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

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00:00:30.000 All right. So I have the privilege of preaching from God's Word for you this morning. So we're

00:00:47.920 going to continue in our series going through the book of Ezra. So if you would turn in your

00:00:52.320 Bibles or if you have a copy of the sermon notes in front of you, turn to Ezra chapter 4 verses 1

00:00:59.220 through 6. This will be our text for this morning. Ezra chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. If you're one

00:01:06.300 who brings your Bible with you, that'll serve you well this morning, just because there'll be some

00:01:10.920 larger portions of Scripture that I'll potentially ask you to turn to. If you don't have your Bible

00:01:17.200 with you, that's okay. I've got all the texts in the sermon notes, so you can follow along there

00:01:21.280 as well. So once more, Ezra chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. As is our tradition here at Covenant

00:01:27.720 the Bible church, would you join me in standing as I read the word of the Lord? When I conclude

00:01:33.440 reading it, I will say, this is the word of the Lord. And as a congregation, I will ask that we

00:01:37.940 all respond by saying, thanks be to God. So this is once more Ezra chapter four, verses one through

00:01:45.360 six. The Bible says this, now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned

00:01:52.640 exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the

00:01:58.480 heads of fathers' houses and said to them, Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do.

00:02:04.720 And we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Eserhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought

00:02:11.520 us here. But Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to

00:02:17.820 them, you have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God, but we alone will build to the

00:02:22.840 Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us. And the people of the

00:02:29.100 land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against

00:02:34.140 them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of

00:02:40.060 Darius, king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they

00:02:45.700 wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. This is the word of the

00:02:51.100 Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated and join me now as I pray. Father, we thank you for

00:02:57.960 your word. I was just reminded as Michael so faithfully taught and preached that the law of

00:03:05.740 God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. And your word, Lord, is perfect. It is

00:03:11.900 profitable for every purpose for the man of God, for teaching, for correcting, for rebuking,

00:03:19.040 training in righteousness, all of these things, Lord. And so we would do well to listen to your

00:03:23.520 word and put it into practice. We pray, oh Lord, that today's preaching of the word would bless

00:03:30.040 you and glorify and honor you, Lord, and that it would be a blessing to your people as they learn

00:03:34.540 to trust you, learn to have faith in your son, and learn to obey all that he has commanded.

00:03:39.900 We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So Ezra chapter 4 marks a significant shift

00:03:47.360 in the account of Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the exiles and the mission to rebuild the temple

00:03:53.200 in Jerusalem. Up until this point, the people had been blessed and chartered by Cyrus to return to

00:04:00.040 the land, had established the altar for worship, kept the commanded feasts, and laid the temple's

00:04:06.900 foundation. Just last week, Pastor Joel preached from the end of Ezra chapter 3, in which the

00:04:12.700 foundation of the temple was laid and the exiles raised a cry, a sound of joy from the young men

00:04:18.680 and a sound of weeping from the old men and the priests. That was the conclusion of Ezra chapter

00:04:24.380 3 found in verses 12 and 13. This sound we understand was so great that the sound was heard

00:04:31.360 from far away. Both the construction of the temple and the sound of the shouting were growing

00:04:37.640 realities which had become impossible to deny. These facts were recognized by not only young

00:04:44.100 and old alike in Israel, but also by Israel's enemies. So this is the primary subject that we

00:04:51.180 see in Ezra chapter 4. In this chapter, we encounter the first opposition the exiles

00:04:57.360 experienced in their work of rebuilding the temple and their home. Verse 1 of our text makes

00:05:03.600 this clear. In this verse, Ezra characterizes the people of the land as Judah and Benjamin's

00:05:10.480 adversaries. From the use of the term adversary, two things become apparent to us. The first is

00:05:18.140 that the use of the word adversary would seem to make it quite clear that these people were not

00:05:23.200 neutral to Israel's cause and purpose, but hated it and ardently opposed it. By virtue of their

00:05:30.640 actions in opposition to Israel's work of rebuilding, there was no question about whose 0.56

00:05:36.040 side they were on. As verse 4 makes clear to us in our text, these adversaries heard about the work

00:05:43.640 and discouraged the people of Judah, made them afraid to build, and bribed counselors against

00:05:50.180 them to frustrate their purpose. If any of you here are fans of Lewis or Tolkien, you may recognize

00:05:57.400 that Ezra describes the enemies of God in the same way that Lewis or Tolkien might describe their

00:06:03.260 villains. When you read of Sauron's orcs in The Lord of the Rings or of the Wicked Witch in The

00:06:09.420 Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Tolkien and Lewis write in such a way that the reader can

00:06:14.080 easily identify these characters as evil. There's no moral ambiguity, no neutrality. A character in

00:06:21.820 these stories is either good or evil. And by virtue of their appearance and their actions,

00:06:27.940 the reader cannot possibly mistake the good for evil or the evil for good. And this is clear in

00:06:35.320 today's text as well. Though the people of the land were not dripping with slime or attempted

00:06:40.440 to eat children like the giants of Harfang. By virtue of their opposition to the work of

00:06:45.900 rebuilding, they were clearly Israel's adversaries. There's no mistaking this from the text. 0.71

00:06:53.140 And in this case, one of the deeper realities on this point is that the people of the land

00:06:57.280 were not only adversaries to Judah and Benjamin, but opponents of God and his purposes. On this

00:07:04.600 point, the words of the Pharisee Gamaliel in Acts chapter 5 are fitting. So in the present case, 0.95

00:07:10.880 I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or this undertaking is of

00:07:16.880 man, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be

00:07:22.980 found opposing God. Acts chapter 5, 38 and 39. As regards the second point that I've mentioned,

00:07:31.380 And Ezra uses the word adversary in our text to remind us that Israel was not surprised by their 0.69

00:07:37.240 opposition. If you remember that Ezra wrote in Ezra 3, verse 3, back in chapter 3, 0.97

00:07:43.900 they set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands,

00:07:50.660 and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening.

00:07:57.460 Two weeks ago, Pastor Joel reminded us from this text of the reality that worship is warfare.

00:08:04.100 In this case, the people hastened to set up the altar due to their fear of the peoples of the lands.

00:08:11.560 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.

00:08:21.280 And interestingly enough, we don't see the exiles trying to cut deals with the peoples of the lands

00:08:25.960 to ward them off, but they rush to establish the altar for worship, even before the temple

00:08:32.920 is built. They take the, if you build it, they will come approach. And the exiles knew that

00:08:39.300 those who came would not be friendly to the Lord's cause. And so this is much of the groundwork we

00:08:45.900 see laid in chapter 4. Israel's enemies do, in fact, come. And we will see today that despite

00:08:53.040 Israel's faithful resistance, the adversaries were initially successful. They succeed in causing an 0.96

00:09:00.020 interruption to the work of rebuilding the temple and the land. And interestingly, this work is

00:09:05.920 suspended for more than a decade. Some sources would suggest that this period of time was closer

00:09:11.020 to 16 or 17 years. And Israel must be patient and faithful to the cause amidst the delay.

00:09:19.540 We will see this unfold in the coming weeks throughout the rest of chapter 4

00:09:23.040 and into chapter 5 of the book of Ezra. During this delay, the Lord stirred up the prophets

00:09:29.340 Haggai and Zechariah to encourage the people to return to the work through admonition,

00:09:35.280 reproof, and the assurance of God's presence and success. After some time, the work does resume,

00:09:42.520 but the people must first prepare for years of frustration, hardship, and opposition.

00:09:48.280 These are some aspects which we will begin to see in this week's text and are worth keeping

00:09:52.840 in mind over the next few weeks. As we begin Ezra chapter 4 with this text here, verses 1 through 6,

00:09:59.320 I want to highlight three primary points for us this morning.

00:10:03.340 They are namely this.

00:10:04.980 The first, the identity of the adversaries, which is found in verses 1 and 2.

00:10:10.340 The second, Israel's faithful resistance, which is found in verse 3.

00:10:15.380 And the third point is the resultant fallout and the need for endurance, which is found in verses 4 through 6.

00:10:23.200 Through these three points, I endeavor to be faithful to the text and its interpretation.

00:10:28.640 In light of this, though, I hope to make a number of faithful applications, which I hope both

00:10:32.900 challenge and encourage you to stand tall in the face of opposition. As Christians, we are required

00:10:39.420 to be faithful to God and to entrust the rest to him. We cannot expect to have the best results

00:10:46.260 by being the most winsome or relevant. God requires us to have faith in his son, Jesus Christ,

00:10:53.020 a gift he graciously provides to us in the gospel, and to obey all that he commands us,

00:11:00.520 a fruit he promises to work in us and through us via sanctification. We see these marching

00:11:06.420 orders expressed in the Great Commission. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given

00:11:11.880 to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father

00:11:17.820 and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded

00:11:22.980 you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Matthew 28, 18 through 20.

00:11:31.380 Ezra 4 verses 1 through 6 and texts like these are reminders to us to continually faithfully

00:11:36.800 plotting as we seek to rebuild the ruins of Christendom. God has given us his word,

00:11:42.860 which serves as our guide, and through the accounts we find therein, such as those given by Ezra,

00:11:48.600 we often find calls for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God

00:11:54.840 and faith in Jesus. And so without further ado, let us jump into today's text.

00:12:01.520 We'll begin with the first point, which is the identity of the adversaries. And as we do so,

00:12:06.940 let's read verses one and two again, so they are fresh in our minds. They read,

00:12:12.720 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a 0.77

00:12:17.920 temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of father's

00:12:23.240 houses and said to them, let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do. And we've been

00:12:29.740 sacrificing to him ever since the days of Eserhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here.

00:12:36.980 Now we spent a significant amount of time in the introduction discussing why the people of the land

00:12:42.420 were characterized as Israel's adversaries. From their resultant actions in opposition to the work

00:12:48.920 of rebuilding, they clearly showed their hand as unfriendly to the cause. And yet we understand

00:12:55.660 from the book of Ezra that the exiles were not surprised or taken aback by the resistance.

00:13:01.640 Instead, they made preparations upon returning to the land out of suspicion that the work of

00:13:06.820 rebuilding would be opposed by the peoples of the lands. These facts may help us to understand the

00:13:13.220 identity of the peoples of the lands and why they were so opposed to the rebuilding of Jerusalem

00:13:19.260 and the temple. Additionally, one such clue is found in verse 1 of our text today, and this is

00:13:27.040 that the peoples of the lands are described as the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin. Ezra's use of

00:13:33.860 Judah and Benjamin as identifiers is a clear reference to the period of the kings, the time

00:13:39.840 period in Israel's history which directly preceded the exile and was marked by not one kingdom but

00:13:46.160 two kingdoms, two distinct kingdoms. If you're not familiar with the time period of the kings,

00:13:52.200 this time in history is recorded in the books of 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles

00:13:57.860 in the Old Testament. Most of you may be familiar with King Saul, who was Israel's first king,

00:14:03.140 and after him came King David, arguably one of Israel's most notable and faithful kings.

00:14:09.660 After David came his son Solomon, who Joel reminded us just last week was instrumental

00:14:14.120 in the building of the first temple in Jerusalem. But after King Solomon, there arose quite a power

00:14:21.100 vacuum, so much so that the kingdom ended up splitting into two. One of these was the southern

00:14:26.900 kingdom, led by Solomon's son, Rehoboam, and was composed of two of the 12 tribes of Israel,

00:14:33.800 Judah and Benjamin. This kingdom was called Judah, contained the city of Jerusalem,

00:14:39.820 and was known for having mostly wicked kings with righteous kings on occasion, such as

00:14:44.840 Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Judah was led away to exile in Babylon in 586 BC,

00:14:53.320 and the exiles that we read of in the book of Ezra were descendants of this kingdom,

00:14:59.680 which is why Ezra uses the descriptor Judah and Benjamin to speak of them in Ezra 4 verse 1.

00:15:06.740 Now the other kingdom, the northern kingdom, which was led by King Jeroboam,

00:15:11.460 was composed out of the remaining 10 tribes of Israel. This kingdom was known simply as Israel

00:15:18.020 and was known for having exclusively wicked kings. Ultimately, Israel was led away to exile

00:15:23.960 in Assyria in 722 BC, much earlier than Judah was exiled to Babylon. But of much interest to

00:15:31.900 the account which is provided in Ezra is the fact that after Israel's exile to Assyria,

00:15:37.960 the northern region of Israel was re-inhabited by a new group of people, Samaritans. Samaria,

00:15:44.440 as the region began to be known by was represented by remnants of the 10 tribes, which made up the

00:15:49.620 northern kingdom, as well as many newcomers. If you look back at verse 2, we can see this. Verse 2

00:15:56.940 reads, let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do. And we have been sacrificing to him

00:16:03.460 ever since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here. Even in our text, we see that

00:16:11.460 the Samaritans were made up of people from the northern kingdom, as well as transplants, who

00:16:16.520 were brought to the region by Iserhaddon, king of Assyria. The result was that this new group of

00:16:23.520 people came to be known by a new religion entirely. They professed to worship God, but also

00:16:30.280 incorporated many pagan and polytheistic elements into their worship. And this difference is key

00:16:36.440 to understanding the feud between the exiles and the peoples of the land. This is because at the

00:16:42.500 heart of the conflict, the disagreement, hostility, whatever you want to call it, was a difference

00:16:47.900 in worship. There were certainly political and possibly even cultural reasons for the Samaritan's

00:16:54.360 opposition to the rebuilding of the temple and Jerusalem, but the primary driver for the conflict

00:17:00.140 was theology, worship. You see, politics and culture are always downstream from worship,

00:17:07.080 and this will be important for us to remember as we move forward in our study of the text.

00:17:12.620 Before we get any further, I want to read an excerpt from Matthew Henry's commentary,

00:17:16.220 which seems to give credence to this understanding of the identity of the peoples of the lands.

00:17:21.640 He writes, the opposers of the undertaking are here said to be the adversaries of Judah

00:17:27.060 and Benjamin. Not the Chaldeans or Persians, but the relics of the ten tribes and the foreigners

00:17:33.400 that had joined themselves to them and patched up that mongrel religion we had an account of. 0.99

00:17:38.920 They feared the Lord and served their own gods too. They are called the people of the land.

00:17:45.460 The worst enemies Judah and Benjamin had were those that said they were Jews and were not.

00:17:51.980 Henry's commentary is incredibly helpful in seeing the distinction between the people of the land

00:17:56.940 and the exiles that we read of in Judah and why these two groups sharply opposed each other

00:18:02.720 and the work of rebuilding the ruins. He points us to a text in scripture which is found in 2 Kings

00:18:09.220 chapter 17, which I want to read for you just so you can see what types of events and religious

00:18:14.840 practices marked the founding of Samaria. So I'm going to read these for you now, and if you have

00:18:19.580 a Bible with you, turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 17. As I mentioned before as well, this text is

00:18:28.280 contained in its entirety in the sermon notes. But now I'm going to read from 2 Kings chapter 17.

00:18:38.520 Beginning in verse 24 of 2 Kings chapter 17.

00:18:42.340 And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kutha, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvim,

00:18:51.280 and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession

00:18:56.300 of Samaria and lived in its cities. And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not 0.98

00:19:01.300 fear the Lord. Therefore, the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. So the

00:19:07.020 king of Assyria was told, the nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of

00:19:11.800 Samaria, do not know the law of the God of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them,

00:19:17.620 and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the God of the land.

00:19:22.860 Then the king of Assyria commanded, send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there,

00:19:28.260 and let him go and dwell there, and teach them the law of the God of the land. So one of the

00:19:34.400 priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how

00:19:39.560 they should fear the Lord. But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines

00:19:45.720 of the high places that the Samaritans had made. Every nation in the cities in which they lived.

00:19:51.780 Skipping down to verse 32. They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves all sorts

00:19:58.940 of people as priests of the high places who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high

00:20:03.680 places. So they feared the Lord, but also served their own gods after the manner of the nations

00:20:09.620 from among whom they had been carried away. To this day, they do according to the former manner.

00:20:15.860 They do not fear the Lord and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the

00:20:21.960 commandment, the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named

00:20:27.580 Israel. The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, you shall not fear other gods,

00:20:33.680 or bow yourselves to them, or serve them, or sacrifice to them. But you shall fear the Lord,

00:20:39.980 who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You

00:20:45.240 shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. And the statutes, and the rules,

00:20:51.820 and the law, and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do.

00:20:56.440 You shall not fear other gods, and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you.

00:21:01.580 You shall not fear other gods, but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of

00:21:08.100 the hand of all of your enemies. However, they would not listen, but they did according to their

00:21:14.280 former manner. It's a long text, but this text from 2 Kings 17 could not make the situation more

00:21:20.600 clear. Though political and cultural differences did exist between Samaria and Israel, the key

00:21:27.880 distinction between the two was worship. Samaria engaged in idolatry, in false worship, having 0.91

00:21:35.260 many gods. They did not fear the Lord, nor did they listen or follow his statutes, laws, or 1.00

00:21:42.720 commandments. Because of this, they were easily identified by true Israelites as outside of the 0.78

00:21:48.760 kingdom of God, though they often claimed to be worshipers of God. We see this at play even in

00:21:55.100 our text. So if you'll look back at verse 2, we read, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of

00:22:02.240 fathers' houses and said to them, let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do,

00:22:07.600 and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Eserhaddon, king of Assyria.

00:22:15.320 So this fact may be lost on us being so far removed from the time period and situation,

00:22:20.600 but Israel's exiles could see even from the surface the lie that such an assertion was.

00:22:27.160 They knew their adversaries did not fear God, nor did they listen to him, as 2 Kings says.

00:22:32.940 So they knew that they could not possibly worship God as they did, let alone worship him at all.

00:22:39.100 This is essentially the same statement that Jesus makes to the Samaritan woman at the well

00:22:43.480 in John chapter 4. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know. 0.98

00:22:49.220 for salvation is from the Jews, John 4, 22. So one of the last implicit facts that we need to

00:22:57.680 cover in this section is for what purpose did the peoples of the lands make such an appeal

00:23:02.300 to the Jewish exiles? By the statement they make in verse 2, it could easily seem that they would

00:23:08.300 want to join in the work of rebuilding the temple and Jerusalem's ruins. But this was clearly

00:23:14.900 deception, a veneer which was purposed to thwart the exiles into allowing the Samaritans into the

00:23:21.440 work of rebuilding, only to surely be betrayed later. The peoples of the land had no desire to

00:23:28.060 amend their ways or pursue repentance, and they recognized that the rebuilding of the temple

00:23:33.300 threatened their comforts and existence. Matthew Henry likens the adversary's appeal

00:23:39.580 to the smooth speech of the serpent in the garden of Eden. They feigned allegiance to Israel's cause,

00:23:47.440 but harbored war and destruction in their hearts, desiring to see the project and true worship of

00:23:54.060 the one true God cease. At this point, we've covered enough now to begin to move on to

00:24:00.560 our second point, but before we do so, I hope to make some points of application on this point

00:24:05.860 for us this morning. The first is one that may seem obvious to us, but it is worth restating.

00:24:13.360 The harshest critics or opponents in the work of faithful Christian living, establishing a Christian

00:24:18.940 family, advocating for Christian government, or rebuilding the ruins of Christendom will be those

00:24:24.520 who hate Christ. This much should be obvious to us. When lawmakers threaten to restrict or outlaw 0.83

00:24:32.200 abortion, it is no surprise to us that feminists are the ones who are outraged. But what is even

00:24:38.860 more surprising is when the opposition comes from one who would claim to support that cause.

00:24:44.920 Many of you know that the strongest opponents of the abolition of abortion are those who would

00:24:49.540 claim to be pro-life. Likewise, some of the strongest opponents of seeing Christianity 0.94

00:24:54.440 advance in the public sphere, in the marketplace, and in government are those who would claim to be

00:25:00.060 Christians. This fact may be shocking to us, but it is certainly revealing as a litmus test of our

00:25:05.760 culture and of the health of the evangelical church at large. Many of you may be familiar

00:25:12.180 with Dusty Deavers. He's a reformed Christian pastor in Oklahoma who was recently elected as

00:25:17.460 a state senator there. Since being elected, he has made it a priority to write legislation

00:25:22.860 criminalizing abortion and pornography and outlawing no-fault divorce. His positions and

00:25:29.960 courage have unsurprisingly drawn the ire of the likes of Rolling Stone magazine and the Jimmy 0.73

00:25:35.740 Fallon show, but one of the more surprising aspects is that many self-professing Christians

00:25:40.900 have stood in opposition to Deavers and his positions. I used to notice a similar phenomenon

00:25:46.700 when I would watch Jeff Durbin or Todd Friel publicly preach the gospel on the street

00:25:51.920 or at universities. In these instances, too, it was often Christians who would charge those 0.99

00:25:57.880 preachers with being unloving or hateful for preaching of all things the gospel,

00:26:04.040 the message of God's grace in Christ, the power unto salvation. I hope you see how ironic that is.

00:26:11.540 So what are we to draw from the opposition that faithful Christian doctrine and practice 0.93

00:26:16.860 receives from those who profess the name of Christ. The first is that it reveals the sorry 0.96

00:26:22.800 state that Christendom is in today. If there was any doubt that Christianity was in ruins,

00:26:28.680 such examples as these are revealing. If one cannot even suggest that the Christian faith 0.99

00:26:34.300 mandates a traditional biblical view of marriage or that the preaching of the gospel is necessary

00:26:39.860 to salvation without meeting resistance from other Christians, then the Christian church is

00:26:44.720 in need of deep reformation, of rebuilding. From this, we can make two confident assertions.

00:26:51.680 Scripture is the standard, and Scripture is our guide. Many who profess the name of Christ act

00:26:58.160 as the peoples of the lands, feigning loyalty to him, but secretly desiring to do violence to not

00:27:04.120 only his bride, but his kingdom's advancement. The standard by which such people may be carefully

00:27:09.740 excluded from the work and called to repentance is the word of God. Similarly, we should be

00:27:16.900 emboldened that when we faithfully meditate on his word and apply it to our lives, God is pleased

00:27:22.480 and grants us the courage and wisdom to live faithfully in the face of opposition. The

00:27:28.740 opposition will come. Israel did not meet threats until they had begun to make headway in the land. 0.79

00:27:35.480 And yet the scriptures assure us that this is often a sign that we are meeting the mark

00:27:39.480 and they provide direction for the road ahead. 0.70

00:27:43.320 So we now move on to our second point, which is Israel's faithful resistance.

00:27:47.740 And this is found in verse three.

00:27:50.300 This verse reads,

00:27:52.220 But Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to them,

00:27:58.020 You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God,

00:28:01.140 but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia,

00:28:07.080 has commanded us. In this verse, we see the stance taken by Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the rest of the

00:28:14.520 heads of fathers' houses in Israel. They recognize the deception in the proposition made by the

00:28:21.140 peoples of the lands and prohibit them from joining in the work of rebuilding the temple 0.96

00:28:26.340 in the land. This discernment is key. Though the project had begun, there was obviously much work

00:28:33.460 to do. The exiles had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild ruins and were in need of resources and

00:28:41.260 manpower, among many other things. Despite this, the leaders of the exiles, men, recognized that

00:28:48.140 to accept help from the peoples of the lands would doom the project entirely. In response, then, we

00:28:55.060 see that the leaders of the exiles do not allow the Samaritans to take up the work with them.

00:29:00.860 They say, you have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God, but we alone will

00:29:05.540 build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.

00:29:12.720 There are two sub points that I want to make in regards to this verse and what we see as Israel's

00:29:17.900 faithful resistance. The first is a point that we see at the beginning of verse 3, and it is this.

00:29:25.060 The work of discernment and resistance in this case is taken up by men.

00:29:30.300 Again, if we look back, we read that it was Zerubbabel, 0.76

00:29:33.400 Yeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses

00:29:36.440 who recognized the inherent harm in the proposal made by the peoples of the lands

00:29:41.160 and stood up to defend their families, their land, and their God.

00:29:46.880 In this moment, it was required of these men to stand up

00:29:49.940 and protect what God had given them from adversaries

00:29:54.180 who sought to do violence not only to them, but to the kingdom of God. It is a moment like this,

00:30:01.400 a moment of resistance, a moment of courage, a moment of strength, where we see not women

00:30:07.420 nor children, but men making the stand. It is these men, the leaders of the civil,

00:30:13.120 ecclesiastical, and familial spheres who shoulder the primary responsibility and put their lives on

00:30:19.340 the line. This is not to say that women, children, or even elders are not to be discerning or not to

00:30:27.280 resist tyranny and ungodliness. There are, in fact, many situations in which a woman or a child may be

00:30:34.320 called upon by God to exercise discernment or to confront evil, sin, or those who may seek to do

00:30:40.740 them or their families harm. And in these situations, such women and children are to be

00:30:45.980 commended. But ordinarily, these are gifts and responsibilities which are given by God to men

00:30:51.940 as leaders in the home, the church, and the state. And this is exactly what we see in the text

00:30:58.180 today. These men wield their authority to protect and to provide, and they do so courageously.

00:31:06.400 This is why strength, protection, even leadership are traits that are commendable and are to be

00:31:11.860 desired by and in men. We see the Apostle Paul calling the leaders of the Corinthian church

00:31:17.660 to these responsibilities. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. 1 Corinthians

00:31:26.180 16, 13. So to the men in the room, as regards the work of rebuilding Christendom, this is a work

00:31:33.380 that in many ways starts with us. It is a work that women and children are all integral to as

00:31:39.200 well, make no mistake. But as men, we must remember to keep each other accountable, to mortify our sin,

00:31:45.980 to grow in the disciplines of grace, to pursue strength, to become more discerning and wise,

00:31:52.660 and to exercise courage. There will be many challenges and hardships and undeniably even

00:31:58.580 opposition. In the same way that the exiles had to begin from ground zero, we too have much work

00:32:04.580 to do. We also will be the ones who have to defend and protect those we love from the continued

00:32:10.500 onslaught of ungodliness perpetuated by the kingdom of darkness and from those who may seek

00:32:15.980 to do violence to the kingdom of God. May our conduct always be honorable, even amongst the

00:32:22.140 Gentiles, Peter tells us, but may this honor also include courage, strength, and a zeal for 0.98

00:32:28.520 righteousness. To the women in the room, may you remember to encourage these traits in your

00:32:33.940 husbands, your sons, and in the young men of the church. Do not underestimate the power your

00:32:40.520 encouragements have in cheering, emboldening, and supporting your husbands and sons. And remember

00:32:46.840 that success in any arena, any institution, any era depends on the health of its men. 0.56

00:32:54.420 The second sub-point as we consider Israel's faithful resistance is a point we have been 0.87

00:32:58.740 discussing throughout this sermon, and this is that Israel's primary means for resisting their

00:33:03.280 adversaries was not due to political or cultural reasons, but because primarily of a difference in

00:33:08.640 religion. The peoples of the lands insisted that they too worshiped God. The exiles led by heads

00:33:15.220 of fathers' houses called their bluff. And because of this, the exiles excluded the Samaritans from

00:33:20.760 the work because of their idolatry and false worship. They say, you have nothing to do with us

00:33:27.180 in building a house to our God, but we alone will build to the Lord the God of Israel.

00:33:33.280 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

00:33:43.500 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.

00:33:56.360 now the spirit of the age may try to creep in at this point and accuse such a resistance as

00:34:03.180 prejudiced as closed-minded but at this point we would do well to remember god's law and israel's

00:34:08.880 history first of all the men who led this faithful resistance remembered the law of god given in

00:34:14.980 deuteronomy and its warnings for israel to separate themselves from outsiders let us read in deuteronomy

00:34:21.240 chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7 reads, when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you

00:34:27.660 are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites,

00:34:33.660 the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, 0.63

00:34:40.540 seven nations more numerous and mightier than you. And when the Lord your God gives them over

00:34:46.420 to you and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no

00:34:52.340 covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your

00:34:58.460 daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons. For they would turn away your sons 1.00

00:35:03.920 from following me to serve other gods. And the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you

00:35:09.760 and he would destroy you quickly. But thus shall you deal with them. You shall break down their

00:35:15.340 altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their ashram and burned their carved images 0.99

00:35:21.300 with fire. Deuteronomy 7 verses 1 through 5. So you see these verses make it clear to us that 0.85

00:35:27.980 Israel was prohibited from intermingling with the peoples of the lands. Israel was commanded to 0.79

00:35:34.260 separate themselves from foreigners because of their influence to draw Israel's hearts away from 1.00

00:35:39.700 serving the Lord only and towards devotion of false gods. God commanded this in order to keep 1.00

00:35:46.280 Israel's worship pure and to save them from sure destruction. In many instances throughout Israel's

00:35:53.760 history, they failed to maintain this purity of worship, and because of this, they suffered.

00:35:59.900 In the book of Numbers, you may be familiar with Israel's mixing with Moab and the idolatry, 0.83

00:36:05.100 shame, and destruction that this brought on God's people. If you were here with us when we preached 0.99

00:36:09.660 through the book of Joshua, just the previous book that we preached through here, we read of 1.00

00:36:14.060 the Gibeonites and their deception. Because of Joshua and Israel's failure to exercise discernment, 0.96

00:36:20.780 they were tricked by Gibeon and were forced to include them in the nation. Because of this, 0.91

00:36:26.420 false worship and practices were further introduced into the nation. In many other places in the Old

00:36:32.680 Testament, Israel's purity of worship was soured with the inclusion of many peoples who were not 0.98

00:36:38.560 repentant and drew Israel's hearts after other gods. This will also be a problem for Ezra and

00:36:45.660 the exiles later in this book as we get to Ezra chapters 9 and 10 and beyond. So keep your eye out

00:36:52.720 for that. As a result, Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the heads of father's houses make an important

00:36:59.220 decision. Remembering the law of God and their nation's history, they take the stand to exclude

00:37:05.180 the peoples of the land from the work of rebuilding. They do this in obedience to God

00:37:09.940 and also to protect the inheritance given to their children and future generations.

00:37:16.140 This faithful resistance would surely bring hardship, but would ensure that their descendants

00:37:20.740 would not grow up in a society with practices of idolatry as accepted norms. Israel's devotion to 0.69

00:37:27.580 God and worship would remain pure, and this affected the work of rebuilding. As we consider

00:37:34.260 the application we could make on this point, it really is a simple one. There's the obvious point,

00:37:39.640 and this is the fact that concerns a nation and its borders. A nation must work to defend and

00:37:46.000 secure its borders. This is not only a necessity, but also right and good. This is true of all

00:37:52.740 nations, including America. Endless assimilation will be the death of the American cause and 0.95

00:37:58.380 ideals and will create problems for future generations, including our descendants. And 1.00

00:38:03.800 this is why we must commend the decision of our governor to defend our border. We must encourage

00:38:08.960 our leaders when they do rightly and pray that God would use them to bring about more good.

00:38:14.860 The main application that I want to make, though, is one that regards the church.

00:38:19.640 Any outsider to the church should be welcomed and included with open arms,

00:38:24.200 so long as they express repentance and faith in Christ Jesus. This fact marks each and every one

00:38:32.000 of our stories. Once we belonged to the kingdom of darkness, but now we belong to Christ. He has

00:38:38.440 delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son,

00:38:43.540 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, Colossians 1, 13, and 14. This is why we

00:38:50.980 can rejoice at the inclusion of any new believer in the church. There is much rejoicing in heaven

00:38:56.960 over one sinner who repents. And yet we must never forget that while this is true, our Lord

00:39:03.440 also reminds us of wolves who will try to sneak in and do great harm to the church and the

00:39:09.740 rebuilding of Christendom. These will feign loyalty to Christ and to his church, but in fact,

00:39:15.740 they hate him. They will seek to draw the hearts of Christians after false teachers 0.80

00:39:20.340 and false gods. If successful, this will no doubt have an immediate impact on the church, 0.78

00:39:26.440 but especially so on future generations of Christians. So what can we do? We must remember

00:39:33.840 that God is sovereignly in control of all things and acts in accordance with the good of his people.

00:39:41.200 He will ensure that those who have faith in his son will ultimately be kept safe.

00:39:46.260 But what else can and should we do? We must look to the example found in our text today.

00:39:52.440 when confronted with deception and those who desire to sneak in and do violence to the church

00:39:58.360 we must stand upon the word of God and therein make our stand the church and Christendom when

00:40:05.640 led by faithful men should take the stand to maintain a purity of worship conscience and a

00:40:12.020 devotion to God in all things we do this out of obedience to God and for the good of our future

00:40:18.740 descendants and generations. We remain faithful like the exiles and entrust the results to God.

00:40:26.860 And so this leads us to our third and final point, which is the resultant fallout and the need for 0.79

00:40:31.920 endurance, which is found in verses four through six. And at this point, I'll read those verses for

00:40:37.080 us once more. Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them 0.96

00:40:43.560 afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose. All the days

00:40:49.180 of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. And in the reign of 0.63

00:40:55.160 Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of

00:40:59.740 Judah and Jerusalem. After the exiles made their faithful stand and denied the adversaries from

00:41:06.880 infiltrating the work of rebuilding, the peoples of the lands resort to more hostile measures.

00:41:12.260 They frustrate the work of rebuilding and make the exile's lives miserable. 0.89

00:41:16.800 They discourage them, strike fear into them, and bribe additional adversaries to crush their spirits and tempt them to abandon the project. 0.54

00:41:26.780 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.

00:41:35.380 the adversaries resort to such measures for quite some time you see for the entirety of Cyrus's reign

00:41:42.480 and through the reign of Darius as well at last when a new king Ahasuerus assumes the throne

00:41:49.620 in Babylon they write a letter of accusation to convince him to stop the work

00:41:54.880 this letter is full of blasphemies and is opportunistic they appeal to a new king who

00:42:01.640 likely had little recollection of Cyrus's initial decree, an attempt to falsely accuse the exiles

00:42:08.240 of wrongdoing. We will learn more about the content of this letter in the coming weeks.

00:42:14.040 One important aspect that is not as obvious in these verses is something that I mentioned earlier.

00:42:20.320 The efforts of the adversaries are effective to bring the work to a halt for a time period of

00:42:25.000 about 16 to 17 years. This delay occurs through the entirety of Cyrus's reign until the second

00:42:31.880 year of Darius's reign when the work resumes. So the initial delay taking place over almost

00:42:39.020 two decades occurs even before the letter to Ahasuerus is written in verse 6. With these

00:42:45.800 details in mind, we come to understand that the adversaries succeeded in causing a significant

00:42:51.000 disruption to the work of rebuilding, one that spanned the reign of at least three Babylonian

00:42:56.420 kings. Here is an opportunity to marvel at the patience, persistence, and grit of the exiles.

00:43:04.200 I admire the courage of the exiles in this sequence that we see before us. Zerubbabel,

00:43:09.920 Jeshua, and the heads of father's houses were aware that the peoples of the lands intended

00:43:15.140 them harm, and so they faithfully resisted, knowing full well that this would likely bring

00:43:20.520 about increased frustration, difficulty, and hardship. But such is faith and obedience. It

00:43:28.260 takes courage to do the right thing, especially when we must submit ourselves to God for the

00:43:34.340 resultant outcome of said faith and obedience. Faith and obedience will bring blessing ordinarily,

00:43:43.060 but these blessings do not always come immediately. We must remember and recognize that when we sow

00:43:49.060 in faith and hope, God promises that we will reap a harvest at the proper time.

00:43:55.120 Oftentimes, and this is a pattern that we see in scripture, the harvest comes after the sowers have

00:44:00.800 passed away, and many generations have come in between. But this is the outcome that we long

00:44:06.940 and strive for, and the exiles did too. We trust God and plow in hope that the blessing will come, 0.99

00:44:14.660 even if it comes years down the road after many long and frustrating days.

00:44:21.040 Over many years, we can expect to have many triumphs and many difficulties.

00:44:26.180 One of the most sure realities in our attempt to rebuild Christendom

00:44:30.080 is that we will indeed be confronted with our own sin.

00:44:34.240 When this occurs, we must exercise godly sorrow, repent,

00:44:38.180 and turn back to the Lord in order to be further used by him.

00:44:42.820 With the passage of many years will come many opportunities to grow in sanctification.

00:44:48.800 At this point is exactly where we find the exiles many years later.

00:44:53.700 The work had been delayed and frustrated for some time, and yet the people had used this as an excuse for complacency.

00:45:02.100 In response, God stirred up the prophet Haggai to expose their sin and remind them of his calling to rebuild.

00:45:09.200 This is exactly where we find them at the beginning of Haggai chapter 1.

00:45:13.660 And I'm going to turn there now.

00:45:14.800 If you have your Bibles with you and you want to follow along with me, turn to Haggai chapter 1.

00:45:23.060 So in Haggai chapter 1, I'm going to be starting in verse 1.

00:45:29.100 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month,

00:45:34.720 the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel

00:45:40.340 governor of Judah and to Joshua the son of Jehoshadak the high priest. Thus says the Lord

00:45:47.000 of hosts these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.

00:45:52.340 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. Is it a time for you yourselves to

00:45:57.560 dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore thus says the Lord

00:46:03.420 of hosts. Consider your ways. You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have

00:46:10.160 enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he

00:46:17.340 who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Skipping to verse 12. Then Zerubbabel,

00:46:25.360 the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehoshaddak, the high priest, with all the remnant

00:46:30.800 of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet,

00:46:36.220 as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the

00:46:42.720 Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message. I am with you, declares the Lord. And the Lord

00:46:48.080 stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of

00:46:53.800 Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people.

00:47:00.800 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.

00:47:12.340 In this text, Haggai charges the same group of exiles of being complacent, of drifting.

00:47:19.300 Doubtless, the years of delay and disruption had taken a toil on the people.

00:47:23.400 But the Lord uses Haggai to expose the fact that the people had grown comfortable and indifferent

00:47:30.040 to the original purpose for which they had been sent to Jerusalem. They were merely existing,

00:47:36.280 earning wages to put them into a bag with holes. Haggai calls the people to repent,

00:47:41.980 and they do. They return to the Lord in fear and obedience, resuming the work on the temple. 0.62

00:47:48.700 and so as we close today I want to highlight this aspect for one last takeaway point as we

00:47:56.460 seek to rebuild Christendom there will be many decisive points where we will have to make

00:48:00.980 a faithful stand there will be many Ezra 4 moments over the years as we plod and sow

00:48:06.500 and hope we will have to resist many who want to challenge the church and the advancement of

00:48:13.120 Christian culture. May these moments encourage and strengthen us through both smooth sailing

00:48:18.660 and tempest. Christendom will not be built overnight. There will certainly be trying times,

00:48:25.140 even for extended periods of time, where we may be tempted to become complacent or throw in the

00:48:31.440 towel. In these times, may we continue to be students of scripture, be quick to repent,

00:48:37.360 and be eager to resume the work before us.

00:48:41.960 The Lord has given us much to enjoy

00:48:44.380 and life is truly an adventure

00:48:46.940 filled with wonder, treachery, and delights.

00:48:50.820 May we never be content to settle

00:48:52.300 for a life of paneled houses

00:48:53.920 while God's house lies in ruins.

00:48:57.380 May we seek to be marked by a humble, persistent joy

00:49:00.740 as we go about the work of rebuilding.

00:49:03.420 Let's pray.

00:49:03.920 father we thank you again for your word we thank you for the testimony that we find in the book of

00:49:10.540 ezra these were real men and real women and real christians lord who trusted you and and struggled

00:49:16.700 even with the temptation of sin and had to turn back to you oh god we pray that the example of

00:49:22.240 such believers would encourage and stir and equip us in the day that we find ourselves today

00:49:28.640 Would we be marked by faithfulness?

00:49:30.860 Would we be marked by diligence and joy for the long haul

00:49:34.260 as we seek to impart this to our descendants as well?

00:49:38.040 We pray that you would be blessed and glorified

00:49:40.140 through the preaching of your word

00:49:41.280 and that you would impart this to your people

00:49:43.660 here this morning.

00:49:45.140 We pray these things in Jesus's name, amen.

The NXR Podcast - February 11, 2024

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

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