Well, again, it's a great blessing
to have these men of God, faithful preachers of the word with us.
And about 12 years ago, I believe it was, the Lord had Brother
Norm and I's cross, our paths crossed by his sovereign grace.
And it's been a wonderful time of getting to know Norm and having
our hearts knit together and Sister Nancy as well. And they
like Jean-Claude. are like family when they come
and visit. And it's a wonderful time. Whenever God's people get
together, it's like a family reunion. It really is. And these
conferences are wonderful that way because we have a man who's
a missionary to Africa and lives in France, who preaches the same
gospel that's trumpeted here. And we have a man from Oregon
who preaches the very same gospel, and the man from Iowa who preaches
the same gospel. And it's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. And we seek to give all the glory
to the Lord. And I've learned a lot from Brother
Norm through the years. It's been a blessing to have
him in my life. He's been a wonderful brother
to look up to and to learn a lot of things from. Brother Norm,
come and preach about Christ, our Savior. Good evening. What a blessing
it is to be with you. What a blessing it was last time
to be here, but it's warmer. Not near as much ice and snow
to slide around on. I bring you greetings from our
church and friends out in the Dalles, Oregon. And I mentioned
the last time I was here, and I will say it again, we're not
in a different vineyard. We're in the same vineyard. We're
just in a few different plants over here. And a dear brother
that I got acquainted with and I'm learning to love is Brother
Jean-Claude. And he has a vineyard. He's way
over there on that side of it. Brother Joe is up there in that
part of it. and here we are, we get together and we get to
hear the same thing. What a blessing. It gives me
great comfort to know that the Holy Spirit has never in any
period of the church left himself without witness, and that witness
is Jesus Christ. He is the true witness. And there's
never been a time. Abel knew that witness. By faith,
Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice. He was witnessed by
Jesus Christ and that sacrifice pictured Jesus Christ. And he
was sharing with us, as well as those that were around him,
three other people, my faith is in Jesus Christ and Jesus
Christ alone. I am a sinner. And I just was
enthralled by that message about our depravity. He put it so articulate
in such a way that I'd never even considered it, knowing that
it is every bit the truth. We are totally depraved. Abel
knew that. And when God saved him, and he
was able to see the Lord Jesus Christ, he looked out there and
saw a burning lamb and said, there is a picture I need to
substitute. Well, we follow throughout the
scriptures that every writer that God ever used throughout
all the history of writing the Bible, they had one thing in
mind, and that was these rivlets flowed together and came together
in the person of Jesus Christ. They all testified of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I find in John 1, verse 45, that
Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found
him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write. Now
thank God the Spirit didn't stop right there, because he goes
on to say, Jesus of Nazareth, That is him. This is the one
that the prophets throughout the scriptures were writing about. This is where all of those drops
throughout the Old Testament came together in a head of water
in the person of Jesus Christ. They all spoke of the Lord Jesus. We just finished three years
of going through the book of Leviticus, and I got so I would
announce my text, The Gospel According to Leviticus. Tonight,
I would like to take you to the gospel according to Ezra. Would
you turn there with me for a few minutes tonight as we think about
this, that it was, this was he whose day the patriarchs looked
forward to. As you're turning to the book
of Ezra, in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 13, these all died
in faith, not having seen the promises, but having seen them
afar off. They didn't see the fulfillment
of all of them. They didn't see the day of the
birth of the Messiah. They didn't hear those words
of the shepherds. They didn't hear the words of
the angels as the Lord Jesus Christ was born of a virgin and
laid in a manger. But God had given them, by the
power of the Holy Spirit, the ability to look ahead and say,
He is all my hope, my Savior. They didn't see it there, but
it was a far off. My goodness, we look back, it's
pretty far off since he's been here, isn't it? 2,000 years,
it's been a far off. But God's people have the eye
of faith and they're able to look into the word of God. And
when we read about a miracle that the Lord Jesus Christ performed,
we don't have to see it happen in front of us. We read about
it and say, that's great. Jesus Christ walked on water.
Jesus Christ raised the dead. Jesus Christ turned the water
to wine. Jesus Christ did all of these wonderful things, and
I can see it by faith, just as if I was there. This is God Almighty
come in the flesh. These all died in faith, not
having seen the promises, but having seen them afar off, and
were persuaded of them, and embraced them. and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth. By nature,
we never confess that we're strangers and pilgrims. We got our roots
down. It takes the grace of God to
lift us out of that quagmire. In the days of Solomon, He had 12 tribes. His father,
David, and he had 12 tribes of Israel. When Solomon died, there
got to be a conflab about what we're going to do. God had already
given 10 tribes to a man by the name of Jeroboam. These 10 tribes
were taken off And we hear a little bit about them in the New Testament.
There was a lady that brought up something that came about
as a result of Jeroboam establishing a calf down here and a calf up
here for them to worship. She said to Jesus Christ, our
fathers say in this mountain we are to worship and you say
down in Jerusalem. That is just some refuse from
the breaking up of the ten tribes. There was a lady above the tribe
of Asher. But by and large, they were all
absorbed and were taken off. Some years later, two tribes
were taken off. They were called Judah and Benjamin.
And they were taken into Babylonian captivity. And the prophet Jeremiah
said, they will be there 70 years. at the end of 70 years, and I
believe it is just the same as we find the children of Israel
being taken out of Egypt. It says there in the 430th year,
the selfsame day. They were brought in, 430 years
later, they were taken out. Now, 30 years, they were under
Joseph. Joseph was with them, and there
arose a king who knew not Joseph, and at that point, they're put
into captivity, and 400 years from that time, we find the Passover,
and they're taken out into the Sinaitic Peninsula, and eventually
taken into the land we call Palestine. Well, they lived there under
judges, and they lived there under kings, and they lived there
under prophets, and behold, they're taken off into captivity, as
Jeremiah the prophet said. Well, when we come to the book
of Ezra, we're introduced to a person by the name of Cyrus.
Now Cyrus is no stranger to the scriptures, but we have the prophet
Isaiah 200 years before Cyrus is born. He is mentioned by the
prophet Isaiah as being the exact one that would release people
from that servitude, from that being carried off into captivity,
would release them from captivity. And he hasn't even been born,
and they haven't even been taken off into captivity, and we're
already told that someone is coming. Boy, doesn't that reflect
on something. Before the foundation of the
world, God promised a Redeemer. In the covenant of grace, God
promised a Redeemer. And this Redeemer is such a Redeemer
that when He intends to redeem someone, He actually does that.
He doesn't make us possible for redemption, He actually redeems
His people from their sin. This Savior actually saves His
people from their sins. He is a Savior that saves, and
a Redeemer that redeems, and He was promised before the foundation
of the world, and we have types and shadows and pictures of that
all through the Scriptures, and right here in the book of Ezra,
chapter one, we run into one of those wonderful types, one
of those wonderful pictures, and that is that Cyrus was going
to be used by Almighty God to free some people that were down
there in 70 years of captivity. Ezra chapter 1, now in the first
year of Cyrus, king of Persia. Would you turn, keep your finger
right there, would you? And turn with me over to the
book of Isaiah chapter 44. Isaiah chapter 44 and there in
verse 28 we have this prophecy. Isaiah and Ezra are being used
to write about the same great salvation. All of the Old Testament
prophets were used, Moses and the prophets and the Psalms were
all used to write about the glories of Jesus Christ the righteous
and what glory it is when he saves his people from their sins. Here in the book of Isaiah chapter
44 and in verse 28, we have these words recorded, and therefore,
uh-oh. Oh, excuse me. I'll get over
here. Chapter 44, I'm looking at chapter
43. Thus saith Cyrus, he is my shepherd. Now, it is hard for me to fathom
that Isaiah is writing his name down 200 years. Can you imagine your great, great,
great, great grandparents naming you? They had no idea we were even
going to get here, but the God of heaven knew that Cyrus was
going to get here. The God of heaven had purposed it. He had
purposed that those people would go into captivity. We find out
that God was not surprised by what happened in the Garden of
Eden. He had already said, in the day you eat, you shall surely
die. But it also tells us that you had a lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. There was already a Redeemer
prepared for the catastrophic event that took place in the
Garden of Eden. He was not caught off guard. He was not cut short. He knew exactly what was going
to happen. In fact, one of the old church
fathers says, oh, glorious fall. Why? Because we could know about
grace. Grace, grace, marvelous grace. Unmerited favor of God towards
sinners that had no interest in Him whatsoever except to get
rid of Him. Cyrus, He is my shepherd and
shall perform all my pleasure. The Bible tells us about our
own leaders today. Fuss about him if you will, but
the Bible, God says, the king's heart is in his hands. And he lies rivers of water,
he turns it whithersoever he will. You know, sometimes that just
made me ashamed of myself. how outspoken I was in my own
breath and to others about the leaders that he puts over us.
I don't think that he minds us voting our own belief. But my, I just, it was a travesty. And then to complain about the
weather too. That's a travesty because it's God that brings
us the weather. Well anyway, he is my shepherd
and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, thou
shalt be built. Jerusalem has been torn down,
all of the temple has been torn down, all of the dishes and pots
and pans and all the brass of that great basin was hauled off
with weight innumerable, had been carried away, and now a
man against probably all the counselors that he had in his
kingdoms, they would probably say, what are you doing? And he said, these folks are going to go home. Now, it
isn't Cyrus that's doing that. Jump back over with me to the
book of Ezra. It says here, now in the first
year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by
the mouth of Jeremiah, never feel unblessed when you hear
the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord is such
a blessing to hear. Why, there are countless how-minis
that have never, ever heard the word of the Lord. We are so blessed
in that little community out in the Dalles that we get to
hear the word of the Lord. Folks today, this thing right
here and this thing right here and all the streaming that goes
on, people who never had the opportunity in their life to
bring the preaching of the gospel into their home have that opportunity. It's marvelous what's going on. But to hear the word of the Lord,
There is no greater event ever taken place on this earth. No Congress that has ever sit,
no legislation that has ever been in place has the power or
the impact of what is going on right here tonight. The most
important thing that has ever taken place goes on with the
preaching of the gospel. You will never be the same if
you ever get to hear it. You will go away and say, I will
never hear that again, or you'll go away and say, what must I
do? By the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah
might be fulfilled the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of
Persia. I like what that word stirred
means. It's translated a number of places
awake, awake. It's the alarm clock. that morning alarm, awake, awake. God stirred up Cyrus. He was going along as king, doing
what he did as a king and one day he stopped in the middle
of his tracks and God revealed himself to some capacity at least
Because he goes on to tell us here that he made a proclamation
throughout all the kingdom and put also in writing, saying,
Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, 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 Judea. The Lord God of
heaven. How much he recognized the very
fact spiritually about that, I don't know, but what it was
for the king of Persia, a pagan king, to come up with those words
so he could share it with his court, the God of heaven is doing
something. I can hear his counselors, what
are you doing? Especially when he says, let's
take up an offering to go back with him. Jeremiah said, Judah shall return. Jeremiah said, Judah shall return. In the days of Cyrus, a proclamation
will go forth, and Judah shall return. You know, as we look
at this word, stirred, we find in many respects that it's about
the same thing that God has to do for everyone that he chose
before the foundation of the world, for them to ever get off
the seat they're sitting on. We're just complacent. And as
we brought up, We just go our own way and we never take into
consideration any other way because we just don't have the capacity
to do that. We're just beyond it. The problem
that was brought upon by the fall and brought down to our
generation is serious. And there's nothing that we can
do internally or externally to change it. And when mankind,
preachers in particular, have the idea that we can educate
people into the kingdom, they just don't understand what salvation
is. We must be stirred by the Spirit
of God. And that only comes after God
has crossed our paths with someone who knows something. And that's
the gospel. I would that you would pray for
a dear friend of mine, Sister Betty Rivenbark. Her dear husband,
faithful preacher of the gospel, was called home, taken out of
this life into the presence of his savior. In visiting with
Brother Rupert, he grew up in religion and he started to prosper
in it. Boy, he was going from this church
to this church and there were all these bigger churches. And
he was thriving in that religion until one day a man came along
who knew something and preached the gospel to him. And you know
what? All that is what the scriptures
say was done. And God raised him up, stirred
him up, and made him a preacher of God's grace in Christ Jesus
and that alone. Nothing else will do, nothing
else will save, nothing else will move, nothing else will
stir except the preaching of God's grace in Christ Jesus.
We find that this is so much like what we read in the book
of Ephesians. Would you turn there with me
for just a few moments? God stirred upon Cyrus. It was
purposed. He knew exactly when He was going
to stir on him. He wrote about it before he was
born, by 200 years. He wrote about when you would
be stirred before the foundation of the world in the covenant
of grace. If you've ever been stirred by the Holy Spirit, God
knew about it ahead of time. In fact, He purposed that it
would happen. And here we read in the book
of Ephesians chapter two, this wonderful account that the apostle
Paul wrote here to the Ephesians. And my friend, you'll never get
to chapter two if you don't have something to do with chapter
one. Chapter two is the blessings of chapter one, and that is to
be chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and
it's something we don't even know about, we don't wanna hear
about, we don't wanna think about, because it's not in our thought
processes. In fact, it is contrary to us
to even think that we need help out of the mess we're in. But
God is so gracious to take care of the problem before we know
it's a problem, and have a savior prepared from the foundation
of the world. And here in Ephesians, after
he's gone through all that, it tells us in chapter two, and
you hath he quickened, stirred, awakened, set off the alarm clock,
said it's time. God brought the gospel. Someone
came along who knew something and preached the gospel, and
it's now time. And the spirit works in a way
that's beyond description, and God raises us from the spiritual
dead because that's where we are by nature, and it takes a
resurrector to bring us out of that condition. If all of these
guys are right about being able to talk people into the kingdom
of heaven, send them down to the mortuary. And if they can do it there,
then believe what they say. But if they can't, we better
trust the Resurrector, the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 2, verse
5, the scriptures share there, even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved. We were in Christ when he was
raised from the dead. What a statement. Jesus mentioned
a number of times to his own disciples in those days that
he was with them, I must needs go to Jerusalem. I must needs
be judged, crucified, buried, and rise again the third day.
And we heard there wasn't very many understood that. God revealed
a whole lot to him after the fact. We had one that said, I
won't let you do that. And he said, get thee behind
me, Satan. Get thee behind me, adversary. This is my purpose.
This is the way of salvation. This is how my people will be
quickened. The son of God quickeneth whom
he wills is what we read in the book of John. John chapter 6
and verse 63 shares a lot about this subject. Cyrus was stirred. He made a
proclamation. The Lord God of heaven has given
me all the kingdoms. And once God's people are stirred,
they can't do anything but say, Lord. It takes the Lord. the sovereign
to raise people from the dead. John chapter 6 and verse 63,
we read these words. It is the spirit that stirreth,
that quickeneth, that raises, The flesh profiteth a little
bit. No, that's not what it says,
is it? The flesh profiteth nothing. I was caused to look up a verse
of scripture last night after I went to bed because it was
mentioned by Brother Jean-Claude. Have you ever found verses that
the ink is still dry? They're drying on, because you
just finally hear them for the first time? I've read that book
of 1 John, but you know, why did Cain kill Abel? Because his deeds were evil. What was his deeds? Look at them.
His heart was wrong with God, and he brought the wrong stuff.
It didn't portray the righteousness of Christ. It portrayed his own
righteousness. But his deeds, those were all
evil deeds. Can you count the evil deeds
we've done in our life trying to make a position before God? Well, we're thankful that the
flesh profiteth nothing. It is the spirit that quickeneth.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. Book of Colossians says, he hath
quickened us together. Galatians. You know, essentially
what Cyrus said to those folks, today you can go free. That's the wonderful thing about
the gospel. Today we go free. No more encumbered. by a yoke
of bondage that our fathers nor we were able to bear. It doesn't
give a license for sin, but it's a freedom that we have as Christ,
as our Savior, and only our Savior, and alone our Savior, and we
are free in Christ. It is not the law that points
us to Christ. It is Christ that points us to
Christ. Oh, the law kills, the Spirit
makes alive. And so Cyrus said, you're going
back home. Going back to Jerusalem. And
Jesus, when He raises us from the dead, says, you're coming
to Jerusalem. I'm bringing you home. And that
home doesn't stop in this life. That home stops at the feet of
Jesus Christ. I heard a message the other day
by a preacher and he said, we got all these things we're going
to brag about. We brag here, we're doing this and we're doing
that. And I'm a Baptist and I've been here for all these years.
He says, when we get before the throne of grace, all that goes
out the window because all we know what to say is worthy as
the lamb that was slain.