morning in the gospel according
to Ezra. Ezra chapter 2. Excuse me, Ezra chapter 9. We're
not going back that far. Ezra chapter 9. Ezra has just
arrived at Jerusalem after a long trip with quite a number of people
from Babylon. It's the second trip, second
group of people that have come out of Babylon after that Babylonian
captivity of 70 years. Probably the second group came
about 50 years after the first group. Ezra is among it and he
is a preacher of righteousness. He is a scribe of God. He's a
scribe of the word of God. He loves the word of God. He
loves the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He stands alone
in the righteousness of Christ. That's his only standing. He is there for a short time
and there is an issue that is brought to his attention. Some
of the folks that have been there for some time come to him and
they did it in confidence and quietness, but it was a problem
that disturbed him to the bone. And that was that some of the
folks that had come early on had not only married people that
were in the land, but they had adopted their abominations. That's the real problem. They
had adopted their abominations, they had adopted their false
worship. And as we heard read there in
the book of Romans today, that God's wrath is against that very
thing of adopting the abominations of the world, of adopting false
religion. That is so contrary to God when
he has laid it down so simply in the scriptures that Christ
is our righteousness and that he alone can be and will be our
righteousness. and nothing else is to be added
to it. Well, we notice here in the ninth chapter that these
princes came to him, they shared that information, and it tells
us there in verse 2 of chapter 9, for they had taken of their
daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy
seed had mingled themselves with the people of those lands, yea,
the hand of the princes and rulers, hath been chief in the trespass. And when I heard this thing,
I rent my garment, and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my
head, and my beard, and sat astonied. Then were assembled unto me every
one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because
of the transgression of those who had been carried away, and
I was set astonied until the evening sacrifice. And at the
evening sacrifice, I arose up from my heaviness, and having
written my garment in my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread
out my hands unto the Lord my God, and said, O my God, I am
ashamed and blushed to lift up my face to thee, my God, for
our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass
is grown up unto the heavens. I'm going to stop there for our
reading this morning. And we notice there in verse
4 that there was a group of people that came and they assembled
with him. They assembled with Ezra. And
it tells us that they trembled at the words of the God of Israel. That tells us a lot about those
people who came quietly to Ezra as he was in the condition that
he was in. That he was facing a great trial
among those fake folks that lived there in Jerusalem and in Judah. That they had adopted the abominations
of the land and they didn't see too much problem with that. Ezra
being a preacher of righteousness spotted a great deal of problem
with that. that when they were taken away
to worship after false gods and to include some of their own
righteousness in it, it was a great problem. It was a great discomfort
to him and we find out how much that discomforted him in what
he did. Well, it tells us that those
people that came, they trembled at the words of the Lord. Now,
there are several times that this word is used in the Old
Testament. It's a Hebrew word, and this
word means to trembling, to be fearful, to be afraid, to be
reverential. That's what I believe these folks
felt at this time. There are a couple of examples
found in the scripture. One of them is over there in
the book of 1 Samuel chapter 4. In 1 Samuel chapter 4, we
find that the children of Israel, they had got into a battle with
some other folks. Some of that religious folks
had the bright idea that if they went into the tabernacle and
took the Ark of the Covenant out, God would honor them when
they went into battle. What foolishness to have a lucky
rabbit's foot for you. That's all they looked at this
was. Eli, who was the prophet at that
time, he was sitting out waiting for news about what had happened
to the Ark of the Covenant. It tells us there, Eli sat upon
a seat by the wayside, for his heart trembled for the ark of
God. His heart trembled for the ark
of God. He was so concerned. He couldn't
or didn't or wouldn't stop the activity. But when the ark was
taken and taken off into battle, and we know the rest of the story,
that those who had come up against Israel took the ark of the covenant
and put it in the Temple of their god Dagon. Well, we find out
what happened to that god. He fell on his face two or three
times, had his arms broken off, had his head broken off. They
just couldn't understand it, so they decided we better send
this thing home. It meant more to those Philistines than it
did to those religious people who pulled it out of the tabernacle
and sent it off into battle as being a lucky rabbit's foot.
God will surely honor us in our battle at this time. The point
we want to see though was that this man Eli was concerned to
the bone about what was happening with it. He trembled. Well, word
came back. A man came back and told him
that the ark had been stolen and he fell backwards and broke
his neck. That was the end of Eli. It was
such a concern to him. There is another place in the
Old Testament, in the book of Isaiah chapter 66, that this
word is used. And it tells us, even of him
that is of a poor and a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. That's what God is pleased with,
is people of a contrite spirit that tremble at his word, have
a reverential attitude towards it, that say, this is God's word. I read part of a book, It was
loaned to me for a short season and it had to do with the children
of Israel crossing the Jordan River. This guy goes on and talks
about it and says, well, for that water to stop, it had to
be a landslide up the river, at the right time that shut off
the river and so forth and so on. When they went into the promised
land, that it took them probably centuries to overcome the people
that were there, and that Jericho really didn't have a wall because
the archeologists that went there and dug couldn't find it. I said,
whoa, there is a problem reading a book by somebody who doesn't
believe the Bible and wants to explain it to you. Three times
in this long, I ran into it. Well, I had to stop reading. When people don't believe what
the Bible has to say about a flood, how can they understand the righteousness
of Christ? Broken and a contrite spirit
that has an attitude of trembling at the word about this is God's
Word and I hold it dear in my heart and it declares the person
and work of Jesus Christ in the redemption of his people that
he foreknew and understood and loved before the foundation of
the world and Now we have just a little bit of thought about
those folks that came and joined Ezra as he was in that state
of astonied when he got word that a whole bunch of those people
that claimed to be Jews had adopted the religions of the world, the
religions of the people there, and the sum and total of it all
is they were all equal. When you have any thought towards
having righteousness in yourself, it doesn't matter what you call
it, it's all the same. Well, I've mentioned this in
the past before that I have a bad habit of seeing
a sign that says a historical marker ahead, and I said I should
stop at that historical marker and read what that has to say.
but I don't. You ever do that? This area of
the world has many historical markers because a great many
things happened here. Well, I had just about passed
a historical marker in the Word of God when the Lord says stop
here and take a look at it. And that is the time that Ezra
stood up and began to put his plea for the people of God before
the Lord. Would you notice that with me
here in chapter 9, and there it tells us in verse 4. Then were assembled unto me everyone
that trembled at the words of the God of Israel because of
the transgressions of those that had been carried away, and I
sat astonished until the evening sacrifice. Verse five, and at
the evening sacrifice I arose. Now that is the marker I almost
went by. I was thankful to have in Elk
Camp through those six days a little tablet with a Bible program on
it. I couldn't ruin it, I couldn't
drop it in the snow and have all the leaves fold up like it
would have in this. I got to read and study God's
word out there in the woods and this passage came to my mind
that said, the evening sacrifice. What is the significance that
these people would come at the time of the evening sacrifice,
And then in verse 5 say, at the evening sacrifice I rose up from
my heaviness and rent my garment and my mantle and fell upon my
knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God. There's
something here. And let's see if we can find
out just a little bit about what this has to do with. The first time that we come across
this subject is found in the book of Exodus. Would you turn
with me to the book of Exodus chapter 29? Exodus chapter 29. In Exodus chapter 29, the morning
and evening sacrifice are spoken of, and it also shares with us
what was offered at that time. Exodus chapter 29. Exodus chapter
29, and I would like to begin reading with verse 38. As we
think about the evening sacrifice, what significance, what implications
does this have? Because it happened every morning
and every evening, but when Ezra was to plead the case of those
folks, and we notice that he did not exclude himself from
that. Even though he had come back
at a different time, he had not married some of the folks that
were in the land, and he had not adopted some of the abominations
of those folks. He put himself in the same category
as with those folks. I find that that's a wonderful
example and picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who was absolutely
sinless, and yet he put himself in the place of sinners. He knew
no sin, there was no sin in him, on him, around him. And yet,
when it came time to give his life a ransom for many, he put
himself in the exact same place as sinners that he's going to
die for. Our sin was imputed to him. It was given to him. It was placed upon him. And here
we find our friend Ezra, this pastor, this minister of the
gospel, here at this time, he did not exclude himself from
the problem, but pled the same case for himself and others,
because he's like the Apostle Paul, the things I would do I
do not, and the things I would not do, those are the things
I do. He never ever said, I'm not a sinner. He always was with
everybody else in this. If it wasn't for the grace of
God, he would have been mixed up in exactly the same thing.
All right, here in the book of Exodus chapter 29 and verse 38. Now this is that which thou shalt
offer on the altar to lambs of the first year day by day continually. a lamb in the morning and a lamb
in the evening. Now these were, this sacrifice
in the morning and this sacrifice in the evening was different
than all of the other sacrifices that were ever offered. If you
read the first three, four, five chapters of the book of Leviticus,
you find that there are several offerings that were to be made
by people who were caused to know that they were sinners before
God. There were many other sacrifices that were brought out. But every
day in the morning, and every day in the evening, there was
this sacrifice. The one lamb shalt thou offer
in the morning, and the other lamb thou shalt offer in the
evening. Now we know this about this lamb, they were a lamb of
the first year, they were without spot, and they were without blemish.
They were continuous pictures of the need to have a savior,
a lamb, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. This was every
day, every morning, every evening, this lamb was taken. Now, if
you figure up 365 days and two lambs a day, that's how many
are taken care of in a year, plus all the rest that went on.
It goes on to tell us there, and the one lamb, a tenth deal
of flour mingled with the fourth part of a hint of beaten oil,
and the fourth part of a hint of wine for a drink offering.
And the other lamb, thou shalt offer it even, and shalt do thereto
according to the meat offering of the morning, and according
to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savor, an offering
made by fire unto the Lord. Now we realize that as there
was any offerings made, any sacrifices given, Ezra understood this,
Moses understood this, any believer understood this, that these sacrifices
did not take care of sin. The evening sacrifice, we must
say at this point before we look at the evening sacrifice any
further, it was a sacrifice of divine appointment, yes. and
yet totally incapable in themselves of purifying the soul or atoning
for the soul. There was absolutely no atonement
for the person made by that sacrifice. They were divinely appointed.
They were divinely appointed at what time they would be offered.
They were divinely appointed at what would be offered, which
animal was to be offered. But nowhere were these sacrifices
ever given for atonement for the sin of a person. They were
only typical. They were pictorial. They were
a shadow. In fact, the Apostle Paul says
that these things were weak and beggarly and elementary things. When it comes to the real, they
paled in comparison. A little lamb pales in comparison
to the Lamb of God. The ability to inspect that little
lamb pales compared to God Almighty from heaven saying, this is my
beloved son. That little lamb pales in its
ability and its blood. It shed its blood and it was
spilt around the altar and it was burned with fire, but it
pales compared to what we read over in the New Testament about
the Lord Jesus Christ and his ministry on the cross, and his
work on the cross, and his accomplishment on the cross. where it read there
in the book of John this morning, he said it's finished. Guess
what? When the evening sacrifice was
over, there was no more sacrifices until the morning, and it started
all over again. Day by day, year after year,
this happened. It happened in the days of Ezra
once they got back from Babylonian captivity. It started all over
again because the work was not finished. It accomplished nothing. They represented grace, these
sacrifices, and purity, but they did not communicate it. Who communicates
grace, and mercy, and righteousness? God Almighty. Not our works of
righteousness, not any sacrifice that we give, and not any sacrifice
that the Jews gave. They only shared the need, but
could not communicate it. they only tell us of sin, but
could not give any way of taking care of it. It was only a pointer,
a picture, a shadow of Him who could take care of it. So there
in the book of Exodus, it's laid out, we're going to have a morning
sacrifice and we're going to have an evening sacrifice, and
once that happens in the evening, No more until morning. Now all
the other sacrifices that took place during the day, but finally
there's the evening sacrifice. And then we wait for morning.
Can you imagine those high priests thinking, those who knew something
thinking, I'll be so glad when this is over. And it didn't happen. until the
New Testament when Jesus Christ cried, it is finished. In the book of 1 Kings chapter
18, if you'll turn there with me, there's probably a passage
that we're more familiar with that has to do with the evening
sacrifice. This incident shares with us
that Elijah had King Ahab send 850 false prophets, 450 prophets
of Baal and 400 prophets of the groves. Now they couldn't prophesy
a thing. They didn't have any idea what
was going on except they got paid good for what they were
doing. Here in the book of 1 Kings chapter 18. Now it's quite a
long reading and we're not going to read it all, but I do want
you to notice with me in verse 30 through 39. This whole group
of folks are there, and we know what happened. They were given
an opportunity to share with the people that were all gathered
there if they could do something with this sacrifice. And nothing happened. And so
they got so serious about it that they began to cut themselves. And then it tells us. First Kings
chapter 18 verse 30. And Elijah said unto all the
people, come near unto me. And all the people came near
unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken
down. And Elijah took 12 stones, according
to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom
the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. and
the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord and he
made a trench about the altar as great as could contain two
measures of seed. Now the key word in there, great. I don't know how much that is
but it was a great trench around this altar. And then it tells
us here filled four barrels of water and poured on the burnt
sacrifice and on the wood and He said do it a second time and
they did it a second time He says do it a third time and they
did it the third time So they filled this trench and poured
all this water over the top of that Sacrifice that he had laid
out there. He wanted them to know without
Question he wanted them to know that if this if something happened
here God did it and All of the crying and moaning
and groaning of those religious folks accomplished nothing. They
still had their sacrifice out there on the wood, and here Elijah
said, you make sure that this is not going to self-ignite. All of that water is poured on
it. All right, let us go. It came to pass at the time of
the offering of the evening sacrifice and that Elijah the prophet came
near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. What is he
doing there? He's calling on the covenant
God. He's calling on the God that
made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, an eternal
covenant, an everlasting covenant, that in you all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed. The gospel will be preached through
you. At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Now
here at on Mount Carmel, away from Jerusalem, he offered this
sacrifice at the same time that it would have been going on down
in Jerusalem. He goes on to tell us here, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Israel, Let it
be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am
thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy
word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou
hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord
fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones,
and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
I've read in commentaries that this couldn't have happened.
Really? Yeah. That's a worthless commentary
on the book of 1 Kings. If someone says this couldn't
happen because of all this, let me let you know friends, that
those folks that came and gathered themselves around Ezra, when
he stood there astounded, they believed the word of God and
they knew that this did happen at the offering of the evening
sacrifice. It did happen, and it's a miracle,
yes, but it is no miracle such as God works in the hearts of
people when he gives them the new birth and they're able to
see God in his glory. The next time that we have a
mention of this is found in the book of 2 Chronicles. Would you
turn with me to 2 Chronicles for just a moment? Second Chronicles
chapter 13, there was a war between Israel and Judah. Remember when
Solomon died, his son Rehoboam said, you know my dad, he taxed
people, but I'm going to tax them more. And his older, older,
Confidants, his older advisor says, you know, your dad really
taxes, just lighten up a little bit, just lighten up a little
bit. And he wouldn't listen to them, he listened to the new
counselors. Well, God had already said that
10 tribes were going to be taken away. And that happened under
a man by the name of Jeroboam. Jeroboam let him off. You know,
from God's standpoint, he didn't need him any longer. He had his
tribe that was going to bring in the Messiah. Judah was there.
So those folks, I don't need them. And they went off. Now, Rehoboam died and a new king
comes on by the name of Ahijah. And Ahijah and the King Jeroboam
get into a battle. And you read here of how many,
I think it's 400,000, 800,000 men. on opposite sides, huge army
gathering together to fight. And that king of Judah knew that
if something didn't happen special, they were going to have a problem
with that great big army that they were facing. 2 Chronicles
chapter 13 verse 9, 10, and 11. 2 Chronicles chapter 13, as we
look at this evening sacrifice, 2nd Chronicles chapter 13 Verses
9 10 and 11 look at there with me it says But as for us, this
is a hija saying speaking Abijah But for us the Lord is our God
and we have not forsaken him and the priests which minister
unto the Lord are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon
their business, and they burn unto the Lord every morning and
every evening, burn sacrifices and sweet incense and show the
showbread also." What is he saying? We're doing just exactly as God
has commanded us with this religious service. Those folks, have fallen
after two golden calves, one up in the north and one down
in the south, and they have people going over there to worship.
Why? Because if they went to Jerusalem, they would probably
adopt that religion. So let's keep them away from
Jerusalem and let them worship these golden calves that we have
raised up. Abijah says, we still are offering
the morning and evening sacrifices. Well, if we follow this out,
we find that the Lord gave Judah tremendous victory over Israel. Not because they were doing this,
but because he is their God. That's why. Well, I would like
you to go back with me for just a moment to Ezra chapter nine
and our beginning point with this study of the evening sacrifice. There is so much significance
here and we want to go on with it before we run out of time.
Ezra chapter nine verses four and five. The evening sacrifice
was a sacrifice that looked down to an appointed time when all
sacrifices would be accomplished. Notice here Ezra chapter nine
And there in verses 4 and 5, there's the evening sacrifice
and verse 5, the evening sacrifice. And these sacrifices that were
offered in the days of Ezra, they look down to a time when
they would no longer be any need to offer these sacrifices. And
the only way that that could be accomplished was that the
Messiah would come. Yet every true believer, every
time they saw that sacrifice, looked to the time when they
would no longer need this. What do we find in the word of
God with regard to the communion service? Do this until he returns. to every true believer in the
days of Ezra. They looked at this morning and
evening sacrifices and all the stuff in between. We will do
this until the Messiah comes. He has promised in Himself to
do away with all of this. Now why in the world do people
today want to get re-involved with having animal sacrifices
during the millennial reign? I have no idea. When these folks
were just like every believer today, everyone that trusts Christ
and His blood and righteousness alone. They look at this as the
completion of all those sacrifices in the one person, Jesus Christ.
He is the true Lamb of God. It was performed toward the ending
of the day when no one worked. The night came. Why would we
have this evening sacrifice? It was a picture of the time
when it would no longer be needed. It was the last sacrifice of
the day. There were some people that realized
in the days of the Lord Jesus, when that veil was rent in two
and they got word about it, they said, this is it. The last evening sacrifice that
will ever be authorized by God Almighty. The great delight and
beauty of the final evening sacrifice when it would all be finished.
The sacrifice had an eye of one all-sufficient, all-saving person,
the Messiah. You know, it's interesting to
find out that the Lord Jesus Christ cried, it is finished
at the exact same time that Ezra stood up and the evening sacrifice
was offered 400 years before it took place. Turn with me if
you would to the book of Matthew chapter 27. The evening sacrifice was a sacrifice
to look down to the appointed time, when all sacrifices would
be accomplished in one sacrifice, the Lamb of God. It was performed
toward the ending of the day when no one worked. In the Old Testament economy,
there were no sacrifices performed at night. They were all performed
during the day, and this was the last one for the day. In
the book of Matthew chapter 27, Matthew chapter 27, we find out
in verse 46. Matthew chapter 27 and verse
46, the whole pattern was laid out to the Old Testament to accomplish
something in the days of Jesus Christ that could not be accomplished
during all those sacrifices. Matthew chapter 27 and verse
46, the scriptures share this. And about the ninth hour Jesus
cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that
is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now that's
not a question that he was asking, that's a rhetorical statement,
a rhetorical question. He knows exactly why this is
happening. He knows exactly why he is being,
as it says here, forsaken. He had become sin for us. Our sin was imputed to him and
notice the time. Let's go over to the book of
Mark for just a moment, Mark chapter 15. In Mark chapter 15
verse 25, we have a record here. of the time that the Lord Jesus,
after he was condemned to die, the time that was given. Mark
chapter 15 verse 25. Mark chapter 15 verse 25 and
it says, it was the third hour and they crucified him. Then
in verse 33, it says, and when the sixth hour was come, there
was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. Now they
did time a little different than us. They did time from sundown, that
started a new day. That's why they had to have him
off the cross before sundown. In this climb, the days and the
nights are almost the same length, 12 hours. When Nancy and I were
going through the Panama Canal, there probably wasn't four minutes
or five minutes difference in the days when we were down in
that area. It was so close. Six o'clock in the morning, the
sun came up. Six o'clock at night, the sun went down. Well, we could
just about say that here. The ninth hour was about three
o'clock in the afternoon, and that's why these Pharisees, these
religious people, these high priests wanted him off the cross
before sundown. He died and it's sometime before
they come and look at those two other thieves, and in order to
do what they needed to do, that's why they broke their legs. They
found out the Lord Jesus was already dead. So, there was a
three-hour period between three o'clock in the afternoon and
sundown, they had to take care of it. What was he for all generations
to come? the evening sacrifice. He was the fulfillment of it
all. From the three o'clock, the third
hour, he was hung on the cross. From the sixth hour to the ninth
hour, there was darkness that you could feel. And that was
the time we are not permitted to see what happened on the cross
because Jesus Christ was suffering there for our sin. Oh, the agony
that he went through, it's no wonder when he came out at that
ninth hour, he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? And in chapter 15, verse 34 of
that same chapter, it says, and the ninth hour, Jesus cried with
a loud voice, Eli, Eli, Elamah sabachthani, which is being interpreted,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We heard read in
John chapter 19 and verse 30 this morning, he cried after
he said, I thirst, he cried, it is finished. Many things were finished. All
the sacrifices were over. The evening sacrifice had truly
come when the last sacrifice would be offered. Throughout
all of those ages, they offered a sacrifice towards the close
of the day and said, those who knew something said, I hope this
is the last one. Wouldn't it be great if he came? You know,
it's almost what we say today with regard to our Savior. Even
so come quickly Lord Jesus The finish He's finished all
righteousness. He's finished all sacrifices.
He's finished all salvation nothing to be added by anybody But then
he'll come the second time without sin unto salvation What a glory
that will be how appropriate Ezra's timing At the time of
the evening sacrifice, he arose, rimmed his garments, fell on
his knees, and spread out his hands unto the Lord his God,
and mediated the part for sinners. He felt the sins of the people
were as if they were his. And what he could not do was
represented in him showing us that he is a type of Christ mediating
for our sins on the cross. At the time of the offering of
the evening sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the savior of his people,
cried, it is finished. Brother Mike.