I'm pleased to see so many people
here tonight. I thought I may have run you
off. I apologize for preaching so
long last Sunday night and Wednesday night, and also probably giving
you way too much material in these studies. I tried to explain it to someone,
though. The best way I can describe this
thing of what I'm doing and how I feel, when I go over to some
of you ladies, when I go to your houses, quite often you prepare
enough food for an army, seven courses, when three would do. meat, potatoes, green beans,
bread. That's all you need, right? That's
all you need. But you all generally go overboard,
don't you? How do you do that? You like to cook, don't you?
And you like to cook for those who like to eat. And I plead guilty. I'd like
to study this. And you hate to leave something
out, don't you? You think, well, this is good. Now, they're going
to like this. So that's my excuse, anyway. But I'm going to try to shorten
it tonight. And, you know, my job is to prepare
this prepared good food. That's my job. Yours is to come
hungry. Just come, come hungry. And I
believe if you will, come hungry and empty, you'll be, you'll
enjoy the food and go away full. All right, Ezra chapter 6. I
do want to simplify it a little bit. Ezra chapter 6, let me just,
and we're going to pass over a lot. You'll see things as we
go down through here, but we're going to pass over a lot. Time
won't allow us to look at everything. The king, Cyrus, decreed to build
a temple. He decreed to build the temple,
and he gave it all to Zerubbabel. He gave it all into this man's hands
named Zerubbabel. to come and build the temple.
He gave the vessels which had been taken out of the temple
and defiled. He counted them, counted the
cost, numbered and named the people, and gave it all to Zerubbabel
to come and build the temple and restore everything back for
the glory of God. And that's the picture of Jesus
Christ. That's exactly what the gospel is, in so many words.
The gospel. God decreed, God purposed to
save a people, to build a church. And he gave it all into the hands
of his son, Jesus Christ. The price of redemption, the
people, and they were chosen vessels of the Lord. All right?
Look at verse fourteen of chapter six. Verse fourteen. And I heard
you read the Haggai and Zechariah, and it says the elders of the
Jews builded, and we build up, and what I'm trying to do tonight,
and what you're doing by being here, is we're building up one another
on this most holy faith. By you being here, it helps support
Everybody, you know, you go through, going through trials and heavy
times, and it's cold outside, and you worked hard today, and
you had to make an effort to get here, and everybody else
sees you here, and it encourages, right? Like stones in a building. You take one out, and another
may sag a little bit, you know, they all need it. We're building
one another up in this most holy place. But what is it that prospers all of us? Look at verse
14. The elders of the Jews built
it and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai and
Zechariah. That's how they got their strength.
That's how they got their comfort. That's how they got their courage.
That's how they carried on. They had so many adversaries
and so many things going against them, and the whole world was
against them, including devils. But then these prophets stood
up and said, "'The rebel is in charge, and you're with him. Now go with him. He's going to
get the job done. And they said, let's go. And
that's what this preaching of the gospel is all about. That's
why you're here. That's why I'm here. All right,
so Zerubbabel was sent to build the building. Did he do it? Did he get it done? Look at verse
15. And this house was finished. It was finished. And Christ,
when he hung on that cross, he said those very words, didn't
he? It is finished. I've saved my people. I've done
all necessary to make them children of the Most High God. It's finished. And look at the results of this
finished work. Look what it made the people.
The children of Israel, priests and the Levites and the rest
of the children of captivity kept the dedication of this house
of God with joy. The finished work fills them
with joy. The gospel of a full, free, finished
salvation by Christ gives God's people great joy. Great joy,
which you said back there, standing in the chapel one day, you said,
this is a joy which no man can take from you. This is the reason I repudiate
and deplore and talk so much against this false gospel that's
going on today. For the good of you and for the
good of other people, really, there's no joy to be found in
that gospel. I wish I could tell it to people
in that way. You've got a false refuge, a refuge of lies, and
it won't support you when the trials come. It won't support
you when a preacher stands up and tells you, when one of your
loved ones is dying, that God doesn't want this to happen. When a preacher tells you God
doesn't want you to get sick, and you get sick anyway, what's that going to make you do? And when the preacher stands
up and says, whatever the cause is, you have to send it according
to his all-wise purpose. And though you don't know what
he's doing right now, count on it. It's going to turn out good.
It's going to turn out good. Now, there's joy. You get joy
from that. It's the only comfort that you can have. Well, the
people were filled with joy. When we talk about a finished
work, we talk about Christ doing all that's necessary for our
salvation and finishing the work. Does that give you joy? If you're
a sinner, it does. When you realize you're a helpless,
hopeless, without strength sinner, when you feel like that's about
all you can do is sin, when you feel like that's all you can
do, when you hear that Christ has done all that's necessary
to do, it fills you with joy, doesn't it? If the preacher tells you that's
up to you, he's done all he can do, and now it's up to you, there's
no joy in that. All the finished work of Christ
gives great joy and gladness. And look at what else. It caused
them to worship. Look at verse 17. And they offered
at the dedication of this house of God a hundred bullocks, two
hundred lambs, four hundred lambs for a sin offering. What's all
that? Blood. And lots of it. They worshiped. Not without blood,
though. And that's the only way you can
worship God. Down in verse 19 it says, they kept the Passover.
Blood, blood, rivers of it, rivers of it. That's the only way we
come to worship. Right? Through the blood. Through
the blood. Sinners just keep on bleeding
blood, rivers of it. And that's what he said about
the blood. It's a fountain. It keeps flowing. If all the
sinners need it, it's there. Right? And they set priests in
their divisions and Levites in their courses for the service
of God, which is at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book
of Moses. They had some priests, preachers, and they worshiped
and had these fellows preach to them, it says, as it is written
in the book of Moses. This is true worship. You've
got to worship God in truth. Right? Through the blood and
in truth. You've got to worship God the
way God says to worship God. That's the reason we order our
services as close to the scriptures as we know how. Right? None of this other foolishness.
None of the trappings of religion. Don't need it. We're going to
do it just like God said do it. As one of the ladies said to
me one time, she said, we need to order our services in such
a way that the Apostle Paul could walk in here tonight and sit
right down and say, now, this is the way it's supposed to be
done. Huh? Nothing else. No more, no less
than thus it is written. Right? So what do we do? Sing
praises, read scripture, pray, and lots of preaching. That's
it. That's it. That's the way you
worship, according to the Word. All right, now look at verse
20. And the priest, it says, the priest and Levites were purified
together. All of them were pure. Priest
and Levites, they were pure. Stan, they weren't like those
fellows back in 2 Kings. Remember those fake Jew fellows?
Said they made the lowest. Those counterfeit Christians
back there, remember? It says they made the lowest
of them. to be the priest. Do you remember reading that
with me in 2 Kings 17? They made the lowest, the scum
bags, the fellows who would tail with everything else. They tried
to use car salesmen, they tried to sell insurance, and they tried
to run a business, but they were so crooked at that they couldn't
make it, so what did they do? They became preachers. So they were lazy and shiftless
and no good at that and got fired at their regular job. And what
do they do? They become lazy, no good, worthless, shiftless
preachers. That's what they were. But not God's men. You notice
there it says all of them are pure. I was talking to one of
the ladies last night. I said, wouldn't you love for
Maurice Montgomery to be President of the United States? Huh? You know, it used to be
that way. When Moses set up judges over
Israel, they were fine men, the finest. How would you like to
have David as king? David, a man after God's own
heart. We're all God's pastors are. He said, I'll give you pastors
after my own heart, and they're pure. They've got nothing in
mind, they're pure in motive, and they've got nothing in mind
but God's glory and your soul's good. That's the way they are. Look
at verse twenty-one, it says they separated themselves. All
such as had separated themselves from the filthiness of the heath
and of the land. What's that? Well, we've been
talking about it. And it's not just talking about
open immorality, that's not what it's talking about. Listen to
2 Corinthians 6. Come out from among them and
be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing,
and I will receive you." What was he talking about? He said
right before that, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion
hath light with darkness? He's talking about religion.
Come out from among them. Be you separate. Touch not the
unclean thing. I'm telling you, God's telling
us, religion today is unclean. It's blasphemous. Sign out there. You just go to any old place,
practically. Sign on this new place that they
raised up, that new heathen temple they raised up out on the highway.
Sign on it. It says right now, it says, special
guest Sunday. God. And they think that's clever? That's absolutely blasphemy. God, if anybody's a guest, it's
us. In him we live and move and have
our being. If God's your God, he's not your
guest. You can't say it in strong enough
terms against stuff like that. God says it over and over again.
Well, let me go on. Let me get out of that. Verse
22, look down there. And they kept the feast of unleavened
bread seven days with joy. The Lord had made them joyful.
The Lord had made them joyful. All right. Now, chapter 7. This
is wonderful. You're going to like this, if
you're hungry. But this whole chapter 7. is
a glorious picture of Jesus Christ, all the way through. And Ezra
now, I hope some of you have read it, Ezra now is the one
who represents Christ. He's the reddish crime. All right?
Want to look at it with me? OK. I thought you'd never ask. Verses 1 through 5 give his genealogy. And we'll not read them. But
verses 1 through 5 tell who he, whose son he was, and so forth.
Now, I want you to look over to Matthew 1. This made me think
of Matthew chapter 1, which is what? The Lord's genealogy. It said back there in Ezra 7,
they gave his genealogy, and then verse 6 says, and then this
Ezra came. Well, in Matthew chapter 1, And
the reason I'm having you look at this is because there's one
name I want you to see in our Lord's genealogy. All right? Matthew 1, verse 1, it says,
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David,
the son of Abraham, Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, and
on and on and on and on it began to give these names. Now look
down at verse 12. And after they were brought to
Babylon, Jechoniah begat Salathiel. And Salathiel begat Zerubbabel. I thought you might like to see
that. So Ezra's genealogy is given. Turn back there quickly. You've
got to turn, if you want to get out of here quick, you've got
to turn fast. All right? All right, verse 6. So it gave
his genealogy, just like Our Lord's genealogy was given, and
in verse 6, this Israel went up from Babylon, and he was a
ready scribe in the law of Moses, a ready scribe in the word. And
it was given to him which the Lord God of Israel had given.
This word was given to him by the Lord and by the king. He
was a scribe. Now, you know what the word scribe
means? The word scribe. Now it literally
means a walking book. A walking book. In other words,
these fellows had so committed to memory, the Word of God, that
they could copy it down from memory and convey it to others
from memory. Well, in the beginning was The
scribe of all scribes, the very word himself. And the word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. And the word was given to him.
And he was a ready scribe. He said, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O God, in the volume of the book that is written of thee.
The word was made flesh. And it says, look at verse six,
The king granted him all his requests according to the hand
of the Lord his God upon him. And God the Father, our King,
gave all things into the hands of Jesus Christ. The hand of
God was upon him. He had the Spirit without measure. Verse 7, it says, There went
up some of the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites,
and singers and porters, and the Nephilim under Jerusalem.
In other words, there were a whole bunch of children that went with
Ezra. to Jerusalem, and chapter 8 gives
all their names. They are all named. They are
all known and numbered, and chapter 8 gives all their names. So a bunch of people went up
with Ezra. But doesn't chapter 2 give the names of the
children which came with Zerubbabel? Are those the ones that came
up with Jeroboam to Jerusalem? Yes, they were. They were. But
other people he had which were not of that folk, them also he
must bring. They were all in the folk. Right. And some later on had to be brought
up too. Isn't that wonderful? Ezra, the ready scribe, prepared
his heart, look at verse 10, Ezra had prepared his heart to
seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel
statutes and judgment. And so Christ came, willingly,
as we quoted in the volume of the book written of him, to do
God's will, to fulfill God's law. It said Ezra had prepared
his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and that's
why Christ came. He came to fulfill every jot
and tittle of God's law for his people. Every jot and tittle. He said he came to magnify the
law and make it honorable and teach God's word to his people. And so Ezra came according to
the hand of his God that was upon him. He kept saying that
all the way through. The king had given a letter to
Ezra, the scribe, look at verse 11, and in that letter was a
decree given into the hands of Ezra. Now, this is the copy of
the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra, the priest, the
scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandment of the
Lord and of his statutes to Ezra. Now, didn't Christ say, I have
given unto them the words which thou hast given me? God gave
Christ the words to give to his people. And it says here, it
keeps saying, in verse 11, it keeps identifying Ezra, doesn't
it? And in verse 6, it says, a ready
scribe. And in verse 11, it says, he's
the scribe, given unto the scribe, even a scribe of the He keeps
declaring, this is a scribe. Verse 12, "...or to search his
king of kings, gave it unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law
of God." It's almost as if he's saying this, this is my scribe,
my only scribe, in whom I'm well pleased. And you're going to
hear him. You know what it sounds like
to you? But the king is telling everybody,
now this is my scribe. I've only got one. My only scribe. And I'm well pleased. You'd better
hear it. And that's exactly what our king
said, didn't he? This is my son. My only son. This is my only word. God has
spoken of this in his last days by his son. It's the only way
God's going to speak. You'd better hear it. My son, my only son,
in whom I well plead, hear ye him." Here is the decree concerning
Ezra. Verse 13, I make a decree, the
king said, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his
priests and Levites in my realm, which are minded of their own
free will to go up to Jerusalem, go with Ezra. In other words, the king says,
whosoever will, let him go with Ezra. And that's exactly what
God Almighty said to his people, whosoever will, come, come, go,
go with Christ. You see, he's preaching, he's
teaching free will there, isn't he? Is he? You know, this is
just like Revelation 22. Just like Revelation 2, where
it says whosoever will. Who's he talking to here? Look
at it again, OK? I make a decree that all they
are the people of Israel. But we don't. And all of his
priests and Levites and in my realm. He didn't offer this to the Gentiles.
He didn't offer this to anybody. He said, My people. And it says
that in Revelation 22. The Spirit sayeth to the churches,
Let him that is a fetter come, and whosoever will, let him come.
Take the water of life for you. And God's people are made willing
in the day of his power. Right? I was willing. I willfully. I chose Jesus Christ. I sure did. I sure did. But not first. Not first. I did it of my own free will,
if you want to call it that. Free will. Hmm? But I was made with it. God's
people have been given a will which will choose him. Not the
natural man, because Christ said of the natural man, you will
not come unto death, but you might have life. But he said,
all that the Father giveth me shall come unto me. They're not teaching free will.
Nowhere in the Bible does it teach that. But God's people,
I like what that one preacher said. He said, God's people,
God saves people against their will. And we saw what Sunday,
you know, how that God has to stop our hell-bent will, doesn't
it? If God doesn't stop our will,
then we won't be saved. Why? Because God said, I will,
therefore you shall. If God doesn't stop our will,
but God's people are saved against their will with their full consent. You understand that, don't you?
If you've experienced it, you understand it. If you haven't,
you're all confused. I understand. I have been made,
I am perfectly willing. But he had to do it against my
will. All right, so Ezra was sent by the king. Look at verse
14. He says, Forasmuch as thou art
sent of the king. And Christ says this over and
over and over and over, doesn't he? What book does he keep saying
that over and over again? You better say that. We've studied
it for a long time. He said that hundreds of times. I have sent, whom the Father
has sent, sent, sent. He said, I must work the works
of him that sent me. He said, the Father sanctified
and sent me to keep the law, establish rights in the first
fifteen, and to carry the silver and the gold, which the king
and his counsellors have offered. He had the price in his hand.
Ezra was sent by the king with the decree, with the price in
his hand. And Christ had the price of redemption,
his own precious blood, in his hands, and that's what he showed
them, didn't he? After he paid the price, that's what he showed
them, the receipts in his hands. Now, verse 17, and Ezra came
to buy the needed sacrifice, that he may buy speedily with
this money, bullock, rams, lambs, meat offering, drink offering,
to offer them upon the altar. So Ezra bought with money, and
the lambs and the bullocks, and Christ came, but not with the
blood of bulls and goats, but with his own precious blood,
to put away sins by the sacrifice of himself forever. And then it says here that Ezra
was given all authority. Ezra was given all authority.
The king told Ezra, you do whatever you will. Whatever you of mind
to do, you do it. With whom and with what? It's all yours. I've given it
in your hand. Look at verse 18 and 19. What
service has seen good to thee, that I, brethren, to do with
the rest of the silver and gold? That doeth to the will of your
God. The vessels also that are given thee for the service of
the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem.
Do what you will. And Christ hath been given all
things into his hand." In other words, Ezra was given preeminence,
wasn't he? And Christ must have preeminence
in all things. It pleased the King to place
in Ezra all things, didn't it? And it pleased the Father that
in Christ all fullness should last. Verse 20, and he said,
for the house of thy God, bestow it out of the king's treasure."
I thought about Romans 8, verse 32, "...he that spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all that which we need?" Verse
21, he said, "...I, the king, make this decree, that whatever
is with the priest, the scribe, for the law of God shall require
of you You better do it. I remember a woman named Mary
one time saying concerning the Lord, she said, Whatsoever he
say unto you, you do it. You do it. All right. Verse 23,
Whatever is commended by the God of heaven, let it be done
diligently. Why should wrath be against the
realm of the King and his Son? In other words, the King says,
My glory is at stake here. My authority is at stake here. Ezra, you do it. You do it all
that needs to be done. And folks, you listen to it.
My glory is at stake. And that's what God says concerning
his son. And so he did. He did. He came. Now let's briefly, a couple more
minutes, look at chapter 8. All right? We're going to look
at all of chapter 8. No, just a few verses. All right? In chapter 8. This is where Ezra
calls his ministers. He calls out the priests for
God's help, all right? It's once a triumph. I'm not worrying
you. You're going to like this. Have
one more bite of taters, okay? One more. Dessert's coming. You got a little room for it?
All right, good. Matthew 9. Got that? I don't. All right, there it is. Matthew
9, and now Ezra 8. All right? I want you to look
at them together real fast, because you'll appreciate them more.
All right, Ezra chapter 8, look at it. Ezra calls the ministers
of God to the work. Verse 15. He says, I gathered
them together to the river. And actually, I could not help
but think of that song. That song kept running through
my mind when I read that. Shall we gather? He gathered
them at the river, all right? And there they abode in tents.
And we tabernacle, don't we? We're strangers and pilgrims.
And he says, I viewed the people. See, I gathered them and I looked
upon, I viewed the people and the priests and I found that
no sons of Levi. In other words, Ezra was looking
out at all these people he'd gathered and he looked and viewed
them there and he said, they had no preachers. There was people without priests
in Levi. So look down at verse 18. It
says, By the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us
a man of understanding out of all these sons. In other words,
there were several men that were brought to be priests. And look at verse 23. So we fasted and besought our
God, or prayed for this, that is. And he was entreated. We prayed about it, and God was
entreated. And verse 24, Then I separated And down to verse 28, And I said
unto them, You are holy unto the Lord. Verse 29, Watch ye
and keep them. All right, now turn over to Matthew
9 real fast. Matthew 9, got it? Look at verse
36, And when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion
on them. He viewed the multitudes. Moved
with compassion, they fainted and were scattered about as sheep,
having no shepherd." And he said in verse 38, pray, let's pray,
that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers. So
chapter 10, verse 1 says, so he called him twins. And said, go, keep the people,
take care of them, under shepherd. That just sent shiver up my spine.
I don't know about you. The Word of God is so exacting. Is this the Word of God, Ed Barrett? Is there a doubt in your mind
when you see how it's woven together? We're over here in this little
obscure book that most preachers don't even know it's in the Bible. And yet it tells in every jot
and till and line and word, exacting details, exactly what the Lord
said and did and who he is and what he's done. It's all right
there. We've searched and found the decree, haven't we? It's
written in the book just like it said. That's how we know we've
got the right Christ, you know? That's how we know this is the
gospel. This is how God's been saving
people from the beginning. This is how God's people worshiped.
They've been doing it that way from the beginning. This is the
Christ, the Son of the living God. All right, stand with me. Our Heavenly Father, how we thank
you for revealing the mystery to us. It's been kept hid from
the foundation of the world. It is now revealed unto us. And we do see our calling. We
don't deserve it. We don't deserve it. But you've freely given us all
things in Christ and shown us thy glory in the face of thy
Son. truly caused the sun to shine
upon this little place in the midst of the dark, religious world, which has a form of governance
but denies the very power of God, who is Christ. How we thank you. We can't thank
you enough. Flesh and blood didn't reveal it to us, but you, our
Father, And we thank you for choosing us, and we beg your
forgiveness for our lack of appreciation, unthankfulness. We ask that you would make us
more thankful, more appreciative, more diligent, more faithful
stewards of the grace of our God. We thank you, our gracious
God, for every good and perfect gift that you've sent our way. In Christ we pray. Amen.