Join me in the book of Ezra. We've been going through the
book of Ezra for some time now. And I am continuously overwhelmed
with the gospel that is brought out here in this wonderful book. I've often said that if we had
only the book of Obadiah, one chapter long, mitre prophet,
we could be fed, refed, and manifestly fed on the person and work of
our Savior, the Lord Jesus. The gospel is throughout the
Old Testament as well as the new. The man who brought me the
gospel wrote some books on looking at the Old Testament through
New Testament eyes. And those who were saved in the
Old Testament were able to look at Old Testament through New
Testament eyes. They also receive the new birth
just as we do through the preaching of the gospel. God favors his
people by giving them the new birth at the right time and in
the right place. He gives them salvation and the
new birth is absolutely required in order to worship God in spirit
and in truth. Now when I was studying for this
message today, I almost felt like a person, and I've done
this many times, not paying attention as I should and pouring water
into my glass. I've overfilled it and I'm at
a decision now what to do, mop up the mess or sip off the top
so I don't make any more. Some people recognize that quality. Well, there is just so much here. I hope we can express this morning
some of those things that the Lord has given us with regard
to this chapter 9. When we looked at Jeremiah earlier,
in the earlier chapters, we find that we are privileged to see
the very person, the character of this man Ezra. Did I just
say Zechariah? We're studying both of those,
but we see the person, the character of this person, Ezra. We see
that he is such a man in tune with God, for God has blessed
him. We read about Ezra, we find out
that there's a lineage of Ezra mentioned in the Bible, in this
book of Ezra, and that shares with us that Ezra realized where
he came from. that Ezra was a man subject to
like passions as we are, that he was a man that was a descendant
from a fallen man, from a fallen man that came from Adam, and
he, to be able to worship God aright, to be able to be called
a ready scribe of the Lord God Almighty. He must recognize the
fact that God is a savior that saves and a redeemer that redeems,
and God had worked his work of grace in this man as he had heard
the gospel. It wasn't enough that he was
simply a Jew. He must be a Jew not only outwardly,
but he must be a Jew on inwardly. He must be born again of the
power of God. We find in chapter 7, and if
you go back there with me to chapter 7 verse 6, It tells us
with regard to his character that he was a ready scribe. In
chapter 7 and verse 6, it says, this Ezra went up from Babylon,
and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, and far beyond
just knowing the Ten Commandments or the moral law. He was someone
that understood part of the word of God. He understood what the
gospel had to say in the word of God, and he never let anybody
to believe that by keeping the law, you would be saved. He shared
with those people, like gospel preachers share today, that the
law declares the holiness of God, and you will never reach
that holiness on your own, and you must have someone as your
mediator, as holy as God is. Be ye holy as He is holy, and
the only way that that can be given to us is in Christ Jesus
the Lord, as He becomes our mediator. In chapter 7 and verse 10, of
this passage of scripture, it says, For Ezra had prepared his
heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach
Israel statutes and judgments. He had been made a ready scribe,
but he had also been given a ministry, and that ministry was to be an
under-shepherd for those Jews that had returned back to Jerusalem
from Babylonian captivity. He was going to teach them the
truth of the gospel when he got there. He would not be drawn
aside to the left hand or to the right hand and declare something
else. And when we get into chapter
9, he is going to be dealing with a problem that had crept
up there in Jerusalem in the surrounding area about people
intermarrying That was not the real problem. The real problem
was that some of those people had adopted their practices.
Just as in our day we find that people who at one time believed
the gospel or said they did, they have adopted practices that
are ungodly and do not declare the truth of the gospel. So he's
going to be dealing with that. It wasn't so much that they married
a Hittite, or a Hivite or a Jebusite, for we find that Rahab was a
Canaanite, and we find that Ruth was a Moabite, and we find that
Bathsheba was a Hittite. Those people are in the lineage
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He declares what He can do with
people even born in those circumstances. He brought them out of that religion. He brought them to Christ and
the problem that is faced here is a whole bunch of people who
claim to know Christ, who claim to know God, who are adopting
the practices of the religion of those people. So, we have
a problem. Zechariah, Ezra, also in chapter
8 and verse 15. We read these words about Ezra,
chapter 8 and verse 15, about his character. And I gather them
together to the river that runneth through the Hava, and there abode
we in tents three days. and I viewed the people and the
priest and found there was none of the sons of Levi." This character
about Ezra is so reflective of the character of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He shares with us, I will lose none of my people. Here, Ezra comes to a place,
they're just ready to go across the desert to spend several months
in transit from Babylon over to Jerusalem, and he gets to
a place and he says, we're not all here. We need to gather the
rest of the folks. What a character about this Ezra. He could have simply said, well,
they're just too late. We're going to leave without
them. I was left at a cemetery one
time. We're up there taking care of the graves. And my dad drove
off without me. You know, Ezra, if he didn't
have any character for the love of God and the purpose of grace,
he could have just said, sorry. But he didn't. He stayed there,
sent people back to Babylon, and gathered up those people.
Speaks a lot about his character. In chapter 8 and verse 21, we
read these. Then I proclaimed a fast there
at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before
our God to seek him a right way for us. and for our little ones
and for our substance. Here, it declares a great deal
about the character of Ezra as they're preparing to leave. Not,
do we have enough food? Do we have enough beasts of burden? What about all of this? He says,
let's seek the will of God in this. Let's pray. Let's look
to God. Also, in the next verse, he said,
since I've already talked to the king about our God being
able to take care of us, For I was ashamed to require of the
king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy
in the way, because we have spoken unto the king, saying, The hand
of our God is upon all them for good that seek him, for his power
and for his wrath is against all them that forsake him. He
said, Since we've already told the king that our God is able
to take care of us, we're not going to ask him for horses or
chariots. What character this man had? Why? Because he knew
God. He knew something about grace,
and he knew something of the lordship of God, that he is sovereign
king, ruler of all things, and that he would be cared for as
they traveled across the desert all those 900 miles. Well, as
we get to our section of scripture in chapter 9, we've seen his
character, Now we're going to see a soul. I had Brother Craig read that
passage of Scripture over there in the book of 1 Peter 1. In
that passage of Scripture, It tells us that Christ is as
of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Now to me, just
reading that in the languages, what's the difference between
a blemish and a spot? Well, in the original language,
there's a great deal of difference between a blemish and a spot.
One of them, the blemish is morally without blemish. faultless, unblameable
and when we read about the Lord Jesus Christ and when He reveals
Himself to us, we have a Savior that is totally without sin outwardly. No one could find fault with
Him. They made every effort that they
possibly could and at the final moment, Pilate said, I find no
fault in him. And you know who was using Pilate
for a mouth of spokesperson? God Almighty is crying through
the lips of Pilate. I find no fault in him because
there was none. He is impeccable. There was no
even thought of sin in his mind. And then we go on in that verse
there. It says there is no without spot. Here's a reproachable. He is free from vice within. So without and within, we find
the Lord Jesus Christ was that perfect Lamb of God. without blemish and without spot. Look at his outward appearance,
nothing. Knowing his inward appearance,
we find nothing. He is the perfect son of God,
and therefore he could be the sacrifice for our sin that God
required. He would be our righteousness. He would give us his righteousness
in our salvation, and we would be free of guilt and of sin. in the salvation provided because
he would take care of the whole thing. These chapters, we see the character
of Ezra, we see the character of Ezra as he reflects the person
of Jesus Christ, as he is a type and a shadow of Jesus Christ,
but we also see that he had a soul about him, a care about him.
It appears that there was a bit of time between Ezra arriving
in Jerusalem and having it brought to his attention that there was
a problem in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. Would you turn
back with me again to Ezra chapter 7 and verse 9. Ezra chapter 7
and verse 9. It says, and upon the first day
of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the
first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem according
to the good hand of his God upon him. He recognized, and as he
wrote, this was all in the providence of God. Every step was taken,
and we arrived at the right time. Well, in Ezra chapter 10. Ezra
is dealing with the problem that's been brought to his attention.
Ezra chapter 10 and verse 9, the scripture share with us here.
Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves
together into Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth
month on the 20th day of the month. So we have some time in
between. Last time we looked at this,
we looked at that verse 1, it says, now, when these things
were done. The Lord usually answers our
questions in his word. In reading a little more, reading
it again, we found out there's some months in between the time
that he arrived back in Jerusalem and the time that this problem
was identified. I was so blessed last week by
Brother Lance's series from the book of Isaiah chapter 43, and
I will direct your attention right there for just three verses
of scripture in Isaiah chapter 43 because we certainly see the
fulfillment of these verses in the person Ezra It is brought
to his attention that there is a problem in Jerusalem in the
book of Isaiah chapter 43 verses 1 through 3 I Appreciate it so
much that the problem is brother Lance brought out the problem
is not going through the waters That's not the issue Everybody's
going to have that sometime in their life and Ezra is going
to have it here. He's probably had it a number
of times in his life. Just like you and I have had
things happen in our lives. Unpredictable things. Things
that have happened. God Almighty has brought us through
the waters. There's gonna be, we're gonna
go through the waters. Here it says, Isaiah, but now, thus saith
the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy
name, thou art mine. Oh, the wonderful works of God
on his people, I have redeemed thee. When thou passest through
the water, when thou passest through the waters, I appreciated
he didn't spend a lot of time on that. He got to the next verse,
I will be with thee. And we're gonna see that testimony
in Ezra as he deals with the problem here in Jerusalem and
in Judah. But let us read the rest of this.
I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow
thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall thy flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, Thy Savior I gave Egypt for thy ransom in
Ethiopia and Saba for thee We certainly will see the fulfillment
of these verses in the life of Ezra When you pass through the
waters now all is not what it seems All is not well in Jerusalem
and and the outline area is brought to his attention. The holy hill
only hides reality from other folks, but not from God. I was a church member from the
time I was 12 years old to the time I was 34 years old and didn't
know a thing about the gospel. I'd went through the waters of
baptism. I was called to preach, went to Bible school for four
months, five months, pastored, and then heard the gospel, and
found out what it was to hunger and thirst after righteousness
and be filled. To know the grace of God, Do
not argue with the Bible. Do not try to compromise what
is said there. To have to skip passages of scripture
because they don't fit your theology. To know Christ is to know that
the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged
sword. And so Ezra is going to be brought
to that place. He is a surrounded by people
who came back from Babylon who had the testimony to everyone
We are Jews Now that's just like saying today. I'm a believer.
I'm a Christian and Here we have a problem In 1st Samuel chapter
16 and verse 7, you remember the words that God said to Samuel
when Samuel looked at those sons and was picking out the biggest
and brawniest man for king of Israel after Saul had done what
he had done? And he said, this surely is him.
And the Lord said, no. This surely is him. No. We find that the Lord said, the
Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward
appearance, but God looketh on the heart. I'll never forget
an experience right here in this building. When I was interrupted
one time by a lady when I was preaching on the new birth, and
she said out loud, that has never happened to me. I understand
that. To hear it and say you believe
it and know it are different things. The new birth is something
God gives. It's not something that we amass
ourself. It's not something that we create
in ourself. For the new birth is of God.
And you must be born again. And writers have come out with
books on how to be born again. And that is absolutely contrary
to the word of God. He never told anybody how to
be born again. He said you must be born again.
And I do it. I asked a young preacher recently
when I was talking to him about these things, I said, how much
did you have to do with your physical birth? He had to be
honest. You know what he said? Nothing. I said, that's the same about
the spiritual birth. You, by the grace of God, are
brought under the seed of the word of God, and God does the
rest. It was only after I had God among
people who preached the gospel, after I was saved and began to
find people, men that preached the gospel of the truth of the
word of God, I found a group of people that didn't have all
their kids saved at four years old. They could say to me with
all honesty, I have a son that doesn't know the gospel. I pray
for him. I cry out to the Lord for him.
I pray that he will come and hear the word. But I know that
it has to be of God. In religion, we try to do things
that is only God's business to do. Ezra's reaction. We have here,
in Ezra chapter 9, go back there with me if you would, Ezra chapter
9, that he is mining his business. He is just simply preparing for
the messages that he wants to preach. He is sharing with the
folks around him the glory of God, and the goodness of God,
and how God has brought them from Babylon out of captivity,
and to come and to trust the true and the living God and bring
them to Jerusalem. He's just wanting to share that
with his whole being. He is a ready scribe of the Word
of God. He has been given the grace to
go to the Word of God and believe the Word of God and preach the
Word of God and leave that up to God. But here in chapter 9,
Now in these things, verse one, the princes came to me saying,
the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have
not separated themselves. from the people of the lands,
doing according to their abominations, even the Canaanites, and the
Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Ammonites,
and the Moabites, and the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have
taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons,
so that the holy seed have 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 of my beard and sat down astonished. He rent his garment and his mantle. He rent both the inward and the
outward garments. at which was close to his body
and that piece of clothing thrown over the, worn loose over the
other. He plucked off the hair of his
head and of his beard and said astonied. In other words, he
was utterly shocked, appalled, confounded, deeply troubled,
sat mourning. He was stunned, in shock, devastated,
astonished. That's how this word has been
translated in other translations. He was totally in shock. And in verse 6 or verse 5, at
the evening sacrifice, I arose up from my heaviness. and having
rent my garments and my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread
out my hands before the Lord my God and said, oh my God, I
am ashamed and blessed to lift up my face to thee, my God. For our iniquities are increased
over our head and our trespasses grown up into the heavens. One
of the first things that I noticed with regard to Ezra when he brings
us these words is he put himself with the people. He said there in that verse of
scripture, for our iniquities. You know, he's so different than
Saul over there when Samuel came to him and he said, what's the
meaning of this bleeding of the sheep and the moving of the cows?
And he said, the people kept those for sacrifice. That's what
Saul said. Ezra said, our iniquities. I'm in the middle of it. I'm
a sinner saved by grace. I can't elevate myself over anybody. Remember that man that went down
to the temple to pray? There was a Pharisee. He went down to the same temple.
And there was another man, a publican, and he could not even lift his
eyes to heaven. and said God be merciful to me
a sinner, and Jesus said that man went down to his house justified,
not the other one. Ezra's grief was passionate grief. His grief was real grief, and his grief was Godward grief.
There's only one that can deal with this. There's only one that
can take care of the problem. I think he feels like almost
every pastor that has ever stood in a pulpit or preached to a
group of people. When we find out, when they find
out some things that are going on, it breaks the heart of a
pastor. But you know what? I've learned
there's one place to go first. There's only one that can heal
it. There's only one that can take care of it. There's only
one that can bring goodness out of it, and that's the Lord. If
we ever want to know a little bit about sin, we just, the sin
of God's elect, we must look at the reaction of the Savior.
Now I say that because we're gonna spend just, we just read
about the reaction of Ezra to the news that he got. I don't
know what it is. I don't understand all that's
said there about him plucking the hair off the top of his head
and plucking his beard out. I know it happened to another
one, our Savior. His beard was plucked out. I
don't understand all it was, the grief that he went to. I
don't understand that all. But I saw in that the reaction
to the news, and that is most important, for oftentimes when
we see the reaction, We're going to have a better grip of the
problem. And when we do this, and we particularly
look at our Savior, the Lord Jesus, we find that as we look
at the reaction to the problem, we're going to find out how great
the problem really is. If we ever want to know a little
of the problem of sin, all we have to do is look at the Lord
Jesus in dealing with it. You know, he did more than I
can do. I pray about it. I ask, oh God,
forgive me for it. I ask, oh God, forgive the folks
here for what we do. But none of us can deal with
sin. Only one can. In the church I
grew up, it talked about, you know, we'll take care of this
sin in our life and then we'll take care of that sin and pretty
soon we're going to make some progress. We can't deal with
it, only one thing can and that's the blood of Christ and if he
didn't deal with it at the cross, it's not going to be dealt with
because we're not going to. Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 4,
would you turn there with me as we see some of the problem
and then we'd like to look at how it was dealt with. Isaiah
chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 4,
all sinful nation of people laden. Of people heavy. Of people grievous. That's how that word is translated
in other places. Of people laden. All sinful nation of people laden
with iniquity. a seed of evildoers, children
that are corruptors, they have forsaken the Lord, they have
provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they have gone away
backward. Walk before God saves us is always
backwards from the way of God. We are so diametrically opposed. In fact, the scriptures share
with us that we're enmity against God. We're a constant warfare
against God. His will and our will are not
compatible wills. I am so thankful that the God
of heaven is able to overcome us. That's why I can't believe in
free will. I've had people tell me we can
just say no to God and he'll go away. To some that may be
because they're not in the Lamb's book of life but his, his people. He will overcome. Laden with
iniquity, full of sin. The Lord Jesus shares with us
in dealing with the problem. I came not to minister, to be
ministered unto, but to minister and give my life a ransom. My life a payment. My life a
payment for slaves. My life a payment A ransom price,
a price of redeeming, the price paid for slaves. I came to give
my life a ransom for many. Isaiah chapter 53 is just filled
with descriptions of how the Lord Jesus Christ would deal
with the problem. The problem, if the Lord of glory
is required to deal with the problem, then the problem is
immense. it goes deeper than just the
works of our hands. As the Lord Jesus Christ dealt
with people, they come to him and said, I've kept all of that
from my youth up. He said to another group, you've
heard of old time, thou shall not kill, but if you've thought
evil in your heart to someone you've already committed murder.
He said it's far greater than just what the 10 Commandments
because those legalists wanted to just say, I haven't done this
and I haven't done this. He said, if you've done it where
the problem is, you've done it. You've done it in your heart.
You've done it. That's where the problem is.
The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? It's a grievous thing. It's a
great problem and we find out that the Lord Jesus Christ in
his reaction to the problem shows us how great it is. He said,
I lay down my life for the sheep. The Son of God must lay down
his life for the sheep in order for them to be free? It's a grievous
problem we found in the reaction of Ezra. He fell before the Lord
and prayed there that great prayer, much like the great high priestly
prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 17. In Matthew and in Mark, and I
believe in all the Gospels, he began to share with his disciples.
Turn with me if you would to the book of Mark chapter 10.
Mark chapter 10, as he began to share with his disciples what
was going to be required. If sin was to be dealt with,
this is what must be required. If he could have dealt with it
any other way. But God said there's only one way to be just and justifier. Now, I've read in history where
people in high places had what they called a whipping boy. For a long time, I just thought
that was an oddity, but they really did. If the son of the
person in high places did something wrong, the whipping boy took
the beating for it. Now, the whipping boy, could
not put themselves in the place of the person who did wrong.
They may have done wrong things themselves, but they could not
put themselves in the place of the person they're being whipped
for. They couldn't feel the guilt. They couldn't feel anything,
but they got the punishment for it. Now Jesus Christ is much
more than a whipping boy. He was able to go into us and
take our grievous iniquity on himself and feel the guilt for
it too. Here in the book of Mark chapter
10, notice with me in verse 32. Mark chapter 10 and verse 32.
And they were in the way up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went before
them. And they were amazed as they
followed. They were afraid, and they took again the twelve, and
began to tell them what things should happen to him, saying,
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. Oh, we're going to the temple
again. Oh, let's go on. The son of man shall be delivered
to the high priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn
him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, and they
shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him,
and shall kill him, and the third day he shall rise again. How
many of you are anxious to go downtown Portland at night? If we know there's a problem
area, most of us avoid it the best we can. And yet the Savior is saying,
this is my path. And this has been determined
before the foundation of the world. And there is only this
path that will release my people from their sins. and he began to tell his disciples
that. Their reaction, I'm sorry, not so Lord. Peter said that. In 1 Peter 2 and verse 24, it
says, who his own self bear our sins in his own body. Then the final note of his great
involvement, It's quoted or mentioned over in the Psalm, Psalm 22,
and the Lord speaks those words from the cross. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? How bad is the problem? Look
at the Savior at the cross. He must die as a ransom to save
his sheep from their sins. Now we see the reaction of Ezra. He is a picture and a type and
a shadow, but he could not deal with one sin of his own, not
alone of the sin of someone else. Jesus paid the price of redeem
or a redemption. He paid the price for slaves
We are by nature even the servants of sin Ezra's reaction is pictured
as the reaction of our Lord yet Ezra could not do what our Lord
could do for sinners. I Ezra could point, he could
declare, he could admonish the problem, and he could share with
people there is a problem, but he could do nothing to remove
the problem even from those of the tribe of Judah and the tribe
of Benjamin that lived right there in Jerusalem on the surrounding
areas. The Lord Jesus Christ went beyond
all that Ezra could do. As the son of God, he laid down
his life at ransom for many. In fact, he could take our shame. We alone know what that is. In
our heart, when we've done things so immensely contrary to the
Word of God, how shameful it is, and yet He can take our shame. He can be so impersoned with
our need, so impersoned with our sin. In fact, it says, our
sin was placed upon Him. Never once did Jesus actually
become a sinner, but it was put on Him. as if it were his own. He, despising the shame, what
happened? Endured the cross and is sitting
at the right hand of the father. Well, as we go through more of
the book of Ezra, it is our interest and our delight to go through
and say, let's find out something more that our Savior did on our
behalf. As Ezra typifies it, his reaction
to the problem shows the immensity of the problem. And the Lord's
reaction to the problem shows the immensity of sin, and yet
he was victorious to the very last. He was buried. And to most people in that day,
the problem is over. And on the third day, he came
out of that tomb victorious over sin, death, hell, and the grave,
and is now welcomed back and sitting at the right hand of
the Father, making intercession for his people. The problem was
serious. but he is victorious. We have
a victorious Savior in Jesus Christ the righteous. Amen. Brother
Mike.