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Zechariah 4:6-10
Amen.
Well, I really don't want to start
a sermon off with self -promotion,
but I built a shelf once.
And, actually, two shelves.
So I put two boards together, I stained these boards, I added
some bracing, and I nailed these things to the wall.
And, honestly, I mean, if you put, you could put a glass on them, you could put
flowers on them, or books.
It really is quite an amazing thing.
They are shelves.
Actually, that really wouldn't be starting the sermon with self -promotion so much as
shelf -promotion, right?
But, in the history of mankind, there's been
some elaborate building projects.
The Brooklyn Bridge, the Hoover Dam, the ancient
pyramids.
We really don't know even the full extent of how the pyramids
were exactly built and constructed.
This morning, I ask that you turn in your Bible to Zechariah chapter 4.
Now, Zechariah is not as hard to find as you might think.
You could turn to the book of Matthew, that's easy to find, you know where Matthew is, and then turn two books to your left.
So, if you can find Matthew in your Bible, first book of the New Testament, and then just turn two books to your left, and
you're in the book of Zechariah.
Zechariah chapter 4.
In Zechariah chapter 4, we witness an
encouragement from the Lord to Zerubbabel,
what you heard about from Haggai 1 this morning, the scripture reading, to finish a building
project.
Now, this is far more extensive than building a shelf.
This is the project of rebuilding God's temple in
Jerusalem.
And Zerubbabel faces serious opposition and steady
discouragement, but the Lord says essentially to Zerubbabel, in our
text this morning, you are going to finish this task.
I guarantee it.
And what we learn from this text this morning is not only was this done exactly and
historically like God said that it would be, but it also points us forward to
an even greater building project from the Lord.
And so today's sermon title is this, If He
Builds It, They Will Come.
God is actively working in His church today, and as
believers, as we engage in this work, we can expect God's power
to transform lives, to bring glory to His name, even in the midst of opposition for
the glory of Christ.
God is at work in our world today, and He's building His church, and if He builds it,
they will come.
Zechariah chapter 4, and beginning in verse 6.
I know that we jump here in the middle of a book, in the middle of a chapter, but I hope
to edify your hearts, encourage you, challenge you this morning.
Would you stand as we honor the reading of God's Word?
I make note that I'm reading today from the Legacy Standard Bible, that translation, because I
like the way that it translates verse 10.
I think it's better than the ESV translates verse 10.
So for some of you, I'll be reading a little bit different, but starting in verse 6.
Zechariah chapter 4, verse 6.
Then He answered and spoke to me, saying, This is the word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel,
saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,
says Yahweh of hosts.
What are you, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel, you will become a plain, and He will bring forth the top stone
with shouts of grace, grace to it.
Also the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and
His hands will finish it.
Then you will know that Yahweh of hosts has sent me to you.
For who has despised the day of small things?
But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.
These are the eyes of Yahweh which roam to and fro throughout the earth.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You for this text.
We thank You for the opportunity and the grace and the abundant goodness You've shown to us that here we
are, thousands of years after such a text, some
twenty -five, twenty -six hundred years after such a text, and we're hearing about this
great work that You've done and the great work that You've promised, and we're reading it in our own language,
and we're confident in the gospel, and we know that we have Christ.
We know that the Spirit is pleased to gather with His church.
We pray we would not make light of these things that You're doing.
We would not count them as insignificant, inconsequential, or small.
We would not take them or treat them as light things.
Speak to us today from Your Word and help us to know Your truth.
Help us to be encouraged today that You're building Your church.
Help us to be engaged in this work together.
We pray it all in Jesus' name.
You may be seated.
If He builds it, if the Lord builds it, they will come.
The first thing that we need to do this morning is we need to cover
some historical background.
In order for us to understand the text, we're going to do a little bit of historical background.
For some of you, I understand that's not your cup of tea, but let's do our due diligence so that we can
understand the setting of our text and the application of the text for the church today.
Sometime around 587 -586 BC, so 586
-587 years before the time of Christ, Babylon destroyed the
temple that Solomon had built nearly 400 years before.
Around 536 BC, Persia allows the Jewish exiles to
return to Jerusalem and construction of the new temple under the
direction of Zerubbabel begins.
So you've already heard from Haggai this morning.
You've heard from Zechariah.
Turn in your Bibles just for a moment to Ezra.
So you have to go several books back.
You're going to go all the way before Psalms, Kings, Chronicles, and Kings,
or after Chronicles, Kings.
Ezra chapter 3 for just a moment.
Ezra chapter 3.
In Ezra chapter 3, beginning in verse 8,
we have this historical context here.
Now in the second year, they're coming to the house of God at Jerusalem.
In the second month, Zerubbabel, the son of Shiltiel, and Jeshua, the son of
Josedach, and the rest of their brothers, the priests and the Levites, and all who came from the captivity to
Jerusalem, began the work and appointed the Levites from 20 years and older to direct the work of
the house of Yahweh.
Then Jeshua, with his sons and brothers, stood united with Kadmiel, the sons of
Judah, and the sons of Hinnadad, with their sons and the brothers, the Levites, to direct those who do the work in
the house of God.
So the builders laid the foundation of the temple of Yahweh.
This is the new temple.
Solomon's has been destroyed.
Now they laid the foundation of the new one.
Then the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals,
to praise Yahweh according to the directions of King David of Israel.
And they sang, praising and giving thanks to Yahweh, saying, for He is good, for His loving kindness endures
forever upon Israel.
And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised Yahweh, because the foundation of the
house of Yahweh was laid.
Yet, many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' households, the old
men who had seen the first house of Yahweh, were weeping with a loud voice
when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes,
while many in the loud shouts with gladness were raising their voice, so that the people could not distinguish the
voices of the shouting of gladness from the voices of the weeping of the people, for the people were shouting
with a loud voice, and these voices were heard far away.".
So the idea is they begin to lay the foundation of the Lord, and what you have is, you have people who are excited about this,
but you have other people who had seen the temple of Solomon, and they're weeping, because this seems like such an
insignificant thing compared to what the glory of Solomon's temple had built.
Now, after this, there was enough opposition to the building project that it halts.
They build the foundation, and then the project is going to stop.
It's going to cease.
No more building for around 16 or 17 years.
The foundation just lays there bare, and the immediate historical context
of our text is encouragement to Zerubbabel to finish this.
So now I'm back in Zechariah chapter 4, verse 8, and it says, and also the word of Yahweh came to me
saying, the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands
will finish it.
In other words, Zerubbabel, 16 or 17 years before this, he had laid the foundation, they had begun the
work, opposition had crept in, they had to stop, and now
the Lord is saying to Zerubbabel, you've started this project, and you will
finish it.
Ezra talks about this as well.
I'll just read for you Ezra 5, 1 and 2.
Now the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Iddo, prophesied to the
Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.
Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shiltiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jazodot,
arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them,
supporting them.
So, temple destroyed, the exiles come back, they begin to lay the foundation, foundation is laid,
work stops, but then they complete the work.
Zerubbabel would finish the work as God said that he would.
By the time you get to Jesus, Herod has added on to the temple, but it's the
same temple that Zerubbabel had built.
This was the temple, if you remember, that the Lord Jesus was dedicated in as a baby.
It's the same temple that at the age of 12, He is debating the teachers and scholars of
the age.
It is the same temple that sometime around the age of 33, He runs the money changers
out, He cleanses the temple.
It's the same temple that when Jesus is on the cross, that the veil is torn from top to bottom
upon Jesus's death.
It's the same temple, and it's the same temple, Zerubbabel's temple, is the same temple
destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.
So, there is historical application to this text, but
I want you to understand this morning, we're not going through the book of Zechariah, what I'm pulling out of this
is an application of the text pointing us
towards something greater.
First, consider Zerubbabel for a moment.
The name Zerubbabel probably means something like begotten or born in
Babylon.
Remember, he was in exile, he came from Babylon, so he's begotten or born in Babylon.
He's actually mentioned in the Bible just one less time than Jonah.
So, if you look up how many times Jonah is mentioned in the Bible, I think it's like 25.
You look up how many times Zerubbabel is mentioned in the Bible, it's like 24.
Yet, if I were to poll you on walking in this morning, how many of you know who Jonah is?
You all know who Jonah is.
I said, how many of you know who Zerubbabel is?
I think the number would go way down, don't you?
I mean, of course, Jonah has a book of the Bible named after him that's helpful, advantaged Jonah there.
But, Zerubbabel is actually a very important figure in the
Bible.
Zerubbabel appears in the New Testament.
Did you know that?
He appears in Matthew chapter 1 and he appears in Luke chapter 3.
And, if you're familiar with what's going on in Matthew 1 and Luke 3, then you understand
that these are the genealogies of Jesus.
In other words, Zerubbabel stands in the line of David.
The physical lineage of Jesus goes through Zerubbabel.
That is, you don't get to Jesus physically, the physical lineage of Jesus,
apart from Zerubbabel.
So, in one sense, what I'm trying to draw your mind to here this morning, is that
Zerubbabel is a type of Christ.
That is, Zerubbabel points us forward to Jesus.
He points us forward to another one who was born in Babylon, if you will.
Preacher, don't you know Jesus wasn't born in Babylon?
He was born in Bethlehem.
Absolutely true.
But, did he not leave the glories of heaven to be born in a world that is as opposed to
him as Babylon was opposed to Jerusalem?
Zerubbabel was governor of Judah, but Jesus rides into Jerusalem
not as governor, but as king.
Jesus is greater than Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel built the temple by God's power, but Jesus said
that he himself was the temple.
He was outside Zerubbabel's temple, and he told those who would listen to him that if his
temple was destroyed, he would raise it up on the third day.
Zerubbabel's temple was destroyed in AD 70, and it remains destroyed to this day.
Jesus' temple was destroyed, the temple of his body, and he raised it up
again on the third day.
Zerubbabel's temple featured sacrifices as the law required, but
Christ's temple, his own body, was the sacrifice for sins to
propitiate the wrath of God.
All the blood of bulls and goats that were ever featured in Zerubbabel's temple never did one
thing to propitiate our sins, to atone for our sins, but the blood of Christ, greater than the
blood of bulls and goats, his temple was nailed upon the cross of Calvary, and it was raised again the third
day to be that fragrant offering by which those who put their faith
in him will be cleansed of all sins and imputed with the righteousness of the Son of
God.
The time of the temple of Zerubbabel is forever ended, but Christ's temple, his
church, is still being built today.
You remember what he promises in Matthew 16, 18?
Not I might, not maybe, not if political circumstances are right, but Matthew 16, 18,
I will build my church, and this building project
remains 2 ,000 years later as God regenerates hearts, draws sinners to himself
under the joyful lordship of Christ their King.
Look again at verse 6, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit,
says the Lord of hosts, says Yahweh of hosts.
God is doing this still today.
Friends, this is God's work in the world today.
This leads me to another thought that brings us into this morning's outline.
He prefigures and points us forward to Christ as our King,
but this building project in Zechariah 4 is a type of the church.
That is, it points us forward this morning to the temple built not with human hands,
but by the Spirit of God.
So with that in mind, I have three observations from the text today.
I hope you find this challenging, encouraging, convicting, but I want you to see
how this text points us to a greater reality of what God is doing, and let me just
mention this.
I understand that we have different eschatological positions in this room, meaning we have different
ideas about the end times.
We have people perhaps who are waiting, watching the news, when's the new temple going to be built, but let me
say this.
I believe rather strongly that what's happening in the world today is we're not waiting on
another temple to be built so much as we are seeing God building his temple
right now in the face of opposition in the church.
So let me explain that as we go through the outline.
Number one, God's work in the church today involves, number one, body
building.
Number one, God's work in the church today involves body building.
Verse 6 says, not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,
The church, God's work in the church today involves building the body, body building.
That is, the church is the body of Christ, and I'm saying to you that just as God
was with Zerubbabel to build the temple, so too is God's Spirit with the church
today as God is building the body of Christ, the greater temple.
Now let me just give you a few references.
You can write these down.
You can talk to me later.
First Peter 2 likens Christ to the temple, but also to the church to the
temple.
Listen to 1 Peter 2, 4 and 5.
As you come to him, that is Christ, a living stone, that is Christ is a
living stone, rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual
house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ.
In other words, church, God is building the body today, and what the temple looks like today is not
wooden stones.
God is not asking us to go and to find rocks out in the forest and to build this
physical house.
He's building His church through living stones, through regenerating people by the
power of the gospel.
Peter says these are living stones.
First Corinthians 3 says you are God's temple.
Ephesians 2 says you are the household of God.
First Timothy chapter 3 says the church is the household of God.
Where does God dwell today?
Not in temples made by hands.
He dwells in the church.
God is building a temple today, not of stone, not of wood, but of
living stones, of sinners, transformed by grace and brought into
the kingdom of Christ.
God is building today the body of Christ.
You say, well, yes, yes, yes.
I already knew that, preacher.
You're not telling me anything new.
What's your point?
I'm glad you asked, right?
First, my point is this.
You need to be encouraged by this.
God encouraged Zerubbabel in the work.
God encouraged Zerubbabel.
You're going to finish this.
You're going to do this.
And I say to you, brethren, so too must the church today
be encouraged in the work.
Turn to your left one book, Haggai.
We were there already.
Chapter 2.
So we already read chapter 1.
Listen to Haggai chapter 2, verse 1 through 9.
On the 21st of the seventh month, the word of Yahweh came by the hand of
Haggai the prophet, saying, speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shiltiel, governor of Judah, and
to Joshua, the son of Jehoshaddek, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying, who among you
remains who saw this house in its former glory?
And how do you see it now?
Does it not seem like nothing in your eyes?
Now, here's the encouragement.
But now, be strong, Zerubbabel, declares Yahweh.
Be strong also, Joshua, son of Jehoshaddek, the high priest, and all you people
of the land.
Be strong, declares Yahweh, and work, listen to this, for I am with you, declares Yahweh
of hosts.
As for the promise which I cut with you, when you came out of Egypt, my spirit is standing in your midst.
Do not fear, for thus says Yahweh of hosts, once more, in a little while, I'm going to shake the
heavens and the earth, the sea also, and the dry land, and I will shake all the nations, and they will come with the
desirable things of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory, says Yahweh of hosts.
The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares Yahweh of hosts.
The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says Yahweh of hosts, and in this place I will give peace,
declares Yahweh of hosts.
And let me just make a, let me just make a note there.
The latter glory is greater because as great as they built this temple, how could they have known that one day the
temple himself, God himself, in the flesh would walk in to this temple in his
glory.
But God says in that text, in Haggai chapter 2, don't fear, I will be
with you.
The building of Zerubbabel's temple, it seemed slow and arduous.
There was much opposition, but God says don't grow weary, don't quit, don't stop, stay in the work,
and I will be with you.
Now that sounds to me like a New Testament text.
Have you ever heard of a New Testament text that we call, in Matthew 28, the Great
Commission?
And Jesus says to his disciples in the Great Commission,
I am what?
With you.
All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me.
So the implication is, don't fear.
You don't have a government that stands above me.
You don't have a culture or a sin or a movement or any godlessness that stands above me.
You have no opposition that stands above me.
All authority in heaven on earth is on me, and I am with you.
God is with us, and the church needs to be encouraged to continue the work.
God is building the body of Christ to its fullness.
Friends, this is God's work today.
This is what God is doing in the world today.
You think to yourself, I'm worried about my plans and my dreams and my future.
I'm worried about governments.
I'm worried about 2024 election.
I'm worried about the war in Ukraine.
I'm concerned about my children.
What is God doing in the world today?
Well, there's a lot of things that we could talk about God working in the world today, but the penultimate thing, the
thing, the work that God is doing in the world today is He is building
His church, and He's with us, encourages us
to continue in this work.
Now, the second reason I bring out this point is twofold.
Why do we need to be reminded that God is building His body today, the body of Christ?
Because you need to be reminded of the opposition
that exists, and to refuse help from sources outside
of God to do this work.
In other words, again, in verse 6, it says, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit.
In other words, churches today are very, very, very prone to want to build
the kingdom with might or power, right?
If we could just ascend to the, do you remember what happened in what we would call Christendom?
Constantine gets power.
The church, the Christianity doesn't become the official religion right away, but eventually it does.
You begin to mix the church and state, and what happens?
Terrible things.
Friends, it's the church's proclivity to try to reach out to might or power
to further the kingdom, and God says, no, no, no, it's not might or power, but it's by my spirit.
I want to go again to Ezra, if you'll just flip there, Ezra chapter 4.
Listen to this.
This was when the foundation was being laid.
This is before the work resumed 17 years later, so when the foundation is being laid, something very interesting happens.
Ezra chapter 4, you have the Samaritans.
Let me set it up for you.
The Samaritans offered to help Zerubbabel build the temple of the Lord.
These Samaritans, if you remember in John chapter 4, remember the woman at the well?
They claimed also to be awaiting the Messiah.
In chapter 4 of the book of John, the woman at the well says that, yeah,
we're looking for the Messiah.
When the Messiah comes, he'll tell us all these things.
In Ezra chapter 4, they also claim to be worshiping the same God, so what is Zerubbabel going to do?
Here's these people, outwardly appear to be like -minded, and they offer to help with the work.
Ezra chapter 4, verse 1.
Then the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a temple to Yahweh,
the God of Israel, so they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of father's households
and said to them, let us build with you, for we, like you, seek
your God, and we have been sacrificing to him since the days of
Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us up here.
But Zerubbabel and Jesua and the rest of the heads of the father's households of Israel
said to them, you have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God, but we
ourselves will together build to Yahweh, the God of Israel, as king Cyrus, the king of Persia, has
commanded us.
So here you have these people, they seem to be friendly, they're the Samaritans, and they say, we're going to help you, this is
a hard work.
Hey, we seek God just like you do, let us help you, right?
It'll go faster.
You want to mow the yard yourself, or you want to have several people doing it?
You want to build the church yourself, or do you want to have some people come alongside you?
You want to do your own meager offerings to build the church, or maybe we'll get some money from the government,
which would you like?
So it's very tempting to accept help.
Aren't we all on the same team?
But Zerubbabel says to these people, absolutely
not.
Why?
Because not everyone who says they're a worshiper of God is a worshiper of
These Samaritans had nefarious motivations.
They were either trying to disrupt the worship of God, or they were trying to simply disrupt the work of God
by entertaining their own ideas, or their own forms of worship and idolatry.
But either way, Zerubbabel understood that the people of God cannot partner, listen to me, the
people of God cannot partner with false worshipers in order to build the temple.
Now, what truth there is in that
for us today?
Hear me, church.
The church of God cannot reach across the aisle and
clasp hands with paganism for the good of the kingdom.
The church must strive to be pure and holy and
separated and distinct from the world.
She must not be a mixed bag of regenerate and unregenerate.
She must not be a conglomeration of true worship and worldly worship.
The true church must vehemently resist the temptation to partner with the
government or this or that political organization for the purposes of building the kingdom.
These entities have nefarious motivations when it comes to building Christ's kingdom.
The church cannot preach the gospel at the abortion clinic with those who are Roman
Catholics or the Mormons, even though the Roman Catholics and the Mormons would would stand with us and they would say
abortion is murder and we shouldn't abort unborn children.
We can't stand with those entities or organizations.
It doesn't matter their view on abortion ultimately because they have the wrong gospel.
And if we partner with people who have the wrong gospel, then we adulterate the gospel.
We can't mix truth and error.
The way the church is built, friends, is not innovation.
It's not alliances.
It's by the Spirit of God.
That's verse six, not by might nor by power but by my
Spirit, says Yahweh of hosts.
It's not governments or idolaters that
we depend on.
Oh but preacher, if we get these people in the church, how much money would they have if they just comment
and how much money we might have we can fund so much mission work.
But if we partner with the wicked and false worshipers in the name of furthering Christ's kingdom, we are
no longer depending upon the Spirit of God.
We are depending now upon the might and power of this world.
And many churches go this way.
John Gill has a great word here.
The church is built up in all generations through the conversion of sinners.
And that is done not by external force, by carnal weapons or moral suasion,
but by the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
And not by the power of man's free will, but by the efficacious grace of the Divine
Spirit.
Friends, listen, listen, listen, listen.
This is our hope.
Not by might, not by power, but by the Spirit of God.
Now if you take that stance, if you say I can't partner with the idolaters
of the world, you'll receive opposition.
You understand today the world does not, people get this confused, the world does not have a problem
with a compromising church.
If you go today to Jonathan Edwards Church in Northampton, you
will see, I just saw a picture, a friend visited it this summer and he showed me, you'll see a picture out front of
LGBTQ flags.
No one has a problem with Jonathan Edwards Church today.
It has partnered with the world.
But if your church, if our church, if Christ's church, if Perryville Second Baptist Church is going to
stand and refuse to partner with the idolaters of the world, we will face
opposition.
And this leads me to my second point.
God's work in the church today involves bodybuilding.
Secondly, it involves mountain moving.
I know that's cliche, but listen to verse 7.
I'm not going to jump a pew or something like that, but I'm tempted to.
Verse 7.
Before Zerubbabel, you will become a plain.
He will bring forth the top stone with shouts of grace, grace
to it.
Now understand the context here.
This is a beautiful and encouraging word for the church today, I believe.
God says this to Zerubbabel.
This mountain before you, which seems so ominous,
so formidable, so impossible, so
unrelenting, is going to become to you not like a great mountain, but like a plain, level,
flat, smooth, out of the way.
And he is one day going to put Zerubbabel, that is, the final stone in place, as everyone stands around
and says, grace, grace.
God is a mountain mover for His church.
Though it can seem at times as though the world is triumphing,
as though persecution is overpowering, as false teachers are
flourishing, ultimately, Christ is building His church, and He will
crush, He will eliminate, remove, destroy all mountains
of opposition.
Before Zerubbabel, you will become a plain, and He will bring forth the top stone with shouts of grace,
grace to it.
One day, the last stone will be built on the temple.
You understand?
So Zerubbabel one day puts the last stone at the top of the temple to the shouts of grace, grace.
One day, the last living stone will be added to the temple.
One day, the house of the Lord will be complete.
One day, the last sinner is going to be brought in, and the throne room of heaven will
shout, grace, grace.
Maybe it's a song we know, God's grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within.
Victory ultimately belongs not to the
world, but to the church.
Christ has secured the victory for us and is ultimately removing all
obstacles before us.
Puritan Thomas Goodwin said this, Christ's love to His church is such that no
mountain of opposition can stand before it to hinder the enlargement and building of
it up.
Christ has issued a grand declaration.
We, men, issue grand declarations sometimes, right?
How many young men has issued the declaration, I'm going to marry that girl, and sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't,
right?
How many men have issued the declaration, I'm going to go and I'm going to strike it rich, and sometimes maybe it happens
and sometimes it doesn't.
But Christ has issued a declaration, I will build my church, and this is a promise
surer than tomorrow's sunrise.
He will vanquish His enemies.
He will clear the mountains out of the way.
The church will march on.
She will have victory.
Now, this makes me think that maybe certain passages in the New Testament we
misunderstand.
Now, I'll give you one.
Matthew 17, 19 and 20, listen to this.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, why could we not cast it out?
That is, they couldn't cast out a demon, but Jesus could.
And this is His response, verse 20.
He said to them, because of your little faith, for truly I say to you, if you have faith
like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there,
and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.
So Jesus, in this narrative, moves from talking to His disciples about casting out demons
to talking about a mountain.
Faith, even small faith, can move mountains.
Now, you've heard this, right?
And you've heard it in terms of the prosperity preachers use it like if you're sick and they
say, if you just have enough faith, God will heal you.
That's terrible, wicked, foolish.
If you just have enough faith, you'll reach your financial dream.
The mountain of poverty will be removed.
Or you have people who say things like, maybe not this bluntly, but, hey, if, guys, if we really just
had enough faith, we could move Pettigene out of our way.
We can see Russellville from our house, and we'll move it over to Faulkner County or something like that.
Okay, but I actually think, based on Zechariah 4 and based on what Jesus is saying
contextually, I don't think that that's what Jesus is talking about.
What if there is actually more pertinent application for the church?
And that is, we are called to a faith that pierces
through gospel opposition.
Whether that be the Roman government in Jesus' day, whether that be the Roman Catholic Church
in the Reformers' day or our day, whether that be the U .S. government or the government of China or the government of
Russia or whatever, whether that be blatant wickedness and fornication in the land, blatant
idolatry and paganism in the land, whether that be hypocrites or false believers in the land.
We look around today, the church looks around, and we we see this great opposition.
We see not just the mountain, but as the Hebrew says in verse 7, the har hagadah, the
great mountain.
We see the great mountain of opposition before us, and the temptation is to think there's no way,
there's no way.
The church will never ever come back.
We're not going to make it.
We won't make it back in America, right?
There's no way to undo the wickedness and wretchedness that is surrounding us.
Or whether it be low numbers or low offering or hostility in the community or oppression from the
government or some other group or whether it be hardened hearts or unbelief, whatever the case may be, we are
tempted to look at the mountain in front of us, to hang our head and just throw up our hands and to say,
what am I going to do now?
But God says in verse 7, the
problem is we look at the mountain from our perspective, and from God's perspective it
is this.
Petigene looks big to Haddon, but it don't look big to God.
Before Zerubbabel, you will become
a plain.
Ultimately, friends, in the big picture of it all, the church will triumph.
And even in the midst of a specific local church's struggles and in persecution
and in difficulties, every Christian, the people of God are called to faith
in the one who takes mountains and moves them out of the church's way.
We are called to put our faith in the one who takes the mountains and eliminates him, destroys him,
grounds him like dust in his hands and causes him to be plain so that we can move forward.
We're called to faith in the mountain mover.
The mountain will become a plain.
Where is your faith, church?
Listen to me.
Where is your faith?
Is it in your might, your power, the things of the world, or is it in the one who moves mountains
on behalf of the church?
And when it is in God, when our faith is in God, when we see God as the one who is with
His church, who is in His church, who is for His church, who is building His church, then we are
reminded that we are to go on.
We are to put our hands to the plow and we're not looking back.
We don't quit.
We don't give up.
We don't lose heart.
We don't stop.
We don't let go of the plow.
We keep running.
We keep marching.
We keep fighting.
Hear me, saints.
Hear me.
Don't quit.
We are surrounded, the Bible says, by a great cloud of witnesses.
Christ says, keep your eyes on me.
We keep preaching.
We keep evangelizing.
We keep passing out tracts.
We keep striving for holiness.
We keep working.
We keep praying.
We keep reforming.
We keep going because
God is the one who moves opposition out of our way.
Hear the word of the Lord.
God's work in the church today involves mountain moving.
I'll mention one more thing and then we'll move to our last point.
This says a lot about those who would be opposed to
biblical reformation.
Those who would be opposed to the purity of the church.
Those who would be opposed to genuine biblical worship.
I'm telling you this morning, be careful where you stand
lest you find yourselves actually fighting against God.
If God is going to eliminate the opposition, and I'm not saying that this is
an ironclad promise for every church like, well you'll never have, that's not what I'm saying, but if God is is working for
his church at large today and you find yourself in opposition to what God is doing,
well that's a grave warning that must be issued to
you today.
Sometimes God allows pretenders to remain in the assembly and other
times he is pleased to remove you.
Listen to me now.
The call to you if you're in opposition to reformation, if you're in opposition to the church, if you're in opposition to
what God is doing, the call to you is not to double down.
Well I'll show God you think you're strong?
You're not stronger than a mountain.
You're not stronger than God.
Your call is not to double down, but to repent.
To consider even now God can move your mountain of unbelief, but you must go to Christ.
Will you ask him as we see in the scriptures, help me, I believe, help my unbelief.
Will you trust his saving work?
There is grace, grace for you this day if you'll look to Jesus.
Now a third point.
God's work in the church today involves body building, mountain moving, and thirdly small steps.
Now we go down to verse 10.
But first let me mention here these seven eyes.
You see how it says, but these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line and the hand of Zerubbabel.
It's actually interesting the connection between Zechariah and Revelation.
We just don't have time to get into that, but I think that these seven eyes represent the seven eyes perfection.
They represent Yahweh's sovereignty, the Lord's sovereignty, the Lord's presence throughout the
earth to accomplish all that he has purposed.
The providence of God is for his church.
He is with her, he is for her, and he will accomplish great things through
her for his glory.
But these great things that God is accomplishing through his church today, hear me clearly,
are sometimes done in small, almost imperceptible
steps.
Verse 10, for who has despised the day of small things?
As the wall, and this is Nehemiah, not Ezra, but in Nehemiah, as the wall was being built
in Jerusalem, the scoffers despised it.
They said if a fox jumps up on that thing, it'll come crashing down.
In Ezra, we saw the people of God weeping because they had seen Solomon's temple in the former glory days,
and the second temple seemed like a small thing in comparison to the former glory of Solomon's temple.
These were despising the day of small things, but God often builds his kingdom
in small steps with small things.
In the Old Testament, consider he once used a young man,
an untested man in the battlefield with a sling and a stone
to defeat the great warrior giant, Goliath.
He once used a little tent peg to crush the head of Sisera,
the enemy of Israel.
He once used a young Moabitess who had lost her husband to come back to Bethlehem and to carry on
the lineage of Jesus.
He once used a young Jewish girl to carry the Messiah
in her womb and to birth him in a small town
outside of Jerusalem.
He once used a small group of uneducated men to be his first
disciples.
He once turned a group of 120 disciples at the day of Pentecost to now
millions of Christians in the world today.
What am I telling you?
I'm saying, beloved, do not despise the day of small things.
Remember Haggai 2 .3, we read it earlier.
Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory?
How do you see it now?
Is it not as nothing in your eyes?
Many saw Zerubbabel's temple and thought it nothing compared to Solomon's temple, but
many look at the church today.
Many even who profess to be believers look to the church today and they consider it to be as
nothing in their eyes.
Oh, but listen son, the church ain't nothing.
The church is what God is doing in the world today.
And in Luke 12, Jesus calls his disciples a little flock, but he says, so we may think of ourselves even today
as a little flock, yet it is the Father's good pleasure, Jesus says, to give them the kingdom.
It is the Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom.
Matthew Henry says it this way, in God's work the day of small things is not to be despised.
Though the instruments be weak and unlikely, God often chooses such by them
to bring about great things.
God is building his kingdom today, but the way that he's building the kingdom today through the church
is in small steps, small things.
We're too prone for the day of big things.
This is what we want, the day of big things.
We want the Billy Graham crusades.
We want the grand displays.
We want to be like the companies like Apple or Nike or Amazon.
We want the big bank accounts.
We want the big budgets, the big buildings.
We want these great things, the fireworks, the laser lights, the smoke.
We want the great things, but God is working through the small things.
God is working through the 70 -year -old grandmother who wakes up early every morning, and she's reading her Bible, and
she's praying, and he's working through the young Christian mother who's wiping noses and changing diapers, and he's
working through the early morning men's Bible studies, and he's working through the faithful dad who's exhausted,
but every night he gathers his family into the living room, and he opens the Bible, and he reads the Bible with them, and he
prays with them, and he sends them to bed, and he's working through his little bitty churches even all across the world
spread out from Perryville to Pechote, from Tuxla to Tuscaloosa through the knocking of
doors of sharing the gospel, and preaching in the big marketplaces, and preaching in the parking lots of
little grocery stores, and handing out little gospel tracts, and through the little fellowship meals of the church, and
he's working through the small things to build great things
for the glory of Christ.
Jace agrees, and I'm telling you, church,
do not in your heart despise these things.
The world is too big for these things.
These things are small, unseemly, not worth our time, insignificant
from the eyes of the world.
They are despised.
They're thought weird.
Like one of the biggest issues we have in the world today in Christianity is we don't want the world to think that we're weird.
The world has big screens, big ads, big budgets,
big technology, big governments, big ideas.
All right, God, we can't wait.
What do you got to rival what the world has?
Remember when Naaman comes over to the land of Judah, and he
goes, and he's like, y 'all can make me clean, and Elisha says,
oh, you want to be clean?
Yeah, go dip in the Jordan seven times.
Naaman's ticked off about that.
He's mad.
The waters in my country are way better.
That's it?
I thought you're going to do something big.
Nope, something small, but then he trusted, and we see what happens.
He's cleansed, and he puts his faith in the Lord.
He's not afraid.
Okay, God, how are you going to rival Apple?
How are you going to rival Nike?
How are you going to rival Amazon?
You must have something big cooked up.
What is it?
God says, here's the church.
Yes.
These are the small things that God is doing in the world today to make a big name
for Christ.
Do not despise these.
Do not neglect, friends, the local assembly.
Do not neglect biblical church membership.
Do not neglect church discipline.
Do not neglect serious evangelism.
Do not neglect rightly ordered worship.
Do not neglect robust doctrine.
Don't neglect these things, and you say, preacher, aren't you making a mountain out of a molehill?
You're making small things big things.
Can't we just come together and say, we love Jesus, and that be that, and I'll show up every now and then, and why do you got to be
so serious about discipline, and worship, and membership, and all these things?
Can't we just all agree together that we love Jesus and move on?
I say, no, I'm not making small things big things.
I'm saying small things are big things to God because He is
working through the small things to further His kingdom and bring glory to His Son, and if God
cares about the small things, the small steps, so must we.
Thomas Goodwin says it this way, if the worship of God and the government of His house and every ordinance thereof
tend so much to His glory and set Him up as King, then how much is He engaged to perfect it?
In other words, God is working even in the little bitty details.
Every song, every chord, every verse written, every verse read, every prayer
made, God is in control, and He cares about the little things.
He's not merely the God of the great things, but of the small things.
Listen again to Matthew Henry, though the beginning be small, God can make the latter end
greatly to increase.
A grain of mustard seed may become a great tree.
Let not the dawning light be despised, for it will shine more and more to the perfect day.
The day of small things is the day of precious things and will be the day of great things.
Listen to that.
Who hath despised the day of small things?
Oh, church, I'm pleading with us to wake up this morning and to listen and to realize
that God is working through small steps to further His kingdom.
Don't despise the day of small things.
Do not despise His assembly.
A little faithful church is a great weapon in God's hands, and we will do almost anything,
almost anything to miss church.
We'll say, it's so small, it's so insignificant, it doesn't really matter.
I've got a runny nose, I've got family in, I stubbed my toe, it was a hard week
at work, I've got a ball game, I've got to go to this event or that event.
We will put the church behind almost everything else, and the Bible calls us to not
despise such a small thing because God is working through it.
He's working through it.
Is it a little thing in your eyes that the God of the heavens and the earth, the triune God of
the universe is working in our world today through the church?
Is there not a bit of application, not to step on your toes, but I will.
Is there not a bit of application for tonight?
Tonight we look at our church name.
Now listen, I don't mean to disappoint you, but in the annals of world history, if
the Lord tarries and no one comes and Jesus doesn't come back for a thousand
years, no one is going to find a great history book where they
say this amazing event on July 16,
2023, Perryville Second Baptist Church
renamed itself.
It's not going to matter to the world.
But listen to me, some of you are going to
say this is a small thing.
I'm too busy.
They'll handle it.
I have other things to do on a Sunday night.
And to you, I say, will you not heed our text?
Let us not despise the day of small things, for God is working through the small things to
accomplish great things.
How is God going to win the world to Christ?
How is God going to reach disciples from every nation?
How is that going to happen?
Well, the old adage goes like this.
How do you eat an elephant?
Right?
One bite at a time.
How do you complete a thousand mile journey?
One mile at a time.
And how does God advance the kingdom of Christ in the world today?
One step at a time.
He's building his temple.
He is building the body of Christ, one living stone at a
time, not by might, not by power, but by His Spirit.
Beloved, you must not despise small steps.
Reading the Bible every day, sharing the gospel of Christ, going before the Lord in prayer, Wednesday night
meetings, Sunday morning meetings, Sunday night meetings, raising your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,
being a faithful Christian in your workplace, being a faithful husband to your family, being a faithful wife
to your family, being faithful grandparents.
But it's hard.
It's hard.
I don't see the fruit.
I do family worship every night.
My kids haven't become a Christian yet, or they're hard, or right after I do family worship, they wipe boogers on one another, right?
Or I come to church every Sunday, and when I walk out, I don't necessarily feel greater.
Sometimes, sometimes actually going to church makes my life harder.
I'm not seeing the fruit.
I'm not seeing the evidence.
I don't understand, but I'm saying one step at a time, Christ is building His church.
It's a difficult journey, but don't look at these things and see them as
insignificant or inconsequential.
Understand what God is doing.
He's like links in a chain of your life, and every day He's adding a link, adding a link, adding a link, adding a link,
adding a link, and why He's adding the link?
You don't understand the links, but when you get back on a portion of your life and you look back and you see the chain, you see all these links
together, and you see that the only way the chain got there was by the small steps along the way.
What I'm saying to you is please, please, please don't despise
the small things that God is doing today in this church.
Don't turn your back on them.
Don't give up.
God is working, and you must not find yourself in
opposition to this.
As one who despises the day of small things, I don't have time for the Bible.
I don't have time for church.
Those are small things anyway.
I got to worry about these bigger things like making an extra dollar or whatever.
To despise those things puts you in opposition to the God who is using the day of small
things to build His kingdom.
I can't preach a long sermon on small things, so we'll land the plane.
Where are you at on this?
Will you think about it?
Have you forsaken the small things?
Have you neglected the small steps?
Will you repent?
Will you turn these things over to Christ?
Will you resolve this morning to see His working in what the world considers
mundane, dull, unimportant?
Will you commit your life to the small things in order to see God accomplish
great things?
I'm not saying commit your life to the small things and God's going to deposit money into your account this week.
I'm saying will you commit your life to the small things and see Him do great things for the glory of Christ?
And will you trust this morning the overarching point?
If He builds it, they will come.
God is with His church.
He is for His church.
We do not trust in the power of men.
We do not trust in the might of magistrates or the innovations of the world.
We instead choose to trust in the Lord our God.
We know that by the Spirit of God, He will see to completion the building of His temple, which is the
body of Christ.
And one day Christ is coming.
He will put His foot upon this earth and all men and women and boys and
girls will give an account to Him for the life that they have lived.
Is your life resting in Christ?
Is your life committed to His body building, mountain moving, small step work
in the church today?
By God's grace, I pray that it is.
Father, we thank You for Your
kindness to us.
We thank You for this text from Zechariah.
We don't want to be in opposition to You.
It's a song we sang earlier.
Would You conquer every rebel power, rebel lust, rebel opposition
to You that is in our heart?
We don't believe You too often.
We say if we give our lives to this, if we give our lives to what You're doing in the church, then we're going to miss out
on something.
Rescue us from this temptation, O God.
Let us as a body commit again to Your great work.
Father, I understand that there are most likely, or at least I know there are some
lost people in our midst that think about children.
Most likely there are at least some adults unconverted.
I pray that You would smash the mountain of unbelief that stands between them and You
and draw them by the power of Your Spirit to Christ.
Even now they will repent and believe the gospel.
I pray we wouldn't despise this sermon, we're not looking for some sort of
rousing response so much as we're looking for faith in Christ.
We trust what Jesus has said and we'll pick up our Bibles and one
step at a time we'll follow Him to the celestial city.