The NXR Podcast - SERMON - Caesar Is Not Enough ｜ The Need For Christian Princes & Pastors

00:00:00.600 All right, let's stand for the reading of God's Word.

00:00:03.620 Our text for today is Ezra chapter 1.

00:00:06.160 We focused on this last Lord's Day, so this is going to be a part 2 of sorts on Ezra chapter 1.

00:00:12.600 I'll read our text in its entirety.

00:00:13.960 When I finish reading the text, I'll say this is the Word of the Lord,

00:00:17.060 at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.

00:00:21.260 One final time, our text for today is Ezra chapter 1.

00:00:24.620 The Bible says this,

00:00:25.700 In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of

00:00:30.960 Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so

00:00:36.320 that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing.

00:00:41.360 Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms

00:00:46.820 of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

00:00:52.540 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him,

00:00:56.840 and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah,

00:00:59.840 and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel.

00:01:03.660 He is the God who is in Jerusalem.

00:01:08.240 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns,

00:01:11.480 be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold,

00:01:15.720 with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings

00:01:19.400 for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.

00:01:22.780 Then rose up the heads of the father's houses

00:01:25.600 of Judah and Benjamin and the priest and the Levites,

00:01:29.980 everyone whose spirit God had stirred up

00:01:32.680 to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord

00:01:36.260 that is in Jerusalem.

00:01:37.940 And all who were about them aided them

00:01:40.480 with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods,

00:01:43.580 with beasts, and with costly wares.

00:01:45.580 Besides, all that was freely offered.

00:01:48.840 Cyrus, the king, also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar

00:01:54.300 had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.

00:01:59.400 Cyrus, king of Persia, brought these out in the charge of Merodath, the treasurer, who

00:02:05.960 counted them out to Shezbazar, the prince of Judah.

00:02:10.140 And as was the number of them, thirty basins of gold, a thousand basins of silver, twenty-nine

00:02:17.140 censers, 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and a thousand other vessels. All the vessels of

00:02:24.880 gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Shesbezar bring up when the exiles were brought

00:02:32.860 up from Babylonia to Jerusalem. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated. If you

00:02:39.580 were with us last Lord's Day, I titled that particular sermon, The Rise of Caesar and the

00:02:45.640 need for christian princes making that plural not just one but several christian princes thinking of

00:02:52.320 the lesser magistrate regardless of the system of government in a particular nation you're always

00:02:57.340 going to have more than just one political ruler you might have a supreme political ruler but there

00:03:02.740 will be many that find themselves in that sphere of the civil magistrate appointed by god to the

00:03:08.560 sphere of the state civil authority and we need not just one christian but we need several christians

00:03:14.840 filling that role. So again, I titled last week's sermon, The Rise of Caesar, and I'm equating

00:03:20.920 Caesar with Cyrus, who was a Persian king. And then I gave us a lot of the history. I gave us

00:03:25.940 the big 30,000 foot view history in terms of centuries leading up to Israel's exile and why

00:03:33.640 they happened to be in captivity in the first place for 70 years in Babylon. But then I also

00:03:39.380 gave the microcosm of the history not just for a millennia approximately 800 years leading up to

00:03:45.900 their captivity but then the the history of those 70 years in captivity and how God prophesied

00:03:52.180 through Jeremiah the exact length of time that Israel would be held captive how long they would

00:03:57.780 be exiles in Babylon and why they were exiles in Babylon and the time period and the things that

00:04:04.180 would take place when they eventually were delivered, liberated from captivity in Babylon.

00:04:09.780 So we gave a lot of historical context last week, and then we focused some attention on Cyrus.

00:04:16.380 But today, what I want to do is shift the focus from Cyrus to the other characters that we find

00:04:22.580 in the narrative, in this historical account, which come into play in verse 5. So let me read

00:04:27.200 verse 5 for us once more so that it's fresh in our minds. It says,

00:04:30.680 Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites,

00:04:38.460 everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.

00:04:47.100 So this is the first point that I want us to understand from the text today.

00:04:50.980 The very same Spirit of God, that is God Himself, the Holy Spirit,

00:04:55.660 the very same spirit of God that stirred up the heart of Cyrus, the Persian king who was over

00:05:02.220 Babylonia, where the Israelites are being held captive at that time. The same spirit of God

00:05:08.540 that stirred up the highest civil ruler, namely Cyrus, is the same spirit of God who also stirs up

00:05:15.760 many hearts, not just one heart at the top of the food chain, but many hearts within the Israelite

00:05:23.860 people themselves and so this is kind of I want to paint this picture you have a foreigner okay

00:05:30.360 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

00:05:35.460 king and I don't have as much time to do the history that I did last week sometimes my problem

00:05:39.920 is I will recap what I did before and then the recap turns into the entire sermon that I did

00:05:45.000 before and then we can never move on and then that's where a two-parter becomes a three-parter

00:05:49.300 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

00:05:53.560 do that pray for me because i i need the grace of god but just a little bit of the historical

00:05:59.480 context is nebuchadnezzar was the babylonian king who uh who conquered jerusalem conquered the

00:06:05.020 israelites when they initially were taken captive and went into this 70 year exile period okay

00:06:10.740 nebuchadnezzar and nebuchadnezzar ruled for uh the the lion's share of that 70 years 40 something

00:06:17.220 years. Then his son or grandson, I can't remember. Let me look back to the notes. It was

00:06:25.700 followed by his son. Okay. So Nebuchadnezzar, 45 years of that 70 year period. So it was the first

00:06:34.360 year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. And he was the Babylonian king who, it was the first year of his

00:06:40.220 reign that he took over Israel. He took them captive, conquered them. And then his son,

00:06:44.320 and he reigned for 45 of that 70 years.

00:06:46.240 Then his son followed him for 23 years.

00:06:48.360 Then you only have a few years left.

00:06:50.780 Now, what happened at the end of the 23-year reign of his son?

00:06:54.480 So now we're getting close to 70 years.

00:06:56.860 Well, it's not just that his son lost power

00:07:00.060 and another Babylonian rose to power.

00:07:03.600 No, Babylon, the whole thing, was conquered.

00:07:07.760 So Babylon conquers Israel,

00:07:09.420 and then Babylon gets conquered itself

00:07:11.620 by a tag team force of the Persians and the Medes.

00:07:16.060 And you have Darius and Cyrus are the two kings of these two other nations

00:07:19.860 that join forces to take over the Babylonians.

00:07:22.580 And I focused really heavily on the sovereignty of God last week,

00:07:26.500 if you were with us, saying that in the one instance,

00:07:28.840 according to God's sovereign will, what he predestines,

00:07:32.040 which includes not just good things, but suffering and even sin,

00:07:35.820 God would predestine and ordain even suffering, bad things, even sin,

00:07:41.620 for his good and holy purposes. God predestinating sin just for the record does not make him the

00:07:47.560 author of sin. It does not make him a culpable, morally culpable for sin. But what it means is

00:07:53.500 that God can ordain even bad things for good and holy purposes. And that is God's right just for

00:07:59.180 the record and not ours. We don't get to play God. And when I say play God in this instance,

00:08:04.340 to make that real specific, what I mean is that the arrogant mentality of man that would say that

00:08:10.840 Good ends justify unlawful, wicked means, right?

00:08:16.280 Have you ever heard that expression?

00:08:17.400 The end justifies the means.

00:08:19.020 So we can do something in terms of the means,

00:08:22.000 the path to get to a certain conclusion

00:08:24.700 that we know are objectively wicked.

00:08:28.700 It's objectively wrong, but we can do it

00:08:30.860 if we're confident or if we even think

00:08:33.480 that the outcome will be positive, right?

00:08:36.080 If you're ever wondering, you know,

00:08:37.500 in our current political system,

00:08:39.420 how politicians think, it's that. I mean, that's pretty much the common denominator across the

00:08:45.200 board when it comes to our civil rulers in this particular generation at this time in the West,

00:08:50.600 they think they're God. That's pretty much it. They think they're God. So they think

00:08:54.580 they can do whatever they want and the means can be atrocious so long as they, and here's the

00:09:01.160 problem, they don't even know that the end will be good. So number one, a good end wouldn't justify

00:09:05.200 evil means, and they can't even guarantee a good end. And yet they still think that they're

00:09:10.000 justified in using wicked means. So man, when man does that, it's playing God, it's arrogance,

00:09:16.300 it's sin, it's disobedience. Because our job is not to get together in a think tank session

00:09:22.340 with all the experts and assert arrogant degrees of confidence to say, we know the outcome will

00:09:31.220 be this and therefore we can do whatever we need to do in in order to get to the outcome no that's

00:09:36.480 that's what God God has that prerogative we do not as as man our job is to stick to the script

00:09:43.060 and as Christians namely the scripture that that is our job is obedience right God desires

00:09:49.960 obedience more than sacrifice is what Samuel says to King Saul when he's playing God directly

00:09:56.540 disobeying in the means, thinking that that will somehow produce a righteous end. And so all that

00:10:02.820 being said, God in his sovereign will, which does include ordaining even unrighteous acts to bring

00:10:09.920 about good and holy purposes, in that sense, God predestines that Israel would be in captivity for

00:10:17.840 70 years and predestines that King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, would be the king to accomplish

00:10:24.260 his feet, that he would be the one who would go in and subdue Israel and take them as exiles in

00:10:30.360 Babylon. And yet Nebuchadnezzar, so God ordains it in the one sense to fulfill his sovereign will,

00:10:36.600 what he had prophesied previously through Isaiah and Jeremiah, that Israel would be punished for

00:10:41.640 70 years because of their faithlessness. And yet in the other sense, Nebuchadnezzar is not absolved

00:10:49.140 Just because he's being used as a pawn in God's sovereign will and the big strategy that God has

00:10:56.020 at play doesn't absolve Nebuchadnezzar at the individual level for his own sin. And one of the

00:11:02.140 sins, there are many, but one of the sins that Nebuchadnezzar commits that we see, this is

00:11:06.940 explicitly said elsewhere in the scripture, is that he didn't let Israel go. So on the one hand,

00:11:13.100 God wouldn't let him let Israel go because Israel is supposed to be in captivity for 70 years

00:11:17.900 because Israel's own disobedience to God.

00:11:21.240 And yet, on the other hand,

00:11:23.040 Nebuchadnezzar was still being hard-hearted

00:11:27.680 towards the Spirit of God

00:11:29.600 and lacking in compassion

00:11:31.780 towards the Israelite people

00:11:33.980 and choosing not to let them go.

00:11:36.180 And I talked about the verse

00:11:37.780 that we're probably all familiar with.

00:11:39.440 It says that the heart of a king is like a river

00:11:42.800 and God guides the waters

00:11:45.000 in whichever direction he desires.

00:11:47.500 And so we see God is using Nebuchadnezzar in a particular way towards a particular end,

00:11:53.160 namely the chastising and discipline with his fatherly rod of his people, Israel.

00:11:59.040 But then Nebuchadnezzar, he dies, his son takes over.

00:12:02.740 And then towards the very end of these 70 years, God in his sovereignty and in his faithfulness

00:12:07.600 causes Darius and Cyrus, two kings to join forces to conquer Babylon,

00:12:13.300 even though God just got done using Babylon to do what he prophesied, predicted through Isaiah and

00:12:19.620 Jeremiah, to punish Israel, discipline Israel for their own sins, 70 years of captivity. And the rod

00:12:27.060 that God uses, what I'm saying, the rod that God uses to discipline Israel, his sons, is Nebuchadnezzar

00:12:34.040 and Babylon. And then once God gets done disciplining Israel with the rod of Babylon, he then punishes

00:12:40.440 the rod it's the same thing that god did with egypt right that pharaoh on the one hand romans

00:12:46.100 chapter 9 talks about this the apostle paul he says on the one hand god supernaturally hardened

00:12:51.680 the heart of pharaoh do you know why well one because of israel's sin they were being disciplined

00:12:56.540 in this case for 400 years in captivity as slaves in egypt but on the other hand one of the reasons

00:13:02.400 god supernaturally hardened the heart of pharaoh is because god wanted to display to his people

00:13:07.580 his immense power. And if you're God, you're the infinite creator of the universe, and you want to

00:13:13.180 show your power against one of your enemies, do you know what you have to do? Because you are so

00:13:18.540 infinitely superior to your enemies, you have to use at least a portion of your power to

00:13:24.680 supernaturally uphold your own enemy so that you can show, you know, your right hook. Because

00:13:30.100 you won't get to show your people, show off, and show your power with your three-punch combo

00:13:36.400 against any of your enemies

00:13:37.840 because none of them will be able to withstand one punch,

00:13:40.820 much less three.

00:13:42.420 So what God is doing with Pharaoh in the case of Egypt

00:13:44.660 is he's supernaturally hardening the heart of Pharaoh

00:13:47.400 and sustaining Pharaoh

00:13:48.540 because otherwise you and I would be reading

00:13:50.720 the one plague of Egypt.

00:13:53.380 The only reason we have 10 of them

00:13:55.180 is because God with one hand is holding up Pharaoh

00:13:58.200 and with the other is waylaying.

00:14:01.060 And all of that just so that you and I

00:14:03.020 thousands of years later can say,

00:14:04.580 our God is the God who can part the sea. Well, there would be no parting of the sea if God

00:14:10.440 didn't supernaturally hold up Pharaoh. Because apart from God supernaturally hardening his heart,

00:14:16.000 you know what you do after 10 plagues? You quit. You give up. Right? So this is the sovereignty

00:14:23.460 of God. I talked about the two wills of God, his moral revealed will, what he says in scripture,

00:14:28.960 the script that you and I are called to stick to and then his hidden will namely his sovereign will

00:14:35.760 that includes him predestinating and ordaining bad things like the death of his son or bad things

00:14:43.140 like Pharaoh's heart and heart or bad things like Nebuchadnezzar's heart and heart not letting

00:14:48.080 Israel go out of captivity and God ordains these things which are bad but he does it for good wise

00:14:53.840 and holy purposes for the glory of himself and the eternal good of his people. God can do that.

00:15:01.960 We cannot. We don't get to play God. We don't get to say bad means, but justified by a good end.

00:15:08.680 Only God reserves to himself that right. And he does so without being the author of sin or the

00:15:15.860 source of sin or the cause of sin. God is absolved and righteous and holy and good. And yet he ordains

00:15:23.800 all things. So that was kind of the big picture from last week. And then in this tag team duo

00:15:29.960 force of the Persians and the Medes, Darius and Cyrus taking over Babylon. So now Babylon used

00:15:35.740 as a rod to punish Israel or to discipline Israel as sons for 70 years. And now the rod is being

00:15:41.840 punished by God, the Babylon itself. And God is using the punishment of Babylon. He's using as

00:15:48.140 his tool he's using Cyrus and Darius the Persians and the Medes and then Darius is older and so he

00:15:55.200 goes ahead and says you know what instead of doing the duo tag team rulership over Babylon

00:15:59.760 I'm retiring and he gives it all to Cyrus now Cyrus becomes the singular leader over this whole

00:16:06.100 Babylonian empire and Cyrus in his first year of reign in the same way that Nebuchadnezzar his

00:16:12.880 first year he takes Israel captive the people of God and in Cyrus's first year he lets Israel go

00:16:19.620 he liberates so Nebuchadnezzar he takes the people of God captive which is what God planned

00:16:25.640 but also on Nebuchadnezzar's part wicked and then Cyrus though he does also the God's sovereign will

00:16:32.720 what God planned namely not the captivity of Israel in his first year but the liberation of

00:16:37.400 Israel in his first year and that was according to God's sovereign will because all things are

00:16:42.000 but also according to God's moral will in the sense that he is exercising compassion and doing

00:16:47.480 good to the people of God for the sake of God. He's doing good to the people of God for the sake

00:16:53.880 of God. That's Cyrus. Now, here's the point as it pertains to our text today and our focus for today.

00:17:00.540 Cyrus is not enough. Cyrus is not enough. And for those of you who are privy to some of these

00:17:06.620 conversations, it depends, you know, well, it depends what you do with your time, right? Some

00:17:10.400 of you, it's like, well, I've got a wife and kids and a job. Good for you. Keep that up. Others of

00:17:14.640 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

00:17:19.560 conspiracies and, you know, and reading every article and listening to every podcast. So long

00:17:24.240 as you're not neglecting your wife and your kids and your job and those things and praise God,

00:17:27.480 all power to you. But here's the deal. Some of you who are, you know, in some of these chat rooms

00:17:32.280 and these podcasts and watching this and watching that, you might be aware that a lot of people

00:17:37.300 over the last, you know, few years or so, especially 2015, 2016, they were likening

00:17:43.360 Donald Trump to a Cyrus type. And I think that that was actually a good comparison.

00:17:49.240 And what they were saying essentially was that the Christian can have a clear conscience in voting

00:17:54.060 for Donald Trump. And that vote, casting your vote, is not an endorsement that he has perfect

00:18:01.280 character or even that he himself is regenerate. So it's not even making the claim that he's a

00:18:07.200 Christian, but it's simply saying he's clearly the lesser of two evils. And I think this would

00:18:12.060 have been the case in the 2016 election and the 2020 election. But they're saying, and I think

00:18:17.960 that he may not be a Christian himself, but he is serving as a Cyrus type, meaning that he is

00:18:24.440 not necessarily a lover of the triune God, Yahweh himself individually, but he is positioned in

00:18:32.600 God's sovereignty to do good to the people of God for the sake of God. He is a benevolent force

00:18:39.140 towards God's people, towards Christians. And I think that that was a pretty good comparison to

00:18:43.620 say, all right, so Trump is, it's probably not a good analogy or comparison to say Trump is like

00:18:51.260 King Josiah in Israel who loved the Lord with all his heart. Or Trump is like King David, right? Or

00:18:56.620 Trump is like Jesus, right? There's been some of those comparisons and that's blasphemous. Please

00:19:00.760 don't do that. He's not. But, you know, but to say Trump is like Cyrus. He's a foreigner in the

00:19:06.480 sense, not that he's a foreigner, that he's not an American, I'm not saying in that sense, but a

00:19:10.480 foreigner in the spiritual sense that very likely he is not actually among God's people. Very likely

00:19:15.160 he's not a Christian. But like Cyrus, who was not among God's people, not a Jew, he still did much

00:19:21.260 good for the Jews. So I think that's fair. The point though, from our text today, again, the big

00:19:26.780 point that we're going to focus on now is cyrus is not enough and to make it applicable relevant

00:19:32.360 for us today in the political realm trump is not enough he would have my vote absolutely if he

00:19:37.940 becomes you know the primary candidate then yes i will vote for trump and i won't lose sleep over

00:19:42.260 it and i know that some christians would disagree with that say that's wrong um that's politics and

00:19:46.680 i'm not saying that it's great um but yes i will absolutely vote for the lesser of two evils in a

00:19:51.400 two-party system. And that's what we have right now. So there you go. All that said, that doesn't

00:19:56.820 mean that he'd be an elder in our church or even a member in our church. I'm not validating his

00:20:00.260 character in every regard or this or that. But in my lifetime, he's the best president that we've

00:20:04.960 ever had. And plenty of flaws. It's a low bar when you say the best president in the last 37 years.

00:20:12.160 I mean, it's a really low bar. I think if we can elect a packet of pudding, that would probably

00:20:17.200 be, you know, probably, you know, be the new best president, you know, in our lifetimes. But all

00:20:21.420 that being said, the point is this, he'll have my vote if it goes that direction. And that's what

00:20:26.700 plays out. But I, if I had to bet, you know, God, man looks at the outward appearance, God alone

00:20:32.160 sees a heart. So I'm not making a definitive statement here about Trump's salvation. I don't

00:20:35.820 know. But, but Jesus does say, right. So God definitively sees the inward man. We look to

00:20:41.440 the outward man, but the Bible does say that you can know someone's heart by looking at their

00:20:46.460 external fruit, right? And there's enough things from Trump in terms of policies and things like

00:20:52.420 that. There's been some really great things, but there's enough stuff in his rhetoric. And I'm not

00:20:56.580 talking about being mean. I'm not talking about being mean. I mean, David called down curses on

00:21:00.760 his enemies, so I'm fine with that. I got biblical arguments for a lot of the rhetoric, not all,

00:21:06.440 but a lot of the rhetoric. But I'm talking about statements that say, you know, like, hey, have you

00:21:09.620 ever repented for anything or regretted anything? It's like, no, never repented for anything. Instead,

00:21:13.660 my strategy is just never to make a mistake and i'm nailing it that's that's a paraphrase but

00:21:17.800 that's pretty much a quote you know so that's like that doesn't bode well for you know anyone

00:21:22.120 who's trying to you know adamantly ardently defend you know the salvation um of donald trump and

00:21:27.500 again none of that is to say that he won't have my vote all right so all that being said uh my

00:21:32.980 point is i think cyrus is the better comparison cyrus is a foreigner he's not among the jewish

00:21:38.320 people. He's not among the people of God. Trump, in this New Testament era, in the spiritual sense,

00:21:46.520 I think, likewise, a foreigner. In the objective, internal sense, I don't think that he's a

00:21:52.660 Christian. But God can use foreigners, and Cyrus is a wonderful example of this. God can use, and

00:22:01.040 we see it throughout the Old Testament and even the New, can use a foreigner for his glory and

00:22:06.160 the good of his people. And so I'm all on board for that strategy. I say all that to say this.

00:22:12.920 I'm on board for that strategy. That's been in the rhetoric, you know, of some of the podcasts

00:22:16.620 and some of the articles and the books that have been written, you know, and all this kind of stuff

00:22:20.180 for the last seven years. And I think it's fair. I'm on board. But Cyrus is not enough. Likewise,

00:22:28.160 as it pertains to us, if you're saying Trump is the new Cyrus, you know, Trump is not enough.

00:22:32.020 look at the text one more time namely verse five then rose up right not just cyrus so god

00:22:39.460 sovereignly supernaturally causes darius and cyrus to conquer the babylonians darius retires

00:22:45.460 cyrus takes full charge singular leader the the the highest leader in the land in his first year

00:22:51.620 of reign he's going to let the people of god go he's doing immense good and he's going to resource

00:22:56.660 them with gold and silver. That's amazing. That's amazing. And yet even that is insufficient.

00:23:03.880 It's not enough for God to do what he wants to do through his people in rebuilding the ruins.

00:23:10.300 And that's the time that we're living in right now. If you're not aware, we are in ruins. We are

00:23:15.060 in ruins. The West is in ruins. And if the people of God were to be successful, if this is God's will

00:23:20.880 that we rebuild the ruins, you need more than Cyrus.

00:23:24.940 Verse five, then rose up, not just Cyrus,

00:23:28.780 but the heads of the father's houses of Judah and Benjamin

00:23:32.780 and the priest and the Levites,

00:23:37.040 everyone whose spirit, right?

00:23:39.600 So it's just as supernatural, just as divine.

00:23:42.000 It's not just their own idea,

00:23:43.900 but God supernaturally stirs up the heart of Cyrus,

00:23:46.960 but then the same spirit of God

00:23:48.720 stirs in the hearts of the houses, the father's houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priest and

00:23:54.520 the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the ruins, to rebuild the house

00:24:01.420 of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. Now let's nail down a little bit deeper now, a little bit more

00:24:06.840 specific. Who do these houses, right? There's four things that are named in verse five, four

00:24:12.680 categories, four groups. Who do they represent? I would argue that there's two primary groups.

00:24:18.500 There's four names, but two primary groups.

00:24:20.860 In the one sense, verse 5, it says the father's houses,

00:24:24.500 the heads of the father's houses of Judah and Benjamin, that's one group.

00:24:29.340 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.

00:24:37.000 The priesthood was given to Levi.

00:24:39.100 That's the Levitical priesthood.

00:24:40.740 So you have the priest on one hand.

00:24:42.940 Levi's priest view that.

00:24:44.520 Yes, there's some nuanced distinctions,

00:24:46.420 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,

00:25:00.020 which are really prophetic 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.

00:25:14.700 He gave the scepter to Judah.

00:25:16.420 And Jesus comes from the line of Levi, right?

00:25:18.940 No.

00:25:19.960 Well, Jesus, he just has a spiritual kingdom, right?

00:25:22.460 So he comes through the priest line, right?

00:25:24.200 No, he comes through Judah, the king line, the scepter line.

00:25:29.760 That's significant.

00:25:30.620 Not a priest, but we don't have time for that.

00:25:32.780 Plus, I've given that sermon like 40 times.

00:25:34.560 So you guys, you're probably good.

00:25:36.460 So here's the point, though.

00:25:37.760 Benjamin and Judah, I think what's significant there is it's the fathers.

00:25:41.800 It's not the mothers.

00:25:42.660 It's not the matriarch.

00:25:43.600 It's not, you know, smash the patriarchy.

00:25:46.000 It's none of that, right?

00:25:46.900 It's not slay queen, boss girl.

00:25:48.560 It's none of that.

00:25:49.500 So it's the fathers, right?

00:25:50.860 This is the real world, real life.

00:25:52.980 You know, not post-enlightenment, you know, just absolute confusion and foolishness.

00:25:58.620 This is real.

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.

00:26:16.000 it's the politicians.

00:26:18.300 And I know that word

00:26:19.540 is because all we've known

00:26:20.460 is bad politicians.

00:26:21.520 But think in the most positive way

00:26:23.500 you could possibly think

00:26:24.420 of a politician,

00:26:25.760 which I know I understand.

00:26:26.960 That's a difficult exercise.

00:26:28.220 But in the most positive light

00:26:29.460 that you can imagine,

00:26:30.500 you have the civil leaders,

00:26:32.040 a.k.a. politicians.

00:26:33.680 Over here, the Levites

00:26:35.120 and the priesthood think priest.

00:26:37.480 And so two groups in two words,

00:26:40.780 politicians and pastors.

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,

00:29:23.640 and specifically two kinds of leaders,

00:29:26.620 the spiritual leaders, the priests, the pastors,

00:29:29.580 and the political leaders, the princes.

00:29:32.940 So there may be a Cyrus, a foreigner,

00:29:36.280 who is elevated in a sudden fashion,

00:29:38.740 someone that you never thought would take power, right?

00:29:40.860 We're underneath Babylonian power.

00:29:42.720 Boom, Persians and Medes, overnight.

00:29:45.740 Nobody saw it coming, except for a couple prophets,

00:29:48.560 but nobody saw that coming and then all of a sudden it's like Babylon is wicked Babylon will

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

00:30:00.220 you're taken over by a foreign power and the foreign power that you think would probably even

00:30:04.920 be worse than Babylon God stirs in the heart of the supreme leader within that foreign power

00:30:10.160 to where all of a sudden even though he himself likely is not a follower of God he wants to do

00:30:15.620 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,

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

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

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

00:31:44.180 than it is to any evangelical pastor.

00:31:50.120 And again, that's not a compliment.

00:31:53.320 I am grateful for Matt Walsh.

00:31:54.640 I'm not trying to put him, but I'm just saying

00:31:55.800 the people of God should be lapping the daily wire

00:32:00.700 in faithfulness.

00:32:05.160 That's sad.

00:32:07.080 So if there was any sign that, okay,

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.

00:33:31.300 But that guy did not finish well.

00:33:34.620 It is an objective, definitive reality.

00:33:37.000 He compromised.

00:33:38.320 He did not finish well.

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

00:34:16.480 that gave us Obergefell.

00:34:18.840 We'd rather continue this trajectory

00:34:21.060 than have mean tweets.

00:34:26.340 And that is the literal strategy

00:34:29.900 of our premier evangelical leaders

00:34:32.460 over the last at least 10 years.

00:34:36.780 Then you're not ready for revival.

00:34:38.760 There's your sign.

00:34:40.740 There's your sign.

00:34:41.800 You don't have the Levites and the priests.

00:34:45.300 You don't.

00:34:46.480 and Cyrus is not enough.

00:34:49.620 Imagine Cyrus coming to power.

00:34:51.180 Think about it as it pertains to our text.

00:34:53.040 He comes to power.

00:34:53.780 He says, I'm going to let you go.

00:34:56.200 Really?

00:34:56.740 On vacation?

00:34:57.440 No, no, no.

00:34:58.120 No, no.

00:34:58.600 It's not just for fun.

00:35:00.240 You're going to go back home.

00:35:02.020 Well, home is in shambles.

00:35:04.000 That's a lot of work.

00:35:05.440 Yeah, but I'm going to let you go

00:35:06.760 and rebuild your city,

00:35:08.840 your heritage,

00:35:10.300 your homeland.

00:35:12.160 Doesn't that appeal to you?

00:35:13.280 The house of God,

00:35:14.520 your history.

00:35:15.960 I'm going to let you go.

00:35:16.920 And I'm not going to send you off empty-handed.

00:35:19.840 I'm going to resource you.

00:35:22.020 By charging people to be generous,

00:35:24.480 and wherever the generosity lacks,

00:35:26.520 I'll fill it out of my own coffers.

00:35:29.560 On my own done.

00:35:31.900 Imagine if Israel, right?

00:35:33.780 Judah and Benjamin,

00:35:35.240 the political leaders of households,

00:35:37.520 and the Levites and the priests,

00:35:39.780 the pastors, the spiritual leaders,

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,

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

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

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

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,

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.

00:38:42.700 No, not necessarily.

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

00:39:19.040 is someone that God actually instituted.

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.

00:40:00.120 Cyrus not only gave his good wishes.

00:40:02.660 This pertains to us.

00:40:04.300 Not just a political application here.

00:40:06.040 I'm going to focus now on a spiritual application.

00:40:08.780 The house of God.

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.

00:42:07.560 No genetic lineage or line.

00:42:09.860 It's the people of God.

00:42:12.660 From the Sudan, from China, from the U.S. of A.

00:42:17.580 From whoever God saves.

00:42:19.460 And it is a universal church.

00:42:22.120 It stretches throughout all the ages of the Christian church.

00:42:26.500 Constantine is a part of this.

00:42:28.420 Augustine is a part of this.

00:42:30.180 Athanasius is a part of this.

00:42:31.760 Calvin is a part of this.

00:42:33.180 Luther is a part of this.

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

00:44:54.500 and through this and through that,

00:44:56.440 the building of the second temple,

00:44:58.840 then we as Christians who have been saved

00:45:01.520 by the very blood of Jesus Christ

00:45:03.260 should give our whole lives to resource,

00:45:05.880 not just well-wishing, but well-doing.

00:45:09.580 That's the point.

00:45:10.340 Cyrus doesn't just say,

00:45:11.520 God commanded me to let you go.

00:45:12.900 I'm gonna let you go,

00:45:14.260 but I'm not gonna give you anything.

00:45:16.240 And I wish you well.

00:45:18.200 Right, James talks about this.

00:45:20.000 He says, be wary of the person

00:45:21.300 who says he loves the house of faith,

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

00:46:17.720 and the source of his own authority.

00:46:19.980 But as far as we can tell from the text,

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,

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

00:46:42.200 in terms of being pro-house of God,

00:46:46.360 then you and I as born-again Christians in the New Testament

00:46:49.320 having the completion of the canon,

00:46:51.400 all four narratives of the gospel,

00:46:53.840 knowing what we know, having new hearts,

00:46:56.320 having our bodies actually temples of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us,

00:47:00.260 stirring us up constantly day in and day out

00:47:03.300 towards love and good works,

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.

00:47:20.860 People are the stones being built together.

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,

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,

00:49:23.500 a love for their heritage.

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,

00:49:33.300 who was likely an unbeliever,

00:49:35.360 but he also divinely inspired a native leader within Israel itself,

00:49:40.940 one who had despised Babylon from his youth,

00:49:44.720 Namely, one Zerubbabel, who was a believer.

00:49:49.720 Now, here's something that's key about Zerubbabel.

00:49:53.500 So you're going to have Ezra.

00:49:54.700 Ezra's a priest, right?

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.

00:50:03.300 That's king, highest position.

00:50:04.640 So foreign king, Cyrus, likely an unbeliever, but very helpful

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.

00:50:36.460 Judah had its own prince, even in captivity.

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

00:51:28.880 and that Babylon right this the regime clown world trash world has always been in his view

00:51:38.160 a strange place to which he has never felt comfortable to which even though he may have

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

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

00:53:03.020 of God, unbelievers, have done to my home. And from my earliest days of youth, meaning I didn't

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

00:53:56.840 and rebuild the ruins.

00:53:58.060 But previously, the rest of my life,

00:53:59.840 I was pro-Babylon, all about it.

00:54:05.200 Again, making this, connecting it to our time

00:54:08.660 and our place, our context, in 2020

00:54:11.380 and for these last three years,

00:54:13.060 one of the things that you'll probably notice

00:54:15.300 and have noticed is both in the politician category

00:54:18.100 and in the pastor category,

00:54:20.460 and I'll stick with this one primarily,

00:54:22.640 the Christian pastor category,

00:54:24.280 what we've seen is this.

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.

00:55:20.900 Which way is the wind blowing?

00:55:23.440 That direction.

00:55:25.160 And so the people actually are the ones who woke up,

00:55:28.000 who said, I'm not going to compromise.

00:55:29.760 I'm not going to give in.

00:55:31.040 I'm going to take a stand.

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

00:55:38.200 for the last seven years,

00:55:40.080 all of a sudden runs out to the other side of the people

00:55:42.680 who have changed direction

00:55:43.560 and pretends as though this parade

00:55:45.840 that he's been adamantly working against

00:55:48.520 is something that he himself actually engineered.

00:55:52.840 That's not Zerubbabel.

00:55:54.600 That's the point I want to drive home.

00:55:56.820 What we see in the text is that Zerubbabel,

00:55:59.440 both in the way that the Babylonians viewed him

00:56:01.460 and the way his own people viewed him,

00:56:04.200 he had two names.

00:56:05.440 In the Babylonian case, he's called Shesh Bazar.

00:56:11.360 And what does that mean?

00:56:12.320 It means joy in tribulation.

00:56:14.820 and as his own people called him Zerubbabel his God-given name what does that mean a stranger

00:56:22.800 in Babylon this is not someone who wants the people of Israel decide we're going to go back

00:56:30.500 and rebuild then he says oh yeah I hate Babylon too I hate clown world too

00:56:35.320 whereas previously until there was the momentum until there was the opportunity he was cushy in

00:56:43.020 no no no this is someone who is known both by the babylonians and by the israelites as someone who

00:56:48.680 from his youth never embraced babylon he always despised it was always a foreign place to him

00:56:57.300 he always had this inward affection devotion commitment to his heritage to his home

00:57:06.220 Babylon could not teach Zerubbabel to hate his heritage.

00:57:13.620 Babylon could not convince him that the Israelites were actually,

00:57:18.160 actually spelled A-C, you know, A-K-C-H, you know, blah, blah.

00:57:22.520 No, they could not convince, actually, the Israelites have been for centuries oppressors

00:57:26.940 and they're bad and you should hate.

00:57:28.620 No, no, no.

00:57:30.140 Zerubbabel did not take that bait.

00:57:32.240 Zerubbabel could not be talked into hating his own people despising their history despising

00:57:41.760 their heritage and there's a reason why Zerubbabel was one of the primary leaders among Israel when

00:57:49.380 finally in the providence of God the pieces on the board got placed in the right spots

00:57:53.820 for the rebuilding project to begin Zerubbabel was one of the chief leaders because not because

00:58:00.660 he woke up yesterday but because he was awake the whole time he was awake the whole time he was

00:58:08.160 ready to go so that's one more thing the last thing i'll leave you with to look for is when

00:58:14.180 god is doing a work of revitalization not only within the church but within a nation within

00:58:19.540 society within the culture at large you need in god's providence some foreign leaders who you

00:58:27.320 can't even explain it but somehow supernaturally they want to do good to the people of god you need

00:58:32.320 a cyrus but cyrus is not enough you also need christian princes plural not just one but many

00:58:39.200 of them that are regenerate are christians and you need christian pastors and these need to be

00:58:45.800 guys who are ready to lead the way not sit there in their ivory tower in their comfortable vocations

00:58:52.140 until enough of the people

00:58:54.000 start going back towards the Lord.

00:58:55.940 Then they lick their finger,

00:58:57.200 put it in the wind,

00:58:58.220 realize the direction things are headed

00:58:59.740 and then run in front of the people

00:59:01.240 and say, hey, I'm a Christian nationalist.

00:59:04.960 Al Mohler.

00:59:06.820 Just get real specific there.

00:59:10.160 Al Mohler has had woke CRT books

00:59:12.940 and professors in his seminary for years.

00:59:16.600 And then enough people start to push back

00:59:19.220 when their eyes are finally opened

00:59:20.640 because the left gets cocky

00:59:22.120 and turns up the temperature too quickly all at once,

00:59:25.800 enough Christians say, this is it.

00:59:27.920 We're done with that.

00:59:28.820 They start coming this way.

00:59:29.940 And then all of a sudden, Al Mohler starts talking about,

00:59:31.680 yeah, Christian nationalism, I'm on board.

00:59:34.680 That's an opportunist.

00:59:37.720 That's an opportunist.

00:59:39.300 But neither, brothers and sisters, can we afford an ideologue.

00:59:43.920 And if I'm to speak pastorally to our church right now,

00:59:48.040 not just somebody out there that I'm not responsible for,

00:59:52.120 pastorally in accountability but to you guys because i know you guys i speak with you guys

01:00:00.320 i'm not really worried about the inclination of you to be opportunist i'm worried about the

01:00:06.740 inclination of you to be ideologues and what i mean by an ideologue is somebody who their heart

01:00:13.360 is in the right place they know the truth and they have a true fidelity and commitment to it

01:00:17.900 but they lack sense at times and they're willing to say we're gonna do it right now because it's

01:00:27.720 right and it it's not the moment and you take the bait and you take an a precious saint who loves

01:00:39.260 the lord who is who's faithful but could have done so much more over the next 10 years and they did

01:00:46.440 it all in 10 days but now they're on the ADL's watch list and their assets are frozen it's like

01:00:54.780 you you could have there's my point is it's a razor's edge and it requires discernment and

01:01:00.220 wisdom in this time that we're living between the opportunist who doesn't really have faithfulness

01:01:05.420 to the Lord that just goes with the winds blowing and just is in it for themselves

01:01:09.260 you don't want to be that and I don't think you are but on the other side you can fall

01:01:14.620 on both edges on both sides on the other side there's the ideologue who is committed whose

01:01:20.400 heart really belongs to the lord but but is not nearly as useful for the kingdom as they could

01:01:25.800 be over the long haul because they're too idealistic that's not you have to have categories

01:01:33.540 there must be a category for some of us we're so simplistic that the only category we have for

01:01:40.280 waiting is compromise. And I want to encourage you as one of your pastors that there are other

01:01:46.920 categories theologically besides just compromise. That you actually, that there is the Christian

01:01:53.560 category of shrewdness. That that is a real category that you can actually be shrewd where,

01:02:01.680 and someone will probably accuse you at times. Someone on your team, a fellow brother, a Christian

01:02:06.620 and say you're being compromised you're being cowardly and you say no i'm being shrewd i'm

01:02:13.880 zerubbabel trash world has never been my home i've despised it from my youth and when god puts the

01:02:20.920 pieces into play i will be leading the way but i have a wife and kids to feed and i cannot afford

01:02:29.560 to go to jail this afternoon and i'm not going to be a fool not

01:02:35.320 there's got to be some ground in between opportunist and ideal and i believe that

01:02:46.060 zerubbabel was that ground for for his whole life until this moment with cyrus letting them go think

01:02:51.040 about that his whole life he hated babylon but yet the implication this isn't explicit but it's

01:02:56.660 absolutely the implication. Although hating Babylon, he lived peaceably enough in Babylon

01:03:04.100 his whole life to where he wasn't punished. I mean, think about it. If Zerubbabel had pulled

01:03:12.100 the trigger prematurely in his zeal for his homeland, his heritage for Jerusalem, then

01:03:18.680 Zerubbabel, when Cyrus, when it finally happens, Zerubbabel wouldn't be leading them. Zerubbabel

01:03:23.940 would have been dead. Nebuchadnezzar would have already hung him. Do you see? It matters. Let's

01:03:31.680 pray. Father God, help us to be shrewd, as cunning as serpents, but as innocent as doves. Not

01:03:37.900 opportunists, not men who are bought and paid for, not double agents, playing both sides of the field,

01:03:44.120 truly committed in zealous fervency for you and your kingdom and your people, the house of the

01:03:50.360 Lord, this third temple, the church. And yet at the same time, help us to be wise, cunning, and shrewd.

01:03:57.480 Lord, I pray that you would raise up not just Osiris, but that you would raise up within Israel,

01:04:04.320 new Israel, the Christian church, that you would raise up both Christian princes and Christian

01:04:10.000 pastors, both political and spiritual leaders who despise trash world, despise clown world,

01:04:17.380 who love our heritage, our Christian heritage,

01:04:20.620 and are ready with courage and wisdom

01:04:24.820 to lead your people, the church,

01:04:27.480 back to green pastures and still waters.

01:04:30.320 We pray it for Christ's sake.

01:04:32.060 In Jesus' name, amen.

The NXR Podcast - January 14, 2024

SERMON - Caesar Is Not Enough ｜ The Need For Christian Princes & Pastors

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