 “AND IF THE RIGHTEOUS SCARCELY BE SAVED, WHERE SHALL THE UNGODLY AND THE SINNER APPEAR?”
• We only make it into heaven by Jesus' perfect effort and perfect payment on the cross for all of our sin
As the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah points out, your righteousness is about as good as a “Filthy Rag.” The point is, both our acts of righteousness, and the quality of righteousness that we hope they produce, are disgusting to God. So if you are disgusted by Isaiah’s language, think of how God, who inspired Isaiah to choose those coarse words, is repulsed by our efforts to get him to save us.
• We are just One Filthy Rag Talking to Another Filthy Rag
• We are not all that we think we are
• We need to stop trying to act Holier than Thou
• One Filthy Rag Talking to Another Filthy Rag
So what hope, then, is there for our salvation? After all, we do like to sing that Old Spiritual – “None But The Righteous Shall See God.”
• Well, frankly, no hope resides within us
• None whatsoever
• EPHESIANS 2:1 “AS FOR YOU, YOU WERE DEAD IN YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS AND SINS”
• That’s how hopeless we are apart from God’s work to save us
• That’s why the songwriter said – MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS, THAN JESUS BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
• I can’t place my hope in the Pastor
• I can’t place my hope on being Baptist
• I can’t place my hope on my Church Attendance
Our righteousness — and let’s be clear, we do have to be righteous to be acceptable to God — which comes from Christ alone. And here’s how that is possible -
• God sent his Son to die on the cross
• To hang there as our sin, in order to pay the just punishment for sin that we deserved
• That is our only hope, that Jesus became sin — our sin — and in so doing, He likewise became our righteousness
• II CORINTHIANS 5:21 “GOD MADE HIM WHO HAD NO SIN TO BE SIN FOR US, SO THAT IN HIM WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD”
I don’t want to be too hard on us this morning or leaving us thinking, well…why try to live right.
• All of us occasionally do what is right
• A few predominantly do what is right
• But do any of us always do what is right?
• Let that land and settle right there for a moment
According to Paul we don’t! Some beg to differ. I’m not perfect, but I’m better than most. However, most is not the comparison. God’s way is a narrow winding path up a steep hill. At the top of the hill is a cross! It is only there we find our Righteousness. ST. MATTHEW 7:13 “ENTER YE IN AT THE STRAIT GATE: FOR WIDE IS THE GATE, AND BROAD IS THE WAY, THAT LEADETH TO DESTRUCTION, AND MANY THERE BE WHICH GO IN THEREAT.” Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world in that He was appointed before the world was ever created.
• He is the "Woman's Seed"
• He is Abel's lamb
• He is Noah's ark
• He is Abraham's sacrifice
• He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah
• He is the Passover lamb
• He is the rock from which the water of life flows
• He is the bread and the manna on which we feed
• He is the tabernacle
• He is the altar
• He is the mercy-seat where we meet with and find acceptance with God on the basis of Christ's blood
• He is the Great High Priest who stands in our place
• He is able to Wash and Cleanse our Filthy Rags
That righteousness is the standard of judgment for all mankind -- at the judgment, sinners will not be compared with other sinners. They will be compared with Christ, and all who come short are sinners, and the WAGES OF SIN IS STILL DEATH. We must have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and justice, or we will perish.
• We cannot produce it
• God the Holy Spirit cannot produce it through us
• God sent Christ to produce it
• We must receive it by faith, by trusting that He has met all the conditions and that His righteousness is all we need as to the ground of salvation
I believe this is what we are to understand from our reading from the book of Zechariah. “NOW JOSHUA WAS CLOTHED WITH FILTHY GARMENTS, AND STOOD BEFORE THE ANGEL. AND HE ANSWERED AND SPAKE UNTO THOSE THAT 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 CHANGE OF RAIMENT.”
The world places a great amount of emphasis on outward appearance, often neglecting their inner spiritual heart condition. People often choose to either adorn themselves with the latest and greatest fashions or choose to dress down themselves in different attire. Both are taking outer appearance to the extreme in worldly fashion and neither are necessarily honoring to God. Joshua, in this OT text, was clothed in filthy garments before the angel. Does this mean he took on the grungy look common to many in a younger mindset geared to the world’s popular opinion and fashion trends? No, Joshua’s filthy garments were an inner indication of a spiritual blight, not first and foremost an issue with His outer attire.
The Lord is intimately concerned about our inner heart condition, more so than our outward presentation. However, both the inner heart condition and the outer shell of the Christian life are important.
• One involves our honest presentation before the Lord
• The other is how the Christian is viewed by others, as he navigates through the world
• The inner state of a man’s heart can be vastly different than how he chooses to present himself to those around him
• But the Lord always knows the true condition of our heart
Let’s make sure we appreciate the imagery of this portion of our text. We cannot be certain of the attire of the king of Israel or that of a common servant, but we do have a detailed description of the clothing worn by the high priest. Scripture goes into great lengths to describe the artistically woven garments he would wear whenever serving around the Temple. How beautiful and majestic the Priests garments were.
• It must have been quite a shock to Zechariah when he saw a vision of Joshua the high priest clothed in filthy garments
• I am sure the words of the Prophet Isaiah came to mind -- “BUT WE ARE ALL LIKE AN UNCLEAN THING, AND ALL OUR RIGHTEOUSNESSES ARE LIKE FILTHY RAGS…”
The dirty clothes on Joshua, the high priest, were a picture of his sin. They revealed that even his best attempts at righteousness fell short of the perfection, required to access the presence of God. We all can relate to this; we are just One Filthy Rag Talking To Another Filthy Rag. The Apostle Paul said it like this -- ROMANS 7:18-25 “FOR I KNOW THAT IN ME (THAT IS, IN MY FLESH,) DWELLETH NO GOOD THING: FOR TO WILL IS PRESENT WITH ME; BUT HOW TO PERFORM THAT WHICH IS GOOD I FIND NOT. FOR THE GOOD THAT I WOULD I DO NOT: BUT THE EVIL WHICH I WOULD NOT, THAT I DO. NOW IF I DO THAT I WOULD NOT, IT IS NO MORE I THAT DO IT, BUT SIN THAT DWELLETH IN ME. I FIND THEN A LAW, THAT, WHEN I WOULD DO GOOD, EVIL IS PRESENT WITH ME. FOR I DELIGHT IN THE LAW OF GOD AFTER THE INWARD MAN: BUT I SEE ANOTHER LAW IN MY MEMBERS, WARRING AGAINST THE LAW OF MY MIND, AND BRINGING ME INTO CAPTIVITY TO THE LAW OF SIN WHICH IS IN MY MEMBERS. O WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM! WHO SHALL DELIVER ME FROM THE BODY OF THIS DEATH? I THANK GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD. SO THEN WITH THE MIND I MYSELF SERVE THE LAW OF GOD; BUT WITH THE FLESH THE LAW OF SIN.”
My brothers and sisters, everyone in here has one thing in common -- we are all messed up! Underneath the hat - the suit - the make-up – that Sunday outfit, the Sunday Morning “I’m Blessed” cliché we are all messed up. No, not everyone may suffer with smoking – drinking - gambling -lying - laying around with one another, however, we are all struggling with sin! Paul said, “when I try to do good evil is always present.” Despite the front you are putting on right now, everyone from the preacher to the prostitute has suffered from the can’t help its. Oh, but is there anybody here that is glad we serve a God who regardless to what we have done or how are we have walked away from Him, He has a pre-ordained plan for those He loves.
• Aren’t you glad this morning that Jesus has a way of showing up
• Aren’t you glad this morning that the Holy Spirit can keep you
• Aren’t you glad this morning we serve a Forgiving God
• Aren’t you glad this morning we serve a God that is more than able
It was at this moment that Zechariah witnessed one of the most glorious events in all of Scripture. When the High Priest, Joshua was found in filthy garments and the devil making accusations against him.
• Note with me that Jesus never said the devil was lying about the Preacher
• Everything the devil said against the Priest was true
• Devil was making accusations as Joshua stood before the Lord to make it into the Heavenly Kingdom and the devil said ‘this Joshua is just ONE FILTY RAG TALKING TO ANOTHER FILTHY RAG”
Jesus silenced the accusing tongue of Satan, then He replaced Joshua’s filthy garments with robes of righteousness, and finally He declared that this was done as a sign. All of us have fallen short of the standard required to enter heaven, or to have fellowship with God.
--One sin was enough to remove Adam and Eve from the garden, and we are guilty of too many to count
--The glorious truth of the cross is that we can have our sins replaced with His righteousness, and be clothed with garments that give us access to the throne room of heaven
--No matter how big, small, or often, we have sinned, the only solution for having it removed is Christ
--He alone can replace our filthy garments with His robes of righteousness
--We are just One Filthy Rag Talking to Another Filthy Rag
--But, thanks be to God, just like Joshua the High Priest, we too have Hope
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
