The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - Why Many Christians Don’t Want A Christian Nation

00:00:00.000 Amen. Would you join me before we begin by reading the text and preaching? Would you join me in

00:00:09.240 praying three specific prayers just for the life and the body of our church? I wanted to pray for

00:00:15.940 the Branch family that are with us today. Ashley Branch is going to be having surgery this next

00:00:21.460 week, and I wanted to pray for God's mercy and healing for her. Also for the Phillips, for those

00:00:27.260 of you who are not aware, most of you probably are at this point, but their oldest daughter,

00:00:32.500 Gracie, passed away a couple weeks ago. And so praying for them in regards to healing from grief.

00:00:40.360 And then lastly, myself and a few leaders from the church are going to be examining a couple

00:00:46.100 of potential buildings this week for the church to have a little bit more space and perhaps a

00:00:52.000 better location. So praying for favor and wisdom with that. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for

00:00:56.700 the Branch family. We thank you for Eric and Ashley. Lord, we ask for wisdom and a good report

00:01:06.000 and a successful surgery. We pray, Lord, that you would empower the doctors who are performing the

00:01:12.900 surgery to do it well. Lord, we pray for your supernatural healing, that if it be your will,

00:01:19.080 that they would discover that things are better than they presupposed. We pray for grace. We pray

00:01:26.060 for healing. We pray for peace also in the midst of this ordeal leading up and to the surgery and

00:01:33.220 during the surgery and after the surgery. Lord, we not only pray for physical well-being and healing,

00:01:38.800 but also for peace, a peace that surpasses all understanding for Ashley, but also for her

00:01:44.280 husband, her children. Lord, we pray for the Phillips family. And Lord, we pray that

00:01:48.420 your word is true. And we thank you for your promises that you are near to the brokenhearted

00:01:54.240 and the downtrodden.

00:01:55.920 And Lord, we pray that you would comfort the Phillips

00:01:57.900 as they grieve together as a family

00:01:59.800 over the loss of a daughter and a sister.

00:02:04.180 Lord, we pray that you would console them

00:02:06.300 and comfort them and heal them

00:02:08.640 and that you would reveal much about yourself

00:02:11.000 and greater depths of revelation and grace

00:02:13.500 of who you are and how you care for them

00:02:16.000 in the midst of this trial.

00:02:17.560 Lastly, Lord, we pray for favor

00:02:18.920 with Covenant Bible Church

00:02:20.700 as we seek to perhaps find a new location that is better,

00:02:26.220 that can accommodate families, especially with some auxiliary space

00:02:30.120 for nursing mothers and young children that need extra attentive care

00:02:35.620 as they're learning to worship you alongside their parents

00:02:39.580 and their families on the Lord's Day.

00:02:42.160 So something that's better and more suited to our needs,

00:02:44.720 but also bigger, that can accommodate more people, if it be your will,

00:02:48.100 and perhaps also a better location at least for the majority of those who call Covenant Bible

00:02:54.860 Church home. We pray, Lord, for favor and wisdom as we pursue that process of trying to find a

00:03:02.360 more secure and permanent church home that would be accommodating to our needs, accommodating to

00:03:09.660 more people and the people we already have, but also provide a greater security as we attempt by

00:03:15.860 your grace to be a light in the midst of darkness. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Would you

00:03:22.160 join me in standing for the reading of God's word? Our text for today is Ezra chapter 8 verses 15

00:03:28.540 through 23. We're continuing our series through the book of Ezra and we only have a few more weeks

00:03:34.100 left at this point. When we finish this series through the book of Ezra, Lord willing, the plan

00:03:39.680 is to teach a little bit, take a few weeks and teach a little bit on the Lord's Day a variety

00:03:46.320 of texts, predominantly Titus chapter 1 and 1 Timothy chapter 3 in regards to the offices of

00:03:53.440 the church. To teach a week or two on eldership, a week or two on the diaconate, the deacons of the

00:04:00.320 church, and then also to take at least one week to teach also on the office of membership, those

00:04:06.660 members of the church, their responsibilities, their qualifications, their duties in regards

00:04:11.440 to all three of these offices, elders, deacons, and members. I believe that this will be timely

00:04:17.300 because it'll be helpful for us to understand the truth from God's word in regards to these

00:04:22.000 subjects, but also as we, as a church, seek to install and ordain, appoint more leaders for

00:04:29.960 the growth of this local body. I want the church to be aware of what we're doing, why we're doing

00:04:35.760 it and how we're doing it as we seek to do it according to god's word okay our text again ezra

00:04:41.580 chapter 8 verses 15 through 23 i'll read the text in its entirety when i finish reading the text

00:04:46.140 and stumbling over many hebrew names i will say this is the word of the lord at which point i

00:04:51.440 would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to god one final time ezra

00:04:55.780 chapter 8 verses 15 through 23 the bible says this i gathered them to the river that runs

00:05:02.900 to Ahava, and there we camped three days. As I reviewed the people and the priest, I found there

00:05:08.700 none of the sons of Levi. Then I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jerib, Elnathan, Nathan,

00:05:18.900 Zechariah, and Meshulam, leading men, and for Joerib and Elnathan, who were men of insight,

00:05:26.120 and sent them to Edo, the leading man at the place of Kasaphia,

00:05:31.740 telling them what to say to Edo and his brothers

00:05:34.580 and the temple servants at the place Kasaphia,

00:05:37.500 namely, to send us ministers for the house of our God.

00:05:41.080 And by the good hand of our God on us,

00:05:43.580 they brought us a man of discretion,

00:05:45.840 of the sons of Mali, the son of Levi, son of Israel,

00:05:50.020 namely, Sherebiah, with his sons and kinsmen, 18.

00:05:53.900 Also, Hashabiah, and with him Jeshuaia, and the sons of Merari, with his kinsmen and their sons, twenty.

00:06:04.500 Besides two hundred and twenty of the temple servants, whom David and his officials had set apart to attend the Levites,

00:06:10.900 these were all mentioned by name.

00:06:12.740 Then I proclaimed to fast there at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God

00:06:19.200 to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods.

00:06:24.660 For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us

00:06:29.700 against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king,

00:06:33.620 the hand of our God is for good on all who seek him,

00:06:37.740 and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.

00:06:41.260 So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.

00:06:46.540 Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their kinsmen with them.

00:06:54.040 And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God,

00:07:00.160 that the king and his counselors and his lords and all Israel there present had offered.

00:07:05.520 And I said to them, You are holy to the Lord, and the vessels are holy,

00:07:09.940 and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers.

00:07:15.220 Guard them and keep them until you weigh them before the chief priests and the Levites

00:07:19.840 and the heads of fathers' houses in Israel at Jerusalem within the chambers of the house of the Lord.

00:07:26.800 Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month to go to Jerusalem.

00:07:33.280 The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way.

00:07:39.180 At that time, those who had come from captivity, the returned exiles, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel,

00:07:46.780 twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and as a sin offering, twelve male goats.

00:07:54.360 All this was a burnt offering to the Lord.

00:07:57.180 They also delivered the king's commissions to the king's satraps and to the governors of the province beyond the river,

00:08:04.200 and they aided the people and the house of God.

00:08:06.800 This is the word of the Lord.

00:08:08.400 All right, please be seated. Let's go ahead and dive right in. By way of overview, I've written

00:08:14.280 the following, and then we'll get into a couple main points from the text today. The overview

00:08:18.620 is this. Ezra chapter 8, our chapter today, describes in detail Ezra's trip to Jerusalem

00:08:25.260 from the previous chapter. So if you were with us last Lord's Day, chapter 7, it was simply

00:08:30.940 mentioned in passing that Ezra, he traveled from Babylon. He was sent by the king as a scribe,

00:08:37.920 the man who was learned in the laws of Moses,

00:08:40.820 God's law delivered through the prophet Moses.

00:08:42.900 He was sent by the king, commissioned by him,

00:08:45.700 and resourced by him with certain men and leaders,

00:08:49.500 but also with a treasury from the king's own resources

00:08:53.920 to go and to decorate the temple,

00:08:57.780 to decorate it with rich ornaments and treasure,

00:09:01.620 and to also see to it that those who were in the land of Israel,

00:09:06.100 in this promised land, that they would live according to the law of God, that God would

00:09:10.340 not be provoked in his wrath, but rather that he would be appeased, that he would be esteemed,

00:09:15.700 that he would be honored by their way of life as they sought to live according to his law,

00:09:20.360 but also by their way of worship, their daily living, but also a continual and constant

00:09:25.400 worshiping in the temple and at the altar that was there.

00:09:29.160 So he resourced him with treasure, the king did, resourcing Ezra and his team with treasure

00:09:35.020 from his own treasury in order to decorate the temple but also with many beasts and animals

00:09:40.340 that they could offer in sacrifice at the altar when they arrived. The king, as far as we can tell,

00:09:47.280 was not a Christian himself. He was not regenerate. He was not born again. He was not trusting in 0.86

00:09:53.540 Yahweh in regards to Yahweh providing his only begotten son as a substitute, a sacrifice for

00:10:00.400 sin so as far as we can tell the king was not a christian but he did honor in some common grace

00:10:08.480 sense he did honor yahweh he recognized that there were territorial regional gods lowercase g gods

00:10:16.860 of which babylon worshipped many a pantheon of gods and yet there was a god above them all there

00:10:24.540 was many gods of various realms of the earth but there was a god of heaven and this king although

00:10:30.100 again not regenerate not born again not trusting in Yahweh for salvation as far as we can tell

00:10:37.260 that's not explicit but if we had to guess I would lean more in that direction that he was not a

00:10:41.940 Christian himself and yet in a common grace fashion right common grace distinguishing that

00:10:48.380 from special grace if you're not familiar with these terms special grace is the idea or saving

00:10:54.320 grace salvific grace it belongs to Christians it's the grace of God that is particular for

00:10:59.740 his people his elect people that he would reveal to them his own son and that he would give them

00:11:05.320 new hearts by the power of the holy spirit causing them to be born again ezekiel 36 speaks of this

00:11:11.740 that god would actually supernaturally on his part in his sovereignty remove a heart of stone

00:11:17.320 that is non-responsive to the truth of the gospel and replace that with a heart of flesh

00:11:22.380 that is softened and malleable and receptive to the salvific truths of god found in the gospel

00:11:28.020 of jesus christ causing that person to be a new creature with a new heart and endowing them with

00:11:33.240 the gifts not works of men to be conjured up by our own doing but gifts of god twofold being faith

00:11:41.280 and repentance so new heart regeneration and gifts of faith and repentance repentance the new heart

00:11:47.860 the new creature the person has been born again one of the first things that they're going to do

00:11:52.580 this is in logical order not necessarily chronological it's not that someone is regenerate

00:11:57.020 and then decades go by and then they finally decide to repent.

00:12:00.340 So we're not speaking in chronological order,

00:12:02.500 but in theological, logical order.

00:12:05.520 The person is first born again.

00:12:07.420 Regeneration precedes faith and repentance.

00:12:09.780 They are born again, but then immediately they are repenting.

00:12:12.880 That is to turn from sin.

00:12:14.260 And at the same time, they are trusting faith or repentance,

00:12:19.340 turning from sin and faith.

00:12:20.860 They are turning to Christ.

00:12:22.520 Repentance, turn from sin.

00:12:24.380 Faith, turn to Jesus.

00:12:25.900 And these two things, faith and repentance, are like two sides of a singular coin or two pedals on a bicycle.

00:12:32.940 And these are not merely the means of getting into the Christian faith.

00:12:37.360 But Martin Luther and many others have argued from the Reformed tradition and beyond, even before the Reformed tradition, Augustine as well, that this is normative of the entirety of the Christian life.

00:12:48.260 It is not merely the entrance or the door, but it is also the continual mark, the continual method of living for every Christian so long as we are in this earth.

00:13:01.080 That we will constantly be turning from sin, repentance, and turning to Christ's faith.

00:13:06.820 So that's special grace.

00:13:08.920 Special grace is belonging to the elect.

00:13:11.580 It's what God does particularly with his people.

00:13:15.540 Not just all people, but his people.

00:13:18.260 those that he is saving.

00:13:19.540 And yet, the doctrine of common grace still exists

00:13:22.700 not only for Christian people, God's people,

00:13:25.520 but for all people.

00:13:26.540 Because all people, whether they be Christian or not,

00:13:29.620 whether they are determined by God

00:13:31.800 to ever become Christian or not,

00:13:34.000 all people nonetheless have been made in the image of God.

00:13:36.680 And although that image has been marred by sin,

00:13:41.160 by the fall in the garden, Adam as our federal head,

00:13:44.660 his choice to rebel against God,

00:13:46.460 the image has been marred,

00:13:47.840 But the image of God has not been utterly lost, tarnished, but not utterly lost.

00:13:54.020 And so this image of God, a vestige of the image of God remains in all people, whether they be believers, Christians or not.

00:14:00.940 And this king, although a pagan king, there is no indication that this king, although he begins to esteem and honor and recognize Yahweh, 0.71

00:14:10.380 there's no clear explicit indication that he ceases his idolatrous worship of the other

00:14:17.440 pagan gods. As far as we can tell, Yahweh is simply added to his pantheon of polytheism among

00:14:24.760 many gods. And perhaps Yahweh is given special designation in this pantheon, that there are

00:14:30.760 many territorial earthly gods, but there is one God of heaven. And this God of heaven is superior

00:14:36.700 or to the other gods and so we give him the most worship but we also still give a pinch of incense

00:14:41.560 and a little sacrifice and a little ritual and a little worship to the other gods as well that

00:14:46.540 seems again if we had to guess none of this is explicit but by way of implication that seems to

00:14:52.480 be the more plausible interpretation that he is still a pagan king that he is still unregenerate

00:14:58.040 he has not received God's special grace he is still idolatrous but he's you know in the realm

00:15:04.880 of idolatry. It's not a great realm to be in, but if you have to be there, you know, he's the best

00:15:08.860 of the worst, right? He's, you know, he's, you know, he's, you're the best of idolaters, you

00:15:16.980 know? There's no good idolater, don't get me wrong, but you know, as far as idolaters go, he's one of

00:15:21.400 the better idolaters. So that's the kind of king that we have here, and yet this king commissions

00:15:27.380 Ezra and sends him to go to Israel to help those who are already there, who already have been

00:15:34.180 released from exile and captivity from Babylon the temple as far as we can tell is now finished

00:15:39.220 and Ezra is going with leading men and he's going for multiple purposes but one is to take these

00:15:44.580 leading men and to appoint them in offices in the land not only in the temple for worship but even

00:15:50.100 in civil offices because the people there in Israel are they've finished the temple and they're 0.93

00:15:55.600 beginning worship and these kinds of things but they're still ignorant in many ways in regards

00:16:00.560 to the law of God and this pagan king that's what's so fantastical and interesting about this

00:16:07.000 although a pagan himself he recognizes that if the people are going to live in the land if they're

00:16:12.640 going to offer lives living sacrifices as well as worship in the ceremonial sense there at the altar

00:16:20.160 and at the temple if they're going to do this in a way that is pleasing to God that would actually

00:16:24.260 benefit the king in Babylon and all of his land then they're going to have to do it according to

00:16:30.020 what god has prescribed in scripture even a pagan king get this this is what i'm saying even a pagan

00:16:36.300 king recognizes that the regulative principle of worship is what must be followed what i mean by

00:16:42.840 that another term so special grace and common grace will now regulative principle of worship

00:16:48.160 versus the normative principle of worship in a nutshell the normative principle of worship is

00:16:53.100 the idea that the church can worship god in whatever way they see fit so long as it so long

00:16:59.180 as it doesn't cross the line, it doesn't breach into the territory of something that God in his

00:17:04.560 word explicitly forbids, right? So as long as the Bible doesn't explicitly forbid something,

00:17:10.920 then it's on the table. It's an option. That's the normative principle of worship.

00:17:16.140 The regulative principle, don't think regular, right? Because that would be redundant. You have

00:17:20.520 normative, normal, and regular, right? Well, what's the difference between normal and regular?

00:17:24.360 not much so that's not the way to think about it regulative is regulate not regular but a worship

00:17:30.820 that is more highly regulated a worship that is more particular and in the regular principle of

00:17:36.800 worship instead of the normative which says you can do it whatever you want so long as it's not

00:17:41.880 expressly forbidden in scripture the regular principle on the other hand would say no we only

00:17:47.580 do that which is expressly prescribed in scripture right so just because it's not forbidden doesn't

00:17:54.100 mean that it's at our leisure to indulge in, right? There are lots of things that are not

00:17:58.800 forbidden, right? You've probably seen, you know, videos from mega churches where, you know, it's

00:18:04.420 some kind of special Sunday service and people are ziplining in, you know, from a balcony and

00:18:09.880 there's, you know, some kind of big production and all these different things are happening.

00:18:14.380 And, you know, I haven't found a verse in the Bible that says no ziplines in Lord's Day worship.

00:18:19.840 but you know if there were to be a verse in the bible that says you should not use zip lines

00:18:25.760 in your lord's day worship it would probably be a verse that was found right next to another verse

00:18:30.680 it says upon salvation thou shalt continue to inhale and exhale right in the set what i'm saying

00:18:36.060 is in the same way that god did not find it necessary to command continued breathing he

00:18:41.760 probably did not find it necessary to say no zip lines right because both of those are are what we

00:18:47.940 would call in an exegetical sense no duh right these are no duh kind of things they don't

00:18:53.500 necessarily have to be spelled out um so the regular principle of worship again is not just

00:18:58.080 avoiding that which god forbids but it is sticking to the script staying within the realm of that

00:19:03.960 which god has explicitly prescribed in this pagan king he understands at least to some level

00:19:09.700 he intuitively as an image bearer the living god whether he's saved or not even as an unbeliever

00:19:15.580 he understands through common grace

00:19:19.220 as an image bearer of the living God

00:19:20.980 that Yahweh is not to be trifled with.

00:19:24.860 That Yahweh is a sober God.

00:19:28.000 That Yahweh demands reverence.

00:19:31.940 And that he should not be worshipped in a trivial fashion.

00:19:35.600 That Yahweh, those who come before him,

00:19:37.900 should do so with fear and trembling. 0.82

00:19:40.460 And that they should do so in obedience.

00:19:42.340 That they should not offer to him as a form of worship.

00:19:45.580 strange fire. And he recognizes that what happens in this land over here, namely the land of Israel

00:19:52.540 and the worship of Yahweh, that although this is a geographical specific land with a physical

00:19:59.900 geographic locale, the God that they are worshiping is not merely. Notice this. We saw this in Ezra

00:20:06.640 chapter 7. Although this is a God that they are worshiping in a physical land, namely Israel, in a 0.69

00:20:13.040 physical place, this king, pagan king, recognizes that the God that they are worshiping is not 0.50

00:20:18.280 merely the God of Israel with a physical geographic locale and limitations, but rather he is

00:20:25.500 worshiped in Israel, but he is the God of heaven. And that what happens in Israel as they seek to

00:20:33.200 worship him rightly will have implications for everyone everywhere. And this king, all of this

00:20:41.300 as a pagan as far as we can tell this king wants them to get it right he wants them to get it right 0.86

00:20:48.460 and so Ezra is sent we saw that again in the previous chapter if you were with us last week

00:20:52.860 Ezra chapter 7 he is sent and commissioned with a team of other advisors and leaders to go to the

00:20:58.760 land of Israel to appoint leaders both in the ecclesiastical temple ceremonial realm but also

00:21:04.380 in the civil realm to guide the people who are now there and say hey this is how you live in the land

00:21:10.740 It's not enough that God in His providence and mercy

00:21:13.400 has simply exiled us from being held in bondage

00:21:18.640 and captivity in Babylon.

00:21:20.640 Praise God for what He's done.

00:21:22.080 Praise God for His mercy.

00:21:23.660 But it doesn't stop there.

00:21:25.940 It's not enough to simply, to merely be content

00:21:28.400 that God has exiled us from Babylon

00:21:30.300 and brought us back to the land.

00:21:33.120 We must go further than merely that

00:21:35.680 because if we actually want to stay in the land,

00:21:38.500 then we must live in the land in a certain way, in a certain manner,

00:21:43.180 in a manner that is pleasing to God.

00:21:44.800 Otherwise, that's what got us into captivity in Babylon in the first place. 0.55

00:21:49.900 The whole reason that we had 70 years in Babylon

00:21:52.520 is because we were not living in the land according to God's law. 0.55

00:21:57.380 We were not doing that.

00:21:59.160 And so, Ezra and these men are commissioned to go and teach,

00:22:03.080 to train, to disciple in the law of Moses

00:22:06.360 is how to worship in the temple with the altar,

00:22:09.020 how to also live daily lives in the land.

00:22:13.400 And they're commissioned not only with people to go

00:22:15.760 and be appointed to positions of leadership

00:22:18.220 to teach these things,

00:22:19.760 but they're also commissioned with treasury

00:22:21.340 and with animals for worship and sacrifice.

00:22:25.140 That's what we saw in chapter 7,

00:22:27.560 and what we're getting now in chapter 8

00:22:29.380 is simply a more detailed account of the journey itself.

00:22:33.640 In chapter 7, we just see that Ezra

00:22:35.900 is over here in Babylon. He's commissioned by the king, and now he's over here in Israel.

00:22:40.480 But then in chapter 8, there's a pause, and the author, under the inspiration of the Spirit,

00:22:46.940 slows down and goes back a couple paces and says, let's talk about that journey in a little bit

00:22:52.660 more detail. Let's see what it actually looked like. So Ezra chapter 8 describes in detail

00:22:57.940 Ezra's trip to Jerusalem from the previous chapter. It covers, number one, the people who

00:23:03.060 went with ezra that's all the names which i'm sure i mispronounced but notice this i mispronounced

00:23:09.560 them confidently and without stuttering and that's key number two this special fast that ezra held

00:23:17.260 with his group to ask for god's help his providence and protection along the way on the journey number

00:23:24.400 three we also see described in chapter eight how ezra looked after the valuable items which he

00:23:30.860 brought and gave them to the priest for their safe keeping number four we'll also see in this

00:23:37.060 chapter how God protected Ezra and his group along the way that they not only fasted and prayed and

00:23:42.720 asked God for this protection but God in fact provided this protection and then lastly number

00:23:48.380 five how when they arrived safely in Jerusalem they gave their valuables to the priest and gave

00:23:53.860 orders to the officials and made sacrifices to God okay now there's a lot that could be

00:24:00.820 discussed and fleshed out from this particular chapter in regards to all five of those things

00:24:06.260 which are contained within it but there are at least two things that by God's grace I hope to

00:24:12.420 highlight and emphasize especially for us this morning and as I'm fond of doing because I believe

00:24:20.360 that it's a a vital integral part of faithful preaching on the lord's day i hope to draw your

00:24:29.460 attention to a couple portions of the text but also draw out from these portions of the text

00:24:35.860 very practical and relevant application for us and our time and what god is calling us to do

00:24:42.620 today so the first point is this a christian nation reveals enemies inside the church

00:24:50.720 say that again a christian nation if you could achieve such a thing and i do believe it's

00:24:57.560 achievable i don't believe it's a misnomer i don't believe that it's mere theory it has been

00:25:02.160 achieved before and by god's grace i believe that it could be achieved again whether it be in our

00:25:06.660 lifetimes or not but the point is this a christian nation when you have it one of the things that

00:25:13.860 comes about from a christian nation one of the outcomes is that a christian nation will reveal

00:25:19.740 enemies not just outside of the church but i would argue perhaps even more so a christian

00:25:25.300 nation will reveal enemies inside the church notice this i've written the following ezra

00:25:31.920 after getting permission from the king he asked for volunteers to join him on his journey to

00:25:36.920 Jerusalem now anyone from Zion who wanted to leave Babylon and go to Jerusalem now that the temple

00:25:43.680 was finished and the worship there had begun they were all warmly invited they were invited

00:25:50.460 and you would think that was such a leader and such encouragement that all the Jews would finally

00:25:57.820 decide to leave their troubles behind and answer the call to return and yet many refused. They

00:26:05.340 preferred their comfort over their faith. They thought that they were fine where they were

00:26:12.240 in Babylon and either did not believe that going to Jerusalem would improve their lives or were

00:26:18.420 too afraid to face the challenges on the journey. We discussed some of this last week in Ezra chapter

00:26:26.420 seven but it's worth discussing again and i'd like to draw out some parallels for where we are today

00:26:35.240 as new testament christians but last week if you were with us one of the things that i spoke of

00:26:41.200 is that this revival and it is a revival i think that that is the proper word this is a revival

00:26:47.700 in israel it's a revival where israel has been in captivity for 70 years and now all of a sudden

00:26:56.020 they're going back to the land. God has set them free from captivity and exile. God has

00:27:02.060 resourced them lavishly. Providentially, God has moved in various ways in various times over the

00:27:07.960 course of, at this point, at least probably a couple decades from their release of the 70-year

00:27:13.400 captivity in Babylon and now the completion of the temple in Israel. And God is moving mightily.

00:27:19.780 The temple is completed and worship is thriving.

00:27:25.240 And not only that, but you have Ezra, the scribe.

00:27:28.540 I talked, I think, two or three weeks previously about how the prophets like Haggai and Zechariah, their role is now complete.

00:27:38.240 For a while, when they first entered into Israel, God was using these two men as prophets.

00:27:43.280 He was using them with some regularity and frequency.

00:27:46.360 and he was using them to give fresh words from the Lord to provide guidance and direction but now

00:27:52.640 it seems as though the prophetic role and function has ceased because it's no longer needed in this

00:27:59.100 particular moment for Israel and instead God replaces Haggai and Zechariah as prophets providing

00:28:06.160 new words from the Lord. He replaces them with Ezra a scribe who is called to simply bring

00:28:12.000 instruction and further understanding and application leading towards obedience for

00:28:17.760 not new words from the lord but the word of the lord that had already been given so you have

00:28:22.440 prophets fresh words and then you have a scribe he's you know for all intents and purposes he's

00:28:28.760 a preacher he's an exegete so you have prophets new words inspiration guidance zeal and then you

00:28:36.540 have Ezra, a scribe, who comes in and says, well, and here are the old words of the Lord given

00:28:42.040 through Moses that we've neglected. And so new words are helpful when God does, in fact, provide

00:28:48.620 them. But at this current time, in this moment, what God seems to desire most is not that we have

00:28:55.500 another new, fresh word from him, but that we simply faithfully steward all the words that

00:29:01.520 we've already received. There's so much that he has already said that we've neglected, that we need

00:29:06.780 to properly interpret and then also properly apply. We need to take the revelation that we've

00:29:13.620 already received through Moses and get proper interpretation. So revelation, God's already

00:29:19.220 given us revelation. We don't need more. We already have sufficient revelation. We need proper

00:29:23.860 interpretation. What does this revelation mean? And then proper application in light of the meaning

00:29:29.740 of this revelation what do we do how then should we live so this is all happening and all this i

00:29:36.860 do believe could be properly described as a revival there's a revival in israel the temple

00:29:43.520 is established there's freedom in the land to live in accordance with god's word and their

00:29:49.660 conscience and to worship freely they've been resourced by a pagan king with with cash right

00:29:56.680 it's one thing when the king says, you know what, do what you want, you know, within the privacy of

00:30:00.500 your own homes and churches. Now that's, that's not what's going on here. This king is not just

00:30:05.160 saying, you know what, you know, first amendment, you know, you can, you can worship privately,

00:30:09.080 just, you know, just please embrace fully pietism, you know, and then evangelical say, yes, sir,

00:30:15.520 that's our specialty. You know, we promise to have the most impotent religion and faith you 1.00

00:30:20.180 could possibly imagine. Our faith will never go beyond the four walls of our church. It would

00:30:24.440 never we would never seek to legislate morality would never seek to change anything in the real

00:30:29.100 world because our realm is in the 17th dimension christ and his kingdom it's not of this world

00:30:35.040 we have an impotent god and we are his impotent people you can count on us political king no

00:30:40.380 they were not behaving that way that's a that's a uniquely modern american christian thing and if

00:30:47.020 you couldn't catch you know from that was sarcasm there don't do that everything i just said i was

00:30:52.240 mocking today's christians and i think that that's appropriate many not all but many christians they

00:30:58.780 need to be corrected rebuked and at this point because the rebuke has been so refused and

00:31:04.720 rebelled against again and again i do believe that godly mockery occasionally is called for

00:31:11.280 christians have become so impotent but that's not what's going on in our text what's going on in our

00:31:17.760 text is there is a revival in the land. And if you study the history of revival, I've talked to my

00:31:22.880 dad about this before, and he's been really helpful on this subject, and talking about different

00:31:27.340 revivals, Welsh revival, or different revivals throughout history in various places at various

00:31:32.180 times, and some of the clearest marks of revival isn't that they have 24-hour prayer meetings in

00:31:37.220 a church. That could be great. I'm not condemning that, but you know that it's actually a revival

00:31:43.000 not just because there's a bunch of church meetings happening. You know there's a revival

00:31:47.340 in a particular place when crime goes down you know there's a revival in a particular place when

00:31:52.420 laws begin to change and improve you know there's a revival in a particular place when the place

00:31:58.020 begins to change not just one subset of the people change on wednesday nights from the

00:32:04.060 from 6 p.m to 8 p.m you know as they're having their good old-fashioned revival meeting know that

00:32:09.200 that revival is potent not impotent but but potent it it actually has an effect and not just

00:32:17.340 in a spiritual realm somewhere else but it has an effect with real flesh and blood with with a real

00:32:23.620 place and in a real world there is a tangible and visible effect to the moving of god's spirit

00:32:30.160 and that's what we see happening so this is a revival but i said last week getting back to this

00:32:35.480 point, and it's worth mentioning again, how did this revival actually come about? It did not come

00:32:42.760 about by a mere populist movement in Babylon where Israel was just faithful to eventually

00:32:50.900 replace the Babylonians by having more children and discipling them very carefully and faithfully

00:33:00.220 to where eventually the population of Israel as a conquered kingdom,

00:33:05.040 think of Babylon less of a nation and more of an empire,

00:33:07.980 where Israel as a province within this Babylonian empire,

00:33:11.600 the residents of Israel were so numerous

00:33:15.740 that they actually attained 50% of the Babylonian empire total population plus one.

00:33:21.840 And every single Israelite was in fact regenerate and faithful to the Lord.

00:33:26.840 and then they were able to use that populist political power

00:33:32.500 through the form of sacred democracy.

00:33:35.240 And, you know, because everyone knows Babylon was, you know, it was a democracy.

00:33:38.380 And so they had a vote.

00:33:39.680 Again, that's sarcasm. 0.79

00:33:41.280 And then they had a vote and they outvoted and voted in a Christian king in Babylon

00:33:44.840 and then revival broke out.

00:33:46.480 That's not what happened.

00:33:48.080 And it's worth mentioning again in our text today

00:33:50.300 because one of the things that we need to see,

00:33:53.940 it's vital that we see this,

00:33:55.500 is God sends revival in this case.

00:33:58.840 I'm not saying that God can't do it

00:34:00.400 in a bottom-up fashion.

00:34:03.640 God can do whatever He wants.

00:34:06.140 But just for the record,

00:34:07.720 here's a more helpful question

00:34:09.440 than the question, what can God do?

00:34:12.340 I notice a lot of Christians constantly, 1.00

00:34:14.000 that's their objection 1.00

00:34:15.020 when they don't have an argument, right?

00:34:16.820 You say something usually in line

00:34:19.340 with that regular principle kind of theme.

00:34:22.000 Well, I don't think this is the will of God

00:34:24.220 or this is not what Scripture explicitly says

00:34:26.320 or God doesn't tend to do this.

00:34:28.340 And the natural counter for many Christians

00:34:31.180 is, you know, it's not even an argument. 0.81

00:34:33.780 It's just a question

00:34:34.480 because they don't really have an argument.

00:34:35.920 So what they do is they simply rhetorically respond

00:34:39.220 by saying, well, who are you to say what God can do?

00:34:44.860 Well, can't God do this?

00:34:47.080 I mean, can't God do this?

00:34:48.400 Can't God do that?

00:34:49.480 Can't God do this?

00:34:51.360 That's not a particularly helpful question.

00:34:53.200 Here's a better question.

00:34:54.220 Instead of asking what can God do, perhaps it would be helpful if we began asking, but what does God do?

00:35:03.480 Not what can God do, what does God do?

00:35:08.560 Historically, biblically, for the last 6,000 years of human history, not just what could God do, coulda, shoulda, woulda,

00:35:18.840 But what has God done and what does God continue to do?

00:35:23.460 And historically and biblically, whether we're looking at Israel under the Old Covenant in the Old Testament

00:35:28.160 or the last 2,000 years of church history and the Crusades and all these different things,

00:35:33.400 in well over 90% of the cases, it's not bottom-up revival.

00:35:39.960 It's top-down.

00:35:42.000 And you might even say, well, what about America?

00:35:43.920 America began as a constitutional republic, and we achieved a Christian status, a moral nation.

00:35:55.020 And that's true, but if we're fair, a lot of that was inherited.

00:36:02.100 Now, don't get me wrong. 0.78

00:36:03.640 I think the reason why the Puritans and Covenanters and all these different people came over is 0.84

00:36:07.640 because England was already, in the spiritual sense, the church sense, on the decline.

00:36:12.080 was already incorporating many compromises.

00:36:16.720 It wasn't just glory and gold.

00:36:19.160 The primary motivation for many of those

00:36:21.960 who were willing to make this vast journey across the ocean,

00:36:24.680 just like the Israelites with Ezra,

00:36:26.660 willing to make this journey from Babylon

00:36:28.180 all the way back to the land of Israel,

00:36:30.320 it was a God-centered incentive, motivation.

00:36:34.360 It was for the glory of God. 0.54

00:36:36.300 The Puritans had this mindset

00:36:37.800 that America would be a city on a hill.

00:36:40.200 and and they they were not uh intimidated by any pietists who would say but that's unique to israel

00:36:49.400 and you know they would say no no it's not no we're going to be a city on a hill too

00:36:52.920 and you know what for anybody who doesn't like that the puritans were pretty good exegetes so

00:36:58.320 i mean you can disagree with them because you're free to be wrong you know so you're welcome to

00:37:03.400 disagree but they you know they had no problem they didn't they didn't view that as reading

00:37:07.660 something into the new testament church that was unique to israel they're right no no any nation

00:37:11.820 the desires to live according to god and his laws the desires to be an explicitly christian nation

00:37:17.940 would be a city on a hill and they went with that mindset that they were going to set up

00:37:22.880 an outpost an earthly kingdom that would reflect the heavenly kingdom that would move in earthly

00:37:27.960 ways that would direct people towards their eternal and heavenly good and they also had a

00:37:32.880 very strong evangelistic motive as well. They were aware that there were native people that

00:37:38.840 were in the Americas that they wanted to convert and form proselytes. They wanted to see people

00:37:47.520 born again. They wanted to bring the gospel. But my point is this, even in the case of America,

00:37:53.720 which would be maybe one of the closest examples that we could have, it's worth noting that all

00:37:59.300 these christians uh who who pioneered and were pilgrims in america starting this republic

00:38:07.740 that they inherited their christianity from england and again england compromising on the

00:38:14.920 decline but that's where it came from and then the question is well where did england get it from

00:38:19.440 a monarchy. Like in every case, virtually every single case, it's God appoints some kind of

00:38:30.700 ruler who is unapologetically Christian, and he comes in with a sword and says, I'm sorry, 1.00

00:38:39.220 but lawlessness and wickedness will not be tolerated anymore. And he doesn't force conversions 0.97

00:38:45.000 just for the record, because that's another one of the objections that's just ill-founded. He

00:38:49.220 doesn't go around forcing conversions but instead what he does is he forces external morality he

00:38:55.280 doesn't force a change of heart only the gospel can do that but what a king can do is he can say

00:39:00.960 whether you're regenerate or not um you're going to pretend you're at least going to pretend to

00:39:06.820 be christian you are not allowed to continue human sacrifices anymore right that's what you know

00:39:12.540 Britain did. And in India, I'm sorry to colonize India. I hate to be a white oppressor, but guys, 0.93

00:39:19.580 you're not allowed anymore to bury a living woman with her dead husband. That's got to stop. 0.97

00:39:24.580 Not going to allow it. You know, and now here we are in 2024 apologizing for being oppressive. No,

00:39:31.700 that was, that was good. That was good. And that's what we see throughout church history. That's what

00:39:37.860 we see throughout biblical history we see most of the time i think at least the lion's share

00:39:44.500 of the time a top-down revival and that's what we see in our text today the king god guides the

00:39:52.420 heart of the king like many waters god is sovereign over a king whether that particular king

00:39:56.440 has special grace or not whether he's a christian or not and in the case of this king god moves on

00:40:03.180 his heart to resource out of his own treasury and to send Ezra and all these guys to go back to the

00:40:09.360 land where the temple is already finished and to begin worshiping God rightly and to appoint

00:40:14.840 leaders and to teach all those who inhabit that place to live according to God's law it is you

00:40:22.300 could not have better circumstances you could not have better circumstances and under these ideal

00:40:29.360 circumstances with the hand of the most powerful human ruler in all the land the known world at

00:40:34.580 the time Babylon was it they were the superpower and you have the king for a friend you have the

00:40:42.400 king on your side his favor his riches everything that you could ask for and under these ideal 0.86

00:40:51.820 conditions, near perfect conditions, still a large part of Israel says, nah. Okay, so now let me

00:41:03.360 compare it to our situation. Let's talk about abortion for a second. Think about Roe being

00:41:10.160 overturned. Now I understand, and maybe not everybody does, so it's worth a little bit of 0.94

00:41:15.160 instruction here. First thing that you need to be aware of is that Roe was never, in the true

00:41:21.580 since the law of the land and it always should have been ignored. Always. Okay? That's important.

00:41:27.240 Secondly, in a practical numeric sense, since the overturning of Roe, abortion in the country as a

00:41:33.000 whole has not gone down. If anything, the argument could be made that there actually have been more

00:41:37.400 abortions these last few years since Roe's overturning. So there is still just as much work

00:41:43.400 to be done as ever. Why are there just as many abortions? Well, people are just having them

00:41:48.160 sooner, right? With certain states that have, because it just turned it back to the states.

00:41:52.720 That's all the Dobbs decision did. And so there are certain states that say, well, you know,

00:41:57.340 you can have an abortion and murder your child. You just need to, you know, murder of the unborn 0.85

00:42:04.840 child is not really what we're against. What we're against is just simply procrastination.

00:42:09.500 We just want to see more diligent and timely murders. And that a lot of, I mean, a lot of

00:42:14.600 states that's pretty much what they adopted so there's just as much murder it's just happening

00:42:18.500 sooner and it happens instead of in an abortion clinic it happens at your local cvs or walmart

00:42:23.900 where pills are bought you know and uh and and or or maybe it's an out of state you know a woman

00:42:29.280 goes over from her state to another state to have a late abortion because california was you know

00:42:34.440 new york is still more than happy to apply so first uh rose should have always been ignored

00:42:39.780 Second, there is an immense amount of work that needs to be done, still needs to be done.

00:42:45.540 Abortions have not gone down.

00:42:46.980 Third, okay, so there's the disclaimers.

00:42:49.420 I hope you heard them.

00:42:50.660 Third, this is where I start to get in trouble with some of my dear brothers that I love,

00:42:55.860 and I do agree with their general overall position.

00:42:59.720 But I would say this, although more abortions are occurring,

00:43:04.600 although Roe should have always, in a biblical sense and even in a legal sense,

00:43:08.940 should have been ignored i do celebrate i do celebrate the overturning of roe and i celebrate

00:43:15.820 for this reason i don't celebrate it out of ignorance saying hey rose overturned and now

00:43:19.500 abortion is abolished no way i don't even celebrate it in an incremental sense of saying well at least

00:43:25.260 there's less abortions because that's not even true so i'm not celebrating any of that but i

00:43:30.180 celebrate it for the same reason that i would celebrate if i was living in this day in ezra's

00:43:34.600 day in Babylon and the king said hey everybody is now given permission and even resources to go back

00:43:41.540 and to live unapologetically vibrant outward courageous lives for Yahweh I would celebrate

00:43:49.620 that and here's one of the reasons I would celebrate it not because it would the the edict

00:43:53.840 of the king would actually supernaturally in the internal sense change the hearts of of the

00:43:59.620 Israelite people and cause them to actually fear the Lord. Because we know that doesn't happen.

00:44:04.800 That didn't happen. But I would still celebrate it because the edict of the king would work like

00:44:10.720 this. Providentially, what it accomplishes is that it rolls up the veil over all these Jews 1.00

00:44:20.200 in Babylon to where they're no longer able to pretend zeal. A lot of Christians like to pretend 0.99

00:44:28.600 zeal. And with Roe being overturned, one of the things that it's done, one of the things that I 0.95

00:44:34.960 would celebrate, is not that it's actually protected children, the overturning of Roe. 1.00

00:44:40.400 But what I would celebrate is that it has exposed the yellow underbelly of so many Christians in 1.00

00:44:48.800 name only, who actually turns out, and we always knew this, but now it's incredibly clear, 1.00

00:44:56.760 undeniably clear that they never actually wanted to save babies in the first place and that is

00:45:02.780 productive that is i believe by the grace of god a step in the right directions of

00:45:08.960 ephesians talks about that take no part in the deeds of that are done in darkness but rather

00:45:13.580 expose them that as christians we're not merely called to avoid sin but we're actually called to

00:45:19.560 go on the offensive in in shrewd ways strategic ways and certainly righteous ways to not only

00:45:26.740 avoid sin, but to expose sin. And cowardice is a sin. Revelation is clear that right alongside

00:45:34.180 liars and murderers and all these other kinds of wicked people that the coward will burn in the 1.00

00:45:39.880 lake of fire. And so in God's providence, something like Roe being overturned, one of the things that 0.99

00:45:46.400 it provided for us is just clarity. Not necessarily salvation for children, which is what we ultimately

00:45:54.240 want but at least in this moment clarity that we can see oh you're not one of us you've never been

00:46:01.220 one of us you don't actually care about life you don't actually care about protecting the unborn

00:46:05.880 and for those individuals when God in his providence does move on the heart of the king

00:46:15.340 in order to to call certain things in a legislative form or an outward form a legal form

00:46:22.140 to at least apparently,

00:46:26.240 at least in the appearance,

00:46:28.120 the optic of improvement

00:46:29.500 to where it exposes them

00:46:31.360 and their true motives.

00:46:32.480 They don't like that.

00:46:33.660 And here's one of the reasons why.

00:46:35.460 Because professional complaining

00:46:37.540 is a great business model.

00:46:40.120 I'll say that again.

00:46:41.720 Professional complaining

00:46:43.140 is a great business model.

00:46:45.680 Did you know that? 1.00

00:46:49.060 Think of how many Israelites 0.92

00:46:50.880 in Babylon

00:46:51.860 during the 70 years when they were held captive when they didn't really have much of a choice

00:46:57.420 when they were unable to leave think of how many of them in their heart of hearts

00:47:02.360 they were comfortable in Babylon if they were to be honest which they weren't probably they

00:47:09.180 they preferred even Babylon and and I think for many of them they they liked the conditions of

00:47:17.500 not being permitted to leave and not being certainly resourced to leave and to go and

00:47:21.740 rebuild Jerusalem and the temple and the walls and the houses to worship God and in the promised

00:47:28.060 land. They liked these restrictions from this pagan king because what it allowed them to do

00:47:34.120 was fully embrace all the comfort and pleasure of Babylon, but while still pretending zeal. 0.88

00:47:41.200 So they could talk to someone, a fellow Israelite who actually did love Yahweh and actually did

00:47:46.640 want to go back to his heritage and to his homeland and to worship God and spirit and truth

00:47:50.840 and he can say me too man goodness gracious I sure wish that was the case I wish we were able to do

00:47:55.460 that you know and and in reality he's like nah I really like Babylon but nobody can nobody's

00:48:02.360 gonna know nobody's gonna know any better because he's not leaving because he can't and I'm not

00:48:07.360 leaving because I can't and actually because I wouldn't I don't want to but when God moves on

00:48:14.000 the heart of the king and the king begins whether he's a christian individually or not he begins to

00:48:18.960 actually move in christian ways outwardly like saying the people of god can return home and

00:48:24.360 rebuild the temple and offer sacrifices and i'll resource them out of my own treasury and this that

00:48:28.920 and the other we'll send ezra to teach them the law of god so that they can learn obedience in

00:48:32.840 their daily lives when this happens all of a sudden the veil is ripped back and it becomes

00:48:38.840 it's blatantly obvious which of the people of Israel

00:48:42.960 is serious about worshiping Yahweh and who's not. 0.85

00:48:47.140 And I think this applies whether it's Rome 0.70

00:48:49.300 and revealing rhinos, Republicans in name only,

00:48:53.860 or whether it's this king in the days of Ezra,

00:48:58.060 or whether it's even within the topic

00:49:02.280 and the conversation of Christian nationalism.

00:49:05.140 I really do believe that one reason

00:49:06.980 why there are many Christians, 1.00

00:49:09.180 I won't say all Christians,

00:49:10.460 I won't even say most, I'm not sure,

00:49:12.040 but many, many evangelical Christians

00:49:14.580 that don't like the idea of our nation

00:49:16.920 being explicitly Christian. 1.00

00:49:18.680 I think that at least one reason why

00:49:21.120 is because if our nation was explicitly Christian, 0.99

00:49:24.860 then they would have to get to work. 0.99

00:49:28.960 They'd have to get to work.

00:49:32.260 See, because so long as our nation

00:49:34.380 is in a state of apostasy, which it currently is, and rebelling against the triune God and

00:49:40.600 our founding and our heritage and all these different things, so long as our nation is 0.77

00:49:45.540 as a whole hostile towards the Christian worldview, then it provides an incredible business model 0.80

00:49:54.240 for Christians in name only. And here's the business model. There are four steps. It's 0.91

00:50:01.360 very simple, but it is fantastic, and it is lucrative as well. What you do, step one, and this

00:50:09.940 is vital. Don't miss this one. This is the key step, and evangelicals have mastered it. Number

00:50:15.120 one, get beat. You got to lose, and I mean, seriously, there's no one better at losing

00:50:22.360 than evangelicals. They've mastered this first step, so number one, get beat. Second, bemoan 1.00

00:50:28.040 about getting beat now in reality you shot yourself in the foot you wanted to get beat

00:50:34.160 if anything if anything you're going behind the scenes setting the table rigging the deck so that

00:50:39.400 you would get beat but then you the next part right that the first part is is fairly easy for

00:50:46.360 evangelism the second part takes a little bit of training a little bit of skill but there are many

00:50:50.900 who are skilled um you want to get beat but then you you have to put on a face and really bemoan

00:50:57.300 and complain about the fact that you just got what you actually wanted. You have to pretend you didn't

00:51:02.640 want to get beat, and then you have to bemoan getting beat, all right? So get beat, bemoan,

00:51:08.240 complain. And then the third step is beg, and that's vital, right? So beg. Beg for donations,

00:51:17.400 right? Don't actually create something of value, right? God forbid, you know, the Christians

00:51:21.980 actually, you know, build something. You actually would make a product and people would buy it. 1.00

00:51:26.460 You know, I was talking to Brian Hensley about this, and he had great insight Friday night at our men's hangout. 1.00

00:51:32.080 He was like, Christians kind of, it's manipulative. 1.00

00:51:37.120 It's buy from me because I'm a Christian, but I'm going to make an inferior product. 0.98

00:51:41.620 And if anything, I'm actually going to charge more than you could get it from somewhere else.

00:51:45.600 So it will be more expensive and less quality.

00:51:48.860 But you are morally bound.

00:51:50.880 I'm going to pull on your heartstrings in such a way that you're morally bound to purchase from me.

00:51:56.460 You know, so that's that's, you know, and honestly, even that is an improvement from what I'm describing, because I'm talking about in that scenario, it's I'm going to overcharge and under deliver.

00:52:07.680 But at least there's still a product. What I'm describing is it's just begging for donations.

00:52:11.200 There's no product at all. So get beat, complain, bemoan, and then beg.

00:52:17.920 and then, of course, also a boycott, you know, because it's really helpful to, you know, if you

00:52:23.760 can get a full, you know, 74 people to boycott, you know, Amazon for 72 hours, you know, and that

00:52:30.780 really showed them. And, you know, so those are the four steps. Now, of course, there's another B,

00:52:37.040 right? Get beat, bemoan, beg, boycott. Another B that Christians are not very fond of because it

00:52:44.280 requires you know it might put blisters on your hands you might actually sweat you know you might 0.98

00:52:48.860 actually have to do um a day's uh honest day's work you know but that that fifth b is build

00:52:55.140 build and notice that everybody who's going back to israel they're not going back merely to freedom

00:53:02.840 because liberty is just one side of a coin the other side is duty responsibility work

00:53:13.040 one of the reasons israel doesn't want to go back is because they want to just be going back to 0.57

00:53:19.680 freedom they would freedom is there and liberty is precious but they want to just be going back

00:53:27.080 to liberty they'd also be going back to a job and not everybody wants a job

00:53:33.600 right i mean you look at the book of nehemiah that immediately follows ezra and it's work

00:53:40.720 You've got sword and trowel.

00:53:42.580 You're fighting on the one hand

00:53:44.820 and you're building on the other.

00:53:47.380 There's duty.

00:53:48.520 There's responsibility.

00:53:49.640 There's a task.

00:53:50.500 There's work.

00:53:53.540 If you're in a certain political environment

00:53:57.080 where at least on paper,

00:53:59.380 at least visibly, externally,

00:54:02.360 the optics are you're not allowed

00:54:04.120 to do these Christian things,

00:54:05.600 then what it allows for,

00:54:07.260 what it allows for is for you

00:54:09.040 to get beat, bemoan, beg, and boycott,

00:54:14.200 but never have to build.

00:54:16.980 Never have to actually build.

00:54:20.580 And you can raise donations

00:54:22.440 and play to your base of donors.

00:54:26.480 You know, and you can get a fraction 1.00

00:54:28.480 of the fixed incomes from the sweet old ladies 1.00

00:54:30.920 who don't know any better. 0.98

00:54:33.980 And you don't have to promise them anything.

00:54:36.400 you don't make any promises

00:54:40.480 you're not saying hey we're going to change the world

00:54:42.340 in fact you say the opposite

00:54:43.800 you say that's not even God's desire

00:54:45.520 he doesn't want the world to be changed

00:54:46.940 this world is not my home

00:54:48.380 we're just passing through

00:54:49.620 but somehow just passing through

00:54:55.460 still requires a donation from you

00:54:57.500 and that's what conservatives do 1.00

00:55:02.100 and that's what Christians

00:55:05.680 In large part, there are some that are faithful,

00:55:08.920 but in large part, that's what Christians do.

00:55:13.380 So a Christian nation, that's the first point.

00:55:15.740 I'll go quickly on the second. 1.00

00:55:17.600 But a Christian nation, one of the reasons why it may not be desired, 1.00

00:55:22.400 ironically, even from Christians.

00:55:24.700 You'd expect the enemies of God to not want a Christian nation,

00:55:27.100 but why so much opposition?

00:55:29.280 Why so much hesitancy?

00:55:30.560 Why so much arguments and enmity from our own team, within our own ranks?

00:55:39.140 Why would Christians not want a Christian nation?

00:55:43.180 Well, because if we have a Christian nation that actually allows for the freedom to live as God desires for us to live, 0.94

00:55:52.420 then we would have to get to work. 0.99

00:55:55.800 it would up our duty our responsibility we'd have to get to work whereas a nation that has

00:56:06.100 a king that is at enmity toward God and toward his law that allows cover fire it allows the cover

00:56:14.100 of pretending zeal in your rhetoric in word without ever having to live it out

00:56:20.320 but when god gets a hold of the heart of the king and says the king whether he be christian or not

00:56:27.640 says i am for god at least in the external sense and i am for his people then all of a sudden what

00:56:35.560 that does is it rolls back the veil and you see now among god's people who is really zealous and

00:56:42.980 who is just a talker second a christian nation reveals friends outside the church a christian

00:56:49.720 nation number one reveals enemies within the church inside the church but it also reveals

00:56:54.380 friends that maybe you didn't think you had outside the church Ezra chapter 8 verse 36 it

00:57:00.880 says this they also delivered the king's commissions to the king satraps and the governors

00:57:05.100 of the province beyond the river and they aided the people and the house of God even the enemies

00:57:10.640 of the Jews became their friends and instead of hindering the people of God aided them in

00:57:16.980 obedience to the king most people this is just a reality most people are not leaders

00:57:23.220 most people are not that courageous they're not most people will do whatever they're told to do

00:57:33.580 all right i'm sure you're familiar with some of the you know the famous experiments where you

00:57:38.780 know they've got guys and they're hooked up to wires you know and you can see them through this

00:57:42.480 one-way mirror and then they bring in you know some people and say you know turn up the dial

00:57:46.800 to shock them more and more.

00:57:47.940 And whatever the person in the lab coat, right?

00:57:49.560 Because you're wearing a lab coat,

00:57:50.580 so you must be in charge, right?

00:57:52.000 You must be credible.

00:57:54.120 And so, you know, whoever's wearing the lab coat,

00:57:55.960 he says, turn up the dial.

00:57:57.220 And the person's getting shocked

00:57:58.480 and they just keep doing it,

00:57:59.540 keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it.

00:58:03.440 All right, when we look at certain historic moments

00:58:05.520 and we say, I wouldn't have done, you know,

00:58:08.040 what these people did

00:58:09.380 when they were oppressing so-and-so

00:58:11.000 and such and such.

00:58:12.400 I wouldn't have been among them.

00:58:14.980 Most would, actually.

00:58:17.180 I'm sure you don't want to admit that.

00:58:18.680 That's fine.

00:58:19.240 But most would.

00:58:21.240 Most would.

00:58:23.300 When someone who has political power and who's in charge says jump,

00:58:28.300 most people say how high.

00:58:32.740 In most cases, you know, somebody says wear a mask and say, please, sir,

00:58:36.740 may I have another?

00:58:39.180 I'd like to wear two if I may.

00:58:42.240 And, you know, that's, I mean, we just got a perfect picture of compliance around the entire world just a few years ago.

00:58:56.620 If we think that, you know, that people are innately, you know, this bastion of resistance and courage, then I'm just like, were you awake?

00:59:06.260 Did you see, were you watching anything for the last few years?

00:59:09.840 No, they're not.

00:59:11.220 No, they're not.

00:59:12.240 i think that our country did not do very well um but we probably did the best if we're comparing

00:59:21.820 to other countries throughout the world i remember getting emails in 2020 and 2021 from christians in

00:59:28.560 new zealand i mean dozens of emails christians in new zealand australia uh certain parts of europe

00:59:35.240 all over canada and and what they would say again and again and again is they would say i don't

00:59:41.540 understand american christians i don't understand can you explain this to me why is this such a big

00:59:50.280 deal to you guys why like so many of your pastors and so many of your podcasters and you joel the

00:59:57.440 things that you're saying and i talked to you know i have family or friends that are christians in

01:00:01.340 america and they just view this so so differently than we do you guys are just making such a big

01:00:06.800 deal you're you're um you're not submissive you're not humble and and the bible tells us that you

01:00:14.840 know that we should do that romans 13 you know with the wrong exegesis romans 13 wrong romans 13 0.51

01:00:20.740 why are you basically you know they would ask why are you christians in america so rebellious

01:00:27.320 and i remember being incredibly encouraged by that because i felt like we were doing very poorly but

01:00:32.740 at least I was like, well, there's a lot of room to grow. But, you know, at the end of the day,

01:00:38.020 at least we're not New Zealand. My goodness. If you want to talk about, you know, someone who's

01:00:42.500 just given up on life as an entire nation, you know, just completely quit and thrown in the

01:00:46.240 towel, that's New Zealand. And 95% of the church there too. And Australia. And Canada.

01:00:57.120 Not everybody. I'm not speaking. We can speak in generalities, right? Men are generally stronger

01:01:01.680 than women. I know one woman who can bench stress, you know, 300 pounds. Great. In general, men are 0.99

01:01:07.160 stronger than women. Same thing. In general, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada tucked tail between 1.00

01:01:14.260 their legs. America did too, but not as bad. Here's the point. Across the board, people are not nearly

01:01:23.760 as courageous as we like to pretend we are. We like to pretend zeal, and one of the benefits of an

01:01:31.140 impressive environment is it allows us to pretend to be much more bold, to have a lot of bark

01:01:39.800 without ever having to back it up with bite. That's one of the reasons why people don't want

01:01:46.160 a Christian nation. Because if we don't have one, you can beg, you can boycott, you can bemoan, 1.00

01:01:52.580 you can get beat, you can say it's all written in the stars and what God has sovereignly ordained.

01:01:57.180 you can still get your donations, still have your comfortable life, and never have to get a job,

01:02:03.340 never have to work, never have to build. But when the heart of the king changes, in special grace

01:02:10.440 or even in common grace, when the heart of the king changes, when God moves in the political

01:02:16.160 external circumstances of a nation in such a way that those in leadership begin to favor the people

01:02:23.620 of god and allow for certain liberties which naturally coming with those liberties are certain

01:02:28.680 responsibilities it pulls back the veil it reveals who's just talk and who's actually serious for the

01:02:36.480 things of god and it reveals that there are many enemies within the church that we may not have

01:02:42.700 previously realized but also the encouraging thing is there are many friends outside of the church

01:02:49.320 and these friends it's because through the king used in the providence of god teaching god's law

01:02:57.820 externally in a way that more accurately reflects the word of god it may be used in the first use

01:03:04.180 of the law to show the sinful nature of the person and therefore their need for a savior where the

01:03:11.100 gospel is now not falling as much on deaf ears but it's actually being received as hopeful as good

01:03:18.640 news people are more aware that they're sinners because there's a more holy law being legislated

01:03:23.480 in the land and therefore they're more aware of their need for a savior and so a bunch of people

01:03:27.600 outside of the church actually get saved and they really in the in the ultimate and truest sense

01:03:31.440 become your friends by becoming your brothers and sisters in christ there's that there's also

01:03:37.020 even in the absence of that in the absence of conversion a bunch of people outside of the

01:03:42.340 church become your external friends in the same way the king here with israel may not have actually

01:03:47.160 been saved but externally was a friend of israel well all these other people because the average

01:03:52.380 person again c.a the average person the king says jump the average person says how high

01:03:58.480 right the average person fauci says mask up the average person says please too

01:04:05.140 and because that is the average person when you have a king who legislates the law of god and

01:04:12.500 favors the people of God, even if all those outside of the church aren't regenerate, they're

01:04:17.240 not actually saved, they still, the average person will say, well, the king says that Israel is good 0.92

01:04:22.820 and I support the current thing. I mean, think about that for a second.

01:04:30.700 And people fancy themselves, and it's sad, it really is sad, but we just need to admit where

01:04:35.220 we're at. People fancy themselves to be wise, to be discerning, to be free thinkers and independent.

01:04:42.500 you know but but then the ukraine stuff goes down and everybody's got a ukraine flag on their bio

01:04:49.060 and then now it's you know you've got ukraine and israel flag in your bio

01:04:55.820 and everybody has their little black square during the month of june

01:04:59.820 that is the average person the average person that you're living with is

01:05:06.720 in society not necessarily in your home i hope it's not necessarily you know your own spouse

01:05:12.160 you know your own children but that you're living within a general sense in society at large the

01:05:17.260 average person is a coward they are and the average person is not intelligent they're not

01:05:23.380 and the average person is is not a free thinker they're told what to think if you ever seen master 0.98

01:05:29.980 and commander russell crow you know there's a certain line in the movie and it's profound and

01:05:34.700 it's true it says men must be governed they must that is absolutely true men must be governed

01:05:41.500 now ideally men would govern themselves that's literally one of the fruit of the spirit self

01:05:46.780 control is self-governance but when you don't have a populace that is capable of self-governance

01:05:53.920 when the fruit of the spirit that is self-control has left the building for decades and nobody seems

01:06:00.680 to have it then men must be governed and if they will not govern themselves then someone else needs

01:06:07.340 to govern them and so when there is blessing and providence in the land and god gets a hold of the

01:06:16.080 heart of a king whether he himself becomes a christian or not he begins to outwardly legislate

01:06:21.680 in accordance with god's law and he says we favor yahweh well we're still polytheists we're still

01:06:28.640 principled pluralists we still got a little secularism we still got a little paganism

01:06:32.900 but you know what we recognize that there's something to this christian worldview there's

01:06:37.440 something to this triune god and we favor him and we're going to have special privileges and

01:06:42.040 favor for his people you know what the average person not inside the church but outside of the

01:06:47.160 church who's not even a christian you know what they're going to do they're going to start putting

01:06:50.200 a christian flag in their bio on social media because they're not free thinkers they're not

01:06:58.720 courageous. They're not intelligent. They're men, and men must be governed. And if they must be

01:07:07.120 governed, then our prayer as Christians is that they would be governed in the right direction,

01:07:12.040 at least, for the good of the church. So that's what's happened. That's it. I'll land the plane

01:07:18.220 there. That's what happens when you pray for deliverance, when you recognize that you're in

01:07:24.780 bondage, when you recognize that you deserve the bondage because you've rebelled against God

01:07:29.080 and you're under his judgment. Israel was under God's judgment for 70 years and so are we.

01:07:34.680 It's not like, oh, if we keep going down this path, God's going to judge us. No, we are being judged.

01:07:39.460 We are being judged. You know you're being judged when in your own nation, in your state

01:07:47.020 capitals and buildings, you see all of your elected politicians waving another nation's

01:07:52.980 flag and not yours. That's how you know you're a conquered nation. So it's not that we might be

01:08:00.980 judged if we don't turn back. No, we are under God's judgment right now. But here's the good

01:08:06.200 news. So was Israel. And God in his mercy changed that. And he didn't have to change it bottom up. 0.96

01:08:14.600 He didn't change it by getting Israel to be more faithful and get 50% of the population plus one

01:08:21.900 and use the levers of democracy

01:08:24.020 to somehow, in a populist sense,

01:08:26.580 elect a better ruler.

01:08:27.680 No, God just said, you know what?

01:08:29.000 Israel, if that's the way it would have to be done, 0.99

01:08:31.400 then it'll never be done 0.98

01:08:32.220 because Israel's hopeless. 0.95

01:08:35.040 But luckily, despite Israel's faithlessness 0.96

01:08:39.140 and incompetence, I'm a merciful God 0.99

01:08:42.220 and I'm going to just supernaturally,

01:08:44.580 sovereignly reach down,

01:08:45.660 grab the heart of this king

01:08:46.700 and he is going to favor my people

01:08:49.420 and I'm going to bring them out of judgment

01:08:51.460 into a good land, lavish them with mercy and resource them with leaders, their own leaders

01:08:56.860 to teach them to be obedient to my law. I will cause those who just 15 minutes ago were their

01:09:01.960 enemies with Ukrainian flags and rainbow flags in the bio now to be having little Christian flags

01:09:08.700 and saying, I support the current thing just as I always have. But the current thing right now,

01:09:12.680 because of the promise of God is Christians. And all of a sudden there's this incredible

01:09:17.780 opportunity and it's nothing that we can take credit for and boast and pat ourselves on the

01:09:22.760 back. It's just the kindness of God. We work towards it and we pray towards it, but we recognize we

01:09:30.740 don't deserve it. Judgment is what we deserve. Blessing is what we may get. And if we do get

01:09:38.240 blessing, it will be because of God's mercy and not our merit. And if we get blessing, it would

01:09:45.440 be nice if at least a few of us were ready for it. Because what has happened time and time again

01:09:50.620 throughout church history and biblical history is that God would sovereignly and seemingly he would

01:09:57.160 suddenly, sovereignly and suddenly move in such a way that Israel or these last 2,000 years the

01:10:04.260 Christian church would be thrust into a position of favor and abundance and opportunity and they 0.77

01:10:10.380 weren't ready for it it would be nice if at least a few of us were and that's where we go back to 0.92

01:10:15.820 other sermons that i've preached you got a lark before you can fly right that you're just larking

01:10:20.740 or hear me out or we're having a real conversation because you're so afraid that we have a christian

01:10:27.220 nation that all the presbyterians are going to drown the baptists or whatever because you're

01:10:31.920 really afraid of that secular humanism is killing people by the millions but you're fine with that 0.97

01:10:37.220 But if we have a Christian nation, they might kill a few thousands, as they did in the past. 0.99

01:10:42.660 And because that's your big concern, well, maybe you're saying that we're LARPing. 1.00

01:10:46.040 Maybe we're having a conversation to prepare.

01:10:48.720 To prepare.

01:10:49.680 That way, if we actually do get power, if we do get blessing, if we do get opportunity,

01:10:53.740 maybe we could steward it better.

01:10:55.540 Right?

01:10:55.760 Christendom 2.0.

01:10:57.220 Not just a return, but an improvement.

01:10:59.760 Better. 1.00

01:11:01.740 People still don't even like that because, one, they don't actually want a Christian nation 0.85

01:11:05.320 because they'd have to get to work.

01:11:07.220 It would reveal that they're just begging, bemoaning, boycotting.

01:11:13.400 They'd actually have to get to work.

01:11:14.880 It would reveal who they really are.

01:11:17.080 And they also don't want that. 0.99

01:11:19.000 They don't want a Christian nation, not only because they would have to get to work. 0.66

01:11:22.620 But if they had a Christian nation, then they'd have to have real conversations about how do we steward power. 0.63

01:11:29.740 They couldn't just take the theological position that power is inherently icky. 0.93

01:11:33.000 They'd have to say, no, power can be wielded.

01:11:35.000 And it can be wielded righteously or it can be wielded wickedly.

01:11:37.740 What does the Bible teach about these things?

01:11:39.220 And what you'd have to do, this is what you'd have to do,

01:11:41.480 is many evangelicals of notoriety and high standing would have to admit

01:11:45.960 that for decades, a vast portion of our theology has been unbiblical.

01:11:52.240 And we've dishonored our fathers.

01:11:55.360 And we bought into a secular leftist lie

01:11:58.780 that caused Western Christians to hate their own heritage,

01:12:03.180 to hate the crusades, to hate King Alfred, to hate Charlemagne, to hate this, hate that. And we

01:12:08.200 actually were promulgating it ourselves and we were wrong about all of it. If we got a Christian 1.00

01:12:14.960 nation, two things would be required from Christians, especially Christian leaders. One, 0.99

01:12:19.560 they'd have to repent and admit they were wrong. And two, they'd have to work. Repent and work.

01:12:26.180 So naturally, many of them don't want it. But let's pray that despite them not wanting it,

01:12:31.180 that God would do it anyways.

01:12:32.360 Father, we pray that you would,

01:12:34.100 in your mercy,

01:12:35.120 not on the basis of what we deserve,

01:12:37.200 but according to your kindness

01:12:38.580 that we do not deserve,

01:12:40.480 that you would use us

01:12:41.780 as feeble and small

01:12:43.000 as our attempts may be.

01:12:44.480 You would use us

01:12:45.460 to work towards your kingdom,

01:12:47.360 not just in the 17th dimension,

01:12:49.280 but here and now on this earth.

01:12:52.640 And that you would use us

01:12:53.920 to pray towards your kingdom

01:12:55.280 here and now on this earth.

01:12:57.240 And we pray, Lord, for your glory

01:12:59.080 and for the good of ourselves

01:13:01.080 and our children and our children's children,

01:13:03.880 if it be your will, that your kingdom would come,

01:13:06.720 your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,

01:13:10.500 and that that would happen progressively more and more,

01:13:14.160 and it would happen soon.

01:13:16.040 Not just 50,000 years from now,

01:13:18.160 but that it would happen for our children,

01:13:20.340 that they would get to experience the glory

01:13:23.300 and the blessing of your kingdom,

01:13:25.280 not just in the spiritual sense,

01:13:27.380 but in a tangible physical sense here.

01:13:29.400 All authority has been given to Jesus.

01:13:33.220 Authority not only in heaven, but also on earth.

01:13:35.920 We pray, Lord, that we would steward that well.

01:13:39.440 We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

The NXR Podcast - April 28, 2024

THE SERMON - Why Many Christians Don’t Want A Christian Nation

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