well thank you it's just uh it's
lovely to be here for those who've known me for some time seven
years ago since i was here for the six six years ago 2017 isn't
it and uh we've been on a journey together all of the lord's people
go on a journey together and uh i'm just so appreciative of
you and i can't help but be thankful to our God again and again and
again when I think of you people and think of how the Lord has
preserved his witness in this place through all sorts of trials
and how blessed it is for us to have a great God and saviour
who gathers his people together and bears witness to his glory
in this world and I'm thankful to Kevin and Kimberly for coming
last year and thank you for sending them One of the things we keep
forgetting about, we see pastors and we see preachers and we don't
realise and we so often forget, isn't it, that the only possible
reason that there is a pastor and a preacher here and here
and everywhere else is because the Lord has a flock. The Lord
gathers a flock together and then the Lord provides a pastor
for them and I'm just so thankful that in a way that I trust will
grow our congregations are being knitted together. I hope you
understand that the trajectory of Kevin's travels is from way
over there in the northeast of America down here to the southeast.
If you draw a line on a map and see where it goes. The next place. They can come and visit as often
as possible. So we had the sweetest fellowship last year, and we
were blessed. Our fellowship was blessed, and
people keep asking, when are they coming back? And so we're
looking forward to that. I want us to talk. today and
hear from the Lord today about good words and comfortable words
in Zechariah 1 verse 13. These are good words. These are
good words and comfortable words from our God. The prophets of
God are commanded, what a delightful command the Lord gives us. You
comfort my people. You comfort my people, saith
the Lord. You tell them their warfare is
accomplished. Tell them that they've received double from
the Lord's hand for all their sins. They've gone. They've been
put away. We have a glorious gospel to proclaim. We have a
glorious gospel of a sovereign successful Savior and in these
churches we are witnessing the fulfillment of the prophecies
of God Almighty. What's God doing in this world
today? He's doing exactly what he's done all through history,
hasn't he? And so just as he took these people in Zechariah,
these people have come as a remnant group out of those that were
sent by the hand of God to Babylon to preserve them while the wrath
of God fell upon Jerusalem. and they had gone to Babylon
and been sent to Babylon and the Lord says I'm a little sanctuary
for you there and that's what he is for all of his people in
the Babylon's of this world. But the Lord comes back and these
comforting words, these comforting words are words that remind us
of why And they begin, Zechariah begins these comforting words
with reminding them of why they were there. And they were there
and all of the travail that had come upon them and their fathers
was simply because they didn't believe God. And they didn't
obey God. And God was faithful to the covenant
that he had made and faithful to the promises that he had made
to them. So he begins and he says to them, you turn me "'Turn
ye unto me,' saith the Lord of hosts in verse 3 of chapter 1,
"'because the Lord has been sore displeased with your fathers.
"'Turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings,
"'but they did not hear nor hearken unto me. There is a salutary warning in
the people being sent away into Babylon but there is a glorious
gospel in their return and that's what we wanted to look at tonight.
There is a temple to be built, there is a place of God's presence
to be built, there is a place of sacrifice to be established
on this earth, there is a place where God bears witness to himself
in that temple and everything about the temple is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything to do with the temple,
the building of the temple, the laying of the foundation and
that's why our verse is so... the verses that I want us to
look at are... In verse 9 it says, The hands
of Zerubbabel, and that's speaking of the king, he's the son of
David. He was rightfully a king but
never claimed to be as such. But he's the son of David, but
he's a type and a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The hands
of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. And his hands shall also finish
it. That's a picture of the church.
The hands of the rubble will have laid the foundation of this
house. His hands shall also finish it. And thou shalt know that
the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. who has despised a day of small
things. It seems like such a small thing,
doesn't it? All of San Diego passes by and takes no notice
of what happens here. But the Lord meets with his people. And I love the picture in the
gospel accounts of the Lord Jesus Christ being in Bethany. There
over the hill in Jerusalem was all of the magnificence of religion
of this world, the religion of men. And where was the real temple
of God? And where was the real meeting
place of God with his people? It's in a little house in Bethany. A little house in Bethany that's
filled with the odour of the ointment of the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's the house that
the Lord Jesus Christ is building. The temple, of course, is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ and it's a picture of him and him
crucified. The centrepiece of the temple,
of course, is the Holy of Holies and it's a mercy seat where the
Shekinah glory shone and where God met with his people on the
basis of blood, on the basis of sacrifice and the high priest
came out on that great day and pronounced a blessing upon the
people of God because God had accepted the sacrifice. And so
it is today in the temple of God, isn't it? We are declaring
a sacrifice accepted by God. We are declaring a God who says,
I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail
against it. I will build my church. Every
time, I just love it, every time you get to a will or a shall
in the Bible and it comes from the mouth of God, it's good to
stop for a little bit and say, Amen. Truly, truly, these are
the words of promise, aren't they? The temple is the body
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the temple that's built and the
temple that's being built today is the temple of all of those
stones that are gathered in him. If you might turn with me to
first Peter chapter 2 and we'll just read about these living
stones. And what the living stones are
doing in verse 4 of chapter 2 is to whom coming. means they're
always coming they came and they keep coming and they keep coming
and they're coming now and they'll keep coming until they meet him
in glory to whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed
of men but chosen of God and precious you also ye also as
lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore it is also contained
in the scripture, behold, I lay in Sion, a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe
he is precious. He is precious. But unto them
which be disobedient, the same which the builders disallowed,
the same is made the head of the corner. He's still the head
of the corner, even though men stand opposed to him. So let's
just think about the story of these people that came back from
Babylon. And in this story, we have the
story of all of God's people being gathered together into
this temple. And when they returned, Have
a think about what met the eyes of those people that came back
from Babylon. Seventy years had passed. Seventy years. That temple had
been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar with the intention that it would
never be built again. It was destroyed. So what do
you have for 70 years? All there was was rubble and
burnt timber. And then for 70 years, all the
weeds and all the vines and all the brambles grew and all the
creeping things that live amongst that were there. They returned to ruin. They returned to ruin. How does God Almighty get glory
in the midst of that? And so it is like all of God's
people are like Joshua, wasn't it? Joshua in verse 3 of chapter
3 was clothed in filthy garments. It's our experience of grace,
isn't it? And stood before the angel and he answered and spake
unto those that stood before him saying, take away the filthy
garments from him. And he said unto him, behold,
I've caused thine iniquity to pass from thee and I will clothe
thee with the change of raiment. All of God's children know that
in the laying of the foundation, the stone upon which they are
to be built, there is much rubbish to be taken away. So the only
people that stand and know that their garments, all of their
righteousnesses, all of the deeds they've ever done are just filthy
are those who stand before the angel of the Lord. All of those
that stand before the angel of the Lord feel themselves like
that. And what does God do when he's
laying that foundation upon which he lays all of these living stones?
Well, firstly, when you went back there to Jerusalem, you
had to get rid of all the rubbish, didn't you? You had to chop the
trees down, you had to get rid of the brambles, you had to get
rid of the... Imagine all of the snakes and all of the spiders
and all of the rubbish. There was so much rubbish. Nehemiah
says there's much rubbish. There's so much rubbish. You've
got to get rid of the rubbish and then you've got to dig down
through all of that rubble. It's a picture of what the Lord
does in the lives of his people, isn't it? To show us what we
are. We are sinners in filthy garments. He has to remove the rubbish.
He has to dig down deep. He has to make a place. You then
have to make a place level for a foundation stone. And if you're
going to build a big building, a big stone building like this
building, you have to make sure that that foundation is laid
as perfectly level as it possibly can be. And you have to have
it perfectly aligned because it sets not only what is built
on top of it, it sets the dimensions of the building as it were, doesn't
it? And so God builds upon this stone. and our verses remind us. The hands of Zerubbabel lay this
foundation. The hands of Zerubbabel will
finish it. God lays the foundation of this
building. We have a glorious picture of
these people, don't they? The Lord's remnant wherever they
are scattered about this world. They're a remnant that's preserved
in Babylon. Babylon's a picture of this world
and it's particularly a picture of the religion of this world.
And the great whore of Babylon has poured out her her wine and
made the nations drunk. And it's a picture of man-made's
religion and Zechariah is showing us the glory of God's building
in comparison to the work of men. These remnant is brought
out of Babylon and they're brought out of Babylon by a promise.
And they're brought out of Babylon by God's hand moving the heart
of Cyrus. Isn't that a remarkable thing
in Ezra chapter 1? The Lord moved the heart of Cyrus,
the mighty king. And he says, he makes a decree,
you send those people back there and you build the temple and
you put it all on my account. And here we are so often wondering
about what's happening in the world. What are the kings doing? What's happening in the world?
All of the things that are going wrong. Our God is absolutely
sovereign, brothers and sisters, over the building of his temple
and over all the kings in opposition to it, all of the kings that
gather against him. So these people came back and
they were a discouraged people. If you read in Ezra chapter three,
that when that foundation stone was finally laid, By the hand
of Zerubbabel, there were tears mixed. There were tears mixed
with the joy so that people didn't know whether it was joy or sadness
that they were there. They thought that this building
couldn't be anything like what they had. There was weeping and
joy mixed together. And if you read the accounts
that Ezra and Nehemiah give, as soon as that foundation stone
was laid, as soon as the Lord laid the foundation stone of
the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified, which is what all
the temple is about, there was opposition to it. And the opposition
continued and continued. And Zechariah is writing nearly
20 years after the people had come back and they'd had stopped
for a number of years and they'd had so much opposition, opposition
from within and opposition from without. And Zachariah's task
is to encourage the saints in the midst of all of that when
the building doesn't seem to be very impressive and the work
is stopped and the opposition to it is so intense and from
so many places. So what are the good and comforting
words? What are the good and the comforting words? The good
and comforting words and the encouragement that Zachariah
brings to his brethren is he reminds them, as I said earlier,
he reminds them of sin. He reminds them of who they are. And then he brings nine visions
in one night. to Zechariah and every one of
the visions is a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified
and the Lord Jesus Christ building his temple, the Lord Jesus Christ
gathering his fellowships together, triumphant, triumphant, a sovereign
saviour, a successful saviour, a triumphant saviour. And the
temple speaks, of course, of substitution and sacrifice and
success of our great God. It's where he reveals himself.
He reveals himself in his temple. He reveals himself to his people
as he builds his temple. He says in verse 16 of chapter
1, I love the plural. He says, I am returned to Jerusalem
with mercies. Not just one mercy. If you have
one mercy from the Lord, you have a multitude of mercies.
If you have one grace from the Lord or one blessing, how many
blessings do the Lord's people have? All. Does that mean any are missing?
Am I lacking any at the moment? Where are they? kept in heaven. They kept in the Lord Jesus Christ
for me. So he comes back with words of
promise. I'm returned to Jerusalem. And then he says, he says, my
house Verse 16, I'm returned to Jerusalem with mercies. My
house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts. And a line
stretched forth upon Jerusalem. There is a house to be built.
God is going to build this house. And the house that God's built
is going to have God's fingerprints all over it. all the time, isn't
it? The foundation is laid by God
Almighty, the headstone is laid by God Almighty, and all the
shoutings of grace, grace unto it. And he is not just there
idly standing by, he says in verse 5 of chapter 2, he says,
For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and
will be the glory in the midst of her. For you don't think the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ is precious. You're dealing with
someone who thinks it's very, very precious indeed. And you
don't touch the church of the Lord Jesus Christ without dealing
with that fire. Multitudes are realising that
as we speak at this very moment. And God will measure it. And
I will be the glory in the midst of her. I will be the glory. In verse 10 he says, sing and
rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for I will dwell in the midst
of thee. Lord Jesus Christ builds his
church and he dwells in the midst of her and he stands protecting
her. The angels in camp around us. If we could be led of God to
simply believe what God says about what he's doing, where
he gathers his people and where the gospel is preached, we would
be in awe. If we had a glimpse of what was
happening where the Lord gathers his people and where his gospel
of free and sovereign grace and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
was proclaimed, if we could see a glimpse of that from heaven's
perspective, we would be in awe. God Almighty, the Lord Jesus
Christ, says that where he gathers his people, there he is in the
midst of them. Angels are camping around us.
He is in the midst of us. We are, according to God, the
temple of God. We are a building wherever the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, wherever Christ is raised up
in the glory of his being, in the glory of just simply what
it says in the scriptures about him. He says in Ephesians chapter
2, he says, We are built upon the foundation of the apostles
and the prophets. We're built on these words of
Zechariah, aren't we? Because these words of Zechariah
are words about the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. That's this stone that's being
laid here. In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth
unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together
for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Amen. It's true whether we say amen
or not. It's true, isn't it? God said it. God said it. What a precious place to be.
What a precious, precious gospel to declare. All of the stones
are laid upon this one stone, this one stone of the Lord Jesus
Christ and him crucified. And what a lovely picture of
these stones, as I said earlier. All of the stones know themselves
to be like Joshua. Joshua's a picture of the high
priest, but also he's a picture of all of the children of God
who are made kings and priests unto God. They're clothed in
filthy garments. And we stood before the angel,
and he answered and spoke unto those that stood before him,
saying, Take away the filthy garments. I want you to note
carefully what Joshua is doing here and Joshua is saying. The Lord said, we can go back
to verse 2, he said, Now Joshua was clothed in filthy garments
before the angel of the Lord, and he answered and spoke unto
those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy
garments from him. What garments the Lord Jesus
Christ wore when he bore our sins in his own body on the tree! What extraordinary filth! The filth that goes through our
minds that no one ever notices. The filth of all of our actions. The filth of our fall in our
father Adam, when we said to God, you get out of my life.
And we said to Satan, I'll have your words and your promises
and your reward in this world. What extraordinary filth covered
the Lord Jesus Christ. What a remarkable gospel we have
that he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And he
bore them all, all of them. The sins that I'm committing
now he bore in his own body on the tree. The sins that I'll
commit until the last breath that I breathe on this earth.
He bore them all, these filthy garments. And what does God say?
He says, you take them away. And behold, he says, I've caused
all thine iniquity to pass from thee. The Lord Jesus Christ owned
the sins of all of his people because of his eternal union
with them. He says in Psalm 40 and many
other places in the Old Testament scriptures, he says they're my
sins. Such was the union and such was
the covenantal promise that the Lord Jesus Christ owned my sins
as his own. And he says, I've caused thine
iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with a change
of raiment. What an extraordinary raiment are all the children
of God robed in. We're robed in the very robes
of his righteousness now, brothers and sisters. That's how we stand
before God Almighty. but also as much as it's a picture
of us, it's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and we are
united to him. And he says in verse 9, I'm sorry, let's go
down to verse 10. He said, Here now, O Joshua the
high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, for they
are men wondered at. The gospel is a gospel of grace,
but it's also a gospel of amazing grace, isn't it? People wonder
at us, don't they? Why on earth are you doing the
things you're doing? Why on earth are you gathered
here when there's so much wonderful stuff going on in San Diego and
Nauru and all sorts of other parts of the world? Why are you
here? The world cannot understand us, brothers and sisters. Don't
you love what John says? Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed on us. Not that we've earned. That we
should be called the sons of God, therefore the world knoweth
us not. Don't expect the world to understand
what's going on. Don't expect the world to understand
what's going on between you and the Lord. Don't expect the world
to understand the things that you love and the things that
you hate and the reason you do the things you do. We have a
simple task, don't we? Preach the gospel. preach the
gospel, support the gospel, pray for gospel witness, pray for
a door of utterance to be opened. These stones are built into a
spiritual house. So let's go back to Zechariah
chapter 4 and verse 6. I love that Zechariah has to
ask a question He says, the angel talked with
me and answered and said unto me, knowest thou not what these
be? And those golden candlesticks
and those olive trees and the pipes and all of that is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ feeding and nourishing his church personally
and particularly and powerfully with the golden oil. But I love
that Zachariah said, I don't know what they are. Zachariah
needed God to explain. We need the Spirit of God for
us to know what God is saying, and we need the Spirit of God
for us to know and believe what God says again and again. We
are utterly, completely dependent upon them. Then he answered, and he spoke
unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto his rubble,
saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith
the Lord of hosts. This is how the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ is built. Except the Lord build the house,
they labour in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the
city, the watchmen watch in vain. Not by might, Not by might. God's house is not going to be
built by might and it's not going to be built by power. And so
it's interesting to know that those two words have a different
meaning. Not by might, not by the collected might of many,
not by the collected might of an army of people. How many denominations are there
in this world? If you ask Siri, Siri says there
are 45,000 of them in this world. 45,000! Not by the might of the
45,000 gathered together. When we had to leave the religious organisation we
were in 15 years ago in Australia, the very first activity of the
pastor and the leadership of the church that had removed us
basically, we were excommunicated and they rejoiced that we'd gone,
the dead would have gone, they preached sermons about how wonderful
it was that these people are no longer troubling us. Their
very first activity was to be part of a thing called Jesus
All About Life. You can Google it if you want
to find out about it. But what they were doing was they were
gathering all the churches together. So the Seventh-day Adventists
and the Catholics and the Baptists and the Presbyterians and the
Episcopalians and everyone that you could name all got together. And the idea was that they would
have an advertising campaign to try and advertise the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so what they did is they
found an advertising agency that was prepared to do it, led by
an atheist, and they used the Pepsi sort of symbol. The colors
of Pepsi and the Pepsi symbol just put Jesus in it. They took
a verse out of John chapter 10 that had nothing to do with what
they were talking about at all. If you study marketing in Australia
in colleges today, you will be directed to this campaign because
it was so extraordinarily successful because it had so many people
following it. So many people, it became the
object of scorn. That's why so many people were
looking at it because so many comedians were earning a good
living from laughing about the stupidity of it all. They all
gathered together, they all gathered together and people were rejoicing
that finally we have all the churches gathered together. Not
by might is what God is saying, not by might. God does not build
his church by religious organisations and religious institutions. God
does not build his church that way. He doesn't build his church
by government legislation. He doesn't build his church...
He's not up for election, brothers and sisters. He's not trying
to win a popularity contest. You just read John chapter 6.
He walked away from a crowd of thousands and thousands of people.
Man with his might cannot build where grace reigns. They're mutually
exclusive. You don't come to God on steps. You don't come to God on steps
of man's making. Not by might of men collected
together. Not by the power of man. Not by the intellect. Not by
the learning. Not by the eloquence of man. You listen to the story, read
the story of Moses in Exodus chapter 3. No one volunteered
to be a prophet in the old days. No one volunteered. Moses had
to be coerced, almost threatened with his life by God, didn't
he? David was just a shepherd boy. I do love the description
in Acts chapter 4 of those apostles, that they were considered by
the Jews and the religious leaders. to be ignorant and unlearned
men, didn't they? But one thing they noticed, they
acknowledged their ignorance and they acknowledged that they
were unlearned, they didn't speak in fancy language, their language
was offensive to them. But they took note that they
had been with the Lord Jesus Christ. They've been with Him,
not by might, not by the power of man, not by man's eloquence,
not by man's free will, not by man's work. Flesh gives birth
to flesh. Fleshly religious activities
give birth to fleshly religious activities. It's like that Pharisee
at the temple, didn't he? He prayed thus with himself.
He says, I thank you, God. He even used the name of the
Lord, didn't he? I thank you, God. I'm not like
these other people. His prayer, he prayed with himself. That religious man, no doubt
it was very eloquent. No doubt it was very eloquent.
Fleshly activities just build man up. But by my Spirit, saith
the Lord. The Spirit of God reveals the
glory of God to the people of God, doesn't it? The Spirit of
God is absolutely essential, isn't it? The Spirit of God has
the blessed task of taking the things of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the glory of his achievements, the wonder of his very being,
the fulfilment of all of those promises. He takes them and he's
promised to reveal them to us. Reveal them to us. We see Jesus. Peter says that we have a better
view of the Lord Jesus Christ than they did on the Mount of
Transfiguration. Believe that? He says it's true. We see him by faith. We see him
by faith. It's a new creation. not by power, not but by my spirit,
sayeth the Lord of hosts. And then he says, who art thou,
O great mountain, O great mountain before Zerubbabel? Who are they,
O great mountain? Think of the mountains. We who
have the spirit of God know what it is to have a fight between
flesh and spirit. What's the sin that so easily
entangles us? Unbelief. Unbelief, isn't it? All the time. Great mountain,
our sins have separated you from your God. What a mountain of
sin this sinner bears. The mountain of our flesh, the
mountain of this world, the mountain of Satan. We have enemies within
and enemies without all the time. The greatest enemy I have is
me. I just can't get out of my own
road. I'm a nuisance to myself in believing
God. There's a great mountain. Listen to what God says about
these mountains. All the mountains that stood
stand between our God and him raising up this temple, this
building where he will be have all the glory. It says, they
shall become a plane, a plane, a plane. We walk, brothers and
sisters, Those mountains are there and those mountains are
real but those mountains are all taken away in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we walk, don't we? We walk
on a narrow road to heaven. In Ezekiel you have these pictures
of these amazing wheels which are enormously high. I don't
know how high they're meant to be but they're just extraordinarily
high. And they are pictures of the Lord's eternal covenant of
grace and they have eyes all around so they see everything
and know everything. And those wheels, those enormous
wheels, when they roll along, what do they leave behind? Anything
that's in their road is crushed and the Lord's people are carried
by the hand of our God into heaven, not by might, not by power, but
by our spirit. The great mountains will be removed
by God Almighty. The hands Verse nine, the hands
of Zerubbabel. This is the word of the Lord
that comes to Zerubbabel. These are the words of comfort.
These are the good words. The hands of Zerubbabel have
laid the foundation of this house and his hands shall also finish
it. And thou shalt know, thou shalt
know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. Now there's
no doubt that Zerubbabel was there when that great stone was
laid and there's no doubt that Zerubbabel was there when all
of those stones were built up and there's no doubt Zerubbabel
was there when the headstone was put on and the building is
complete. But this is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in his
church, isn't it? The headstone is put there when the Lord Jesus
Christ was resurrected. The glorious headstone of all
that work, it is finished. They bring forth this headstone,
go back to verse 7 with me, they bring forth this headstone with
shoutings of grace, grace unto it. I just love the sound of the
word grace. I'm continually amazed by grace and I continually go
to the scriptures and I go to other writers and I just love
to contemplate what it is to be a recipient of the grace of
God. And I love that the Lord repeats it. Grace, grace unto
it. It's meant to be emphatic, but
it's also, I think, a reminder, isn't it, that we receive grace
for grace from our God. As soon as we have received some
grace, we've forgotten that we need more. We need grace every
moment of our lives. But grace, I love what Top Lady
says, grace ceases to be grace unless, It is totally and absolutely
irrespective of anything and everything, whether good or bad,
in the objects of it. Can I repeat that for you? Grace ceases to be grace unless
it's totally and absolutely and irrespective of anything and
everything, whether good or bad, in the objects of it. No wonder
they're shouting and rejoicing. If you're a Joshua and you've
been there in filthy rags, Joshua didn't say a word. God did everything,
didn't he? God did everything. Even removing
his filthy garment was a work of God. Even clothing him again
was a work of God. Grace, grace, grace begins. Grace begins the work of God.
That's why we love to talk about grace being eternal grace and
everlasting grace and grace that begins the work and grace which
finishes the work. Grace applies the law and grace
reveals the gospel. Grace kills and grace makes alive. Grace wounds and grace heals. Grace causes the children of
God to bow at the throne of the Lord Jesus Christ. And grace
keeps us bowing. Grace causes us to come because
we're made to be needy sinners and we have nothing in ourselves.
And grace keeps us coming again and again and again. Grace lays
the foundation. Grace brings forth the headstone.
Grace reigns first and grace reigns last. Grace lays the foundation
and grace brings the rejoicing. It's grace in eternity and grace
in heaven in the new creation. It's grace that's promised in
a covenant of grace. It's eternal grace. You cannot
speak of grace unless you speak of eternal grace or electing
grace or sovereign grace. Grace, grace. Grace is directly
opposed to works. That's why he says, not by your
might, not by your power, not by that. It's all by my spirit,
says the Lord. And the spirit reveals the things
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's grace, grace, therefore
it's not works and it's not works. There's not to be in the building
of the temple the sound of the hammer or the chisel on it. So
all the works are done in the quarry. It's grace, grace unto
it, because it's impossible with man. It's just impossible. My salvation's impossible for
me, isn't it? Your salvation is impossible
for you. It has to be grace because it's impossible with man. And
grace reminds us that we are in God's hands and he is not
in ours. Grace is sovereign grace and
God has the power to bestow it on his objects of grace. Grace, grace, because of the
great mountains that oppose the work of God in us and in this
world. And it's grace, grace, because
it's grace, grace, because God gets all the glory. He gets all
the glory. He gets all of the glory. Iniquity
has passed away. He says that twice in Zechariah
chapter three. Iniquity has passed away. I will
remove the iniquity of that land in one day. Where did all that
iniquity go? If God's removed it, has it gone? He says it's gone. He says I've
caused, verse 4, I've caused thine iniquity to pass from thee.
That's the same word as Passover. Where's it gone? It's gone on
to the Lord Jesus Christ and God in sovereign mercy and revealing
all of the glory of his character says in Zechariah chapter 13
verse 7. Just turn there with me as we
close. I just wanted to see what it was that happened on the cross
of Calvary. Why the iniquity is passed away. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd. There's no question about who
the shepherd is. The shepherd is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
my shepherd. And against the man that is my fellow, the one
that is my companion, the one that is my equal, saith the Lord
of hosts, smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. And I will turn my hand, my hand
of love and my hand of grace upon the little ones. And it shall come to pass that
in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut
off and die, and a third shall be left therein. And I will bring
the third part through the fire, through those mountains that
stand opposed to us, and I will refine them as silver is refined,
and I will try them as gold is tried, and they shall call on
my name. and I will hear them. I will say, it is my people,
and they shall say, the Lord is my God. At the beginning of that chapter
it says, in that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house
of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. That's the fountain we drink
at. That's where the iniquity is gone, brothers and sisters.
As Zachariah says, it seems like a small thing, doesn't he? Who
has despised the day of small things? Who has despised the
day of small things? Almost all the world despises
the day of small things. For they shall rejoice when they
see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. They shall see the
Lord Jesus Christ with the hand of that plummet of his perfect
holy righteousness, him measuring his people, him guarding and
protecting and growing and building his church. And God's people
say, grace. with rejoicing we say grace.
Amen. Thank you.