All right, Ezra chapter one,
we're gonna talk about Christ our Restorer. And this is one
of the, this message is one of the most fascinating blessings
of the scripture to show us how our God is truly sovereign in
all things. He's sovereign in creation, he's
sovereign in providence, he's sovereign in condemnation, he's
sovereign in salvation. And especially in this lesson,
because what we're gonna be talking about is an idolatrous, heathen,
unbelieving king named Cyrus, who is actually a type of Christ. And that's fascinating to me
because God uses these things. You know, there's a verse over
in Proverbs, I think I've got it listed here in your lesson,
in Proverbs 21 and verse one, where it says, the king's heart
is in the hands of God and he turns it whatsoever he will. And we see that in this case
of Ezra. Ezra was not a believer. He was
not, he recognized the existence of Israel's God. And he even,
like Nebuchadnezzar before him, he recognized the greatness of
Israel's God. But in his life, it was just
like one God or a greater God among many. And so look back,
right before Israel, just a few verses in 2 Chronicles 36. And
that last chapter of 2 Chronicles gives us the historical record
of the fall of Jerusalem by the hands of the Babylonians under
a king named Nebuchadnezzar. know what was going on there.
This was, you remember during the days of Jeremiah, the prophet
Jeremiah, he prophesied that Judah and Jerusalem, that's the
southern kingdom, that God was going to punish them for their
idolatry and their unbelief and he was going to send judgment
and God used this heathen nation, Babylon, to come down under King
Nebuchadnezzar and conquer Judah and Jerusalem. And they literally
destroyed everything. I mean, the city of Jerusalem,
the walls were flattened. The temple was destroyed completely. And that's the temple of Solomon.
And you remember, Jeremiah prophesied that God was going to bring judgment
on him and that they deserved it. In fact, Jeremiah, you know,
some people say that Jeremiah was a defeatist because what
he told the people was basically this, look, we've sinned against
God and God's gonna judge us, we deserve it, you might as well
accept it, it's coming. Don't fight it, accept it, it's
coming. And it did. And as I said, the walls of Jerusalem
came down, the temple was flattened, all of this. And so Jeremiah
also prophesied that they would be in captivity for 70 years. And then after that, God was
going to send a restorer, a deliverer, and conquer Babylon and bring
Judah back to their homeland. And even Isaiah prophesied of
this. In fact, the events that we're
reading here in 2 Chronicles or in Ezra, Isaiah was about
150 years before even named this man Cyrus. But look at 2 Chronicles
36, look at verse 20. Well, let's look at verse 21. It says, it's talking about how
Babylon conquered Judah and then Persia, Cyrus was the king of
the Medes and the Persians. And he came, it says in verse
21, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah
until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths for as long as she lay
desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill three score and 10 years.
Now that's 70 years. Every seven years was a national
Sabbath. And you know, really, they never
really kept that. That was, they were to rest the
land and not farm it, you know, let it rest for you. Well, they're
going to this time because God's going to put them in captivity.
And it says in verse 22, now in the first year of Cyrus, king
of Persia, now this is 70 years later. that the word of the Lord
spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord
stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia." Now again, remember
now, he's not a believer. This is a providential stirring
up of this man. And it says, the King of Persia,
that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also
in writing, saying, thus saith Cyrus, King of Persia, all the
kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me.
And of course, you know, he's, somebody said, well, he's sort
of bragging there, you know, but he was, it was the Medo-Persian
Empire. It says, he had charged me to
build him a house in Jerusalem. God charged this man to be instrumental
in building the temple, rebuilding the temple. He says, which is
in Judah, who is there among you of all his people, the Lord
his God be with him and let him go up. So there you have the
proclamation of Cyrus, king of Persia, and God turned his heart. The heart, listen, think about
it. All kings, all rulers, they're
in the hands of God. There's not anything happening
here that is out of whack with God's purpose and God's plan.
And I'll tell you, we think about that in our day, like what's
going on in Russia and the Ukraine and all of this stuff. God's
in control. He's on the throne. He's not
asleep. This didn't take him by surprise.
And so here we have this conclusion here in the word. And then in
Ezra chapter one, look at verse one, virtually the same thing
is stated. It says, now in the first year
of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth
of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit
of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout
all his kingdom and put it also in writing saying, see almost
a repetition. of what 2 Chronicles ended with. Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia,
verse two, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms
of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem,
which is in Judah. And so who is there among you
of all his people? His God be with him, and let
him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house
of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is in Jerusalem. Now Cyrus believed in many gods,
but he knew that this God was God in Jerusalem, and that's
what he's stating here. Verse four says, and whosoever
remaineth any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his
place help him with silver and with gold and with goods and
with beasts beside the freewill offerings for the house of God
that is in Jerusalem. So Cyrus' proclamation commanded
that anybody who was there, that they would help. and get this
job done. Now God stirred him up to do
that. But let me give you just a little bit about the history
here. Ezra, who was Ezra? Ezra was
a priest and a scribe and he led the people. He was one of
the leaders who came back out of captivity from Babylon and
into Judah and Jerusalem and led the people in the ways of
the Lord. stirred them up and encouraged
them. And mainly there were two men at this time, the first wave
that came back, there was Ezra and a man named Zerubbabel. Now
Zerubbabel was appointed to be governor and Zerubbabel was in
the line of the kings of Judah. Now he wasn't appointed to be
king, they were still under the Medo-Persian empire. They were
captives, but they had freedom to go back. And Zerubbabel was
the leader governmental leader and he was in the line of Judah. In fact, Zerubbabel is mentioned
in the earthly line of Christ in Matthew 1 and Luke chapter
3. Zerubbabel is mentioned and All
of these, you see, you got in this line, you've got Ezra, Nehemiah. Nehemiah, he was the cupbearer
of the king and he was brought back and he was made governor.
And then you have the book of Esther. Now, Ezra is really two
books. I think it's the first six chapters
is the first book. And then the last seven, eight,
nine, and 10 is the last one. In between those two, there's
like a, I think I've got it down here as a 58 years. And those 58 years, you see the
events of the book of Esther. But you can read all that. I'm
not gonna go into all that. What I wanna get to is the main
way that Ezra is a type of Christ. But let's read, look at verse
five. Let's read these next few verses. Ezra 1, it says then verse 5,
then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin
and the priest and the Levites with all them whose spirit had
raised to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in
Jerusalem. You see God is inspiring all
of this activity, He's in control again. Verse six, all they that
were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver,
with gold, with goods, with beasts, with precious things beside all
that was willingly offered. They were giving. Verse seven,
now listen to this. Also Cyrus the king brought forth
the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had
brought forth out of Jerusalem and had put them in the house
of his gods. You remember what happened there, you know, that
when Nebuchadnezzar, when they destroyed the temple, he took
all the vessels, the cups and the tables and the plates and
all of that, and he put them in the house of his false gods.
Well, Cyrus says, take them out and give them back. You remember
which king was it that held the big party later on and used those
vessels in his big drunken party and the handwriting on the wall.
They are found weighed in the balances and found wanting. Well,
Cyrus said, bring them back. And it says in verse eight, even
those did Cyrus, king of Persia, bring forth by the hand of Mithradath,
the treasurer, and numbered them with Shesh-Bazar. Now, Shesh-Bazar
is the Persian name for Zerubbabel. And so that's what he's talking
about, the prince of Judah. And again, he was of the line of
Judah, the line of the kings. Verse nine, and this is the number
of them, 30 charges of gold, 1,000 charges of silver, and
20 knives, 30 basins of gold, silver basins of a second sort,
410, and other vessels, 1,000. All the vessels of gold and silver
were 5,400, and these did Sheshbazar, or Zerubbabel, bring up with
the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.
So you see all these intricate things going on. that God is
working all things after his will to accomplish and teach
so many lessons. So here it is, the king's heart
is in the hand of the Lord. Yeah, it says here in Proverbs
21, as rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will. And we believe that. We don't
always act like we believe it, but we believe it. Now, the main
thing, the main issue of this lesson is that Cyrus, I want
you to see how Cyrus, this heathen king, was a type of Christ. Obviously,
you can see that because he was a deliverer of the people of
Judah out of captivity. And of course we can see a type
there because Christ is the great deliverer of spiritual Israel
out of the captivity of sin and Satan and the curse of the law.
But I've got in your lesson here, I think it's all total seven
ways that Cyrus is a type of Christ. And let's look at these.
Number one, we see first of all, Cyrus was purposed and appointed
to this task. to his position before he was
ever born. He's mentioned, look over at
Isaiah 45, the book of Isaiah chapter 45,
and understand now, even though the book of Isaiah appears in
the Bible, the text, after Ezra, Isaiah prophesied about 150 years
before Ezra, or maybe even a few more. But look at Isaiah chapter 45.
Now, liberal scholars, unbelievers, they'll say, well, Isaiah was
written after Ezra and that's how he knew the name. No, God
prophesied this. But look at verse one of Isaiah
45. It says, thus saith the Lord to his anointed to Cyrus. Now
this is 150 years almost before Cyrus was even born. And that
word anointed, That word anointed there is a common word that is
used for the Messiah. And the Messiah means the anointed
one. Well, we know the only true Messiah
is Christ. But here, Cyrus was anointed
of God to do a task. And he says, whose right hand
I have holden, God's directing the ways of this man, To subdue
nations before him, I will loose the loins of kings to open before
him the two leaved gates. Now that two leaved gates represents
the barrier that Cyrus had to overcome. When he came into Babylon,
there were two leaved gates and he had to finagle around. Of course, it was all the work
of God. to get through those gates, and he did. And of course,
we see a type of Christ there. The two-leaf gates would be what?
Be our sin. That's the barrier. What alienates
us from God? What keeps us from God? Our sin. And Christ, the anointed one, who was held up by the Father,
he broke down those gates of sin and gates of condemnation
by his obedience unto death on the cross as our substitute,
as our surety, as our redeemer, you see. And so Cyrus, as he
was prophesied here, and you can read the rest of it. Well,
look at verse four of Isaiah 45. For Jacob, my servant's sake,
and Israel, mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name.
I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. Talking
about Cyrus. God used him, God called him,
God named him, even though Cyrus did not know savingly the one
true and living God. Now again, he did recognize some
truths about God. I'm gonna be talking about that
a little bit in the 11 o'clock message, you know. People can
know that there is a God, that there is one God, but do you
really know the true and living God? Because that's the issue. But here it is, Cyrus was brought
to this state by God. Well, before the world was ever
created, here's how he's a type of Christ. Before he was ever
born, God appointed him. Well, before the world was ever
created, the Lord Jesus Christ was purposed and appointed by
the Father to be the Savior and the Restorer of his people, his
elect, spiritual Israel, his chosen people. And he came in
time, God's appointed time, and he delivered us from our sins.
But here's a second way. Cyrus was the subject of biblical
prophecy we see here, wasn't he? Isaiah spoke of it. Turn to Isaiah chapter 46. Now
this is one of my favorite passages that shows us the overall purpose
of God's historical dealings, providence. What is history all
about? And I've always used an illustration
on this. Years ago, a reporter was interviewing
Henry Ford. You know Henry Ford. And the
reporter asked Mr. Ford, he said, how would you
like to be remembered in history? Ford's answer was this, literally.
He said, history, he said, that's just one damn thing after another. History. And I thought about
that. History, from a mere human point
of view, is just that, isn't it? I mean, we study history
and sometimes we're really interested in history. Sometimes we learn
from it, sometimes we don't. But all in all, if you look at
human history from a human point of view, that's all it is, just
one damned thing after another. But when you look at history
from God's point of view, it's another thing, isn't it? Look
here, look at Isaiah chapter 46 and verse nine. Remember the
former things of old. That's history. For I'm God,
there's none else. God has shown throughout history
that he is the one true and living God. There's none beside him,
he says. There's none like me. Verse 10,
now he's in control of history, declaring the end from the beginning. That's who God is, that's his
sovereignty, that's predestination right there. We can declare the
beginning from the end, can't we? because I know how today
started. I don't know how it's gonna end
though. God does, he declares the end from the beginning. And
it says, and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done
saying my counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure. And
then verse 11, now this is a prophecy of this man Cyrus calling a ravenous
bird from the east, that's Cyrus. the man that executed my counsel
from a far country." Talking about Cyrus coming down, delivering
the Israelites from Babylon. He said, God says, I've spoken
it, I'll bring it to pass, I've purposed it, I will also do it. Now what's it all for? What's
the ultimate purpose of it all? We'll read verses 12 and 13.
Harken unto me, you stout-hearted that are far from righteousness.
Now, who is that? Well, that's us by nature, isn't
it? Proud, self-righteous, far from righteousness in ourselves.
There's none righteous, no, not one. And here's what history
is all about from God's point of view. Verse 13, I bring near
my righteousness, God's righteousness. It shall not be far off and my
salvation shall not tarry and I will place salvation in Zion
for Israel my glory. Now who's that talking about?
That's Christ. He is God's righteousness. He
is our righteousness. He is the salvation. His name shall be called Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. He is the one
who was placed in Zion, the church for Israel, God's glory. You
see that? That's what it's all about. And
then go back to Isaiah 45. Just turn back the page there. Now here's, so Christ was prophesied
from the beginning. As Cyrus was prophesied, so was
our Restorer, our Deliverer, our Savior, our Messiah. He was
prophesied. The first proclamation of him
was in Genesis 3.15, and he's prophesied throughout the whole
Old Testament. Here's the third way that Cyrus
was a type of Christ. Even though Cyrus was not himself
a righteous man, God raised him up as an instrument of righteousness,
meaning as an instrument of God's judgment against the Babylonians.
The Babylonians were unwittingly used as instruments of judgment
against Judah and Jerusalem. They were God's way of punishment. God meant it for good, but they
meant it for evil. The reason they came down to
conquer Jerusalem and Judah is they wanted more land. They were
greedy. They wanted power. Well, it's the same way with
Cyrus. Cyrus was God's unwitting form of judgment on the Babylonians. And again, God meant it for good,
he meant it for evil. So even though Cyrus was not
himself a righteous man, he was an instrument of righteousness,
an instrument of justice. Well, Jesus Christ was and is
a righteous person. Always has been, always will
be. He's God manifest in the flesh. And he was sent by the
Father to do what? To do judgment and justice in
establishing righteousness for his people and ensure their salvation
and final glory. He is the Lord our righteousness
and by which to judge the wicked for their sins. Christ coming
into the world is salvation for his people. but it's judgment
under condemnation for those who live and die in unbelief. And he's the builder, Christ
is the builder of his people, the builder of heavenly Jerusalem,
the liberator, the restorer of God's elect. Look over at Isaiah
44 and look at verse 28. Here's another prophecy of Cyrus. And it says, that saith of Cyrus,
this is talking about God pointing this man out. He is my shepherd
and shall perform all my pleasure. Even saying to Jerusalem, thou
shalt be built and to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid.
God calls Cyrus his shepherd. Why? Because he's doing the will
of God. And he's gonna perform all that God sent him to do.
He's gonna perform God's pleasure, it says. He's gonna build Jerusalem. He's gonna build the temple.
Well, in Christ, our shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. In Christ, the builder of the
church, the builder of the heavenly city, Jerusalem. You see that?
So Cyrus is a type of Christ in that way. And then here's
a fifth way. Cyrus made a decree. Now we read
about that back in in second Chronicles and in Ezra chapter
one. He made a decree, he made a proclamation, he even put it
in writing. And think about it, that decree
to liberate and restore the Jewish people in fulfillment of prophecy,
and that's recorded. Now, don't you know that was
good news to those people in captivity? If you want to read
about the attitude, the downtrodden attitude of the people of Judah
while they were in captivity, read Psalms like Psalm 137. By
the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and we wept. That's them
in captivity. So when this proclamation came
from this one who had delivered them from Babylon, don't you
know that was good news? Well, where do we have good news
for us today? In the preaching of the gospel,
the good news. And what does it tell us? It
tells us of a conqueror, a savior, a restorer who's come to rebuild
God's people in the church. Christ being the builder of the
church, he said the gates of hell will not prevail against
us. That decree of salvation, the everlasting covenant of grace.
And what is the gospel but the proclamation of the terms of
that covenant as fulfilled by Christ for his people? He is
all righteousness. He is all wisdom. He is all redemption
for his people. All wisdom. And that's good news,
isn't it? The gospel is the power of God
and the salvation to everyone that believe it. Here's another
way. Here's the sixth way. King Cyrus
actively assisted the Jews in rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem
under Zerubbabel and under another man named Joshua, the high priest.
Cyrus restored the temple treasures. He provided funds and he told
other people to provide funds to do this. And in that we see
Cyrus as a type of Christ. Christ is not only our savior,
he's our restorer, he's our preserver, he's our keeper. He gives us
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, and we're saved by His
grace. We persevere because He preserves
us. And that's what Cyrus was doing
there. Christ, who is able to keep that which we've committed
unto Him against that day. And what have we committed unto
Him? All of our salvation. All of our spiritual blessings.
All of our eternal destiny is in his hands. And it's all based
upon his righteousness alone so that it can never be taken
away. And then lastly, if you look at, as I said in Isaiah
45, one, how Cyrus is called God's anointed to open those
two leaved gates, all barriers that would have prevented Cyrus
from delivering the people of Judah from Babylon and bringing
them back to their city to rebuild the temple, all obstacles were
removed, and it was by the hand of God. I don't have time this
morning to go into all the details of how all that happened, but
it's a fascinating story, how they had to divert a river, and
all of that, but we won't go into that, but all obstacles
were removed, and all means were provided to restore, to deliver
them and restore them back to their homeland. Well, that's
what Christ has done for us. Every obstacle that would hinder
our salvation being delivered from sin and Satan and from death,
Christ removed those obstacles completely. And He didn't say,
I've removed them, now you need to take the next step. No, He
removed them, but He brought us over. And he restored us every
means that God uses to bring us unto the enjoyment of salvation,
God has provided in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
how Christ is not only our deliverer, our savior, he's our restorer.
He gives us all things that God requires, all things we need,
all things that God requires to save us from our sins. All
right.