Okay, we're looking this evening
at Ezra chapter four. Ezra chapter four. I started
to take the title from what is found in verse one, and I started
to entitle this message, The Adversaries of Judah and Benjamin,
The Adversaries of Judah and Benjamin. And as I was thinking
about this message again and thinking about that title, I'm going to call it by a different
title, and I'm going to entitle it this, The Adversaries of the
Gospel Cannot Change the Purpose of God. The Adversaries of the
Gospel Cannot Change the Purpose of God. Or the abbreviated title
will be, The Purpose of God Cannot Be Changed. The purpose of God
cannot be changed. Now, I thought of a couple of
Scriptures on that word purpose. Isaiah 14 says, For the Lord
hath purposed, who shall disannul it? His hand is stretched forth,
who shall turn it back? Now if the Lord has purposed
it, who is going to turn His hand? Who is going to change
His will? And then this other scripture about the purpose of
the Lord, in Ephesians 1 verse 11, In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. These adversaries of Judah tried
to change the purpose of God, didn't they? They worked at it
real hard, but they were not successful, not at all. And then
we read of another scripture in Ephesians 3 verse 11, talking
about the eternal purpose that God had purposed in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Everything God does, He does
on purpose. Every sinner He saves, He saves
according to His purpose and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. The adversaries of Judah and
Benjamin, they were real enemies and real opposition to the Lord's
people. Now, whenever the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ begins to prosper and grow, especially in a particular
community where the Lord has raised up a gospel ministry,
when it becomes an influence in the community, and especially
in the religious community, the enemies of the gospel are always
looking to attack the Lord's people, to attack the Lord's
gospel, to stop the work or at least discredit the work, or
discredit the man, or discredit his ministry, and then to try
to frustrate the purpose of God. We can be assured As it says
in Ezra 5.5, the eye of God is always on guard about these things. No one and nothing can stop or
hinder the purpose of God. God has an eternal purpose. It's
going to be done. His eternal purpose and His sovereign
will is always going to be accomplished. This scripture I quote all the
time in Isaiah 46. God said, I've spoken it, I've
purposed it, I will do it. I will do all my pleasure. And
then we're very familiar with this scripture our Lord declares
in Matthew 16, 18. He said, I will build my church
and the gates of hell, whatever that is, whatever that comprises
about the enemies of the gospel. The gates of hell, all the powers
and demons of hell cannot stop the purpose of God in building
his spiritual kingdom. Cain may rise up and slay Abel,
but the purpose of God continues in the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Israel was in Egyptian bondage
for 400 years, but the purpose of God was accomplished and the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ did not fail. One day they were
delivered. How many times through the scriptures
is that example of the Lord bringing out those people out of Egyptian
bondage by His power, by His purpose. Judah was carried away
for 70 years in the Babylonian captivity, but the purpose of
God was not hindered. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ must continue. The apostles of Christ were all
put to death. But the purpose of God was not
hindered. The gospel was continued and
is today continued to be spread through this land and all over
the world. We read in Acts chapter 5, Gamaliel,
who was Saul of Tarsus' teacher, was a wise man who said, refrain
from these men and leave them alone, for if this counsel or
purpose or this work be of men, it'll come to naught, but if
it's of God, get out of the way. Get out of the way. You cannot
overthrow it, lest happily you be found to fight against God. Now, if God be for us, if God
be for us, who can be against it? So it's still true today. Is it not? The Lord hasn't changed. His purpose hasn't changed. It's
still true today. You cannot stop the eternal purpose
of God. You cannot stop the spread and
the establishment of the gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is still true. that he does
according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the
inhabitants of this earth, and none can stay his hand, or none
can say unto him, Lord God Almighty, what doest thou? Now that does
not mean that we don't have enemies about us. That old enmity of
the seed of the serpent is always looking to attack the seed of
the woman. The enemies of the gospel are
always lurking about. They're always looking about
to attack the Lord Jesus Christ and his people, to put the kingdom
of God out of business, and to install their own wicked agenda,
but none can hinder God, the purpose of God, or put his spiritual
business on hold, or change, or frustrate the purpose of God. Now you remember in our story
in the book of Ezra, how the Lord had set the people free
from 70 years of bondage. He gave them orders to rebuild
the temple. The Lord used a pagan king named
Cyrus to decree it. He called Cyrus my shepherd,
my anointed, who will do all my pleasure." And we know that
Cyrus, even though he's a pagan king, is a type and picture of
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. We saw in our message last week
how the people rejoiced when the foundation of that building
was laid. And how many of the older men,
remembering the glory of the first temple, were rejoicing,
but they were also weeping, remembering the glory of the temple that
Solomon had constructed. And I made a comment in that
message, we too have joy mixed with sorrow in this life. Yes, we are rejoicing in the
Lord always, and again I say rejoice, but man is born of woman
in a few days, full of trouble. Haven't you found that to be
the case? You know, if we didn't have any trouble, trial, or problems,
you know what? We'd just get puffed up with
pride. But the Lord sends His trials to whittle us down, to
humble us at His feet. Our Lord said, in this world
you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome. Christ has won the ultimate victory
over sin, death, hell, and the grave, and has freely given us
all things, and has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
and heavenly in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us, Thanks be to God who has given us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. But as we come to this
study here this evening in Ezra chapter four, we see the king,
the Prince of Judah, his name is Rebbebel. We also see the
priest of God, Yeshua or Joshua as he's called in the book of
Haggai. And then we see the prophets
of God in Ezra chapter 5, Haggai, Zechariah. These are what they
call the post-captivity prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. But
we see, and I thought about this, we see in our story here the
prophets, the priests, and the king. Now, what does that tell
us? All three offices picture the
Lord Jesus Christ, don't they? No man in the Old Testament ever
held all three offices. Some were a prophet and some
were a priest, but no one was prophet, priest, and king. Not
David, not Samuel. But the Lord Jesus Christ, he's
all three in his anointed office as prophet to reveal the father,
as priest to redeem us from our sin, and then he's the king to
reign over us. Prophet, priest, and king. He
reigned over us in all wisdom and power. Shall not the judge
of all the earth do right? Yes, he does. Now, let's take
a look at verse one. Now when the adversaries of Judah
and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the
temple unto the Lord God of Israel, they heard what was going on. The adversaries of Judah and
Benjamin came to stop the progress that was being made when they
heard Judah and Benjamin were back in town. Now who are these
adversaries? And it clearly, they're not the
friends of God's people, they're adversaries. They're adversary
to Judah, adversary to Benjamin, and they came to frustrate and
to stop the purpose of God. Now, who are these adversaries?
These enemies to the people of God and also to our God are named
in verses 9 and verses 10. And I'm not going to go back
and read those to you, but the Lord knows those personally who
oppose the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows them by
name. Now these people were transplanted
people who were put in Samaria when the ten tribes of Israel
were taken into captivity for their idolatry. Now, I always
wondered why there was such enmity between the Jews and those of
Samaria. And here we find the reason why.
Remember from 2 Kings 17 in our study over there, it says that
these people, they had kind of a hybrid mongrel religion. It says they feared the Lord,
but they served their own gods. They feared the Lord, but they
served their own God after the manner of the nation whom they
carried away from hence. In other words, they had some
sort of fear of the Lord, but it didn't change their heart.
They kept right on in their paganism. Now, don't turn because you're
familiar with this, but you remember when the Lord said, I must need
to go through Samaria? There was a woman there at the
well of Samaria, one of the Lord's elect, whom he crossed her path
and revealed the gospel to her. And the woman said, Sir, I perceive
that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is a place where men
ought to worship. Now this is the woman of Samaria.
She is a descendant of these very people here who are adversaries. And the Lord said, Woman, believe
me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain,
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father, because he says later
on we worship the Father in spirit and in truth. But he says this,
you worship You know not what you worship." You see, they feared
the Lord. It was a reverential love. They
were scared of Him, but yet they served their own idols. He says, you worship, but you're
a pagan. You don't know who you worship.
He says that salvation is of the Lord. So these people are
real adversaries. Now, notice, in verse 1 that
the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord
God of Israel. Now who are these children of
the captivity? Well, they are the Lord's own
chosen special people, Judah, Judah The Lord came out of the
tribe of Judah. He's called the Lion of the tribe
of Judah. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah until Shiloh comes, the Prince of Peace. Benjamin
was Jacob's youngest and his favorite son, but they were called
by the enemies by a reproachful and shameful name. They were
known as the children of bondage, the children of captivity, a
shameful name. The Lord's people down through
the years have been called so many horrible names, haven't
they? One man said, can anything good
come out of Nazareth and Nazarene? Come and see, come and see. The
Lord Jesus Christ was called a winebibber, a gluttonous man. He was called the Prince of Devils.
They said to the Apostle Paul, we found this man to be a pestilent
fellow. a mover of sedition among all
the Jews throughout the world, a ringleader of a sect of the
Nazarenes. He's a Nazarene. But here's the
blessing of the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ has come
to set those who were in bondage to sin. He has come to set us
free. Stand fast in the liberty of
the Lord with Christ to set us free. This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that the Lord Jesus Christ came
to save the children of the captivity. He came to save sinners. Wherefore
when he set it up on high, he led captivity, captivity gave
gifts, gifts unto men, gifts of salvation. Now these adversaries,
the enemies try several ways to stop the temple from being
built. Why would they do that? Why would they do that? I mean,
they were up north in Samaria, they had plenty of room and they
had freedom to roam. Why would they come down south,
down to Jerusalem, to try to put an end to what these Jews
were doing? several things because it was
a threat to their false worship. They didn't want true worship
set up. They didn't want to see these
people sacrificing a substitute unto the Lord. They didn't want
blood shed unto the true and living God, unto Jehovah. You
see, it was a threat to their puny God. Maybe they thought
that this way of approaching God through a substitute and
salvation of the Lord would overcome their religion, their false religion. And they wanted to put an end
to the true and living God. Something else, and I think here's
maybe the more of the motive. Verse 14, now because we have
maintenance from the king's palace, they were afraid of losing their
support from over there, the king of Persia and from the kingdom
of Babylon and from the kingdom of Persia. Now, these people
Judah and Benjamin were set free by the decree of God, by the
command of God, by the decree of God to rebuild the temple. One would naturally think they
would have no trials, no opposition, everything would be smooth sailing. I mean, after all, the Lord decreed
that they be set free. After all, the Lord commanded
that the temple be built But we see it wasn't so. The
same Lord who set them free also sent the trial as well. The Lord
commanded the apostles to go and preach the gospel to everyone
who would hear it. Right? Matthew 16, 15, going
to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. All
through the book of Acts, we see wherever the gospel was preached,
there was trouble. I mean, there was trouble. There
was trouble everywhere. There was much opposition that
followed. Whenever we take a stand for
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, expect trouble. Expect
trouble. But Paul said, we know that whatsoever
things happen, and he writes in prison, writing back to those
believers there in Philippi, he said, and we know that what
things soever happens have happened to the furtherance, have fallen
out to the furtherance of the gospel. In Acts chapter 14, after the
apostle Paul was stoned at Lystra and drug out of the city by his
heels. And they said, well, this man's
dead. Maybe he was dead. Maybe that's when he went to
the third heaven. And God raised him up from the dead and he went
back into the city preaching the gospel of the kingdom of
God. And he said this, we through much tribulation must enter into
the kingdom of God. Through much what? Tribulation. You see, the Lord has also ordained
these things as well. If we had nothing but success,
if we knew nothing of heartache, sorrow, and trouble, we'd get
puffed up and full of pride. You see, the Lord sends these
trials to humble us. to keep us looking unto Him. For example, we studied Sunday
morning, Luke 10, 17. You remember when those 70 men
came back and said to the Lord, Man! He said, they said, even
the devils are subject unto us. Whoopee! You see a little bit of pride
right there, can't you? And the Lord had to whittle him
down. Whittle him down a little bit. Now, let me show you over
here, find 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Look at these verses
here. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Now the Lord has a purpose. His
purpose is an eternal purpose and it's going to be done. We
can't stop it or hinder it. But now, We're not going to have
green lights and blue skies every day. The Lord sends the rain
and He also sends the sunshine. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, God
commanded, verse 6, the light to shine out of darkness has
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have this
treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may
be of God and not of us. Troubled on every side. Troubled,
yet not distressed. 2 Corinthians 4, 8. We are perplexed,
but we're not in despair. We're persecuted. Well, Paul,
I thought you was God's servant. How come you're being persecuted?
persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed,
always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that the life also of the Lord Jesus might be manifest in our
body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for his sake, that the life also of the
Lord Jesus may be manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death
worketh in us, but life in you. We have in the same spirit of
faith, according as it is written, I believe, therefore have I spoken,
we also believe, and therefore we speak, knowing that, verse
14, he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also
by Jesus, and shall present us with you, Verse 15, All things
are for your sake, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving
of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint
not, that though the outward man perish, yet the inward man
is renewed day by day for our light afflictions. Which is but for a moment worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Well, we look not at things which
are seen, things which are not seen, for the things which are
seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Things which we see are temporal,
the things which we do not see, they are eternal. Now, go back to the text, Ezra
chapter 4. From verse 2 down through verse
6, Now watch this, then came Zerubbabel to the chief of the
fathers, and then they came to Zerubbabel and to the chief of
the fathers and said to them, let us build with you. I mean,
we're going to join up and be with you. For we seek your God
as you do, we do sacrifice unto him. Since the days of Esarhaddon,
the king of Asher, which brought us up hither, they were transplanted,
they were illegal aliens that were transplanted from Assyria
into Samaria. But Zerubbabel and Yeshua, the
rest of the sheep of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, you
have nothing to do with You have nothing to do with us to build
a house unto our God, but we ourselves together will build
unto the Lord God of Israel as the King of Persia hath commanded
us. Why would they join in with them?
Why just come over and help us and we'll just all get along?
Then the people of the land weakened, these are the adversaries, they
weakened the hands of the people of Judah, troubled them in building,
and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose.
All the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, until the king, Darius,
king of Persia. This was the time period of about
ten or twelve years from what I've read. Now we see the enemies
Here is how they plan to attack. At first their plan is to join
with them, verses 2 and 3. These Samaritans, these were
Samaritans, these Samaritans were nothing but wolves pretending
to be sheep. The Lord calls them adversaries.
These people were false, trying to creep in unawares to stop
the work of the temple and to hinder the purpose of God. David
writes about a similar situation in Psalm 55, about Ahithophel,
the words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his
heart. His words were softer than oil,
yet they were drawn swords." Now, we have several warnings
about this in Scripture. If you will find the book of
Acts one more time, chapter 20, Acts chapter 20, Take heed, verse
28, Acts 20, Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the
flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseer, to feed
the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know
this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in
among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples
after them. Therefore watch, Be careful. Remember that by the space of
three years, I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with
tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, the Word of His grace,
which is able to build you up and to give you inheritance among
all them that are sanctified." These people were false friends. They were nothing but adversaries
to the Lord's people. The Apostle Paul, when he writes
about those who are false apostles, He calls them, 2 Corinthians
11, don't turn, let me just read it to you, verse 13. For such
are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into the apostles of Christ. These folks try to transform
themselves into being friends. We're not your adversary, we're
your friends. We'll build with you. Now their
purpose was to stop the work. and no more before Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no
great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers
of righteousness." They'll preach up morality. Quit this, quit
that, quit the other. "...whose end shall be according
to their deeds, be condemned, condemned, condemned." Now notice
the wise response of the king and the priest in verse 3. They
said, Ezra 4 verse 3, they said, you have nothing to do with us
to build the house of God. Now, how did they know that?
The Lord gave these men wisdom. You have nothing in common with
us. Your God is not our God. Your
rock is not like our rock. Your hope is not our hope. Your righteousness is not our
righteousness. You worship another God, not
the true and living God at all. The Apostle Paul said, there
will be those who will come among you preaching another Jesus,
Another spirit, another gospel, he said, you better stick with
me. I have the truth. And then the Apostle Paul said,
though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached? Let it be a curse. Let it be
a curse. I remember a story that Rupert
Reibenbach told me years ago. He was called to preach a funeral,
and there was another preacher, that was also called to preach
the same funeral. And the one man who was a false
prophet stood up and said this, this, and this. And then he said,
well, my God wouldn't do that. My God wouldn't do that. And
Rupert stood up behind him and said, you've got another God.
The God of the Bible does everything He pleases to do. He said, you've
got another God. I serve a true and living God.
That's boldness to do that. That's boldness, I want that
kind of boldness. The enemies of the people, verse
4 and verse 5 and 6, the enemies of Judah and Benjamin weakened
the hands of the people of Judah, troubled them in the building,
hired counselors against them to frustrate the purpose, their
purpose, their purpose was the purpose of God, all the days
of Cyrus king of Persia until the reign of Darius king of Persia. These enemies of the people did
all they could to hinder the work of God, the purpose of God,
and we know from reading the rest of the story, the temple
was finished And we know that the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ will survive. He'll lose none of his but raise
them up at the last day. This was a trial sent by the
wise and sovereign purpose of God to prove them. Trials do
not produce faith, do they? But they certainly do reveal
whether it's true or whether it's not. Now their second attempt
to stop the work of God was to write a letter to the new king,
Artaxerxes, and make these bold accusations against the Jews. As it says down here in verse
12, Be it known unto you, king, that the Jews which came up from
thee to us are come unto Jerusalem, building a rebellious and bad
city. These are bad people in a bad
town. And he says, they're nothing
but trouble. Verse 13 says, they'll endamage
you. You'll suffer loss. They will
not pay their taxes, tribute, and custom. So you're going to
be a loser. If these folks are successful
in building the city, the wall, and the temple, you're going
to be a loser. So they didn't have any success
with the Jews, so now they're working on the government. You'll
lose your support. And we'll have no portion, you
will have no portion on this side of the river, and we'll
lose our support. Now look at verse 14 again. Now
because we have maintenance from the king. If your revenue goes
down, your taxes go down, our paychecks gonna go down. You
see their real interest here? It's money. The love of money
is the root of all evil, Scripture says. Now because we have maintenance
from the king's palace, and it was not meet for us to see the
king dishonor, therefore we have sent and certified that the king,
certified the king that a search may be made in the book of the
records of thy father, so shalt thou find in the book of the
records and know that this city is a, they're just a bunch of
rebels. It's a rebellious city, hurtful
under the kings of Providence that they have moved sedition
within the same of old time for which cause this city was destroyed.
They rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and he crushed the city and carried
them away. We see another one of their evil
motives. It's all about what's best for
them. Was not this the same motives the Pharisees had against the
Lord Jesus Christ? They were worried about losing
their religion and their paycheck. In Luke 23, they began to accuse
the Lord Jesus saying, we found this fellow, he's a bad man,
perverting the nation, forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying
that himself, he is the king, you're going to lose the Romans,
you're going to lose your tax base. The Jews hated paying taxes
to the Romans, didn't they? I mean, they despised those publicans.
But to further their agenda, they used that as an excuse to
condemn the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember what they said?
We have no king but Caesar. Away with him. Crucify the Lord
Jesus Christ. People today play the same silly
game. It's a deadly game. a game of
rebellion against God. They hate God, but they can't
throw Him off the throne, so they falsely accuse, ridicule,
and condemn His people. It is not the case. In verse
17 down to verse 24, the enemies have their short-lived victory,
so they write this letter to Artaxerxes, and Artaxerxes writes
back, and he puts an end, verse 21 now, Ye now command to cause these
men to cease, that this city be not bilted, until another
commandment shall be given from me. Take heed now that ye fail
not to do this, why should damage grow to the herd of the kings? Boy, they got what they wanted,
didn't they? Verse 23, now when the copy of
the letter the king Artaxerxes was read before he, Rehum, Shemshiah
the scribe and the companions, they went up. Boy, I can just
see them, can't you? They went up in haste. Ah, we
got them now. We won! We beaten them! They made them cease by force
and by power. then ceased the work of the house
of God which is at Jerusalem, so it ceased into the second
year of the reign of Darius the king." Now, that sets us up for
chapter 5 next week. God sent a message to these prophets
and stirred the heart of the people and they went back to
building. Sometimes the Lord is pleased
to let the enemies of the gospel to seemingly have a victory over
us, but this too is in the Lord's good pleasure and His sovereign
purpose. Even our enemies become instruments
in the hand of the Lord to accomplish His purpose and to bring final
glory to His name. One prime example of this Herod
and Pontius Pilate, the Jews and the Gentiles were gathered
together for to do against the Lord Jesus Christ, to crucify
Him, but you know the rest of it says, for to do whatsoever
God determined before to be done. When they arrested the Lord,
Faustus accused Him and condemned Him to death. How distressed
were all the apostles. They forsook Him and fled. But now the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ becomes their eternal glory. Those Jews and the Gentiles
and the Romans, they saw in the death of Christ, what did they
see? Now we've won. No, what you thought was your
victory is your condemnation. They thought we beat him now. We put him in the grave. We sealed
it. He's not getting out of there.
They posted a guard. Well, it didn't work, did it?
The Lord came forth the third day, and now he sits in glory,
judging all men justly.