Let us turn to God's words and
turn into that text that we were considering last Lord's Day morning
in Zechariah chapter 4 and verses 9 and 10. Zechariah chapter 4
verses 9 and 10. The hands of Zerubbabel have
laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it. And thou shalt know that the
Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the
day of small things? 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 throw through the whole earth. And we were
thinking more particularly last time of those words at the beginning
of verse 10, for who at despise the day of small things? We certainly often feel that
the day in which we're living is such a day as Zechariah is
describing. This is a day of small things,
certainly when we compare it with previous days. You don't
have to know a great deal about church history to be aware that
there have been times when God has shown great favour to our
own particular land. There have been great movements
of the Spirit of God and it seems that in comparison with those
days, this day in which we are living, is a dark day and we
can be guilty many times of despising the day. There's an interesting
verse back in the book of Ecclesiastes and there in Ecclesiastes chapter
7 and verse 10 concerning what our attitude should be to those
former days. The preacher says In Ecclesiastes
7.10, say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were
better than these? For thou dost not inquire wisely
concerning this. Those who are truly wise, if
we have that spiritual wisdom, the wisdom which is from above,
we must recognize, must we not, God's absolute sovereignty. And
God even in this day of small things is saving as many as He
had purpose from all eternity. God is still doing His work. And none is able to stay His
hand, none can frustrate Him in that great work. And is it
not a mercy that God is pleased even to take account of us and
to work in our poor hearts? And yet oftentimes we are brought,
if we're honest, to issue this word of lament. We despise the
day because we feel it to be such a day of small things. Let me just briefly, before we
proceed to consider something more of this text, to remind
you of the historical context. Zechariah was one who was called
to minister God's Word at the time of the restoration from
the Babylonian captivity. And it was but a remnant, of
course, that returns, as we see when Isaiah receives his call
there at the end of Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah, of course, was ministering
probably a century or more before the captivity, but he speaks
of those dreadful things that would befall the nation. God's
judgment would come upon them because of their idolatry, but
there would also be a restoration. And having received that call,
in chapter 6 he says at verse 11, Then said I, Lord, how long
and the answer, until the cities be wasted without inhabitants,
and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
and the Lord hath removed men far away, and there be a great
forsaking in the midst of the land." That is the period of
exile, the Babylonian captivity. But here is the promise, verse
13, but yet, in it shall be a tenth and it shall return. God would
preserve a remnant. The remnant would be brought
again out of exile and it's to that remnant that this man Zechariah
is called to be the Lord's servant and he ministered together with
Haggai. In the opening verse, then, of
this book, we're told, 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 Edo, the prophet. Again, in the previous
book, Haggai, in the second year of Darius the king in the six
months, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord
by Haggai, the prophet, unto Zerubbabel, the son of Zealtiel,
governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high
priest. These men are ministering then
in those days, ministering in the days when Zerubbabel is the
governor and Joshua is the High Priest. And what are they to
do? They are to encourage these men. They are to encourage them
in that work, in the rebuilding of the Temple of the Lord. As we see in the historical account
in Ezra chapter 5, The prophet Zechariah, the son of Ido, prophesied
unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of
the God of Israel, even to them, them those observable the son
of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedach, and began to
build the house of God which is in Jerusalem. And with them
were the prophets of God helping them." This is their ministry,
historically, to that little remnant who are there engaged
in the rebuilding of the temple. And yet, as we saw in that reading,
At the end of Ezra chapter 3, there were men there who were
ancient men. The end of chapter 3, verse 12. But many of the priests and Levites,
the chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, they were old
men, that had seen the first house, had seen Solomon's temple.
When the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, they
wept with a loud voice. Many shouted aloud for joy. What
a mixture it was. The people couldn't discern the
noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the
people. Who hath despised the day of
small things? What was this that was taking
place compared with the glories that once belonged to Jerusalem? And there stood Solomon's glorious
temple, the temple of the Lord. What was this in comparison with
what Solomon had built? You see then the context and
the significance of the words. For who has despised the day
of small things? 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 throw through the
whole earth. This was really no small thing.
This was no small thing because Christ himself would grace that
temple that was being built even with his own presence. Oh yes,
the temple was improved somewhat in the days of King Herod, but
it was that temple that had been rebuilt at the time of the restoration
of the Jews. And so, there in Haggai, in Haggai
chapter 2 and verse 9, we have this word, "...the glory of this
latter house shall be greater than the former." saith the Lord
of Hosts. And in this place will I give
peace, saith the Lord of Hosts." It's a promise, is it not, of
Christ, who is the Prince of Peace, who comes to do that great
work by making the propitiatory sacrifice for his people. That was the glory of Satan.
Christ himself would be there in that temple of the Lord proclaiming
the gospel of his grace, publishing peace on earth and goodwill towards
men. And we have the record, do we
not, there in the gospel, in John's gospel? We read of the
ministry of the Lord Jesus in the temple. John 7.28 Then cried
Jesus in the temple, as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and
ye know whence I am, and I am not come of myself, but he that
sent me is true, whom ye know not, but I know him, for I am
from him, and he hath sent me. How he is preaching here the
truth concerning himself and his own glorious person. And
then he goes on here in John's account in chapter 7 and verse
37. In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. But this spake he of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. And here you see, in the text
we have mention of that selfsame Spirit whom the glorified Saviour
would send. They shall rejoice and shall
see the plumage in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven They
are the eyes of the Lord which run to and through the whole
earth. The eyes of the Lord, those seven.
Remember those words that we have later concerning those eyes
of the Lord in the book of the Revelation, and there in Revelation
chapter 5 and verse 6 John says, I beheld, and lo,
in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the
midst of the elders stood a Lamb, as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God,
sent forth into all the earth. Seven, a symbolic number there
in the Revelation, speaking of the perfection. the perfection
of the work of the Spirit as He is sent forth into all the
world. And He is that One, of course,
who applies the work of Christ, and there is a perfect application,
as Christ's work is a perfect work. So, the application of
that work by the Spirit is also a perfect work. But as many as
Christ died for, they must be saved. The Spirit is that One
who will come and accomplish it, even salvation in the soul
of that sinner. The One that the Father has loved
from all eternity, the One that the Father has given unto the
Son, and the Son has come and redeemed. All the work is perfect. Christ is to present unto the
Father in that great day His Church without spot or wrinkle
or any blemish at all. the perfect work of the Holy
Spirit. And this is what we have here.
We're not to despise it. This is the day of grace that
is being spoken. For who hath despised the day
of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall
see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. With those seven
there are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through
the whole earth. Christ is to build his church.
The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But let us come this
morning and consider more particularly the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. Whereas we concentrated previously
on that day of small things, now we come to consider the plummet
and the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. First of all, Let
us establish again quite clearly the significance of this personage,
the person of Zerubbabel. Who was Zerubbabel? Well, he
was a prince. He was the governor, that's who
he's spoken of there at the beginning of Haggai. He is the one who
is sent under Cyrus to be the ruler because he's of the princely
line. He was in fact the grandson of
Jehoiachin or Jeconiah. and we find his name there in
those genealogies that we have at the beginning of the first
book of the Chronicles. I imagine that you have attempted
at some stage to read consecutively through the Word of God from
Genesis through to Revelation and how tedious it is when we
come to those genealogies there at the beginning of 1 Chronicles
and yet we have to read these. This is all part of Scripture.
If we don't read these, of course, we miss out. For example, if
we don't read the opening chapters of 1 Chronicles, we would miss
such a gem, as we find in chapter 4 and verses 9 and 10, the prayer
of Jabez, in the midst. of this list of names. But the
significance of the names, you see, is seen in that this man,
Zerubbabel, is clearly the grandson of Jehoiakim. Look at chapter 3, and verse 17, the sons of Jeconiah
or Jehoiakim, as the name is sometimes given, the sons of
Jeconiah, Isaiah, Zalathiel, his son, Malkarim also and Padaiah
and Shanazar, Jechemiah, Oshamah and Nedabiah and the sons of
Padaiah were Zerubbabel and Shimeiah they were the sons of Zerubbabel
so Zerubbabel is the son of Padaiah and Padaiah was the son of Jechaniah
And Jeconiah, as I say, is also referred to as Jehoiakim. Now, turning from the first book
of Chronicles to the end of that second book of Chronicles, we
see that it was Jehoiakim, the grandfather of Zerubbabel, who
was the king who was taken into exile, taken into captivity. There, in 2 Chronicles, chapter
36, at verse 8, Jehoiakim was eight
years old when he began to reign and he reigned three months and
ten days in Jerusalem and he did that which was evil in the
sight of the Lord. And when the year was expired,
King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon with the
goodly vessels of the house of the Lord and made Zedekiah his
brother king over Judah and Jerusalem. So this man, Zerubbabel, he is
a prince. He is the grandson of that man
who was taken into exile. And the name, the name reminds
us of the Babylonian captivity. Zerubbabel, literally it means
a shoot of Babylon. A shoot out of Babylon. And of course, he's in Christ's
line. He's there at the beginning of
the New Testament Scriptures, as we saw last week. He's an
ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the opening chapter
of the New Testament, Matthew chapter 1, and there at verse
Twelve were told after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconias
begat Salathiel and Salathiel begat Zerubbabel and Zerubbabel
begat Abiud and Abiud begat Eliakim and so on. And then we see that
he's one of the principal antecedents of Christ, because how the generations
are measured there in Matthew 1.17, the generations from Abraham
to David are 14 generations, from David until the carrying
away into Babylon are 14 generations, and from the carrying away into
Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. And it's there you see that the
carrying away into Babylon is a significant antecedent of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is a type. This is what we
said last time. He is clearly a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ. His name is a rubber ball, a
shoot out of Babylon. And isn't the Lord Jesus Christ,
in a certain sense, also spoken of here as a shoot or a branch
in chapter 3? Verse 8, Behold, I will bring
forth my servant the branch. Again in chapter 6 and verse
12, Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, Behold, a man
whose name is the branch, and he shall grow up out of his place,
and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Zerubbabel is there
building the temple of the Lord. He is the branch, he is that
shoot out of Babylon, but there's a greater than Zerubbabel who
is to build the temple of the Lord, who is to build his church.
The Lord Jesus Christ is that one who is spoken of in terms
of God's servant, the branch. The branch from whence? Well, he is of the house of David,
is he not? In Isaiah chapter 11, there in
the opening part of that chapter, we read of a rod out of the stem
of Jesse and a branch out of his roots. Jesse being the father
of David, of course. Right out of the stem of Jesse
and the branch out of his root. Again, coming to the New Testament
and the last book there in Revelation chapter 22 and verse 16. How is Christ spoken of? Revelation
22, 16 is the root and the offspring of David. He is the root of David,
he is the offspring, he is a branch out of David. And of course, in that he is
both the root of David and the offspring of David, we are reminded,
are we not, of the two natures in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the root of David because
he is David's God. He is before David. He is David's
Creator. And then he is also the offspring,
when we think in terms of his human nature, because he is of
that line, he is David's greater son. The Lord Jesus puts that
question to the Jews at the end of Matthew 22, What think ye
of Christ? Now they would seek many times
to catch Him in His words, but they cannot answer the question
that the Lord puts to them there at the end of Matthew 22. What
think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? They say unto
Him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then
doth David in spirit call Him Lord? You see, He is both David's
Lord and David's Son. He is the root of David, he is
the offspring of David. How then doth David in spirit
call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on
my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David
then call him Lord, how is he his son? And we are told no man
was able to answer him a word, neither dost any man from that
day forth ask him any more questions. Oh, the great mystery, you see,
of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That in that person we
see God and we see man. And yet he is one person. In
all that he does, he is ever, always God-man. Never anything
less than that. The Lord that made both heaven
and earth and was himself made man lay in the womb before his
birth contracted to a span behold from what beginnings small our
great salvation rose the strength of God is owned by all but do
his weakness knows we just sang those words did we not in the
hymn what significance there in that you see the small beginnings
of that great work that Christ came to accomplish. Who has despised
the die of small things? He was born, of course, not in
some kingly palace. There was no room in the inn.
And at his birth, his mother laid the newborn child in a manger
for his bed. and how we see the insignificance
of him in those early years how the prophet Isaiah speaks of
it in the familiar words of chapter 53 he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground he hath no
form nor comeliness when we shall see him there is no beauty that
we should desire him he is despised and rejected of me a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief These are the beginnings of the gospel,
are they not? When we think of the manner in
which God comes into this earth, the great mystery of godliness
in the incarnation, the small beginnings of the gospel, and
how the Lord teaches it himself in the course of his earthly
ministry. Think of Matthew 13, that great chapter that contains
so many of his parables. This was the manner of his ministry,
was it not? Quite deliberately so, of course,
there was to be truth concealed from some, whilst truth is being
revealed to others. And there, in Matthew 13, verse
31, another parable. But he fought unto them, saying,
The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which
a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of
all seeds. But when it is grown, it is the
greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of
the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." He's speaking
of the Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven. And he doesn't say it's
like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds, it's
like a grain of a mustard seed. so insignificant, and yet it
grows, and is the greatest of herbs, and becomes a tree, and
the fowls of the air come, and they lodge in the branches thereof. Oh, he is speaking, you see,
of those small beginnings, and yet all that that is established,
even the kingdom of his grace. Who hath despised the day of
small things? Who is the one who is at work
here? It is the rubbable. It is Christ. They shall see
the plummet in the hand of the rubbable. He is that one who
will do his work, even from small beginnings. Oh, what call we
small things, since whole cancelled sum "'Tis greater than all things
except those to come." That reign of grace that the Lord Jesus
comes to establish in the earth, when He comes into the soul of
the sinner and does His great work there, the blessed application
of it. You see, small beginnings may
also be true in the experience of individuals. When we look
to ourselves, We read of the experiences of
others in many ways. The most interesting material
so often in the gospel standard is the obituaries. There aren't
the obituaries today that one discovers when one looks back
and reads the old magazines. But how interesting it is to
read these experiences. But when we read of the lives
of others and the dealings of others and some seem to have
such remarkable experiences and sometimes when we look to ourselves
we might be somewhat discouraged in our experience we might think
well my beginning wasn't quite as clear as that there's a great
deal that's small and indistinct when I look to myself and when
I examine myself and the beginnings but we need to take it consciously
of what is written in Scripture. We are not to despise the day
of small things even with regards to ourselves. There's an interesting portion at the end of this book
in chapter 14 and verses 6 and 7 we have this word, "...it shall
come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear
nor dark but it shall be one day which shall be known to the
Lord not day nor night But it shall come to pass that at evening
time it shall be light. Now is there not an experimental
significance in this when we look to ourselves? And sometimes
our beginning isn't as clear as we might desire. The light
shall not be clear nor dark, but it shall be one day known
to the Lord. Oh, that's a great thing, is
it not? The Lord. The Lord knows. The Lord knows
what His way is, what His dealings are. And we have that assurance
at evening time, it shall be light. In many ways, it's similar
to that other word that we find back in Isaiah 59 10. It says,
we grope for the wall like the blind, we grope as if we had
no eyes, we stumble at noonday as in the night. And some of
us, when we look back, we think, well, that was somewhat like
my beginnings. It was such confusion there,
things were not as clear as I would desire them to be when I look
back. You see the important thing is not something great and remarkable. We're not to expect such an experience
as we might read in John Bunyan's Grace about it. The important
thing of course is that our beginning is a real beginning. Matters
not if it's only a small beginning. So long as it's a real beginning
And it's not us beginning, it's the Lord Himself coming and taking
us in hand and teaching us. The Lord beginning with us. We
have that assurance again in Job 8, verse 7, "...though thy
beginning was small, yet thy latter end shall greatly increase."
All better is the end of a thing. than the beginning thereof,"
says the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes. "...who hath
despised the day of small things." It's the plummet in the hand
of Zerubbabel with those seven. It's the Lord doing His work,
applying that salvation that was wrought by Christ, that full,
that complete, that perfect salvation. It's not looking to ourselves,
is it? It's looking away from ourselves, ultimately. That's
what faith does. It looks to the perfect work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And now He is able to overcome
every obstacle. Able to overcome all our unbelief. Verse 71, Thou, O great mountain,
O the mountains of sin and the mountains of unbelief, before
the rubble thou shalt become a plain. He shall bring forth
a headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, Grace, unto it. The Lord is able to overcome,
you see, and establish even in our souls His blessed reign of
grace. The voice of my Beloved we read
in the Song of Solomon. The voice of my Beloved, behold,
He cometh. leaping upon the mountains, skipping
upon the hills. He overcomes, you see, all the
obstacles and he establishes his kingdom. He brings salvation
into the soul of the sinner. Let us not despise then the day
of smorthing if we have but faith. Faith as a grain of mustard seed. Ye shall say to this mountain,
says Christ, removed to yonder place, and it shall remove, and
nothing shall be impossible to you." Even if we have small faith
like that, so long as our faith is real. And that real faith,
of course, is that faith that he comes by the operation of
God. It is that faith that is the
gift of God. Or, here we see the rubble there. And who is this rubble? It's
Christ himself. but in the second place let us
consider the plummet the plummet in his hand you have despised the day of
small things for they shall rejoice and shall
see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven All
the plummet you see is in his hand. What is the plummet? Well, the margin says a stone
of ten, a weight. It's a weight on the end of the
plumb line that is, of course, so necessary in the whole project
of the rebuilding the walls of the temple to ensure that all
is straight, all is vertical. But the striking thing here is
that the plumage is in someone's hand. And whose hand is it in? It's in the hand of Zerubbabel. And this is the Lord Jesus Christ
and he comes and what does he do? He comes and he measures. Oh, he measures his people. Look
at chapter 2. The whole imagery here, of course,
is out of the building of the Temple of the Lord. 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, Whither goest
thou? And he said unto me, To measure
Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is
the length thereof. The measuring line, the plummet,
in his hand. Here is that man you see who
is measuring, and what does the Lord do? He comes and He measures
His people. He measures His people. He measures
with a measuring rod. Again, the imagery is taken up
also in the book of the Revelation, chapter 11. John said, There
was given me a reed like unto a rod, and the angel stood, saying,
Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and them that
worship therein. All with this measuring rod you
see the worshippers also are to be measured. The same imagery
in another of the prophets in Ezekiel chapter 40 and there in verses 3 to 5 The Prophet says he brought me
dinner and behold there was a man whose appearance was like the
appearance of brass with a line of flax in his hand and a measuring
reed and he stood in the gate and the man said unto me son
of man behold with thine eyes and hear with thine ears and
set thine heart upon all that I shall show thee for the intent
that I might show them unto thee, that I might show them unto thee
art thou brought hither. Declare all that thou seest to
the house of Israel. And behold, the wall on the outside
of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring
reed of six cubit, long by the cubit and in handbreadth. So
he measured the breadth of the building, one reed, and the height,
one reed." Again you see it is the measuring It's the measuring
of the city, it's the measuring of the temple, it's the measuring
of the people of God, and this is what the Lord Jesus Christ
does, is it not? He comes to his people and he
measures his people. How does he measure his people?
He measures them by his word. He measures them by his law. Oh, there is such a ministry,
is there not? We know that what things soever the law saith,
it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight." James Bourne says,
when applied the plumage shows nothing but crooks. When the
Lord comes you see with the plumage, when he comes with his measure
in line What do we find? There's nothing but that that
is uneven and crooked. There's nothing but sin within
us. Nothing is straight. Everything is out of sorts. The
Lord shows us what we are as sinners. It's the plummet in
the hand of the rubbable with those seven. They are the eyes
of the Lord which unto and through through the whole earth, and
remember we've already referred to those words in Revelation
5-6 which tell us quite clearly that those eyes are the seven
spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. It's that ministry
of the Spirit. And what is the ministry of the
Spirit? It's a ministry of conviction, is it not? That's what Christ
tells us in John 16, when He has come He will reprove the
world. of sin and 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 just all the work of the Spirit
you see now he brings that conviction into the soul of sinner he makes
the sinner see what he is feel what he is it's the plumage in
the hand of Zerubbabel as he comes to measure his people to
discover to them what they are to show them their sins that
they might see their great need of salvation but then also the
imagery here doesn't just remind us of how the Lord Jesus is the
one who is measuring his people he is the one who also builds
his church is he not? He builds His church. Verse 9,
The hands of the rubbable have laid the foundation of this house.
His hands shall also finish it, and they shall know that the
Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. Christ says it Himself upon
this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. And what is that rock? It's Peter's
great confession there at Caesarea Philippi. Whom say ye that I
am? And what does Peter say? Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And it's that rock,
other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which
is Jesus Christ the Lord. He will build his church. 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. All these, friends, surely is
our comfort. even in a day of small things.
As I said at the beginning, the Lord God is sovereign, and even
in such a day as this, He is accomplishing His work, He is
calling out His people, even as many as He purposed to save
from all eternity. No more, no less. What are we
to do then? Well, we have that exhortation
of the Apostle at the end of 1st Corinthians 15 be ye steadfast
unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much
as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord isn't
that our comfort? we do not labor in vain, the
Lord is sovereign, the Lord will save the people we are to plead
with Him, we are to pray to Him we can take up the prayer of
Moses, the man of God, can we not there in Psalm 90 establish
thou the works of our hands upon us? Yea, the works of our hands
establish thou it. We are to know and we are to
feel our complete and our utter dependence upon Him. We cannot
do the work. It is the Lord's work. It is
that blessed work of the Spirit. But oh, it's a perfect work.
Remember the significance of the number here. that number
7 that we see at the end of the text they shall see the plummet in
the hand of Zerubbabel with those 7 they are the eyes of the Lord
which run to and through the whole number 7 that perfect number
we have it of course not only in Revelation 5 and verse 6,
but we have it there, remember, at the beginning, when John receives
the revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto him, to show unto his servant things which must shortly come
to pass, and he sent, we're told, and signified it by his servant
unto John. And then John addresses the Seventh
Church. And as we said last time, he begins with the words of greeting. And the greetings are sent in
the name of the triune God. Grace be unto you, and peace
from him which is, and which was, and which is to come. and
from the seven spirits which are before His throne, and from
Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten
of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto
Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,
and that made us kings and priests, unto God and His Father, to Him
be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Now such is John's
word of greeting to the seven churches, and we see it as a
Trinitarian greeting. He speaks of the Father which
is, and which was, and which is to come. He speaks of the
Son, Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first begotten,
the one who loved us and washed us, made us kings and priests,
and so on. And then the Holy Spirit, And
He speaks of the seven spirits which are before His throne. The seven spirits. That perfect
work of God, the Holy Ghost. That's what we have here, you
see, in our text. Together with the plummet in
the hand of Zerubbabel, it is with those seven. Or it is God
accomplishing His great purpose. This is our comfort, I say. As
for God, The Swami says His way is perfect. His way is perfect
in the way in which He builds His church. His way is perfect
in the way in which He deals with us as individuals. And when
He comes to do that great work of grace in our poor souls, and
as we look back and reflect upon these things, as I said, we might
sometimes feel, oh, I wish my experience was somewhat different.
not so indistinct, not so confused, not such a small beginning. All
friends, the vital, the real need, children, is that our beginning
is that that comes from the Lord Himself, and we're not to despise
it. We're not to despise it. What despise the day of small
things is the question. Here is the answer. gives the
answer, 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 through through the whole earth. Brother
Lord, bless to us his word. Amen.