This is how the church gets dumbed down. By Pastors listening to people, not to God. And then everybody's scratching their head, wondering what's happened to society.
Well, you've dumbed down the churches, which is supposed to be the conscience of the community, which Ezra was. Ezra just preaches the word, and there's this great revival of contrite spirits coming to him. We have sinned. And all he did was preach scripture. Gave the Holy Spirit a chance to do what He does best.
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. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick as he begins his message, Ezra, Faith's brave heart.
We're going to stay in Ezra, a semi-topical study based on the book of Ezra and other biblical leaders whose actions. directed by our God, might be of benefit to many, Well This is the second part of the question that I Started last Wednesday, and when I read some of these verses, I'll omit the incidentals. Ezra faith's brave heart. And That idea of him being this brave heart of faith comes from. Chapter 8.
In verse 22, for I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers. And horsemen to help us Against the enemy. On the road. Because we had excuse me spoken to the king Saying the hand of our God is upon all. those for good who seek him, but his power.
and his wrath are against all those who forsake him. And so Ezra says Boasting about how God protects the faithful. I sort of painted myself into a corner. I'm offered troops, so what am I going to say to that? No, God's going to protect us.
Well, we'll talk more about that as we move forward, but it takes a brave heart built on faith. to back up that claim with the life and go forward. But before I talk about Ezra, I want to talk about Bible biographies, or character studies, they can also be called. I think some Christians need to be taught how to appreciate things in the Scripture. I think a lot of things they miss it.
They're looking. They come to church looking for something instead of just being open for what God wants to pour into them. And I sometimes say, well, maybe I'm working too hard. Maybe I should just tell funny stories and touchy things that make people go aw and really not dig into the scripture. Of course, I don't have that in me.
I wouldn't know how to do that. But it is perplexing why there are so many churches that are large. have high attendance. And they don't even preach them. They don't bother with these things.
Not much, not all of them, but a great many of them.
So, I want to talk a bit about Bible biographies because this is a character study. We have a biography here of Ezra. What it is, is an analysis of The life of some character in Scripture, Whose strength and comfort came from the Lord, or they refused the strength and comfort of the Lord. There are good characters and there are bad characters. And it seems again that many Christians don't see the value of a character study.
Talking about the life of maybe Mary Magdalene or or Samson. Are they craving motivational pep talks? I don't know the answer for sure. I just know that Character studies are such a blessing to me. They're they're probably my favorite type.
of study. In them is doctrine also. And if you want to keep shallow hearts shallow, Then I think you stay away from analyzing these characters that God. uh has personally been involved with and has personally preserved their stories for us to learn from. For example, There are the impenitent wicked.
Who are condemned because of their impenitence? Cain, Balaam, Judas Iscariot. There are those with a contrite heart. Who greatly sinned and were forgiven and received by God? Samson, David.
Peter. There are the winners. that were devout. They were knowledgeable, they were brave. They had love.
undying faith. Abraham had to have had love, some understanding of it, to pray for the perverts that were in Sodom and Gomorrah. Moses, all the stuff he had to put up with God's people. And there he is interceding for them. And Jeremiah, the greatest lover of his people, well, I don't want to say the greatest, but there's nobody greater.
among men and women. Hannah Abigail, and Mary the wife of Joseph, Read what they prayed and said, and you'll know these were women who knew the word of God. Hannah in 1 Samuel 2. Mary in Luke chapter 1, and Abigail's words to David. She was totally dialed in to the prophecies concerning his life.
From God. Do you think current events? And political sermons are more valuable than exposition. on Bible characters? This is how the church gets into a problem.
You have pundits, you have passionate people in the world trying to tell this pulpit what to preach, how to behave itself. I made the mistake this week of just looking at one of these. I'm a conservative. But that does not give all conservatives the right to dictate. to the pulpit.
to tell it what to preach. And I watched just a bit of one and there was these two of them. And they had the audacity to say what the churches should be saying today. I had to go take a nap. I literally, the only way I could tell the I was livid.
This is how the church gets dumbed down. By Pastors listening to people, not to God. And then everybody's scratching their head, wondering what's happened to society.
Well, you've dumbed down the churches, which is supposed to be the conscience of the community, which Ezra was. Ezra just preaches the word, and there's this great revival of contrite spirits coming to him. We have sinned. And all he did was preach scripture. Gave the Holy Spirit a chance to do what He does best.
So Many. They don't. appreciate these things. And it's not the New Testament way. And that's what we the church should that's our pattern And we have all of these resources in the Old Testament.
So tonight I'm going to concentrate on Ezra's devotion and not the sin of the people. That will be the secondary part. It has to factor in. But you you can grow strong from these biographies. Because they're built in statements, and those statements are sermons all by themselves, and anybody can pick it up, for example.
Of Gehazai. Gehazi was a good servant of God. But greed got the best of him. And this is the last, this is what is said about his condition after the prophet Elisha had to deal with him. He went out.
A leper white as snow. That alone. It's like anytime you mention leper, you get somebody's attention. Herod. He was eaten by worms, quote unquote.
The rich young ruler, he went away sorrowful. Here's a man talking to Jesus Christ, the God of creation. And he leaves that discussion sorrowful, saved, but sorrowful. Because he wanted more, and Jesus told him what it would cost, and he wasn't ready to pay that price. They'd already settled he was right with God.
He obeyed the commandments. I say a little bit on that because there are those that just want to. He's in hell now. I don't agree with that. Jabez, listen to what it says about this man in the Bible.
He was more honourable than his brothers. Do you understand? Can you sense how these things create a hunger?
Well, tell me more about this. Imagine if you were reading this on their tombstone. How many questions you'd have?
Well, the Bible says we've got some more answers on these things. I think we tend to fall into this struggle that Bible knowledge and insights. is somehow going to Insulate us. from hard times, quite the opposite. It helps us through the hard times.
to keep preaching Christ No matter what. And the last one I'll use is Judas. This is the short thing about that. Peter just says it so briefly. Peter says he went to his own place.
After his death, it ain't heaven, it ain't our place. He went to his own place. Yes, Bible Biography can offer An impressive and unique mode of preaching, but I think it's lost. On many good Christians, well-meaning Christians, passionate Christians. But I don't understand.
Or if I stood up here and I talked about politics, a lot of people would applaud that.
Well, that was great. But if you talk about Bible characters, eh? It certainly could be. I always ask God, is it me? Am I doing something?
And he says, No, Rick, you're not crazy. It's them. It's always them. How foolish of you to ask Character studies, they fortify our faith. To serve in the face of life For God When you see someone else doing something that you thought you couldn't do.
Oftentimes it makes you say, you know what, I could do it. And I won't take any time giving you anecdotes on that. But they're not stories of celebrities. But people whose story God wanted. to tell.
And they've survived thousands of years just for that.
So that's my introduction to this Bible. Biography, this character study on Ezra, and we're going to look at the book of Ezra, just briefly review Ezra 1 through 6. When Zerubbabel left Babylon, taking some 60,000 people almost with him back to the promised land. That was eighty years ago. Before Ezra comes along.
And then there's that 15-year gap before they rebuild the temple, and the five or so years to do that. When we come to Ezra chapter 7, there's a gap between chapter 6 and chapter 7 of almost 60 years. And Ezra is Is coming to Jerusalem. To Judah to uphold temple worship, all that goes in with that. If they had done that from the beginning, they never would have been taken captive to other lands.
Zerubbabel he faced external opposition. Clever opposition Let us join you, we're one of you and they were not and he told them no. Ezra, he faces internal corruption.
Now this is a very big part of the book of Ezra. In fact, it makes it one of the biggest parts of any book in the Bible. The devil tried to absorb the Jewish race through mixed marriages. to dissolve the Jewish race. Not mixed marriages of mere race, but religion.
The Jews were allowed to marry outside of their race, but not outside of their faith. Rahab is just one example. Read the genealogy of Christ. There are Gentiles in that genealogy. Genocide through impurity.
It comes out when you I should quote Exoder 9 verse 2 This is when the story blows up. for they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves, And their sons, so that the holy seed is mixed with the peoples of the lands. Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers. has been foremost in this trespass, the holy seed. The chosen people.
What does it mean the chosen people? doesn't mean it better than anybody else. It means all of the prophecies connected with them. or in the face of Satan. Saying to him, God speaking, this is what I'm going to do.
This is how I'm going to save people. I'm going to call it thousands of years in advance, and you can't stop it. Satan's response is, we'll see about that. They are chosen to bring us the Messiah. Every promise made to them Through the prophets, For example, Isaiah saying, a rod shall come out of Jesse.
That's tying the Messiah to The line of David. We covered that of how important that was in many studies, but last week, just in the closing of Revelation. And I think it was lost on many people. I think a lot of folks didn't understand that how valuable this is.
So Satan is trying to get the Jewish race destroyed.
So that the promises of Christ returning to Israel and establishing his throne in Jerusalem. With the seed of Isaac And Jacob won't happen. He's insane. And he's committed. to trying to break the promises.
And any time you see anti-Semitism, it is a direct attack of Satan. All hatred towards a race just because of the race is sin. But when you Target the Jews because they're Jews, now you're messing with the promises of God. And Satan knows it. Anti-Semitism is all about breaking God's promises in Scripture.
Because if he can break one of them then we can't trust any of them.
So when God says, these are my chosen people. Through this race. I'm going to bring forth a Saviour. He could have picked the Aborigines. He could have picked anybody.
Had to be somebody, so it was the Jews. And he tells us why it's the Jews. And we should understand. What's going on in the spiritual realm? Because we as Christians are supposed to be tied in because we have the Bible.
which is God's word telling us about these things. And so, what's happening in Ezro after he gets established? He's going to find out all of these mixed marriages. Satan is making the holy seed impure. And if this doesn't stop, In time, the race will dissolve.
They will be assimilated just like The Philistines, the Edomites, The Amali, where are these people now? Where are these whole races now? They're gone. They've been absorbed. into other Races, other peoples.
They've lost their identity, their distinction. The Jews are the only ones that have held to this distinction without a homeland. No one's ever done that before. for 2,000 years. and then put back into their land, distinct from every other people on earth.
Picked on by every other people on earth just because they're Jewish. And all these lies about there are no Palestinians, they're gone. These are Jordanian Arabs. that have nested in Israel. And they want to act like they're Palestinians.
They're not.
So Overviewing Ezra In chapters 7 and 8 we find out that this was a man that prepared his heart. to be used by God. Through scripture. There's no other way. Anything else, you just it becomes idolatry.
You're making things up about God. Ezra 7, verse 10. For Ezra prepared his heart to seek the law of Yahweh, And to do it. and teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. This man was all about the word of God.
And he saves the nation because if those Jews that were brought back into that promised land with that temple were corrupted, it would spread, maybe take a thousand years, two thousand years through, who knows? But eventually, It would happen. And I'll come back, I'll circle back to other attacks by Satan just in that area.
So he purposed to know God. And God's Word, and God's will. The thing about God's will is tough sometimes. A lot of times I don't care for God's methods. I could lie and say when God lets something horrible happen, I can say, oh, that was wonderful.
That would be a crazy thing to say. I don't always care for it. God doesn't always care for it, but he understands. And we are too also. This world is cursed.
God has His purpose, and in the end. He will be justified and everything that he allowed. When we get to heaven, it will be imparted to us. Why things had to work the way they did, and the just now know it by faith. We accept it, we know his character, we accept that, well, you know, this is the way it is.
Job expressed it this way: the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And if you've ever had to utter those words in the face of some horrific event, you understand the power of faith. But can you do it again? You're not supposed to have a flash up in the pan experience.
It's supposed to be for the long haul.
So he purposed in his heart to seek the Lord. and to do it, and to teach the statutes and ordinance in Israel. He purposed to follow God. He sought to spread it. and uphold it, and that's where it gets painful.
It wasn't just a theology for him. When the people We're doing wrong. It broke his heart. Nehemiah pulled out the hair of his enemies. Ezra pulled his own hair out.
He didn't do the crime commit the crime. In Ezra 9, we see his broken heart, verses 3-6. Verse 3: So when I heard this thing about the people and the mixed marriages and the leaders leading the way. When the leaders are b falling apart, man, it's just... You can't fix it from the bottom.
I tore my garment. And my robe. and plucked out some of my hair. Of my head and beard, and sat down in astonishment. I wish I could use that excuse for me.
I was so brokenhearted over the people, I plucked out hair from my head. That's why. Anyway. Then everyone who trembled at the words of The God of Israel assembled to me because of the transgression of those who had been carried away captive, and I sat astonished until. Evening sacrifice, and I can go on, but that you've got the picture.
Why did they assemble to him? He didn't call for them. He had been teaching there, and the conviction he poked him by just preaching the Word of God. He launched no investigation, he preached the word. and the Scripture did its thing.
Oh, they were one or two knuckleheads. There always is. The heart was tested. His heart That he prepared And it was used, and it was effective. In the tenth chapter, we find that he has a lion's heart.
Chapter 10, verses 10 and 11.
Now, therefore, make confession to Yahweh, God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from pagan wives. It's the idea of a saint. Of the New Testament words saint and sanctification, to separate ourselves. From the ways of the world.
And you carry that too far until you become almost a, you draw too much attention to yourself. It's a balance, and it's not that very difficult to do. Then all the assembly answered and said with a loud voice, Yes. As you have said, So we must do.
Well, you can understand that sort of submission. to a man like Nehemiah, who would have beat some of them up. But it's to Ezra. Ezra's, he's this peaceful character, this man of the word, this scholar. And yet, The Persian king trusted him with a tremendous amount of wealth to get it from Babylon to Israel.
without armed guards. He did it. Leaders in still in Babylon, Jewish leaders, rallied to him. Every time he says something, people act. Because he's a trustworthy man.
We're talking now, we're almost 500 years before the coming of Christ on the clock. And so he upholds The faith. And He has victory. It's a bitter victory. Sweet in the mouth, bitter in the in the belly because He breaks up these Mixed marriages.
It's the lesser of two evils. This is how important it was to preserve the race. The life and times of Ezra. The verse is about this man. Tell its own story.
Just reading the verses about him. You don't have to go to any other book in the Bible. You can just read it right here in this book that he has put together. has his name. The Jews put Ezra and Nehemiah together as one book.
That and then split because the scrolls would be so big and the In years we we've cut it down. to make it manageable. But uh his venture in faith The execution Of that venture in faith to step out trusting God and cross the finish line that way.
So along the way, he doesn't come up with, well, you know, I should have got guards and I didn't, but we've got a lot of money here. Maybe we can hire some mercenaries on the way now. He finishes the way he starts off. Committed to trust in God. In chapters 7 Through ten, we only have about a year of his life.
But what a year it is. He was a priest. is born outside the promised land surrounded by unbelievers. He was born in a nation infested with false notions about God.
So here's a character sturdy point.
Next time you think you're in a neighborhood. And nobody cares about your Christ.
Well Welcome to the club. A great many, Heroes of the faith have been in that position. Ezra is one of them. It's not a pass. To give up.
Paul said to the Corinthians that your work would not be, that you would know your work is not in vain. He said to the Philippians, too. He would find himself dealing with the unholy alliances just as. Phineas. The man with the javelin and numbers, thirteen hundred years before him, and he's related.
Phineas is one of his grandfathers, thirteen hundred years removed.
So he's in the direct line, a direct descendant of Phineas. That we'll find that in verse 5. Phineas was the man whose javelin defeated the strategy Of the apostate prophet Balaam. and King Balak When they attempted to wipe out the Jewish people through mixed marriages. Don't ever think for one moment that the women are sort of a lesser gender.
They have a different assignment. But Balaam understood. that he could use the women. to wipe out the race. How much power is built into that?
Yeah. Um 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.
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