The NXR Podcast - January 14, 2024


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

Topics
playing God cyrus is not enough Trump rhetoric and presidency Caesar is not enough premier evangelical leaders strategy third temple Christian princes and pastors zerubbabel shrewdness
Hosted by
Joel Webbon Harrison Smith Antonio Griffith Dale Partridge Wewsley Todd Calvin Robinson
Mentioned
Zerubbabel Benjamin Donald Trump Babylon Nebuchadnezzar Ezra Judah Darius Tim Keller Levi Matthew Henry Jesus Christ King Cyrus Al Mohler Russell Moore Francis Collins David French Matt Walsh Jeremiah Isaiah and 21 more
THE FRIDAY SPECIAL - Loser Theology ｜ Tim Keller & Russel Moore THE INTERVIEW - A Primer on Theonomy with David Reece

Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 4 minutes

Words per minute

166.8

Word count

10,768

Sentence count

555

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Toxicity

17

sentences flagged

Hate speech

102

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

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

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 All right, let's stand for the reading of God's Word.
00:00:03 Our text for today is Ezra chapter 1.
00:00:06 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 I'll read our text in its entirety.
00:00:13 When I finish reading the text, I'll say this is the Word of the Lord,
00:00:17 at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.
00:00:21 One final time, our text for today is Ezra chapter 1.
00:00:24 The Bible says this,
00:00:25 In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of
00:00:30 Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so
00:00:36 that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing.
00:00:41 Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms
00:00:46 of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
00:00:52 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him,
00:00:56 and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah,
00:00:59 and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel.
00:01:03 He is the God who is in Jerusalem.
00:01:08 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns,
00:01:11 be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold,
00:01:15 with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings
00:01:19 for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.
00:01:22 Then rose up the heads of the father's houses
00:01:25 of Judah and Benjamin and the priest and the Levites,
00:01:29 everyone whose spirit God had stirred up
00:01:32 to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord
00:01:36 that is in Jerusalem.
00:01:37 And all who were about them aided them
00:01:40 with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods,
00:01:43 with beasts, and with costly wares.
00:01:45 Besides, all that was freely offered.
00:01:48 Cyrus, the king, also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar
00:01:54 had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.
00:01:59 Cyrus, king of Persia, brought these out in the charge of Merodath, the treasurer, who
00:02:05 counted them out to Shezbazar, the prince of Judah.
00:02:10 And as was the number of them, thirty basins of gold, a thousand basins of silver, twenty-nine
00:02:17 censers, 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and a thousand other vessels. All the vessels of
00:02:24 gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Shesbezar bring up when the exiles were brought 1.00
00:02:32 up from Babylonia to Jerusalem. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated. If you 0.96
00:02:39 were with us last Lord's Day, I titled that particular sermon, The Rise of Caesar and the
00:02:45 need for christian princes making that plural not just one but several christian princes thinking of
00:02:52 the lesser magistrate regardless of the system of government in a particular nation you're always
00:02:57 going to have more than just one political ruler you might have a supreme political ruler but there
00:03:02 will be many that find themselves in that sphere of the civil magistrate appointed by god to the
00:03:08 sphere of the state civil authority and we need not just one christian but we need several christians
00:03:14 filling that role. So again, I titled last week's sermon, The Rise of Caesar, and I'm equating
00:03:20 Caesar with Cyrus, who was a Persian king. And then I gave us a lot of the history. I gave us
00:03:25 the big 30,000 foot view history in terms of centuries leading up to Israel's exile and why
00:03:33 they happened to be in captivity in the first place for 70 years in Babylon. But then I also
00:03:39 gave the microcosm of the history not just for a millennia approximately 800 years leading up to
00:03:45 their captivity but then the the history of those 70 years in captivity and how God prophesied
00:03:52 through Jeremiah the exact length of time that Israel would be held captive how long they would
00:03:57 be exiles in Babylon and why they were exiles in Babylon and the time period and the things that
00:04:04 would take place when they eventually were delivered, liberated from captivity in Babylon.
00:04:09 So we gave a lot of historical context last week, and then we focused some attention on Cyrus.
00:04:16 But today, what I want to do is shift the focus from Cyrus to the other characters that we find
00:04:22 in the narrative, in this historical account, which come into play in verse 5. So let me read
00:04:27 verse 5 for us once more so that it's fresh in our minds. It says,
00:04:30 Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites,
00:04:38 everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.
00:04:47 So this is the first point that I want us to understand from the text today.
00:04:50 The very same Spirit of God, that is God Himself, the Holy Spirit,
00:04:55 the very same spirit of God that stirred up the heart of Cyrus, the Persian king who was over
00:05:02 Babylonia, where the Israelites are being held captive at that time. The same spirit of God
00:05:08 that stirred up the highest civil ruler, namely Cyrus, is the same spirit of God who also stirs up
00:05:15 many hearts, not just one heart at the top of the food chain, but many hearts within the Israelite 0.97
00:05:23 people themselves and so this is kind of I want to paint this picture you have a foreigner okay
00:05:30 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 0.56
00:05:35 king and I don't have as much time to do the history that I did last week sometimes my problem
00:05:39 is I will recap what I did before and then the recap turns into the entire sermon that I did
00:05:45 before and then we can never move on and then that's where a two-parter becomes a three-parter
00:05:49 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 do that pray for me because i i need the grace of god but just a little bit of the historical
00:05:59 context is nebuchadnezzar was the babylonian king who uh who conquered jerusalem conquered the
00:06:05 israelites when they initially were taken captive and went into this 70 year exile period okay
00:06:10 nebuchadnezzar and nebuchadnezzar ruled for uh the the lion's share of that 70 years 40 something
00:06:17 years. Then his son or grandson, I can't remember. Let me look back to the notes. It was
00:06:25 followed by his son. Okay. So Nebuchadnezzar, 45 years of that 70 year period. So it was the first
00:06:34 year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. And he was the Babylonian king who, it was the first year of his 0.85
00:06:40 reign that he took over Israel. He took them captive, conquered them. And then his son, 0.55
00:06:44 and he reigned for 45 of that 70 years.
00:06:46 Then his son followed him for 23 years.
00:06:48 Then you only have a few years left.
00:06:50 Now, what happened at the end of the 23-year reign of his son?
00:06:54 So now we're getting close to 70 years.
00:06:56 Well, it's not just that his son lost power
00:07:00 and another Babylonian rose to power.
00:07:03 No, Babylon, the whole thing, was conquered. 0.70
00:07:07 So Babylon conquers Israel, 0.53
00:07:09 and then Babylon gets conquered itself 0.99
00:07:11 by a tag team force of the Persians and the Medes. 0.95
00:07:16 And you have Darius and Cyrus are the two kings of these two other nations 0.62
00:07:19 that join forces to take over the Babylonians.
00:07:22 And I focused really heavily on the sovereignty of God last week, 0.65
00:07:26 if you were with us, saying that in the one instance,
00:07:28 according to God's sovereign will, what he predestines,
00:07:32 which includes not just good things, but suffering and even sin,
00:07:35 God would predestine and ordain even suffering, bad things, even sin,
00:07:41 for his good and holy purposes. God predestinating sin just for the record does not make him the
00:07:47 author of sin. It does not make him a culpable, morally culpable for sin. But what it means is
00:07:53 that God can ordain even bad things for good and holy purposes. And that is God's right just for
00:07:59 the record and not ours. We don't get to play God. And when I say play God in this instance,
00:08:04 to make that real specific, what I mean is that the arrogant mentality of man that would say that
00:08:10 Good ends justify unlawful, wicked means, right?
00:08:16 Have you ever heard that expression?
00:08:17 The end justifies the means.
00:08:19 So we can do something in terms of the means,
00:08:22 the path to get to a certain conclusion
00:08:24 that we know are objectively wicked.
00:08:28 It's objectively wrong, but we can do it
00:08:30 if we're confident or if we even think
00:08:33 that the outcome will be positive, right?
00:08:36 If you're ever wondering, you know,
00:08:37 in our current political system,
00:08:39 how politicians think, it's that. I mean, that's pretty much the common denominator across the
00:08:45 board when it comes to our civil rulers in this particular generation at this time in the West,
00:08:50 they think they're God. That's pretty much it. They think they're God. So they think
00:08:54 they can do whatever they want and the means can be atrocious so long as they, and here's the
00:09:01 problem, they don't even know that the end will be good. So number one, a good end wouldn't justify
00:09:05 evil means, and they can't even guarantee a good end. And yet they still think that they're
00:09:10 justified in using wicked means. So man, when man does that, it's playing God, it's arrogance,
00:09:16 it's sin, it's disobedience. Because our job is not to get together in a think tank session
00:09:22 with all the experts and assert arrogant degrees of confidence to say, we know the outcome will
00:09:31 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 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 and as Christians namely the scripture that that is our job is obedience right God desires
00:09:49 obedience more than sacrifice is what Samuel says to King Saul when he's playing God directly
00:09:56 disobeying in the means, thinking that that will somehow produce a righteous end. And so all that
00:10:02 being said, God in his sovereign will, which does include ordaining even unrighteous acts to bring
00:10:09 about good and holy purposes, in that sense, God predestines that Israel would be in captivity for
00:10:17 70 years and predestines that King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, would be the king to accomplish
00:10:24 his feet, that he would be the one who would go in and subdue Israel and take them as exiles in
00:10:30 Babylon. And yet Nebuchadnezzar, so God ordains it in the one sense to fulfill his sovereign will, 0.75
00:10:36 what he had prophesied previously through Isaiah and Jeremiah, that Israel would be punished for 0.79
00:10:41 70 years because of their faithlessness. And yet in the other sense, Nebuchadnezzar is not absolved 0.81
00:10:49 Just because he's being used as a pawn in God's sovereign will and the big strategy that God has 0.62
00:10:56 at play doesn't absolve Nebuchadnezzar at the individual level for his own sin. And one of the 0.83
00:11:02 sins, there are many, but one of the sins that Nebuchadnezzar commits that we see, this is
00:11:06 explicitly said elsewhere in the scripture, is that he didn't let Israel go. So on the one hand,
00:11:13 God wouldn't let him let Israel go because Israel is supposed to be in captivity for 70 years 0.65
00:11:17 because Israel's own disobedience to God. 0.74
00:11:21 And yet, on the other hand,
00:11:23 Nebuchadnezzar was still being hard-hearted
00:11:27 towards the Spirit of God
00:11:29 and lacking in compassion 0.98
00:11:31 towards the Israelite people
00:11:33 and choosing not to let them go. 0.88
00:11:36 And I talked about the verse
00:11:37 that we're probably all familiar with.
00:11:39 It says that the heart of a king is like a river
00:11:42 and God guides the waters
00:11:45 in whichever direction he desires.
00:11:47 And so we see God is using Nebuchadnezzar in a particular way towards a particular end,
00:11:53 namely the chastising and discipline with his fatherly rod of his people, Israel. 0.82
00:11:59 But then Nebuchadnezzar, he dies, his son takes over.
00:12:02 And then towards the very end of these 70 years, God in his sovereignty and in his faithfulness
00:12:07 causes Darius and Cyrus, two kings to join forces to conquer Babylon,
00:12:13 even though God just got done using Babylon to do what he prophesied, predicted through Isaiah and
00:12:19 Jeremiah, to punish Israel, discipline Israel for their own sins, 70 years of captivity. And the rod 0.60
00:12:27 that God uses, what I'm saying, the rod that God uses to discipline Israel, his sons, is Nebuchadnezzar 0.95
00:12:34 and Babylon. And then once God gets done disciplining Israel with the rod of Babylon, he then punishes 0.83
00:12:40 the rod it's the same thing that god did with egypt right that pharaoh on the one hand romans
00:12:46 chapter 9 talks about this the apostle paul he says on the one hand god supernaturally hardened
00:12:51 the heart of pharaoh do you know why well one because of israel's sin they were being disciplined
00:12:56 in this case for 400 years in captivity as slaves in egypt but on the other hand one of the reasons
00:13:02 god supernaturally hardened the heart of pharaoh is because god wanted to display to his people
00:13:07 his immense power. And if you're God, you're the infinite creator of the universe, and you want to
00:13:13 show your power against one of your enemies, do you know what you have to do? Because you are so
00:13:18 infinitely superior to your enemies, you have to use at least a portion of your power to
00:13:24 supernaturally uphold your own enemy so that you can show, you know, your right hook. Because
00:13:30 you won't get to show your people, show off, and show your power with your three-punch combo
00:13:36 against any of your enemies
00:13:37 because none of them will be able to withstand one punch,
00:13:40 much less three.
00:13:42 So what God is doing with Pharaoh in the case of Egypt
00:13:44 is he's supernaturally hardening the heart of Pharaoh
00:13:47 and sustaining Pharaoh
00:13:48 because otherwise you and I would be reading 0.56
00:13:50 the one plague of Egypt. 1.00
00:13:53 The only reason we have 10 of them 0.98
00:13:55 is because God with one hand is holding up Pharaoh 0.81
00:13:58 and with the other is waylaying.
00:14:01 And all of that just so that you and I
00:14:03 thousands of years later can say,
00:14:04 our God is the God who can part the sea. Well, there would be no parting of the sea if God
00:14:10 didn't supernaturally hold up Pharaoh. Because apart from God supernaturally hardening his heart, 0.81
00:14:16 you know what you do after 10 plagues? You quit. You give up. Right? So this is the sovereignty
00:14:23 of God. I talked about the two wills of God, his moral revealed will, what he says in scripture,
00:14:28 the script that you and I are called to stick to and then his hidden will namely his sovereign will
00:14:35 that includes him predestinating and ordaining bad things like the death of his son or bad things
00:14:43 like Pharaoh's heart and heart or bad things like Nebuchadnezzar's heart and heart not letting
00:14:48 Israel go out of captivity and God ordains these things which are bad but he does it for good wise
00:14:53 and holy purposes for the glory of himself and the eternal good of his people. God can do that.
00:15:01 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 Only God reserves to himself that right. And he does so without being the author of sin or the
00:15:15 source of sin or the cause of sin. God is absolved and righteous and holy and good. And yet he ordains
00:15:23 all things. So that was kind of the big picture from last week. And then in this tag team duo
00:15:29 force of the Persians and the Medes, Darius and Cyrus taking over Babylon. So now Babylon used 0.86
00:15:35 as a rod to punish Israel or to discipline Israel as sons for 70 years. And now the rod is being 0.51
00:15:41 punished by God, the Babylon itself. And God is using the punishment of Babylon. He's using as 0.93
00:15:48 his tool he's using Cyrus and Darius the Persians and the Medes and then Darius is older and so he 0.68
00:15:55 goes ahead and says you know what instead of doing the duo tag team rulership over Babylon 0.64
00:15:59 I'm retiring and he gives it all to Cyrus now Cyrus becomes the singular leader over this whole
00:16:06 Babylonian empire and Cyrus in his first year of reign in the same way that Nebuchadnezzar his 0.90
00:16:12 first year he takes Israel captive the people of God and in Cyrus's first year he lets Israel go 0.88
00:16:19 he liberates so Nebuchadnezzar he takes the people of God captive which is what God planned 0.67
00:16:25 but also on Nebuchadnezzar's part wicked and then Cyrus though he does also the God's sovereign will 0.84
00:16:32 what God planned namely not the captivity of Israel in his first year but the liberation of
00:16:37 Israel in his first year and that was according to God's sovereign will because all things are
00:16:42 but also according to God's moral will in the sense that he is exercising compassion and doing
00:16:47 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 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 Cyrus is not enough. Cyrus is not enough. And for those of you who are privy to some of these
00:17:06 conversations, it depends, you know, well, it depends what you do with your time, right? Some
00:17:10 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 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 conspiracies and, you know, and reading every article and listening to every podcast. So long
00:17:24 as you're not neglecting your wife and your kids and your job and those things and praise God,
00:17:27 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 and these podcasts and watching this and watching that, you might be aware that a lot of people
00:17:37 over the last, you know, few years or so, especially 2015, 2016, they were likening
00:17:43 Donald Trump to a Cyrus type. And I think that that was actually a good comparison.
00:17:49 And what they were saying essentially was that the Christian can have a clear conscience in voting
00:17:54 for Donald Trump. And that vote, casting your vote, is not an endorsement that he has perfect
00:18:01 character or even that he himself is regenerate. So it's not even making the claim that he's a
00:18:07 Christian, but it's simply saying he's clearly the lesser of two evils. And I think this would 1.00
00:18:12 have been the case in the 2016 election and the 2020 election. But they're saying, and I think
00:18:17 that he may not be a Christian himself, but he is serving as a Cyrus type, meaning that he is
00:18:24 not necessarily a lover of the triune God, Yahweh himself individually, but he is positioned in
00:18:32 God's sovereignty to do good to the people of God for the sake of God. He is a benevolent force
00:18:39 towards God's people, towards Christians. And I think that that was a pretty good comparison to
00:18:43 say, all right, so Trump is, it's probably not a good analogy or comparison to say Trump is like
00:18:51 King Josiah in Israel who loved the Lord with all his heart. Or Trump is like King David, right? Or
00:18:56 Trump is like Jesus, right? There's been some of those comparisons and that's blasphemous. Please
00:19:00 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 sense, not that he's a foreigner, that he's not an American, I'm not saying in that sense, but a 0.92
00:19:10 foreigner in the spiritual sense that very likely he is not actually among God's people. Very likely 0.87
00:19:15 he's not a Christian. But like Cyrus, who was not among God's people, not a Jew, he still did much 0.99
00:19:21 good for the Jews. So I think that's fair. The point though, from our text today, again, the big 0.62
00:19:26 point that we're going to focus on now is cyrus is not enough and to make it applicable relevant
00:19:32 for us today in the political realm trump is not enough he would have my vote absolutely if he
00:19:37 becomes you know the primary candidate then yes i will vote for trump and i won't lose sleep over
00:19:42 it and i know that some christians would disagree with that say that's wrong um that's politics and
00:19:46 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 two-party system. And that's what we have right now. So there you go. All that said, that doesn't
00:19:56 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 character in every regard or this or that. But in my lifetime, he's the best president that we've
00:20:04 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 I mean, it's a really low bar. I think if we can elect a packet of pudding, that would probably
00:20:17 be, you know, probably, you know, be the new best president, you know, in our lifetimes. But all
00:20:21 that being said, the point is this, he'll have my vote if it goes that direction. And that's what
00:20:26 plays out. But I, if I had to bet, you know, God, man looks at the outward appearance, God alone
00:20:32 sees a heart. So I'm not making a definitive statement here about Trump's salvation. I don't
00:20:35 know. But, but Jesus does say, right. So God definitively sees the inward man. We look to
00:20:41 the outward man, but the Bible does say that you can know someone's heart by looking at their
00:20:46 external fruit, right? And there's enough things from Trump in terms of policies and things like
00:20:52 that. There's been some really great things, but there's enough stuff in his rhetoric. And I'm not
00:20:56 talking about being mean. I'm not talking about being mean. I mean, David called down curses on
00:21:00 his enemies, so I'm fine with that. I got biblical arguments for a lot of the rhetoric, not all,
00:21:06 but a lot of the rhetoric. But I'm talking about statements that say, you know, like, hey, have you
00:21:09 ever repented for anything or regretted anything? It's like, no, never repented for anything. Instead,
00:21:13 my strategy is just never to make a mistake and i'm nailing it that's that's a paraphrase but
00:21:17 that's pretty much a quote you know so that's like that doesn't bode well for you know anyone
00:21:22 who's trying to you know adamantly ardently defend you know the salvation um of donald trump and
00:21:27 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 point is i think cyrus is the better comparison cyrus is a foreigner he's not among the jewish
00:21:38 people. He's not among the people of God. Trump, in this New Testament era, in the spiritual sense, 0.97
00:21:46 I think, likewise, a foreigner. In the objective, internal sense, I don't think that he's a
00:21:52 Christian. But God can use foreigners, and Cyrus is a wonderful example of this. God can use, and
00:22:01 we see it throughout the Old Testament and even the New, can use a foreigner for his glory and
00:22:06 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 I'm on board for that strategy. That's been in the rhetoric, you know, of some of the podcasts
00:22:16 and some of the articles and the books that have been written, you know, and all this kind of stuff
00:22:20 for the last seven years. And I think it's fair. I'm on board. But Cyrus is not enough. Likewise,
00:22:28 as it pertains to us, if you're saying Trump is the new Cyrus, you know, Trump is not enough.
00:22:32 look at the text one more time namely verse five then rose up right not just cyrus so god
00:22:39 sovereignly supernaturally causes darius and cyrus to conquer the babylonians darius retires
00:22:45 cyrus takes full charge singular leader the the the highest leader in the land in his first year
00:22:51 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 them with gold and silver. That's amazing. That's amazing. And yet even that is insufficient.
00:23:03 It's not enough for God to do what he wants to do through his people in rebuilding the ruins.
00:23:10 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 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 that we rebuild the ruins, you need more than Cyrus.
00:23:24 Verse five, then rose up, not just Cyrus,
00:23:28 but the heads of the father's houses of Judah and Benjamin
00:23:32 and the priest and the Levites,
00:23:37 everyone whose spirit, right?
00:23:39 So it's just as supernatural, just as divine.
00:23:42 It's not just their own idea,
00:23:43 but God supernaturally stirs up the heart of Cyrus,
00:23:46 but then the same spirit of God
00:23:48 stirs in the hearts of the houses, the father's houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priest and
00:23:54 the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the ruins, to rebuild the house
00:24:01 of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. Now let's nail down a little bit deeper now, a little bit more
00:24:06 specific. Who do these houses, right? There's four things that are named in verse five, four
00:24:12 categories, four groups. Who do they represent? I would argue that there's two primary groups.
00:24:18 There's four names, but two primary groups.
00:24:20 In the one sense, verse 5, it says the father's houses,
00:24:24 the heads of the father's houses of Judah and Benjamin, that's one group.
00:24:29 So instead of getting overcomplicated and say there's four groups,
00:24:31 there's Judah, there's Benjamin, there's the priest and the Levites.
00:24:35 Now the priest and the Levites, that's one group. 0.58
00:24:37 The priesthood was given to Levi. 0.74
00:24:39 That's the Levitical priesthood. 0.80
00:24:40 So you have the priest on one hand.
00:24:42 Levi's priest view that.
00:24:44 Yes, there's some nuanced distinctions,
00:24:46 but for our purposes today, in simple terms, think priest, okay?
00:24:52 And then Judah, where this is Jacob prophesying right before he dies,
00:24:56 as he's on his deathbed with his sons, giving out blessings,
00:25:00 which are really prophetic blessings,
00:25:01 and what God would do through each of his son's descendants.
00:25:05 Jacob, inspired by God, this is God's doing through Jacob the patriarch,
00:25:09 he gave the priesthood to Levi, and he gave the scepter to Judah.
00:25:14 He gave the scepter to Judah.
00:25:16 And Jesus comes from the line of Levi, right? 0.50
00:25:18 No.
00:25:19 Well, Jesus, he just has a spiritual kingdom, right?
00:25:22 So he comes through the priest line, right?
00:25:24 No, he comes through Judah, the king line, the scepter line.
00:25:29 That's significant.
00:25:30 Not a priest, but we don't have time for that.
00:25:32 Plus, I've given that sermon like 40 times.
00:25:34 So you guys, you're probably good.
00:25:36 So here's the point, though.
00:25:37 Benjamin and Judah, I think what's significant there is it's the fathers.
00:25:41 It's not the mothers.
00:25:42 It's not the matriarch. 1.00
00:25:43 It's not, you know, smash the patriarchy. 0.96
00:25:46 It's none of that, right? 0.54
00:25:46 It's not slay queen, boss girl.
00:25:48 It's none of that.
00:25:49 So it's the fathers, right?
00:25:50 This is the real world, real life. 0.92
00:25:52 You know, not post-enlightenment, you know, just absolute confusion and foolishness.
00:25:58 This is real. 0.82
00:26:00 It's the fathers of houses, namely within two tribes, Judah and Benjamin.
00:26:06 What's being signified here, if we were to sum it up, again, trying to make this as simple as possible,
00:26:10 into one word, I would say it's one phrase, the civil leaders.
00:26:16 it's the politicians.
00:26:18 And I know that word
00:26:19 is because all we've known
00:26:20 is bad politicians.
00:26:21 But think in the most positive way
00:26:23 you could possibly think
00:26:24 of a politician,
00:26:25 which I know I understand.
00:26:26 That's a difficult exercise.
00:26:28 But in the most positive light
00:26:29 that you can imagine,
00:26:30 you have the civil leaders,
00:26:32 a.k.a. politicians.
00:26:33 Over here, the Levites 0.81
00:26:35 and the priesthood think priest.
00:26:37 And so two groups in two words,
00:26:40 politicians and pastors.
00:26:42 when god wants to rebuild the ruins that were caused in the first place because of compromise
00:26:50 and rebellion and disobedience a cyrus is not enough he stirs up the heart of a chief leader
00:26:59 who may even be in a foreigner outside of the people of god like cyrus or like trump but he
00:27:04 also simultaneously because he knows that's insufficient within his own people not just the
00:27:10 supreme leader who is a foreigner but also within his people there are lesser magistrates and he
00:27:17 stirs up two types of leaders spiritual leaders the pastors and the the civil leaders the
00:27:25 politicians christian politicians or aka christian princes plural and christian pastors so it last
00:27:35 week, the title of the sermon was The Rise of Caesar and the Need for Christian Princes. This
00:27:41 week, if I were to title it, I would say it's Caesar is not enough, the need for Christian
00:27:48 princes, politicians, Christian princes, and Christian pastors. One of the reasons that we're
00:27:56 still in the mess that we're in today, and one of the ways you can know that we're desperately
00:28:01 in need of revival. That yes, some people are waking up. I'm grateful for the mercy that God
00:28:06 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 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 revival and everything's about to change. And I'm not trying to discourage or despair. We trust
00:28:21 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 to be done on the part of God in terms of supernaturally stirring up hearts is because
00:28:33 in 2020, sure, a bunch of people, you know, took the red pill. Their eyes were open. You know,
00:28:38 the veil is lifted and they see the corruption. They see this and they see that. We need to turn
00:28:42 back to God. But you know who didn't lead the way? Politicians and pastors. They didn't. But when God
00:28:53 is ready to send real restoration, real revitalization, real revival, and real genuine
00:29:01 rebuilding of the ruins of a prior Christendom, the city of God. When God really wants to rebuild
00:29:06 his city, when Christendom is really truly about to be restored, or at least the building project
00:29:12 is about to be begun, God doesn't just stir up the hearts of the people, but he leads the people
00:29:19 by stirring up the hearts of leaders among the people,
00:29:23 and specifically two kinds of leaders,
00:29:26 the spiritual leaders, the priests, the pastors,
00:29:29 and the political leaders, the princes. 0.72
00:29:32 So there may be a Cyrus, a foreigner,
00:29:36 who is elevated in a sudden fashion, 0.96
00:29:38 someone that you never thought would take power, right?
00:29:40 We're underneath Babylonian power. 0.99
00:29:42 Boom, Persians and Medes, overnight. 1.00
00:29:45 Nobody saw it coming, except for a couple prophets, 0.99
00:29:48 but nobody saw that coming and then all of a sudden it's like Babylon is wicked Babylon will 0.65
00:29:54 never release us we're in captivity we're slaves to the regime right and then all of a sudden boom 0.84
00:30:00 you're taken over by a foreign power and the foreign power that you think would probably even 0.98
00:30:04 be worse than Babylon God stirs in the heart of the supreme leader within that foreign power 0.96
00:30:10 to where all of a sudden even though he himself likely is not a follower of God he wants to do 0.81
00:30:15 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 lines with crooked sticks. It's just God showing off his immense, incredible, mysterious, sovereign
00:30:28 power. And even that, as incredible as that is, is insufficient. Cyrus is not enough. You also need
00:30:39 Christian princes among the people of God, not foreigners, meaning within the house of God, 0.51
00:30:44 there are Christians in lesser magistrate positions of civil power. Judah, Benjamin, heads of houses,
00:30:52 the political leaders, the Christian princes. And you need the Levites and the priest. You need 0.59
00:30:59 the pastors. And in 2020, if there was any sign that told us we still got a long way to go,
00:31:05 we're not going to get revival tomorrow, the sign should have been this, that the Christian
00:31:10 politicians and the christian pastors folded like a cheap suit they didn't do a thing
00:31:16 and said well what about yeah i'll have three of them maybe sure and praise god for those three
00:31:23 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 of of the company i'm about to name but uh far more credit against the whole lgbt madness
00:31:39 far more credit to our shame is due to Matt Walsh 0.74
00:31:44 than it is to any evangelical pastor.
00:31:50 And again, that's not a compliment.
00:31:53 I am grateful for Matt Walsh.
00:31:54 I'm not trying to put him, but I'm just saying
00:31:55 the people of God should be lapping the daily wire
00:32:00 in faithfulness.
00:32:05 That's sad.
00:32:07 So if there was any sign that, okay,
00:32:08 rebuilding the ruins is probably still a little ways out. It's probably not going to happen in
00:32:14 the next 15 minutes. It was the fact that maybe we did get a Cyrus, but you know why Trump was
00:32:20 not enough? You might've had the Cyrus, but you didn't have the Christian princes and the Christian
00:32:26 pastors. You didn't. They were all compromised. They were all bought and paid for. Russell Moore
00:32:34 bought and paid for. Tim Keller was bought and paid for. Francis Collins bought and paid for.
00:32:40 David French bought and paid for. And the receipts are coming out. These aren't just, you know, bold
00:32:46 statements, hyperbolic. No, I mean the literal receipts of proof of meeting together, having a
00:32:52 name of their group as early as 2015 and even before calling themselves the outliers and meeting
00:32:58 multiple times in person with premier writers in the New York Times and Keller and Russell Moore
00:33:06 and Francis Collins and saying, we've got to do something because we've been drifting left
00:33:12 as a nation under Obama for eight years, and that's great. We love it.
00:33:20 Tim Keller loved to see the evangelical church become more progressive. He loved it.
00:33:27 Whatever good he did earlier on in his ministry, I'm grateful for.
00:33:31 But that guy did not finish well.
00:33:34 It is an objective, definitive reality.
00:33:37 He compromised.
00:33:38 He did not finish well.
00:33:39 And they got together and formed an in-group person, right?
00:33:43 I mean, we don't want to be over-conspiratorial, but this is all documented, right?
00:33:47 If there's any conspiracy or any coup that actually happened,
00:33:50 its leaders within journalism the media medicine and the house of god pastors that met in person
00:34:00 multiple times year after year and their main object objective was keep trump out of office
00:34:07 because obama we would rather have another obama type leader and continue this trajectory
00:34:16 that gave us Obergefell.
00:34:18 We'd rather continue this trajectory
00:34:21 than have mean tweets.
00:34:26 And that is the literal strategy
00:34:29 of our premier evangelical leaders
00:34:32 over the last at least 10 years.
00:34:36 Then you're not ready for revival.
00:34:38 There's your sign.
00:34:40 There's your sign. 0.85
00:34:41 You don't have the Levites and the priests.
00:34:45 You don't.
00:34:46 and Cyrus is not enough.
00:34:49 Imagine Cyrus coming to power.
00:34:51 Think about it as it pertains to our text.
00:34:53 He comes to power.
00:34:53 He says, I'm going to let you go.
00:34:56 Really?
00:34:56 On vacation?
00:34:57 No, no, no.
00:34:58 No, no.
00:34:58 It's not just for fun.
00:35:00 You're going to go back home.
00:35:02 Well, home is in shambles.
00:35:04 That's a lot of work.
00:35:05 Yeah, but I'm going to let you go
00:35:06 and rebuild your city,
00:35:08 your heritage,
00:35:10 your homeland.
00:35:12 Doesn't that appeal to you?
00:35:13 The house of God,
00:35:14 your history.
00:35:15 I'm going to let you go.
00:35:16 And I'm not going to send you off empty-handed.
00:35:19 I'm going to resource you.
00:35:22 By charging people to be generous,
00:35:24 and wherever the generosity lacks,
00:35:26 I'll fill it out of my own coffers.
00:35:29 On my own done. 1.00
00:35:31 Imagine if Israel, right? 0.94
00:35:33 Judah and Benjamin, 0.71
00:35:35 the political leaders of households,
00:35:37 and the Levites and the priests,
00:35:39 the pastors, the spiritual leaders,
00:35:41 imagine if they went to the people of Israel and said,
00:35:44 yeah, Cyrus is being generous, and it's nice that he's going to let us go, but honestly, 0.71
00:35:50 Babylon is probably better. The regime, yeah, there's some problems, and sure, it's a little
00:35:54 progressive and compromised, but is there anything worse than conservatives? Is there anything worse
00:35:59 than the right? Yeah, we acknowledge, you know, there's a problem with abortion, and yeah, that's 0.98
00:36:03 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 like and that that's that's the difference if you're wondering what's the difference between
00:36:13 ezra chapter one and the last seven years here that's the difference cyrus trump pretty similar
00:36:21 judah and benjamin are christian magistrates not quite as good that's not our biggest problem
00:36:29 here's the biggest problem levice and priest in ezra one evangelical leaders russell moore and
00:36:36 Tim Keller, there's your disparity. There's the problem. Oh, I can pinpoint. Now, that's how we're
00:36:43 different. That's the problem. That's the weakness. The Word of God is incredibly relevant for all
00:36:51 places and all times. All places at all times. All right, here's another point from the text
00:36:57 that I want to make. Let me read. I believe this is a quote. No, I'm just going to read,
00:37:05 and then I'll give you a Matthew Henry quote. King Cyrus was illuminated. This is the bottom
00:37:09 of the front page. King Cyrus, and dealing with verse five primarily. King Cyrus was illuminated
00:37:15 with knowledge about Jehovah, recognizing him as the only living and true God who is the supreme
00:37:21 ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth. Even though he hadn't learned about God through upbringing,
00:37:27 right, he was raised as a foreigner. He wasn't, he's not an Israelite. He wasn't raised in the 0.99
00:37:32 house of israel trained by priests he did not grow up knowing yahweh so he hadn't learned about god
00:37:38 through upbringing and yet in his current state god somehow made him aware enough now we don't
00:37:44 know maybe cyrus was saved actually born again but that's not clear but god made him at least
00:37:51 aware enough in order to perform this service to god by blessing the people of god cyrus openly
00:37:59 declares that he's doing it. Firstly, to express gratitude to God. Not necessarily trust in Yahweh
00:38:05 for salvation, but expressing gratitude. Number one, God stirs him up and illuminates him to the
00:38:12 degree that he at least realizes that the Hebrew God, the triune God, Yahweh, is the God that is 0.61
00:38:18 above all other gods. That he is the God of heaven, not only earth or certain sub-regions of the earth, 0.83
00:38:23 but he is the God of both heaven and earth. God above all other gods, king above all other kings.
00:38:28 So first, in the first instance, God illuminates his heart and his mind enough to recognize the existence of God.
00:38:36 Secondly, to fill his heart with a sense of gratitude to God.
00:38:40 Gratitude for salvation, regeneration, born it.
00:38:42 No, not necessarily.
00:38:44 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 God exists and to have gratitude towards God for the power, the civil power and authority that God gave to him.
00:38:58 So what does Cyrus know about God that we can tell that's clear in the text without speculation?
00:39:04 Well, we know at minimum, he at least knew that the Hebrew God is the true God,
00:39:08 that God exists, and that God is king over all the kingdoms of the earth.
00:39:13 Which means whoever God sets up as a human ruler over various kingdoms of the earth
00:39:19 is someone that God actually instituted.
00:39:21 Nobody has authority on earth unless God, who is sovereign over all earthly authorities,
00:39:27 chooses to give it to them and so cyrus recognizes god exists and god made me king
00:39:34 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 the very thing that god stirred up my heart to give namely the release of his people and resources
00:39:48 so that they can be a rebuild his city and his temple okay now the quote matthew henry
00:39:57 Cyrus not only, this is the back page, very top.
00:40:00 Cyrus not only gave his good wishes.
00:40:02 This pertains to us.
00:40:04 Not just a political application here.
00:40:06 I'm going to focus now on a spiritual application.
00:40:08 The house of God.
00:40:10 Not just America as our civil nation, but the church.
00:40:14 Cyrus not only gave his good wishes with those that went.
00:40:18 Their God be with them, is what he says in verse 3.
00:40:20 But he took care also to furnish them with such things as they needed.
00:40:25 He took it for granted that those among them who were of ability would offer their freewill
00:40:31 offerings for the house of God to be rebuilt, to promote the rebuilding of it. But besides that,
00:40:37 that is in addition to that, he would have them supplied even out of his own kingdom.
00:40:43 Here's the last thing that Matthew Henry says on verse three and four and five of our text
00:40:47 commentating well-wishers to the temple should be well-doers for it now as it pertains to us
00:40:56 in this gospel age as new testament christians do we have a temple biblically speaking yes
00:41:04 but it is not a physical temple with physical stones it is a spiritual temple built with
00:41:11 living stones and the living stones are each individual regenerate person of god's household
00:41:18 that's what ephesians tells us that we like living stones are being welded together built together
00:41:24 to make a living temple a spiritual temple the ultimate temple for the house of god for god to
00:41:32 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 in our midst. That he actually inhabits, the scripture says, the praises of his people. That
00:41:45 he meets with us and communes with us. That we are coming together as living stones, forming the true
00:41:51 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 third temple. It's the church of Jesus Christ. Made up from among every tribe, tongue, and nation.
00:42:07 No genetic lineage or line.
00:42:09 It's the people of God.
00:42:12 From the Sudan, from China, from the U.S. of A.
00:42:17 From whoever God saves.
00:42:19 And it is a universal church.
00:42:22 It stretches throughout all the ages of the Christian church.
00:42:26 Constantine is a part of this.
00:42:28 Augustine is a part of this.
00:42:30 Athanasius is a part of this.
00:42:31 Calvin is a part of this.
00:42:33 Luther is a part of this.
00:42:34 and you and I, insofar as you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and have been saved and born
00:42:40 again by grace and grace alone, you are a part of this temple. You are a living stone. There was
00:42:46 one temple, the one that Solomon built, a second temple, the one that's going to be rebuilt that
00:42:52 we see in Ezra and Nehemiah. So that's temple number one, temple number two, the third temple
00:42:57 is you. There will be no literal physical third temple that's built in Israel. Anyone who tries
00:43:07 to accomplish this task will be absolutely decimated in the providence and power of God.
00:43:14 God will not. I guarantee you, I make very few predictions. I'll make this one because it's in
00:43:20 the Bible. God will not allow a third temple to be established in Israel because he's already been
00:43:27 building a third temple for 2 000 years with his people who are saved in christ that's the third
00:43:35 temple that's it so what does cyrus do right here's the second temple and then i'll apply that
00:43:42 to the third temple which is spiritual the church and the literal sense cyrus in the rebuilding of
00:43:47 a second physical temple in israel cyrus says i'm going to charge the people of god to be team
00:43:55 players, to be participants, not spectators. Get involved, be diligent, be generous.
00:44:05 And I'm not just going to command others to do what I am unwilling to do even myself.
00:44:11 I will inspire them and urge them to their own participation, their own generosity in rebuilding
00:44:18 this temple. But I too, wherever they lack, I will give and be generous and support the rebuilding
00:44:24 of this temple so you and i now skipping forward as new testament christians in the gospel age
00:44:30 building not a physical but a spiritual temple as living stones the third and final temple
00:44:34 how should we behave i would argue simply this at least equal if not superior and even more so
00:44:45 than the pagan cyrus if the pagan cyrus was all about supporting and resourcing through generosity
00:44:54 and through this and through that,
00:44:56 the building of the second temple,
00:44:58 then we as Christians who have been saved
00:45:01 by the very blood of Jesus Christ
00:45:03 should give our whole lives to resource,
00:45:05 not just well-wishing, but well-doing.
00:45:09 That's the point.
00:45:10 Cyrus doesn't just say,
00:45:11 God commanded me to let you go.
00:45:12 I'm gonna let you go,
00:45:14 but I'm not gonna give you anything.
00:45:16 And I wish you well.
00:45:18 Right, James talks about this.
00:45:20 He says, be wary of the person
00:45:21 who says he loves the house of faith,
00:45:23 not just his neighbor but his brother in Christ and says hey be warm and well fed and clothed
00:45:29 but then does nothing to actually meet his tangible needs he says that kind of love isn't
00:45:35 love faith without works is dead so too that applies to Cyrus Cyrus doesn't just say I'll
00:45:41 let you go I give you my permission and not only my permission but my well happy wishes
00:45:46 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 than cash is nothing sadly but I give you actual money not fiat currency that's been you know
00:46:01 completely destroyed I give you resources and wealth I'm not just a well-wisher I'm a well-doer
00:46:08 if that's Cyrus who very likely as far as we can tell again he believes in the existence of God
00:46:14 and even acknowledges God is sovereign above all other gods
00:46:17 and the source of his own authority.
00:46:19 But as far as we can tell from the text,
00:46:21 there's nothing definitive to indicate that Cyrus ever became a Christian.
00:46:25 So if that's a pagan foreigner king who is likely unregenerate,
00:46:31 meaning Cyrus very possibly, I'm not saying definitively, 0.54
00:46:34 but very possibly Cyrus currently today is in hell.
00:46:38 And if Cyrus can put up those stats on the board
00:46:42 in terms of being pro-house of God,
00:46:46 then you and I as born-again Christians in the New Testament
00:46:49 having the completion of the canon,
00:46:51 all four narratives of the gospel,
00:46:53 knowing what we know, having new hearts,
00:46:56 having our bodies actually temples of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us,
00:47:00 stirring us up constantly day in and day out
00:47:03 towards love and good works,
00:47:04 certainly we should do more, not less, than Cyrus.
00:47:08 And Cyrus does not just to the temple rebuilding project give his well wishes, but he gives his well doing.
00:47:16 So to we with the third temple in a spiritual sense is the church.
00:47:20 People are the stones being built together.
00:47:23 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 But we should work, not just wish toward that end, but work toward that end.
00:47:36 our time our talent our treasure cyrus gave we should give all right cyrus did something he worked
00:47:46 we should work if a pagan king could resource the second physical temple how much should we
00:47:54 as christians new testament christians resource the third and final temple which is our own
00:48:00 brothers and sisters in Christ. Living stones being built in the temple, into the temple of
00:48:06 the Lord. All right, last thing. Among the house of Judah and the house of Benjamin, among that
00:48:14 category of Christian princes, right? Levites and priests, there's your Christian pastors. Now Judah
00:48:21 and Benjamin, Christian princes. Here's one example. And this is the last thing that I want us to see
00:48:25 from the text, because there's a character that appears that's significant. We need to know, be
00:48:29 aware of as we move forward. In verse 5, leaders, I'm reading now underneath, however, a Christian
00:48:35 prince is not enough. In verse 5, leaders from the families of Judah and Benjamin took the initiative.
00:48:41 The priests and Levites were also among the first to head back to Zion. When God inspired Cyrus to
00:48:47 proclaim freedom, the same divine influence moved both the political and pastoral leaders among the
00:48:54 people of Israel to seize the opportunity. We see that in Zechariah 4, verse 6. Despite tempting
00:49:01 reasons to stay in Babylon, right? It's easier. There's nothing to rebuild. Sure, we're captives, 0.99
00:49:06 but we've got food. There's familiarity. There's connections. And the challenging journey, if we go,
00:49:11 is intimidating. Despite all that, some overcame these obstacles. Their spirits, uplifted by God,
00:49:18 were fueled by a desire for freedom and a love for their homeland,
00:49:23 a love for their heritage.
00:49:25 In order to achieve the rebuilding of Israel's heritage,
00:49:29 God not only stirred up the heart of a foreign king, Cyrus, 0.53
00:49:33 who was likely an unbeliever,
00:49:35 but he also divinely inspired a native leader within Israel itself,
00:49:40 one who had despised Babylon from his youth,
00:49:44 Namely, one Zerubbabel, who was a believer.
00:49:49 Now, here's something that's key about Zerubbabel.
00:49:53 So you're going to have Ezra.
00:49:54 Ezra's a priest, right?
00:49:55 That's the book of the Bible we're in right now, Ezra.
00:49:57 So among the native priests, this is not foreigners.
00:50:01 Cyrus is a foreigner outside the people of God. 0.96
00:50:03 That's king, highest position. 1.00
00:50:04 So foreign king, Cyrus, likely an unbeliever, but very helpful 0.91
00:50:08 because God guides the hearts of kings like waters, whether they're saved or not.
00:50:12 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 The main character in the pastor category is Ezra.
00:50:27 The main person in the prince, politician category is Zerubbabel.
00:50:33 Now, speaking of Zerubbabel, Matthew Henry, he says this.
00:50:36 Judah had its own prince, even in captivity.
00:50:40 Shashbazar, supposedly to be the same as Zerubbabel, that that was his Babylonian name that he was
00:50:48 given. But that this is actually Zerubbabel, a Jew, among the people of God, which signifies
00:50:54 that this name Shashbazar, the Babylonian name that's given to him, it signifies joy and
00:51:00 tribulation. I'll come back to that. But among his own people, he went by the name Zerubbabel,
00:51:06 which means a stranger in Babylon and so he looked upon himself that's how he viewed himself
00:51:13 as a stranger in Babylon and he considered Jerusalem to be his home when you're looking
00:51:19 for Christian princes one thing to look for is a guy who from his youth has always despised Babylon 0.98
00:51:28 and that Babylon right this the regime clown world trash world has always been in his view 0.95
00:51:38 a strange place to which he has never felt comfortable to which even though he may have 0.96
00:51:45 been raised in it from his youth he's never become too familiar he's always resistant he's always
00:51:52 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 a stranger in a foreign land. My true home is Jerusalem. My true home is God's will, God's
00:52:08 kingdom, Christodom. That's my true home. And this current landscape that I'm living in is fake.
00:52:15 It's not real. It's trash world. It's clown world. It's Babylon. And I despise it. I hate it. I have 0.99
00:52:23 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 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 something foolish, I'm calculated, I'm patient, I'm wise, but I am a stranger. This is not my home.
00:52:47 I despise the regime. I despise what wicked men have done to my own heritage.
00:52:54 I despise what Christendom has become. I despise what foreign rulers, those outside of the people 0.99
00:53:03 of God, unbelievers, have done to my home. And from my earliest days of youth, meaning I didn't 1.00
00:53:09 just get red-pilled last Thursday. No, since being a child, I have had an aversion towards Babylon.
00:53:18 And yet I am patient and wise, not a fool, patiently living in captivity in Babylon until God,
00:53:26 in His sovereignty, moves the pieces on the chessboard into the right positions like Osiris,
00:53:32 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 who's going to be a pivotal leader no this is the point zerubbabel was not an opportunist
00:53:49 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 and rebuild the ruins.
00:53:58 But previously, the rest of my life, 0.75
00:53:59 I was pro-Babylon, all about it. 0.93
00:54:05 Again, making this, connecting it to our time
00:54:08 and our place, our context, in 2020
00:54:11 and for these last three years,
00:54:13 one of the things that you'll probably notice
00:54:15 and have noticed is both in the politician category
00:54:18 and in the pastor category,
00:54:20 and I'll stick with this one primarily,
00:54:22 the Christian pastor category,
00:54:24 what we've seen is this.
00:54:25 all of a sudden the left overplayed its hand there was backlash because of that some people woke up
00:54:33 right the frog was slowly boiling in the water getting hot and hotter and then the left got
00:54:37 cocky and said you know what we don't have to turn the dial slowly anymore the frogs basically
00:54:41 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 in the the pot of water say about half of the frogs still had enough nerve endings there were
00:54:52 barely a lot, to where they felt the change in temperature, and they jumped out. That's not the
00:54:57 pastors. The frogs, in this case, are representing just the people. But then what the pastors did
00:55:03 is once 50% of the frogs jumped out, the pastors said, that's enough to have a church.
00:55:09 That's enough for book sales. That's enough for a conference, right? Lick the finger, put it up.
00:55:17 This is how many of our evangelical pastors lead.
00:55:20 Which way is the wind blowing?
00:55:23 That direction.
00:55:25 And so the people actually are the ones who woke up,
00:55:28 who said, I'm not going to compromise.
00:55:29 I'm not going to give in.
00:55:31 I'm going to take a stand.
00:55:32 They assemble themselves into a national parade.
00:55:35 And then the pastor who's been leading them leftwards
00:55:38 for the last seven years,
00:55:40 all of a sudden runs out to the other side of the people
00:55:42 who have changed direction
00:55:43 and pretends as though this parade
00:55:45 that he's been adamantly working against
00:55:48 is something that he himself actually engineered. 0.97
00:55:52 That's not Zerubbabel.
00:55:54 That's the point I want to drive home.
00:55:56 What we see in the text is that Zerubbabel,
00:55:59 both in the way that the Babylonians viewed him
00:56:01 and the way his own people viewed him,
00:56:04 he had two names.
00:56:05 In the Babylonian case, he's called Shesh Bazar.
00:56:11 And what does that mean?
00:56:12 It means joy in tribulation.
00:56:14 and as his own people called him Zerubbabel his God-given name what does that mean a stranger
00:56:22 in Babylon this is not someone who wants the people of Israel decide we're going to go back 0.94
00:56:30 and rebuild then he says oh yeah I hate Babylon too I hate clown world too
00:56:35 whereas previously until there was the momentum until there was the opportunity he was cushy in 0.68
00:56:43 no no no this is someone who is known both by the babylonians and by the israelites as someone who
00:56:48 from his youth never embraced babylon he always despised it was always a foreign place to him
00:56:57 he always had this inward affection devotion commitment to his heritage to his home
00:57:06 Babylon could not teach Zerubbabel to hate his heritage.
00:57:13 Babylon could not convince him that the Israelites were actually,
00:57:18 actually spelled A-C, you know, A-K-C-H, you know, blah, blah. 0.92
00:57:22 No, they could not convince, actually, the Israelites have been for centuries oppressors 0.98
00:57:26 and they're bad and you should hate. 0.94
00:57:28 No, no, no.
00:57:30 Zerubbabel did not take that bait.
00:57:32 Zerubbabel could not be talked into hating his own people despising their history despising 0.55
00:57:41 their heritage and there's a reason why Zerubbabel was one of the primary leaders among Israel when
00:57:49 finally in the providence of God the pieces on the board got placed in the right spots
00:57:53 for the rebuilding project to begin Zerubbabel was one of the chief leaders because not because
00:58:00 he woke up yesterday but because he was awake the whole time he was awake the whole time he was
00:58:08 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 god is doing a work of revitalization not only within the church but within a nation within
00:58:19 society within the culture at large you need in god's providence some foreign leaders who you
00:58:27 can't even explain it but somehow supernaturally they want to do good to the people of god you need
00:58:32 a cyrus but cyrus is not enough you also need christian princes plural not just one but many
00:58:39 of them that are regenerate are christians and you need christian pastors and these need to be
00:58:45 guys who are ready to lead the way not sit there in their ivory tower in their comfortable vocations
00:58:52 until enough of the people
00:58:54 start going back towards the Lord. 0.73
00:58:55 Then they lick their finger,
00:58:57 put it in the wind,
00:58:58 realize the direction things are headed
00:58:59 and then run in front of the people
00:59:01 and say, hey, I'm a Christian nationalist.
00:59:04 Al Mohler.
00:59:06 Just get real specific there.
00:59:10 Al Mohler has had woke CRT books
00:59:12 and professors in his seminary for years.
00:59:16 And then enough people start to push back
00:59:19 when their eyes are finally opened
00:59:20 because the left gets cocky
00:59:22 and turns up the temperature too quickly all at once, 0.78
00:59:25 enough Christians say, this is it. 0.96
00:59:27 We're done with that. 1.00
00:59:28 They start coming this way.
00:59:29 And then all of a sudden, Al Mohler starts talking about, 0.92
00:59:31 yeah, Christian nationalism, I'm on board. 0.78
00:59:34 That's an opportunist. 0.96
00:59:37 That's an opportunist.
00:59:39 But neither, brothers and sisters, can we afford an ideologue.
00:59:43 And if I'm to speak pastorally to our church right now,
00:59:48 not just somebody out there that I'm not responsible for,
00:59:52 pastorally in accountability but to you guys because i know you guys i speak with you guys
01:00:00 i'm not really worried about the inclination of you to be opportunist i'm worried about the
01:00:06 inclination of you to be ideologues and what i mean by an ideologue is somebody who their heart
01:00:13 is in the right place they know the truth and they have a true fidelity and commitment to it
01:00:17 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 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 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 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 you you could have there's my point is it's a razor's edge and it requires discernment and
01:01:00 wisdom in this time that we're living between the opportunist who doesn't really have faithfulness
01:01:05 to the Lord that just goes with the winds blowing and just is in it for themselves
01:01:09 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 on both edges on both sides on the other side there's the ideologue who is committed whose
01:01:20 heart really belongs to the lord but but is not nearly as useful for the kingdom as they could
01:01:25 be over the long haul because they're too idealistic that's not you have to have categories
01:01:33 there must be a category for some of us we're so simplistic that the only category we have for
01:01:40 waiting is compromise. And I want to encourage you as one of your pastors that there are other
01:01:46 categories theologically besides just compromise. That you actually, that there is the Christian
01:01:53 category of shrewdness. That that is a real category that you can actually be shrewd where,
01:02:01 and someone will probably accuse you at times. Someone on your team, a fellow brother, a Christian
01:02:06 and say you're being compromised you're being cowardly and you say no i'm being shrewd i'm 0.95
01:02:13 zerubbabel trash world has never been my home i've despised it from my youth and when god puts the 0.91
01:02:20 pieces into play i will be leading the way but i have a wife and kids to feed and i cannot afford 0.96
01:02:29 to go to jail this afternoon and i'm not going to be a fool not
01:02:35 there's got to be some ground in between opportunist and ideal and i believe that
01:02:46 zerubbabel was that ground for for his whole life until this moment with cyrus letting them go think
01:02:51 about that his whole life he hated babylon but yet the implication this isn't explicit but it's 0.61
01:02:56 absolutely the implication. Although hating Babylon, he lived peaceably enough in Babylon
01:03:04 his whole life to where he wasn't punished. I mean, think about it. If Zerubbabel had pulled
01:03:12 the trigger prematurely in his zeal for his homeland, his heritage for Jerusalem, then 0.75
01:03:18 Zerubbabel, when Cyrus, when it finally happens, Zerubbabel wouldn't be leading them. Zerubbabel
01:03:23 would have been dead. Nebuchadnezzar would have already hung him. Do you see? It matters. Let's 0.73
01:03:31 pray. Father God, help us to be shrewd, as cunning as serpents, but as innocent as doves. Not
01:03:37 opportunists, not men who are bought and paid for, not double agents, playing both sides of the field,
01:03:44 truly committed in zealous fervency for you and your kingdom and your people, the house of the
01:03:50 Lord, this third temple, the church. And yet at the same time, help us to be wise, cunning, and shrewd.
01:03:57 Lord, I pray that you would raise up not just Osiris, but that you would raise up within Israel,
01:04:04 new Israel, the Christian church, that you would raise up both Christian princes and Christian 0.96
01:04:10 pastors, both political and spiritual leaders who despise trash world, despise clown world, 0.97
01:04:17 who love our heritage, our Christian heritage, 0.64
01:04:20 and are ready with courage and wisdom
01:04:24 to lead your people, the church,
01:04:27 back to green pastures and still waters.
01:04:30 We pray it for Christ's sake.
01:04:32 In Jesus' name, amen.