The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - The 3 Enemies Of Christendom： Cowardice, Idleness, & Foolishness

00:00:00.000 Amen. We're continuing our series through the book of Ezra. Lord willing, next week

00:00:07.220 is Easter Sunday, and so we will pause and look at a text from the New Testament that focuses

00:00:13.140 on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ explicitly. Christ is in all the scriptures,

00:00:20.380 but some scriptures are more explicit in the way that they speak to Christ, especially his

00:00:26.140 resurrection. So that'll be next week, Lord willing, and then we'll pick back up with the

00:00:29.980 book of Ezra. And we are currently on a trajectory to finish this book of the Bible sometime in the

00:00:36.100 month of May, is what it looks like. And so then Connor and I are actively now praying and

00:00:42.260 considering which book of the Bible to preach through next. So today we are still in the book

00:00:47.260 of Ezra. Our text is Ezra chapter 6 verses 1 through 12. Would you join me in standing to

00:00:52.300 show reverence for the reading of God's word again our text is Ezra chapter 6 verses 1 through 12

00:00:57.680 I'm going to read the text in its entirety when I finish reading the text I'll say this is the

00:01:01.960 word of the Lord at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks

00:01:06.280 be to God one final time our text for today is Ezra chapter 6 verses 1 through 12 the Bible says

00:01:12.520 this then Darius the king made a decree and search was made in Babylonia in the house of the archives

00:01:19.540 where the documents were stored, and in Ekbektana, the citadel, that is in the province of Media,

00:01:26.840 a scroll was found on which this was written, a record. In the first year of Cyrus the king,

00:01:32.740 Cyrus the king issued a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem. Let the house be

00:01:38.540 rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height

00:01:45.240 shall be 60 cubits in its breadth 60 cubits with three layers of great stones and one layer of

00:01:51.560 timber let the cost be paid from the royal treasury or and also let the gold and silver

00:01:57.480 vessels of the house of God which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is in Jerusalem

00:02:02.120 and brought to Babylon be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem each to

00:02:08.580 its place you shall put them in the house of God now therefore Tatanai governor of the province

00:02:14.900 beyond the river, Shethar-Bazani, and your associates, the governors who are in the

00:02:20.780 province beyond the river, keep away. Let the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of

00:02:27.460 the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover, I make a 0.95

00:02:33.860 decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of

00:02:40.100 God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the 0.52

00:02:46.760 tribute of the province from beyond the river. And whatever is needed, bulls, rams, or sheep

00:02:52.660 for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem

00:02:59.260 require, let that be given to them day by day without fail, that they may offer pleasing

00:03:05.140 sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons. Also I make a decree

00:03:12.020 that if anyone alters this edith, a beam shall be pulled out of his house and he shall be impaled

00:03:17.940 on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill. May the God who has caused his name to dwell there

00:03:25.100 overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this or to destroy this house of

00:03:31.800 God that is in Jerusalem. I, Darius, make a decree. Let it be done with all diligence. This is the

00:03:38.640 word of the Lord. All right, you can be seated. That last part, you can see pretty clearly that

00:03:47.600 Darius does not play. He is not messing around. Verse 11, I make a decree that if anyone alters

00:03:53.680 this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house and he shall be impaled on it. Many of you

00:03:59.400 are probably not familiar, but you should take the time, if you have the time, to familiarize

00:04:04.600 yourself with Vlad the Impaler. He was one of the, well, the Crusaders, one of Christendom's

00:04:15.140 great warriors. And one of my friends, Eric Kahn, he says, he did a meme on Twitter a few months ago.

00:04:22.200 I found it encouraging. He said, if you feel discouraged that the Lord hasn't used you in

00:04:27.660 mighty ways. Keep in mind that Vlad the Impaler had not even impaled his first person until well

00:04:34.300 into his 30s. So there's hope. There's still time. God could do a lot with your life. So hang in 1.00

00:04:40.000 there. You know, Vlad didn't even get started. Darius, look at this. Darius, he's already been

00:04:44.320 king for a while, and he's just now starting to threaten to impale people. So there's plenty of

00:04:48.520 time for the Lord to work in our lives. Be patient. That's a little bit of a joke. Kind of serious,

00:04:53.660 but kind of joking. You should not impale anyone. That part was a joke. But guys throughout biblical

00:05:00.520 history in the Old Testament, like Darius, making a threat like this from the position of the civil

00:05:05.400 magistrate. Notice this is not a vigilante. This isn't a rogue guy going around, you know, crusading

00:05:10.200 for Christ. But this is a king who has been appointed in the sovereignty of God, making a

00:05:14.520 threat to the enemies of God who are trying to thwart God's will. And for him to say this is a

00:05:21.300 law this is a penalty is within his kingly right to do so so that was not wrong in his case okay

00:05:28.420 so there's a few things that i want to cover from the text today but before hopping into the main

00:05:33.800 points to provide a little bit of context for those of you who have not been a part of this

00:05:38.620 series from the beginning i've written in your notes the following right there under the first

00:05:43.640 roman numeral here we see that the decree of cyrus for the building of the temple is reinstated

00:05:50.300 To this, the Samaritans referred to this original decree from Cyrus, not because they actually

00:05:56.740 wanted the building project of the temple to resume, but because the Jews had already

00:06:01.840 specifically referenced this original decree from Cyrus, and the Samaritans, this seems to be the

00:06:08.160 implication, the Samaritans possessed confidence that this decree, the original decree from Cyrus,

00:06:14.840 would not in fact be found the decree was looked for in Babylon we find that in the first verse

00:06:21.420 of our text where Cyrus had originally signed it this was the most likely place for the decree to

00:06:27.520 be found but it was not there however when Cyrus's decree was not found in Babylon Darius did not

00:06:34.980 conclude that therefore there was no such decree instead he ordered that the records in all other

00:06:40.700 places should be searched, and eventually this decree from Cyrus was found among the Medes.

00:06:46.620 That's what we see in verse 2 of our text. It is probable that the Samaritans had a hand in

00:06:52.620 seeing that the decree was hidden among the Medes. This would explain the Samaritans' confidence 0.99

00:06:58.920 behind their bluff, and I do believe it was a bluff, when they echoed the Jews' request for 0.88

00:07:04.460 Darius to search for Cyrus's original decree in the first place. Let me break that down. 0.63

00:07:09.560 The Samaritans were the enemies of the Jews who had returned from exile after 70 years of exile

00:07:17.300 in Babylon. Cyrus, in his first year as king, he gave an edict, a decree that the Jews should go

00:07:24.920 out of exile back to their homeland of Israel, the promised land, and that the temple should be

00:07:31.220 rebuilt and that he would furnish this rebuilding project of the city, not just the temple, but the

00:07:36.860 whole city of Jerusalem, including and especially the temple, out of his own royal treasury. This

00:07:43.020 was the decree of Cyrus in his first year of reign, where he lets Israel go. They had been in exile

00:07:50.180 in Babylon for a very long time, 70 years to be precise, and he lets them go. Now Cyrus came into 0.82

00:07:56.460 power because Cyrus, teaming up with another Darius, it's not the same Darius, but another

00:08:03.320 Darius, the two of them together, representing both the Persians and the Medes, together they

00:08:08.200 sacked Babylon and took it over in a night. And so they took over Babylon. And then in the very 0.98

00:08:15.460 first year of Cyrus now reigning, because Darius, his partner in this endeavor of taking over

00:08:21.160 Babylon, was older. And so in a sense, he effectively retired, or at least gave the matter

00:08:28.020 of the Jews, at least that territory, that arena, to Cyrus for his determination, for his rule. 0.56

00:08:36.740 And Cyrus then, in his first year, after taking over Babylon with Darius, the Persian and the 0.97

00:08:41.660 Medes teaming up together, Cyrus says, let's let the people of God go. Cyrus, he received revelation 0.59

00:08:49.560 from the Lord. Whether or not Cyrus was actually regenerate is inconclusive. People have debated

00:08:56.120 this issue. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. But he certainly recognized God revealed at least enough

00:09:02.240 of his character and his existence and his will to Cyrus that Cyrus became an advocate of God's

00:09:10.180 people, the Jews. That doesn't necessarily mean he was regenerate. It doesn't mean that God revealed

00:09:16.200 to him his son, Jesus Christ, and that Cyrus trusted in the promised coming Messiah, the son

00:09:23.340 of God for the forgiveness of sins and regeneration and a new heart. We don't know whether or not that

00:09:28.780 was the case, but he certainly came, received revelation from God and came to the conclusion

00:09:34.160 that there was a one true God above all other gods in heaven and that this God had made a covenant

00:09:40.920 with Israel and that it was the will of God that he should be an advocate of Israel and send them

00:09:47.660 back to their homeland and furnish them out of his own treasury for the rebuilding of the temple.

00:09:55.100 All right, so that's the context. Now the Jews, it's been several years now, so they go back in 1.00

00:09:59.600 the first year of Cyrus when he makes this original decree for the Jews to be let out of exile and to 0.95

00:10:05.640 begin rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple. They go back, they start to rebuild, but then they quickly 0.78

00:10:11.000 experience resistance. And the resistance comes primarily from multiple sources, but primarily

00:10:17.160 from the Samaritans. The Samaritans were those who were not in exile previously for 70 years,

00:10:22.980 like the Jews in Babylon. But the Samaritans remained in this region, this geographic region

00:10:29.340 of Israel, their homeland. And when Israel went into exile, that actually worked out fairly well

00:10:35.400 for the Samaritans, because the Samaritans were able to replace them. That, right? Israel's gone. 0.88

00:10:41.160 There's free stuff, free land. Yeah, a lot of the city has been destroyed, but we can move in here 0.97

00:10:46.980 some of the homes we can patch up, we can fix, we can live in them. This works out pretty well.

00:10:52.160 And furthermore, what we saw in chapter 4 and chapter 5 of the book of Ezra is that some of

00:10:57.760 these officials among the Samaritans are on the king's payroll. Specifically, the text says that

00:11:04.380 they ate the salt from the king's table. Now, whether or not that means that the king supplied

00:11:10.020 salt for them to sprinkle on their meal, so they had to come up with a meal and they get a little

00:11:14.000 bit of what that's probably not what's being said instead what that probably means um that the king

00:11:19.800 supplied them with salt is it's probably that from that particular resource of the king they

00:11:25.820 received their living from all the salt commerce and trade from the salt industry underneath the

00:11:33.040 king that's where they received their revenue that they were somehow involved in the salt trade

00:11:38.080 and their reward was that they would be paid a commission or a portion of all the trade and all

00:11:45.200 the salt proceeds that went to the king. In other words, they took the king's coin. When you take

00:11:50.780 the king's coin, you become the king's man, right? So they are pro the king. And one of the things

00:11:56.340 that they don't want, there's a couple things, but one thing that they don't want is to be displaced,

00:12:01.220 right? They actually took the place of Israel over these last 70 years. The Samaritans took their 0.79

00:12:06.740 place when Israel for 70 years was in captivity in exile in Babylon. Now that Israel is coming back 1.00

00:12:12.900 because of Cyrus's decree, they don't like it because Israel has the king's order, the king's 0.52

00:12:18.740 backing, his resources, his command, his law to now rebuild Jerusalem. And of course, the obvious 0.56

00:12:26.260 implication is to rebuild Jerusalem and inhabit it, to live there, which means if anybody else is 0.96

00:12:31.960 living there. They got to get out. And they don't like this. And so they're trying to come up with 1.00

00:12:37.400 some kind of reasoning to say, this is a bad idea. Now, we don't know all the specifics, but one of

00:12:43.660 the things that we see throughout the book of Ezra in the first five chapters is that Cyrus is

00:12:48.360 eventually either replaced. So either he dies and someone replaces him, or perhaps Cyrus delegates

00:12:55.300 this Israel project, rebuilding project, to a lower official, which would still be a high official,

00:13:01.820 but not all the way to the status of the king.

00:13:04.560 And one of the names that appears is Artaxerxes.

00:13:07.980 And so the Samaritans, 0.96

00:13:10.000 who don't want the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem 1.00

00:13:12.160 and kick them out and inhabit it, 0.82

00:13:14.080 they write to Artaxerxes.

00:13:15.960 And what they say is they say,

00:13:17.480 check all of the records, right?

00:13:19.800 The annals of history.

00:13:21.520 Go and make reference.

00:13:22.800 And what you'll find is that Jerusalem, 1.00

00:13:24.980 this city is a threat. 1.00

00:13:27.660 It's not a good idea to rebuild Jerusalem 0.97

00:13:30.940 because this city has a history, and they specifically say this, of being a rebellious

00:13:36.060 city and defying kings and princes. And so, all of a sudden, until all that can be verified,

00:13:45.220 what ends up happening is that Artaxerxes, he does go and make reference. He searches the

00:13:50.700 chronicles of history. He finds that that is true, that Jerusalem is a city of sedition. 1.00

00:13:56.220 it is a rebellious city that opposes kings and so then he puts a stop at least a pause 0.99

00:14:03.260 to Cyrus's previous order to rebuild Jerusalem and the Jews have to stop now so now the rebuilding

00:14:09.840 project of the temple and the city of Jerusalem all that goes on pause but further in the text

00:14:15.640 in these first five chapters of the book of Ezra what we find is that apparently they continue to

00:14:21.960 rebuild the city in terms of their homes. There's really only two things that they actually stop

00:14:28.220 building. One is the temple, and the second one is the walls. So the place of worship, the temple,

00:14:36.560 and the place of military defense, the walls. So they stop that, and by stopping the rebuilding

00:14:44.080 project of the walls and the temples, that seems to be sufficient. It satisfies the Samaritans. 0.99

00:14:48.780 the samaritans leave them alone there's no more back and forth with artaxerxes and it seems

00:14:54.140 completely permissible for them to rebuild their homes so long as they don't rebuild the walls

00:15:00.360 and the temple now the truth is that jerusalem was a rebellious city jerusalem in its best days

00:15:08.640 so i'm talking about jerusalem in its best days which is a minority of the time to be clear right

00:15:14.000 You've got kind of a ratio of one to three, right?

00:15:18.620 One good king to three bad kings in Israel.

00:15:21.140 I mean, you know, they don't do great, okay?

00:15:24.220 But there are some moments in Israel where things go well. 0.80

00:15:27.740 David was a good moment. 0.82

00:15:29.140 Solomon, at least, you know, most of his rule.

00:15:31.640 Towards the end, he actually set the stage for the division, right? 0.82

00:15:36.220 Where Judah is now separate from Israel. 0.92

00:15:38.660 So Israel gets divided and separated by Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, and likely a lot of that

00:15:46.060 really stems from his embrace of many foreign wives and their foreign gods and tolerating and

00:15:52.160 even building high places for his wives to worship their foreign gods. And his heart begins to drift

00:15:59.380 away from the Lord. And that sets the stage for his son to then be a foolish man. And Israel loses 1.00

00:16:05.840 some of its former glory by being split in two, Judah to the north and then Israel. But Solomon,

00:16:13.140 most of his reign, pretty good. David, his reign, really good. Even King Saul at the beginning

00:16:18.540 was pretty good. Josiah was great. Jehu was fair, right? There's some decent kings in the history

00:16:26.440 of Israel. And in the good times, here's the point. In the best times of Israel, Jerusalem was a

00:16:32.560 rebellious city. To who? Rebellious to every foreign pagan idol-worshiping king who opposed 0.99

00:16:41.620 Yahweh. Per their perspective, sure, Jerusalem was rebellious. But not in the objective sense. 0.82

00:16:49.700 When Jerusalem was doing well under good kings with people whose hearts in a generation where

00:16:55.100 the hearts of the people had turned to the Lord and were fervently worshiping Yahweh, in those

00:16:59.760 times in the objective truest theological sense Israel and Jerusalem was not rebellious but in 0.60

00:17:07.280 the perspective of pagan kings and nations who worship false gods they seemed utterly rebellious

00:17:14.660 that Jerusalem was a city of sedition a city of rebellion when it when it came to the purview 0.98

00:17:21.240 of kings and kingdoms who were opposed to Yahweh and so too that should be true of the New Testament 0.93

00:17:26.980 Christian church of Christians today. Christians are not, by nature, in the objective, true sense, 0.70

00:17:34.060 we are not radicals. We are not rebels. We are not vigilantes. Christians should be some of the

00:17:42.740 most well-behaved, responsible, kind, upstanding citizens in any nation. However, when there are 0.98

00:17:54.520 kings who are pagans and who hate God and who put forth laws that are directly in contradiction to

00:18:03.160 the word of God, then sure, in terms of perspective, subjectively, then Christians, the new Jerusalem, 0.92

00:18:11.080 yeah, you do begin to look like rebellious people. Sure, but not truly. You're not actually 0.94

00:18:17.660 rebellious. What's actually going on is that there is a God in heaven. Caesar is not God,

00:18:22.380 but ultimately there's a God in heaven above Caesar.

00:18:25.240 Caesar is in rebellion to God.

00:18:27.200 You below Caesar are in submission to God

00:18:30.060 and therefore your submission to God

00:18:32.380 while Caesar is rebelling against God

00:18:34.680 looks like rebellion to Caesar.

00:18:37.060 It looks like you're rebelling against Caesar

00:18:38.840 because you're submitting to God above Caesar

00:18:41.020 and Caesar happens to be in the moment

00:18:43.200 rebelling against God

00:18:44.520 and so therefore your submission to God

00:18:46.640 is a rebellion to Caesar's rebellion against God.

00:18:50.260 But that doesn't mean in the objective sense

00:18:52.160 that Christians are actually being rebellious.

00:18:54.680 And so too, that's what's going on with the history 0.93

00:18:57.500 that's been recovered about Jerusalem and Israel.

00:19:01.480 And so Artaxerxes says, stop the project

00:19:03.840 because I don't want Jerusalem to be rebuilt,

00:19:07.260 the temple and especially the walls, 0.84

00:19:09.560 the military defense to where all of a sudden

00:19:11.900 this, what's supposed to be a province of my empire

00:19:15.900 would become a sovereign, autonomous,

00:19:18.820 independent nation state

00:19:20.080 that would no longer pay tribute.

00:19:22.160 and that's what the Samaritans wrote and said. They wrote back and said, you don't want to do

00:19:26.880 this. Now, what's the Samaritans' real motive, right? Well, they just, they care very, very much 0.98

00:19:31.660 for the honor of the king. That's what the text says. We care about the honor of the king. No,

00:19:35.060 you care about the salt from the king's table. That's what you actually care about. You don't

00:19:40.380 want Jerusalem to be re-established, not because in the objective sense, they'll be rebellious. 1.00

00:19:45.640 Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. But in the subjective sense, they may appear to be rebellious

00:19:51.920 if they gain power and prestige to a pagan king and that would stand as a hindrance a roadblock

00:20:00.000 in your sweet deal that you've got going on where you get to receive the king's coin that's what 0.97

00:20:06.640 you don't want to happen and it works the samaritans that's their plan in a nutshell they

00:20:11.560 write to artaxerxes cyrus for whatever reason he's either dead at this point or he's removed from the

00:20:16.900 picture somehow, and Artaxerxes makes the call and says, all this rebuilding project, put an end to

00:20:23.300 it. Now, about, you know, scholars, you know, they differ on the timeline, but most agree that it was

00:20:29.520 probably about nine years at least. Nine years minimum, perhaps all the way up to 15 years at

00:20:35.720 the longer timeline. So nine to 15 years, probably closer to nine or 10 years, have passed since

00:20:43.640 artaxerxes said stop the building project all right so cyrus is out of the picture and apparently

00:20:48.920 artaxerxes is now out of the picture that comes to our text today ezra chapter 6 verses 1 through

00:20:54.040 12 it's darius now now that's the same name it was cyrus and darius the medes and the persians

00:21:00.720 teamed up together that sacked babylon in the first place at the end of that 70 year exile for

00:21:05.900 Israel. This is not the same Darius but this is another Darius who is now appears to be king and

00:21:13.680 he's making the calls and so the Jews they have a new guy to appeal to and they're hoping that this 0.82

00:21:19.180 guy will be more reasonable. A similar situation to Cyrus. We don't know definitively whether or 0.50

00:21:25.000 not this Darius is born again. Regenerate. A Christian. Saved. But we do know that God has

00:21:32.000 revealed something to him. Doesn't necessarily mean that God has revealed the gospel of salvation

00:21:39.160 by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, and given him repentance and faith and

00:21:44.100 caused him to be a new creature in Christ Jesus with a new heart. We don't know that. But we know

00:21:49.100 that God has revealed something to him. And God has revealed enough to Darius to where when he

00:21:54.660 receives the petition from the Jews saying, we want to start back up the building project. And 0.96

00:22:00.160 what we're going to appeal to as the basis of authority is the original decree from Cyrus,

00:22:04.800 please make search and find it. Darius cares enough. He's had enough revelation from God,

00:22:11.320 at least general revelation, that God exists, right? Maybe not that Jesus is Savior, the coming

00:22:16.920 Messiah, and the forgiveness of sins, but enough revelation from God that God exists, that God is

00:22:22.360 supreme. He's a God of heaven and earth, and that he is rightly to be worshiped, that the

00:22:30.000 locale under the old covenant at this time the locale for worship is uh jerusalem that the temple

00:22:35.960 needs to be rebuilt um and that this will have an effect on him and here's the key thing that i want

00:22:42.080 us to narrow down uh in the text today uh that whether or not god yahweh the true god is worshipped

00:22:48.860 will have an effect for better or for worse on the king and his sons look at this real quick we've

00:22:55.820 got to read verses eight and ten eight or eight nine and ten here it goes moreover this is Darius 0.59

00:23:03.260 saying moreover I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the 0.69

00:23:08.080 rebuilding of this house of God the cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from 0.85

00:23:14.420 the royal revenue so boom he's going right back to the original decree from Cyrus not just giving

00:23:19.520 permission to rebuild the temple and the walls in Jerusalem but saying I will furnish the project

00:23:25.320 out of my own royal revenue these men are to be paid in full and without delay from the royal

00:23:31.080 revenue the tribute of the province from beyond the river and whatever is needed now notice he's

00:23:37.000 going a little bit further he says whatever is needed bulls rams so he's already covered timber

00:23:43.300 stone gold the things to actually build the temple he's not talking about the building of the temple

00:23:49.120 now he's already covered that he said you're allowed to do it and i'll pay for the building

00:23:53.640 of the temple but now he's talking about something beyond just the rebuilding project of the temple

00:23:57.980 whatever else is needed is the implication bulls rams or sheep for burnt offerings to the god of

00:24:04.320 heaven wheat salt wine or oil as the priest at jerusalem require let that be given to them day

00:24:11.300 by day without fail that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the god of heaven and here it is

00:24:17.380 and I think this is the key to our text today and pray for the life of the king and his sons

00:24:24.340 and then he goes on and makes his prohibitions his threats if anybody hinders this work if they make

00:24:31.120 make it to where uh the men in Israel are not paid where they don't get the revenue out of the royal

00:24:36.900 treasury for two things rebuilding the temple and worshiping at the altar today so rebuilding the

00:24:43.880 temple for the future worship, right? But in the meantime, it's not just rebuild the temple as fast

00:24:49.660 as you can so that you can begin worshiping. Look, Darius is going way beyond that. Notice this.

00:24:55.160 He's saying you get everything you need to rebuild the temple and don't allow delay. Notice how many

00:25:00.740 times without delay, without delay. So he's saying rebuild the temple as fast as you can and I'll pay

00:25:05.520 for it. And even that's not quick enough. In the meantime, until the temple gets rebuilt and you're

00:25:11.460 able to worship properly in the temple. I know that you guys have been worshiping at the altar.

00:25:15.760 So Israel, what they had, the moment they stepped back into their homeland, out of 70 years of exile

00:25:19.960 in Babylon, they didn't have the temple built yet. They had to work on that. But they did have an

00:25:24.580 altar. They were able to set up an altar, and they were able to make sacrifices and intercession and

00:25:30.140 prayer at the altar as they're waiting for the temple's completion. And notice, this isn't the

00:25:35.940 Jews saying, hey, we should worship at the altar until we complete the temple. This is Darius,

00:25:39.940 a pagan king he's not a Jew he is not by birth anyway a worshiper of Yahweh and he's saying 0.96

00:25:47.080 build that temple as fast as you can here's a blank check I'll pay for it and even that's not 0.98

00:25:53.500 quick enough in the meantime because I know you can't build it overnight even if you're working

00:25:57.840 as fast as possible and I'm giving you as much resources as possible it still won't be done

00:26:03.140 overnight and so in the meantime here let me give you bulls let me give you rams let me give you

00:26:07.680 sheep. Let me give you goats. Start making sacrifices. And he says these should be given

00:26:12.020 day by day. Start making daily sacrifices at the altar until you complete the temple so that you

00:26:19.140 can do what? Offer prayers to the God of heaven for me and my kids. And here's the point. We don't

00:26:27.800 know. The text doesn't tell us. But likely, I think at least, this would not be what you would

00:26:33.860 call in hermeneutics a necessary inference, but you would call it a plausible interpretation or

00:26:38.660 a plausible implication from the text. It's not explicit, but it is implicit. And it's not just,

00:26:45.260 you know, like a 10% chance likelihood, but I would say it's beyond that, just not just a raw

00:26:49.900 possibility, but a probability, more likely than not. And what is it that's more likely than not

00:26:55.160 by way of implication from verse 10 of our text today? Darius is probably in some kind of significant

00:27:01.880 trouble. There's probably some kind of threat to his kingdom or some inward threat within his

00:27:09.640 kingdom and an assassination plan that he's gotten word of. Or maybe there's some kind of

00:27:16.140 disease or sickness with him and his sons that they discover in their genetic code that his

00:27:23.320 family line is threatened by disease or by disaster or by sickness or by danger or by

00:27:30.360 military threats or by inward mutiny whatever it might be there's some kind of trouble going on

00:27:37.260 and and here's what he does that shows us the sense of urgency that he has that there's something

00:27:43.980 significant brewing beneath the surface the samaritans echo the the the petition the request

00:27:53.180 of the jews where okay arctic xerxes cyrus says go rebuild the temple now we got arctic xerxes he

00:27:59.020 says stop it because i looked at the history books and jerusalem was rebellious and now we've got

00:28:03.880 darius and so now the the jews make a new appeal and say darius go back and you'll find that the

00:28:10.140 the first it's he said he said he said he's but if you go back and you find the first official

00:28:15.600 kingly royal decree from cyrus he said we get to do this and the samaritans remember they're trying 0.95

00:28:23.720 to stop all this they've taken the king's coin they become the king's man eating from the salt 0.99

00:28:29.000 on the king's payroll they're trying to stop it you would think that the samaritans when the jews 0.98

00:28:33.360 say go and look for cyrus's decree and they say that to darius you think the samaritans would 0.83

00:28:37.680 say no no no don't do that but the samaritans actually echo the request of the jews the jews

00:28:44.260 they they submit an official formal request to darius to find the original decree from cyrus

00:28:50.880 and the samaritans say yeah yeah do that why well probably because the samaritans had some kind of

00:28:57.900 hand apart in that decree being hidden. It should have been located at Babylon because that's where

00:29:03.440 it was made. Cyrus made the decree at Babylon and according to their customs and their procedures

00:29:09.000 it should have been recorded there on file. But it wasn't. It was in a separate place. That's what

00:29:15.120 we found in verse 2. And in Ekbatana the citadel that is in the province of Media a scroll was

00:29:22.100 found. It wasn't in Babylon. It was somewhere else and the Samaritans probably knew that it was

00:29:27.740 somewhere else because they probably behind the scenes in a secretive manner had a part to play

00:29:33.180 in the decree being hidden away. So they echo the Jews petition to Darius to go and find the 0.87

00:29:39.040 original decree from Cyrus because it's a bluff. They know that the decree won't be found but this 0.99

00:29:44.860 is what they didn't count on. What they were probably banking on is that Darius would search

00:29:49.840 for the decree in Babylon knowing that he would not find it in Babylon because they had partnered

00:29:56.300 to hide it elsewhere and then they probably assumed that after Darius made search for Cyrus's

00:30:02.100 original decree in Babylon that the search would end and Darius would say there is no such decree

00:30:06.640 and the pause on the rebuilding project would continue indefinitely and the Samaritans would

00:30:11.780 be able to continue power and eating from the king's table being the king's men. This is what 0.89

00:30:16.740 they didn't count on. They didn't count on Darius and this is an unusual thing that he would search

00:30:21.960 all of Babylon, not find the decree from Cyrus that was written in Babylon. That's where it

00:30:27.620 should be. But then he would send and commission all of his men to search everywhere in the entire

00:30:34.360 empire. That's what the Samaritans weren't banking on. Why would Darius do that? Why would, I mean, 0.58

00:30:42.260 he's got a thousand different issues that he's handling. Remember, this is just one province.

00:30:46.460 Think of an empire.

00:30:47.400 Think of Assyria, right?

00:30:49.140 Think of Babylon, right?

00:30:50.720 Think of the Ottoman Empire, right?

00:30:52.780 Think of America.

00:30:54.800 I would love for us not to be an empire,

00:30:56.400 but sadly we have been for quite a while.

00:30:59.120 So think of how many issues.

00:31:00.800 Why this one?

00:31:01.720 You've got all these provinces.

00:31:03.500 You've got all these squabbles,

00:31:05.240 all these different things.

00:31:06.360 You're trying to, you know,

00:31:07.580 conquest for land over here,

00:31:09.740 and then this province is being contested

00:31:12.080 by this enemy over there,

00:31:13.360 and this and there's that.

00:31:14.520 And you're going to say everywhere,

00:31:16.200 stop what you're doing i've got provinces all over the known world we're talking about babylon

00:31:21.900 and it's hated i've got provinces all over the known world and i want everybody everywhere to

00:31:28.740 stop what they're doing and look for this decree right the samaritans did not they were not banking

00:31:35.360 on that right they're bluffing they're saying yeah yeah the jews said look for this decree and the

00:31:40.040 jews probably thought it was in babylon that's where it should have been that's where cyrus wrote

00:31:42.940 it. And the Samaritans know it's not in Babylon because we had a hand in hiding it. So we're

00:31:47.820 going to echo the Jews petition to seem like, oh yeah, we're unbiased in this. Yeah, go ahead and 0.94

00:31:53.300 search for the decree. Knowing secretly, no, we hid it. It'll never be found. But what they failed

00:31:58.780 to bank on was that Darius wouldn't just look in Babylon. He would stop everyone everywhere and

00:32:04.220 look until it was found. Why would Darius do that? Again, back to my theory here, which I think is,

00:32:09.940 again it's not explicit in the text but I think it's a probable implication Darius and his sons

00:32:16.340 are in trouble Darius wants to find that decree because he's received some kind of at least if

00:32:23.400 not special revelation salvific saving regeneration he's at least at minimum received general revelation

00:32:30.120 from the Lord and with that general revelation from the Lord that God is real that Yahweh is

00:32:34.800 the true God above all other gods that he is the creator of heaven and earth and that the rightful

00:32:39.300 place for his worship is in Jerusalem with this temple being rebuilt. Beyond just that general

00:32:44.960 revelation that Darius certainly has received from the Lord, at least at minimum, in addition

00:32:50.780 to that, he probably is also experiencing some kind of judgment from the Lord. It is likely that

00:32:57.640 Babylon has been under, and Darius and his sons, his house specifically, has been under some kind

00:33:04.620 of judgment and probably did not initially know what it was. What's going on? We're powerful,

00:33:11.040 we're mighty, and yet we're losing here, we're losing there. Or what's going on? My son is sick,

00:33:16.640 and now my other son is sick. We don't know exactly what it is. This is just conjecture.

00:33:21.940 These are just possibilities. But it seems as though two things happen simultaneously. Darius

00:33:27.660 gets general revelation from the Lord, and he's also experiencing being under judgment from the

00:33:34.460 and that expedites. That's the source of the urgency. Now, I don't know about you, but this

00:33:41.680 is, you know, one of the classic, you know, tricks of the trade that God has within his arsenal

00:33:46.080 that doesn't just work on Darius. It works on me. It works on me. God from his words with a

00:33:53.520 conviction and illumination of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I'm reading the word of God.

00:33:57.200 The Spirit illuminates the word of God, brings conviction of sin, and I feel some degree of

00:34:02.900 urgency, I should repent. And then if I stall in my repentance for a little while, but then something

00:34:11.180 starts to happen, I get sick, kid gets sick, there's this struggle, this problem, then all of a sudden

00:34:18.940 I've got conviction, revelation from the scripture, and I'm experiencing some, in my case, being born

00:34:25.780 again a Christian, it would not be a punishment, but I am experiencing discipline. Think of Hebrews

00:34:30.980 12, that God disciplines his sons that he loves. So I'm under the Lord's fatherly discipline in

00:34:36.960 that moment. And I'm receiving conviction and illumination, revelation from the spirit,

00:34:41.900 working in conjunction with his word. And what is the result? I'm going to move quick

00:34:48.340 to set things in order. I'm going to move quickly to repent and make things right.

00:34:54.680 And it seems as though from our text, that is likely what's going on with Darius. Darius and

00:35:00.160 his sons. We don't know what the trouble is, but it seems as though there is some trouble. And so

00:35:04.880 what they want to do, what Darius wants to do, is he wants this temple to get back in order, this

00:35:09.900 rebuilding project. He's going to resource it out of his own treasury. It needs to go as quickly as

00:35:14.460 possible. And in the meantime, because we're not going to waste a single day, prayers and

00:35:18.820 intercessions and sacrifices need to resume in Israel at the altar as we're waiting for the

00:35:24.780 temple. And these prayers need to be worshiped to God, the God of heaven. But also, while we're at

00:35:30.600 it, they need to be intercessions for me and my sons. That's verse 8, 9, and 10. All right, lastly,

00:35:38.500 landing the plane here. And then I'll give us a few applications for us personally as New Testament

00:35:43.180 believers today. So number one, what are the big highlights of Darius' decree? He makes search. He

00:35:48.660 doesn't find Cyrus' original decree in Babylon. He searches everywhere. He finally finds it in media.

00:35:54.780 and then once he finds it, he echoes everything that Cyrus said previously, and if anything, he adds

00:36:00.320 in terms of his threats. You're going to be impaled on a beam from your house. Your house will be made

00:36:05.060 a dunghill, right? So that means you're dead, your house is shamed, and may the God of heaven bring 0.89

00:36:12.940 judgment upon you. Verse 11, also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be

00:36:18.980 pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill, but

00:36:23.500 then verse 12, and may the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people

00:36:29.300 who shall put out a hand to alter this or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem.

00:36:35.680 So he says, death penalty for anyone who gets in the way, shame to your entire house for anyone

00:36:42.500 who gets in the way, and if I missed anyone, may God judge him, whether it be a king or a pauper,

00:36:49.140 Either way.

00:36:50.020 So that's where he goes beyond merely what Cyrus wrote.

00:36:53.680 So number one, Darius forbids his officers to do anything in opposition to the building of the temple.

00:36:59.500 Cyrus had that too.

00:37:00.980 He's reinstating that.

00:37:02.220 Number two, Darius orders that provisions be made out of his own revenue to assist the builders,

00:37:07.000 not only for the rebuilding of the temple, that's verses 4, 5, and 6,

00:37:10.320 but also to make sufficient sacrifices and worship at the altar as the temple is being built.

00:37:15.540 That's verses 8, 9, and 10.

00:37:17.420 Seems like there's a personal agenda there.

00:37:21.480 Pray for me and my sons.

00:37:22.780 The king is likely in trouble.

00:37:24.100 We've already spent plenty of time there.

00:37:25.420 Number three, Darius enforces this decree

00:37:28.160 with a penalty of death and public shame

00:37:30.560 and pulled on the beam of his house 0.57

00:37:32.580 and his house be made a dunghill.

00:37:35.560 That's verse 11.

00:37:36.640 And then lastly, number four,

00:37:38.180 Darius even calls for a divine curse

00:37:40.200 upon all those kings and people

00:37:42.180 that should ever have any hand

00:37:44.100 in the destruction of this house,

00:37:46.100 namely the temple,

00:37:47.140 That's verse 12, meaning whatever Darius could not do himself for the protection of the temple,

00:37:52.720 he commissions that God, the God of vengeance, that he would perform that vengeance himself.

00:37:59.000 All right, now application for us, and we'll be done.

00:38:03.300 So this is what, as I was praying about the text and thinking, okay, how does it apply?

00:38:06.800 How does it apply, right?

00:38:07.700 Because that's what we want to do.

00:38:08.820 I've told you guys a ton of times, but for anybody who's new, good preaching,

00:38:12.960 I believe that good faithful preaching is composed of three primary parts,

00:38:16.300 revelation interpretation application revelation is that the man of god stands behind the pulpit

00:38:21.900 in front of the people of god and he does not say i have a dream he does not say i have a church

00:38:25.620 growth strategy he doesn't say i have a powerpoint presentation he says i have a text so the

00:38:30.340 revelation is not the revelation of man it is the revelation of god which has been prescribed for us

00:38:36.120 in the word so when i say a revelation good preaching has a revelation i'm saying it has a

00:38:40.760 text. Good preaching has Bible. I have a text. Second, good preaching has interpretation. So

00:38:47.580 here's the text, the revelation, interpretation. This is the proper exegesis of the text. This is

00:38:52.640 what God means by his word. Revelation, the Bible. Interpretation, a faithful exegesis of the Bible.

00:39:00.900 But sadly, within even our own camp, the Reformed camp, Reformed evangelicals, that is where many

00:39:07.040 preachers stop. And if you stop merely at revelation interpretation, you have not preached.

00:39:12.420 What you have provided for your people is a 50 to 60 minute audible commentary on the Lord's Day,

00:39:18.600 but it is not a sermon. Because a sermon tells us what to do. Revelation interpretation application.

00:39:25.360 And hear me, for all of you who have been gospel-centered, centered, gospel, gospel-centered

00:39:29.260 for a very long time, and so you have an aversion, an allergic reaction to that phrase that I said,

00:39:34.600 a sermon tells us what to do. Allow me just settle down for a moment. Here's a clarification.

00:39:40.220 A sermon tells us what to do, and I do not mean that it tells us what to do in order to be saved

00:39:44.800 by our own doing. We are saved by Christ's doing. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone,

00:39:51.580 in Christ alone. But a sermon does tell us what to do. Not what to do for salvation, but what to do

00:39:57.900 as a response of gratitude for salvation. The law of God still applies. It is not the means of

00:40:04.340 earning Christ's righteousness. But it is the means of walking in Christ's righteousness after

00:40:10.680 having received it by faith alone. So to not preach the law ever is antinomian. It is against

00:40:18.260 law. It is lawless. There are two ditches that we can fall into. Legalism is a real ditch.

00:40:25.320 You can be legalistic. But the heresy of legalism is not teaching the laws of God. That's not heresy.

00:40:31.560 the heresy of legalism is teaching obedience to the laws of god as a means of salvation

00:40:37.280 that's legalism but the bigger problem i think among evangelicals in general today

00:40:44.320 is not legalism we are so far from being legalistic right it would be like going to the

00:40:49.220 doctor and you are anorexic and you can barely stand up and all your bones are showing you go

00:40:55.240 to the doctor and say, I'm concerned about obesity. It's not your problem. American church, hear me.

00:41:03.520 Legalism, I'm concerned about legalism. Well, then stop. Just stop it. There's no need for concern.

00:41:10.600 Not in 2024. Right? I mean, if it was 60 years ago, maybe. Moralistic therapeutic deism, sure.

00:41:18.540 Right? If it was the 1950s right now, you say, I'm concerned about the mere appearance of

00:41:24.020 behaviorism and just being a good person, just to be a good person, because it's going to give

00:41:30.100 you certain benefits in society, because society in general embraces Christian doctrine. So if I

00:41:34.900 pretend to be a Christian, pretend to be a good person, my business will do better, right? My 0.98

00:41:39.360 reputation in the community will be better. Sure, if it was the 1950s and you said, Joel, I think

00:41:45.080 that legalism might be something to preach on, I'd say, yes, brother, I'm with you. It's not the 1950s.

00:41:50.700 it is it is 2024 evangelicals are so far from that ditch of legalism i i you can't even see it

00:42:00.660 if you wanted to fall in the ditch of legalism you would have to run like 10 football fields

00:42:05.900 to to get there you're not even close but but where the evangelical church in america is in

00:42:13.200 the year of our lord 2024 is not legalism but lawlessness christians and this is sad christians

00:42:19.440 hate the law of God today. They do. They hate it. David said, I delight in your law, right? Because

00:42:27.040 David was a legalist and he thought by obedience to the law he could save himself. No. David delighted

00:42:31.980 in the law of God because he knew that the law of God was not just what was morally right, but it was

00:42:36.000 also beneficial and good. That God is not arbitrary or capricious. God doesn't say, this is what I

00:42:42.320 have deemed as being right. Oh, and by the way, it also will have no benefits. No, no. That which

00:42:47.700 is right is also that which leads to life eternal life no what leads to eternal life is not our

00:42:53.440 obedience to the law but christ perfect obedience to the law as a substitute on our behalf and us

00:42:59.280 trusting in him and his righteousness alone that's what leads to eternal life but but life here on

00:43:04.940 earth yeah obedience helps right the fifth commandment not just in exodus 20 well that's

00:43:11.860 Old Testament. No, no, no. Paul repeats the fifth commandment in Ephesians chapter 6, and he

00:43:17.480 reinstates. He doesn't just say the commandment still stands. He says the promise is just as good

00:43:22.420 for New Testament Christians as it was for Israel under the old covenant. Children, obey your parents 0.86

00:43:27.600 and the Lord. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you, that you'll

00:43:31.860 receive eternal life. No, no. Obedience to the law doesn't save, but that it will go well with you,

00:43:37.980 and that you will live a long life here in the land.

00:43:42.320 Obedience to the law of God, our obedience to the law of God,

00:43:45.180 does not save us for eternal life, but it does benefit us for this life.

00:43:51.380 And to preach anything otherwise is just not Christian doctrine.

00:43:56.380 It denies 2,000 years of historical Orthodox Christian doctrine.

00:44:01.740 and it's also 0.97

00:44:04.540 sadly a great description

00:44:06.680 of the average evangelical church today

00:44:08.360 denying 2,000 years of

00:44:10.580 historic orthodox Christian doctrine

00:44:12.420 how many pastors have you

00:44:14.380 I don't want to preach law

00:44:15.240 I don't want to preach law

00:44:18.080 why

00:44:19.240 what do you mean I don't want to preach law

00:44:22.340 what you just said is I don't want to preach

00:44:24.600 half of the Bible

00:44:25.520 no no no yeah we want to preach law

00:44:30.740 the question is how do we preach law we of course we got to preach law because all scripture not

00:44:37.620 half of it all scriptures god breathed and useful so the man of god might be fully equipped for

00:44:43.020 every good work all of the scripture must be preached therefore gospel and law must be preached

00:44:47.920 the question is how gospel is preached for salvation law is preached not to achieve salvation

00:44:56.680 but as our responsive obedience for salvation. Right? 1 John 4, 19. We love because He first

00:45:04.420 loved us. So it all starts with God. God chooses. God saves. God, the Holy Spirit, regenerates,

00:45:11.780 gives us a new heart, grants us the gifts. Man does not conjure this up in his own power, his

00:45:16.820 own doing, but rather the gifts of faith and repentance are granted by God. God does all of

00:45:22.300 that. And when he does that, we cannot help but properly respond with a responsive love for him.

00:45:28.660 He loved us. We then respond with love for him. We love because he first loved us. But then the

00:45:33.820 very next question that is begged is this. Once God initiates salvific love in Christ Jesus for

00:45:40.780 his elect and causes us to be born again, and we then respond supernaturally with new hearts,

00:45:47.700 as new creatures with a responsive love for him. The very next question is, Jesus, I've come to

00:45:53.120 love you. I see that you first loved me. I now have been made alive, and I, as a response, love you.

00:45:58.640 How can I show you that I love you? How can I prove my love for you? And what does he say?

00:46:02.480 If you love me, you will obey my commandments. And so we preach law, so that we know what the

00:46:10.320 commandments all. So that we might earn salvation? No. But so that we might respond in love for

00:46:18.540 salvation. And anything less than that is not gospel centrality. It is antinomian lawlessness

00:46:27.040 that denies 2,000 years of the historic Christian faith. So again, all that to say what I've already 0.66

00:46:33.680 said, good preaching does include at least three primary elements. Revelation, not I have a dream,

00:46:42.000 I have a text. And yes, that is a knock on Martin Luther King, for which I don't apologize. So I

00:46:47.960 have a text. Revelation comes from God, not the revelation of man. Two, I have an interpretation

00:46:53.060 of that text. I'm not just going to tell you what I want it to mean, reading into the text what is

00:46:57.920 not there. Eisegesis. But reading out of the text, drawing out God's meaning from the text.

00:47:03.620 Exegesis. Revelation interpretation. But lastly, because if we stop there, you have an audible

00:47:08.680 commentary, but you do not have a sermon. Lastly, application. What do I do, preacher? Not what do I

00:47:16.020 do to earn salvation, but what do I do as a response for salvation? Here it is. This is the

00:47:21.480 only application I have for the text today. In light of everything that we've seen in Ezra,

00:47:26.060 chapter 1 2 3 4 5 and the first portion of chapter 6 today verses 1 through 12 there is a massive

00:47:34.860 gap so now the project is not on pause anymore it's finally starting to pick back up you had

00:47:40.300 cyrus boom we're rebuilding the temple we're rebuilding the walls rebuilding the houses

00:47:45.120 rebuilding jerusalem and then boom you've got artaxerxes and he's kind of being you know 0.95

00:47:51.000 puppeteered by the samaritans and everything is paused now everything's paused but then you go 0.62

00:47:57.440 from cyrus then the pause with artaxerxes and now to darius and everything is unpaused we're back

00:48:03.340 on schedule we're rebuilding again and this as i was praying and preparing this is what i thought

00:48:07.680 what about that intermediate time the artaxerxes chapter of the story in between cyrus and darius

00:48:15.300 because we've got at least nine years if not all the way up to 15 years how should Israel have

00:48:22.140 waited and for you and I as New Testament Israel how should we church of Jesus Christ how do we

00:48:29.620 wait how do we wait when when we lost Osiris we don't have some of the freedoms and the provisions

00:48:37.280 and the support from civil rulers and officials towards the Christian faith as we once perhaps

00:48:43.240 did in our nation in our history we've lost osiris and we have not yet gained the darius

00:48:51.360 in the intermediate season how do we wait i think there's at least three primary

00:48:55.420 characteristics of faithful christian waiting one we should wait with boldness two we should be busy

00:49:03.820 while we wait and three we should be brilliant that is we should be wise and strategic bold

00:49:11.480 busy, and brilliant. Or to state them in the negative, as Christians wait, we should avoid 0.97

00:49:16.980 three pitfalls. The opposite of boldness, which is cowardice. The opposite of being busy about 0.94

00:49:23.740 Christ and his kingdom. That is idleness, apathy, laziness. And the opposite of what it is to be

00:49:30.520 brilliant and wise and strategic. That is foolishness. In this season, the church of God, 0.99

00:49:38.080 we are waiting. We're waiting. And that doesn't mean that we can't do anything. Notice Israel was

00:49:44.060 still able to rebuild their homes. And if they were faithful and wise, they should have been 1.00

00:49:49.040 building Christian homes as they waited to rebuild the temple. Israel still had plenty of things that 0.84

00:49:55.660 they could do. They could still worship at the altar. They could still pursue holiness. They 0.99

00:50:01.580 could still enact and decree certain laws going back to the book of Moses, to the law of Moses,

00:50:07.760 in the Pentateuch. They could still rebuild their homes. They could build certain businesses. They

00:50:12.840 could position themselves strategically for a revival if it were to come. In other words,

00:50:20.400 God is sovereign. God alone is the one who directs the heart of a king like many waters.

00:50:25.540 God is the one, ultimately, in his sovereignty, who would have to move on the heart of a king

00:50:29.780 like Darius to say, it's go time. Everything's fully back in order. However, what we can do

00:50:36.000 in the meantime is God has to send the fire but by his grace we can be diligent to set the wood

00:50:42.720 to put as much kindling on the altar as humanly possible to preach to disciple to work to save

00:50:51.460 to pursue this to pursue that and all these different ways so that if revival would come

00:50:57.300 if God would be so gracious as to send a spark of fire we would have a mountain of kindling to 0.99

00:51:04.820 ignite be busy be busy also be bold right the proverbs say this that the fool the fool says 1.00

00:51:15.420 and not just the fool but the slugger it's not just that he's foolish he's lazy he says there's 1.00

00:51:20.400 a line in the street now there may be a line in the street there may not but but what we can't do 1.00

00:51:28.100 as christians is say well there might be a line in the street and therefore we'll never leave our

00:51:31.960 house. We just, we just, we'll never do anything. We'll never work. I remember that was one of the

00:51:36.860 main verses that I quoted with many pastors in April and May and June of 2020. There's a lion

00:51:45.400 in the street. There is a virus, you know, lion, a medical lion in the street. I said, okay, great.

00:51:55.620 So what are you, you're just going to sit in your house and die? Yeah, maybe there is a lion in the 0.97

00:52:00.260 street. But you can't say, because there is some kind of exterior threat, I therefore am morally

00:52:08.380 unobligated to obedience. No, no, no. You're still obligated to obey God. It's just now it's going

00:52:15.940 to take work and courage. Again, something in short supply among evangelicals today.

00:52:22.220 But that's what it's going to require. You're going to have to not only have hard work,

00:52:26.680 good work ethic but you're also going to have to have a spine a spine okay so bold

00:52:34.260 busy this is how we wait and we are waiting but the way that we wait upon the lord is not

00:52:41.500 is not with fear but with boldness not with laziness but with busyness hard work but lastly

00:52:50.000 here's the last one also not foolishly but wisely there is there is a wide chasm in between boldness

00:53:00.880 and foolishness when i say be bold i am not saying storm you know a capital building 0.97

00:53:10.100 that's not courage that's stupidity don't do that 0.98

00:53:16.640 now for the record in a defense of some of these individuals i can't speak to all of them i was 0.97

00:53:22.980 not there i don't know some there might have been some storming others it looks as though from video

00:53:29.880 footage there was some hand-holding and peaceful walking in as they were guided so it's a little

00:53:35.480 bit of a complicated situation. Probably not the best illustration for me to have used, but you get

00:53:40.800 my point. My point is don't be foolish. Don't be a vigilante. Don't take the bait. At the same time, 0.99

00:53:49.520 how often do we as Christians use wisdom as a euphemism for fear? I'm just being wise. No,

00:53:56.380 you're being scared. You're not being wise. You're being scared. Peter could have made a great

00:54:02.540 argument for wisdom to stay in the boat when Jesus called him out on the water, right? That's

00:54:09.580 an easy argument to make. I mean, it's pretty easy in the middle of a storm to say, wisdom, prudence

00:54:17.140 seems to insist, Jesus, I appreciate you. I recognize your lordship. I heard your command,

00:54:24.800 but Jesus, I just, I would, I would be remiss if I did not mention that one of your virtues is

00:54:31.500 wisdom. And it seems wise to not step on water in the middle of a storm. But that would not be

00:54:39.620 in that particular case wisdom. In any other case, not getting out of the boat in the middle of the

00:54:43.720 storm, that's wisdom. But there's one detail that changes the situation. And the detail is the word

00:54:52.580 of the Lord, the commandment of God. No, it's not wise to step onto water out of a ship in the middle

00:55:00.200 of the storm. It's not safe. It's not secure. It's not stable. However, here's the variable in the

00:55:09.740 equation. If Jesus is on the water and he just gave his words and commanded you to get out of

00:55:16.580 the boat, then at that point, the whole table turns. Now the least safe place that you could

00:55:24.660 possibly be is on that boat. Because Jesus is on the water and he has said, come. Do not call fear

00:55:35.340 wisdom. And for some of you in the room, do not call folly faith. Some of us, we call foolishness

00:55:45.440 faith. And some of us, we call cowardice wisdom. We need to know the difference between the two.

00:55:54.660 neither foolish, nor cowardly, having both faith and wisdom, and to be busy about the Lord's

00:56:05.500 kingdom, his business, as we wait upon him. Let's pray. Father, bless your word to your people. We

00:56:11.460 pray that it would bring forth fruit for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

00:56:24.660 Thank you.

The NXR Podcast - March 24, 2024

THE SERMON - The 3 Enemies Of Christendom： Cowardice, Idleness, & Foolishness

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