First Corinthians chapter three. Talking about the foundation that he mentions here, the basis for the altar. The Christian looks at this and says, in unity, For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He's not only our altar, he's the foundation of the altar. The altar sits upon him.
The cross is nothing. Without Christ, This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through a topical series. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching.
Refusing the ungodly is the title of Pastor Rick's message on this edition of Cross Reference Radio. They also gave money to The masons and the carpenters, food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, to bring cedar logs from Lebanon to the sea. to jop according to the permission which they had from Cyrus, King of Persia, and that's for the building of the temple.
Now they're not going to let unbelievers Have anything to do with the building of this temple, but it's important to understand, unbelievers were supplying them with the materials. I mentioned before, there are decent unbelievers. True believers get things done in this world with the help of unbelievers. Look at the life of Paul and the Centurions that. were around him.
Not all of them, but Well, maybe um all of them. Anyway, coming back to this, the sacrifices. were made on their rebuilt altar, their gaining steam. Before public worship, There had to be personal worship. You may come across somebody that says, Well, we have our family altar.
Well, that's fine. Do you have a personal one? Or are you selfish and obnoxious and self-righteous? Are you of any use in the body of Christ or are you an amputation? It means something these things.
A Brahm He marked his arrival in the promised land, With an altar, and that's Abraham, before God changed his name from Abram. Righteous or exalted Father, the Father of many, he is He's known as Abram. But we, I'm going to say Abraham. It's easy to say. Genesis twelve verse two Then Yahweh appeared to Abraham, Okay, says a brom.
and said To your descendants I will give this land. There's the promise land. And Abraham. Built an altar to Yahweh. who had appeared to him Place of worship.
But not without blood. Not without the sacrifice of a life. And nowadays you get to see all of these cute Internet postings of animals that you didn't think had such personality, and they do. And they're sacrificed. It was a bold Amen to the promise of God.
When God promised Abraham, his amen had blood on it. And his crateful wasn't his. And that's what the cross says. Your salvation has blood on it, and we are grateful. is not ours.
Ours is not worth We couldn't pay for the sins of others. Couldn't pay for our own sins. A promise is the shadow of things to come. And the New Testament talks just like that.
So just like us Wanting to worship. Scripturally in peace with freedom, So were these Jews. The scriptures of God. That was their reality. Their life.
And here the confrontation with evil begins because Satan can't help himself. He can't resist. attacking innocence. That's why The young, the youth, are high value targets. For such a monster.
Verse 3 of chapter 3 in Ezra. Though fear had come upon them because of the people of those countries, they set the altar on his basis. And they offered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh, both the morning and evening burnt offerings.
So they're nervous about their freedom to faith. They have the king's decree, but they're still afraid these people are going to attack us. Because that's what the evil does. The evil people of today. They don't want you to get away with believing things without their participation, approval, say-so, and corruption.
And if you dare try it, They're going to come for you. And God says, I'll come for you too. and I will comfort you and I will use you. It may cost your blood. 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
Talking about the foundation that he mentions here, the basis for the altar. The Christian looks at this and says, in unity, For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He's not only our altar, He's the foundation of the altar. The altar sits upon him. The cross is nothing.
Without Christ, There are thousands of crosses in the ancient Roman world. Spartacus and his rebels, they were crucified. By the thousands. But there's only one cross of Christ. Only a drop of his blood was necessary, and it was more than a drop that he gave.
By the way, it is early fall at the time that they're making this offering, like this time of year, September, October. And the reason why that comes up in the story is because within seven months, the enemy is going to really ramp up their attacks. And so we come to the second part of chapter 3, the temple foundation. They have the sacrifices and the altar.
Now they're going to, again, these are enormous stones. that are used for the foundation. Verse 10 of chapter 3: The builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord. The mere Little fight. of this new foundation.
It broke the hearts of the old timers. We get that in chapter 3 and verse 12, but many of the priests and Levites. and heads of the fathers' houses, old men. who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when The foundation of the temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted for joy.
Aloud for joy, like a stadium raw Well, they didn't see the first temple, but the Old Times said this is nothing. compared to what God did through Solomon, and we lost it all. We threw it away. and the prophets of God couldn't stop it. And here we are.
After this thousand-mile journey. Back to worshiping, and we praise God for that. We thank God for that. But still does this emotional debt That comes with looking at what could have been, what should have been, and now what is. You can identify with them.
This is real life stuff. Seven months after the altar. They've laid the foundation. Trouble lurks on the outskirts. Ver chapter four of Ezra.
The hostilities to set back the temple work. And you know what? It's going to succeed. For sixteen years it's gonna succeed. The lessons are astounding.
They tell us, don't let this happen. In some places, they say, let this happen. We know what we want from the story. If we were participants, we know what we would like to have done differently. We would Monday morning quarterback our way through the scripture.
And that's just what God wants. He wants us to look at the plays from the last game and not make those mistakes. This fourth chapter describes the opening of the hostilities and the long setback to the work. And the problem is that in those 16 years, It didn't really bother them. They weren't happy with it.
They built their houses. God will raise up Haggai and that old prophet will point it out. No obedient work for God's glory. goes unchallenged Chapter four, verses one and two.
Now when the adversaries Heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of Yahweh, God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and said to him, Let us build with you. For we seek your God as you do. And we have sacrificed to him since the days of Esarhadun the king of Assyria. who brought us here.
Now, if you're reading along with me, and you should, if you want, have Ezra open. We're going through each chapter. We're at the beginning of chapter 4. And if you're reading with me, you know I've left out the unnecessary material for our points. And there are a lot of them in this these two verses.
These are the Samaritans. The epitome of corrupted religion, the personification of corrupted religion were the Samaritans, and I'll tell you why in a moment. The Jews ended up taking it too far. And Jesus pointed that out with the parable of the good Samaritan, because there are bad ones too. Anyway, They were eleven.
So the kingdom of Israel was a united kingdom under. Saul Under David, under Solomon, and then Solomon's foolhearted son Rehoboam comes to power, and he loses the kingdom. Not all of it, it's divided to sorth, south, and north.
Well, the northern kingdom becomes corrupted almost right away. They could not stand that the people were worshiping at Jerusalem.
So they came up with fake gods and false religions, heresy. Idols. to keep the people In north. And as a result, God raised up prophets, Hosea, Amos, for example. to bring them back.
And though they brought back individuals, they could not bring back the nation. And so the Assyrians got unleashed the Assyrians. The Assyrians came and they conquered the northern kingdom, all of it. They almost got all of the southern kingdom, too. due to Isaiah, they didn't make it.
They take all the people, with the exception of some that they needed to leave in the land, vine dressers and farmers and things like that. They take all those Jewish people. And they dispersed them throughout the other Assyrian conquered territories. Then they bring some of those people from other places they conquered and they put them in the northern kingdom. And those people mingle with the Jews that stayed behind, and together they have this hybrid religion.
A little bit of Mosaic law, a little bit of whatever else people are worshiping. Those were the Samaritans. In fact, they're going to build a temple to counter this second Jewish temple. And the Jews couldn't stand them. even into the days of Christ.
That's why they were shocked when they came back, and Jesus is talking to a woman at the well, and she said, you know, through Samaria.
Well, so it is these characters. Who have this hybrid religion? That's worse than just a stark wrong kind of religion. They're the ones coming up to Zerubbabel and saying, Can we help you? When the devil is allowed to spiritually help build God's house, you have built a condemned house.
The entrance leads to a trap door. There is a toleration. That is treachery. And Zerubbabel's not going to commit it. He'll have no part of that.
In verse 3, His response Is enlightening.
Now, remember, I just mentioned to you. Spiritually, they couldn't help with this. Or they could send logs from Lebanon and other stuff. Building materials. You can have today, you have unbelievers work on Church building job sites.
But they have nothing to do with the sacred things. The things that are sanctified, that are set aside. for the righteous only. And for the Jews, there were levels to that. Though only the Levites could do certain things, only the priests could see certain things, only the high priests could do a certain thing.
There are prohibitions all over the place. But there are also permissions. And the Jews wanted to guard it all. These did. Not the ones who threw it away before them.
So what is the response going to be to these people?
Well, if you're an ecumenicist, or an interfaithist, If you are one that thinks all people who Acknowledge the cross of Christ are considered Christians without looking into their doctrine. That's an ecumenicis. Or, if you're an interfaith type of person, we don't care what the other person believes, we're all going to get along and pray together because we're all praying to some same higher power anyway. That's heresy. Is that what the Jews are going to do this time?
Well, here's the response in verse 3. Israel said to them, You may do nothing with us to build a house for our God, but we alone will build to Yahweh, God of Israel. Refusing the ungodly. There are times when you have to say to them, No, I don't believe that. And if they say is hate speech.
It's not hate speech to disagree with somebody. Hate speech is more like, I'm gonna kill you. But of course, Satan is not satisfied with that. He twists everything. That's what he does with his ghoulish hands.
And there are humans, many of them. In fact, Jesus said, Broad is the way. Wide is the gate that leads to destruction and there are many who go and buy it. A resolve directed. From Zerubbabel.
Against all the earth's false religions. That is the pattern. Ev Christianity makes peace with no false religion. Ever. It is Christianity against the world, or it's not Christianity.
Just another one? Another car and a lot. True religion never Makes room for false religion. and the world will hate you for it. Then why have a word called truth?
Why bother with anything that is absolute? If there are no absolutes.
Well, that's their argument. They bought into that. They're no absolute. You can believe whatever you want. You can believe whatever you want.
But that doesn't mean God's going to let you do whatever you want when you die. It's the same thing in wardrobe, right? You can wear whatever you want. And people will think whatever they want about what you wear.
So there's other side to that coin. But with God is something serious. With wardrobe is humorous. Evil objects. to being left out of true worship.
Lying evil objects. to not being permitted to corrupt. How dare you catch me in a lie? We see this all the time. Arrogant people busted, caught.
And insulted. That you didn't let them steal your stuff. Evil objects to being left out of worship. It is by nature invasive and rude at the same time. Evil hates barriers.
It hates spiritual borders. Uncompromising Bible lessons. Against Impenitence. They can't stand it. When I say uncompromising Bible lessons against impenitence, it's like if you don't repent, They don't expect to be received.
And listen to what they say: We seek your God as you do, verbatim. How many sexually immoral or saying We can live, we can have our same-sex relationships and still be Christians. No, you can't. You can struggle with the sin, but you can't parade it. You can't endorse it.
You can't advocate. or promote or wink at it. And it could be any other sin. You cannot be a practicing pickpocket. And think that, hey, this is okay.
ruining people's lives, stealing their passports and stuff like that.
So when they say, We seek your God as you do. Mm no, you don't. There are essential doctrines. There are Doctrines that are not essential, they're important because they affect how we behave and interact. But they will not lead you to hell.
And that was last week's session. Arminianism or Calvinism, they're not essential doctrines. Unless you make it so, if you decide I'm going to use this as a bludgeon on the other guy, then you might have some other problems that. evolve from that But who is Jesus Christ? That's an essential doctrine.
And There are many others that go along with it. And so that's hell's line. We seek your God just like you do. This explains these churches that. fly these defective rainbows.
The true church must say no. To sum Who seek fellowship with it? There are some that don't qualify. And it's the same in the house. There's this fellowship.
If a Christian is impenitent, they get disfellowship. If there's some sin that they engage in that becomes public. And they do not work to fix it. We can't restore them. We have to isolate and separate from them.
Because now they're leavened. They're toxic, they are radioactive. And so again To see What is known today as a woke church is a house of horrors. It's built on Satan's teachings. You didn't have to wait for this generation to introduce this new woke stuff to have this same thing.
They've been around. The Unitarians, for example, the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons, who deny what the Bible teaches so clearly about Christ, you would think. His deity? His very person The devil is your contractor. If he comes up to you with a bag full of lies and say, We seek your God as you do.
The spirit Is not the Holy Spirit.
So a safety for God's people. Since Moses is separation from those opposing God. Abraham didn't need it in writing. He didn't live on purpose. In Sodom and Gomorrah.
Lot did. And Lot paid heavily for it, And even though the Bible remembers Lot as righteous, we also remember him as reckless. He is a Christian that habitually made wrong choices. And not only did he pay, But so did his loved ones. From this point to the end Of Nehemeyer, the conflict is in the forefront.
Between the Jewish people coming back from captivity and the Gentiles. the unbelieving Gentiles Because they were believing Gentiles even at this time. The unbelieving Gentiles were hostile to them.
So again, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther all belong to the captivity age. Esther happens between Zerubbabel and Nehemiah and Ezra coming to rebuild the walls. Esther takes place in the middle of that story.
Now, verse 4, then the people of the land, that's not the Jews, that's the opposition. Try to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose. They weren't going to settle for this. They aren't taking this refusal lying down.
Hell hates to be left out. of corrupting Worship. And they hired lawyers. The councillors. Like today's evil elements, they first try weaponizing the court systems.
to silence you, to stop you. Verse 5 of Ezra 4, and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose. all the days of King Cyrus, king of Persia. even until the reign of King Darius King of Persia, or Darius, however you want to pronounce his name. That's the sixteen year delay now.
Now Ezra does something that's really frustrating here. And it happens in other places, but he really gets it good and gets us good here. Verses six through twenty three are parentheses. They're out of chronological order. And You can make a disaster of teaching this section if you don't catch it.
What he does is, he inserts in the middle of Zerubbabel's struggles. A future struggle that he and Nehemiah are going to have to deal with in building the wall. And he inserts it here to tell his audience that would have known this. That see We're struggling just like Zerubbabel did. Just like the first Repatriates struggled.
with courts and violence against us, So we relate to them.
So he puts that here in verses 6 through 23. And we know that because of the kings that he mentions. We have timelines. We know. And it takes a lot of.
If you don't know, and you wait a minute, something's out of whack here. How does King Araxerxes show up? Then you have to do the research and find out, okay.
So What Ezra is saying to the people Fifty Almost sixty years later, Is what Paul was saying to the Corinthians. And here it is. Lest Satan should take advantage of us, we are not ignorant of his devices. That would have been an encouragement in the days of Nehemiah. when they had to build with a sword in one hand and a trial tool in the other was saying it was pretty dangerous.
The people were violent now. They were not only weaponizing the court system against the Jewish people, but they were violently targeting them. And so here in verse 2, we have the lying words, we're one of you. We have legal action in verse 5. We get to verse twenty-four.
It is implied That the same violent threats against Nehemiah was against those trying to rebuild the temple, too. And so they stop the work because of the intimidation. That's what Ezra is saying, and he resumes. It's Current time in verse 24, he says of Ezra IV. The work of the house of God, which is at Jerusalem, ceased, and it was discontinued until the second year.
in the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Well We have no known order from the king to stop building the temple. It looks like the Jews were just intimidated enough. And they stopped. Yeah. Uh Thanks for tuning in today to Cross Reference Radio, where Pastor Rick has some answers for various questions that have been asked.
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