This Ezra came up from Babylon, and he was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses, which. Yahweh, God of Israel, had given. The king granted him all his requests according to the hand of Yahweh his God upon him. Verse 9: According to the good hand. of his God upon him.
That's anointing. That's unction. That's what you want. You don't want just a talented speaker in the pulpit. You want somebody that, in spite of their difficulties and weaknesses, is in tune with God.
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 as he continues teaching through this topical message called Ezra: Faith's Brave Heart.
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 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 were 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 through 6. Verse 3: So when I heard this thing about the people in 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.
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 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 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 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?
So I don't care if someone is offended to me when I tell them I don't care anything about women's live. I care about what the Bible says about men and women and everybody, and there's no other category. It's just crazy that you even have to say that. Who would have thought that twenty-five years ago? You would have locked somebody up for saying there's more than two genders.
Well, anyway, I didn't want to go down that one. There's my political statement, so all of the pundits can be happy anyway. I don't have I have a little attitude this evening, but it's the good kind of attitude. It's the kind that makes for fiery preaching and You walk away remembering stuff. Anyway.
the unholy alliances with the daughters of Moab That's what Balaam counseled King Balak to do to defeat the Jews, and they started doing it. And when they did it in front of Moses, Phineas grabbed the javelin and killed them both. and the whole story changed.
Now, this gap between chapters six and seven, Ezra. then makes the second Trip back to was his first trip from Babylon that we know of to. The promised land to Jerusalem. In the last session, I said he has about 1700 with him, but those are just men. I left that part out.
Oversight on my part. Total about 5,000 people. When you factor in the women, the children, and the mixed multitude, along with the 1,750 men. you end up with about 5,000 people. And they were not.
Four uneventful months from Babylon to Jerusalem. That's what it took them.
Some incredible things happened. I'll circle back to that. But in the sixty years between Zerubbabel finishing the second Jewish temple. And Ezra's arrival There are three noteworthy events. From last week, from Ezra chapter 1 to chapter 6, when Zerubbabel brings back almost 60,000 people, they rebuild the temple.
then there's a 60-year gap. What happens during those 60 years to the Jewish people?
Well Zechariah the prophet was murdered in the temple. That's telling you that something's wrong in Jerusalem. Which is going to lead to the mixed marriages. There's a breakdown, which is why Ezra is sent back by the Persian king to. uphold Jewish worship according to their scripture.
Also during that time, Mordecai and Esther are defeating Haman and those with him who tried to wipe out the Jews with the sword.
So you have those three things, Zechariah the prophets murdered in the temple, Mordecai and Esther, and the Jews entering into mixed marriages in Jerusalem before Ezra's arrival. And he comes before Nehemiah, who follows and then rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem. He's scripturally skilled. He knows The Word of God. Evidently, more than everybody else.
Because he commands such respect. The kind of respect that gets results, not the kind of respect that just, boy, he's really smart, sharp.
Okay, let's go mess up things. Ezra chapter 7, verses 6 and verse 9. This Ezra came up from Babylon, and he was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses, which Yahweh God of Israel had given. The king granted him all his requests according to the hand of Yahweh his God upon him. Verse 9, according to the good hand.
of his God upon him. That's anointing. That's unction. That's what you want. You don't want just a talented speaker in the pulpit.
You want somebody that, in spite of their difficulties and weaknesses, Is in tune with God. That's nothing for God to do that. Don't say, well. How can God do that with a man? How can he not?
And it is called anointing. And when you, this is one of the problems of the seven churches in Laodicea, five of the churches, they were losing that in the pulpit. The people were beginning to run the church. And the churches began to fall apart. And many Christians don't know Scripture, and yet they want to be influential as Christians.
without knowing the Word of God. Would you take financial advice for someone who's always been poor? Not likely. And yet, you know, there are people whose lives are a wreck, but that doesn't stop them from wanting to give you advice. On how to live your life.
They become little mini counselors. It's like this gut it out. First get the moat out of your own eye, and then you know you can look at your brother's eye. Verse 11. The things that I'm saying to a lot of people are foreign and offensive.
They are this way with a lot of churchgoers. who may have been Christians for years. And then they come into a church, and they hear a man like me say these things, and then they hear a man like me read the scripture verses that tell them where it comes from.
Now what happens?
Well, you know, you can't shame many of the people. is politicians. They have no sense of guilt. You can't show them they're wrong and they say you're right. I'm going to fix that.
You show them a wrong and they find a way to cover it up. With the wicked there is no shame. And unfortunately, you have Christians, you can point out from the scripture things, little things, that can be fixed very easily. But their pride enters in and they don't want to do that. But I like my church.
My friends are there. My family's there. Is God there? That's the question. Is God there?
The second question is: does God have you there? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures.
Well, if He's going to lead you to where He's going to feed you, Then you're going to be fed the Word of God, the bread of life. But don't think God is going to lead you to dirt fields and expect you to be. strong and nurtured. And this again is offensive to some people.
Well The king sends Ezra to develop Jewish worship with great wealth. Verse 14 of chapter 7. you are being sent by the king. to inquire concerning Judah Jerusalem. and regard to the law of your God.
Which is in your hand. Covered that last week, that the Medes and the Persians, the Babylonians wanted to kill your religion and bring you to Babylon. The Persians came up with a better plan. No, let's help the people with their religions, send them back to their land, and just tax them, and the kingdom will be run well. And that worked for a long time with them.
So he sends him with this great wealth. And that's chapter 7, verses 15 through 25, something like that. And then chapter 8, verse 25 mentions the amount of gold and silver and the articles for the temple that Ezra was entrusted with without the troops that he turned down.
So, you know, the story gets interesting without troops transporting such wealth. He put everybody in danger. The repatriates that were with him, the women and the children. But he knew this was God. And it had to be this way.
And it could be no other way. And he did it. A demonstration of what trust is in God in front of the king, the Persian king, the priests, the Levites that came back with him, and the common people and the leaders to this day. To the people of God. A ready heart, as I mentioned, to spread the word.
not to become a religious political pundit. Get to Babylon, get to Jerusalem, and begin to discuss the Babylonian question. Court. His mission was to oversee Worship in the house of God amongst the people of God according to the word of God. He was a scribe.
In the writings of Moses, which is the first five books of the Bible, and at this time there weren't many more books than that.
So He had a grateful heart. Chapter 7, verse 27. Ezra writes, Blessed be Yahweh, God of our fathers. Pause there. That part, God of our fathers, is critical, goes back to the mixed marriages.
Our line is from Jacob. And that's the line we're going to keep. And it's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is alive. Those men died, but that God continued to live.
And these are powerful little statements woven in.
So he finishes. Blessed be Yahweh, God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem. He's grateful. He says, yeah, he's a pagan king. Autoxerxes.
But he's being used by God to Yeah. Get our faith back together. And it's an admirable thing. That's what Ezra is saying. And I mentioned before: unbelievers can have very high and noble characteristics, and many of them are worth reading and studying.
Look, if you want to talk about adventure, You're not going to top Ernest Shackleton. I'd no reason to believe he was a believer. But he was a very determined individual. And if you read his book South, you say, man, I don't know how these guys did it. In fact, they've tried to repeat his.
sailing to Elephant Island, they couldn't do it. To modern technology, it could, well, it could with radar and all of the other boats, but. They had a boat just like his try to make it to Elephant Island. And they followed him with another boat. That was a safety boat with all the technology, and they had to tell the boat like Shackleton's: you can't do this, you're headed toward the rocks, you gotta stop.
It's just incredible. the things that people can do no matter what. their religion is. When he gets to heaven, the question won't be Well, I saw how you survived, and all your shipmates made it. The question's going to be: what did you do with my son?
What did you do with Jesus Christ who died for you?
Well I don't know how he's going to answer it. Maybe he gets it right. That would be nice, 'cause I've got questions I want to ask him about. What do penguins taste like and puffins? They were eating more penguins and puffins than you can get Anyway, coming back to this.
Over five times. We hear him directly thanking God. Basic Christianity, our Father. Who art in heaven? Hallowed be your name.
every building worth worth its weight has to have a defined entrance. Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. And he goes, they're just, you know, thanking God. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.
I mean, it's just a prayer conscious of other people. Whether you like them or not. We're conscious of them. And we're not against them just because. Life's difficult.
Well, verse 28 of chapter 7, so I was encouraged. as the hand of Yahweh, my God, was upon me, and I gathered leading men. of Israel to go with me. They had to uproot themselves in Babylon. to go to almost nothing.
in the ruins of Jerusalem, And he had a hard time finding Levites to do this. They should have been the first ones. But he did find them. He was devoted and dependent. Verse chapter 8, verse 21, then I proclaimed.
that we might humble ourselves before our God. To seek him. The right way for us and the little ones, and all our possessions.
So I mentioned that he comes back with 1,700 men, but then there's women and children.
Well, there's one of your indicators that learning how to read the Bible and understand, okay, this is where you get that from. Oh, the little ones are with them. The dads ain't just taking them, the moms are going to be there too. The integrity. And what is integrity?
For the Christian, it is the application of devotion. And The resolve. To be devout. to uphold. I can't tell you how difficult Christians make it to uphold Scripture sometimes.
Devotion is meaningless. If it does not remain when you challenged. Unto death.
So, chapter 8, verse 22: For I was ashamed to request, we circle back to. His great faith, this brave heart. 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 spoken to the king. Saying the hand of God is upon all those. for good who seek him.
Well He's going to keep that. That's integrity. One of the great statements In the Bible, it's legendary. Once you read it, you never forget it. You might forget who said it.
But you won't forget it's there. Once you read that in your devotional time, you'll say, Who was it that? You might say, Who was that that said that? I want to know. Or you might say, no, that was Ezra.
I'm never going to forget who that was.
Now, I mentioned Nehemiah. He did ask for troops later. And he became a co-worker with Ezra in rebuilding Jerusalem. And he accepted and requested a military escort. In Nehemiah chapter 2, verses 7 through 9, Both were attitudes of faith.
There's no way you're going to look at a man like Nehemiah and say to him, That wasn't faith. First off, he probably hit you. He was an aggressive guy. All right, that's maybe a little bit much.
Well, he did. He said, I smote them. I pulled out their hair. And he was It's the hero of my He's doing what I can't do, what I want to do sometimes. Anyway.
Both were attitudes of faith, each in a different way.
Sort of like Romans 14:6, where. Paul says, Well, one man esteems one day higher than another, another man, they're all the same to him. They both worship the Lord. If you want to have a holiday, have at it. If he doesn't want the holiday, leave him alone.
Same God, same faith. Nehemiah knew that faith could not be faked. And you got to give it to him instead of saying, well, Ezra did it. Uh I'm gonna do it too. And it's not yours.
He's just saying it.
Well, that's a disaster, a recipe for disaster. And so he does, he takes the rational route. but I would not say that Nehemiah, Was a man of faith, was a faithless man. His heart broke over the condition in Jerusalem. And when he gets there, okay, I'm doing a study on Nehemiah, they need to go forward.
Anyway. Ezra benefited from being alone with God. and trusting God alone. That comes out of studying his life. Just in these few chapters.
Sacredness is treating something that belongs to God. As though it belongs to God. Sacrilege is treating something that belongs to God as though you don't care. Ezra gave all of us an abrupt Initiation into if you really want to trust, if you really want to walk on water. This is how you do it.
Nehemiah says I can't do that, but I can do this. And I don't know. Ezra could not have done what Nehemiah did. Let's just make it clear that Nehemiah's faith was great. Ezra could not do it.
He was already in Jerusalem. But what he does do is he comes alongside of Nehemiah, and he shows up in the story quite often, and I'll get to some quotes about that. Which is a plus for both of those men and the people. When he gets to Jerusalem, He finds The people have abandoned the principles. Paul has that same experience in Galatia.
O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified.
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