Well, good morning. And would you once again join
me in the book of Ezra, the book of Ezra, the gospel according
to Ezra. I love seeing things in the scripture
that not only do they share with us historical events, but they
speak such spiritual truths to us. There was a passage that
I stumbled on one time that still is in my mind about the shepherd
rescuing a jawbone and a piece of an ear. And that just shares
with us what the Lord got when he redeemed a people. There wasn't
much, just like when that great host of people needed to be fed,
those disciples could provide nothing. It was a young boy that
had seven loaves and two fishes, and that wasn't much. But the
Lord was able to make it much. May the Lord make it much today. That's what our prayers. We have
nothing to bring. May the Lord make it much. In
the book of Ezra, chapter 6, we find here that the word had
gone back to the king of Babylon. And a request was made, would
you please search through the scrolls, through the history,
and see if it be true that we are here building the temple
because the king had said, go build it. And so the king decreed. And it was sent out, go search. all the libraries, go search
through the history stacks and see if you can find that scroll
that was written with that decree on it. By God's providence, by
God's mercy, and because of his free and sovereign grace, they
found a scroll and on it was written the words of the king.
After 70 years, being in Babylonian captivity the children of Israel
were shared as the prophet had written 70 years and then a man
by the name of Cyrus King will permit you to go back to the
land that you were from and here in the book of Ezra chapter 6
it tells us in verse 3 and in the first year of Cyrus the king
these are the words of that scroll this is the history of that scroll
This is the decree of Cyrus made in the first year of Cyrus the
king of Cyrus the king the same Cyrus the king made a decree
concerning the house of God at Jerusalem let the house be builded and The place where they offered
sacrifices and and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid, the
height thereof threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore
cubits, with three rows of great stones, and a row of new timber,
and let the expenses be given out of the king's house. Now,
when word got back to those that were in Jerusalem, that we're
in the process of building, I can enjoy with them. They said, this
is wonderful. We knew it all along. I would
like to look at that verse 4 this morning. And there's much that could be
said about verse 4. I could look here and see the
great stones. These great stones are much larger
then we can bring. It takes the great stones of
God to be the foundation. We have nothing to bring that
has a foundation. By nature, we're building on
sand. It takes the grace of God to
attach us to the rock. We could also say it takes new
timber. No works of righteousness that
we have, it takes new timber. You don't put new wine in old
wineskins. In the process of making wine,
it would break those old skins. And so it is, we don't add works
to grace. It is terrible. The process is
terrible. The results are terrible. And
then we could say there, they paid by the king. Everything
that is for our well-being and our salvation is paid for by
the king. We have nothing to give. We don't
have any money. We're broke. We're bankrupt.
And so the king provides it all. But I would like to look at those
three rows of great stones this morning. I trust you noticed
with me that there were three rows. And they were great stones
and they were the foundation that was going to be made here
of the temple. in those three glorious persons
of the Godhead. We would like to direct our attention
this morning as the true foundation of our faith is the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit and their ministry. I have found
out in just a very short time of my ministry on this earth
that there is a lot of things that God gets blamed for that
he had nothing to do with. He permitted them. Purpose them,
but he's not to be blamed for them because he didn't make it
a qualification For anybody to be spiritual in those manners
But we do find out that the father the son and the Holy Spirit had
ministries to perform in the covenant of grace they have It's
hard for us to comprehend what we commonly call the Trinity
in fact I've read where people compare the Trinity to an egg. We got the shell, and we got
the yolk, and we got the white. But there are different things.
And for a long time, I used water as a comparison of God, because
we find that those things are naturally on this earth. They're
all H2O, but it's steam, and liquid, and solid. And I was
corrected by a brother when I was listening to a sermon audio.
God said, to what will you compare me? And we're not to compare
him to anything. We can't put him into a category. So I said, Father, forgive me
for me trying to come up with some way to explain you when
the Bible is all we have and we're not to go beyond that.
This is what God had to say about himself. We use the term Trinity. We find over there in the book
of Matthew that when we're to go into all the world and preach
the gospel, making disciples, and when disciples are made by
Almighty God, we are to baptize them in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Evidence that's brought out there
then we heard this morning in the book of Ephesians chapter
4. There's one spirit one Lord and one God and father So the
Bible is very declarative about these beings about the Godhead
about the father the son and the Holy Spirit in Genesis chapter
11 we find at the Tower of Babel God said let us go down and we
have the word us is used and Let us go down and when God created
Adam in the book of Genesis chapter 1 and God said let us make man
in our image. So we have something here. There
is a plurality in the Godhead, but there is one God. Never forget
that. They're not three gods, but they
are one God, and we have them displayed to us through the scriptures
as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the very beginning
we have in the beginning God. Now it's interesting when we
look up that word God it's the word Elohim and it's used over
2,500 times in the Old Testament. But there is something about
that word that gives us a plurality. It is plural, it's the plural
of El. It's interesting when we run
into people's names particularly throughout the Old Testament,
if we have the word El in their name, their name has some meaning
about God. Elijah, Elisha, Eli, those have
something in their name with reference to God. So when we
hear the word Elohim or God, in the beginning God, there is
a reference to our mind that there is a plurality in this
one entity. Now I am not going to pretend
to understand that. There's much smaller things that
I still don't understand. So I'm not going to get into
that about trying to understand and I'm not going to try to illustrate
this, but let us look into the scriptures about these three
and their ministries in the covenant of grace. God had a ministry
in the covenant of grace. God intended to save some people
before Adam was ever created. God intended to have some people
that would come and worship Him freely. Now everybody is going
to worship God. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess the Lord Jesus to the glory of God the
Father. Everybody will worship Him, but
it is a joy and a privilege because of grace that we get to worship
Him freely. And in glory that we can worship
Him as the Father that did something on our behalf in the covenant
of grace. And we can worship the Son because He had something
to do in the covenant of grace. And we can worship the Holy Spirit
because He has something to do in the covenant of grace. And
yet we find that all glory is given unto God through the Son
Jesus Christ. If we are able to worship Jesus
Christ the Lord, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are given
glory. We're not called on to do those
things to the Father and to the Son, it's respect and reverence.
But we worship God through the Lord Jesus Christ. God told Israel
in the book of Deuteronomy, O hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is
one Lord. They messed up so often, they
went out after other gods, they went out after a god that was
a bull, a bullock, a golden calf, they worshipped all kinds of
idols when they got into the promised land, and he was constantly
reminding them that there is one God. God, Jehovah God, the
God in charge of the everlasting covenant of grace. This God,
but this God has much to do with our redemption in three parts. When Jesus was baptized, you
remember what happened when Jesus came up out of the water? A voice
from heaven spoke, this is my beloved son. the Spirit as a
dove, doesn't say he was a dove, said he descended as a dove upon
him. We have the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit represented there at the baptism of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Father spoke, the Son was
baptized, and the Spirit as a dove descended upon Him. And we find
that the ministry of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit are evident throughout the Old Testament, but with what
clarity we can see them as evidenced in the New Testament. So, I'd
like to start on a row of stone that was in the temple. Now to
begin with, I said the first row, and then the second row,
and the third row, and I says, you know, that's not appropriate.
It's a row of stone. Because everything about the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they are co-equal, co-powerful,
co-eternal. There is everything with equality
about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now the Lord
Jesus shares much with us of the great work of redemption
that was started by the Father in the covenant of grace. Would
you turn with me over to the book of John chapter 6. John
chapter 6. We have such an underpinning. We have such a foundation. We have such great stones supporting
our redemption and the redemptive work and the eternal covenant
of grace. that it should cause us to rejoice
every day of our walk upon this earth, even though there are
things going on in it that are just absolutely boggle our mind
of how they could happen and what is happening with them,
and yet, through it all, we are sitting standing, resting upon
three great rows of stone that support the temple. These are
the work of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the
Holy Spirit. Without those three and their
work, we would be absolutely lost. If God did not do His work,
and if the Son did not do His work, and if the Holy Spirit
did not do His work, there would not be one person ever saved
and standing before God in a redemptive work. But because God has done
His work, a great host will gather together and sing glory unto
the Father, and glory unto the Son, and glory unto the Holy
Spirit when they say, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. In
the book of John chapter 6 verse 37, the Lord Jesus shares with
us the compilation of the entire Old Testament and the New Testament
combined about what the Father did in the covenant of grace
before the foundation of the world. The Father did something
on the behalf of everyone that would ever be called out of darkness
to life. The Father was involved before
the world began, before we were ever born, before we were ever
in a lineage down to this day. God had something involved. And John chapter 6, verse 37.
The Lord Jesus shares this, he says, all that the Father giveth
me. Now to some they pass over that
and say, my, but to someone who knows what the foundation of
their faith is, they stop and thank God Almighty that he was
considering them in the covenant of grace before they had ever
come and committed one sin. before Adam ever rebelled against
a thrice holy God. Jesus says, before that all took
place. Here in the book of John chapter
6 and verse 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to
me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And
verse 39, and this is the Father's will which has sent me, that
all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. And then in verse 45 of the same
chapter, it is written in the prophets, and they shall be all
taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. The prophets
wrote of this, that God is going to work a work, that God has
made a list up. He has written down in the Lamb's
Book of Life a people before they were ever born. before they
were ever thought of, before they'd ever come through the
loins of Adam. God had a people chosen before
the foundation of the world, and that is most essential. Our feet are sitting upon the
foundation of that temple of a great role that God the Father
was involved with, that he would have us in mind. If he did not
have a people in mind, nobody. I don't know if you've ever been
in a dark cave or not. Nancy and I went to that great
cavern there in Kentucky. And when we got back in there,
the man that had all of the lights turned them out. He says, turn
them out. Now, they happen to be electric and not gas at this
time. That man could have said, OK,
crawl out. And you know what? Nobody in
there. would have any idea which way
to begin even if we had a wanted to. But by nature, we don't even
want to. My dad raised pigs and the favorite
thing those pigs wanted was a wallow. And they loved it. They loved
and we could wash them off and spruce them up. And as soon as
we quit washing them, you know where they went? Right back to
the wallow. And they're just as dirty as
they ever were. If it hadn't been for God the
Father, in the covenant of grace, choosing a people and giving
them to the Lord Jesus Christ His Son for redemption, not one
person would ever call out Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. No one would ever cry out, He
is my Savior, because we would not even know Him. So God did
such a wonderful act when He chose a people in Christ before
the foundation of the world. And what a foundation stone that
is! And if we don't have that foundation,
we're on slippery slopes! We have nothing to attach ourselves
to. We can't keep anything under
us, and that's when we are turned by every wind of doctrine that
comes along. We have no settlement. Out my
parents' front door, there's the Warner Mountains, and up
on one of the faces of a mountain there is what's called Blue Rock.
Just an outcrop, cropping a rock. And my mother said, don't you
ever crawl across blue rock. I had to try it at least once.
And I found out when I just got out on it what she was talking
about. It looked like it was firm. It looked like it was solid. but there were thousands of little
pieces of that rock that had broken off over time and they
were ball bearings. When you're on a slope of about
30 degrees and you have ball bearings, you say, why in the
world didn't I listen to my mother? It scared me nearly well to death. Finally got off of there and
I knew what she was talking about. Well that's where we are by nature. The Lord gives us a flat place
to rest. And that's on the person of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in their work of grace. If you turn with me to the book
of John chapter 17. The Lord Jesus in his great high
priestly prayer had much to say about this very subject of what
the Father had done for us. What a foundation stone, what
a great stone, what a row of great stones that the Father
laid down for his people before the world began. And that he
had an interest in saving the people before the world began.
And Jesus tells us here in John chapter 17, as thou hast given
him, verse 2, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that
he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Oh my, religion, I used to preach
it, that Jesus intended, God the Father intended, the Holy
Spirit intended to save everybody, but they wouldn't let him. You
know what, that would make redemption, broken redemption faulty failing
redemption God failed he couldn't get the job done But when we
read in the scriptures that God is going to do all that he ever
said, he would accomplish everything he intended to do. And he intended
to save a people and he would accomplish that. And there would
be a number that he knew the number of, but no man knows the
number of people that he had redeemed out of all the fallen
race of Adam. Sinners saved by grace. Here
in John chapter 17 again, there in verse 6, it says, I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou hast
given them me. And they have kept thy word. We say, how did that happen? Christ is able to keep it on
our behalf. And then in that same chapter,
verse 9, if you'd look at that, I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine. And in verse 24 of that chapter,
it says, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which
thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. When did he love his people?
Before the foundation of the world. Well, I'm thankful as
Cyrus made that great edict so long ago. He shares with us that
there's three great rows of stone. And we find as the Lord spoke,
he said, my father has given me something before the foundation
of the world. Give me people before the foundation of the
world. In time, God allows us to see a little bit about what
that's like. In the book of Genesis, it's
written, but in the book of Romans, it's brought out. The Apostle
Paul quotes the book of Genesis and brings out in Romans chapter
9 that Rebecca is going to have two children, two sons, two sons. They're conceived by the same
parents. They're going to be born on the
same day. They have everything in common. Their genealogy is in common. Their life in the womb is in
common. They have everything in common. But God shared with Rebecca this. I am going to use these two boys
to illustrate a point. And please listen, he said. Paul brings that up to the church
at Rome listen to this I Want you to listen to this because
without this we have no hope without God being involved if
God was not involved we would all be Esau's But since God is
involved, he's going to have some Jacobs. And he said before
they were born and before they had done any good or evil. What does he say? Before they've
done anything. I'm going to illustrate a point.
I have a choice of people that I'm going to save and they're
not influencing me by what they do. They're not influencing me
by works. They're not going to influence
me by their prayers. They're not going to influence
me by their righteousness. They're not going to influence
me because I have made a choice before the foundation of the
world. Not because they've done any good or evil, but that the
grace of God because of election might stand. Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. and people may raise their hackles
over that, but you know what? God is sovereign. We used to sing a song, God is
sovereign still. He never quit. God is sovereign. The church has appreciated it
ever since they were acquainted with it, and they loved it. Because once God saves the people,
they recognize the fact, without God, they would never have turned
aside to see him. The Son, the Lord Jesus, and
what does he say about the great work of redemption? In Isaiah
chapter 53, that whole chapter is filled with what the Son is
going to do on the behalf of his sheep. The son is going to
put his back out to the spiders. The son is going to have the
sin of his people placed on him, imputed to him. The son is going
to lay down his life for them. The son has much to do on their
behalf. And in the covenant of grace,
it wasn't a vote two against one. Short straw. Jesus Christ,
God Almighty, you got the short straw, so this is what you're
gonna do. No, the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, God the Son,
was so pleased. In fact, he said, for the joy
that was set before me. Great joy is set before me. He endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the Father.
Turn with me, if you would, to the book of John, chapter 10.
John, chapter 10. In John, chapter 10, verse 11. John, chapter 10, verse 11. Jesus
describes himself as the good shepherd. Now, what is a good
shepherd going to do? This good shepherd. Jesus said
in John chapter 10 verse 11. I am the Good Shepherd I Am the
Good Shepherd the church says he's the Good Shepherd He's the
one that watches over me. He's the one that bears me. It's
the one that carries me He is the way that a shepherd protects
his flock is what Jesus does for the church. I am the Good
Shepherd the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Goes
on there in John chapter 10 verse 12. But he that is a hireling,
and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not, seeth the
wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf
catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. Can you see what would
have happened if we didn't have a good shepherd? If we didn't have the Good Shepherd,
if we didn't have the Father, if we didn't have the Son, if
we didn't have their redemptive ministry to perform, The hireling
fleeth. We'll leave the sheep. Leave
the sheep to the wolves. Leave the sheep to the bear.
Leave the sheep to destruction. The hireling has no interest.
But it tells us in verse 14, I'm the good shepherd, and know
my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the
sheep. Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also,
here we are right in this verse. They're not here right now when
he's talking in John chapter 10, but they're going to be there.
He knows where they are. Down through the centuries, God
is omniscient, God is omnipresent, God is omnipotent, and he knows
where his sheep are all through the centuries. Other sheep I
have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they
shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.
It was wonderful, no doubt, to be in the days of the Lord Jesus
and be a disciple or an apostle of the Lord Jesus and hear him
preach as he preached. But you know what? He's still
preaching. He's still declaring the gospel.
As we heard read there in the book this morning of Ephesians. He has appointed mouthpieces
to preach the gospel just like he is there himself. And that is the reason we have
to stick to this book and cannot go somewhere else or bring in
something else because he is the one that must be preached.
Jesus said, I lay down my life for the sheep. In Matthew he
said, that he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister
and to give his life a ransom for many. In Galatians, it says,
who gave himself for our sins. In Titus, who gave himself for
us that he might redeem us from all iniquity. And then another
row of great stones. The Holy Spirit. What a mystery. What a mystery
is God. Great is the mystery of godliness. What a mystery the work of the
Father. He had every right to just treat us like an anthill and
rub us out. But before the foundation of
the world, he said, I'm going to set my love on some folks.
The Son, in agreement, wholehearted agreement, said, I will give
my life a ransom for the sheep. And the Holy Spirit, in all his power, all his glory,
said, I will go and give them life. Jesus said, the flesh. is nothing. It is the spirit
that quickeneth. Oh, to grasp that, to lay hold
of that. The flesh profiteth nothing. It is the spirit that quickeneth.
The flesh profiteth nothing. There's nothing that we have
in us that can give life to us. People are just absolutely scared
of disease. This one going on right now,
just absolutely. You can't, I don't know if you
can go buy any hand sanitizer in the Downs. It's all been purchased. I don't know whether you can
go, all kinds of things have just been purchased up in preparation
for this. It's just, and yet people will
go out of this life without even thinking about the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit without thinking. The Lord Jesus
told a man that was a ruler of the Jews, and he said, ''Are
you a ruler of the Jews and you don't know about this?'' Every
time we find God in the Old Testament, we find him doing something and
the people weren't even involved in it. I'll give you Jericho,
I'll give you the land, I'll open up the Red Sea. I'll protect
you from Egypt. I'll drown them the army in the
Red Sea Everywhere and all of those accounts that God gave
to Nicodemus as a ruler a teacher of the Old Testament He had never
come to the conclusion that this is symbolic of how God saves
his people because this man was just like religion. He was attempting
by his own righteousness to be able to come before God. And
Jesus said, you must be born again. He never said how. You ask religion, people in religion,
how are people born again? I've had people, oh, that's when
they're baptized. It's not what the Bible says. Oh, that's when
I get down on my knees and pray through. That's not what the
Bible says. That's when I ask Jesus into my heart. That's not
what the Bible says. That's when I repent of my sins.
Oh, that's not what the Bible says. That's when I, that's when
I, no, no, no, no, no, no. The new birth is given first
and then we repent and believe. Repentance and faith are fruits
of regeneration. They're not the things that we
buy regeneration with. The Holy Spirit has promised
to regenerate all that the father gave the son and all the son
died for, he promised to give them the new birth. We can go
right back to the book of Genesis when God created Adam. You remember
what it says there? God made Adam of the dust of
the earth and he's still an inanimate object. There is no life in him
whatsoever and he is just like us without Christ, without God
and without hope in this world. Then it says, God breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. What was it that the spirit through
the angel said to Mary? She said, how can this be? How
can I have a baby when I have never known a man? He said, the
Holy Spirit shall overshadow you. What a mystery. It's past finding
out, and we only can rejoice in it. The Holy Spirit, as it's
spoken of, breathed into the nostrils of some person. Upon hearing the gospel, the
Holy Ghost shall come upon them. The power of the highest shall
overshadow them. What it is not is all the stuff
that religion says it is. That's crumbly rock on blue rock. It comes because of God and the
truth of the gospel being preached. It cannot be demanded. It is
not given as a reward of works done. It is sovereignly given
to all of the father chosen, all that the son died for. What
are the results of the new birth? What are the results of God choosing
the son paying for and the Holy Spirit giving life to? What's
the results? Repentance towards God and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is repentance? All my
life I was told that's when you repent of your sins and finally
God gets enough of it and saves you. You know what repentance
is? That's having a total new view
of God. A change of mind. We no longer
are like Naaman and say, I thought he would come out and do this
and this and this. We come to the conclusion he
did it for his own glory. He performed it for his own purpose. And I am the recipient. I am the cup that was filled. And I am thankful for that. We
are the results. of God's great covenant of grace,
a change of mind about God and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ
for our salvation and all of our salvation. Repentance and
faith are the fruits of the new birth and they're not the procurement
or the formula for. So the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit guarantee success in their salvation and the salvation
of those chosen, redeemed, and born again, just like those three
rows of great stones guaranteed that the rest of the building
would not shake. Be firmly attached to. That is our only hope. is in God. We know how wiggly
our feet are. We know what we're prone to do. We know what we do. So we are
thankful that we have a firm foundation and that foundation
is Christ. God the Father gave a purchase,
gave a gift The Son said, I will give my life for those sheep. And the Holy Spirit goes about
the business today of accompanying the preaching of the gospel and
giving the new birth to every one of those that Jesus Christ
died for. And there will be none lost.
They'll all be brought in, they'll all know God, and they'll all
worship Him. And you know what? There's not
nine ways of salvation. There's not nine faiths. There's
not nine ways. There is a narrow way that leads
to life everlasting. And that is God's way only. Brother Mike.