Let's open our Bibles again to
Ezra chapter 3. The books Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther
are the last of what we call the historical Old Testament
books. They're the last books that tell
us the history of Israel. Those three books together cover
about 100 years. They tell about how the Jews
returned from their captivity in Babylon. But don't ever mistake
any part of the Bible as a history book. These books were not written
to give us the history of the Jews. These books are written
to declare the Lord Jesus Christ, to declare the gospel of Christ.
And I want us to look at chapter three this morning. I've entitled
the message Foundational Truths. I want us to see in this chapter
some foundational truths of the gospel. I'll tell you where I
got the title. Look at verse three. It says,
they set the altar upon his basis, upon a pedestal or foundation,
they set the altar on its foundation. In verse 10, when the builders
laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord. And I want us to
look and see some foundational truths about Christ our altar
and Christ our temple. Let's read here verse one of
chapter three. And when the seventh month was
come, when the children of Israel were in the cities, The people
gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. Then
stood up Jeshua, the son of Josedach, and his brethren, the priests,
and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and built the
altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings thereon,
as it is written in the Law of Moses, the man of God. And they
set the altar upon his bases, for fear was upon them because
of the people of those countries, and they offered burnt offerings
thereon unto the Lord. even burnt offerings morning
and evening. Now here's our first foundational
truth. Christ is the altar, the only
altar where God will accept man. So come to Christ. He's the only
altar, the place that God will accept man. So come to Christ.
Now look in Deuteronomy chapter 12. In Deuteronomy 12, we're warned,
don't come to the altars of idols. Matter of fact, you tear all
them down, God said. And don't come just anywhere
that you think you should go. Don't go to just any religious
place. You go to the place that God has commanded us to go worship
Him, because that's where God will meet us. Look at Deuteronomy
12, and the first few verses there, it talks about how to
overthrow and tear down all the idols and their altars and things. And verse 5, But unto the place
which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes
to put His name there, even unto his habitation, that's where
you shall seek. That's where you're gonna seek
him, that's where you're gonna find him. And thither shalt thou
come, nowhere else but there. And thither, this place where
God has chosen and appointed, thither you shall bring your
burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the heave
offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings,
and the firstlings of your herds, and of all your flocks. And there,
in the place God has chosen, You should eat before the Lord,
your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand
unto you and your households where in the Lord thy God has
blessed thee. You shall not do after all the things that you
that we do here this day. Every man whatsoever is right
in his own eyes. You don't do what's ever right
in your eyes. You do what God said. You come to the place that
God has appointed this particular altar. Look at verse 11. There shall be a place which
the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
Thither shall you bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings
and your sacrifices, your tithes and the heave offerings of your
hand and all your choice vows which you vow unto the Lord.
You don't just bring that just anywhere now. You bring it to
the place that God has chosen. And verse 13, I take heed to
thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place
that thou seest. But in the place which the Lord
thy God shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt
offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that
I command thee, in the place that God has chosen." The place
God commanded Israel to come worship was at the altar and
nowhere else, because God's worshiped through the sacrifice, through
the blood of the sacrifice. We read in Hebrews chapter 13
what all that is a picture of. We have an altar. That altar
is Christ. And God commands all men to come
worship Him in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, our altar.
Because Christ is the altar. He's our altar, where the sacrifice
for sin is made. And God can only accept a sinner
in the sacrifice of Christ, our altar. So don't dare come to
God any other way but in Christ. Don't dare come to Him outside
of Christ. But I'm telling you, come to
Him in Christ right now. Today's the day of grace. You
come to Him, to God, in the Lord Jesus Christ because He's the
altar that God has appointed. Now here's the second foundational
truth. Christ is the burnt offering that we must have offered for
our sin. Now they set up this altar because
the altar is where the burnt offering was offered before the
Lord. And yet the burnt offering is very important. You know,
there's a burnt offering, there's a sin offering, all these different
offerings. Well, the burnt offering is for something specific. The
burnt offering is offered for our sin nature. The burnt offering
is not offered for sins, you know, outward sins that we commit.
It's for internal sins. That's what the burnt offering
is offered for. And the word burnt offering is the word that's
used for Holocaust. It means going up in smoke. The
burnt offering was put on this altar and it was completely consumed
by the fire that's in the altar. And whatever was left over to
the morning was taken outside of the camp and disposed of as
unclean. Now I just showed you that altar
is Christ, didn't I? And the burnt offering offered on the
altar, that's Christ too. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
burnt offering. He suffered, how he suffered.
The word there, I told you, it means holocaust. It's the word
they use for holocaust. It shows us the sufferings of
Christ, how he was consumed by the fire of God's wrath against
the sin of his people. The Lord Jesus was consumed in
this, our burnt offering was consumed in this way. He died. In his humanity, he died. He died to satisfy God's justice,
They took a dead body down from that cross and put a dead body
in that tomb and sealed it. He died. But now Christ, our
burnt offering, really wasn't completely consumed, was it?
In His humanity, He died. But He rose from the dead because
the sin that was charged to Him was gone. Now all these sacrifices
in the Old Testament, they're important. They're good pictures
of Christ. Christ is so much better than the sacrifice of
animals. I'm very thankful to live in this day, to not live
in the days of these Jews when they offered those sacrifices,
because we see so much more clearly how God saves sinners. Christ
is so much better than all those other animal sacrifices. Those
animal sacrifices never put away sin, did they? And they showed
that because they stayed on that altar till the fire consumed
them. It didn't put away any sin. Rivers of blood, of bullets,
and goats, and lambs were shed. It never put away sin. But Christ
our burnt offering, He stayed on that altar until He consumed
the fire. The fire of God's wrath went
out because the sin charged to Christ was gone. He stayed in
that altar, the fire of God's wrath against sin. until he suffered,
until that sin was no more. He suffered until sin was gone.
The substitute suffered. So we go free. Now that is the
sacrifice, the burnt offering that we must have, the Lord Jesus
Christ. The first time burnt offering
is mentioned in scripture. There's other offerings, Abel's
offering. It may have been a burnt offering. We kind of suspect
that, we don't know, The first time the burnt offering is mentioned
in scripture is Noah. Noah spent all those years, 120
years, building the ark, didn't he? All the animals came, got
in. Noah and his family went in,
and God shut the door. And it started raining. And they
stayed on that boat for how long? And that boat finally settled
on dry ground. Can you imagine how happy Noah
was to get off that ark? I mean, that thing was stinking
by now, probably, all those animals in there. He got off the ark.
And the first thing Noah did was offer a burnt offering. You know why he did that? Noah
knew he wasn't saved in that ark because he didn't do anything
right, was he? He was saved in that ark because there was a
sacrifice for sin. Christ the burnt offering. So
you come to Christ. The only way our sin can be put
away is in Christ our burnt offering. Sacrificed for our sin. Here's
the third foundational truth. A believer looks to Christ continually. It's not just a one-time thing.
I got saved when I was 12 years old. No, it's a continual looking
to Christ, a continual coming to Christ because Christ is all
of our salvation. At the end of verse 3, did you
notice this? They didn't just offer one burnt offering, did
they? They offered burnt offerings morning and evening. And verse
five says they offered a continual burnt offering. Now Christ was
only offered once, wasn't he? One time for sin, he put away
his sin. He doesn't need to offer himself many times. So this is
not teaching Christ needs to be offered over and over and
over again. What this means is, is that we are to continually
look to Christ, our burnt offering. Don't ever think, that we're
to look to Christ to find our salvation. And then we're to
keep ourselves by our own conduct and, you know, stay in God's
favor by, you know, the way we conduct ourselves. Absolutely
not. Nothing could be further from
the truth. We don't look to Christ for our justification and then
look to our own obedience to the law for our sanctification.
We just read that in Hebrews 13. Christ is our sanctification. We're sanctified in his blood.
The believer is to look to Christ continually for all things, our
justification and our sanctification. We'll look to him to save us,
look to him to keep us. Now, just like we looked at in
our lesson, the believer's conduct is very important. Don't get
me wrong. But when we do wrong, God's going to deal with that.
He'll chastise and correct us. He's not going to punish him
because he punished Christ for our sin, but he'll chastise us
and correct us. But a believer does not walk
by conduct now. It's important. We do not walk
by our conduct. We walk by faith. How do we walk? How do we continue? Looking. Not looked one dime, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We're to look to
Christ continually. This is a foundational truth. We look to him continually because
Christ is all. In verse three, they set the
altar upon his basis. for fear was upon them because
of the people of those countries. Now, what was it that they set
to alter on his basis, on his foundation? But why do they do
that? Why do they do that and then
offer these burnt offerings continually, morning and evening, morning
and evening? Well, verse three says, because they feared the
nations around them, didn't they? They feared being taken captive
by them. They feared becoming like one
of them. So they offered the burnt offerings. They feared
the sin that was outside of them and all those nations surrounding
them. It's greater than us. And they feared the sin that
was in them. In their time in Babylon, you
know what they learned? We got the same nature. We're just like
them. Apart from God's grace, we act just like them. I fear
the sin in this world. I do. Wickedness in high places. But I'll tell you what I greatly
fear. I live in mortal fear of the
sin that's in me. How I fear what I'll do if God
will leave me alone, leave me to my sin nature. Oh, I fear
that. Do you fear that? Want me to
tell you how to calm those fears? Quit looking at yourself and
look to Christ, the burnt altar. That's what calmed their fears.
We look to Christ, our altar, and Christ our sacrifice, and
we look to him continually. That's a foundational truth of
the gospel. Here's a fourth foundational
truth of the gospel. Christ died for his elect. He
died for spiritual Israel. Look at verse four. They kept
also the Feast of Tabernacles, as it's written, and offered
the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom,
as the duty of the day required. Now they kept the Feast of Tabernacles.
What's that? Well, the Feast of Tabernacles
was a feast. It was in the law, and Israel
kept that feast to remember how God led them through the wilderness.
When they left Egypt and they spent those 40 years in the wilderness,
God leading them to the promised land. During that time, they
lived in tabernacles. They lived in tents. And God
provided for them. They blew deed, water to drink,
and God provided for them. All those who were 20 and under,
they lived. They got to the promised land.
They inherited the land that God gave them. Well, who could
celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles? The Egyptians couldn't, could
they? The Hittites couldn't, the Hivites couldn't, the Jebusites
couldn't. The only people who could remember
what the Lord did for them and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles
was Israel, because God did that for them. He didn't do it for
any other nations. Now what's that a picture of? Christ's death for his people.
Who did Christ die for? We have the Lord's table. We
don't limit the Lord's table. If you believe, you come in.
The Lord's table is for believers to remember Him, to remember
His body broken for me, His blood that was shed for me. Well, who
can remember that? Only those that Christ died for.
Christ didn't die for every son of Adam. He died for his elect. The sacrifice was offered only
for his elect, just like God only brought Israel through the
wilderness. And God's elect are pictured by who came to this
altar in Ezra chapter three. The only people that came to
this altar were Israelites. And only a remnant of them came.
Now I told you in our lesson, there were three returns of Israel
from Babylon. And the first one is here in
chapter three of Ezra. Israel, remember we saw this
in our study in Isaiah chapter 39, Isaiah prophesied after the
death of King Hezekiah, Israel's gonna be taken into captivity
in Babylon. And at that time when God gave
that message to Israel, it's his judgment for sin, he also
gave a message of comfort to his people, didn't he? Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, then their warfare's accomplished,
the war's over. You're gonna go into bondage, but I will deliver
you. And God says, before it happens,
I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. I'm going to
deliver you by a king named Cyrus. That was written 200 years before
Cyrus was born. Sure enough, 200 years later,
a couple of Persian parents had a baby. Baby comes out, it's
a boy. What should we name him? I know
we'll name him Cyrus. Why didn't they name him Cyrus?
Why didn't they name him Tom or Bill or something? Because
here's another foundational truth of the gospel. God's sovereign.
God is sovereign. That's why they named him Cyrus.
They didn't even know they were accomplishing God's will, but
they did because God's sovereign. And God's sovereign. There are
lots of people wanting to be king, but you know who became
king? That baby they named Cyrus. He became king in Persia. Up
till that time, Babylon was a superpower on earth. But Cyrus thought,
I'm going to go conquer them. And he did. You know how he could?
Because God's sovereign. The deliverer's coming. Cyrus
is coming. He went and conquered Babylon.
And as he was now ruler of Babylon, somebody, and some of the writers
suspect maybe it was Daniel, but somebody brought the word
of God to Cyrus. And they read it to him. Cyrus,
let me read you this prophecy, written over 200 years ago. Cyrus
said, that's me. That's my name. And he heard,
and he obeyed the message from God to him. In chapter 1 of Ezra,
Cyrus, ruler of the world, said, I issue a decree. All you Jews
can go home. If you want to, go home. Rebuild
the temple if you want to. You're free to go. I'll even
give you the money to rebuild the temple. Here's all the gold
and silver, all the instruments that were taken from the tabernacle
when you were, or from the temple when you were taken captive.
Take it all back with you. It's yours. Go rebuild it too.
Why'd that happen? Because God's sovereign. He accomplishes
his will. And what's God's will? To save
his elect. And he's gonna save them now.
then those elect are pictured in this remnant that came out.
I told you this in a class, for those of you that weren't here.
There are over three million Jews in captivity in Babylon.
You know how many came out with the Jeshua and Zerubbabel, Yom
Kippur? Three million. Less than 45,000. Just a remnant. That's God's
elect. Now they're just a remnant. On
earth at any given time, they're just a remnant. But I'm telling
you, every one that God chose came. Not one of them stayed
in Babylon. And God calls His elect a remnant. His elect that Christ came to
save, He saved them. Not one's gonna be lost. And
God calls it a remnant. Now does that mean that Christ
died for just a very few? No, it doesn't mean that at all.
Doesn't mean that at all. I don't know how many people
Christ saved. God called it a remnant. I don't know how many he saved.
All I know is this. It's a number no man can count.
We can't count that high. It's a remnant to God. He's infinite. But it's a pretty
big number. It's a number we can't count.
And Christ saved every one of them. God in his sovereignty
gave every one of them to Christ to save. And he put the sin of
all of them away. That's a foundational truth of
the gospel. Christ's sacrifice accomplished
exactly what it was meant to do. He didn't die to offer salvation,
he died to save his people from their sins, and he did it. Here's
the fifth foundational truth. The result of the sacrifice of
Christ is the new birth. Now remember I told you that
burnt offering is offered for our sin nature, the nature of
the atom that's in us. And we've seen this morning,
we've seen the nature of Israel. They have the same nature as
all those heathen Babylonians. But the blood of Christ cleanses
us from all sin. Yes, the sin that we've committed,
but more importantly, original sin, our guilt in Adam. Everyone that Christ died for
has got the exact same nature as every other son of Adam. But
Christ died for him. God the Holy Spirit comes and
gives every one of those people a new nature. There's a new nature,
it's born. The death of Christ demands the
life of His elect. If Christ died for you, you must
have life. You can't die. Another part of
the Feast of Tabernacles that they celebrated here is a ceremony
they called the pouring of the water. It was the last thing
they did on the last day. Look at John chapter 7. And the
Jews considered this pouring of the water, they considered
this to be the most important part of the feast, the highest,
most revered part of the feast. And what they did on the last
day of the feast, the last thing they did, they had a big parade.
They took a golden pitcher from the temple and they paraded down
the pool of Siloam and they filled the vessel up with water and
they paraded it back in some big ceremony, you know, and they
poured the water out on the altar. And that was the great day of
the feast, the best part of the feast. And they had absolutely
no idea what they were doing. But I'll tell you what they were
doing. That water is a picture of the work of the Holy Spirit
in the new birth. In John 7, verse 37, in the last
day, this is the Feast of Tabernacles, in the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. Now, what water was he speaking
of? Well, God's word tells us. But this spake he of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because of Jesus was not yet glorified.
Our Lord himself told us this water is a picture of the work
of the Holy Spirit in the new birth. Well, is there a picture
of the new birth given to us in Ezra chapter three? Yes, there
is. And we see it when they observed
the Feast of Tabernacles. I showed you in the lesson how
the Jews, when they were down there in Babylon, they showed
they got the same nature as all those heathen. But God brought
them out. God sent Cyrus to conquer Babylon
and to set Israel free. And everybody didn't leave. A
bunch of people, they were born in that land of their captivity
and they liked it there and they stayed. But God brought his remnant
out. He brought his people out and
where did he bring them? He brought them to the altar.
He brought them to the burnt offering because that's where
God is going to accept sinners. And when they saw that sacrifice,
when God brought them to the altar, they suddenly showed a
new nature. They worshiped willingly and
they gave willingly. Look at verse 5 in our text of
Esther 3. And afterward offered the continual
burnt offering, both of the new moons and of all the set feasts
of the Lord, they were consecrated. and of everyone that willingly
offered a freewill offering to the Lord. Suddenly, people were
giving willingly. They came willingly, and they
willingly came and gave sacrifices and these things. Well, why'd
they do that? Well, God elected a people unto
salvation. The Father elected those people.
He gave them to His Son. Christ came as a man. He suffered
and died for their sin as their substitute. God, the Holy Spirit
comes, And He brings those people to Christ. He applies the blood
of the sacrifice to their heart. He reveals Christ our burnt offering. Suffering our holocaust. Going
up in smoke for our sin. And Christ makes His people,
or the Holy Spirit makes His people willing. Willing to come
to Christ. Willing to bow to Christ. Willing
to believe Christ. Willing to rest in Christ. Willing
to keep looking to Him. because God gave him a new nature
and a new birth. Seeing the agonizing death of
Christ, our substitute, produces spiritual life, produces a new
man born. And where there's a new man,
there's a new attitude. There's new motives. Everything
is new because there's a new man born because Christ, our
burnt offering, died in our place. And that's the story of every
believer. I don't care where you find them. That's the story
of every believer. Verse one says that when the
seventh month was come and the children of Israel in the cities,
the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. They gathered themselves together
as one man. That whole, just a remnant, but
45,000 people is a lot of people. If you're trying to get out of
a stadium after a football game, it's hard to get out of there.
This 45,000 people came together as one man. They moved just as
easily as one man walking around. How did they move that easily?
Because they had the same nature. They had the same heart. They
had the same spirit. That's why they all came together.
And that's how the church of God functions. The church of
God is not, you know, all these little places. It's all one. At the preacher school yesterday,
Brother Todd made a good statement about the church all being one
church. He said, I'm a member, there's
a man there from Crossway, he said, I'm a member of Lantana
Grace, I'm a member of Hurricane Road, I'm a member there at Kingsport,
I'm a member at all these different places, just like I'm a member
here at Todd's Road. Because there's only one church, and
we have the same nature. And that's how the church functions,
in one accord. And all these different people
with different backgrounds, with different experiences, we can
all function in one accord. Why? Because we've got the same
nature. That's the story of every believer. Now, look at verse 6 in our text.
From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt
offerings unto the Lord. But the foundation of the temple
was not yet laid, Now, do you wonder why they built the altar
before they built the temple? We know the temple is a picture
of Christ too, isn't it? The temple is a picture of the
body of the Lord Jesus. In John chapter 2, he told those
Pharisees, you destroy this temple and in three days, I'll raise
it up. Well, he wasn't speaking of Solomon's temple or whatever
temple, you know, whoever built that. He was speaking about his
body. Well, didn't the body of Christ
have to come and be the sacrifice before the sacrifice could be
made. There had to be a body to sacrifice
before there could be a sacrifice. Isn't that so? No, it's not. Here's the sixth foundational
truth. Salvation has always and only been in Christ. Before Christ
came incarnate, before he came in a human body, how were people
saved? Well, they weren't saved by keeping
the law. They were always saved by grace through faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. They looked to Christ at the
law of the ceremony's picture. Christ is the eternal sacrifice. And it's hard for us to understand
eternity. You know, we've just got a reference of time for where
I am right now, you know. So I think there's eternity past
and eternity future. It's all, this is how selfish
I am. I think eternity is all related
to where I am. Eternity doesn't happen, there's
no time in eternity. In the book of Revelations, what
we call eternity future, John said, I saw a lamb as it had
been slain. In glory, we're gonna look to
Christ the lamb slain. We're gonna look to his sacrifice
and we will spend eternity giving thanks for Christ our burnt offering.
He was sacrificed to put away our sins. Well, you know, there's
no difference in what we call eternity future and what we call
eternity past. In eternity past, when only the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit existed, the Father, you know
what he saw in glory? He saw Christ the Lamb as it
had been slain. It's never been any different.
In eternity, what we call eternity past, the Father always saw his
people accepted in Christ our sacrifice. Christ is the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. He was only revealed
to us in bodily form after the law had been given. The law was
given first so we'd be driven to Christ because of our sin
that's revealed by the law. But Christ has always been the
Savior. He's always been the sacrifice.
He's always been the surety, even before the Father prepared
him a body. Christ is the eternal Savior. That's a foundational truth.
There is a sense in which a believer is justified before the foundation
of the world when we were put in Christ. That's right. And
there's a sense in which we are justified when Christ was sacrificed. He shed His blood for us. We
were justified. There's a sense in which we are
justified when the Spirit came to reveal Christ to us. One day
we'll be justified when we awaken His likeness. That's a foundational
truth. Christ is the eternal Savior.
Now verse 10, the builders laid the foundation of the temple.
When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord. Now
they got to building the temple and they're gonna lay the foundation
first. Now you know this temple they're
getting ready to build and rebuild or repair whatever is going on
here. That temple is a picture of Christ, the Lord Jesus in
his human body. He tabernacled among men. And
the whole temple is a picture of who Christ is and what he's
done for his people, who he is to his people. That temple was
the only place on earth where God would meet with men. That's
the only place. And if you lived in that day
and you're going to worship the Lord, you had to go to the temple
because that's the place he's worshiped. Well, if you and I
are ever going to worship God, we've got to go to Christ. God
is only worshiped in his son, our Lord Jesus Christ. In that
temple was the mercy seat. The mercy seat covered the ark.
In that ark was the broken law, the law that you and I have broken.
And the mercy seat was covered with blood year after year after
year. The high priest would go in there
on the day of atonement, sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice. That
mercy seat was covered with blood. That's a picture of Christ, our
propitiation. The word propitiation is mercy
seat. Christ is the mercy seat. He
covers the broken law for his people. And he pays for that
broken law with his blood sprinkled on his people. Then in the temple
was the golden candlestick. It's a picture of Christ, the
light of the world. Someone, by God's grace, been
sitting and listening to the gospel preached for however long,
and suddenly they say, I see. I see what you're saying. How
do you see what I'm saying? Not because I convinced you.
My powers of persuasion. When do you see? God gives you
light. When you see Christ, now I see. Now I understand what all this
stuff is because I see Christ. Now I see my need of Christ.
Now I see my sin. Now I see how God can, in justice,
save somebody like me because I see Christ. He's the light
of the world. In that temple was the showbread. That's Christ,
the bread of life. And there's the priest in the
tabernacle or the temple. He's constantly working, constantly
working. He never sits down. There's not
a seat anywhere in that temple because he's always got work
to do. That's a picture of Christ, our high priest, who did sit
down. See, those priests, they offered
sacrifices. They could never take away sin.
Christ offered one sacrifice for sin forever. He sat down
because the work's finished. That temple shows us that Christ
is all of our salvation. Now, since Christ is all of our
salvation, we preach Christ. We preach only Christ. We preach
Christ all the time, every time, because Christ is salvation. God is my helper. One day, you're
going to hear the last message that you ever hear preached.
One day, you're going to hear the last message you ever hear
this preacher preach. God as my helper is going to
be Christ. We preach Christ because He is
salvation. And that brings me to our seventh
foundational truth. When we see Christ by faith,
there's rejoicing. I'm sure those old Puritans,
I reckon anyway, they knew the Lord. But I tell you, I just
don't like this going around pouting moaning and just everything
bad all the time. Yeah, there's reasons to be upset,
you know, be down the mouth and things, but I'm telling you,
when we see Christ, you have reason for rejoicing. These men
rejoiced. Look at verse 10, our text, Esther
3. And when the builders laid the
foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set to priests in
their apparel with trumpets. And the Levites, the son of Asaph,
with cymbals, to praise the Lord after the ordinance of David,
king of Israel. And they sang together by chorus,
they sang different verses, and praising and giving thanks unto
the Lord, because he's good. For his mercy endureth forever
toward Israel. And all the people shouted with
a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation
of the house of the Lord was laid. Oh, they rejoice because
the foundational truth was laid. And this is not the silly rejoicing
we see in people today. This is a heart rejoicing. And you know, it's fine for genuine
heart rejoicing to show itself in the worship service, in the
worship. You know, sometimes we sing and might just sing just
a little better. The Lord's blessed us to be able
to really rejoice, you know. Sometimes we're just, you hear
preaching, you just can't help yourself. You say, Amen! Oh,
that's reaching my heart. Brother Herman Pruitt, I used
to sit across the aisle from him. And there were times he'd
get so excited hearing Henry preach, his legs would just swing,
swing back and forth, you know. And he'd thump his leg, Amen!
He's just so excited. There's nothing wrong with that
at all. That's good. And that's just
a whole lot different than the shenanigans that go around in
the fleshly shows of religion today. And I can tell you the
difference. When you see it, you don't need
somebody to explain it. You know it when you see it.
Fleshly shows of religion. What does it do? Draws attention
to the flesh. True heart rejoicing. Who does
that draw attention to? And you know the difference when
you see it. And in our text, the people were rejoicing in
the Lord Jesus Christ, these foundational truths that were
laid, because everything in that temple pictured Christ. He's everything we need. He's
everything that God requires. God requires holiness. You can't
go into that Holy of Holies now at just any time. You've got
to go with the blood on the day of atonement, because God's holy.
He'll kill you if you go in there. God requires holiness. Christ
is our holiness. Christ is our righteousness.
God requires a sacrifice. You've got to have the blood. Christ is our sacrifice. And
He just needed one. His blood atones for sin. God
requires cleansing at that labor. Every time the high priest is
going, you have to wash in that brazen labor. Christ is our cleansing. Christ is our sanctification.
God requires a high priest. Just anybody couldn't go in the
Holy of Holies. Just anybody couldn't offer the
sacrifice. It had to be the high priest. Christ is our high priest. He's the high priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
3. Christ is, all the foundational truths that we're talking about,
Christ is. The foundation of our faith,
the foundation of everything that we believe is Christ. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 10. The Apostle Paul says, According
to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master
builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. Now how did Paul lay that foundation?
He did it by preaching Christ. every time, all the time. That's
how the foundation is laid. Look over to Ephesians chapter
2. Christ is the foundation. All these foundational truths
are Christ. He's everything we need. Ephesians
2 verse 18. For through him we both have
access by one spirit unto the Father. Now therefore, you're
no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. Now you know the foundation is
not the apostles and prophets. The foundation of the church
is not Peter. The foundation of the church is Christ. It's
Christ that they preach. It's Christ that they declared
and wrote of. And when Christ is the foundation of our faith,
I want you to look what happens, verse 21. In whom? All the building
fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord,
in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit. That's how we're built together
and grow together, because we're built upon Christ the foundation,
upon the preaching of Christ. Now look at 1 Peter 2. I want you to see this, that Christ
is our foundation. He's the author, he's the sacrifice,
he's the priest that offers it, he's the walls, he's the glue
that holds everything together. Christ is all. And we rejoice
because Christ, our foundation, is eternal. He'll never crumble. He's always holding up his people. 1 Peter 2 verse 5. Ye also, as
lively stones, living stones, are built up a spiritual house
and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded. The house that's built upon the
rock is going to stand firm because the rock stands firm. The house
won't crumble if the foundation doesn't crumble. It's going to
stand firm. The house built on Christ will
stand firm through judgment of God against sin, through every
storm of trouble and trial in this life here on earth, because
no matter what happens, Christ will not fail. He won't crumble,
so you built on him won't either. Now, back in our text quickly,
verse 11. Here's the eighth foundational
truth. Oh, this is good. I've got good news. If the gospel's
not preached as good news, it's not the gospel. That's another
foundational truth. There's mercy to be had for sinners
in Christ our sacrifice, Christ our burnt offering. In verse
11, they sang together by chorus in praising and giving thanks
unto the Lord because he's good, for his mercy endureth forever
toward Israel. Here these fellows got together
and they sang the church's favorite chorus, God's mercy endureth
forever. And you know where they found
mercy? You know where they were compelled to just with joy sing
of this mercy? At the altar. They built the
foundation of the altar. They laid the foundation of the
tabernacle and they saw the sacrifice. and they just couldn't help themselves. They sang by chorus about the
mercy of God, His mercy endureth forever. I told you this Wednesday
night, we tend to think, don't give me justice, give me mercy.
That's what we tend to think, isn't it? But you know, you can't
have mercy from God without justice. If God's going to be merciful
to you in justice, He punished your sins and your substitute
in the sacrifice. Oh, what good news. There's mercy
to be had for sinners in Christ our sacrifice. And here's the
last foundational truth. Seeing Christ with the eye of
faith will always produce repentance. Repentance is not just being
sorry. Repentance is turning. If we ever see the Lord Jesus
Christ by faith, we'll turn to him. And that's what happened
here in verse 12. But many of the priests and Levites and chief
of the fathers who were ancient men that had seen the first house,
when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, they
wept with a loud voice and many shouted aloud for joy so that
the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy
from the noise of weeping of the people. For the people shouted
with a loud shout and the noise was heard afar off. Now, many
of those old men, when they saw the foundation laid, they didn't
rejoice. They were over here at the altar
rejoicing with these fellas, singing about the mercy of God.
They were crying in sorrow. And you know, they were crying
because, well, this temple is not as glorious as the one Solomon
built. You know, we want something better
than this. I know God's provided this. We don't want this. We
want those good old days, you know. Well, that's a picture
of the reaction of the flesh. When the flesh hears Christ preach,
they're just like the Jews that rejected the Lord. They said,
this is not the man we want. This is not the man we were looking
for. We won't have this man to reign over us. We're looking
for something a whole lot better than this man. And that's why
they rejected Christ. But the other picture here is
what happens when we see Christ with the eye of faith. It's repentance. It's turning to Christ. When
we see Christ, with faith, by faith as he is, there's weeping
in there. Because now I see myself as I
really am. When I see Christ sacrificed,
oh, I disgust myself. Because now I see what my sin
really is. Now I see what my sin really
caused. It caused the bloody agony of
Christ himself. And that weeping and that sorrow
over our sin causes us to turn to Christ. When we see Christ
as He really is, there's both sorrow and joy. There's sorrow
over our sin and there's joy in Christ. The bitter and the
sweet go together. And sometimes you hear and you
can't tell the difference. Where's the joy? Where's the
repentance? They're together. The sweet and the bitter must
go together. And that's a good mixture of
faith. The sweet and the bitter going together. The bitter of
our sin. The bitter of the sorrow over
our sin. And the unspeakable joy that's in Christ our sacrifice. That in Him we're accepted. In Him God sees us as holy and
righteous as His Son and He loves His people with the same love
that He loves His Son. Why would I go anywhere else
but Christ? Go to him. That's the foundational
truth of the gospel. All right, let's bow and pray. Father, how we thank you for
our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you that you and
your mercy and grace and your sovereign power reveal to your
people that Christ is all. Father, cause us this morning,
cause each one here this morning to look to thee. Those who have
never looked before, cause them to look to Christ. Run to Him. And those who have looked before,
cause us to look again. Cause us to keep looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is our all and in all. We know it's by your grace, by
your mercy, by your power. And Father, we thank you and
rejoice in Christ our Savior. It's in His name and for His
glory we pray.