Chapter 4: THE FAIR MITRE
Chapter 4: THE FAIR MITRE
“And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
“Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
“And he answered and spoke 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.
“And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by. 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 these that stand by.”--- Zec 3:1-7.
I WANT TO talk to you today about that fair mitre. When these words were written, Israel had just come back from captivity, and the whole land was under the process of reconstruction. The people had come back to find their city a mass of blackened ruins; the walls were down, their houses in desolation, and the holy and beautiful house where they had worshipped God in the days of the past was a heap of ashes. They commenced to reconstruct.
The walls sprang up under their deft touch; their houses were rebuilt; the altar was re-erected; and the temple rose again upon its site.
But one sad thought came upon all the people: of what use was it to have the holy and beautiful temple if the priesthood were not fit to exercise their office? They were notoriously unfit. Malachi tells us, what Zachariah confirms, that the priests were greedy, avaricious, and corrupt in life, totally unworthy to come into the most holy place, or stand before God.
Whilst they reconstructed the temple, they needed to reconstruct the priesthood, and in the chapter which we have read, we have the account of the reconstruction of the priesthood. Step by step the filthy garments are taken away, the white robe or surplice is donned, and the priest stands again erect before God, complete, with the exception of the white fillet or mitre. And Zachariah was so anxious about it that he cried out, in the anxiety of his soul, “Let them set a fair mitre upon his head.” “So they set a fair mitre upon his head.” If Zachariah was so eager for it; how much more Zachariah’s Lord! And when they were so eager in the Old Testament, how much more eager ought we to be in the New, if, as I hope to show you in a moment, the white fair mitre represents the filling, the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
I ought to explain for a moment that I am not straining a point in applying this chapter to ourselves, because, though we do not believe in any order of priesthood, we believe that Jesus Christ has constituted every believer a priest unto God. The power that loosed thee from thy sins, believer, at the same moment constituted thee a priest. (Rev 1:6.) We need no human priests, because Jesus Christ has assumed the office of High Priest. And just as the stars retire before the coming sunlight swimming into invisibility in the glowing dawn, so do all human priests recede when Jesus steps to the front as our High Priest. At the same time each believer, man or woman, is a priest. We are called upon to offer spiritual sacrifices, to offer ourselves, to offer our money, our time, our gifts, our position and power, so that every day we stand between God and man. We come into God’s presence to speak for man, and we come out of God’s presence to speak to man for God.
Are you exercising your office? Have you been to that altar lately? Have you offered yourself, spirit, soul, and body, to Christ? Have you recently used the laver to wash your feet? Do you know the daily cleansing which keeps the heart clean? Have you entered into the holy place to offer the incense of intercessory prayer? Have you kindled your daily profession, as the priests kindled the branched candlestick? Do you know what it is to eat the shew-bread which is the priest’s alone, the body of Christ? Do you ever enter into the most holy place, and stand there with the blood in your hand, worshipping?
Ah! believer, it is long since you have exercised your priestly office! You must confess that you have not gone to that priestly work, because there was a consciousness of unfitness.
That unfitness must be dealt with. God will not put the fair mitre upon a body clothed with filthy garments. God is not going to give the holy influence of Pentecost to men and women who are living unclean and inconsistent lives. There must be a putting away of the sins of the flesh, the putting away of everything which is inconsistent with the light of God; and only so, step by step, can you come up to the point where the fair mitre will be put on your brow.
These are the steps I want you to take with me: to consider the filthy garments; the need of fair, rich apparel; the fact that much of your life has been wasted like a brand half burned through; and then the fact that Satan resists you. We must deal with these four things for a moment. I want to bend my strength upon that fair mitre.
There must be the removal of the filthy garments.
I am not sure that Joshua saw how filthy they were until he came near the angel. The light from the angel’s face fell on his garments and revealed their stains. The garment always stands for habit or dress. We are dealing now with our daily habits. It is remarkable how people change their dress when the sun begins to shine in March and April. We wear shabby things in the winter. We say t does not matter much what we wear; who sees? tie light is so obscure. But as the spring breaks we put off the shabby dress and put on the spring attire. So it is when we stand beneath the light that streams from the Sun of Righteousness; we see a great many shabby things in. our lives, and God calls upon us to drop them without discussion or delay.
We do not grow out of them, but we drop them. We do not gradually recede from them, but we put them off. It is remarkable that in Peter’s Epistle, Colossians, and Ephesians, the apostles tell us to put Of suddenly the habit of sin. You will not grow out of your anger, you must put it off. You will not grow out of your envy and jealousy, you must put them off. You will not grow out of your impurity, you must put it off. As when a prisoner comes forth to freedom he puts off the prison-clothes, so you must not wait to grow out of evil things, but must put them off by a distinct and instantaneous act of your will.
I trust that, by the grace and Spirit of God, you will take step by step with me as I proceed. I am not trying merely to explain a thing to you. I am giving you an opportunity of taking up a position; and I want you to ask, in the light of God’s Spirit, if there is any habit of thought or life, or any habitual indulgence in which you are condemned, which always arises before you at a holy time, such as the Lord’s Supper, in private prayer, or in the chamber of sickness; and if at this minute any such thing is revealed to you, I bid you put it off.
Have you ever studied the life of the evergreen? All through the dark winter it retains its dead, dull leaves; they are better than nothing. But just so soon as the new shoot of spring comes, it presses off the old leaves, and they drop away to be replaced by the new.
So in your heart today there is a shoot of new Christ-life, which is pressing against the old leaves, the old habits, the old methods of life. Let them drop off! Shed these old leaves just now! Go out of this place leaving the grave clothes behind you. Do you think that Martha and Mary expected Lazarus to grow out of his grave clothes? They ‘would have been greatly astonished if he had tried to do so. Supposing he had said: “I shall drop them presently, you will excuse me now,” would they not have shrank even from the brother whom they devotedly loved? Have you donned the rich apparel?
Having put off the filthy garments, have you donned the rich apparel? There must be a positive, as well as a negative. You must put on the Lord Jesus. Indeed you put .off best when you put on.
You remember the story of St. Augustine. After he was converted and had a little faith, he tells us that an evil woman, with whom he had sinned before his conversion, still clung to him, and made him stumble arm fall. He was trying to live for God, with the new robes on, and yet to retain some of the grave clothes too. This brought him into great agony.
One afternoon he was with his friend Alypus in the garden at Tagaste, when a voice seemed to say to him: “Tolle et lege, take and read.”
He thought that meant that he was to take up the New Testament and read it, and as he took it in his hands it opened at the closing verse of Rom 13:1-14:
“Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” It struck him as God’s message, “put ye on the Lord Jesus”, and he sent to his friend Alypus, pointed to the text, and told him he was troubled, and they went and told his mother, Monica. The result was that he put on the perfect chastity of Christ, became saint and Bishop of Hippo. The evil habit dropped off him, and everybody recognized the Christ in St. Augustine.
Whilst Joshua stood there, Satan was resisting him. But now there comes another point. Whilst Joshua stood there, Satan was resisting him. Directly you get a great blessing, the devil is sure to tempt you and to resist you.
When I was a boy, my school-fellows never broke into an orchard when the apples were sour, but always when they were ripe and juicy; and yon might know that a certain orchard contained good fruit by the raids the boys made on it. Whenever you are acrid and sour, and haven’t much sun in you, the devil will not worry you; there is nothing in you worth his attack. But just so soon as you have been in the summering of Christ’s love and got ripe, you will suffer being tempted day and night; there will be SOMETHING WORTH THE STEALING.
The nearer you get to Christ the more you will have to-do with temptation. The closer you get into the heart of the fight the more the devil will torment you. People are sometimes heard to say, “I think I must be going back in Christian life, I am so tempted.” But the virulence of the temptation means, not that you are declining into sin, but that you are advancing in holiness; that the devil is afraid of you; that as he cannot get at Christ directly, he desires to wound Christ by hurting you.
Think how Satan accuses believers! When they sing he says, “Christ, dost Thou hear those people sing? Is that all the love they have? See how they express it with such icy songs!” When they were in prayer, may he not have truly said, “Look at those professing Christians! Is that the best prayer they can offer, with their wandering and wayward thoughts?” And do you not think he says of many a preacher, “Is that Thy chosen messenger? Canst Thou not find one purer in motive and fitter in heart and life than he?”
But whatever the devil says against believers is a greater argument with Christ for helping them. He takes everything the devil says and turns it into a reason for doing more for them than ever. The devil says:
"That man is only a piece of smoking brand, nearly burnt through. He is an old man now who has wasted his life. He may as well be cast back into the fire. There is so little sound wood left.”
But Christ replies: “Though there is only a square inch of sound wood, it is the more necessary why I should make the most of what is left.”
Satan says again: “Look at that man! He is a broken reed. He has been trampled under foot until he is out of shape. He is not worth Thy care, Son of God. Let him drift away down stream.”
But Christ replies: “I know he is a piece of broken reed; but that is the more reason why I should take him, and with my creative hand make a flute or organ pipe from which to get sweet music in the great orchestra of my church.”
The devil says: “Look at that woman, as fitful as a piece of smoking flax! Look at the spark as it goes and comes, and comes and goes again! Blow on it! Trample it out! It is not worth Thine attention.”
But Christ replies: “Because her life is so fitful is why I take that spark and breathe on it until it becomes a flame.”
Everything Satan says against you is an argument why Christ should love you the more. Having gone to a physician for a sick friend, as you walk along with the physician you tell him how ill your friend is, and enumerate his sad symptoms; everything you tell the physician about the illness of your friend is only another argument why he should hurry to the sufferer’s side. Let your life be the most woebegone, the most tempted, the fullest of failure of any person in His church, you are the one that will probably get more help from God than any one besides.
I saw something like this once. There was a blacksmith, one blow of whose hand would fell the strongest antagonist in his neighborhood, a strong, broad-shouldered, glorious man. He came home where his little child was ill. She held out her trembling, thin hands to him, and dragged down his big head to her low level as she lay on the cot. Then I saw that what strength cannot do, weakness can; what the strongest man in the neighborhood could not do, the little child did; she could bring her father to the dust. So your weakness must drag Christ down to your very uttermost need. The weak man can do anything he likes with Christ, who came to seek and save that which was lost.
It is the sheep away on the wild that brings the shepherd in search; it is the lost piece of money that leads the woman to sweep the house; it is the prodigal that gets the fatted calf.
Suppose I have been writing letters all the morning, and my desk is covered with envelopes and papers. Amongst the mail there came in a five dollar bill. At lunch time I called the servant and said:
“Take these down and put them in the open kitchen fire; I do not want anybody to read them; destroy the papers.”
She takes them away in a basket, descends the kitchen stairs, toward the open fire. When she has gone I begin to look about for that bill, but cannot find it anywhere. I suddenly fear that I must have included it among those letters, and hasten toward the kitchen calling to the servant:
“Have you put those letters on the fire?” “I have just done so, sir.”
I rush to the fire, and there I see that bill just shriveling beneath the tongue of flame. I snatch it out. It is burning rapidly. I blow out the flame.
I have got only a little charred heap in my hand. Some one says to me: “You may as well put that back. It is not worth your keeping.”
I say: “I know better. There is the number of the bill, and if I take that to the bank I can get a new bill for it. That piece of charred bill is worth keeping. It will lead to the replacing of the whole.”
You have wasted your life. You have been living in worldly society, card-playing, fashion, billiard table, saloons. There is not much left of you. But Christ is careful of what is left, and He will give you new life for the lost one. He will restore to you the years destroyed by the canker-worm, and the palmer-worm; and give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning.
“The Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” The Lord quotes His choice, which was of God against all Satan’s insinuations and attacks.
Yes, God chose you to be a fair and beautiful image of Christ; but you have sadly thwarted and disappointed Him. His choice is not altered. He “loves still, and as a shepherd He follows yet. Though your life is eaten through as with fire, He can give you new life, and He will.
Now Zachariah broke in: “Finish it! Put a fair mitre on his head.”
I remember quite well one Sunday night at the Metropolitan Tabernacle when Mr. Spurgeon had spoken with more than his usual fire, a man away up in the gallery shouted, in the middle of the most impressive passage, “Hallelujah!” Everybody Started.
Mr. Spurgeon looked up and said, “Dear brother, your heart is very full, but you must keep it in. We are not accustomed to that sort of thing here.” It seems to me that Zachariah’s heart was so very full he could not keep it in. He had been watching all the time the transformation of the high priest, and everything was there except the mitre, so he broke in and said: “I say, let them finish the work. Put the fair mitre on his head.” And the Lord stooped over Joshua and did as Zachariah suggested.
I think you have put off sin, and put on Christ. We have now come to the crown of all; and nothing remains but to say: “Let them put a fair mitre upon our heads; let us receive the filling and anointing of Pentecost.”
About that blessing, Andrew Murray says there are seven steps:
1. There is such a blessing to be had. There is a distinct work of the Spirit over and above that of regeneration. It was given at Pentecost, and is forever in the Church.
2. It is for me. There is no doubt about that, because Peter said in his sermon, “The promise is to you, Jews, and to your children”, Jews again, “to all that are afar off”, Gentiles, “even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” If God has called you, the promise is for you, though up to now you have not gone for it. You are like a man whose father has left him a legacy, but either he does not know of it, or does not go for it. Yet it awaits you.
3. I haven’t got it. In dealing with the unregenerate, you must convince them they are out of Christ before they will step into Him. In dealing with yourselves, you must be convinced that you are outside the blessing before you will step into it. Have you received the anointing of the Holy Spirit? If you have no assurance of forgiveness; if Jesus is not a living, bright reality: if you have not power in service; if you have not enjoyment in the word of God and in prayer, you certainly have not the blessed anointing of the Spirit, as a fair mitre.
4. I am very hungry for it. God is not going to give His best gifts to those who do not much care whether they have them or not. “I am very hungry for it”; have you got to that? Can you say, “I want my mitre badly”?
5. I am prepared to give up anything that clashes with it. The price is a renunciation of whatever is inconsistent with the gift of Pentecost.
6. I do now yield myself to God that I may receive it. Have we all reached this?
7. By faith I do now receive it.
Those are the seven steps: there is such a blessing; it is for me; I haven’t got it; I am very hungry for it; .I am prepared to give tap anything that clashes with it; I yield myself to God now; by faith I take it, and I reckon I receive it as I go along. I have known people who have reckoned for a week or a month, and then the joy has come, and there has been a new consciousness of power.
We need to pray for one another, and especially for our ministers, that God would give the fair mitre of the Holy Spirit to crown His work in sanctification. Nothing less than this should content us for ourselves, or others. And if this is given, God will also add that if we keep in His ways and do His will, He will allow us to keep His courts, and give us a place of access among those who stand before Him, as His immediate circle and court.
Let them set a fair mitre on his head and mine.