The NXR Podcast - SERMON - Faithful Resistance and Endurance ｜ Ezra 4_1-6

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00:00:30 All right. So I have the privilege of preaching from God's Word for you this morning. So we're

00:00:47 going to continue in our series going through the book of Ezra. So if you would turn in your

00:00:52 Bibles or if you have a copy of the sermon notes in front of you, turn to Ezra chapter 4 verses 1

00:00:59 through 6. This will be our text for this morning. Ezra chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. If you're one

00:01:06 who brings your Bible with you, that'll serve you well this morning, just because there'll be some

00:01:10 larger portions of Scripture that I'll potentially ask you to turn to. If you don't have your Bible

00:01:17 with you, that's okay. I've got all the texts in the sermon notes, so you can follow along there

00:01:21 as well. So once more, Ezra chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. As is our tradition here at Covenant

00:01:27 the Bible church, would you join me in standing as I read the word of the Lord? When I conclude

00:01:33 reading it, I will say, this is the word of the Lord. And as a congregation, I will ask that we

00:01:37 all respond by saying, thanks be to God. So this is once more Ezra chapter four, verses one through

00:01:45 six. The Bible says this, now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned

00:01:52 exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the

00:01:58 heads of fathers' houses and said to them, Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do.

00:02:04 And we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Eserhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought

00:02:11 us here. But Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to

00:02:17 them, you have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God, but we alone will build to the

00:02:22 Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us. And the people of the

00:02:29 land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against

00:02:34 them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of

00:02:40 Darius, king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they

00:02:45 wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. This is the word of the

00:02:51 Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated and join me now as I pray. Father, we thank you for

00:02:57 your word. I was just reminded as Michael so faithfully taught and preached that the law of

00:03:05 God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. And your word, Lord, is perfect. It is

00:03:11 profitable for every purpose for the man of God, for teaching, for correcting, for rebuking,

00:03:19 training in righteousness, all of these things, Lord. And so we would do well to listen to your

00:03:23 word and put it into practice. We pray, oh Lord, that today's preaching of the word would bless

00:03:30 you and glorify and honor you, Lord, and that it would be a blessing to your people as they learn

00:03:34 to trust you, learn to have faith in your son, and learn to obey all that he has commanded.

00:03:39 We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So Ezra chapter 4 marks a significant shift

00:03:47 in the account of Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the exiles and the mission to rebuild the temple

00:03:53 in Jerusalem. Up until this point, the people had been blessed and chartered by Cyrus to return to

00:04:00 the land, had established the altar for worship, kept the commanded feasts, and laid the temple's

00:04:06 foundation. Just last week, Pastor Joel preached from the end of Ezra chapter 3, in which the

00:04:12 foundation of the temple was laid and the exiles raised a cry, a sound of joy from the young men

00:04:18 and a sound of weeping from the old men and the priests. That was the conclusion of Ezra chapter

00:04:24 3 found in verses 12 and 13. This sound we understand was so great that the sound was heard

00:04:31 from far away. Both the construction of the temple and the sound of the shouting were growing

00:04:37 realities which had become impossible to deny. These facts were recognized by not only young

00:04:44 and old alike in Israel, but also by Israel's enemies. So this is the primary subject that we

00:04:51 see in Ezra chapter 4. In this chapter, we encounter the first opposition the exiles

00:04:57 experienced in their work of rebuilding the temple and their home. Verse 1 of our text makes

00:05:03 this clear. In this verse, Ezra characterizes the people of the land as Judah and Benjamin's

00:05:10 adversaries. From the use of the term adversary, two things become apparent to us. The first is

00:05:18 that the use of the word adversary would seem to make it quite clear that these people were not

00:05:23 neutral to Israel's cause and purpose, but hated it and ardently opposed it. By virtue of their

00:05:30 actions in opposition to Israel's work of rebuilding, there was no question about whose 0.56

00:05:36 side they were on. As verse 4 makes clear to us in our text, these adversaries heard about the work

00:05:43 and discouraged the people of Judah, made them afraid to build, and bribed counselors against

00:05:50 them to frustrate their purpose. If any of you here are fans of Lewis or Tolkien, you may recognize

00:05:57 that Ezra describes the enemies of God in the same way that Lewis or Tolkien might describe their

00:06:03 villains. When you read of Sauron's orcs in The Lord of the Rings or of the Wicked Witch in The

00:06:09 Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Tolkien and Lewis write in such a way that the reader can

00:06:14 easily identify these characters as evil. There's no moral ambiguity, no neutrality. A character in

00:06:21 these stories is either good or evil. And by virtue of their appearance and their actions,

00:06:27 the reader cannot possibly mistake the good for evil or the evil for good. And this is clear in

00:06:35 today's text as well. Though the people of the land were not dripping with slime or attempted

00:06:40 to eat children like the giants of Harfang. By virtue of their opposition to the work of

00:06:45 rebuilding, they were clearly Israel's adversaries. There's no mistaking this from the text. 0.71

00:06:53 And in this case, one of the deeper realities on this point is that the people of the land

00:06:57 were not only adversaries to Judah and Benjamin, but opponents of God and his purposes. On this

00:07:04 point, the words of the Pharisee Gamaliel in Acts chapter 5 are fitting. So in the present case, 0.95

00:07:10 I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or this undertaking is of

00:07:16 man, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be

00:07:22 found opposing God. Acts chapter 5, 38 and 39. As regards the second point that I've mentioned,

00:07:31 And Ezra uses the word adversary in our text to remind us that Israel was not surprised by their 0.69

00:07:37 opposition. If you remember that Ezra wrote in Ezra 3, verse 3, back in chapter 3, 0.97

00:07:43 they set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands,

00:07:50 and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening.

00:07:57 Two weeks ago, Pastor Joel reminded us from this text of the reality that worship is warfare.

00:08:04 In this case, the people hastened to set up the altar due to their fear of the peoples of the lands.

00:08:11 The scriptures make it clear that the exiles knew, even at this point, that the peoples of the lands would not be sympathetic to their cause, but would oppose it.

00:08:21 And interestingly enough, we don't see the exiles trying to cut deals with the peoples of the lands

00:08:25 to ward them off, but they rush to establish the altar for worship, even before the temple

00:08:32 is built. They take the, if you build it, they will come approach. And the exiles knew that

00:08:39 those who came would not be friendly to the Lord's cause. And so this is much of the groundwork we

00:08:45 see laid in chapter 4. Israel's enemies do, in fact, come. And we will see today that despite

00:08:53 Israel's faithful resistance, the adversaries were initially successful. They succeed in causing an 0.96

00:09:00 interruption to the work of rebuilding the temple and the land. And interestingly, this work is

00:09:05 suspended for more than a decade. Some sources would suggest that this period of time was closer

00:09:11 to 16 or 17 years. And Israel must be patient and faithful to the cause amidst the delay.

00:09:19 We will see this unfold in the coming weeks throughout the rest of chapter 4

00:09:23 and into chapter 5 of the book of Ezra. During this delay, the Lord stirred up the prophets

00:09:29 Haggai and Zechariah to encourage the people to return to the work through admonition,

00:09:35 reproof, and the assurance of God's presence and success. After some time, the work does resume,

00:09:42 but the people must first prepare for years of frustration, hardship, and opposition.

00:09:48 These are some aspects which we will begin to see in this week's text and are worth keeping

00:09:52 in mind over the next few weeks. As we begin Ezra chapter 4 with this text here, verses 1 through 6,

00:09:59 I want to highlight three primary points for us this morning.

00:10:03 They are namely this.

00:10:04 The first, the identity of the adversaries, which is found in verses 1 and 2.

00:10:10 The second, Israel's faithful resistance, which is found in verse 3.

00:10:15 And the third point is the resultant fallout and the need for endurance, which is found in verses 4 through 6.

00:10:23 Through these three points, I endeavor to be faithful to the text and its interpretation.

00:10:28 In light of this, though, I hope to make a number of faithful applications, which I hope both

00:10:32 challenge and encourage you to stand tall in the face of opposition. As Christians, we are required

00:10:39 to be faithful to God and to entrust the rest to him. We cannot expect to have the best results

00:10:46 by being the most winsome or relevant. God requires us to have faith in his son, Jesus Christ,

00:10:53 a gift he graciously provides to us in the gospel, and to obey all that he commands us,

00:11:00 a fruit he promises to work in us and through us via sanctification. We see these marching

00:11:06 orders expressed in the Great Commission. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given

00:11:11 to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father

00:11:17 and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded

00:11:22 you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Matthew 28, 18 through 20.

00:11:31 Ezra 4 verses 1 through 6 and texts like these are reminders to us to continually faithfully

00:11:36 plotting as we seek to rebuild the ruins of Christendom. God has given us his word,

00:11:42 which serves as our guide, and through the accounts we find therein, such as those given by Ezra,

00:11:48 we often find calls for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God

00:11:54 and faith in Jesus. And so without further ado, let us jump into today's text.

00:12:01 We'll begin with the first point, which is the identity of the adversaries. And as we do so,

00:12:06 let's read verses one and two again, so they are fresh in our minds. They read,

00:12:12 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a 0.77

00:12:17 temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of father's

00:12:23 houses and said to them, let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do. And we've been

00:12:29 sacrificing to him ever since the days of Eserhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here.

00:12:36 Now we spent a significant amount of time in the introduction discussing why the people of the land

00:12:42 were characterized as Israel's adversaries. From their resultant actions in opposition to the work

00:12:48 of rebuilding, they clearly showed their hand as unfriendly to the cause. And yet we understand

00:12:55 from the book of Ezra that the exiles were not surprised or taken aback by the resistance.

00:13:01 Instead, they made preparations upon returning to the land out of suspicion that the work of

00:13:06 rebuilding would be opposed by the peoples of the lands. These facts may help us to understand the

00:13:13 identity of the peoples of the lands and why they were so opposed to the rebuilding of Jerusalem

00:13:19 and the temple. Additionally, one such clue is found in verse 1 of our text today, and this is

00:13:27 that the peoples of the lands are described as the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin. Ezra's use of

00:13:33 Judah and Benjamin as identifiers is a clear reference to the period of the kings, the time

00:13:39 period in Israel's history which directly preceded the exile and was marked by not one kingdom but

00:13:46 two kingdoms, two distinct kingdoms. If you're not familiar with the time period of the kings,

00:13:52 this time in history is recorded in the books of 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles

00:13:57 in the Old Testament. Most of you may be familiar with King Saul, who was Israel's first king,

00:14:03 and after him came King David, arguably one of Israel's most notable and faithful kings.

00:14:09 After David came his son Solomon, who Joel reminded us just last week was instrumental

00:14:14 in the building of the first temple in Jerusalem. But after King Solomon, there arose quite a power

00:14:21 vacuum, so much so that the kingdom ended up splitting into two. One of these was the southern

00:14:26 kingdom, led by Solomon's son, Rehoboam, and was composed of two of the 12 tribes of Israel,

00:14:33 Judah and Benjamin. This kingdom was called Judah, contained the city of Jerusalem,

00:14:39 and was known for having mostly wicked kings with righteous kings on occasion, such as

00:14:44 Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Judah was led away to exile in Babylon in 586 BC,

00:14:53 and the exiles that we read of in the book of Ezra were descendants of this kingdom,

00:14:59 which is why Ezra uses the descriptor Judah and Benjamin to speak of them in Ezra 4 verse 1.

00:15:06 Now the other kingdom, the northern kingdom, which was led by King Jeroboam,

00:15:11 was composed out of the remaining 10 tribes of Israel. This kingdom was known simply as Israel

00:15:18 and was known for having exclusively wicked kings. Ultimately, Israel was led away to exile

00:15:23 in Assyria in 722 BC, much earlier than Judah was exiled to Babylon. But of much interest to

00:15:31 the account which is provided in Ezra is the fact that after Israel's exile to Assyria,

00:15:37 the northern region of Israel was re-inhabited by a new group of people, Samaritans. Samaria,

00:15:44 as the region began to be known by was represented by remnants of the 10 tribes, which made up the

00:15:49 northern kingdom, as well as many newcomers. If you look back at verse 2, we can see this. Verse 2

00:15:56 reads, let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do. And we have been sacrificing to him

00:16:03 ever since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here. Even in our text, we see that

00:16:11 the Samaritans were made up of people from the northern kingdom, as well as transplants, who

00:16:16 were brought to the region by Iserhaddon, king of Assyria. The result was that this new group of

00:16:23 people came to be known by a new religion entirely. They professed to worship God, but also

00:16:30 incorporated many pagan and polytheistic elements into their worship. And this difference is key

00:16:36 to understanding the feud between the exiles and the peoples of the land. This is because at the

00:16:42 heart of the conflict, the disagreement, hostility, whatever you want to call it, was a difference

00:16:47 in worship. There were certainly political and possibly even cultural reasons for the Samaritan's

00:16:54 opposition to the rebuilding of the temple and Jerusalem, but the primary driver for the conflict

00:17:00 was theology, worship. You see, politics and culture are always downstream from worship,

00:17:07 and this will be important for us to remember as we move forward in our study of the text.

00:17:12 Before we get any further, I want to read an excerpt from Matthew Henry's commentary,

00:17:16 which seems to give credence to this understanding of the identity of the peoples of the lands.

00:17:21 He writes, the opposers of the undertaking are here said to be the adversaries of Judah

00:17:27 and Benjamin. Not the Chaldeans or Persians, but the relics of the ten tribes and the foreigners

00:17:33 that had joined themselves to them and patched up that mongrel religion we had an account of. 0.99

00:17:38 They feared the Lord and served their own gods too. They are called the people of the land.

00:17:45 The worst enemies Judah and Benjamin had were those that said they were Jews and were not.

00:17:51 Henry's commentary is incredibly helpful in seeing the distinction between the people of the land

00:17:56 and the exiles that we read of in Judah and why these two groups sharply opposed each other

00:18:02 and the work of rebuilding the ruins. He points us to a text in scripture which is found in 2 Kings

00:18:09 chapter 17, which I want to read for you just so you can see what types of events and religious

00:18:14 practices marked the founding of Samaria. So I'm going to read these for you now, and if you have

00:18:19 a Bible with you, turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 17. As I mentioned before as well, this text is

00:18:28 contained in its entirety in the sermon notes. But now I'm going to read from 2 Kings chapter 17.

00:18:38 Beginning in verse 24 of 2 Kings chapter 17.

00:18:42 And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kutha, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvim,

00:18:51 and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession

00:18:56 of Samaria and lived in its cities. And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not 0.98

00:19:01 fear the Lord. Therefore, the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. So the

00:19:07 king of Assyria was told, the nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of

00:19:11 Samaria, do not know the law of the God of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them,

00:19:17 and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the God of the land.

00:19:22 Then the king of Assyria commanded, send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there,

00:19:28 and let him go and dwell there, and teach them the law of the God of the land. So one of the

00:19:34 priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how

00:19:39 they should fear the Lord. But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines

00:19:45 of the high places that the Samaritans had made. Every nation in the cities in which they lived.

00:19:51 Skipping down to verse 32. They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves all sorts

00:19:58 of people as priests of the high places who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high

00:20:03 places. So they feared the Lord, but also served their own gods after the manner of the nations

00:20:09 from among whom they had been carried away. To this day, they do according to the former manner.

00:20:15 They do not fear the Lord and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the

00:20:21 commandment, the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named

00:20:27 Israel. The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, you shall not fear other gods,

00:20:33 or bow yourselves to them, or serve them, or sacrifice to them. But you shall fear the Lord,

00:20:39 who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You

00:20:45 shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. And the statutes, and the rules,

00:20:51 and the law, and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do.

00:20:56 You shall not fear other gods, and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you.

00:21:01 You shall not fear other gods, but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of

00:21:08 the hand of all of your enemies. However, they would not listen, but they did according to their

00:21:14 former manner. It's a long text, but this text from 2 Kings 17 could not make the situation more

00:21:20 clear. Though political and cultural differences did exist between Samaria and Israel, the key

00:21:27 distinction between the two was worship. Samaria engaged in idolatry, in false worship, having 0.91

00:21:35 many gods. They did not fear the Lord, nor did they listen or follow his statutes, laws, or 1.00

00:21:42 commandments. Because of this, they were easily identified by true Israelites as outside of the 0.78

00:21:48 kingdom of God, though they often claimed to be worshipers of God. We see this at play even in

00:21:55 our text. So if you'll look back at verse 2, we read, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of

00:22:02 fathers' houses and said to them, let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do,

00:22:07 and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Eserhaddon, king of Assyria.

00:22:15 So this fact may be lost on us being so far removed from the time period and situation,

00:22:20 but Israel's exiles could see even from the surface the lie that such an assertion was.

00:22:27 They knew their adversaries did not fear God, nor did they listen to him, as 2 Kings says.

00:22:32 So they knew that they could not possibly worship God as they did, let alone worship him at all.

00:22:39 This is essentially the same statement that Jesus makes to the Samaritan woman at the well

00:22:43 in John chapter 4. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know. 0.98

00:22:49 for salvation is from the Jews, John 4, 22. So one of the last implicit facts that we need to

00:22:57 cover in this section is for what purpose did the peoples of the lands make such an appeal

00:23:02 to the Jewish exiles? By the statement they make in verse 2, it could easily seem that they would

00:23:08 want to join in the work of rebuilding the temple and Jerusalem's ruins. But this was clearly

00:23:14 deception, a veneer which was purposed to thwart the exiles into allowing the Samaritans into the

00:23:21 work of rebuilding, only to surely be betrayed later. The peoples of the land had no desire to

00:23:28 amend their ways or pursue repentance, and they recognized that the rebuilding of the temple

00:23:33 threatened their comforts and existence. Matthew Henry likens the adversary's appeal

00:23:39 to the smooth speech of the serpent in the garden of Eden. They feigned allegiance to Israel's cause,

00:23:47 but harbored war and destruction in their hearts, desiring to see the project and true worship of

00:23:54 the one true God cease. At this point, we've covered enough now to begin to move on to

00:24:00 our second point, but before we do so, I hope to make some points of application on this point

00:24:05 for us this morning. The first is one that may seem obvious to us, but it is worth restating.

00:24:13 The harshest critics or opponents in the work of faithful Christian living, establishing a Christian

00:24:18 family, advocating for Christian government, or rebuilding the ruins of Christendom will be those

00:24:24 who hate Christ. This much should be obvious to us. When lawmakers threaten to restrict or outlaw 0.83

00:24:32 abortion, it is no surprise to us that feminists are the ones who are outraged. But what is even

00:24:38 more surprising is when the opposition comes from one who would claim to support that cause.

00:24:44 Many of you know that the strongest opponents of the abolition of abortion are those who would

00:24:49 claim to be pro-life. Likewise, some of the strongest opponents of seeing Christianity 0.94

00:24:54 advance in the public sphere, in the marketplace, and in government are those who would claim to be

00:25:00 Christians. This fact may be shocking to us, but it is certainly revealing as a litmus test of our

00:25:05 culture and of the health of the evangelical church at large. Many of you may be familiar

00:25:12 with Dusty Deavers. He's a reformed Christian pastor in Oklahoma who was recently elected as

00:25:17 a state senator there. Since being elected, he has made it a priority to write legislation

00:25:22 criminalizing abortion and pornography and outlawing no-fault divorce. His positions and

00:25:29 courage have unsurprisingly drawn the ire of the likes of Rolling Stone magazine and the Jimmy 0.73

00:25:35 Fallon show, but one of the more surprising aspects is that many self-professing Christians

00:25:40 have stood in opposition to Deavers and his positions. I used to notice a similar phenomenon

00:25:46 when I would watch Jeff Durbin or Todd Friel publicly preach the gospel on the street

00:25:51 or at universities. In these instances, too, it was often Christians who would charge those 0.99

00:25:57 preachers with being unloving or hateful for preaching of all things the gospel,

00:26:04 the message of God's grace in Christ, the power unto salvation. I hope you see how ironic that is.

00:26:11 So what are we to draw from the opposition that faithful Christian doctrine and practice 0.93

00:26:16 receives from those who profess the name of Christ. The first is that it reveals the sorry 0.96

00:26:22 state that Christendom is in today. If there was any doubt that Christianity was in ruins,

00:26:28 such examples as these are revealing. If one cannot even suggest that the Christian faith 0.99

00:26:34 mandates a traditional biblical view of marriage or that the preaching of the gospel is necessary

00:26:39 to salvation without meeting resistance from other Christians, then the Christian church is

00:26:44 in need of deep reformation, of rebuilding. From this, we can make two confident assertions.

00:26:51 Scripture is the standard, and Scripture is our guide. Many who profess the name of Christ act

00:26:58 as the peoples of the lands, feigning loyalty to him, but secretly desiring to do violence to not

00:27:04 only his bride, but his kingdom's advancement. The standard by which such people may be carefully

00:27:09 excluded from the work and called to repentance is the word of God. Similarly, we should be

00:27:16 emboldened that when we faithfully meditate on his word and apply it to our lives, God is pleased

00:27:22 and grants us the courage and wisdom to live faithfully in the face of opposition. The

00:27:28 opposition will come. Israel did not meet threats until they had begun to make headway in the land. 0.79

00:27:35 And yet the scriptures assure us that this is often a sign that we are meeting the mark

00:27:39 and they provide direction for the road ahead. 0.70

00:27:43 So we now move on to our second point, which is Israel's faithful resistance.

00:27:47 And this is found in verse three.

00:27:50 This verse reads,

00:27:52 But Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to them,

00:27:58 You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God,

00:28:01 but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia,

00:28:07 has commanded us. In this verse, we see the stance taken by Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the rest of the

00:28:14 heads of fathers' houses in Israel. They recognize the deception in the proposition made by the

00:28:21 peoples of the lands and prohibit them from joining in the work of rebuilding the temple 0.96

00:28:26 in the land. This discernment is key. Though the project had begun, there was obviously much work

00:28:33 to do. The exiles had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild ruins and were in need of resources and

00:28:41 manpower, among many other things. Despite this, the leaders of the exiles, men, recognized that

00:28:48 to accept help from the peoples of the lands would doom the project entirely. In response, then, we

00:28:55 see that the leaders of the exiles do not allow the Samaritans to take up the work with them.

00:29:00 They say, you have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God, but we alone will

00:29:05 build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.

00:29:12 There are two sub points that I want to make in regards to this verse and what we see as Israel's

00:29:17 faithful resistance. The first is a point that we see at the beginning of verse 3, and it is this.

00:29:25 The work of discernment and resistance in this case is taken up by men.

00:29:30 Again, if we look back, we read that it was Zerubbabel, 0.76

00:29:33 Yeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses

00:29:36 who recognized the inherent harm in the proposal made by the peoples of the lands

00:29:41 and stood up to defend their families, their land, and their God.

00:29:46 In this moment, it was required of these men to stand up

00:29:49 and protect what God had given them from adversaries

00:29:54 who sought to do violence not only to them, but to the kingdom of God. It is a moment like this,

00:30:01 a moment of resistance, a moment of courage, a moment of strength, where we see not women

00:30:07 nor children, but men making the stand. It is these men, the leaders of the civil,

00:30:13 ecclesiastical, and familial spheres who shoulder the primary responsibility and put their lives on

00:30:19 the line. This is not to say that women, children, or even elders are not to be discerning or not to

00:30:27 resist tyranny and ungodliness. There are, in fact, many situations in which a woman or a child may be

00:30:34 called upon by God to exercise discernment or to confront evil, sin, or those who may seek to do

00:30:40 them or their families harm. And in these situations, such women and children are to be

00:30:45 commended. But ordinarily, these are gifts and responsibilities which are given by God to men

00:30:51 as leaders in the home, the church, and the state. And this is exactly what we see in the text

00:30:58 today. These men wield their authority to protect and to provide, and they do so courageously.

00:31:06 This is why strength, protection, even leadership are traits that are commendable and are to be

00:31:11 desired by and in men. We see the Apostle Paul calling the leaders of the Corinthian church

00:31:17 to these responsibilities. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. 1 Corinthians

00:31:26 16, 13. So to the men in the room, as regards the work of rebuilding Christendom, this is a work

00:31:33 that in many ways starts with us. It is a work that women and children are all integral to as

00:31:39 well, make no mistake. But as men, we must remember to keep each other accountable, to mortify our sin,

00:31:45 to grow in the disciplines of grace, to pursue strength, to become more discerning and wise,

00:31:52 and to exercise courage. There will be many challenges and hardships and undeniably even

00:31:58 opposition. In the same way that the exiles had to begin from ground zero, we too have much work

00:32:04 to do. We also will be the ones who have to defend and protect those we love from the continued

00:32:10 onslaught of ungodliness perpetuated by the kingdom of darkness and from those who may seek

00:32:15 to do violence to the kingdom of God. May our conduct always be honorable, even amongst the

00:32:22 Gentiles, Peter tells us, but may this honor also include courage, strength, and a zeal for 0.98

00:32:28 righteousness. To the women in the room, may you remember to encourage these traits in your

00:32:33 husbands, your sons, and in the young men of the church. Do not underestimate the power your

00:32:40 encouragements have in cheering, emboldening, and supporting your husbands and sons. And remember

00:32:46 that success in any arena, any institution, any era depends on the health of its men. 0.56

00:32:54 The second sub-point as we consider Israel's faithful resistance is a point we have been 0.87

00:32:58 discussing throughout this sermon, and this is that Israel's primary means for resisting their

00:33:03 adversaries was not due to political or cultural reasons, but because primarily of a difference in

00:33:08 religion. The peoples of the lands insisted that they too worshiped God. The exiles led by heads

00:33:15 of fathers' houses called their bluff. And because of this, the exiles excluded the Samaritans from

00:33:20 the work because of their idolatry and false worship. They say, you have nothing to do with us

00:33:27 in building a house to our God, but we alone will build to the Lord the God of Israel.

00:33:33 Without true repentance and a renunciation of their pagan and syncretistic worship, there would be no chance the peoples of the lands would be included in the work. 0.70

00:33:43 By excluding their adversaries from the work for this reason, the exiles and their leaders acted righteously, maintaining a purity of true Christian worship amidst their community and in the work of rebuilding.

00:33:56 now the spirit of the age may try to creep in at this point and accuse such a resistance as

00:34:03 prejudiced as closed-minded but at this point we would do well to remember god's law and israel's

00:34:08 history first of all the men who led this faithful resistance remembered the law of god given in

00:34:14 deuteronomy and its warnings for israel to separate themselves from outsiders let us read in deuteronomy

00:34:21 chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7 reads, when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you

00:34:27 are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites,

00:34:33 the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, 0.63

00:34:40 seven nations more numerous and mightier than you. And when the Lord your God gives them over

00:34:46 to you and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no

00:34:52 covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your

00:34:58 daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons. For they would turn away your sons 1.00

00:35:03 from following me to serve other gods. And the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you

00:35:09 and he would destroy you quickly. But thus shall you deal with them. You shall break down their

00:35:15 altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their ashram and burned their carved images 0.99

00:35:21 with fire. Deuteronomy 7 verses 1 through 5. So you see these verses make it clear to us that 0.85

00:35:27 Israel was prohibited from intermingling with the peoples of the lands. Israel was commanded to 0.79

00:35:34 separate themselves from foreigners because of their influence to draw Israel's hearts away from 1.00

00:35:39 serving the Lord only and towards devotion of false gods. God commanded this in order to keep 1.00

00:35:46 Israel's worship pure and to save them from sure destruction. In many instances throughout Israel's

00:35:53 history, they failed to maintain this purity of worship, and because of this, they suffered.

00:35:59 In the book of Numbers, you may be familiar with Israel's mixing with Moab and the idolatry, 0.83

00:36:05 shame, and destruction that this brought on God's people. If you were here with us when we preached 0.99

00:36:09 through the book of Joshua, just the previous book that we preached through here, we read of 1.00

00:36:14 the Gibeonites and their deception. Because of Joshua and Israel's failure to exercise discernment, 0.96

00:36:20 they were tricked by Gibeon and were forced to include them in the nation. Because of this, 0.91

00:36:26 false worship and practices were further introduced into the nation. In many other places in the Old

00:36:32 Testament, Israel's purity of worship was soured with the inclusion of many peoples who were not 0.98

00:36:38 repentant and drew Israel's hearts after other gods. This will also be a problem for Ezra and

00:36:45 the exiles later in this book as we get to Ezra chapters 9 and 10 and beyond. So keep your eye out

00:36:52 for that. As a result, Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the heads of father's houses make an important

00:36:59 decision. Remembering the law of God and their nation's history, they take the stand to exclude

00:37:05 the peoples of the land from the work of rebuilding. They do this in obedience to God

00:37:09 and also to protect the inheritance given to their children and future generations.

00:37:16 This faithful resistance would surely bring hardship, but would ensure that their descendants

00:37:20 would not grow up in a society with practices of idolatry as accepted norms. Israel's devotion to 0.69

00:37:27 God and worship would remain pure, and this affected the work of rebuilding. As we consider

00:37:34 the application we could make on this point, it really is a simple one. There's the obvious point,

00:37:39 and this is the fact that concerns a nation and its borders. A nation must work to defend and

00:37:46 secure its borders. This is not only a necessity, but also right and good. This is true of all

00:37:52 nations, including America. Endless assimilation will be the death of the American cause and 0.95

00:37:58 ideals and will create problems for future generations, including our descendants. And 1.00

00:38:03 this is why we must commend the decision of our governor to defend our border. We must encourage

00:38:08 our leaders when they do rightly and pray that God would use them to bring about more good.

00:38:14 The main application that I want to make, though, is one that regards the church.

00:38:19 Any outsider to the church should be welcomed and included with open arms,

00:38:24 so long as they express repentance and faith in Christ Jesus. This fact marks each and every one

00:38:32 of our stories. Once we belonged to the kingdom of darkness, but now we belong to Christ. He has

00:38:38 delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son,

00:38:43 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, Colossians 1, 13, and 14. This is why we

00:38:50 can rejoice at the inclusion of any new believer in the church. There is much rejoicing in heaven

00:38:56 over one sinner who repents. And yet we must never forget that while this is true, our Lord

00:39:03 also reminds us of wolves who will try to sneak in and do great harm to the church and the

00:39:09 rebuilding of Christendom. These will feign loyalty to Christ and to his church, but in fact,

00:39:15 they hate him. They will seek to draw the hearts of Christians after false teachers 0.80

00:39:20 and false gods. If successful, this will no doubt have an immediate impact on the church, 0.78

00:39:26 but especially so on future generations of Christians. So what can we do? We must remember

00:39:33 that God is sovereignly in control of all things and acts in accordance with the good of his people.

00:39:41 He will ensure that those who have faith in his son will ultimately be kept safe.

00:39:46 But what else can and should we do? We must look to the example found in our text today.

00:39:52 when confronted with deception and those who desire to sneak in and do violence to the church

00:39:58 we must stand upon the word of God and therein make our stand the church and Christendom when

00:40:05 led by faithful men should take the stand to maintain a purity of worship conscience and a

00:40:12 devotion to God in all things we do this out of obedience to God and for the good of our future

00:40:18 descendants and generations. We remain faithful like the exiles and entrust the results to God.

00:40:26 And so this leads us to our third and final point, which is the resultant fallout and the need for 0.79

00:40:31 endurance, which is found in verses four through six. And at this point, I'll read those verses for

00:40:37 us once more. Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them 0.96

00:40:43 afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose. All the days

00:40:49 of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. And in the reign of 0.63

00:40:55 Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of

00:40:59 Judah and Jerusalem. After the exiles made their faithful stand and denied the adversaries from

00:41:06 infiltrating the work of rebuilding, the peoples of the lands resort to more hostile measures.

00:41:12 They frustrate the work of rebuilding and make the exile's lives miserable. 0.89

00:41:16 They discourage them, strike fear into them, and bribe additional adversaries to crush their spirits and tempt them to abandon the project. 0.54

00:41:26 It's important to note that these aren't the actions of someone retaliating for not being invited to the party, but of ones who intended harm to Israel the whole time.

00:41:35 the adversaries resort to such measures for quite some time you see for the entirety of Cyrus's reign

00:41:42 and through the reign of Darius as well at last when a new king Ahasuerus assumes the throne

00:41:49 in Babylon they write a letter of accusation to convince him to stop the work

00:41:54 this letter is full of blasphemies and is opportunistic they appeal to a new king who

00:42:01 likely had little recollection of Cyrus's initial decree, an attempt to falsely accuse the exiles

00:42:08 of wrongdoing. We will learn more about the content of this letter in the coming weeks.

00:42:14 One important aspect that is not as obvious in these verses is something that I mentioned earlier.

00:42:20 The efforts of the adversaries are effective to bring the work to a halt for a time period of

00:42:25 about 16 to 17 years. This delay occurs through the entirety of Cyrus's reign until the second

00:42:31 year of Darius's reign when the work resumes. So the initial delay taking place over almost

00:42:39 two decades occurs even before the letter to Ahasuerus is written in verse 6. With these

00:42:45 details in mind, we come to understand that the adversaries succeeded in causing a significant

00:42:51 disruption to the work of rebuilding, one that spanned the reign of at least three Babylonian

00:42:56 kings. Here is an opportunity to marvel at the patience, persistence, and grit of the exiles.

00:43:04 I admire the courage of the exiles in this sequence that we see before us. Zerubbabel,

00:43:09 Jeshua, and the heads of father's houses were aware that the peoples of the lands intended

00:43:15 them harm, and so they faithfully resisted, knowing full well that this would likely bring

00:43:20 about increased frustration, difficulty, and hardship. But such is faith and obedience. It

00:43:28 takes courage to do the right thing, especially when we must submit ourselves to God for the

00:43:34 resultant outcome of said faith and obedience. Faith and obedience will bring blessing ordinarily,

00:43:43 but these blessings do not always come immediately. We must remember and recognize that when we sow

00:43:49 in faith and hope, God promises that we will reap a harvest at the proper time.

00:43:55 Oftentimes, and this is a pattern that we see in scripture, the harvest comes after the sowers have

00:44:00 passed away, and many generations have come in between. But this is the outcome that we long

00:44:06 and strive for, and the exiles did too. We trust God and plow in hope that the blessing will come, 0.99

00:44:14 even if it comes years down the road after many long and frustrating days.

00:44:21 Over many years, we can expect to have many triumphs and many difficulties.

00:44:26 One of the most sure realities in our attempt to rebuild Christendom

00:44:30 is that we will indeed be confronted with our own sin.

00:44:34 When this occurs, we must exercise godly sorrow, repent,

00:44:38 and turn back to the Lord in order to be further used by him.

00:44:42 With the passage of many years will come many opportunities to grow in sanctification.

00:44:48 At this point is exactly where we find the exiles many years later.

00:44:53 The work had been delayed and frustrated for some time, and yet the people had used this as an excuse for complacency.

00:45:02 In response, God stirred up the prophet Haggai to expose their sin and remind them of his calling to rebuild.

00:45:09 This is exactly where we find them at the beginning of Haggai chapter 1.

00:45:13 And I'm going to turn there now.

00:45:14 If you have your Bibles with you and you want to follow along with me, turn to Haggai chapter 1.

00:45:23 So in Haggai chapter 1, I'm going to be starting in verse 1.

00:45:29 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month,

00:45:34 the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel

00:45:40 governor of Judah and to Joshua the son of Jehoshadak the high priest. Thus says the Lord

00:45:47 of hosts these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.

00:45:52 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. Is it a time for you yourselves to

00:45:57 dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore thus says the Lord

00:46:03 of hosts. Consider your ways. You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have

00:46:10 enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he

00:46:17 who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Skipping to verse 12. Then Zerubbabel,

00:46:25 the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehoshaddak, the high priest, with all the remnant

00:46:30 of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet,

00:46:36 as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the

00:46:42 Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message. I am with you, declares the Lord. And the Lord

00:46:48 stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of

00:46:53 Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people.

00:47:00 And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the 24th day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

00:47:12 In this text, Haggai charges the same group of exiles of being complacent, of drifting.

00:47:19 Doubtless, the years of delay and disruption had taken a toil on the people.

00:47:23 But the Lord uses Haggai to expose the fact that the people had grown comfortable and indifferent

00:47:30 to the original purpose for which they had been sent to Jerusalem. They were merely existing,

00:47:36 earning wages to put them into a bag with holes. Haggai calls the people to repent,

00:47:41 and they do. They return to the Lord in fear and obedience, resuming the work on the temple. 0.62

00:47:48 and so as we close today I want to highlight this aspect for one last takeaway point as we

00:47:56 seek to rebuild Christendom there will be many decisive points where we will have to make

00:48:00 a faithful stand there will be many Ezra 4 moments over the years as we plod and sow

00:48:06 and hope we will have to resist many who want to challenge the church and the advancement of

00:48:13 Christian culture. May these moments encourage and strengthen us through both smooth sailing

00:48:18 and tempest. Christendom will not be built overnight. There will certainly be trying times,

00:48:25 even for extended periods of time, where we may be tempted to become complacent or throw in the

00:48:31 towel. In these times, may we continue to be students of scripture, be quick to repent,

00:48:37 and be eager to resume the work before us.

00:48:41 The Lord has given us much to enjoy

00:48:44 and life is truly an adventure

00:48:46 filled with wonder, treachery, and delights.

00:48:50 May we never be content to settle

00:48:52 for a life of paneled houses

00:48:53 while God's house lies in ruins.

00:48:57 May we seek to be marked by a humble, persistent joy

00:49:00 as we go about the work of rebuilding.

00:49:03 Let's pray.

00:49:03 father we thank you again for your word we thank you for the testimony that we find in the book of

00:49:10 ezra these were real men and real women and real christians lord who trusted you and and struggled

00:49:16 even with the temptation of sin and had to turn back to you oh god we pray that the example of

00:49:22 such believers would encourage and stir and equip us in the day that we find ourselves today

00:49:28 Would we be marked by faithfulness?

00:49:30 Would we be marked by diligence and joy for the long haul

00:49:34 as we seek to impart this to our descendants as well?

00:49:38 We pray that you would be blessed and glorified

00:49:40 through the preaching of your word

00:49:41 and that you would impart this to your people

00:49:43 here this morning.

00:49:45 We pray these things in Jesus's name, amen.

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The NXR Podcast - February 11, 2024

SERMON - Faithful Resistance and Endurance ｜ Ezra 4_1-6

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