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[0:00] The help of the Lord is needed, and I seek your attention to the prophecy of Zechariah chapter 4 and verse 7.

[0:21] The prophecy of Zechariah chapter 4 and verse 7. Who art thou, O great mountain?

[0:36] Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying grace, grace unto it.

[0:52] Zerubbabel was he whose hands have laid the foundation of this house.

[1:30] That is the second temple. His hands shall also finish it. It is not again my wish, desire, nor indeed my ability.

[1:45] For that I have known. To speak of the times of Zerubbabel, or to speak of those times of blessing too in Judah and Jerusalem when the Lord has promised in this prophecy to return to it.

[2:08] It is a wonderful prophecy because it speaks much of Christ. And I believe too that the person of Zerubbabel is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[2:22] In so many ways. And I believe so in this word that we have before us this morning.

[2:35] For as we, I trust, will be helped to speak a few words from it, you will see what the word and what the person of Zerubbabel is a type of Christ.

[2:50] It shall indeed be to us. But who art thou, O great mountain?

[3:00] And if we might say, indeed that mountains are always those things which are before us.

[3:13] Mountains behind us are no problem. None at all. At least I don't feel so. It's what's before us. It's the burden, and the hindrance, and the trouble.

[3:26] And it is that which brings us into fear, and into doubt, and into distress. It's what's shown us. And by the Blessed Spirit revealing there are many mountains in the lots and pathway and experience and exercise of God's dear people.

[3:50] But the question is, who art thou, O great mountain? As if the Blessed Spirit would say that there is a mountain, and it's a great mountain.

[4:02] But who is it? Who art thou that such a mountain should rise up? That such an impossibility should be presented before the people of God?

[4:15] That this mountain which seems to hinder, this mountain which seems to, as it were, drain all faith and grace away, this mountain which is an immovable object, an impossible situation or circumstance.

[4:32] Who art thou that it might think to be the means of distress and trouble to God's dear people? Oh, there are many mountains.

[4:44] Your mountains. Your mountains might not be mine, and I know that my mountains can't be yours. But they're mountains all the same.

[4:56] And they're not little mountains. They are great mountains. They become more greater the more you look at it. You know, if you have responsibilities in life, in occupation or situation, and I go back now a few years when I did, those things which I couldn't sleep for, which lay upon my mind with great weight, how enormous they seemed to be in the night.

[5:29] How impossible were those circumstances in the night season. And yet, come the dawn of the day, how much less they seemed to be.

[5:40] How much more that you could deal with them in the daytime. Mountains in the night are greater than mountains in the day.

[5:51] When it is now dark, and Jesus has not come, how great are those mountains. And yet the question is, as it were, who art thou, O great mountain?

[6:07] The Lord help us to look at some of these mountains, of which the blessed Lord Jesus Christ himself shall make them in your experience in mine to become a plain.

[6:21] And there is no hindrance there. There is no obstruction there. There is nothing there when there's a plain.

[6:33] A mountain shuts out the night of the sun and forms a barrier in the pathway. And a mountain causes distress because it is in and of ourselves impossible to move it.

[6:47] But, O this blessed question. Who art thou? O great mountain, before us irreverable, thou shalt become a plain.

[7:00] As I began, I said that it is what is before us. What is before us? The Lord's people, you know, can trace many mercies and favours in looking back.

[7:15] They can raise their Ebenezer in looking back and say, hitherto hitherto hath the Lord helped us. The psalmist could.

[7:26] David had many times in his life when the mountains became a plain. But there were also times in his life when he looked onwards and he said, from the ends of the earth will I cry unto thee.

[7:42] When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. What is before us? What the Lord has in purpose and appointments before us?

[7:58] What in the order of providence or grace that is decreed that shall be before us, which as we get closer to it, are like mountains.

[8:13] If you will forgive me, if you do anything to say this, if you forgive me for saying this, but if you do anything, for the sanctuary of God, for the services of his house, my friends, if you are in your right place, they will become mountains.

[8:35] Until the Lord shall come and deliver you from these great mountains, they shall bring fear and trembling upon you. But keep into the context too and keep into the word, who art thou, O great mountain.

[8:55] What mountains, my friends, that you and the people of God suffer because? And they are before you. They obstruct your way.

[9:09] You might say, for instance, that the thorn in the flesh of the apostle was like a mountain. It was something that he didn't want. And it was something that he tried to pray away.

[9:21] It may be that you of these mountains that you have tried to pray away. Until now you might say, well, it seems unsuccessful.

[9:34] Well, the Lord will get honour and glory to his great and holy name in doing for his people what they themselves cannot do. And he will get honour and glory too, my friends, in this, that it will not be for your sake.

[9:52] It will be for his own holy namesake that he will remove the mountain. Who art thou, O great mountain? And those mountains which you and I shall know before us will be those things which we shall have to lay them at the feet of Jesus and seek that he and his purposes of mercy will deal with those mountains and that the way may become a plain.

[10:25] The very context of it is or the description of it surely is that the way is blocked. That the pathway you cannot see beyond these mountains.

[10:39] It looks as if it's the end of the road as it were to experience and to the way in which you trust the Lord is to lead you or is in his leading you.

[10:51] But when the Lord removes the mountain and he will do so by his way and means then it shall become a plain and there's a going on in the way and there is a continuing in the way.

[11:07] Oh, the mountains then. Let us look at a few of these mountains as the Lord may so drop them upon our spirit. Those mountains of doubts and fears.

[11:21] You sung in that hymn will my doubt in there be or will the Lord return no more? When shall I the Saviour see and be sure he died for me?

[11:33] Doubts and fears rise from a carnal heart. Doubts and fears are the workings of Satan within us.

[11:46] Doubts and fears question everything of the grace of God. My friends, doubts and fears haven't too many avenues of providence to contend with.

[12:00] They have some, but they don't have too many. But it is respecting your soul and respecting your spiritual life and respecting the blessings blessings of the spiritual life that you desire.

[12:16] My friends, that these doubts and fears arise. The Apostle Paul, as I've reminded you before, said, speaking of those things, wherefore, laying aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

[12:45] My friends, that's a great mountain. Doubts and fears. How did you begin your Lord's Day? How did you begin your journey to the sanctuary?

[12:59] Was there a mountain before you? Did the Lord so permit that there was those doubts and fears that rose? That distressed your soul?

[13:09] That the more you got closer to his house, the more urgent and needful was your spirit towards his gospel and his truth?

[13:21] That there might be something that shall come and sweep away the mountains? Who art thou, O great mountain? Before as irrumble thou shalt become a plain.

[13:33] Look at those souls in the gospel at the days of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. These were believers, but they had mountains of doubts and fears.

[13:47] They didn't understand the path, so therefore they misconstrued what was in that pathway. They didn't understand the offering and sacrifice, death, and resurrection of the Savior, so they looked at it in the wrong light and assumed that all was wrong.

[14:08] Doubts and fears, what mountains they are. Twin mountains of sin. Mountains which, as I've said, cannot be moved by you.

[14:21] Oh, there are people who claim to have faith to move mountains. And there are some of us who can't raise a grain of faith at times in the pathway because of the mountains.

[14:36] You know, when they came to the Red Sea, when Israel left Goshen and got into the wilderness journey, and they came to the Red Sea, and there was an impossibility.

[14:50] And oh, didn't they complain when they heard that the armies of Egypt were approaching, and the mountains all around them and the sea before them? Well, it looks as if they were trapped.

[15:03] They were brought into a circumstance, they said, that would overthrow them. Why didn't we stay in Egypt? Why didn't we continue in those things which we were found in them?

[15:17] We read in the 14th of Exodus, the man Moses said unto them, Stand ye still. Stand ye still.

[15:29] What's the wrong thing you want to say to a person who's got an army coming against them? Run if you could. But where to run? But the Lord said, and this is where, my friends, the mountains will flow down, at his presence, it is what when he speaks into it.

[15:50] Because when he speaks into it, you will see, and it will have this effect, that the mountains shall indeed run, fall down.

[16:01] Wherefore, criest thou unto me, speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward. It seems a strange way to get rid of mountains.

[16:15] But, my friends, that is the way that that mountain was got rid of. The mountain of impossibility. The mountain that brought rebellion to the hearts of God's people.

[16:28] The mountain that brought complaint and fear and trembling to them. But going forward, oh, great mountain, before us irreverable, thou shalt become a plain.

[16:45] Well, my friends, you know what mountains lie before you. If you may permit me to say this, in this Lord's Day in 1985, the first Lord's Day of September, I was engaged to preach at Hanover.

[17:06] and I preached only once before there and that was on Easter Sunday evening in April. And I didn't get on. Oh, there was too much self-confidence, I believe.

[17:21] And I felt, as poor as you can possibly be, I drove home on that Sunday night in April on that Easter Sunday and I thought, two things. One, they won't ask me anymore and two, I won't preach anymore.

[17:36] But then I was booked for the first Sunday in April. And as their habit is, good habit it is too, at ten o'clock they held a prayer meeting and I went and listened.

[17:49] And the deacon there read at that prayer meeting a part of 63, chapter 63 and 64 of the prophecy of Isaiah. And the first verse of the 64th of Isaiah is, Oh, that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.

[18:13] And I believe if you search from Genesis to Revelation, for my soul at least, you would never have found a more suitable chapter to read. And I believe, humbly though I say it, that we proved that day that the mountains had flown down.

[18:31] Who art thou, oh great mountain? Oh, those mountains are raised up by the doubts and fears of our heart. By the sad state of our soul in this respect that we are attacked by the enemy and we listen to his voice and he does nothing but to distress, to trouble, and to try to overcome the grace and faith that is within us.

[19:02] Oh, the presenting of these mountains, as I said, sacked the strength of grace and faith. Well, it is so, isn't it? But what, my friends, does the child of God do?

[19:16] Does he do like the days of his stroll in the book of Judges? When they went out to fight against AI, they turned their back and ran.

[19:28] Is that the way with mountains? My friends, is that the way? Turn around and run? Well, that's what the enemy of your soul would indeed delight in, that you should do so.

[19:42] turn again, my friends, to the path of doubts and fears and dwell under the frown of God and hear his chastening voice just to be a going forward.

[19:57] Jehoshaphat's lot came to me again in prayer when he said, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee.

[20:08] Because there and there alone and through him and by him and at his divine pleasure will he remove that mountain. But what were they to do? Were they to sit in the prayer meeting?

[20:21] Were they to stay put, as it were, into the place where they were? Were they to hope and wait and look? It's a wonderful chapter.

[20:34] I keep having to look at it these days, both for one's own soul and for the pathway in which the people of God walk.

[20:48] We read this, Then upon Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat, the son of Benaniah, the son of Jeel, the son of Mataniah, a Levite, and the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation and he said, Hearken ye, all Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem.

[21:10] And thou, King Jehoshaphat, thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude for the battle is not yours but God's.

[21:23] Tomorrow, tomorrow, go ye out, go ye down against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz and you shall find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jerul.

[21:39] You shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem.

[21:51] Fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow, go out against them for the Lord will be with you. Dear friends, that will take all the mountain away.

[22:02] The presence of the Lord. Not to run from it, not to turn our back to the mountain, but to go on. But to go on.

[22:13] Wherefore, cryest thou unto me, speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a play.

[22:28] Do remember in the days of Israel in the wilderness journey what was in the midst? The ark of the covenant and what was before them, the cloudy pillar and the pillar of fire.

[22:44] By day and by night they followed that way. They could not go wrong all the time they went forward. There was no following anything else.

[22:57] There was no turn into their own wisdom. But their gracious God led the way and they went in that way through the wilderness journey. They went back into the wilderness of course, as you know.

[23:10] But nevertheless, Israel came to Canyon. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a play.

[23:23] All doubts and fears then raise up mountains. The whispers of Satan raises up great mountains. The looking to self and to man for help raises up great mountains.

[23:42] But then, dear friends, what is the mountain of sin? Who art thou, O great mountain? Perhaps you might heed the words of the Pharisees when they said of Christ, Who can forgive sins but God only?

[24:02] Very true, true in itself, but their eyes were closed to the Savior. I believe this, that that dear man who laid on that bed suffering with the pools, he knew the power of those words.

[24:17] He knew from whence they came. He knew the effect of those words upon his spirit and upon his soul. He knew what it was to be blessed with deliverance from his sins.

[24:31] But oh, the great mountain of sin. And you know, sometimes that seems greater than ever. And Satan will say, now this sin, that sin, well, there's no mercy for that sin.

[24:49] He will try to persuade you that though you might have known sin forgiven or that you believe in the provision of God in the Lord Jesus Christ of forgiveness through his precious blood, but then he might charge the sin that cannot be forgiven upon your conscience.

[25:13] Oh, great mountain. That mountain will bow you down. That mountain will distress your spirit. That mountain will cause you to weep before him.

[25:25] Oh, great mountain. Bore with this mountain, adding to this mountain as you go along day by day. Who art thou, oh, great mountain?

[25:39] Well, my friends, such a mountain will drop you into the pit left to the judgment of God. Such a multitude of iniquity will bring you to where hope and mercy could never come.

[25:57] But these who know this great mountain shall never come there. These that are made aware by the blessed spirit's revelation of indwelling sin and what a mountain that is shall never come to that place where mercy is not found.

[26:17] because to such dear souls whose soul is in life, whose conscience is made tender by the grace of God, who know what it is to not only see and know this dreadful mountain of sin within, but also have to mourn over it, weep over it, confess it before the Lord, these mountains my friends will be removed.

[26:49] Who art thou? No, the hymn that you're going to sing, I think it is, isn't it? The more I strove against sin's power, I sinned and stumbled, but the more till late I heard my Saviour say, come hither soul, I am the way.

[27:10] Lo, glad I come and thou blessed Lamb, will take me to thee as I am. Nothing but sin I thee can give, nothing but love shall I receive.

[27:21] Before Zerubb of all thou shalt become a plain. Not only remember those dear souls whose records in the scriptures, but every child of God shall experience what they experience.

[27:35] Whether it is that dear woman who at Jesus' feet in the gospel of Luke washed his feet with her tears, or whether it is the dying thief on the cross at Calvary, where it's Mary Magdalene out of whom Christ delivered from seven devils, or whether it's the mad Galarine who was found sitting at Jesus' feet, or whether it's the Judas king, Judas king Hezekiah, but whoever it is, David in his depths of sin and iniquity proved it, my friends, before the rubble, and not by any other means, thou shalt become a plain.

[28:22] Oh, my friends, those great mountains of iniquity that threaten your overthrow. You know, there's something very remarkable too, the Lord has spoken of the sins of his people, though you will not remember them, but Satan does, and your old evil heart also, and they become like a mountain.

[28:45] Sometimes you come into the house of God, having been brought through the week, and you have to say that you're the most unworthy of characters to be found in the sanctuary, having sinned so much in the week that's passed.

[29:01] But my friends, the gospel has been meat and drink to sinners down the ages of time, and the person of Christ, before Zerubbabel, and that great and wonderful work that he did on Calvary's tree, was for this purpose, to take away this great mountain of sin.

[29:24] You know, you might be tempted this, how can you possibly go to glory with such iniquity and sin that you've been brought to see?

[29:34] glory, my friends, none of us will go to glory, only upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the finished work that offering made for sin was for the purpose of putting away that mountain, and for removing it out of the way, so that the way to glory shall be walked in, and the pathway to heaven shall be secure.

[30:03] I said in prayer that word in the 14th of, I quoted that word, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.

[30:22] My friends, I've said, and I believe it's true, that the blessed Lord Jesus Christ was speaking of his cross, and what he did at the cross was to remove all hindrances of his people, to go to glory.

[30:39] You know, sin must be dealt with one way or the other. It's dealt with on the sinner or on the saviour. And for those who are his, for those dear souls whose names are in the book of life, to those who are aware of this mountain, made aware of it, mourn over it, feel that it will sink them to where hope and mercy can never come, will see by and by and by the blessed Spirit's revelation, the means which he will use, so that the mountain shall become a plain.

[31:18] For since thy faith, I saw the stream, thy flowing wound supply, redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.

[31:35] When this poor, this been stammering tongue lies silent in the grave, then to a nobler, sweeter song, I'll sing thy power to save.

[31:47] My friends, he is well spoken of as the saviour of sinners. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin.

[32:03] This mountain, until grace illuminated your soul, you never knew you had a mountain. You went on in the way, time and sense was all you wanted.

[32:17] those things which were benefits and gains, well, they were what you went and sought for.

[32:29] I do love those words because I experienced the blessing of them. When the dear apostle was rehearsing his upbringing, a Pharisee, and he said, what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ.

[32:50] Yea, I count all things but lost, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. He suffered a loss of all things, he said, that I may win Christ and be found in him.

[33:08] what a great mountain, but it flowed down at the presence of Christ. What a wonderful conversion, you say. We read in the early part of the third chapter is not this, a brand plucked out of the fire.

[33:26] What a wonderful conversion, you say. Don't people rejoice in the knowledge of such a wonderful work in Saul of Tarsus? What's different about Saul of Tarsus than you and me?

[33:40] All are sinners in God's sight. Few, there are but few so in their own. He was what you might call a most religious sinner.

[33:53] He was as destitute as you and I were without grace. But a religious sinner, he went about putting men and women to death because of their hope in Christ.

[34:05] What you say, I wouldn't do that. my friends, the precious blood of Jesus Christ is needed for religious sinners as well as profet.

[34:19] And did that mountain not flow down, the mountain of a false religion? Who art thou, O great mountain? Who would believe that there was possible a day when such a man as Saul could come under conversion?

[34:36] Who could believe that such a vile murder of the people of God, such a hatred to the truth, such an opposer to Christ, was a destine for the pit, but rather for the glories of heaven?

[34:52] My friends, he had a great mountain, false religion, and a false hope, and that is a great mountain, false confidence, he rested on his works, and on his prayers, and on his dealings.

[35:07] If you read further back in the gospel, it says that that day shall come that they think they do God service by it. And how false can you be, my friends, when you come there, when you think you can do God service?

[35:23] But that mountain was brought low. Oh, that Damascus road took away that false mountain, sin of religion. That false hope, that false comfort, and that false confidence was swept away in a moment by that blessed and glorious person of Christ that he met up with on that Damascus road.

[35:51] When that remarkable and wonderful conversion took place, my friends, all that was his swept away. You've got a mountain of your flesh because that's the most active opposition to the truth and it's full of sin and it leads you in all sorts of trouble.

[36:11] who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Arise, go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

[36:30] There's always where there's mountains, there is to be a going forward. Mountains are before you. I remember, and I must finish, but I remember one occasion approaching a service of the Lord's house with absolute fear and under a sore temptation, a most sore temptation.

[36:55] I won't tell you what it is, but you know, there was to be a going forward and when I got there, all those temptations were out the window because what I feared shouldn't happen, or what I feared that should happen, didn't happen.

[37:13] I felt then that there was one way over temptation, you know, and that is continuing. And I was delivered by continuing. Because there was many a fear and many a doubt in my mind that I might well cancel where I was going and not go, leave it to someone else to do.

[37:34] But I went forward and I found by that going forward that the tempter was but a liar as he always is. Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, grace, grace unto it.

[38:00] Amen. Amen. Notice this next week.

[38:13] Father God willing, there will be a prayer meeting on Wednesday evening, and our pastor will preach next Lord's Day. Let's conclude with him 144.

[38:27] Jesus, will be, there will be that is魔 Republicans, who art, embrace flow, earth, Jesus, my all to heaven is gone he whom I fix my hopes upon his track I see and I'll pursue the narrow way till him I view the way the holy prophets went the road that leads from banishment the king's highway of holiness I'll go for all his paths are these hymn 144 oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

[40:47] Thank you.

[41:17] Thank you.

[41:47] Thank you. Thank you.

[42:47] Thank you. Thank you.

[43:19] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[43:33] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm not afraid.

[43:51] I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid.

[44:02] I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid.

[44:14] I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid.

[44:29] I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid.

[44:52] I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid.

[45:07] I'm not afraid.

[45:22] I'm not afraid.

[45:34] I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid.

[46:02] Lord, we pray for all who have mountains before them. Lord, the path of grace, the path of obedience, the path of the ordinances of thy house, the way of providence.

[46:25] Lord, at times they all have mountains. Sometimes, Lord, we put them there. Sometimes Satan does. But, oh, we pray that in these things there will be a proving of the truth of this word and of this promise.

[46:45] Before Zerubbabel they will be made plain. Lest the word to us each forgive everything that's been said wrong.

[46:57] Lord, come up with us later in the day. Make one in our midst then. Lead us further into thy word. May thy spirit accompany it with power.

[47:10] Lord, now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit remain with each one of us, both now and forever.

[47:28] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. . . .

[47:39]  . . . .