Confrontation With worry must include worship. If you are having a confrontation in life as a Christian, it must include worship. Red Pat said it this way: every arena of battle must have within it an altar of worship. Yeah, you may be the head of your home. You may be The faithful wife How is your personal time with God?
your personal altar, your worship. 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.
And now here's Pastor Rick with the conclusion of his study called Refusing the Ungodly. 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 the same in the house. There's this fellowship.
If a Christian is impenitent, they get disfellowshipped. 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 the 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's 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 five of Ezra four, 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 Persi, or Darius, however you want to pronounce his name.
That's the 16-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, we're saying that 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 24. 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. His 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. And all that was laid was the foundation.
Now, this isn't like a foundation for your house where it's like a foot wide. Long trough of s concrete. Again, these are these giant stones. That means they're very visible. And you'd walk by the temple and you'd see it for 16 years.
Unfinished. It was a constant rebuke. And the people What did they do?
Well, they began to build their houses, and nobody stopped them from doing that. Until Haggai shows up. In verse 24, we read again: Thus the work of the house of God, which is at Jerusalem, ceased. And now we come to chapter five. And we'll get to Ezra's quote in a minute.
But now, chapter five, when the rebuilding resumes, because Ezra then picks up the story. Then the prophet Haggai And Zachariah prophets prophesied to The Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel. Who was over at them?
So Zerubbabel and Jeshua rose up and began. to build the house of God, which is in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them helping them. Bringing that inspiration. Inspiring the people to build even in the face of opposition.
Confrontation. With worry must include worship. If you are having a confrontation in life as a Christian, it must include worship. Red Pat said it this way: every arena of battle must have within it an altar of worship. Yeah, you may be the head of your home, you may be.
The faithful wife. How is your personal time with God? your personal altar, your worship. You can become a mother very quickly. And that goes for the men too.
You get so busy. Here and there. That you failed to choose when Mary chose. Or you could also, you could certainly abuse, you know, Mary could have said, you know, I'm never cooking again. I'm just going to study the Bible.
That would have been the other. She would have got a rebuke, too, but that's not what she did. Anyway. This is why we do Bible study to learn these kind of lessons. Haggai dealt more with the conscience of the Jewish people at the time that the temple was not built.
He stirred them with cutting words. And here they are, just two verses from his prophecy. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, consider your ways. You think about what you're doing. Go up to the mountains and bring wood.
and build a temple. That I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says Yahweh. Go get the materials. and get to work. That's what the prophet said to the people.
And he prefaced it, meditate your transgressions. You live in paneled houses. Look at the house of the Lord.
So Haggai, he convicted the people. Zechariah, he inspired them. And he did it by giving them prophecies that built a holy courage in them. He told them the future of Israel.
Well, he was one of many prophets, but he brought more information in. It took twenty-three days. For the leaders, after hearing Haggai's message, to get to work. That's pretty effective turnaround time.
So I have a little bit now that this has to do with current events. I don't like to really bring them in because I figured that the Bible study did that. You can connect the dots. Just by those who say we're one of you and they're not. Because today we have liars as then.
We have to face them also. We have deadly dupes, those who have been Radicalized. What I'm giving is they would say is inflammatory because it doesn't agree with them. Because they don't want to be held accountable. They don't like the sting of conviction from a preacher about their sin or anybody else.
And of course, many universities adore Such radical liars and fools Evil always carries. It's dirt to other places, and it always cries foul when it's caught cheating. But it never stops cheating. Whether it's Antifa friendly congressmen, Local government council. Councils like we heard the one up in Michigan, the Muslim one that said to the Christian, you're not welcomed here.
And he should have counted, well, that's what hell said to me. Because hell doesn't welcome us anywhere. Successful liars who have no conscience. And they are successful. They got 16 years out of the Jews.
Today, as then, there are architects of double standards. And those double standards are proven to destroy not only neighborhoods and nations, but individuals, and that's what the Christians are occupied with primarily: souls. If we can't save the nation, we can try to reach individuals. That's what the prophets did.
So, they want to stop the free speech, stop using science to refute false. Biology Stop stopping men from beating up women. They don't want to do that. Talking about the Olympics and that Just the insanity. We're now no longer dealing with insanity.
We're dealing with. Outright demon possession. of whole peoples. like it was in Nazi Germany and in parts of Not all the Imperial Japanese wanted to go fight in the Pacific. Many of them were happy in their gardens and doing calligraphy in their professions.
They didn't want to go. Many of them didn't want to be kamikaze pilots that crash into ships. They wanted to go home to their families. And then the Japanese leaders knew that.
So when they said, Who wants to volunteer for a kamikaze mission?
Well, their code of bushido was so oppressive, who could say no and live with themselves? They all had to say, I'll go. Because not to say yes would have been worse.
So It's a very Real entity, but the church. It's not ancient Israel. Israel was ordered to evict the infidels with the sword as judgment. Not so much because they rejected the God of Moses, because they were just. Awful people.
And when God lays out what he didn't want the Jews to do, he said, because they're doing that. Our weapons, Second Corinthians ten. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. But mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. And when it comes to spiritual war, we do not use guns.
The church is Christ's body. And We are ordered to know the truth and to preach it. As led by the Spirit. To know the truth by the Spirit. To preach it as the Spirit gives opportunity.
Otherwise, we cast pearl before swine. Jesus said they're going to turn and trample you. Why not be led by me? Let me open that door. You be locked and loaded.
And when that door opens, you fire the truth.
So again, evil objects to being left out of worship. Verse 3 now, after the Jews, they're going to keep building this time, after Haggai has got them rolling again, at the same time to Tanai, the governor of the region beyond the river. And their companions came to them and spoke thus to them: Who has commanded you to build? this temple and finish this wall. But the eye of God was upon the elders of the Jews, so that they could not make them cease.
Till a report could go to Darius, then a written answer was returned concerning this matter.
Now it's a big legal battle. We get that from Ezra 5:6 through Ezra 6:12. And if you're reading it, you say, well, this is kind of boring reading, unless you really insert yourself into.
Well, it's the courtroom, which who wants to do that? Verse 6, chapter 6, sorry, now of Ezra. And here, King Cyrus reads the whole thing and he sends back. In verses three through five. Let the house be rebuilt in verses 6 through 12.
Let the work of this house of God alone. And that is the legal response. And we are enjoying this. We are enjoying a resistance to evil, confronting evil. Whereas we've had I don't know how many in the past that just looked the other way.
in fact, enable it. And you say to yourself, yeah, but what happens when the shoe is on the other foot? Oh, you had to shoot that foot, too. We leave those kind of things with God. We don't know what God's going to do.
We don't know how long things are going to last. We don't know what, you know, and we have our orders to know the word. That is a commandment. Study to show yourself approved. The word does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
That's for the pastor.
Well, do you think that makes the pew immune from such a No, absolutely not. That's for all Christians. To do what?
So we can go to church and argue with each other. We can argue about Arminianism and Calvinism all day. No, it's to reach the lost. Part of it is to uphold the same. The temple was Was a sermon directed against all the false religions of the earth, and the church is the pillar and ground of truth.
according to the Bible, the New Testament, and it's also A sermon directed against all the religions of the earth. Satan hates it. He hates. That we have the audacity To say That's it. What God has given us is for everybody.
But it has to be the way God has given it. Ezra 6, verses 14-15.
So the elders of the Jews built And they prospered. Through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, and they built and finished it according to the commandment of God Now the temple was finished. It took them about five years of work, actual work, to finish the temple. Time stamps are in Haggai. And as is the cross of Christ upon the life of every true believer, And by the way, the crucifix is a misrepresentation of Christianity.
Because the crucifix says he's still on the cross. He is not on the cross. He is risen. That cross is empty. But it's through that work that we come to him.
And at some point And in some way, Evil must be confronted. and its influence must be countered It's through truth. It's through just having a church that's trustworthy. and faithful to the scripture. Sure, we made different points and policies, but bottom line, we know who Christ is, we know what salvation is about.
And we don't move from those things. And if evil is not contested, evil expands. And It will Be unlimited. This appeal now to shameless people through the truth, Hamas type characters. People who have inoculated themselves against true conviction.
They can't be convicted because they can't be shamed. They can do anything, and they'll have no sense of shame. And you don't have to be a narcissist to be in this group. You just have to be against Christ enough.
So Timothy, Paul, wrote to him and said, Speaking about these types, they speak lies and hypocrisy. having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.
Well, what do you do with them? What do you do with such people?
Well, you have to employ the same tactics as, and I'm almost done, Zechariah employed in building the temple. Dependency on the Holy Spirit. And so, this is what Zechariah said to the Jews. His contribution to getting this place of worship rebuilt.
So he answered and said to me, God's speaking. to give this to Zerubbabel to the people. This is the word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Is there any other way for the Christian to do it after Pentecost? Everything is through the Holy Spirit.
He is the third person of the Trinity, equal with the first and second person of the Trinity. And we baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit because the Son said to do it that way, and all authority had been given to him. We have to confront The same enemies Of the same God in every generation. Again, Zechariah 4:9: The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple, his hands shall also finish it. Zechariah said that before the work was done, and the work was finished, and the people believed it, and they had a mind to work.
Haggai points that out, too.
So, wherever possible, evil must not be allowed to have its way. It must be resisted, and that is the meaning of the salt of the earth. But it's not enough to resist it.
Something's got to be put in its place, and that's light, and you're the light of the world. And if you don't put something in the void, Satan will. And the power of the demonic influences will be seven times worse. And while we're seeing some churches line their pockets with their false gospel of the prosperity movement and Other idolatrous movements out there. A minority of churches, it seems, are actually holding the line.
And if it weren't for them we would be like Sodom and Gomorrah. But there may be a revival. Of God's people in the houses of God. to beat back The evil That's now global.
So it closed with this verse: Ezra six now. Verse 21. And this is a good takeaway verse. Then the children of Israel, who had returned from the captivity, ate together. with all who had separated themselves.
This is fellowship. From the filth of the nations. Of the land in order to seek Yahweh, God of Israel. Yeah, because you can't seek Him. with idolatry in your heart, with impenitent sin You have to come to God on His terms.
Knowing He's a merciful God. Let's pray. Our father Your Bible gives us all the instructions we need, the reminders, the inspiration. And for that, We are very grateful. And we applaud We can praise It worked.
You have invested in us. and maybe not waste it. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen. Uh Thanks for tuning in today to Cross-Reference Radio, where Pastor Rick has some answers for various questions that have been asked.
We can't fully express how grateful we are that you've been with us today. But if you're ever looking for more teaching and content from us, you're welcome to subscribe to our podcast. Just go to your favorite podcast app and look for Cross Reference Radio. For any other information about this ministry, go to crossreference radio.com. You'll also be able to find out details about our service times and location.
Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click on CCM. Once again, head over to CrossreferenceRadio.com. Thanks for listening today and come back again for the next edition of Cross-Reference Radio.
