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