June 16, 2024
From The Series: When
God Rebuilds…
Part 20 The Hand of Our
God
Ezra 8:1-23
Mountain View
Evangelical Missionary Church
Happy Father’s Day, again. Thank
you for being here this morning. We are now in the eighth chapter of the Book
of Ezra and we are continuing the series When God Rebuilds… I pray that I have
been able to show you the parallels between the returning exiles in Jerusalem
and what we are going through here at Mountain View Church. There are many
parallels by the way. God was at work behind the scenes in the lands of the
ancient Middle East. I feel that God is at work here in our community and in
our church these days.
God was at work in the people who
were doing the rebuilding. I can see that God is at work in some of the people
here at Mountain View Church. I, and some of the church leadership are seeing
growth in some of you over the last few months. We are very excited to see the
Holy Spirit at work here at Mountain View Church.
The Israelites were concerned
with ensuring that the proper worship was being carried out in Jerusalem at the
Temple. We have tried to do the same thing here. Our resources and talents are
limited at the moment, but we are still trying to ensure that the proper and
ordered worship of Jesus Christ occurs here every Sunday morning.
We have seen that the Israelites
were concerned with proper prayer in their worship to Yahweh, and we here at
Mountain View Church have tried to steep our services and ministries in proper
prayer to Jesus Christ, all for the Glory of God.
We have seen where there were
times when the faithful in Jerusalem had to wait on God for the next step to
take place. While we too, are waiting on God to call His people back to this
church, the leaders are also working diligently to make sure that the
foundations are in place to support the growth that we anticipate God will
provide. We are reaching out to the community, engaging, talking, teaching, and
loving on them to show that Mountain View Church is a family of God’s people
that is here for the Glory of God.
I know it may seem like we have
been spending a long time in the Old Testament, and I will be honest with you
when I first thought of taking this position here, I said that I wouldn’t
really be preaching from the Old Testament. I wanted to be like one of my
influences, John MacArthur who spent 45 years at his church primarily preaching
the New Testament verse by verse. Then God showed me that the Old Testament is
the foundation of the New Testament teaching, and the books of the Bible that I
have chosen to teach from have been appropriate to where our culture is today
and where our church is currently.
We saw in Habakkuk that just as
Judah and its leaders had been warned to repent and to come back to Yahweh, our
culture here in the West has also thumbed its nose at God and ignored His ways
all to the glorification of themselves. The majority of our leaders seem
godless in their decision-making and seem wholly dependent on their wisdom to
lead us, rather than seeking the face of God for His help.
We are in the middle of an entire
month that is celebrating sexual immorality and perversion and it has the
audacity to call this open rebellion to God, Pride month. Pride is perhaps the
worst sin of all. I have said this in the past, but when do we celebrate Murder
Month? When are the celebrations for lying month apart from election time that
is? Unless we repent and return to God as a society, we are bound to the same
fate as Judah.
At the Armory the other night, a
couple of the guys raised the quote they had heard from other Christian Leaders
saying something along the lines of, “If God doesn’t do something soon, He may
owe Sodom and Gomorrah an apology”. While I appreciate the comparison, of
course, these men will know that God doesn’t owe mankind an apology or an
explanation for any of His actions. But the point is well taken. The patience
and long-suffering that Jesus has shown this world at this time is an amazing
testimony to His Grace. But make no mistake, a time of judgment is coming for
all of us.
With all that being said, let us
open our Bibles and turn on our devices to the eighth chapter of the Book of
Ezra. While you are doing that, I will let you in on a little teaser, for the
preaching schedule I have laid out. Over the summer months, we will finish up
Ezra in about four more lessons and then cover the Book of Nehemiah in about
five lessons, hopping over some sections as there is a lot of similarity
between Ezra and Nehemiah, and then, Lord willing, we will start the Gospel of
John about the second Sunday in September and examine that gospel in detail
over the coming months.
READ EZRA 8:1-23
All right, that was a long list of names there, and I’m not going to
spend a lot of time going over this list, other than to say that it is a
different list from the others listed in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Some
critics claim that it is simply the same list from Ezra chapter two with some
omissions present. This is not accurate, as we see here another group of
returnees that are accompanying Ezra as he heads off to Jerusalem.
These are a different group of leaders in the Jewish community whose
families were still living comfortably in exile. Think about the timing
involved here. The Israelites were in captivity under the Babylonians for 70
years, then in the year 539 BC, the Persian King Cyrus issued a decree allowing
some of the Israelites to return to Jerusalem with the sole intent of
re-establishing their Temple and Temple worship of Yahweh their God.
Here in chapter eight of Ezra, we are in the year 458 BC which is another
81 years after the initial return of the group in chapter 2. That is about 150
years after the initial scattering of the Jews by the Babylonians which
translates roughly into 7 generations having passed from the time of the
original expulsion from the land of Judah.
That is like your ancestors coming to Canada from Europe, say Poland or
Hungary in 1873 and landing here and establishing a life and raising six
generations here in this foreign land. Now, for the original generation, this
would have been a foreign land, but for their children and grandchildren this
would have been home and the only known homeland for them. So on and so on for
five more generations, then it would be up to that seventh generation to pack
up all the belongings and return to the “homeland” and reestablish their
religious culture.
I mean, there was no multi-culturalism going on here folks. Imagine the
commitment of the Israelites to maintain a separate culture and religious
understanding for seven generations apart from your homeland. Currently, in the
church in the West, we have a hard time keeping one or two generations in the
church.
I have been asking this question of several people lately, “Where are all
the children who went through Mountain View Church’s Sunday School program?”
Why aren’t we a multi-generational church? Has this church failed to take
seriously the command in the Bible to all parents...
"6 Start
children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will
not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6. We can ask ourselves, “Is this
true?” I believe it is true and accurate if, we are consistently living out a faith
in Jesus in our lives. If there is no evidence of Proverbs 22:6 in the lives of
our children, then we must question our actions first before we question the
accuracy of what the Bible teaches. If the only relationship we have with Jesus
Christ is for an hour and a half on Sunday mornings, but the rest of the week
we are living just like the world around us, then no wonder our children are
walking away from the faith of their youth.
Have we taught our children that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God,
or do we tell them “Bible Stories” in such a way, that they are seen in the
same light as comic books and movies about the ancient Greek gods?
In the Book of Isaiah, the prophet receives these words, “13 All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace”,
Isaiah 54:13. Isaiah shows us the benefit of raising our children in this
manner, “great will be their peace”. Does this mean that they will live a life
free from trouble? Of course not, but when they do encounter troubles in their
lives if they have been taught that there is a sovereign God in control of all
things in the Universe they will be able to face these troubles with peace in
their lives. If they think that we are just random bags of chemicals crashing
through life in chaos, then no wonder they need drugs to cope with this
miserable worldview.
We can see a correlation between the decline in church attendance and
the increase in mood-altering drug consumption in the West. An increase in both
illegal street drugs and legal prescription medication to help us with our
anxieties and worries has accompanied the decrease in people learning about
Jesus and turning to Him for comfort. It’s not just hard drugs that are in play
here, we also see self-medication through the abuse of cannabis and alcohol
that are legally bought in Canada. The Apostle Paul warned us about our freedom
in Christ with these words in 1 Corinthians 10:23, “All
things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial”. The same
concept applies to the use of these drugs and alcohol.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7 instructs us to,
“4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. y 5 Love
the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These
commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress
them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk
along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” As parents have
we taken that command seriously?
Let me ask you this question, “Which is a greater authority in your
life? What the Bible says, or what some “expert” says on TV or in a book? Which
is the greater truth? “27 So God
created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and
female he created them.” Genesis 1:27 or this statement from the World
Health Organization, “Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls
and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviours
and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as
relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from
society to society and can change over time.”
Do you see what the so-called experts did there? By ignoring what
Scripture says on the matter, they have given themselves the freedom to
redefine what gender is. It's now a “social construct”. This means that apart
from what society says a boy and girl are, we have no idea what gender really
means. This allows us to change or bend this definition into whatever pretzel-shaped
definition that suits our needs at the moment. If we want to destroy the
traditional family unit, what better way than to say there is no such thing as
sons or daughters? We can eliminate mothers and replace them with
birthing-persons. We can replace the traditional protector and provider in the
home, the father, by having the birthing person and their three gender-fluid offspring
wholly dependent on the government to provide for them.
We can replace Biblical standards of morality with sexual liberation,
which has resulted in more heartbreak than happiness. We have allowed the young
men in our society the freedom to use women without any sense of obligation to
care for them afterwards. We have told young women, that this is “empowerment”,
yet the quest for equality through third-wave feminism has resulted in modern
women finding themselves childless and alone in their forties with nothing to
bring them comfort but their careers.
This is what the “experts” have given our society today. May I suggest,
we stop listening to the experts and go back to what God’s Word has to say on
these matters?
Speaking of God’s Word, just in case you were thinking that the verses I
quoted you let’s you off the hook because that was the Old Testament and those
were instructions just for the Jewish people, let’s take a look at what the New
Testament has to say shall we?
John 1:4 says, “4 I have no
greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
While it is true that John is speaking words of encouragement to his spiritual
children at the churches where this letter was circulating, I do feel that
these words could have come from the Saviour’s mouth just as easily. I don’t
think I am guilty of reading into the text here, I think it would bring Jesus
no greater joy to see his children and our children walking in the truth.
The amazing thing is that truth isn’t just a concept. Truth is also a
person. Truth is the embodiment of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to be
walking in “the truth”? One source put it this way, “The Greek term alētheia,
translated as “truth” in 3 John 1:4, specifically references “the good news
about Jesus Christ, especially as a message that conforms to (and answers) the
nature of reality.” The expression to walk in truth is biblical imagery for
behaving in a way that agrees with the truth of Scripture, the message of the
gospel that Jesus preached, and the Christian doctrines we profess.”[i]
What is the message of the gospel? The message is that, despite mankind
being utterly rebellious and undeserving of any favour from God, Jesus
voluntarily left His eternal place in the Trinity and added human form to His
eternal glorified self and walked among His creation for roughly 33 years.
Jesus faced all the same temptations and trials that we face, and yet He
remained sinless during His walk so that He could be the perfect sinless and
acceptable atoning sacrifice for sin.
Not His sin, for He who knew no sin, became sin for us. Rather Jesus
bore the wrath of the Father that was due to us for our sins, and Jesus wiped
clean the debt that we owed the Father for all that we had sinned against Him.
Jesus who was supernaturally born of a virgin, lived, died the death of a
common thief on a Roman cross and was buried in a borrowed tomb, and then
raised Himself again after three days only to show Himself to those who knew
Him best and encouraged them and then ascended into heaven, where He now sits
at the right hand of the Father awaiting His return to claim His eternal
Kingdom on Earth.
All of this was done, so that we sinful people could be reconciled to a
perfect and loving God who is also Holy and Just. This Holiness and Justice
attributes of God could not allow Him to look past our sins based on our
righteousness. No, what was required was the imputed righteousness of another,
the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
So, those of us, who chose to accept this free gift known as Grace and
place our faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ, can now have a
reconciled relationship with God. He now hears our prayers, and we have become
His adopted children and can now spend an eternity with Him. Those who reject
this offer, those who refuse to submit to the teachings and authority of God
will spend an eternity apart from Him. An eternity apart from the Loving Father
will be an eternity like hell.
If Jesus is reaching out to you, respond to that prompt. Bend your knee
and bow your head and accept the gift of Grace that is waiting for you. Stop
living your life according to your rules or the advice of secular experts.
Instead, submit to the teachings of scripture in all of your life. Make Jesus your
King, not just your life-ring to keep you from drowning. All of Christ for all
of life, not just 90 minutes on Sunday morning.
What does your Monday morning look like? Are you in God’s Word, or does
your Bible sit on a shelf until the next Sunday? Over the last several months,
we have been learning in the Men’s group that being a godly person requires
discipline. It is not something that happens by accident. It takes intentional
effort and habits. It takes putting Jesus first in areas of our lives at
intentional times.
Jesus should be first in our lives always. I fear the present-day
Christian takes Jesus for granted too often. We expect Jesus to just stand by,
and wait for us, and we will get to Him when we have a chance. The committed
Christian, the one with the most peace in their life, is the one who is putting
Christ and kingdom work first. What I mean by that is we place a higher
priority on our relationship with Jesus than we do any other relationship. We
don’t neglect our responsibilities to others, but we don’t get to Jesus when we
have time for Him either. Most of us men shared that we have found that getting
out of bed a little earlier and spending 20 to 30 minutes in the morning
reading God’s Word and praying was the best investment in time for our day.
When I say “the most peace in their life” I don’t mean they are trouble-free.
They just have a firm foundation under them to face whatever trial life will
throw their way. Please, I beg of you to take your walk with Jesus seriously.
OK, turn with me back to today’s passage and let’s look at it in a bit
more detail. The first couple of verses in chapter 8 refer to two lines of
Aaronic Priests who were descended from two different sons of Aaron and then
the royal descendants of King David. That’s about all I will say about this
list of names.
Look down to verse 15. We see that Ezra has called for those who were
leaving with him to muster near a canal that flowed toward Ahava. Little is
known about this place. It could be referring to a town or simply a region in
the kingdom. It is here when they are assembled that Ezra has a chance to see
who exactly is accompanying him on this journey to Jerusalem and Ezra notices
that something is amiss.
This brings us to our first point of the morning, that Ezra is concerned
with propriety in worship. Ezra notices that there are no Levites among them.
At first glance, this might seem a little confusing. Levites were descendants
of Jacob and Leah’s third son Levi. Aaron and his sons were also of the tribe
of Levi, so technically speaking the priests would have been Levites.
What had happened was, that from the the tribe of Levi there emerged
three major clans and each clan had separate and specific duties concerning the
Tabernacle and later the Temple. One clan, the Aaronites emerged as the
Priestly class and they took care of the priestly duties such as the sacrifices
and offerings at the Temple.
Another clan simply known as the Levites, here in Ezra, were limited in
their duties to the guarding of the places of worship and the priests. Ezra
becomes aware that they have no Levites present in their midst, so he sends leaders
from the group and sends them to a nearby city known as CASIPHIA [kuh
SIF ih uh] to see a man named Iddo and Ezra even instructs the leaders on what
exactly to say to Iddo.
We see in verse 18
that Ezra gives God the proper credit and the mission was successful because
they came back with 20 Levites in all and 220 temple servants as well. Now that
these individuals were present, we see that Ezra calls for a fast and a time of
prayer.
Look at the
posture that Ezra was encouraging his people to adopt. A posture of humbleness
toward God. This has been another recurring theme that we have been discovering
in the men's group. God is consistently concerned with our heart attitude.
In biblical
terms, what does the heart represent anyway? According to the Nelson's New
Illustrated Bible Dictionary. "Heart is the inner self that thinks, feels,
and decides. In the Bible, the word “heart” has a much broader meaning than it
does to the modern mind. The heart is that which is central to a person. Nearly
all the references to the heart in the Bible refer to some aspect of human
personality.
In the Bible all
emotions are experienced by the heart: love and hate; joy and sorrow; peace and
bitterness; courage and fear.
The thinking
processes are said to be carried out by the heart. This intellectual
activity corresponds to what would be called “mind” in English. Thus, the heart
may think, understand, imagine, remember, be wise, and speak to itself.
Decision-making is also carried out by the heart. Purpose, intention, and will are
all activities of the heart.
Finally, heart
often means someone’s true character or personality. Purity or evil;
sincerity or hardness; and maturity or rebelliousness—all these describe the
heart or true character of individuals." End quote.
So, Ezra was
concerned about the attitudes of those who were returning with him to Jerusalem
and he was trying to ensure an attitude of humbleness directed towards God. I
think Ezra was trying to combat the judgement by men against God, anger, or
resentment being charged to the Holy God.
We often see
people blame God for the consequences associated with decisions that we make.
Or sometimes a grudge, or a chip on one's shoulders develops when we experience
disappointments in our lives. Instead of embracing the challenges that God
tests us with, and looking for new ways to grow deeper with Christ, we instead
complain about how hard we have it or how blessed someone else seems to be.
Mankind is so
quick to rationalize our bad behaviour and blame anyone else for the
circumstances we find ourselves in. Even the ones of our own making.
Two weeks ago we
were first introduced to this phrase, "the hand of our God" being
placed on one's life or circumstances. What does this saying even mean or refer
to? The hand of God refers to the providential intervention by God in our
lives. The Bible is clear about this teaching. God is not a cold and distant deity
that put the universe in motion and then sits back watching how we all manage
to get along. Time and time again, we have seen in the Book of Ezra, how the
author gives Yahweh credit for directing the hearts of Kings and His people to
get the things that God desires to be done.
Each one of His
children are responsible for ensuring that God's plans of Salvation are carried
out. It may be through our gifts of hospitality or our gifting of supporting
missionaries. Perhaps we have a gift of evangelism or teaching God's Word to
others. We may be musically gifted, financially, or technologically gifted.
Whatever God has gifted you with is to be put to good use in the expansion of
God's Kingdom. There are no wall-flowers or bench warmers when it comes to the
children of God. We are co-heirs and coworkers with the Holy Spirit and Jesus
Christ to accomplish the Father's desires. But all of this starts with our
heart-attitudes and they should be ones of humbleness and submission to God's
will for our lives.
So, when Ezra
was convinced that those present had the proper attitude, they humbly
petitioned God for a safe journey for themselves, their children and
possessions. Do we have that same attitude when we bring our prayer requests
before God? Many of you will be travelling this summer, will you be humbly
asking God for His protection over your travels? I would suggest that all of
our prayers be taken before the Lord with humbleness and respect.
Look with me now
at verse 22 for our final point of this morning's sermon. Ezra admits that he
was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen for protection. I find
the use of this adjective very interesting. In the Old Testament, shame occurs
on a personal, corporate, and national level.
Ezra here, says
it on a personal level, "I was ashamed" and we see that it was
because he had told the king that "The gracious hand of our God is on
everyone who looks to him,". Did Ezra feel like he had painted himself and
his people into a corner by bragging about the protection of God for His
people? Perhaps the king had offered some protection and Ezra had dismissed the
offer out of hand without first seeking God's counsel on the matter.
Perhaps, sitting
here by the canal getting ready to depart, Ezra was having second thoughts and
maybe he was thinking how nice it would be to have some men and arms along for
the journey. Travel in ancient times was much more dangerous than today. The
areas between towns were places where organized bands of thieves looked for
their next victim. I don't think that Ezra was doubting the provision of God, I
think the shame was a result of him not consulting God about the decision to
decline the offer first. God not only determines the outcome, but He
also determines the means to accomplish the outcomes.
The same is true
of salvation. The Bible teaches that God is sovereign and as such, He can
determine who shall be saved. God can also determine how that person shall be
saved. The hand of God could determine that person to be invited to a revival
meeting where they could hear the gospel. The Lord could determine that a
person could watch a stirring sermon on television and be reached by the Gospel
message. Perhaps, God arranges for a discussion between two friends over coffee
and the gospel is shared. Perhaps you are running late for your regular church
and decide to stop in at the church that starts a little later. Or, perhaps you
feel led to stop in at the church that you have driven past for several weeks
and you find a loving and accepting home. God determines the means as well as
the ends.
Just before we wrap up here this
morning, do not skip over the warning that is contained in the second half of
verse 22, "but His anger is against all who forsake him." When any of
us try to do life on our own, apart from God and His forgiveness offered
through His Son, Jesus Christ, we will find that His anger will be against us
on Judgment Day. Don't be fooled by the platitudes offered by the world, that
we are all good, or most of us are essentially good. Even the Pope shared this
lie in an interview lately.
The Bible teaches that "3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there
is no one who does good, not even one." Psalm 14:3. According to man's standards, we are all basically good and
some of us are just a little misunderstood. According to God's standards, ,
"3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there
is no one who does good, not even one." That is why we need Jesus Christ in our lives. Not as a good moral
teacher, or peacekeeper, or as someone who simply loves everyone. No, we need
Jesus as a Saviour to cover us with His righteousness and shield us from our
deserved wrath from the Father.
CONCLUSION
I am going to use this passage
from Romans as our conclusion and as our doxology for today. We should read
this as a warning for the church and the believer today to avoid taking the
Grace of Jesus Christ for granted.
Romans 9:22-24 instructs us with
these words, "22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and
make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath" That's us Paul is referring to here. We are the objects of His wrath for
no one is good, not one. "—prepared for
destruction?" We are the objects prepared for destruction. We all
will die. We are all destined to hell as just punishment for our sinful ways.
Tough truths to hear, I know and your first instinct is to reject this teaching
because it goes against everything that the experts in the world are telling
you. Look at verse 23, "23 What if he did this
to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy," He
is only concerned with the objects of His mercy, those whom He has saved. "whom he prepared
in advance for glory—24 even us, whom he also called, not only
from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?" Those who put their
faith in Jesus Christ. Let me say a blessing over the food that is waiting
downstairs.
Pastor
Paul’s Points:
1)
Ezra is concerned with propriety in worship
a)
Absence
of the Levites
b)
Proclaimed
a fast and petitioned God
2)
He was ashamed…Why?
Questions
to meditate on this week:
1) How is your worship of Jesus?
2) Do you approach God with a spirit of
humbleness?
3) Are you ashamed of Him, or He of you?
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