May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
prophecy of Zachariah, chapter four, and we'll read verse seven. The prophecy of Zachariah, chapter
four, and reading verse seven. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt
become a plane and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with
shoutings crying grace, grace unto it. It is important for us always
to realise that the Word of God is a word which directs us to
the spiritual condition of our souls. And throughout the Word
of God we have so many illustrations naturally which, if we're not
careful, we stay on those natural illustrations and forget to recognise
that, as the Word of God tells us, there is a deep which coucheth
beneath. So, although we see often just
a picture, as it were, there is that wonderful deep underneath. And just to perhaps illustrate
that very, very simply, in the case of Joseph, we're all familiar
with Joseph, but Joseph was a type of Christ. And in that occasion
when Joseph was in charge of all the corn which was to be
distributed in that time of famine, Pharaoh said that the people
were to go to Joseph. Spiritually that meant they were
to go to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have in these accounts,
especially in the minor prophets, much direction really to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this person, Zerubbabel,
who was the governor of Judah, indeed was another type of Christ. And it is therefore important
that we, in one sense, lose sight of the natural picture because
the natural picture is there to direct us to the spiritual
picture. To realize therefore that our
souls are our spirit, which are far more important than our natural
lives. We have of course to live a natural
life. God has placed us in this earth
to live a natural life, but it's far more important to consider
our spiritual life. And so we have the account of
Israel which runs through the Old Testament. And we can observe
there how the Lord dealt with his people in those days. And perhaps As we ponder that,
we realise that, especially in the wilderness, the Lord ordained
that there should be the tabernacle which was to be erected, wherein
people could come and worship. And the various things that were
placed in the tabernacle did direct each one to the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now it's very easy for us to
just view the picture and think what a wonderful building it
was. Well it was. It was a wonderful
building. It took many, many years to build
that original temple then, sorry, after the Tabernacle. The temple
was erected in Solomon's day and many, many years were spent.
The Tabernacle existed for some 500 years before Solomon came
to the throne to actually then erect the Temple. And the Temple
existed for many years until Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans
came and fought against Judah and Israel and destroyed Jerusalem
and destroyed the Temple. Now the solemn position was that Israel or Judah had departed
from serving the Lord in a large way. What had they been doing? They'd been serving themselves.
They'd been pleasing themselves. They really said, we will not
have this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, to reign over us. And
so the Lord told them that if they continued in that way, they
would face the enemy coming, destroying Jerusalem, destroying
the temple, and they would go into captivity for 70 years. Well, as you read through the
word of God, you will find that The prophets, they prophesied
very clearly as to what would happen, but the people did not
listen. And so in due time, what God
had said came to pass. And we should never think that
what God has said in his word to us is irrelevant. We should never think that for
some reason or another we are an exception. We can do what
we want to do. The Word of God lays down very
carefully guidelines and directions for the Church of God. And we
have therefore these solemn warnings through those examples in the
word of God that you and I today may take heed of them. And so,
as I hope you know, Nebuchadnezzar was allowed to come up. He was
allowed to destroy Jerusalem. All the walls are broken down
and the beautiful and magnificent temple was destroyed. And there were Judah in captivity
for 70 years in Babylon, far off from Jerusalem. If you look on a map, it's many
days journey wasn't just around the corner, far off. And the
Lord, therefore, was mindful that he hadn't cast them off
forever. And that's a great blessing for
us today. To think that perhaps we have
turned our back upon God. And perhaps we've departed from
God. And yet to think the Lord is
merciful. The Lord doesn't deal with us
as our sins deserve. He didn't deal with Judah and
Israel as their sins deserved. He was faithful. He promised. that he would bring them back
again to Jerusalem in due time. And so, in due time, after 70
years had elapsed, the Lord didn't shorten that time. He didn't
say, well, you've been good people now, I'm gonna let you go back
early. No, the Lord speaks and it is
done. Never trifle with the word of
God. Never think that you're an exception. The Word of God is true and God
is faithful and he deals with his people in accordance with
the Word of God. Now it's very amazing really
as we ponder the account of Israel and Judah perhaps more particularly
in Israel how the Lord then appeared for them in bringing them to
that position where they were able to return to Jerusalem. And it was through the King Cyrus. Quite amazing really. The Lord
visited Cyrus and Cyrus then moved by the word of the Lord,
told Judah that they should return to Jerusalem. And what's more,
they should rebuild the temple. And what's more, he would provide
the cost of the building. An amazing truth. And so we see
the goodness and the kindness and the faithfulness of God in
bringing about the return of Israel or Judah back to Jerusalem. Now then, there was of course
the need then to rebuild the temple. Remember the temple of
course was the centre point, centre place of worship and of
course there were the sacrifices carried out and it was therefore
very necessary that that was rebuilt in accordance with the
plan that God had given. And so it came to pass. And so the Lord did allow the
people to return. But we see the sadness of the
situation. You would think, would you not,
that they would have been so thankful and so delighted to
be able to continue and be blessed that they would have made every
effort to fulfill that which King Cyrus had told them to do. But we find, as we read in that
first chapter of Haggai, who lived, of course, at the same
time as Zachariah, again, the Lord was very gracious and called
out prophets to preach to these people. who turned their back
upon the Lord. And in the earlier verses of
this chapter, this first chapter, we read, Thus speaketh the Lord
of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the
time that the Lord's house should be built. Then came the word
of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O
ye, to dwell in your sealed houses and this house lie waste. Now therefore, thus saith the
Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Now, as I've said, this
is a picture of the spiritual condition of people. And it is so easy and it's so
evident that people take more care of their natural bodies
than they do of their eternal soul. They spend much time on
their natural life rather than their spiritual life. And so
how relevant it is that you and I today don't think that Haggai
was written just for the people in that day and age. It's written
for the Church of God through the ages. And it's written for
us today. And if we are honest, and we
need to be honest in our religious views of ourself, we don't have
to look round at other people, we have to consider ourselves. And are we looking at our own
lives, our natural lives, more than our spiritual lives? Well,
said Haggai, quoting the Word of God, consider your ways. And it's good when the Holy Spirit
directs us to consider our ways, to see how we are directing our
natural life, if we are most concerned about the health of
our souls or whether we are most concerned about the things of
time. We have the great adversary,
the devil. He was a deceiver. He is a deceiver. He will always be a deceiver. And you see, what he produces
in the souls of God's people is an evil heart of unbelief. So therefore we interpret the
Word of God in accordance with what we want to happen, not with
a concern to obey in love the Word of God, especially as we
may consider the God in his love to our souls has given us gracious
direction, gracious instruction. And yet, you see, so readily
and so easily we turn away from that position. Well, the Lord
has given us these words these prophecies it's not only the
minor prophecies we have jeremiah we have ezekiel it goes right
back into the chronicles we can read there about what israel
did and turned back upon god and how saris was raised up to
direction and it's quite amazing isn't it to see here they were
wonderfully blessed with the king behind them And yet, you
see, they didn't follow those instructions. And so we come
to this chapter in Zechariah and this seventh verse where
Zechariah speaks and he says, Who art thou, O great mountain? We do have mountains in our lives. The devil is very keen to put
mountains there. Sometimes the Lord places mountains
there to test our religion. There are sometimes things which
are very difficult and very great before us. And so here the prophet
says, who art thou? Oh, great mountain. But then
he says before Zerubbabel, And again, remember, this is, typifies
the Lord Jesus Christ. Before Zerubbabel thou shalt
become a plain. The Lord causes his mountains
to flow down at his presence. This is the God that we have
in today. What a wonderful blessing in
our little lives if we are able to recognise God's mercy, God's
love and God's grace to us in our little lives, so that we
are able to understand something of what the Prophet says. This
is the word of the Lord. That's the previous verse, the
sixth verse. This is the word of the Lord
unto Zerubbabel, saying, not by might, nor by power, but by
my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. It means that the Holy
Spirit speaks to our souls. It's not a great outward demonstration
of power in a physical way. But it is a great and wonderful
evidence of God's mercy and favor and love toward us, not by might
nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. So what
a blessing for us today if we have the evidence of the Spirit
of God's work within us, turning us away from natural considerations,
from natural concerns, to the greater position of the eternal
state of our souls. Well, says Zachariah, who art
thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel thou shalt become
a plain. You see, however great the obstacles
may be in our spiritual life, what a great blessing it is to
realise we have a great and glorious Saviour who is able to subdue
all the evil propensities of our heart, who's able and willing
to turn us away from the poor things of this world, to be found
looking to him, to be found considering him, to be found meditating on the
great and glorious truths of the gospel. And again, perhaps
meditating on a promise that God may have given us years ago,
that such promises may not lie forgotten
in unthankfulness without praises. Sometimes the Lord is very gracious
and brings back to our remembrance the promises of God. And therefore
the obstacles in our life, the great mountains, flow down before
the presence of the blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. O great mountain, before as a
rubber ball thou shalt become a plain. Just moving on, just
to complete the sense here. And he shall bring forth a headstone
thereof with shoutings crying grace, grace unto it. It's not
the foundation stone. It's not the cornerstone. Those were laid in the beginning
of our spiritual experience. That was the beginning of the
life of God in our soul. We had that foundation, and that
foundation was Christ. But now the prophet looks forward. He looks beyond that. And what does he look to? He
looks to the finish of our life. He looks to the finish of our
life when that last stone will be positioned by the Lord in
our spiritual life. And we can look at it in a far
broader sense. There will be that time the history
of the world when the last soul will be converted and there will be that glorious
shouting crying grace grace unto it then you see what would have
occurred the headstone the last stone in the building will be
placed placed there by the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and then
the building will be complete. So we have really the two positions,
don't we? We have the position with regard
to our own personal life, when the Lord in his great mercy and
favour will bring that about, there will be that time of that
the work of grace will be complete. And when that work of grace is
complete, our little building will be complete. And then we
shall depart this life And as the Apostle Paul says,
to go and to be with Christ, which is far better. So let's
just remember then, we have these natural pictures going back to
the very important building of the temple to direct us to our
spiritual condition. And we should always recognize
that because in the Old Testament, the temple was very significant
because it typified the Savior. The reality was it was only a
building. And in due time, it was destroyed. It was destroyed. It was only
a building. But blessed be God, the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,
remains forever. And He is the One who is the
true Builder. He is the One who builds His
Church. My friends, what a blessing it
is for us today to have the evidence that we are part of that glorious
building. of the Church of God, not the
natural building, it's just a picture, but the spiritual building, how
important it is for us today to have the evidence that we
are amongst those that are part of the Church of God, and then
to think there will be this time when there will be the completion
of it. in each of our lives and when
the last soul is converted and the end of time. There will be
no reason then for the worlds to continue because the last
soul will have been saved. No reason then for the world
to continue and then it will be time shall be no more. Well then, as you and I journey
on in this world today, There will be, as we read here, great
mountains before us. Difficulties. As I already said,
one of the greatest mountains you and I have to face is the
evil heart of unbelief. And the devil homes in on that
mountain so very often. You only have to go back, as
I often remind you, back to the Garden of Eden, when Satan said
to Eve, ask that question, hath God said? My friends, the devil
hasn't used, hasn't forgotten that, and he still uses that
same question, hath God said? He wants to uproot any evidence
that you and I have of his wonderful love toward us. Well, let us
remember and let us tell the devil that he always has been
a deceiver and he always will be a deceiver but that we are
relying upon the promises of God because the Word of God tells
us Thy word is truth, and it is. So hold fast that which is
good. Don't dispense with it. Don't
think it's of no value. Remember, a little that a righteous
man hath, and every born again believer is a righteous man,
a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches
of many wicked. Those things which appear to
be good and righteous, satisfying the flesh, will not stand us
in good stead. We need the little that a righteous
man has. And what that means is we need
the grace of God. It's wonderful, isn't it, to
read these words with shoutings crying grace, grace unto it. Grace is. A wonderful word. It's a wonderful sound. And grace destroys the mountains
that the devil puts before us. Yes, it's good, isn't it? To
know the grace of God. To know that he's looked upon
us and remembered us with that favor he bears to his people.
To look back and trace out in our lives. Yea, I have loved thee with everlasting
love. As I say so often, religion is
personal. You and I cannot go to heaven
on our parents' religion. We can't go to heaven on our
friends' religion. We can't go to heaven on the
preacher's religion. You go to heaven on what God
has done for you. what God has done for you. And
what he's done for you is through his grace. Yes, through his grace. Isn't it wonderful? And if God
has given you grace, it is because he's given you faith to believe
the truth of his word. Now then, my friends, we are
to stand fast. We are to hold fast that which
is good. We're not to cast it away. We're
to thank God for what he's done and to never deny his work. Don't deny your little faith. My friends, praise and bless
God for it. And so to think then, there may
be these mountains before us in your life. I don't know what
mountain there may be. It may be because perhaps the
Lord has, you think, spoken to you in some way, yet it doesn't
seem to be quite the word that you really thought you needed,
or perhaps expected. And therefore you may be, as
it were, disappointed. And you may think, well, I don't
think that's really what I need. Well, remember, you and I are
to hold fast such a word and not to despise the day of small
things. Sometimes, you see, you and I
expect wonderful revelations, wonderful blessings. The Word
of God doesn't promise us that. It doesn't promise us that. And
it doesn't promise us many blessings either. If you trace out in the
Word of God, you trace out the life of Abraham. There was a
man of God, a great man of God. You read the life of Abraham.
Go home and read the life of Abraham if you're doubting in
your life whether you possess the grace of God. And see that
in Abraham's life, There were very few occasions when God spoke
to him. Very few occasions. And yet,
you see, he was able to go in the strength of those words. And that's good for us today. Whatever God has said to your
soul and my soul, may we go in the strength of it. May it be
a great support to us. As the Apostle says, I will go
in the strength of the Lord and make mention of his righteousness,
even of his only. Sometimes we expect and we may
ask for great blessings, which in actual fact we don't need.
And it's good to just examine our spiritual life sometimes. Because I believe sometimes we
pray for things and want things so that we can express how wonderful
has been my experience. What a wonderful testimony I've
had. And I can go through my life
and I can tick all the boxes and dot all the i's There's nothing
missing and I've got a wonderful testimony. And what happens? You claim the glory. You claim
the glory. God is a jealous God. God will
have the honour and glory. And he gives you and me that which is needful to take
us home to glory. And so, there may be a mountain
before you, thinking, well, I haven't had this wonderful revelation,
I haven't had this described and shown to me. Well, cast your
minds back to the case of Lydia. What was her testimony? Well,
we're told, thankfully, The Lord came to her, she'd heard the
preaching of Paul, she'd never obviously understood the things
of God before, and we're told the Lord opened her heart to
receive the truth of the things of God. Well again, there may
be that mountain of unbelief. It's good then today, if in our
testimony, we can look back and we can say well, By the grace
of God, I do believe. There was a time when I didn't
believe, but now I do believe. What a blessing then, if God
has given you that faith then, to view the gracious work of
the Spirit of God, and you have to come and recognize, like Lydia
did, it's the Lord that opened her heart. And it's the Lord
that instructs us. It's the Lord that directs us.
It's the Lord that blesses us. And he does that in such a way
that he receives the honour and glory. Well then, bless God perhaps
if you have mountains before you and you're waiting for some
amazing revelation. And it hasn't come. And you're
getting older. It hasn't come. Well, it's good
then, isn't it? To lay our case before the Lord. And you may well find. Just like
Zachariah speaks here to the people and he says, and thou
shalt become a plain. That means that big mountain
flows down, flows down completely. A plain is flat. There's not
even a hill. It's gone. Now remember what this is. As the Lord spoke to Zerubbabel,
thou shalt become a plane. It's not because what you're
doing. No, it's the work of the Spirit
of God. And therefore becomes a plane. What happens then? You recognize. It's the grace of God that's
done it. His free unmerited favor. And what is that? That is very
humbling to think that almighty God has come to you in such a way. He knew all about you. He may
have watched over you for many years. You may have seen your
struggles. You may have seen your battles.
You may have seen how you thought you were on the right track,
and how you didn't realise it was the sovereign grace of God
that you needed. And then, when that was dispensed,
you realised the objection The mountain of rejection had gone
away. What a mercy it is to know that
we have such a God who still today deals with his people in
the same gracious way. And so let's just come back to
the picture. The picture is the temple, a
great and amazing and wonderful building. the Church of God, an amazing
and wonderful spiritual building. My friends, how important that
you and I find ourselves as part of that building and we can then
look forward with a humble confidence that it will be well with our
soul. When that great day comes, when
we should depart this life and this headstone is put in place, all the promises of God are fulfilled
and we shall depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. And you will then be able to
concur With these words, you see, it's
not something which is just whispered. Shoutings. Shoutings. Crying grace, grace unto it. Well, it's a blessing, isn't
it? If the Church of God, the individuals of the Church of
God come down to this time and are able, therefore, To recognize
that the mountain, the mountain perhaps of fear of death, may
flow down. It's gone. And you are safe in the arms
of Jesus. And that is an eternal safety. To realize then also as you and
I journey on through life, Underneath are the everlasting arms We don't
always feel it. We don't always realize it doesn't
alter the truth Underneath are The everlasting arms and those
arms will convey you and me by the grace of God safely to glory
at last there to spend a long eternity in singing God is love. And so as you and I read these
wonderful pictures in the Old Testament, let us realize and
let us desire to always see Christ, to see what he's done. He's gone
before you see. He's prepared the way. The mountains
flow down because he's finished. The work the Lord gave him to
do, on your behalf and my behalf, there's nothing to do. The work
of grace is done. The Saviour completed it. Isn't
it a wonderful thought, a wonderful truth, to think the Saviour did
not fail. You and I may fail, often, but
the Saviour did not fail. and we shall stand through him. We are indeed complete in him,
not in what we've done, complete in what he's done. And surely
then we can say, with regards to ourselves and the Saviour,
a refuge for sinners. The Gospel makes known It is
found in the merits of Jesus alone, a place of rest, a place
of blessing. To be able to come then and realise,
yes, there is the headstone, headstone which will be placed
to the praise and honour and glory of my God. And I can look
forward with a humble confidence that the Lord Jesus Christ did
die to take away all my sins and that I rest on his work and
not my own. Who are 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. Amen.