SERMON - Caesar Is Not Enough ｜ The Need For Christian Princes & Pastors
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1 hour and 4 minutes
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3
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17
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102
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Summary
In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus and his kingdom, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing. Thus says Cyrus, King of Persia: Thus says the Lord, the God of heaven, the Creator of heaven; He has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.
Transcript
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All right, let's stand for the reading of God's Word.
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We focused on this last Lord's Day, so this is going to be a part 2 of sorts on Ezra chapter 1.
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When I finish reading the text, I'll say this is the Word of the Lord,
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at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.
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One final time, our text for today is Ezra chapter 1.
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In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of
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Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so
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that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing.
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Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms
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of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
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Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him,
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and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah,
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and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel.
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And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns,
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be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold,
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with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings
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of Judah and Benjamin and the priest and the Levites,
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Cyrus, the king, also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar
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had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.
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Cyrus, king of Persia, brought these out in the charge of Merodath, the treasurer, who
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counted them out to Shezbazar, the prince of Judah.
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And as was the number of them, thirty basins of gold, a thousand basins of silver, twenty-nine
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censers, 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and a thousand other vessels. All the vessels of
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gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Shesbezar bring up when the exiles were brought
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up from Babylonia to Jerusalem. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated. If you
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were with us last Lord's Day, I titled that particular sermon, The Rise of Caesar and the
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need for christian princes making that plural not just one but several christian princes thinking of
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the lesser magistrate regardless of the system of government in a particular nation you're always
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going to have more than just one political ruler you might have a supreme political ruler but there
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will be many that find themselves in that sphere of the civil magistrate appointed by god to the
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sphere of the state civil authority and we need not just one christian but we need several christians
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filling that role. So again, I titled last week's sermon, The Rise of Caesar, and I'm equating
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Caesar with Cyrus, who was a Persian king. And then I gave us a lot of the history. I gave us
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the big 30,000 foot view history in terms of centuries leading up to Israel's exile and why
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they happened to be in captivity in the first place for 70 years in Babylon. But then I also
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gave the microcosm of the history not just for a millennia approximately 800 years leading up to
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their captivity but then the the history of those 70 years in captivity and how God prophesied
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through Jeremiah the exact length of time that Israel would be held captive how long they would
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be exiles in Babylon and why they were exiles in Babylon and the time period and the things that
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would take place when they eventually were delivered, liberated from captivity in Babylon.
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So we gave a lot of historical context last week, and then we focused some attention on Cyrus.
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But today, what I want to do is shift the focus from Cyrus to the other characters that we find
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in the narrative, in this historical account, which come into play in verse 5. So let me read
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verse 5 for us once more so that it's fresh in our minds. It says,
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Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites,
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everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.
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So this is the first point that I want us to understand from the text today.
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The very same Spirit of God, that is God Himself, the Holy Spirit,
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the very same spirit of God that stirred up the heart of Cyrus, the Persian king who was over
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Babylonia, where the Israelites are being held captive at that time. The same spirit of God
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that stirred up the highest civil ruler, namely Cyrus, is the same spirit of God who also stirs up
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many hearts, not just one heart at the top of the food chain, but many hearts within the Israelite
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people themselves and so this is kind of I want to paint this picture you have a foreigner okay
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that's Cyrus he is not an Israelite he's not a Jew he's not among the people of God he's a Persian
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king and I don't have as much time to do the history that I did last week sometimes my problem
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is I will recap what I did before and then the recap turns into the entire sermon that I did
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before and then we can never move on and then that's where a two-parter becomes a three-parter
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and a four-parter and then you know a year goes by and we're still in Ezra 1 so I'll try not to
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do that pray for me because i i need the grace of god but just a little bit of the historical
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context is nebuchadnezzar was the babylonian king who uh who conquered jerusalem conquered the
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israelites when they initially were taken captive and went into this 70 year exile period okay
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nebuchadnezzar and nebuchadnezzar ruled for uh the the lion's share of that 70 years 40 something
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years. Then his son or grandson, I can't remember. Let me look back to the notes. It was
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followed by his son. Okay. So Nebuchadnezzar, 45 years of that 70 year period. So it was the first
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year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. And he was the Babylonian king who, it was the first year of his
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reign that he took over Israel. He took them captive, conquered them. And then his son,
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Now, what happened at the end of the 23-year reign of his son?
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No, Babylon, the whole thing, was conquered.
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by a tag team force of the Persians and the Medes.
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And you have Darius and Cyrus are the two kings of these two other nations
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And I focused really heavily on the sovereignty of God last week,
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if you were with us, saying that in the one instance,
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according to God's sovereign will, what he predestines,
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which includes not just good things, but suffering and even sin,
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God would predestine and ordain even suffering, bad things, even sin,
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for his good and holy purposes. God predestinating sin just for the record does not make him the
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author of sin. It does not make him a culpable, morally culpable for sin. But what it means is
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that God can ordain even bad things for good and holy purposes. And that is God's right just for
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the record and not ours. We don't get to play God. And when I say play God in this instance,
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to make that real specific, what I mean is that the arrogant mentality of man that would say that
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Good ends justify unlawful, wicked means, right?
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how politicians think, it's that. I mean, that's pretty much the common denominator across the
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board when it comes to our civil rulers in this particular generation at this time in the West,
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they think they're God. That's pretty much it. They think they're God. So they think
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they can do whatever they want and the means can be atrocious so long as they, and here's the
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problem, they don't even know that the end will be good. So number one, a good end wouldn't justify
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evil means, and they can't even guarantee a good end. And yet they still think that they're
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justified in using wicked means. So man, when man does that, it's playing God, it's arrogance,
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it's sin, it's disobedience. Because our job is not to get together in a think tank session
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with all the experts and assert arrogant degrees of confidence to say, we know the outcome will
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be this and therefore we can do whatever we need to do in in order to get to the outcome no that's
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that's what God God has that prerogative we do not as as man our job is to stick to the script
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and as Christians namely the scripture that that is our job is obedience right God desires
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obedience more than sacrifice is what Samuel says to King Saul when he's playing God directly
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disobeying in the means, thinking that that will somehow produce a righteous end. And so all that
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being said, God in his sovereign will, which does include ordaining even unrighteous acts to bring
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about good and holy purposes, in that sense, God predestines that Israel would be in captivity for
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70 years and predestines that King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, would be the king to accomplish
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his feet, that he would be the one who would go in and subdue Israel and take them as exiles in
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Babylon. And yet Nebuchadnezzar, so God ordains it in the one sense to fulfill his sovereign will,
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what he had prophesied previously through Isaiah and Jeremiah, that Israel would be punished for
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70 years because of their faithlessness. And yet in the other sense, Nebuchadnezzar is not absolved
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Just because he's being used as a pawn in God's sovereign will and the big strategy that God has
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at play doesn't absolve Nebuchadnezzar at the individual level for his own sin. And one of the
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sins, there are many, but one of the sins that Nebuchadnezzar commits that we see, this is
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explicitly said elsewhere in the scripture, is that he didn't let Israel go. So on the one hand,
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God wouldn't let him let Israel go because Israel is supposed to be in captivity for 70 years
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It says that the heart of a king is like a river
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And so we see God is using Nebuchadnezzar in a particular way towards a particular end,
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namely the chastising and discipline with his fatherly rod of his people, Israel.
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But then Nebuchadnezzar, he dies, his son takes over.
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And then towards the very end of these 70 years, God in his sovereignty and in his faithfulness
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causes Darius and Cyrus, two kings to join forces to conquer Babylon,
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even though God just got done using Babylon to do what he prophesied, predicted through Isaiah and
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Jeremiah, to punish Israel, discipline Israel for their own sins, 70 years of captivity. And the rod
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that God uses, what I'm saying, the rod that God uses to discipline Israel, his sons, is Nebuchadnezzar
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and Babylon. And then once God gets done disciplining Israel with the rod of Babylon, he then punishes
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the rod it's the same thing that god did with egypt right that pharaoh on the one hand romans
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chapter 9 talks about this the apostle paul he says on the one hand god supernaturally hardened
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the heart of pharaoh do you know why well one because of israel's sin they were being disciplined
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in this case for 400 years in captivity as slaves in egypt but on the other hand one of the reasons
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god supernaturally hardened the heart of pharaoh is because god wanted to display to his people
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his immense power. And if you're God, you're the infinite creator of the universe, and you want to
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show your power against one of your enemies, do you know what you have to do? Because you are so
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infinitely superior to your enemies, you have to use at least a portion of your power to
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supernaturally uphold your own enemy so that you can show, you know, your right hook. Because
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you won't get to show your people, show off, and show your power with your three-punch combo
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because none of them will be able to withstand one punch,
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So what God is doing with Pharaoh in the case of Egypt
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is he's supernaturally hardening the heart of Pharaoh
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because otherwise you and I would be reading
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is because God with one hand is holding up Pharaoh
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our God is the God who can part the sea. Well, there would be no parting of the sea if God
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didn't supernaturally hold up Pharaoh. Because apart from God supernaturally hardening his heart,
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you know what you do after 10 plagues? You quit. You give up. Right? So this is the sovereignty
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of God. I talked about the two wills of God, his moral revealed will, what he says in scripture,
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the script that you and I are called to stick to and then his hidden will namely his sovereign will
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that includes him predestinating and ordaining bad things like the death of his son or bad things
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like Pharaoh's heart and heart or bad things like Nebuchadnezzar's heart and heart not letting
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Israel go out of captivity and God ordains these things which are bad but he does it for good wise
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and holy purposes for the glory of himself and the eternal good of his people. God can do that.
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We cannot. We don't get to play God. We don't get to say bad means, but justified by a good end.
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Only God reserves to himself that right. And he does so without being the author of sin or the
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source of sin or the cause of sin. God is absolved and righteous and holy and good. And yet he ordains
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all things. So that was kind of the big picture from last week. And then in this tag team duo
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force of the Persians and the Medes, Darius and Cyrus taking over Babylon. So now Babylon used
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as a rod to punish Israel or to discipline Israel as sons for 70 years. And now the rod is being
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punished by God, the Babylon itself. And God is using the punishment of Babylon. He's using as
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his tool he's using Cyrus and Darius the Persians and the Medes and then Darius is older and so he
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goes ahead and says you know what instead of doing the duo tag team rulership over Babylon
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I'm retiring and he gives it all to Cyrus now Cyrus becomes the singular leader over this whole
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Babylonian empire and Cyrus in his first year of reign in the same way that Nebuchadnezzar his
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first year he takes Israel captive the people of God and in Cyrus's first year he lets Israel go
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he liberates so Nebuchadnezzar he takes the people of God captive which is what God planned
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but also on Nebuchadnezzar's part wicked and then Cyrus though he does also the God's sovereign will
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what God planned namely not the captivity of Israel in his first year but the liberation of
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Israel in his first year and that was according to God's sovereign will because all things are
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but also according to God's moral will in the sense that he is exercising compassion and doing
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good to the people of God for the sake of God. He's doing good to the people of God for the sake
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of God. That's Cyrus. Now, here's the point as it pertains to our text today and our focus for today.
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Cyrus is not enough. Cyrus is not enough. And for those of you who are privy to some of these
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conversations, it depends, you know, well, it depends what you do with your time, right? Some
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of you, it's like, well, I've got a wife and kids and a job. Good for you. Keep that up. Others of
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you are like, I've got a wife and a kid and a job, but I also like to devote, you know, 15 hours to
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conspiracies and, you know, and reading every article and listening to every podcast. So long
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as you're not neglecting your wife and your kids and your job and those things and praise God,
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all power to you. But here's the deal. Some of you who are, you know, in some of these chat rooms
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and these podcasts and watching this and watching that, you might be aware that a lot of people
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over the last, you know, few years or so, especially 2015, 2016, they were likening
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Donald Trump to a Cyrus type. And I think that that was actually a good comparison.
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And what they were saying essentially was that the Christian can have a clear conscience in voting
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for Donald Trump. And that vote, casting your vote, is not an endorsement that he has perfect
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character or even that he himself is regenerate. So it's not even making the claim that he's a
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Christian, but it's simply saying he's clearly the lesser of two evils. And I think this would
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have been the case in the 2016 election and the 2020 election. But they're saying, and I think
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that he may not be a Christian himself, but he is serving as a Cyrus type, meaning that he is
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not necessarily a lover of the triune God, Yahweh himself individually, but he is positioned in
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God's sovereignty to do good to the people of God for the sake of God. He is a benevolent force
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towards God's people, towards Christians. And I think that that was a pretty good comparison to
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say, all right, so Trump is, it's probably not a good analogy or comparison to say Trump is like
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King Josiah in Israel who loved the Lord with all his heart. Or Trump is like King David, right? Or
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Trump is like Jesus, right? There's been some of those comparisons and that's blasphemous. Please
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don't do that. He's not. But, you know, but to say Trump is like Cyrus. He's a foreigner in the
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sense, not that he's a foreigner, that he's not an American, I'm not saying in that sense, but a
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foreigner in the spiritual sense that very likely he is not actually among God's people. Very likely
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he's not a Christian. But like Cyrus, who was not among God's people, not a Jew, he still did much
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good for the Jews. So I think that's fair. The point though, from our text today, again, the big
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point that we're going to focus on now is cyrus is not enough and to make it applicable relevant
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for us today in the political realm trump is not enough he would have my vote absolutely if he
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becomes you know the primary candidate then yes i will vote for trump and i won't lose sleep over
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it and i know that some christians would disagree with that say that's wrong um that's politics and
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i'm not saying that it's great um but yes i will absolutely vote for the lesser of two evils in a
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two-party system. And that's what we have right now. So there you go. All that said, that doesn't
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mean that he'd be an elder in our church or even a member in our church. I'm not validating his
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character in every regard or this or that. But in my lifetime, he's the best president that we've
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ever had. And plenty of flaws. It's a low bar when you say the best president in the last 37 years.
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I mean, it's a really low bar. I think if we can elect a packet of pudding, that would probably
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be, you know, probably, you know, be the new best president, you know, in our lifetimes. But all
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that being said, the point is this, he'll have my vote if it goes that direction. And that's what
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plays out. But I, if I had to bet, you know, God, man looks at the outward appearance, God alone
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sees a heart. So I'm not making a definitive statement here about Trump's salvation. I don't
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know. But, but Jesus does say, right. So God definitively sees the inward man. We look to
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the outward man, but the Bible does say that you can know someone's heart by looking at their
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external fruit, right? And there's enough things from Trump in terms of policies and things like
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that. There's been some really great things, but there's enough stuff in his rhetoric. And I'm not
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talking about being mean. I'm not talking about being mean. I mean, David called down curses on
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his enemies, so I'm fine with that. I got biblical arguments for a lot of the rhetoric, not all,
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but a lot of the rhetoric. But I'm talking about statements that say, you know, like, hey, have you
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ever repented for anything or regretted anything? It's like, no, never repented for anything. Instead,
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my strategy is just never to make a mistake and i'm nailing it that's that's a paraphrase but
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that's pretty much a quote you know so that's like that doesn't bode well for you know anyone
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who's trying to you know adamantly ardently defend you know the salvation um of donald trump and
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again none of that is to say that he won't have my vote all right so all that being said uh my
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point is i think cyrus is the better comparison cyrus is a foreigner he's not among the jewish
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people. He's not among the people of God. Trump, in this New Testament era, in the spiritual sense,
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I think, likewise, a foreigner. In the objective, internal sense, I don't think that he's a
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Christian. But God can use foreigners, and Cyrus is a wonderful example of this. God can use, and
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we see it throughout the Old Testament and even the New, can use a foreigner for his glory and
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the good of his people. And so I'm all on board for that strategy. I say all that to say this.
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I'm on board for that strategy. That's been in the rhetoric, you know, of some of the podcasts
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and some of the articles and the books that have been written, you know, and all this kind of stuff
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for the last seven years. And I think it's fair. I'm on board. But Cyrus is not enough. Likewise,
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as it pertains to us, if you're saying Trump is the new Cyrus, you know, Trump is not enough.
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look at the text one more time namely verse five then rose up right not just cyrus so god
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sovereignly supernaturally causes darius and cyrus to conquer the babylonians darius retires
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cyrus takes full charge singular leader the the the highest leader in the land in his first year
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of reign he's going to let the people of god go he's doing immense good and he's going to resource
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them with gold and silver. That's amazing. That's amazing. And yet even that is insufficient.
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It's not enough for God to do what he wants to do through his people in rebuilding the ruins.
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And that's the time that we're living in right now. If you're not aware, we are in ruins. We are
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in ruins. The West is in ruins. And if the people of God were to be successful, if this is God's will
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that we rebuild the ruins, you need more than Cyrus.
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but the heads of the father's houses of Judah and Benjamin
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but God supernaturally stirs up the heart of Cyrus,
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stirs in the hearts of the houses, the father's houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priest and
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the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the ruins, to rebuild the house
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of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. Now let's nail down a little bit deeper now, a little bit more
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specific. Who do these houses, right? There's four things that are named in verse five, four
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categories, four groups. Who do they represent? I would argue that there's two primary groups.
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In the one sense, verse 5, it says the father's houses,
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the heads of the father's houses of Judah and Benjamin, that's one group.
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So instead of getting overcomplicated and say there's four groups,
00:24:31.880
there's Judah, there's Benjamin, there's the priest and the Levites.
00:24:35.060
Now the priest and the Levites, that's one group.
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but for our purposes today, in simple terms, think priest, okay?
00:24:52.660
And then Judah, where this is Jacob prophesying right before he dies,
00:24:56.980
as he's on his deathbed with his sons, giving out blessings,
00:25:01.700
and what God would do through each of his son's descendants.
00:25:05.160
Jacob, inspired by God, this is God's doing through Jacob the patriarch,
00:25:09.680
he gave the priesthood to Levi, and he gave the scepter to Judah.
00:25:16.420
And Jesus comes from the line of Levi, right?
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00:25:19.960
Well, Jesus, he just has a spiritual kingdom, right?
00:25:24.200
No, he comes through Judah, the king line, the scepter line.
00:25:37.760
Benjamin and Judah, I think what's significant there is it's the fathers.
00:25:52.980
You know, not post-enlightenment, you know, just absolute confusion and foolishness.
00:26:00.380
It's the fathers of houses, namely within two tribes, Judah and Benjamin.
00:26:06.580
What's being signified here, if we were to sum it up, again, trying to make this as simple as possible,
00:26:10.980
into one word, I would say it's one phrase, the civil leaders.
00:26:42.420
when god wants to rebuild the ruins that were caused in the first place because of compromise
00:26:50.760
and rebellion and disobedience a cyrus is not enough he stirs up the heart of a chief leader
00:26:59.080
who may even be in a foreigner outside of the people of god like cyrus or like trump but he
00:27:04.560
also simultaneously because he knows that's insufficient within his own people not just the
00:27:10.300
supreme leader who is a foreigner but also within his people there are lesser magistrates and he
00:27:17.340
stirs up two types of leaders spiritual leaders the pastors and the the civil leaders the
00:27:25.820
politicians christian politicians or aka christian princes plural and christian pastors so it last
00:27:35.280
week, the title of the sermon was The Rise of Caesar and the Need for Christian Princes. This
00:27:41.080
week, if I were to title it, I would say it's Caesar is not enough, the need for Christian
00:27:48.140
princes, politicians, Christian princes, and Christian pastors. One of the reasons that we're
00:27:56.500
still in the mess that we're in today, and one of the ways you can know that we're desperately
00:28:01.780
in need of revival. That yes, some people are waking up. I'm grateful for the mercy that God
00:28:06.360
has given us. It's not as though there's no signs of blessing or no signs of mercy. But one of the
00:28:11.360
reasons you know that we're not yet at the point where we can say, we're right on the cusp of
00:28:16.740
revival and everything's about to change. And I'm not trying to discourage or despair. We trust
00:28:21.700
in God in good times and in bad. But one of the reasons I know that there's still some more work
00:28:28.400
to be done on the part of God in terms of supernaturally stirring up hearts is because
00:28:33.260
in 2020, sure, a bunch of people, you know, took the red pill. Their eyes were open. You know,
00:28:38.160
the veil is lifted and they see the corruption. They see this and they see that. We need to turn
00:28:42.600
back to God. But you know who didn't lead the way? Politicians and pastors. They didn't. But when God
00:28:53.200
is ready to send real restoration, real revitalization, real revival, and real genuine
00:29:01.240
rebuilding of the ruins of a prior Christendom, the city of God. When God really wants to rebuild
00:29:06.920
his city, when Christendom is really truly about to be restored, or at least the building project
00:29:12.400
is about to be begun, God doesn't just stir up the hearts of the people, but he leads the people
00:29:19.380
by stirring up the hearts of leaders among the people,
00:29:26.620
the spiritual leaders, the priests, the pastors,
00:29:38.740
someone that you never thought would take power, right?
00:29:45.740
Nobody saw it coming, except for a couple prophets,
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00:29:48.560
but nobody saw that coming and then all of a sudden it's like Babylon is wicked Babylon will
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00:29:54.040
never release us we're in captivity we're slaves to the regime right and then all of a sudden boom
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you're taken over by a foreign power and the foreign power that you think would probably even
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00:30:04.920
be worse than Babylon God stirs in the heart of the supreme leader within that foreign power
0.96
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to where all of a sudden even though he himself likely is not a follower of God he wants to do
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good to the people of God. And it's all glory to God. It's just, it's just God drawing straight
00:30:22.500
lines with crooked sticks. It's just God showing off his immense, incredible, mysterious, sovereign
00:30:28.980
power. And even that, as incredible as that is, is insufficient. Cyrus is not enough. You also need
00:30:39.140
Christian princes among the people of God, not foreigners, meaning within the house of God,
0.51
00:30:44.720
there are Christians in lesser magistrate positions of civil power. Judah, Benjamin, heads of houses,
00:30:52.060
the political leaders, the Christian princes. And you need the Levites and the priest. You need
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00:30:59.200
the pastors. And in 2020, if there was any sign that told us we still got a long way to go,
00:31:05.680
we're not going to get revival tomorrow, the sign should have been this, that the Christian
00:31:10.380
politicians and the christian pastors folded like a cheap suit they didn't do a thing
00:31:16.380
and said well what about yeah i'll have three of them maybe sure and praise god for those three
00:31:23.500
but by and large by and large i mean this and i say this as an indictment this is not an endorsement
0.72
00:31:30.860
of of the company i'm about to name but uh far more credit against the whole lgbt madness
00:31:39.760
far more credit to our shame is due to Matt Walsh
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00:31:55.800
the people of God should be lapping the daily wire
00:32:08.760
rebuilding the ruins is probably still a little ways out. It's probably not going to happen in
00:32:14.240
the next 15 minutes. It was the fact that maybe we did get a Cyrus, but you know why Trump was
00:32:20.180
not enough? You might've had the Cyrus, but you didn't have the Christian princes and the Christian
00:32:26.460
pastors. You didn't. They were all compromised. They were all bought and paid for. Russell Moore
00:32:34.340
bought and paid for. Tim Keller was bought and paid for. Francis Collins bought and paid for.
00:32:40.820
David French bought and paid for. And the receipts are coming out. These aren't just, you know, bold
00:32:46.440
statements, hyperbolic. No, I mean the literal receipts of proof of meeting together, having a
00:32:52.960
name of their group as early as 2015 and even before calling themselves the outliers and meeting
00:32:58.820
multiple times in person with premier writers in the New York Times and Keller and Russell Moore
00:33:06.460
and Francis Collins and saying, we've got to do something because we've been drifting left
00:33:12.320
as a nation under Obama for eight years, and that's great. We love it.
00:33:20.660
Tim Keller loved to see the evangelical church become more progressive. He loved it.
00:33:27.960
Whatever good he did earlier on in his ministry, I'm grateful for.
00:33:39.740
And they got together and formed an in-group person, right?
00:33:43.340
I mean, we don't want to be over-conspiratorial, but this is all documented, right?
00:33:47.500
If there's any conspiracy or any coup that actually happened,
00:33:50.360
its leaders within journalism the media medicine and the house of god pastors that met in person
00:34:00.320
multiple times year after year and their main object objective was keep trump out of office
00:34:07.720
because obama we would rather have another obama type leader and continue this trajectory
00:35:16.920
And I'm not going to send you off empty-handed.
00:35:41.840
imagine if they went to the people of Israel and said,
00:35:44.020
yeah, Cyrus is being generous, and it's nice that he's going to let us go, but honestly,
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00:35:50.480
Babylon is probably better. The regime, yeah, there's some problems, and sure, it's a little
00:35:54.380
progressive and compromised, but is there anything worse than conservatives? Is there anything worse
00:35:59.380
than the right? Yeah, we acknowledge, you know, there's a problem with abortion, and yeah, that's
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00:36:03.680
bad, and nobody here is pro-baby killing, but at the end of the day, I mean, to get Trump, you know,
00:36:08.760
like and that that's that's the difference if you're wondering what's the difference between
00:36:13.540
ezra chapter one and the last seven years here that's the difference cyrus trump pretty similar
00:36:21.680
judah and benjamin are christian magistrates not quite as good that's not our biggest problem
00:36:29.220
here's the biggest problem levice and priest in ezra one evangelical leaders russell moore and
00:36:36.320
Tim Keller, there's your disparity. There's the problem. Oh, I can pinpoint. Now, that's how we're
00:36:43.540
different. That's the problem. That's the weakness. The Word of God is incredibly relevant for all
00:36:51.620
places and all times. All places at all times. All right, here's another point from the text
00:36:57.100
that I want to make. Let me read. I believe this is a quote. No, I'm just going to read,
00:37:05.360
and then I'll give you a Matthew Henry quote. King Cyrus was illuminated. This is the bottom
00:37:09.620
of the front page. King Cyrus, and dealing with verse five primarily. King Cyrus was illuminated
00:37:15.400
with knowledge about Jehovah, recognizing him as the only living and true God who is the supreme
00:37:21.380
ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth. Even though he hadn't learned about God through upbringing,
00:37:27.900
right, he was raised as a foreigner. He wasn't, he's not an Israelite. He wasn't raised in the
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00:37:32.340
house of israel trained by priests he did not grow up knowing yahweh so he hadn't learned about god
00:37:38.040
through upbringing and yet in his current state god somehow made him aware enough now we don't
00:37:44.400
know maybe cyrus was saved actually born again but that's not clear but god made him at least
00:37:51.560
aware enough in order to perform this service to god by blessing the people of god cyrus openly
00:37:59.160
declares that he's doing it. Firstly, to express gratitude to God. Not necessarily trust in Yahweh
00:38:05.900
for salvation, but expressing gratitude. Number one, God stirs him up and illuminates him to the
00:38:12.160
degree that he at least realizes that the Hebrew God, the triune God, Yahweh, is the God that is
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00:38:18.200
above all other gods. That he is the God of heaven, not only earth or certain sub-regions of the earth,
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00:38:23.660
but he is the God of both heaven and earth. God above all other gods, king above all other kings.
00:38:28.760
So first, in the first instance, God illuminates his heart and his mind enough to recognize the existence of God.
00:38:36.020
Secondly, to fill his heart with a sense of gratitude to God.
00:38:40.000
Gratitude for salvation, regeneration, born it.
00:38:44.700
But at least what we know that's explicit from the text is that he fills his heart to recognize that God is real.
00:38:50.540
God exists and to have gratitude towards God for the power, the civil power and authority that God gave to him.
00:38:58.760
So what does Cyrus know about God that we can tell that's clear in the text without speculation?
00:39:04.400
Well, we know at minimum, he at least knew that the Hebrew God is the true God,
00:39:08.660
that God exists, and that God is king over all the kingdoms of the earth.
00:39:13.660
Which means whoever God sets up as a human ruler over various kingdoms of the earth
00:39:21.660
Nobody has authority on earth unless God, who is sovereign over all earthly authorities,
00:39:27.440
chooses to give it to them and so cyrus recognizes god exists and god made me king
00:39:34.760
and if nothing else i'm grateful to god for making me king and so i will give something back to him
00:39:42.500
the very thing that god stirred up my heart to give namely the release of his people and resources
00:39:48.360
so that they can be a rebuild his city and his temple okay now the quote matthew henry
00:39:57.140
Cyrus not only, this is the back page, very top.
00:40:06.040
I'm going to focus now on a spiritual application.
00:40:10.380
Not just America as our civil nation, but the church.
00:40:14.300
Cyrus not only gave his good wishes with those that went.
00:40:18.280
Their God be with them, is what he says in verse 3.
00:40:20.980
But he took care also to furnish them with such things as they needed.
00:40:25.600
He took it for granted that those among them who were of ability would offer their freewill
00:40:31.300
offerings for the house of God to be rebuilt, to promote the rebuilding of it. But besides that,
00:40:37.580
that is in addition to that, he would have them supplied even out of his own kingdom.
00:40:43.700
Here's the last thing that Matthew Henry says on verse three and four and five of our text
00:40:47.760
commentating well-wishers to the temple should be well-doers for it now as it pertains to us
00:40:56.340
in this gospel age as new testament christians do we have a temple biblically speaking yes
00:41:04.700
but it is not a physical temple with physical stones it is a spiritual temple built with
00:41:11.420
living stones and the living stones are each individual regenerate person of god's household
00:41:18.260
that's what ephesians tells us that we like living stones are being welded together built together
00:41:24.960
to make a living temple a spiritual temple the ultimate temple for the house of god for god to
00:41:32.320
dwell in he inhabits god right now when we gather as the people of god on the lord's day god dwells
00:41:38.220
in our midst. That he actually inhabits, the scripture says, the praises of his people. That
00:41:45.200
he meets with us and communes with us. That we are coming together as living stones, forming the true
00:41:51.800
temple of the Lord in which he dwells. So there is, I'll just make this very, very plain, there is a
00:41:59.620
third temple. It's the church of Jesus Christ. Made up from among every tribe, tongue, and nation.
00:42:12.660
From the Sudan, from China, from the U.S. of A.
00:42:22.120
It stretches throughout all the ages of the Christian church.
00:42:34.380
and you and I, insofar as you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and have been saved and born
00:42:40.200
again by grace and grace alone, you are a part of this temple. You are a living stone. There was
00:42:46.560
one temple, the one that Solomon built, a second temple, the one that's going to be rebuilt that
00:42:52.040
we see in Ezra and Nehemiah. So that's temple number one, temple number two, the third temple
00:42:57.760
is you. There will be no literal physical third temple that's built in Israel. Anyone who tries
00:43:07.620
to accomplish this task will be absolutely decimated in the providence and power of God.
00:43:14.060
God will not. I guarantee you, I make very few predictions. I'll make this one because it's in
00:43:20.080
the Bible. God will not allow a third temple to be established in Israel because he's already been
00:43:27.620
building a third temple for 2 000 years with his people who are saved in christ that's the third
00:43:35.000
temple that's it so what does cyrus do right here's the second temple and then i'll apply that
00:43:42.900
to the third temple which is spiritual the church and the literal sense cyrus in the rebuilding of
00:43:47.600
a second physical temple in israel cyrus says i'm going to charge the people of god to be team
00:43:55.480
players, to be participants, not spectators. Get involved, be diligent, be generous.
00:44:05.440
And I'm not just going to command others to do what I am unwilling to do even myself.
00:44:11.940
I will inspire them and urge them to their own participation, their own generosity in rebuilding
00:44:18.620
this temple. But I too, wherever they lack, I will give and be generous and support the rebuilding
00:44:24.520
of this temple so you and i now skipping forward as new testament christians in the gospel age
00:44:30.180
building not a physical but a spiritual temple as living stones the third and final temple
00:44:34.980
how should we behave i would argue simply this at least equal if not superior and even more so
00:44:45.080
than the pagan cyrus if the pagan cyrus was all about supporting and resourcing through generosity
00:45:23.460
not just his neighbor but his brother in Christ and says hey be warm and well fed and clothed
00:45:29.660
but then does nothing to actually meet his tangible needs he says that kind of love isn't
00:45:35.160
love faith without works is dead so too that applies to Cyrus Cyrus doesn't just say I'll
00:45:41.260
let you go I give you my permission and not only my permission but my well happy wishes
00:45:46.580
no he he is not just a well-wisher he's a well-doer I give you cash I give you gold better
00:45:55.840
than cash is nothing sadly but I give you actual money not fiat currency that's been you know
00:46:01.880
completely destroyed I give you resources and wealth I'm not just a well-wisher I'm a well-doer
00:46:08.380
if that's Cyrus who very likely as far as we can tell again he believes in the existence of God
00:46:14.580
and even acknowledges God is sovereign above all other gods
00:46:21.360
there's nothing definitive to indicate that Cyrus ever became a Christian.
00:46:25.940
So if that's a pagan foreigner king who is likely unregenerate,
00:46:31.160
meaning Cyrus very possibly, I'm not saying definitively,
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00:46:34.500
but very possibly Cyrus currently today is in hell.
00:46:38.920
And if Cyrus can put up those stats on the board
00:46:46.360
then you and I as born-again Christians in the New Testament
00:46:56.320
having our bodies actually temples of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us,
00:47:04.720
certainly we should do more, not less, than Cyrus.
00:47:08.420
And Cyrus does not just to the temple rebuilding project give his well wishes, but he gives his well doing.
00:47:16.520
So to we with the third temple in a spiritual sense is the church.
00:47:23.540
And we, too, should not just wish that the church would increase and grow, wish that the church would be united stones coming together.
00:47:31.720
But we should work, not just wish toward that end, but work toward that end.
00:47:36.800
our time our talent our treasure cyrus gave we should give all right cyrus did something he worked
00:47:46.900
we should work if a pagan king could resource the second physical temple how much should we
00:47:54.780
as christians new testament christians resource the third and final temple which is our own
00:48:00.820
brothers and sisters in Christ. Living stones being built in the temple, into the temple of
00:48:06.900
the Lord. All right, last thing. Among the house of Judah and the house of Benjamin, among that
00:48:14.560
category of Christian princes, right? Levites and priests, there's your Christian pastors. Now Judah
00:48:21.400
and Benjamin, Christian princes. Here's one example. And this is the last thing that I want us to see
00:48:25.580
from the text, because there's a character that appears that's significant. We need to know, be
00:48:29.660
aware of as we move forward. In verse 5, leaders, I'm reading now underneath, however, a Christian
00:48:35.420
prince is not enough. In verse 5, leaders from the families of Judah and Benjamin took the initiative.
00:48:41.660
The priests and Levites were also among the first to head back to Zion. When God inspired Cyrus to
00:48:47.940
proclaim freedom, the same divine influence moved both the political and pastoral leaders among the
00:48:54.500
people of Israel to seize the opportunity. We see that in Zechariah 4, verse 6. Despite tempting
00:49:01.520
reasons to stay in Babylon, right? It's easier. There's nothing to rebuild. Sure, we're captives,
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00:49:06.240
but we've got food. There's familiarity. There's connections. And the challenging journey, if we go,
00:49:11.760
is intimidating. Despite all that, some overcame these obstacles. Their spirits, uplifted by God,
00:49:18.800
were fueled by a desire for freedom and a love for their homeland,
00:49:25.020
In order to achieve the rebuilding of Israel's heritage,
00:49:29.000
God not only stirred up the heart of a foreign king, Cyrus,
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00:49:35.360
but he also divinely inspired a native leader within Israel itself,
00:49:49.720
Now, here's something that's key about Zerubbabel.
00:49:55.740
That's the book of the Bible we're in right now, Ezra.
00:49:57.420
So among the native priests, this is not foreigners.
00:50:01.200
Cyrus is a foreigner outside the people of God.
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So foreign king, Cyrus, likely an unbeliever, but very helpful
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00:50:08.880
because God guides the hearts of kings like waters, whether they're saved or not.
00:50:12.420
In the our team category, the people who are among the people of God, you got two subcategories, politicians, Christian princes, and then the priest, Christian pastors.
00:50:23.400
The main character in the pastor category is Ezra.
00:50:27.800
The main person in the prince, politician category is Zerubbabel.
00:50:33.480
Now, speaking of Zerubbabel, Matthew Henry, he says this.
00:50:40.220
Shashbazar, supposedly to be the same as Zerubbabel, that that was his Babylonian name that he was
00:50:48.640
given. But that this is actually Zerubbabel, a Jew, among the people of God, which signifies
00:50:54.300
that this name Shashbazar, the Babylonian name that's given to him, it signifies joy and
00:51:00.860
tribulation. I'll come back to that. But among his own people, he went by the name Zerubbabel,
00:51:06.220
which means a stranger in Babylon and so he looked upon himself that's how he viewed himself
00:51:13.600
as a stranger in Babylon and he considered Jerusalem to be his home when you're looking
00:51:19.620
for Christian princes one thing to look for is a guy who from his youth has always despised Babylon
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00:51:28.880
and that Babylon right this the regime clown world trash world has always been in his view
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00:51:38.160
a strange place to which he has never felt comfortable to which even though he may have
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00:51:45.600
been raised in it from his youth he's never become too familiar he's always resistant he's always
00:51:52.180
had this sense of this is not real. This is fake. This is not God's design. This is foreign. I am
00:52:01.260
a stranger in a foreign land. My true home is Jerusalem. My true home is God's will, God's
00:52:08.140
kingdom, Christodom. That's my true home. And this current landscape that I'm living in is fake.
00:52:15.180
It's not real. It's trash world. It's clown world. It's Babylon. And I despise it. I hate it. I have
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00:52:23.840
not made my peace with captivity. Yes, I am a captive and I'm not stupid. So I'm not going to
00:52:32.040
take the bait. I'm not going to just get imprisoned for the rest of my life. I'm not going to do
00:52:39.040
something foolish, I'm calculated, I'm patient, I'm wise, but I am a stranger. This is not my home.
00:52:47.720
I despise the regime. I despise what wicked men have done to my own heritage.
00:52:54.840
I despise what Christendom has become. I despise what foreign rulers, those outside of the people
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00:53:03.020
of God, unbelievers, have done to my home. And from my earliest days of youth, meaning I didn't
1.00
00:53:09.860
just get red-pilled last Thursday. No, since being a child, I have had an aversion towards Babylon.
00:53:18.960
And yet I am patient and wise, not a fool, patiently living in captivity in Babylon until God,
00:53:26.400
in His sovereignty, moves the pieces on the chessboard into the right positions like Osiris,
00:53:32.140
and then go look for that guy see if you can find that guy you want to find who will be pivotal
00:53:41.980
who's going to be a pivotal leader no this is the point zerubbabel was not an opportunist
00:53:49.480
zerubbabel was not someone who says oh now that cyrus is saying we can go i'm on team let's go
00:54:15.300
and have noticed is both in the politician category
00:54:25.400
all of a sudden the left overplayed its hand there was backlash because of that some people woke up
00:54:33.340
right the frog was slowly boiling in the water getting hot and hotter and then the left got
00:54:37.820
cocky and said you know what we don't have to turn the dial slowly anymore the frogs basically
00:54:41.880
cooked we can go ahead and finish the job and they turned it up the rest of the way and a few frogs
00:54:46.620
in the the pot of water say about half of the frogs still had enough nerve endings there were
00:54:52.640
barely a lot, to where they felt the change in temperature, and they jumped out. That's not the
00:54:57.880
pastors. The frogs, in this case, are representing just the people. But then what the pastors did
00:55:03.480
is once 50% of the frogs jumped out, the pastors said, that's enough to have a church.
00:55:09.920
That's enough for book sales. That's enough for a conference, right? Lick the finger, put it up.
00:55:17.660
This is how many of our evangelical pastors lead.
00:55:25.160
And so the people actually are the ones who woke up,
00:55:32.200
They assemble themselves into a national parade.
00:55:35.080
And then the pastor who's been leading them leftwards
00:55:40.080
all of a sudden runs out to the other side of the people
00:55:48.520
is something that he himself actually engineered.
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00:55:59.440
both in the way that the Babylonians viewed him
00:56:05.440
In the Babylonian case, he's called Shesh Bazar.
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and as his own people called him Zerubbabel his God-given name what does that mean a stranger
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in Babylon this is not someone who wants the people of Israel decide we're going to go back
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and rebuild then he says oh yeah I hate Babylon too I hate clown world too
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whereas previously until there was the momentum until there was the opportunity he was cushy in
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no no no this is someone who is known both by the babylonians and by the israelites as someone who
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from his youth never embraced babylon he always despised it was always a foreign place to him
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he always had this inward affection devotion commitment to his heritage to his home
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Babylon could not teach Zerubbabel to hate his heritage.
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Babylon could not convince him that the Israelites were actually,
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actually spelled A-C, you know, A-K-C-H, you know, blah, blah.
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No, they could not convince, actually, the Israelites have been for centuries oppressors
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Zerubbabel could not be talked into hating his own people despising their history despising
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their heritage and there's a reason why Zerubbabel was one of the primary leaders among Israel when
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finally in the providence of God the pieces on the board got placed in the right spots
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for the rebuilding project to begin Zerubbabel was one of the chief leaders because not because
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he woke up yesterday but because he was awake the whole time he was awake the whole time he was
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ready to go so that's one more thing the last thing i'll leave you with to look for is when
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god is doing a work of revitalization not only within the church but within a nation within
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society within the culture at large you need in god's providence some foreign leaders who you
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can't even explain it but somehow supernaturally they want to do good to the people of god you need
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a cyrus but cyrus is not enough you also need christian princes plural not just one but many
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of them that are regenerate are christians and you need christian pastors and these need to be
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guys who are ready to lead the way not sit there in their ivory tower in their comfortable vocations
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and turns up the temperature too quickly all at once,
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And then all of a sudden, Al Mohler starts talking about,
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yeah, Christian nationalism, I'm on board.
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But neither, brothers and sisters, can we afford an ideologue.
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And if I'm to speak pastorally to our church right now,
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not just somebody out there that I'm not responsible for,
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pastorally in accountability but to you guys because i know you guys i speak with you guys
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i'm not really worried about the inclination of you to be opportunist i'm worried about the
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inclination of you to be ideologues and what i mean by an ideologue is somebody who their heart
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is in the right place they know the truth and they have a true fidelity and commitment to it
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but they lack sense at times and they're willing to say we're gonna do it right now because it's
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right and it it's not the moment and you take the bait and you take an a precious saint who loves
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the lord who is who's faithful but could have done so much more over the next 10 years and they did
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it all in 10 days but now they're on the ADL's watch list and their assets are frozen it's like
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you you could have there's my point is it's a razor's edge and it requires discernment and
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wisdom in this time that we're living between the opportunist who doesn't really have faithfulness
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to the Lord that just goes with the winds blowing and just is in it for themselves
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you don't want to be that and I don't think you are but on the other side you can fall
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on both edges on both sides on the other side there's the ideologue who is committed whose
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heart really belongs to the lord but but is not nearly as useful for the kingdom as they could
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be over the long haul because they're too idealistic that's not you have to have categories
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there must be a category for some of us we're so simplistic that the only category we have for
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waiting is compromise. And I want to encourage you as one of your pastors that there are other
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categories theologically besides just compromise. That you actually, that there is the Christian
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category of shrewdness. That that is a real category that you can actually be shrewd where,
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and someone will probably accuse you at times. Someone on your team, a fellow brother, a Christian
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and say you're being compromised you're being cowardly and you say no i'm being shrewd i'm
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zerubbabel trash world has never been my home i've despised it from my youth and when god puts the
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pieces into play i will be leading the way but i have a wife and kids to feed and i cannot afford
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to go to jail this afternoon and i'm not going to be a fool not
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there's got to be some ground in between opportunist and ideal and i believe that
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zerubbabel was that ground for for his whole life until this moment with cyrus letting them go think
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about that his whole life he hated babylon but yet the implication this isn't explicit but it's
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absolutely the implication. Although hating Babylon, he lived peaceably enough in Babylon
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his whole life to where he wasn't punished. I mean, think about it. If Zerubbabel had pulled
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the trigger prematurely in his zeal for his homeland, his heritage for Jerusalem, then
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Zerubbabel, when Cyrus, when it finally happens, Zerubbabel wouldn't be leading them. Zerubbabel
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would have been dead. Nebuchadnezzar would have already hung him. Do you see? It matters. Let's
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pray. Father God, help us to be shrewd, as cunning as serpents, but as innocent as doves. Not
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opportunists, not men who are bought and paid for, not double agents, playing both sides of the field,
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truly committed in zealous fervency for you and your kingdom and your people, the house of the
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Lord, this third temple, the church. And yet at the same time, help us to be wise, cunning, and shrewd.
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Lord, I pray that you would raise up not just Osiris, but that you would raise up within Israel,
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new Israel, the Christian church, that you would raise up both Christian princes and Christian
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pastors, both political and spiritual leaders who despise trash world, despise clown world,
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who love our heritage, our Christian heritage,
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