Ezra chapter 10 today, Ezra chapter
10 and there's quite a number of verses here about the issue
that had been brought to Ezra's attention about the problems
that had been going on there in Judah and Benjamin. And it was brought to Ezra's
attention and the first thing and the only thing he could do
about it was pray about it. He just went to the Lord. And
in that prayer, we find that he preached the gospel. And he
shares the gospel with those overhears, those people that
overheard his prayer. No prayer, true prayer, was never
intended to be heard by anybody but God. And yet we are, by the
privilege of God, we're able to overhear some of those prayers.
One of them was Ezra. The Lord Jesus Christ, great
high priestly prayer in the 17th chapter of the book of John.
We get to stand back and overhear him pray to the Father and the
great issues he brought up there. Well, Ezra brought up great issues.
He brought up that we're ruined by the fall. That when Adam sinned
in the Garden of Eden, he passed that nature onto us. And our
spiritual nature before God is dead in trespasses and sin. And
the scripture share with us that in the book of the Psalms that
God looked down to see if there were any that did seek after
righteousness. And his commentary on everybody
that he saw through all ages was, I found none. Our only hope is the blood and
righteousness of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that
was the issue in the days of Adam, and that's the issues in
our day, and that'll be the issues in the last day, is do you have
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well,
here in the book of Ezra, we find that this issue is brought
up and the people are, there's an appointment made. Now, it
was by invitation only, but they were to come and share with the
people the problem that they had, that they had been ruined
by the fall. Now, it was indicated in the
book of Ezra, those who were ruined by the fall, they had
gone and adopted the religions of the people that they married.
Now, the Bible doesn't have much to say in it with regard to who
you marry, but it does have a great deal to say about adopting the
religion of those that we marry. Now, if it's a sound religion,
it's the gospel of Christ, then God is greatly blessed when we
follow in that. But when we adopt the religion
of false doctrine, false gods, false that, then we have a great
problem. And that's what happened here.
There were those who are saved in the scriptures who were of
the Canaanites and Moabites and they're a multitude of people. There was a woman that Jesus
must needs go by and visit at the well and she was Half Jew
and half Gentile. That's not the issue. God comes
to us in Christ Jesus in all nations and countries and peoples
and tongues. That's what's recorded in the
book of Revelation. So we're thankful for that. But
all the problem that had developed that they said the religion of
God and the religion of these folks as equal and it doesn't
matter what I do. Well, that's just so common in
our world today. Yet here in the book of Ezra
we find there in verse 14 Would you read that with me verse 14
and it tells us here let now our rulers of all the Congregation
stand and let all of them which have taken strange wives in our
cities come at appointed times And with them the elders of every
city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our
God for this matter be turned from us. So the scriptures share
with us that there is an invitation that went out. It is by invitation
only, but an appointment has been made, and you will come
at the appointed time. Now this word that we find in
this place, appointed, is a verb meaning to fix or to appoint
a time. set a fixed time, a certain and
a fixed known time is what this word means. One translation translated
this come in the time ordained. In another translation, come
at the fixed time. And most translations have what
we have here, come at the appointed times. Well, when this was given
to us, when this translation was given to us, when you were
given an appointment, you were to be there at the fixed time,
at the appointed time. And that's what we find that
God is declaring here in this passage of scripture. There was
an appointed time assigned for all the folks to come and do
according to the word of the ready scribe. Ezra, the preacher
of righteousness, had given to these people, you come to Jerusalem
and take care of this business at the appointed time. Now, this
brings us to a wonderful subject found in the word of God about
God himself. God is not the author of confusion. We find that in the book of 1
Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 33, that God is not the author
of confusion. So when we follow the plan of
God, it is not like our plan so often. It is a ready plan. It is an appointed plan. It is
an appointed time. There is a time when God has
fixed everything to take place, and it is not out of order. He is a God of order. He is not
a God of confusion, and having everything accomplished at exactly
the correct moment is a sign of an almighty power. And when
we read the Scriptures, we find that God has things happen exactly
at His time. We heard that this morning. how
he would travel across that sea, cause a storm to come along,
cause a wind to come along, and cause his disciples to come wake
him up at the appointed time, and then have him shut it down
at the appointed time, and arrive at the land of the Galileans
at the appointed time, and deal with one man at the appointed
time, and leave. The man who brought me the gospel
Down there in the Medford area, he told me many years later,
there was about 80 people there, and he said there was only one
person there that has ever contacted me that they were ever blessed
out of that meeting. He says, Norm, you're the person.
Out of the whole host, the Lord apparently appeared for one person. But I'm thankful for that one. God is a God of absolute wisdom,
and by that I mean, he never changes his mind, never changing
or altering his course. History has never been altered
by God. Now, it appears that time for
our benefit, but God has never changed what he has purposed
from before the foundation of the world, It will be carried
out because He is Almighty God. He has the power to carry out
the word that He has declared. In this passage of scriptures,
it's no strange thing to meet up with this word appointed or
the principle of this word appointed many times in the scriptures,
Old Testament as well as New Testament. The first thing that
came to my mind that there was an appointed time when God who
had never had anything created. I talk about time before creation,
but we're talking about things we don't know about. We say,
well, how long was God before He created the heavens and the
earth? And then we are shown by the Holy Spirit that He is
eternal being. And I have to use a term that
I can deal with. There was never a time when God
was not. He is eternal. So there was an
eternal God before the appointed time came when Genesis chapter
1 and verse 1 took place. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. It was at the appointed time.
And that's where time began for us. He did all that he did. Now, he could have instantaneously
created everything just like we find it in Genesis chapters
1 and 2. Those six days, the seventh day
he rested, he could have done all of that in one day, but it
was pleasing to him to do it as he did it. I've had people
say, well, those days might have been a million years. Well, then
the nights were the same length and everything would have died
on this earth. Well, the stars, they're so far away, it took
them billions of years for the light to get here. The God that
created the star can put the light to the same distance right
down here instantaneously. Let's just be fair with the word
of God. In seven days, the seventh day, God rested. But did you
know what happened on the sixth day? God on purpose and by appointment
created Adam and created Eve. by appointment. It was his purpose
to create them. Male and female, he created them. The next chapter tells us how
he did that, but the declaration of what he did is found in Genesis
chapter 1, and he went through there systematically and gives
us what he did on every day and on the sixth day, by appointment. You will be here on the sixth
day of March. That's an appointment. On the
sixth day of creation, He created our father, Adam, and our mother,
Eve, and then we know what happened, that Adam sinned against God,
and he sinned with full knowledge of what he was doing, and God
said, the day you eat of that fruit, you shall surely die. I've been visiting with a young
preacher and he's finally coming to the conclusion of how dead
is dead in that passage of scripture. How dead is dead? I've mentioned
many times that only in religion do we discuss how dead is dead. Everywhere else we know it. But
in religion, we have to make up rules for our own theology,
and we have to say that we're almost dead, and if we can fan
that fire just a little bit, and all of that is hogwash. If
God doesn't move, we're dead. If he doesn't come, we're dead,
and we'll remain in that capacity. There was an appointed time when
the God of glory spoke this world into existence, and there was
a time. Turn with me to the book of Ecclesiastes,
if you would. The book of Ecclesiastes. It's
one of those books of Solomon. The book of Ecclesiastes. We
have Solomon writing these words by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Nothing that is given to us in the word of God was given by
anything else but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Bible
tells us that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the
Holy Spirit. And when they were moved, they
wrote. And they did not put anything down that they were not given
by God. It is not like a regular author.
They did not have the privilege of putting their own input into
it and thank God for it because we have the results of God's
word to us. Here in the book of Ecclesiastes
chapter 3, and I cannot remember at the moment, Who put this to
music, this passage of scripture? When I was growing up, they sang
this song and I was dumbfounded when I found out it's almost
a direct quote right out of the book of Ecclesiastes. It was
some folk group. The what? The birds. The birds.
Okay. The birds brought it up. Well,
they're just quoting the word of God. I don't know whether
they knew that or not. I know when I had kids in school and
we played this song, they didn't know it was out of the Bible.
I said, do you know where that come from? No. Some author of
a song. I said, Ecclesiastes, out of
the Bible, word for word. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse
1, for everything there is a season. a time to every purpose under
the heaven. And the church just says, hallelujah! It's not a mistake. It's not
because God is trying to catch up with what's going on in the
world. It's not because Adam sinned that he had to do something.
He had it all planned according to purpose, and he had a lamb
slain from before the foundation of the world to take care of
the problem that was going to develop when Adam sinned. He
already had it taken care of. Goes on to say, a time to be
born. I have a granddaughter that was
born way early. But did you know what? It was
on the appointed time. I held a little baby in the hospital
down there that was about this long, way early. and she was born at the appointed
time. We say it's early, it's on God's
time. All right, a time to be born,
a time to die. A time to plant and a time to
pluck up that which is planted and go on and read the rest and
you got the song that the bird sang. Quote directly out of the
book of Ecclesiastes, everything is by an appointed time. Now,
every act of God was done at the appointed time. Adam was
created at the appointed time on the sixth day, and Adam sinned. Let me say this, at the appointed
time. And God came down in the cool
of the evening at the appointed time. And God confronted his
creation at the appointed time. And the appointed time was when
Adam hid himself in the garden, because that's what we will do
naturally with God. We will try to hide from him,
and most of the time we try to hide from him in our own self-imposed
righteousness. And God stripped him of that
righteousness and gave him a picture of the righteousness of Christ,
and that was the skins of a lamb. In Genesis chapter five, we read
about Noah. At the appointed time, Noah was
born. And God looked out and saw corruption,
corruption, corruption. And at the appointed time, he
says, Noah, build an ark. And the book of Hebrews chapter
11 tells us that he built an ark even though he didn't know
what was going to happen, but he had faith in God. And who
gave him that faith? God gave him that faith to have
faith in God. And he built an ark to the saving
of his house. Eight souls. out of how many
hundreds of thousands that were on the earth at that time. The
flood came in an appointed time. There's a man in the Old Testament
that much of the New Testament is written about and his name
was Abraham. Abraham is born at the appointed time down in
Ur which is in or close to Babylon. He was a very religious man.
Turn with me to Acts chapter 7, though, because our dear brother
Stephen has some words to say about this. Just before the apostle
Paul, later, he saw that this time made an appointed time for
Stephen to meet God. He had him stoned to death. Here
in the book of Acts chapter 7, and in verse 2, It says here,
Stephen is talking about that Old Testament figure that was
called out of Ur of the Chaldees. He was a Gentile, because there
were no Jews at the time. And God came down, and listen
to this now. Over in the Old Testament, it
doesn't use this word, but Stephen is caused to use this word on
purpose. It says there, in those days,
Verse 1, when the number of the disciples is multiplied, there
arose a murmuring. I'm in the wrong place. Chapter
7, verse 2. Here we go. And he said, then
said the high priest, are these things so? And he said, men and
brethren and fathers, hearken, the God of glory. I cannot tell you how I felt
when I stumbled onto that passage of scripture the first time.
The God of Glory. The God of Glory appeared unto
our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt
in Sharan. The God of Glory. On divine purpose,
the God of Heaven went down and appeared in a Unto this heathen
man in Mesopotamia who worshiped so many false gods the God of
glory appeared unto him and said get out of here You know what he didn't say anything
to anybody else I I asked this young preacher the
other day, I said, why in the world didn't God send missionaries
into the land of Canaan before the army came in? Why didn't he go to those Hivites
and Jebusites and all the other ites that were in the land of
Canaan before they came across the Jordan River and settled
there? Why? Because it wasn't in his
purpose. He saved one known Gentile out
of all that host, and she was a harlot. Rahab the harlot. mentioned in the book of Hebrews
as part of that great family of faith. So when God of glory
appeared unto Abraham in Ur, it was at the appointed time.
Everything that God does is at an appointed time. And when these
people were invited on purpose to come down to Jerusalem out
of Benjamin and Judah to talk about the problem that they're
in, they had an appointed time to be there. You know, the children
of Israel, Abraham was given some information about them.
They were going to go down to a land which was not theirs,
which was Egypt, and they're going to be imprisoned, or they're
going to be slaves for 400 years. Why? Because God is sovereign. Can't answer all the whys But I know this God told Abraham
they're going to be down there as slaves for 400 years When they had been there for
400 years and God came to them with something
we know as the Passover because it's time to leave. And when
they had taken that lamb and set it aside for the appointed
time, And they took that lamb, and slew that lamb, and roasted
that lamb by fire, and put the blood of that lamb on the outside
of their house, on the lintel and doorposts of that house.
And God said, I'll pass through the land, and when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. When God did that, that self-same
night, they left Egypt and the Bible tells us it was exactly
the self-same day 430 years later. Now what's that 30 years? There
arose a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph for 30 years. Pharaoh
knew Joseph and when he died there was another Pharaoh and
from put them in prison put them in slavery and for 400 years
to the very day They're down there in Egypt in slavery and
at the appointed time just like God promised Abraham they left
and They left with substance Those Egyptians were so glad
to see them leave, they gave them all the gold they were going
to use in the building of the tabernacle. They gave them all
the materials they needed and get out of here. And then God
took care of the army that came after them when Pharaoh changed
his mind. At the appointed time, that great
army went down into the Red Sea. and fell before Almighty God
as the great floods covered them up. And in the song that Moses
sang, it says they all drowned. Doesn't matter what the movies
say. They all drowned. In Jeremiah,
we read that the children of Israel, not the children of Israel,
excuse me, they're already dispersed, but the children of Benjamin
and Judah, we're going to be carried away for 70 years of
captivity, Babylonian captivity. We just read in the book of Ezra
chapter 1 that Cyrus at the appointed time, 70 years have elapsed,
and God comes to him and stirs him up and says it's time for
him to go home at the appointed time. Now, in Ezra chapter 10
and verse 14, after all of the problems that had gone on, We
have an appointed time for you to come. When we examine the scriptures,
we see on nearly every page mention of help for a sinner, and that is the Savior. What a joy to find out that the
Savior was to come at the appointed time. Turn with me, if you would,
to Galatians chapter 4. We have Ezra as a type and a
shadow and a picture of someone who speaks on the behalf of someone
else. But we have a Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who not only speaks on their behalf, but he also
does on their behalf. He goes to the cross on the behalf
of his people. Here in the book of Galatians,
and this was known by the folks then, but Paul is writing to
Galatia and there's a bunch of Jews and no doubt Gentiles that
he is writing to here. And he wants them to know very
clearly in Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4 it says, but when
the fullness of time, what's that? The full time came in God's
clock. It clicked off. And the fulfillment
of what we read in the book of Daniel was fulfilled. The fulfillment
of what we read in Genesis about a savior coming, the seed of
the woman, was fulfilled when it was all done and in order
and God was accomplishing all things after the counsel of his
own will. We find in Genesis, excuse me,
Galatians chapter four and verse four, but when the fullness of
time was come, at the appointed time, what happened? Savior came
Now he'd been in the business of saving people all through
the Old Testament on the promise that he would come in the flesh
and Lay down his life a ransom for many Galatians chapter four
and verse four it says, but when the fullness of time was come,
God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law to
redeem them that are under the law. I love that word redeem. That means to purchase, to buy
back, to claim by a purchase price and the purchase price
as we heard sung this morning. Now there were a number of things
in the Old Testament under the law that they could pay money
for. Not many. Silver and gold. And
that's why we read in the book of 1 Peter there, it's not by
silver and gold that we're redeemed, but by the precious blood of
the Lamb without blemish and without spot. Here we have it,
to redeem them. He didn't make them redeemable. He redeemed them. That's the
gospel, is that God actually accomplished something at the
cross and didn't leave it up to us to decide which way will
we go. In the religion I was in, I was
put in the median. Now I didn't really know what
the median was until I drove the freeways. That's that land
in between the eastbound and westbound lane of Interstate
84. That's the median. And religion
puts us all in the median. And religion teaches us that
God's voting for us and the devil's voting against us. Now it's up
to us to make the deciding choice. Now the problem is there is no
median. We're dead in trespasses and
sin, we already took the vote in Adam, and we voted against
God, and it is by His grace and His mercy and shed blood that
He makes a choice on our behalf that we could not make. We can't
get our hands up, we're dead in trespasses and sin. We can't
sign the card, we can't go forward, we can't do anything that is
necessary. But God, in his great grace,
does everything that is necessary on our behalf. And the results
of that is we get to believe. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. The gift of that, is we repent. Now in religion, I was taught
to repent of my sins and I found out after I was saved, I don't
have time for that. Repentance never is mentioned
as repenting of our sins. Repentance is turning from our
old life to God. And then we find out that it
was God that turned me and then I was turned at the appointed time. when it
pleased God. The Lord God has ever done His
work on time by divine appointment. When it was the appointed time,
He was sent to this earth As declared the scriptures throughout
the Old Testament, someone is coming. Someone is coming. The prophets declared someone
is coming. Sometimes he's called the branch.
Sometimes he's called the lamb. Sometimes he's called the son
of David. Sometimes he's called the son
of Judah. Sometimes we find all sorts of names given to him throughout
the Old Testament, but he's speaking directly about the son of God
and his promise to come to this world and take care of the problem. that all his lost children are
in. And that is, they're in a horrible
pit and they can't get out. So the Old Testament says, I
will lift you out of a horrible pit. I'll take care of the problem. Now he couldn't do that just
because he wanted to. He had to make a payment. Because
our sin deserved death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. There was a death penalty upon us, and we couldn't get
out of it. And we can say all we want, well,
I'm going to do better tomorrow. What about all the last 40 years,
10 years, 15 years? What about all that time? Well,
there's someone that took care of all of the time. His name
is Jesus, and he was appointed before the foundation of the
world to be the savior of his people. I love it when Mary and
Joseph both were informed the name that he will be called.
You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. How could he do that? By his
shed blood. He redeemed, he ransomed all
his people. Now at the appointed time after
the cross, we find out that God blesses his people just as we
heard read this morning in the book of Galatians, that Paul,
he was a really mean guy. But we read, when it pleased
God. who separated me from my mother's
womb. What's he saying there? He knew
all about me before I was born. He knew all about my parents,
and my grandparents, and my great-grandparents. He put me at the right place. Did you know he put him in the
school of Gamaliel on purpose? He could learn all of that stuff.
And you know, interesting, twice in that scripture he says, in
the Jews' religion. in the Jews' religion. He was
top dog in the Jews' religion and knew nothing about the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. But at the appointed time, when
it pleased God, and that's what he does with every one of his
lost sheep, at the appointed time, when it pleased God, he brings us the glorious Sweet
sounding gospel, the truth of the gospel, the truth of his
word. He brings that there is a savior that actually saves
his people. He doesn't make us savable and
it's up to us. He saves us. So when he brings
us out of spiritual death by regeneration, we are thankful
for what he's done. and not expecting us to get involved
in it because we are revealed to us our own frailties. If we
as a saved person do not know how to pray as we ought, how
as a lost person can we raise our hand for God? We're in a
fix. But God's in the business of
fixing fixes. God's in the business in his
son of raising us. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Ephesians, chapter 1. Ephesians talks about this
appointed time. Ephesians talks about this appointed
time. It tells us in Ephesians chapter
1 and verse 5, in the mind of God before the foundation of
the world, he's dealing with this very subject on our behalf. He's taking care of the issue
before we even knew it was an issue. Before we were even born,
he's taking care of the issue. Here it says in Ephesians chapter
1 and verse 5, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children. a few people that were adopted. The wonderful thing about that
is someone chose them to be their children. That's what God did. He chose
those that would be his children. having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
the good pleasure of his will. Ephesians chapter 3 and verse
11, would you turn there with me? Verse 10, to the intent that
now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might
be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, You know, everybody
that God's ever saved are a manifest display of God's manifest wisdom. I couldn't leave it to them.
None would have been saved. I took the initiative. I took
the initiative. I did this. The wonderful I wills
of God. On purpose, I will take care
of them, I will save them, I will deliver them, I will bring them,
I will call them, I will give them life. The manifold wisdom
of God according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord. There was a man who one day,
it says he was short in stature. And he wanted to see the Lord,
so he climbed up in a sycamore tree. And the Lord passed by
that way, and he looked up, and for one reason, was Jesus on
that road that day, at that appointed time, because this is the only
man on the whole group that he ever said this to. Today, I must
abide at thy house. at an appointed time. Today,
I must abide at thy house." He didn't say that to anybody else.
He didn't say that to any Pharisee. He didn't say that to any religious
person. He didn't say that to anybody. He said that to a sinner.
Today I must abide at thy house. Now he said it with such clarity
and such authority and such power that Zacchaeus knew exactly what
he had said and he got out of that tree and came to the Lord
Jesus. He's such a picture, we have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. During all ages
at the appointed time, his lost sheep have been in a place where
he has caused them to be under the sound of the gospel. He's
caused it. By no mistake, he's caused it. At an appointed time, you can
read the last 20 verses of the book of Ezra. I'm not going to
read it all for an exundee. I'll read it, but I'm not going
to read it next Sunday. But go ahead and read that. We
have a list of names there, and they have an appointment. And
at this time, you'll be in Jerusalem. At this time, you'll be in Jerusalem.
At this time, you'll be in Jerusalem. You know what? Everyone that's
on the right-hand side, when Jesus has that great day in his
glory, when he sits on the throne of his glory, every one of those
could say, I'm here by divine appointment. At the appointed time, the hand,
the hound of heaven. I read that in a book one time,
one of the old preacher called the Holy Spirit, the hound of
heaven. He knows where they all are.
And at the appointed time, he makes sure that they all hear
the gospel. And then he does his great work
of regeneration. were born again. Now at one time,
there were 3,000 souls saved at one time by Almighty God. The Holy Spirit in one day at
the appointed time came and gave regeneration, salvation to 3,000. But don't lose heart. At one
day, there was an appointed time when one man from Ethiopia Traveling
back to Ethiopia from being at a religious conference down in
Jerusalem, God appeared unto him, preached to him, and the
Holy Spirit gave him regeneration. And the scriptures tell us he
went on his way rejoicing. The gladdest day of his life.
And you know what? It didn't stop. It wasn't over. He didn't get down to Ethiopia
and say, well, now I'm in Ethiopia. It's just a bad place to be.
It changed him forever. He finds them totally dead in
their sins and then spends the rest of their lives, after he
raises them, teaching us of the grace of Jesus Christ. He doesn't teach us law. He doesn't
teach us great doctrines. He teaches us of the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ and what grace it took to save us from
our sin. Oh, the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth us from all sin. cleanseth us, puts it behind,
by the death of himself, he put away sin by the death of himself.
So the church, from the very beginning, were permitted to
exercise faith. Because we read, by faith, Abel
offered a more excellent offering than his brother did. What did
his brother bring? His own works. What did Abel bring? He brought
the first in the flock that pictured the pure, righteous, holy Son
of God. And He alone could take care
of the sin issue that had brought such distance between Him and
Almighty God, the mediator of a better covenant, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And at the appointed time, Now
look, Sonny, we're going to look at the appointed time when it
comes back. He hasn't a time. It's an appointed time. He knows
the time. And I know the time too. I don't
know the day, but I know what's going to happen when it's going
to take place. The last sheep will be saved. And then there's
no need for going on any further. All right. God bless you. Brother
Mike.