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00:00:30.000All right. So I have the privilege of preaching from God's Word for you this morning. So we're
00:00:47.920going to continue in our series going through the book of Ezra. So if you would turn in your
00:00:52.320Bibles or if you have a copy of the sermon notes in front of you, turn to Ezra chapter 4 verses 1
00:00:59.220through 6. This will be our text for this morning. Ezra chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. If you're one
00:01:06.300who brings your Bible with you, that'll serve you well this morning, just because there'll be some
00:01:10.920larger portions of Scripture that I'll potentially ask you to turn to. If you don't have your Bible
00:01:17.200with you, that's okay. I've got all the texts in the sermon notes, so you can follow along there
00:01:21.280as well. So once more, Ezra chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. As is our tradition here at Covenant
00:01:27.720the Bible church, would you join me in standing as I read the word of the Lord? When I conclude
00:01:33.440reading it, I will say, this is the word of the Lord. And as a congregation, I will ask that we
00:01:37.940all respond by saying, thanks be to God. So this is once more Ezra chapter four, verses one through
00:01:45.360six. The Bible says this, now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned
00:01:52.640exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the
00:01:58.480heads of fathers' houses and said to them, Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do.
00:02:04.720And we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Eserhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought
00:02:11.520us here. But Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to
00:02:17.820them, you have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God, but we alone will build to the
00:02:22.840Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us. And the people of the
00:02:29.100land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against
00:02:34.140them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of
00:02:40.060Darius, king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they
00:02:45.700wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. This is the word of the
00:02:51.100Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated and join me now as I pray. Father, we thank you for
00:02:57.960your word. I was just reminded as Michael so faithfully taught and preached that the law of
00:03:05.740God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. And your word, Lord, is perfect. It is
00:03:11.900profitable for every purpose for the man of God, for teaching, for correcting, for rebuking,
00:03:19.040training in righteousness, all of these things, Lord. And so we would do well to listen to your
00:03:23.520word and put it into practice. We pray, oh Lord, that today's preaching of the word would bless
00:03:30.040you and glorify and honor you, Lord, and that it would be a blessing to your people as they learn
00:03:34.540to trust you, learn to have faith in your son, and learn to obey all that he has commanded.
00:03:39.900We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So Ezra chapter 4 marks a significant shift
00:03:47.360in the account of Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the exiles and the mission to rebuild the temple
00:03:53.200in Jerusalem. Up until this point, the people had been blessed and chartered by Cyrus to return to
00:04:00.040the land, had established the altar for worship, kept the commanded feasts, and laid the temple's
00:04:06.900foundation. Just last week, Pastor Joel preached from the end of Ezra chapter 3, in which the
00:04:12.700foundation of the temple was laid and the exiles raised a cry, a sound of joy from the young men
00:04:18.680and a sound of weeping from the old men and the priests. That was the conclusion of Ezra chapter
00:04:24.3803 found in verses 12 and 13. This sound we understand was so great that the sound was heard
00:04:31.360from far away. Both the construction of the temple and the sound of the shouting were growing
00:04:37.640realities which had become impossible to deny. These facts were recognized by not only young
00:04:44.100and old alike in Israel, but also by Israel's enemies. So this is the primary subject that we
00:04:51.180see in Ezra chapter 4. In this chapter, we encounter the first opposition the exiles
00:04:57.360experienced in their work of rebuilding the temple and their home. Verse 1 of our text makes
00:05:03.600this clear. In this verse, Ezra characterizes the people of the land as Judah and Benjamin's
00:05:10.480adversaries. From the use of the term adversary, two things become apparent to us. The first is
00:05:18.140that the use of the word adversary would seem to make it quite clear that these people were not
00:05:23.200neutral to Israel's cause and purpose, but hated it and ardently opposed it. By virtue of their
00:05:30.640actions in opposition to Israel's work of rebuilding, there was no question about whose
00:05:36.040side they were on. As verse 4 makes clear to us in our text, these adversaries heard about the work
00:05:43.640and discouraged the people of Judah, made them afraid to build, and bribed counselors against
00:05:50.180them to frustrate their purpose. If any of you here are fans of Lewis or Tolkien, you may recognize
00:05:57.400that Ezra describes the enemies of God in the same way that Lewis or Tolkien might describe their
00:06:03.260villains. When you read of Sauron's orcs in The Lord of the Rings or of the Wicked Witch in The
00:06:09.420Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Tolkien and Lewis write in such a way that the reader can
00:06:14.080easily identify these characters as evil. There's no moral ambiguity, no neutrality. A character in
00:06:21.820these stories is either good or evil. And by virtue of their appearance and their actions,
00:06:27.940the reader cannot possibly mistake the good for evil or the evil for good. And this is clear in
00:06:35.320today's text as well. Though the people of the land were not dripping with slime or attempted
00:06:40.440to eat children like the giants of Harfang. By virtue of their opposition to the work of
00:06:45.900rebuilding, they were clearly Israel's adversaries. There's no mistaking this from the text.
00:06:53.140And in this case, one of the deeper realities on this point is that the people of the land
00:06:57.280were not only adversaries to Judah and Benjamin, but opponents of God and his purposes. On this
00:07:04.600point, the words of the Pharisee Gamaliel in Acts chapter 5 are fitting. So in the present case,
00:07:10.880I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or this undertaking is of
00:07:16.880man, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be
00:07:22.980found opposing God. Acts chapter 5, 38 and 39. As regards the second point that I've mentioned,
00:07:31.380And Ezra uses the word adversary in our text to remind us that Israel was not surprised by their
00:07:37.240opposition. If you remember that Ezra wrote in Ezra 3, verse 3, back in chapter 3,
00:07:43.900they set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands,
00:07:50.660and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening.
00:07:57.460Two weeks ago, Pastor Joel reminded us from this text of the reality that worship is warfare.
00:08:04.100In this case, the people hastened to set up the altar due to their fear of the peoples of the lands.
00:08:11.560The 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.
00:08:21.280And interestingly enough, we don't see the exiles trying to cut deals with the peoples of the lands
00:08:25.960to ward them off, but they rush to establish the altar for worship, even before the temple
00:08:32.920is built. They take the, if you build it, they will come approach. And the exiles knew that
00:08:39.300those who came would not be friendly to the Lord's cause. And so this is much of the groundwork we
00:08:45.900see laid in chapter 4. Israel's enemies do, in fact, come. And we will see today that despite
00:08:53.040Israel's faithful resistance, the adversaries were initially successful. They succeed in causing an
00:09:00.020interruption to the work of rebuilding the temple and the land. And interestingly, this work is
00:09:05.920suspended for more than a decade. Some sources would suggest that this period of time was closer
00:09:11.020to 16 or 17 years. And Israel must be patient and faithful to the cause amidst the delay.
00:09:19.540We will see this unfold in the coming weeks throughout the rest of chapter 4
00:09:23.040and into chapter 5 of the book of Ezra. During this delay, the Lord stirred up the prophets
00:09:29.340Haggai and Zechariah to encourage the people to return to the work through admonition,
00:09:35.280reproof, and the assurance of God's presence and success. After some time, the work does resume,
00:09:42.520but the people must first prepare for years of frustration, hardship, and opposition.
00:09:48.280These are some aspects which we will begin to see in this week's text and are worth keeping
00:09:52.840in mind over the next few weeks. As we begin Ezra chapter 4 with this text here, verses 1 through 6,
00:09:59.320I want to highlight three primary points for us this morning.
00:27:52.220But Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to them,
00:27:58.020You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God,
00:28:01.140but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia,
00:28:07.080has commanded us. In this verse, we see the stance taken by Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the rest of the
00:28:14.520heads of fathers' houses in Israel. They recognize the deception in the proposition made by the
00:28:21.140peoples of the lands and prohibit them from joining in the work of rebuilding the temple
00:28:26.340in the land. This discernment is key. Though the project had begun, there was obviously much work
00:28:33.460to do. The exiles had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild ruins and were in need of resources and
00:28:41.260manpower, among many other things. Despite this, the leaders of the exiles, men, recognized that
00:28:48.140to accept help from the peoples of the lands would doom the project entirely. In response, then, we
00:28:55.060see that the leaders of the exiles do not allow the Samaritans to take up the work with them.
00:29:00.860They say, you have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God, but we alone will
00:29:05.540build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.
00:29:12.720There are two sub points that I want to make in regards to this verse and what we see as Israel's
00:29:17.900faithful resistance. The first is a point that we see at the beginning of verse 3, and it is this.
00:29:25.060The work of discernment and resistance in this case is taken up by men.
00:29:30.300Again, if we look back, we read that it was Zerubbabel,
00:29:33.400Yeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses
00:29:36.440who recognized the inherent harm in the proposal made by the peoples of the lands
00:29:41.160and stood up to defend their families, their land, and their God.
00:29:46.880In this moment, it was required of these men to stand up
00:29:49.940and protect what God had given them from adversaries
00:29:54.180who sought to do violence not only to them, but to the kingdom of God. It is a moment like this,
00:30:01.400a moment of resistance, a moment of courage, a moment of strength, where we see not women
00:30:07.420nor children, but men making the stand. It is these men, the leaders of the civil,
00:30:13.120ecclesiastical, and familial spheres who shoulder the primary responsibility and put their lives on
00:30:19.340the line. This is not to say that women, children, or even elders are not to be discerning or not to
00:30:27.280resist tyranny and ungodliness. There are, in fact, many situations in which a woman or a child may be
00:30:34.320called upon by God to exercise discernment or to confront evil, sin, or those who may seek to do
00:30:40.740them or their families harm. And in these situations, such women and children are to be
00:30:45.980commended. But ordinarily, these are gifts and responsibilities which are given by God to men
00:30:51.940as leaders in the home, the church, and the state. And this is exactly what we see in the text
00:30:58.180today. These men wield their authority to protect and to provide, and they do so courageously.
00:31:06.400This is why strength, protection, even leadership are traits that are commendable and are to be
00:31:11.860desired by and in men. We see the Apostle Paul calling the leaders of the Corinthian church
00:31:17.660to these responsibilities. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. 1 Corinthians
00:31:26.18016, 13. So to the men in the room, as regards the work of rebuilding Christendom, this is a work
00:31:33.380that in many ways starts with us. It is a work that women and children are all integral to as
00:31:39.200well, make no mistake. But as men, we must remember to keep each other accountable, to mortify our sin,
00:31:45.980to grow in the disciplines of grace, to pursue strength, to become more discerning and wise,
00:31:52.660and to exercise courage. There will be many challenges and hardships and undeniably even
00:31:58.580opposition. In the same way that the exiles had to begin from ground zero, we too have much work
00:32:04.580to do. We also will be the ones who have to defend and protect those we love from the continued
00:32:10.500onslaught of ungodliness perpetuated by the kingdom of darkness and from those who may seek
00:32:15.980to do violence to the kingdom of God. May our conduct always be honorable, even amongst the
00:32:22.140Gentiles, Peter tells us, but may this honor also include courage, strength, and a zeal for
00:32:28.520righteousness. To the women in the room, may you remember to encourage these traits in your
00:32:33.940husbands, your sons, and in the young men of the church. Do not underestimate the power your
00:32:40.520encouragements have in cheering, emboldening, and supporting your husbands and sons. And remember
00:32:46.840that success in any arena, any institution, any era depends on the health of its men.
00:32:54.420The second sub-point as we consider Israel's faithful resistance is a point we have been
00:32:58.740discussing throughout this sermon, and this is that Israel's primary means for resisting their
00:33:03.280adversaries was not due to political or cultural reasons, but because primarily of a difference in
00:33:08.640religion. The peoples of the lands insisted that they too worshiped God. The exiles led by heads
00:33:15.220of fathers' houses called their bluff. And because of this, the exiles excluded the Samaritans from
00:33:20.760the work because of their idolatry and false worship. They say, you have nothing to do with us
00:33:27.180in building a house to our God, but we alone will build to the Lord the God of Israel.
00:33:33.280Without 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.
00:33:43.500By 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.
00:33:56.360now the spirit of the age may try to creep in at this point and accuse such a resistance as
00:34:03.180prejudiced as closed-minded but at this point we would do well to remember god's law and israel's
00:34:08.880history first of all the men who led this faithful resistance remembered the law of god given in
00:34:14.980deuteronomy and its warnings for israel to separate themselves from outsiders let us read in deuteronomy
00:34:21.240chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7 reads, when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you
00:34:27.660are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites,
00:34:33.660the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
00:34:40.540seven nations more numerous and mightier than you. And when the Lord your God gives them over
00:34:46.420to you and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no
00:34:52.340covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your
00:34:58.460daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons. For they would turn away your sons
00:35:03.920from following me to serve other gods. And the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you
00:35:09.760and he would destroy you quickly. But thus shall you deal with them. You shall break down their
00:35:15.340altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their ashram and burned their carved images
00:35:21.300with fire. Deuteronomy 7 verses 1 through 5. So you see these verses make it clear to us that
00:35:27.980Israel was prohibited from intermingling with the peoples of the lands. Israel was commanded to
00:35:34.260separate themselves from foreigners because of their influence to draw Israel's hearts away from
00:35:39.700serving the Lord only and towards devotion of false gods. God commanded this in order to keep
00:35:46.280Israel's worship pure and to save them from sure destruction. In many instances throughout Israel's
00:35:53.760history, they failed to maintain this purity of worship, and because of this, they suffered.
00:35:59.900In the book of Numbers, you may be familiar with Israel's mixing with Moab and the idolatry,
00:36:05.100shame, and destruction that this brought on God's people. If you were here with us when we preached
00:36:09.660through the book of Joshua, just the previous book that we preached through here, we read of
00:36:14.060the Gibeonites and their deception. Because of Joshua and Israel's failure to exercise discernment,
00:36:20.780they were tricked by Gibeon and were forced to include them in the nation. Because of this,
00:36:26.420false worship and practices were further introduced into the nation. In many other places in the Old
00:36:32.680Testament, Israel's purity of worship was soured with the inclusion of many peoples who were not
00:36:38.560repentant and drew Israel's hearts after other gods. This will also be a problem for Ezra and
00:36:45.660the exiles later in this book as we get to Ezra chapters 9 and 10 and beyond. So keep your eye out
00:36:52.720for that. As a result, Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the heads of father's houses make an important
00:36:59.220decision. Remembering the law of God and their nation's history, they take the stand to exclude
00:37:05.180the peoples of the land from the work of rebuilding. They do this in obedience to God
00:37:09.940and also to protect the inheritance given to their children and future generations.
00:37:16.140This faithful resistance would surely bring hardship, but would ensure that their descendants
00:37:20.740would not grow up in a society with practices of idolatry as accepted norms. Israel's devotion to
00:37:27.580God and worship would remain pure, and this affected the work of rebuilding. As we consider
00:37:34.260the application we could make on this point, it really is a simple one. There's the obvious point,
00:37:39.640and this is the fact that concerns a nation and its borders. A nation must work to defend and
00:37:46.000secure its borders. This is not only a necessity, but also right and good. This is true of all
00:37:52.740nations, including America. Endless assimilation will be the death of the American cause and
00:37:58.380ideals and will create problems for future generations, including our descendants. And
00:38:03.800this is why we must commend the decision of our governor to defend our border. We must encourage
00:38:08.960our leaders when they do rightly and pray that God would use them to bring about more good.
00:38:14.860The main application that I want to make, though, is one that regards the church.
00:38:19.640Any outsider to the church should be welcomed and included with open arms,
00:38:24.200so long as they express repentance and faith in Christ Jesus. This fact marks each and every one
00:38:32.000of our stories. Once we belonged to the kingdom of darkness, but now we belong to Christ. He has
00:38:38.440delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son,
00:38:43.540in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, Colossians 1, 13, and 14. This is why we
00:38:50.980can rejoice at the inclusion of any new believer in the church. There is much rejoicing in heaven
00:38:56.960over one sinner who repents. And yet we must never forget that while this is true, our Lord
00:39:03.440also reminds us of wolves who will try to sneak in and do great harm to the church and the
00:39:09.740rebuilding of Christendom. These will feign loyalty to Christ and to his church, but in fact,
00:39:15.740they hate him. They will seek to draw the hearts of Christians after false teachers
00:39:20.340and false gods. If successful, this will no doubt have an immediate impact on the church,
00:39:26.440but especially so on future generations of Christians. So what can we do? We must remember
00:39:33.840that God is sovereignly in control of all things and acts in accordance with the good of his people.
00:39:41.200He will ensure that those who have faith in his son will ultimately be kept safe.
00:39:46.260But what else can and should we do? We must look to the example found in our text today.
00:39:52.440when confronted with deception and those who desire to sneak in and do violence to the church
00:39:58.360we must stand upon the word of God and therein make our stand the church and Christendom when
00:40:05.640led by faithful men should take the stand to maintain a purity of worship conscience and a
00:40:12.020devotion to God in all things we do this out of obedience to God and for the good of our future
00:40:18.740descendants and generations. We remain faithful like the exiles and entrust the results to God.
00:40:26.860And so this leads us to our third and final point, which is the resultant fallout and the need for
00:40:31.920endurance, which is found in verses four through six. And at this point, I'll read those verses for
00:40:37.080us once more. Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them
00:40:43.560afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose. All the days
00:40:49.180of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. And in the reign of
00:40:55.160Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of
00:40:59.740Judah and Jerusalem. After the exiles made their faithful stand and denied the adversaries from
00:41:06.880infiltrating the work of rebuilding, the peoples of the lands resort to more hostile measures.
00:41:12.260They frustrate the work of rebuilding and make the exile's lives miserable.
00:41:16.800They discourage them, strike fear into them, and bribe additional adversaries to crush their spirits and tempt them to abandon the project.
00:41:26.780It'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.
00:41:35.380the adversaries resort to such measures for quite some time you see for the entirety of Cyrus's reign
00:41:42.480and through the reign of Darius as well at last when a new king Ahasuerus assumes the throne
00:41:49.620in Babylon they write a letter of accusation to convince him to stop the work
00:41:54.880this letter is full of blasphemies and is opportunistic they appeal to a new king who
00:42:01.640likely had little recollection of Cyrus's initial decree, an attempt to falsely accuse the exiles
00:42:08.240of wrongdoing. We will learn more about the content of this letter in the coming weeks.
00:42:14.040One important aspect that is not as obvious in these verses is something that I mentioned earlier.
00:42:20.320The efforts of the adversaries are effective to bring the work to a halt for a time period of
00:42:25.000about 16 to 17 years. This delay occurs through the entirety of Cyrus's reign until the second
00:42:31.880year of Darius's reign when the work resumes. So the initial delay taking place over almost
00:42:39.020two decades occurs even before the letter to Ahasuerus is written in verse 6. With these
00:42:45.800details in mind, we come to understand that the adversaries succeeded in causing a significant
00:42:51.000disruption to the work of rebuilding, one that spanned the reign of at least three Babylonian
00:42:56.420kings. Here is an opportunity to marvel at the patience, persistence, and grit of the exiles.
00:43:04.200I admire the courage of the exiles in this sequence that we see before us. Zerubbabel,
00:43:09.920Jeshua, and the heads of father's houses were aware that the peoples of the lands intended
00:43:15.140them harm, and so they faithfully resisted, knowing full well that this would likely bring
00:43:20.520about increased frustration, difficulty, and hardship. But such is faith and obedience. It
00:43:28.260takes courage to do the right thing, especially when we must submit ourselves to God for the
00:43:34.340resultant outcome of said faith and obedience. Faith and obedience will bring blessing ordinarily,
00:43:43.060but these blessings do not always come immediately. We must remember and recognize that when we sow
00:43:49.060in faith and hope, God promises that we will reap a harvest at the proper time.
00:43:55.120Oftentimes, and this is a pattern that we see in scripture, the harvest comes after the sowers have
00:44:00.800passed away, and many generations have come in between. But this is the outcome that we long
00:44:06.940and strive for, and the exiles did too. We trust God and plow in hope that the blessing will come,
00:44:14.660even if it comes years down the road after many long and frustrating days.
00:44:21.040Over many years, we can expect to have many triumphs and many difficulties.
00:44:26.180One of the most sure realities in our attempt to rebuild Christendom
00:44:30.080is that we will indeed be confronted with our own sin.
00:44:34.240When this occurs, we must exercise godly sorrow, repent,
00:44:38.180and turn back to the Lord in order to be further used by him.
00:44:42.820With the passage of many years will come many opportunities to grow in sanctification.
00:44:48.800At this point is exactly where we find the exiles many years later.
00:44:53.700The work had been delayed and frustrated for some time, and yet the people had used this as an excuse for complacency.
00:45:02.100In response, God stirred up the prophet Haggai to expose their sin and remind them of his calling to rebuild.
00:45:09.200This is exactly where we find them at the beginning of Haggai chapter 1.
00:45:14.800If you have your Bibles with you and you want to follow along with me, turn to Haggai chapter 1.
00:45:23.060So in Haggai chapter 1, I'm going to be starting in verse 1.
00:45:29.100In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month,
00:45:34.720the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel
00:45:40.340governor of Judah and to Joshua the son of Jehoshadak the high priest. Thus says the Lord
00:45:47.000of hosts these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.
00:45:52.340Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. Is it a time for you yourselves to
00:45:57.560dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore thus says the Lord
00:46:03.420of hosts. Consider your ways. You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have
00:46:10.160enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he
00:46:17.340who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Skipping to verse 12. Then Zerubbabel,
00:46:25.360the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehoshaddak, the high priest, with all the remnant
00:46:30.800of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet,
00:46:36.220as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the
00:46:42.720Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message. I am with you, declares the Lord. And the Lord
00:46:48.080stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of
00:46:53.800Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people.
00:47:00.800And 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.
00:47:12.340In this text, Haggai charges the same group of exiles of being complacent, of drifting.
00:47:19.300Doubtless, the years of delay and disruption had taken a toil on the people.
00:47:23.400But the Lord uses Haggai to expose the fact that the people had grown comfortable and indifferent
00:47:30.040to the original purpose for which they had been sent to Jerusalem. They were merely existing,
00:47:36.280earning wages to put them into a bag with holes. Haggai calls the people to repent,
00:47:41.980and they do. They return to the Lord in fear and obedience, resuming the work on the temple.
00:47:48.700and so as we close today I want to highlight this aspect for one last takeaway point as we
00:47:56.460seek to rebuild Christendom there will be many decisive points where we will have to make
00:48:00.980a faithful stand there will be many Ezra 4 moments over the years as we plod and sow
00:48:06.500and hope we will have to resist many who want to challenge the church and the advancement of
00:48:13.120Christian culture. May these moments encourage and strengthen us through both smooth sailing
00:48:18.660and tempest. Christendom will not be built overnight. There will certainly be trying times,
00:48:25.140even for extended periods of time, where we may be tempted to become complacent or throw in the
00:48:31.440towel. In these times, may we continue to be students of scripture, be quick to repent,
00:48:37.360and be eager to resume the work before us.