May it please Almighty God to
bless us together tonight as we meditate in His Holy Word.
Let's turn to the prophecy of Zechariah and chapter 4 and we'll
read verse 7. The prophecy of Zechariah, chapter
4 and reading verse 7. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt
become a plain and he shall bring forth a headstone thereof with
shoutings crying grace, grace unto it. It is really quite amazing and
wonderful to realize that We have what we tend to term the
minor prophets, only because they're shorter than the longer
ones. And a number of them speak directly
and were written directly at the time when Israel were returning
out from captivity to come back to Jerusalem. Of course, it was
a tremendous situation. There they'd been in captivity
there for 70 years and now the Lord was directing them to return
as he had promised. Of course it wasn't an easy situation
because Jerusalem had been ravished, the walls had broken down, the
temple was no longer and therefore it was a great difficulty that
confronted them. But yet, what is really amazing
to read, and you can read a bit in Ezra, which of course was
written the same time as these minor prophets, Ezra and Nehemiah,
that God constrained the king and the kings in Babylon or in
the Chaldea to actually instruct the Israelites to return to Jerusalem. Quite an amazing truth, if you
ponder it, to think that they'd been captive for 70 years. No doubt the Chaldeans had been
very used to them being there. But God, you see, has his divine
way and purpose. And therefore, instead of blessing
the Israelites with strength to fight a battle, he changed
the king's mind. And he produced, therefore, that
statement that they were to return and, what's more, they were to
be paid out of the king's treasury for the things that were needful.
And that was then and then, of course, a little while later,
a few years later, they were in difficulty. And Darius, another
king who we're familiar with perhaps more in the case of the
life of Daniel, was again encouraged them to return and to work hard
in bringing back Jerusalem to its former state. But of course
they were never able to bring the Temple back to the same glory
that Solomon was able to build it those many years before. But
nonetheless it was completed, the wall of Jerusalem was rebuilt,
the Temple was rebuilt, and Israel were able to return once again. So it was a wonderful, wonderful
blessing. And when we think that God changed
those king's hearts to influence the situation, we should recognize
that still today, in the environment that we live, men's hearts are
in the hand of Almighty God. And surely that should make us
consider that great truth of things which are impossible with
men, are possible with God. And therefore we should never
give up and we should never think, well, that's not possible. Because
everything is possible with God. And that's good to realize that.
If you look in your life and look in my life, we look at the
way ahead perhaps, The future may seem impossible, but it's
not impossible with God. God can make the way, like he
did. And as we know, the Lord did appear and did help them. There was opposition. Of course
there was. Sanballat and Tobiah, as an example,
were raised up to try and hinder the work. And they did for a
time. In actual fact, the work stopped. Haggai was raised up
to encourage them to continue with the work. What a mercy it
is to have a God who raises up men to be leaders and prophets,
as in the case of the Old Testament, to instruct the children what
to do. And so the Lord was wonderfully
gracious and wonderfully merciful to Israel and we should not forget
that Israel were utterly unworthy of any mercy and so are we unworthy
of any mercy. What a blessing it is therefore
to have such a kind, gracious, long-suffering and merciful God
who does these things for the great reason that his name may
be lifted up and honored and glorified. And you and I should
never forget that. If we have great mountains, as
they did, and as we have in this word before us tonight, O great
mountain, if the Lord comes and removes those mountains and takes
them out of the way so that they become a plain, we should thank
God for it. We should never forget to praise
him for it. We're told praise is comely,
and so it is, and yet so often we're backward in praising God. And it's good, therefore, to
look and try and find reasons to thank and to praise God, because
His mercy endureth forever. Well, here in this word, we're
told, who art thou, O great mountain? We don't know what the mountain
particularly was. We know there were difficulties.
The same in our life. We don't always know what the
mountains are. And there may be great difficulties, but the
great truth is, as we have in this verse, because Zerubbabel
is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, who, O great mountain, before
Zerubbabel, thou shalt become a plain. If God before us, who
can be against us? And we all need to realise that
and especially perhaps you young people as you return to school
and go to university and start new jobs and you find that there's
difficulties and there's people who are objecting to you perhaps
and causing problems. Never forget the Lord is there. Be able to come and recognise
the Lord is my helper and to be able to say I will not fear
what man should do unto me. Man is a mere puny thing before
Almighty God. What a blessing it is to know
that God is on our side and God is on our side. if we are his
people and he watches over us and he's told us he will never
leave us nor forsake us so that we may boldly say the Lord is
my helper I will not fear what man should do unto me well may
we be encouraged by the Word of God the Word of God is there
to instruct us the Word of God is here to encourage us as it's
encouraged the Church of God down from the ages right back
to the time that we read of here, when God did appear, yes, and
he did great things. And it's glorious to be able
to read the account of the many victories that occurred. As most
of you know, on Friday, we read the account of Jehoshaphat, who
was in a time of great difficulty, and he prayed to God. What a
wonderful place that is. And he prayed to God. And he
said, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. Well, it's good if our eyes are
upon the Lord. Because he does appear. And he
appeared in that case on that occasion. And there was that
prophet who was raised up by God to tell the people that they
indeed would gain the victory. In fact, they never had to fight
in the battle because the enemy fought against themselves. There
was a complete victory. And they couldn't claim any victory
themselves. They couldn't say, well, I fought
really well. No, God got all the honor and
glory. And it's good for us to realize
that we have today the same God, the same God who is able to do
for you and me far more, exceeding abundantly, than we can ask or
even think. And so the question here is,
who art thou, O great mountain? What mountain is before you?
What mountain is before me? God knows. Perhaps you know,
perhaps you're fearful. Perhaps you wonder, how am I
going to deal with this situation? How am I going to overcome? Well, the Word of God is encouraging. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He will
bring it to pass. Let us not forget, we have a
great God and we have an almighty God. And it's good if you and
I can sometimes just contemplate how great God is that he spoke
the world and the universe into being he just spoke and it was
done and how many times we see what Jesus did when he was on
the earth just touch this one or that one they were healed
or just spoke and they were healed or the power of God my friends
and that power is not abated because we're told Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday and today and forever. So may our confidence
be not in ourselves. Let us never think we're able
to overcome. Let us never think we're able
to sort the problems out. Sometimes we try. Sometimes we
forget about God. And what a blessing it is when
God reminds us where we've got to. Now we are battling on ourselves,
making a mess of things. What a mercy when God reminds
us we have a God who is omnipotent, a God who is all powerful, who
does hear the prayers of his people. And so whatever mountain
there is, whatever difficulty there is, however great it is,
the Lord is able to make it a plain. It's a wonderful truth, isn't
it? You think of it. O great mountain, before Zerubbabel
thou shalt become a plain. It's encouraging, isn't it, to
know how positive the Word of God is. Because it doesn't say,
well, it may become a plain. we're told here very clearly
that thou shalt become a plain this great mountain before God
no one can stand before the presence of Almighty God what a mercy
it is and it's good if God gives us faith living faith to believe
these great truths it would be a strength to us and an encouragement
to us as you and I journey through this life, because be sure of
this, the devil will bring pit situations before us, mountains
before us, in order to try to overcome us. We need to be on
our guard and we need to realise we have a God who is ever at
hand to hear and to answer our prayer. The devil wants you and
me to forget that we have such a great God. He wants us to forget
to pray to him. He desires that we may lack faith
to believe as we come to that great God. And yet we're encouraged
to be reminded of what the Lord has done and the promises of
what he will do. So tonight let us be thankful
that there is A statement like this, Who art thou, O great mountain? Before the rubble thou shalt
become a plain. That's in our natural life and
it's also in our spiritual life. Because there are those mountains
in our spiritual life. Those mountains arise often because
of our sinfulness. the evil of our heart. So often
you see our heart runs away with us. We find ourselves thinking
evil and thinking wrong things and yet the great God can subdue
them. So they disappear and we're able
to meditate and think upon the great glories of God. What a change, what a blessing,
what a favour. Remember, we have a God who is
a God who hears and answers prayer. And this verse goes on to say,
And he shall bring forth the headstone. Well, what's happened
previously? Well, the same Zerubbabel has
laid the foundation stone. The building is to grow. It has
to have a good foundation. And then it grows. And then it
grows until eventually there's the final stone, the headstone,
which is placed upon it to complete the building. Well, it's wonderful
to realize that we have a God. who does indeed place the foundation
stone, the beginning, that which is good and right to build upon. And what a blessing if your life
and my life we have this wonderful foundation. And it's that which
we are able to build upon. God-given foundation. What a
mercy that it's not something that you and I perhaps try and
fabricate ourselves. It's God's work and we should
always remember that God, the Almighty God, is a jealous God
and He will have the honour and the glory. And it's therefore
good if you and I can look and observe the foundation that God
has given to us. And that foundation is none less
than the blessed Saviour himself. So realise that there is the
foundation, the rock on which we build. We don't want to build,
do we, on a sandy foundation. We want to build on the rock,
the rock Christ Jesus. It's a wonderful blessing to
have a desire and to have that set before us. And as you know,
I refer sometimes to the 40th Psalm of David. And David knew
the difficulties that were before him and that which he'd had to
endure. And he tells us what he did. It's good to remember that in
our little lives. He tells us, I waited patiently
for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. Well, it's not always easy to
be patient. And yet the Lord says, your time
is always, but my time is not yet. God has the right time. God has perfect time and we should
realize that your life and my life is just a very minor little
speck as it were in the great plan of salvation and everything
else is being worked out and God causes us our little speck
our little life to be part of that great plan therefore the
Lord works The Lord fits it into His plan. We don't fit ourselves
into God's plan. God fits us into His plan. And therefore it's wonderful
if we can understand like David did. I waited patiently for the
Lord and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. Again, as I
often say, of course, a cry is something like a baby that can't
talk, can't speak, but it does cry when it wants attention,
it cries. And the mother or the father
looks to see what the problem is. And what a blessing it is
if you and I perhaps are not able to pray very lucidly, but
we can cry to God, that he will look upon us that he will help
us because we've got this mountain before us we don't know how we're
going to overcome or like in David's case he tells us he brought
me up also out of a horrible pit and the Maori clay sometimes
we get ourselves into a Maori pit yes a horrible pit and a
mirey clay if you know anything about clay you'll know it's difficult
to walk it's difficult to go around and to especially climb
out of a pit of clay you slip and slide you need someone to
come and help you out well what a blessing it is we have an almighty
God and David testifies see we have a record of this We have
a record of what? Conquering grace. Conquering
grace that the Lord gave to David. And he gives it to his own people.
He gives them conquering grace. And so he tells us, he brought
me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the Maori clay. Brought him out. And what did
he do? Leave him to fall back into it?
No. This is what he did. set my feet upon a rock and established
my goings. What a mercy, isn't it? If God,
therefore, comes and helps us and takes away the mountain which
may be before us and sets our feet then upon a rock and establishes
us in the truth of God, His work, the Lord knows what to do. And
in establishing us in His way, what does He do? Well, He shows
us how foolish we are. He shows us how sinful we are.
And then He doesn't leave us there, and He directs us to the
great and glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our
rock. What a mercy then to be established
upon the rock. The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
doesn't change. It doesn't move. His plans don't
change. His plans are yeah and amen.
I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. This is the great God that we
have isn't encouraging to realize that we have this God to pray
unto, to cry unto, who we can come to. in every time of need,
in every situation, in every development, whatever mountain
there is, big or small, however difficult it may appear, we can
cry to our God who hears and answers our prayer. And so David
gives us this wonderful and glorious testimony. And again, to think
how kind God is to give us a record of this life of David and a testimony
of God's goodness to him and to believe that as God was kind
and gracious to him, so he is to all of his people. We won't
be left on the side. No, the Lord's gracious to all
his people. And so he comes and says, and
I think this is so important. It's good for us today. And he
has put a new song in my mouth. Perhaps we've had a complaining
song. Perhaps we haven't been thankful.
Perhaps we've been moaning. Perhaps we've come and said,
how hard's my lot? How hard done by I am. I wish
I lived in a different situation. I wish I had different friends.
I wish I had an easier path, a different job, a better situation,
more friends at school. Well, remember, the Lord does
that for us. which is good for us, and that
which brings us to a time of deliverance, a time when the
Lord appears very wonderfully and very graciously. And as he
says here, O great mountain before Zerubbabel, thou shalt become
a plain. And therefore the Lord brings
us and shows us how this comes about, and then to be able to
rejoice in it. And then he says, and he hath
put a new song. It's not a song of moaning. It's
not a song of complaining. It's not a song of groaning.
No, you see, sometimes we do moan and groan. Why? Because
we haven't really committed our way unto the Lord and we haven't
come with a right spirit. Often we come with a right spirit
and that spirit is very simply this. I'll tell you what it is.
We come to God and we say, I've got a plan and I want God to
work to it. No, the reality is God's got
a plan and you and I will work to it. And therefore it's a wonderful
blessing to come and to be submissive to the plan of Almighty God and
be able to say in the glorious words of the Savior himself,
nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. Because we know,
we don't know, we will know that God's way is best And when God's
way comes to pass, as David was able to say, and he has put a
new song in my mouth. And what's that new song? It's
told us to even praise unto our God. Oh, my friends, how needful
it is in a day and age in which we live to praise our God. Look into your life. See what
God has done. Have you thanked God? Have you
praised God for all the things that He's done? For the help
He's given you day by day? For the blessings that perhaps
He's favoured you with to understand the pathways leading you in? To open to your spiritual understanding? His Word giving you a spiritual
insight? So that you've been brought up
out of this horrible pit and married clay? And have you praised
God for it? Have you thanked Him for it?
If you got on your way rejoicing, what a blessing it is to be amongst
those who truly desire to praise and rejoice in the great and
glorious work of Almighty God. And David says, He hath put a
new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God, many shall see
it. If you don't praise and you don't
thank God, no one will see it. There's no glory to God. My friends,
what a blessing it is. Sometimes you may think, oh,
I don't know if I want to say that. Well, it's good. And sometimes
it's good to let the ungodly know that God has helped you,
that your confidence is in the Lord. And the Lord has been gracious. You see, sometimes, perhaps,
we may be in contact with people who've never considered it, who've
never thought about it. Perhaps it would be a wonderful
revelation again. Let us remember you and I are
in this world. We are God's witnesses. He's placed us here for that
divine purpose, not to just carry on aimlessly in this old world. And so he tells us here, many
shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. What a blessing,
isn't it? if through our testimony people
are eternally blessed what a wonderful blessing what a wonderful favor
to think that through our little testimony my friends you and
I won't do it in pride we'll do it in humbleness and true
thankfulness to realize that Almighty God has had compassion
upon us heard our crying, answered it, and put our feet upon a rock,
established our goings. What a mercy. What a God we have. What a God David had. What a
wonderful favour. And we have here then in this
record before us that Zachariah writes and he says, and become
a plain and he shall bring forth a headstone thereof with shouting
is crying grace, grace unto it. Well, there's a real desire to
come and shout grace, grace. What is that? Grace is the unmerited
favor of God. And if God has set your feet
upon the rock, if God has put you on that good foundation of
the glorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Surely there's
reason to come and to cry, grace, grace. It's all of God's mercy. It's all of God's favor that
I am what I am. I don't deserve any notice. Be
clear about this, none of us do. And what a mercy, therefore,
if God has heard your cry. I don't know, but you know. if
God has heard your cry he's looked upon you in love to your soul
so you're able to come and praise him in these glorious words grace,
grace unto it oh my friends that's a mercy isn't it and may you
and I have many reasons to come in this way. Not only the foundation,
but to realize there will be that day by the grace of God
when His work, His work will be completed in your life and
my life. And also, of course, it will
be completed in the whole church of God when all His work is done. And then, of course, we know
that then will be the end of time, because every true believer
would have been called by the grace of God. And then time will
be no more. But what a mercy for us today. He shall bring forth a headstone
thereof with shoutings, crying grace, grace unto it. So as we look into our lives,
till we see the evidence of God's work. And that work is this,
growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. You know, if you were to write
down tonight what that meant in your life, I wonder what you'd
write. I wonder what you would write. Have you, first of all, been
blessed with the evidence of God's mercy towards you? In showing
you what you deserve? In showing you how sinful you
are? That's the mercy of God. You might not think it's very
pleasant, but it's the mercy of God. And it's good if you
can remember and look back, maybe days, maybe hours, maybe years,
whatever it is, to be able to look back, to see God's great
and glorious work in your life. His grace, His grace, His favor. He hasn't passed you by. We do
deserve to be passed by, don't we? When you look at your life
and I look at my life, you don't deserve to have any favour from
God. What a blessing if you can find
in your heart the evidence of God's mercy towards you, His
grace. Well, it's a great blessing,
isn't it, if we see the commencement and then we see perhaps how that
has progressed in our life because God's grace does work it's not
something which just starts for a minute and then finishes God's
grace, God's work is ongoing and again it's encouraging for
you and me to be able to see that and that means sometimes
you and I need to look for it We need to look for it. We need
to find it. The devil doesn't want you to observe it. He doesn't
want you to find it. And he'll do all he can to hide
it from your mind and your eyes. But it's good sometimes to just
ponder and meditate and to observe God's mercy, His grace toward
you in bringing you to that understanding of yourself as a sinner and bringing
you to therefore that time of need. When you, perhaps like
that prodigal son, it's a very good example for us to realise,
there was that prodigal son. He thought he'd enjoy himself.
He spent all his inheritance in a wrong and riotous living. and then the time came the time
came when he began to be in want yes he began to be in want what
a mercy that would be in your life and my life if we have begun
to be in want and what happened then his thoughts were directed
to his father's house directed to where he'd been brought up directed to the blessings that
he enjoyed and therefore the Spirit of God
gave him that concern and that desire to return and he said
that he would return and he would go to his father and confess
his sins that he sinned against heaven and earth, and is no more
worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants."
Well, you may remember the account. He did go back, and his father
was looking for him, anticipating he would come back. he had faith to believe it and
so he did and he came back and he was able to confess his sins
but he didn't get as far as saying make me as one of thy hired servants
because he was a son and that's wonderfully true with the whole
Church of God to realize that we are Children of the Most High
God. What a mercy it is when God brings
us to return to come to our God. Well, we have here in this verse
and he shall bring forth a headstone thereof with shoutings, crying
grace, grace unto it. Well, what a mercy, my friends.
For you and me, if we therefore have the evidence that we do
possess the grace of God and have been shown our sinnership
with that desire then to find that glorious Saviour, the one
who's dying to take away our sins, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and has brought us to that condition to cry out, give me Christ or
else I die. How true that is. Without Christ,
you and I will die with Christ, eternally safe. And oh, then
what blessing it will be and what a wonderful favour to be
found here crying out, grace, grace, yes, your desire to honour
and glorify your God and look forward to realise that by faith
there will be that time when the work of grace will be completed. Yes, the final stone will be
placed, not only in the Church of God, but in your life and
my life. The final work of God will be
completed. We won't go then out of time.
incomplete. We go out of time with that wonderful
evidence redeemed with a precious blood of Christ. Oh my friends,
grace indeed is a charming sound harmonious to our ear and I hope
it is to every one of us And if it's not, I pray it will be,
that we may indeed be able to truly praise our God for his
grace, because that grace encompasses everything. It encompasses his
favour, His love, His mercy, it's all together in that great
wonderful word, grace. And as we read, it is by grace
we are saved in the Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8. By grace are
you saved through faith. and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Well, may we all be found possessing
the grace of God and have that comfort then to realise it is
well with our souls. Amen.