Turning to Zechariah chapter
4 and verse 7. Who art thou, O great mountain,
that before as a rubber ball thou shalt become a plain? And
he shall bring forth a headstone thereof with shoutings, crying,
Grace, Grace, unto it. And as we consider these words,
Tonight I want to take for the theme the triumphs of sovereign
grace. The triumphs of sovereign grace. He shall bring forth a headstone
thereof with shoutings crying grace, grace unto it. Last Lord's Day evening we were
thinking of the church as that spiritual house and the foundation
upon which that church has been built. We consider those words
in 1 Peter 2, verse 5. He also, as lively stones, built
up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, that you should offer
spiritual sacrifices through Christ Jesus, Wherefore it is
contained in Scripture, Behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he that believeth shall not be confounded. We thought then of the spiritual
house, the superstructure, but we also took account of that
remarkable foundation that is laid in the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. Now, in a sense, continuing that
same theme, to think of the headstone, the completion of the building,
he shall bring forth the headstone thereof, with shoutings crying
grace, grace unto it. But first of all, I want to endeavor
to say something with regards to the historical context. It's not an easy chapter. In
fact, the whole book of Zechariah is full of strange visions that
were granted to the prophet. But we do know that together
with Haggai, he was one of the prophets that ministered to that
remnant that returned to the Promised Land after the Babylonian
captivity. He was ministering then in the
days of Ezra and those who had returned with him. In the opening verse of the book
we have the historical context in the eighth month in the second
year of Darius, Darius the Median. how the Babylonians had been
overthrown by the Medes and the Persians, Cyrus, but now Darius
the Median. In the eighth month, in the second
year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the
son of Berechiah, the son of Ido, the prophet. and we see
that Haggai is contemporary beginning of that book in the second year
of Darius the king in the sixth month in the first half of the
month came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel
the son of Shealtie our governor of Judah and to Joshua the son
of Josedek the high priest and so These two books are set in
a particular period of time, a certain historical context. And they're ministering to those
few who would come back out of exile. And we see here how they
were obviously in many ways discouraged. They felt it to be a day of small
things." They're about the business of
rebuilding the Temple of the Lord that had lain there in ruin
for some 70 years. And so here is part of the message
of Zechariah in verse 10, "...who have despised a day of small
things," he asks. for they shall rejoice and shall
see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven.
They are the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through
the whole earth." And we read of them there in Ezra as those
servants of the Lord who are seeking to be encouragers of
that remnant as they engage in this good work of the rebuilding
of the temple. We turn to Ezra and there we
see something of the situation in Ezra chapter 3. We read of them both praising
God that they're there to rebuild the temple and yet also at the
same time we read of them weeping at the end of chapter 3. They
sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord
because He is good for His mercy endureth forever toward Israel.
And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised
the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was
laid. But Many of the priests and Levites
and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men or old men,
that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house
was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice, and many shouted
aloud for joy. There were those weeping because
it seemed so despicable, compared with what they had had previously,
And then we're told there, verse 13, so that the people could
not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of
the weeping of the people. For the people shouted with a
loud voice, and the noise was heard afar off. And here are
these men, these prophets, seeking to encourage this little remnant. In chapter 5 of Ezra then, the
prophets Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Edo
prophesied unto the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in
the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. Then rose up
Zerubbabel the son of Shealtia, and Jeshua the son of Jezudak,
and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem,
and with them were the prophets helping them. There then we see
something of the historical context. And if you read the book of Ezra,
and I would commend read the book, and then when you read
the book, read the ministry that we have recorded in the prophets
Haggai and Zechariah. But of course, as I've said many
a time, there is something more here than the historical context
to take account of. that we not really have here
before us tonight, a prophecy of the Day of Grace, and a prophecy
that really concerns a far greater temple, a temple not made with
hands. We know that this man's a rubber
ball, who is responsible, it seems,
chiefly responsible for the actual rebuildings, a rubber ball, is
an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. He appears there in the
genealogy that we find at the beginning of the New Testament
in Matthew chapter 1. In fact, here we see that he
is, we might say, one of the principal antecedents of the
Lord Jesus. We have all these different generations,
different ones begetting different ones and so forth. And then verse
17, so all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations,
and from David until the carrying away unto Babylon are 14 generations,
and from the carrying away unto Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. The rubber ball comes in in the
middle there, the time of the carrying away into Babylon. His name is mentioned previously
in verses 12 and 13 of Matthew chapter 1. So he's one of, we
might say, the principal ancestors of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
does the name Zerubbabel mean? Remember, names are significant
in scripture, and certainly the names that are borne by the prophets
are often bound up with the message that they're proclaiming. Well,
the name Zerubbabel literally means a shoot of Babylon. A shoot
of Babylon. He had just come out of captivity
together with Ezra and those others, and that's the name that
he bears, Zerubbabel. And he is a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We read of the Lord Jesus back
in Isaiah 11, a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch out
of his roots. He's Zerubbabel, a shoot out
of Babylon. Well, the Lord Jesus is a shoot,
as it were, out of the stem of Jesse, the father of David. And here, of course, we have
mention in this book of Zechariah of the branch. It's one of the
names given to the Lord Jesus in chapter 3, verse 8. Behold,
God says, I will bring forth my servant the branch. That is,
a reference to Zerubbabel, historically, but really, spiritually speaking
to us, of the Lord Jesus. He is the Lord's servant. I will
bring forth my servant, the Branch. And you will see there, in that
verse, how the Branch is spelled with capital letters. Again,
in chapter 6 and verse 12, Behold, the man whose name is the Branch,
and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the
temple of the Lord." And that is the Lord Jesus. He
is the one who builds ultimately the temple of the Lord. Does Zechariah speak of the Lord
Jesus? Well, so too also does Haggai.
In Haggai 2.7, God says, I will shake all nations, and the desire
of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory,
saith the Lord. The desire of all nations who
is being promised is the same as him who is the branch. And
so, coming to these words that I announced to be our text here
in verse 7 of Zechariah 2. Who art thou? O great mountain,
before the rubble thou shalt become a plain. and he shall
bring forth a headstone thereof with shoutings crying grace,
grace unto it." And I want us as we look at this verse and
seek to expound this particular scripture to think of the spiritual
significance, to think of it here in terms of the gospel,
a promise of the gospel, a promise of the triumphs of the sovereign
grace of God. And so Continuing really with
that theme that we were looking at last Lord's Day evening, that
spiritual house that is built upon the great foundation of
the Lord Jesus. And to remind you again that
the foundation of the building is a foundation of grace. It's
a foundation of grace. What are we told here in verse
9? The hands of the rubber ball
have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish
it." And we can think of the words of the Lord Jesus in the
Gospel when Peter confesses there in Caesarea Philippi, thou art
the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And the words of the Lord
how he pronounces Peter to be so blessed flesh and blood hath
not revealed it unto them but my Father which is in heaven
and thou art Peter and upon this rock that is Peter's wonderful
confession concerning the Christ the Son of the living God upon
this rock I will build my church all the hands of the rubber will
have laid the foundation His hands shall also finish it. Other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Now where is
the foundation laid? It is laid outside of time. The
foundation is laid in eternity. It's laid in God's sovereign
purpose. It's laid in God's eternal election. Now, we saw that on Sunday evening. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone elect. Precious is what the Lord God
says. He lays the foundation in this
chief cornerstone which is elect. And again, there in 1 Peter 2.6,
to him coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men,
but chosen of God and precious. That chief cornerstone, that
sure foundation, disallowed indeed of men, rejected of men. He comes
to his own, his own receive him not. But he is that one who is
chosen of God, From all eternity we go back,
you see, into the councils of the Trinity, we go back into
the great covenant of grace. There is where the foundation
is found. Christ be my first elect, he
said, then chose our souls in Christ our head. He is the first. He is that one whom we whom God
has chosen. Behold My servant, whom I uphold,
Mine elect. And all the elect, as we know,
are chosen in Him, and that choice is one of the sovereign grace
of God. I remind you again of the language
there in Ephesians chapter 1. Paul sends his greetings, as
usual, verse 2. Grace, he says. Grace be to you. and peace from God our Father
and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And here it is, according
as He has chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the world,
or the foundation of the church is before the foundation of the
world. that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to his good pleasure, to the
praise of the glory of his grace." Here is the foundation, it's
all grace. He begins in verse 2 with the normal greetings,
Grace be to you, and then he speaks. of God's eternal election
of a people in Christ, and it's all to the praise of the glory
of his grace. The foundation then is laid in
the grace of God's. But then, here in the text that
we're considering, we see in the second place the aboundings.
and the overcomings of this grace of God's. Who art thou, O great
mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt
become a plain. There is nothing that can prevent
Zerubbabel from accomplishing that work that has been given
to him in the rebuilding of the temple of the Lord. But so too
there is nothing that can frustrate the Lord Jesus Christ in the
building of His temple, in the calling out of the election of
grace, in the bringing all of them into the church. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. So when the Lord comes, what
is that ministry that we read of concerning His forerunner,
John the Baptist, we have it spoken of there in Isaiah 40,
every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall
be made low. Every valley exalted, every mountain,
every hill made low. Before the rubble thou shalt
become a plain. Think of the mountains of sin. And how that imagery is taken
up when the prophet Jeremiah, who's living at the time of the
Babylonian captivity, He actually sees the overthrow of Jerusalem,
the armies of Nebuchadnezzar laying siege, destroying the
city, ruining the temple, raising it
to the ground, and the people being taken away into exile. But look at what is said there
in Jeremiah 51, The end of the book really, or towards the end
of the book, Jeremiah 51 verse 25. Behold, this is God speaking
through His servant the prophet, Behold, I am against thee, O
destroying mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyeth all the
earth. And I will stretch out mine hand
upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make
thee a burnt mountain. Now it's spoken of again historically,
of Babylon. But is it not also true of all
the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it not true of the
dreadful mountains of sin? We're going to sing just now
that hymn of Isaac Watts, 212. And it has the verse, what though
your numerous sins exceed the stars that fill the skies, and
aiming at the eternal throne like pointed mountains rise,
O the great mountain of our sins, who is able to overcome? It's only the grace of God. Who
art thou, O great mountain? all our sin, all our unbelief,
all those things that seem to create a dreadful barrier between
us and God. Our sins hide His face from us,
though our iniquities cut off any communion with Him. Before
the rubber ball thou shalt become a plain. But when the Lord God
comes to work that grace in the hearts of His people, where does
it begin? It begins with the conviction
of sin. And we see it in the imagery
here, later in verse 10 where we have the plummet. Here is
Zerubbabel engaged in the building and he has those instruments
and tools that would be necessary for the erection of the temple. They shall rejoice and shall
see the plummet, it says, in the hand of Zerubbabel with those
seven What is a plummet? It's the plumb line. It's that
that would be used to ensure that as the walls are erected,
so they are vertical, so they are straight. It's being erected
as a proper, safe, secure building. We see reference to other instruments. The measuring line in Chapter
2. I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold, a man
with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, With a goer's
stand, and his head unto me to measure Jerusalem, to see what
is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof. They engage,
you see, in the rebuilding of the temple, but also, of course,
there's going to be the rebuilding of Jerusalem. It will come later,
in the days of Nehemiah, with the rebuilding of the walls of
Jerusalem. But there's a man with a measuring
line. Now, what is the spiritual significance
of these things? Well, it has been observed, with
regards to the plummet, when applied, the plummet shows nothing
but crooks. Or what does the plumage show?
We can think of it as the Word of God, or that line which is
the Word of God, or the measuring rod that's spoken of in Revelation
11.1. When we are measured by the Word of God, we see that
our lives are full of nothing but crooks. We're not straight
with the Word of God. or the Word of God reveals us
as we are by nature, sinners in the sight of God, iniquity
as that idea of being warped and twisted and that's the condition
of us all and when the Lord God begins, when those lively stones
that we were considering in 1 Peter chapter 2. When those stones
have to be prepared to be set in that spiritual temple, how
the Spirit must come and do His work, His work of conviction
in the soul. When He has come, says the Lord
Jesus, He will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment. of sin because they believe not
on me of righteousness because I go to the Father and you see
me no more of judgment because the prince of this world is judged
or the work of the Spirit and it is the Spirit that is being
spoken of in association with the plummet the plummet in the
hand of Zerubbabel with those seven they are the eyes of the
Lord's which run to and throw through the whole earth, all
that blessed work of the spirits. What does he minister? He doesn't
minister what we might term legal conviction. No, it's more than
that. Law and terrors do but harden all the while they work
alone, but a sense of blood-bored pardon soon dissolves the hearts
of stone. That's the work of the spirits.
As we see later in chapter 12, Verse 10, I will pour upon the
house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace
and of supplications and they shall look upon me whom they
have pierced and mourn for him as one mourneth for an only son
and be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness
for his firstborn. That's the work of the Spirit.
He works that godly sorrow in the heart, that godly sorrow
that worketh repentance to salvation. Repentance not to be repented
of. Every obstacle is overcome. There is that work of conviction.
The sinner is brought low and humbled. Who art thou, O great
mountain? Before the rubbable thou shalt
become a plain. The aboundings and the overcomings
of that sovereign grace of God. And then finally, what we have
here of course is the overtopping of that grace. He shall bring
forth a headstone thereof with shoutings crying grace, grace
unto it. His foundation laid while the
rubber ball, his hand shall also finish it. we're told in verse
9. His hand shall also finish it. And what do we have here? We
have the perfection of that work of grace. It is free grace. It
is sovereign grace. Really, you know, when we use
those adjectives, free and sovereign, they're quite superfluous. Because
for grace to be grace, it must be free, it must be sovereign.
What is Christ? It's the unmerited favour of
God. The cause is found only in Himself. It is nothing in those who are
the objects. It's all of God. It's all of
Christ. He shall bring forth a headstone
thereof. Oh, that is the last stone that
is placed in the building. The building is now complete.
It brings forth a headstone with shoutings crying Grace, Grace
unto it. All the mountains overcome where
sin abounded, Grace did much more abound. That hymn that we
referred to just now, 212, speaks of that Grace. It rises
high. and rounds the hills as neither
sure nor bound. Now if we search to find our
sins, our sins can ne'er be found. Though those sins might reach
as mountain peaks unto the skies, yet all those sins are ultimately
drowned in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They can no more
be found. That lovely verse in Jeremiah
50-20. In those days, and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,
and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve. And what is it? How is it that
we come to these things? It's faith. By grace are you
saved. It's all of grace. By grace are
you saved through faith. And that faith, of course, the
gift of God. What does the Lord say concerning
faith? Verily He says, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard
seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence and depart. and it shall remove, and nothing
shall be impossible to you." Well, that's the language of
faith. It says to this mountain, remove. It's because faith has to do
with the Lord Jesus Christ, the rubbable. O great mountain, before
the rubbable thou shalt become a plain. Grace, all the work
shall crown, through everlasting days it lays in heaven the topmost
stone, and well deserves the praise." It's all to the glory
of the grace of God. And how the Apostle reminds us
of that, writing there in 1 Corinthians 15, 24, he says, then come at
the end, When he, that is the Lord Jesus,
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when
he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power,
for he must reign, he hath put all things under his feet, the
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Oh, how God has highly
exalted him. and given Him a name that is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of things in heaven, things in earth, and things under the
earth, and that every tongue is to confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. This then is our
Zerubbabel, even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who walked our
great mountain. Before Zerubbabel thou shalt
become a plain, And he shall bring forth a headstone thereof,
with shouting, crying, Grace, Grace, unto it. May the Lord bless his word to
us. We're going to sing that hymn
that I just referred to, Philip Godridge's hymn 201, the Tuniswabia,
number 71, Grace, "'Tis a charming sound harmonious
to the ear. "'Heaven with the echo shall
resound "'and all the earth shall hear. "'Grace all the work shall
crown. "'To everlasting days it lies
in heaven the topmost stone "'and well deserves the prize.'" Hymn
201.