morning in the book of Ezra. Ezra chapter 4. Please put your
finger over there. We're going to be reading about
some real uneasy times for those who came back from Babylonian
captivity. There's a whole bunch of folks
that are part relatives The Samaritans, they had a whole group, a king,
brought in a whole group of folks from foreign lands in to be with
a group of Jews that were left in the land when their captivity
took place. And it is these relatives that
are going to cause some problems for those that are building the
temple and those that are going to be building the walls. I am so thankful that the Lord
God Almighty in the three persons of the Godhead, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, that they are all-powerful and all-knowing
and they do whatsoever they please to do. I am thankful that my salvation
is not dependent upon what I do. It is totally dependent upon
what God does. And this is an illustration of
that very point. What or who will keep God's people
faithful? What or who will keep God's people
faithful? There's going to be adversaries.
In this passage of scripture in the book of Ezra chapter 4,
there are quite a few adversaries that come up against those who
are building the temple. And they share with us, as they
shared with those that were building it, as the scriptures share with
us, that we're just like you are and we'd like to help you. That's what they say. Well, keep
your finger right there Would you turn with me to the book
of 2nd Kings keep your finger right there and Ezra we're coming
back But this passage of scripture has been a blessing to me in
my ministry And it just struck me this morning as I was thinking
about our message in the book of 2nd Kings chapter 6 There
is a prophet 2nd Kings chapter 6 There is a prophet that is under
siege. He has many adversaries, and
he has a servant. And this servant shares with
us in 2 Kings 6, verse 15, and when the servant of the man of
God was risen early and gone forth, behold, a host come past
the city, both with horses and chariots. Now those are the adversaries
that come up to take this man of God, this prophet. And his
servant gets up early and goes out to take a look about what's
going on around the city. And he sees these horses and
chariots. And his servant said unto him,
alas, my master, what shall we do? There's so many adversaries. And what shall we do? And he
answered, fear not. Now that is so often what the
very words that we hear from the Lord God Almighty, the Lord
Jesus Christ, when he comes among his disciples and they are troubled
about something, he says, fear not. And this man of God, and
may I be given the ability of saying that when my friends come
to me and say, I've got this great peril in my life, and I
can say, fear not. It's in the hands of the Lord.
But it goes on, fear not, for they that be with us are more
than they that be with them. Now, how can that be possible?
I'm sure that there was those words thought by some of those
who were building the temple after they had been released
from Babylonian captivity, 70 years of it as they came back
into the area of Jerusalem, back to Jerusalem and back into the
area that was once called Palestine and now Judah and Benjamin, there we
go. Back to Judah and back to Benjamin, and we're there by
divine appointment, and yet the adversaries come out. Now, notice
here in the book of Second Kings again, and Elisha prayed and
said, Lord. Now, that word Lord is capital
L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that's Jehovah. We're going
to run into that name over in our reading in the book of Ezra
this morning, And this is the God of the church. Most of the
other names used in the Bible for God are also used by other
people, religious people, pagan people, about their gods. But
this word is never, ever, this name is never, ever applied to
any of the gods of the world. This is the God of the church.
This is Jehovah. This is the Lord God Almighty. This is Jesus Christ, this word. Name he said he prayed to the
Lord. I pray thee open his eyes Now that's the only way that
adversaries or anything the scriptures Salvation will ever be known
by his people but he has promised that it will be known by his
people by this process and the eyes will be opened. And so those
folks that are there in our reading in Ezra in just a moment, when
we get there and find out that the adversaries are there, the
Lord is already there and he has already opened the eyes of
some of the folks. Now he will do that for his folks,
that is a promise. He will open the eyes of his
folks and he will give them some understanding He'll give them
some understanding about God. He'll give them some understanding
about salvation. He'll give them some understanding
of where salvation comes from. And he'll give them some understanding
of who to go to in times when the adversary is about, adversaries
approach. He will give them the comfort
of knowing that God doeth all things well. Now, these adversaries
are gonna shut down the building of the temple for some time. But not for all time. All right. I pray thee, oh Lord, you're
the only one that can, if it pleases you, please, let this
my servant see something he can't see on his own. Open his eyes
that he may see. And the Lord, opened the eyes
of the young man and he saw and Behold the mountain was full
of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha Whoa, we got
some people out here that are bad people and there's a lot
of them but greater is he that's for you than he that's in the
world and What comfort God gave to Elisha and to his servant
when this happened. So God has the upper hand. All right. If you'll pass by
Ezra for just a moment and go to the book of John chapter six,
we want to read one of the verse before we read that passage in
the book of Ezra. John chapter six, John chapter
six and verse 37. What a comfort this is, fear
not. These words are telling the church,
fear not. There will be adversaries, just
like I recorded in the Old Testament, and if you continue on in that
chapter that Brother Craig was reading this morning, he said,
many grievous wolves will come, but there are more for you than
there are for them. Fear not. I have permitted this to happen
on purpose, and as he does in the book of Ezra, on purpose.
But fear not, there's more for you than there are for them.
Here in the book of John chapter 6 and verse 37, the scriptures
share this. All that the Father giveth me. I like that already, don't you? That's just good words for God's
people. The father is involved and he
has a gift to give to his son, all that the father giveth me. Now that's going to enter into
our message over there in the book of Ezra because there's
going to be some folks, some relatives that come up and say,
you know, we just, we agree with you on all these points. Let
us help. And those men that stood up and
said, no, you don't. You don't agree with us on all
these points, because you use the name of a God that is also
applied to the pagan gods, and we use the name of God that never
has been. Because we know him in a personal
relationship, for he has opened our eyes. All right, all that
the Father giveth me, John chapter six, verse 37. All that the Father
giveth me. Now what's gonna happen to them? Read the rest of the verse. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. What a comfort. You got lost
friends, all that the father giveth me shall come to me. Got lost loved ones, all that
the father giveth me shall come to me. Lost mates, lost children, lost
family, lost friends, lost folks. What a comfort God gives to the
church. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And then it goes on to finish
that verse. John chapter six and verse 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will not cast
out. Every crime you can think of,
every sin you can think of was committed by somebody in the
Bible who God had called by his grace to himself because they
were given of the Father to the Son and they came to the Son
by divine revelation and they are sinners still. It isn't that
that is the issue. The issue is what think ye of
Christ. He's our Savior that he has covered
them all now God be merciful and keep me from sinning today
That should be our everyday prayer. Please keep me from sinning but
in his Purpose he keeps us coming to him and saying Lord forgive
me all right book of Ezra Chapter 4 would you turn there? I'd like
to read the first six verses We have some from this passage
of scripture before Nancy and I took our trip But here in the
book of Ezra chapter 4 verses 1 through 6 we have some adversaries
these adversaries are most of them relatives and they come
it tells us here in Ezra chapter 4 and when the adversaries of
Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity
of Now that's kind of a derogatory term, isn't it? I'm going to
call my family, oh, what does it say there? They're children
of the captivity. If they hadn't have done that
wrong, they wouldn't have been taken into captivity and we wouldn't
look down our noses at them like we're doing right now. Remember
the friends of Job? They all insinuated, Job, if
you would just get rid of that sin that you had in your life,
then you wouldn't have this problem. That's not why Job had the problem. Either Jesus Christ bore our
sins in His own body on the tree, or He did not. And if He did,
God is not judging us in this life for our sins. Never has,
never will. That's double jeopardy, and God's
not in the business of punishing his people for their sin that
he's already punished Christ for on the cross. He is giving
us a test. All right? Then, it says, the
children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God
of Israel. Then they came to Zerubbabel,
and this man is the leader. Let's just say he's the overseer,
he's the under shepherd, came to Zerubbabel and to the chief
fathers. That's the other folks that are
really interested in what's going on here. They said unto him,
let us build with you, for we seek your God. as you do, and
we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Ezra Haddon, king
of Asher, which brought us up hither." Now, if you go over
into the Old Testament, into the book of Kings, there's a
passage there that talks about these folks being brought out
of where they were and into this area, and that's what he's talking
about. But did you notice there, we seek your God. We seek your
God. There's no word here about, we're
trying to be with our God and your God. And they tell us in
that verse of scripture, the word God, Elohim. Now when that
word is used in a plural sense, as we find in the book of Genesis,
uniplural noun, used to describe almighty God, It's not dual,
it has to be at least three. You can't have one God, you can't
have two. There must be the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. We seek your God. Now notice
verse three. But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and
the rest of the chief of the fathers said unto them, you have
nothing. You have nothing. to do with
us to build a house unto our God. Now it's interesting that
those folks didn't need to call a council. Those folks didn't even need
to pray about the matter. They already had the answer. God had
given them the answer. God is the issue here. Christ
is the issue here. We're not going to fall in with
this group of folks that use a term about God that could be
applied to any false religion. We're going to fall into and
stay with a group that believe in Jehovah Elohim, not just a
God that can be applied. And they didn't use it in the
sense that we find in the book of Genesis. They're using it
in an everyday, flippant sense that most people in religion
use today. Oh, we love Jesus so much. Well, would you tell me about
your Jesus? Oh, he's trying to save everybody. We're not talking
about the same Jesus then. There's a problem here. And the
people that were there that were building that temple realized
on their very words and their very intentions that they did
not have good intentions towards those folks. They did not have
good intentions towards the building. They didn't have good intentions
towards building the building. They didn't have good intentions
towards these folks because they're just the children of captivity.
My friends, when we meet people that are of like faith and order
and believe the God that is of the Bible, what do we call them?
Brothers and sisters in Christ. We don't call them children of
the captivity. We don't make mention like that.
No, I'm always asked, especially on that cruise when they asked
me to preach, they asked me afterwards. What church do you pastor? I
almost just said Sovereign Grace Church. But I said Sovereign Grace Baptist.
Oh, you're Baptist. You're Baptist. That's not the
issue. The issue is what do we preach
about Christ? He is the savior of his people. Now, these folks that came had
this idea that they were going to help. They're going to use
this tactic that we are just like you. Let us join and help
and so forth. There's five translations of
the Bible that I found that are pre-King James. They used these words, we will
build with you, not, As we find in this, let us build with you. We will
build with you. We've been here a long time.
You're interlopers and we're going to build with you. Well,
we find that these folks that were in charge of the building,
they said, no, you're not because you're not of us. Now, the Bible
is filled with warnings to God's people. And we have to say, what
is going to prevent me from falling in with these folks that we are
so warned about? Well, I heard about it this morning.
What is going to prevent any of God's people from falling
into error? Is it us? Is it our knowledge
of the scriptures that are going to keep us from falling in error?
It is good that you know the scriptures. That is good. They
were more noble at Berea than at Thessalonica in that they
searched the scriptures daily to see if these things be so.
But what is the ultimate preventative measure that is made on the behalf
of God's people from falling into error? God. He is the ultimate measure that
prevents God's people from falling into error. The Holy Spirit is
a all-powerful being and he has the ability of preventing God's
people from falling into error. He has the ability of preventing
us from going after error. He has the ability of saying,
these folks say that they believe just like us, but in reality
they don't. They have ulterior motives. There
is not one time in this world would I ever prevent anybody
from ever attending this church. Anybody that comes in and sits
down, welcome, welcome, welcome. But the only area that we would
have is if they begin to spout stuff that is not from the Bible. I believe in election, but if
we preach it, it probably will offend somebody. When you hear
that, ding, ding, ding, ding. because it will be offensive. But God has so written his word
that he will declare his sovereignty in all things. I told Henry Mahan
when I was visiting with him in religion, the man who brought
me the gospel and I was being so smart. I said, I believe in
election, but I believe it is something that should be taught
around or talked about around coffee, the kitchen table, that
man could have ate me up in a second, but he didn't. He let me plabber
on and make such stupid remarks. Election is not a conversation
piece just for over coffee around the kitchen table. It is a declaration of God's
word that he has so decreed that he had chosen a people in Christ
before the foundation of the world and those people are so
secure. That ship we were on is a thousand
feet long and when they tied up to a dock they have ropes
that are this big around out of this polypropylene stuff that
you just can't break. stretches a little and I heard
how many tons that will hold and I said, oh my goodness. God,
when he saves his people from their sins, ties them up with
greater than that. There's absolutely nothing that
can destroy the hold that God has on his people that he chose
in Christ before the foundation of the world, and they're going
to be prevented from making these mistakes. Oh, we might say, oh,
that sounds, oh, no, it doesn't agree with this passage of scripture.
Oh, no, that doesn't agree with this. God in his spirit has the
ability of keeping us on the straight and narrow headed for
Christ. And we will be prevented from
saying everybody is going to heaven, they just have a different
route. That's not what Christ said. Broad is the way that leads
to destruction, and many there be that find it. And narrow is
the way that leads to life everlasting, and few there be that find it. How do they find it? By revelation.
And once they're on it, they cannot get off of it. And you
know what? They don't want off of it. They
want to be held to it. They want to be on it. They want
to be drawn to Christ. They want to hear His Word. They
want to be cared for. They want... I want to be spoon-fed. His Word is so good to our spirit. We want it. We want to be fed
from His Word. We want to hear what the Word
of God has to say. Jesus said for there shall come
a rise false Christ and false prophets and shall show great
signs and wonders in as much that if it were possible They
shall deceive the very elect I Like his catchphrase there.
Don't you if it were possible? It's not If people get caught
up and stay in it, then they know. We can just know. They
can know themselves. They were never in the hands
of God to begin with in the sense of salvation. Left to ourselves,
it would be no issue. We would all be deceived, but
we count it great privilege to hear God say, but God, took it
in his hands to make sure that his people arrive safely on that
shore, that we are drawn with cords of love to Christ Almighty,
and that he is the center and vision of his church. Those folks
that stood up that day with those folks that came up and said,
we want to build with you. No, we're going to build with you.
And they said, no, you have no part in this. We worship Jehovah
Elohim. We're not the same. We don't
have the same faith. We don't have the same anything
about this. And you're just interlopers trying
to come in. Well, it proved very quickly. If someone, I'm absolutely
sure of this, if someone is born again and they come into a group
of born again believers and they are not accepted at the first,
like Saul of Tarsus was not. Someone will be their advocate,
or they'll come in the second time and say, I'm just like you,
and I want to sit down and listen. I am convinced of that. They
will not try to come in and change everything. They will come in
and sit down and listen. That's the difference, a humble
spirit, a contrite heart as God decrees. come down from Judea,
taught the brethren, and said, except you be circumcised after
the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. Paul is writing this
and said, I have a trail of folks right behind me. I go and preach
over here, and I preach the grace of God, and the free mercy of
God, and the sovereignty of God, and I've got somebody right behind
me coming in and said, it ain't so, it ain't so, it ain't so,
because you have to have this in order to be saved. When people
follow up and say, you have to be baptized. You have to take
the Lord's Supper. You have to work. You have to
work in the flower garden. You have to mow the lawns. You
have to do all the things that people have. These folks in the
book of Ezra said, this is our work. We'll continue to build
a temple. Now whose temple is it? Whose temple is the church? Is it our temple? It's God's temple and he's building it. If we read through here in the
book of Ezra, we find out that those folks did write a letter
to the king and he stopped all the work. You know what? The folks that
were there in Jerusalem did not say, well, this must not be God's
idea. This must not be what God wants
us to do. Do you know what they did? They
stopped till they got permission to do it again. It may look like
it's just dead right now, but it isn't. Because God will give
the go ahead again. And he did, as we'll follow through
here. Paul wrote there in Acts chapter
15 again, he says, for as much as we have heard that the certain
which went out from us have troubled you with words subverting your
soul, saying you must be circumcised and keep the law, to whom we
gave no such commandment. Grace is grace or it's works.
And if it's of grace, there's no works. And if it's work, there's
no grace. Salvation is totally by the grace
of God, it's by His choice, and He has chosen the people to reflect
His glory. The Holy Spirit wrote through
the Apostle Paul, for we are not as many which corrupt the
word of God, but as sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of
God, Speak we in Christ. We don't try to corrupt. You
know, I've made mistakes. Have you ever had Jonah swallow
the whale? Have you ever made mistakes in
quoting the Word of God? Of course. I have. But it was a mistake of my frailty. and not an intention to make
people join with me on an error. I'm thankful that we can have
things corrected. Even on sermon audio, things
can be corrected. We make a mistake, it can be
corrected because that's not what we intended. And it wasn't
the devil that made it come out of our mouth. It's our frailty. It's our flesh. I imagine there was a whole bunch
of folks in the churches of Galatia that wished they had had Zerubbabel
and Jeshua to tell the insurgents, stop. Would you turn with me
to the book of Galatians chapter 1? In Galatians chapter 1, we
have the Apostle Paul writing to a group of folks that he had
ministered unto. He administered rightly. He had
preached the grace of God to them. He had preached that salvation
is by Christ alone. He had preached that this is
only of God, salvation is of the Lord. And here in the book
of Galatians chapter 1 verse 6 and 7, he writes back to them
after leaving them for a while, he says, I marvel. Now, that
could be positive or that could be negative. I marvel. How great it's going over there.
God has truly been blessing you. But, he writes, I marvel that
ye are so soon removed from him. Now, I wish they'd have capitalized
that H-I-M there. I marvel that you are so soon
removed from him. That's the crux of the matter. I imagine that there were folks
there that wished they'd had Zerubbabel and Jeshua and those
other men of faith that said, you don't have any part with
us here. Please, back off. But there were insurgents that
came in, just like they followed the apostle Paul. He preached
the gospel, people were saved, and they'd come along and say,
you know, Paul is really correct on everything but this one point.
and that is you've got to work. What would you do if you were
told you were not baptized? What would that do to you? I hope nothing. What would happen if you never
were allowed to take communion service again? I hope nothing. What would you do if you were
never allowed to do anything for anybody again? I hope nothing. I hope it wouldn't
change a whit. Now we're thankful that God has
permitted us to be baptized, and we're thankful that we do
get to take communion from time to time, and we're thankful that
we get to serve him in those capacities. But if those things
are what we're hanging to, then we're in trouble. We don't have the right thing
to hang on to. Paul wrote to those, he says,
I marvel in verse six of chapter one of Galatians, so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ. What a marvelous thing that God
would take the time to call us into the grace of Christ. The
unmerited favor of Christ. That we would be called out of
this world into Christ. That we would be called from
darkness into His marvelous light. That He would take the time to
come by us in our lifetime somewhere. And allow us to hear the gospel
and raise us from the spiritual dead. That He would do that.
You know, before He went down to Sodom and Gomorrah. Before
he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, you know what he did? He went
down there and witnessed what was going on through his angels. And before he ever destroys this
world, what did he do? He came down as the God-man. He didn't send someone else.
He sent prophets all through the Old Testament, but in this
day, in these last days, he has sent his only begotten son to
come down to this world and see the calamity that we're in. What
did he do as a result of that? Not as a result, it's all purposed,
but he went to the cross to take care of the problem of all his
people's sin. You know what? That allows us
to hear what Paul writes to these folks. You've been removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ. Oh, to be called
into the grace of Christ. Then it goes on, onto another gospel. Paul is quick to say, which is
not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. There were a whole bunch of folks
that came up that day, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, those elders, and all
the folks were out there in the sun working on building that
foundation for that temple, and they came up and said, we got
some big guys over here. We don't use oxen, we got these
guys to plow fields for us. And they would really be able
to help you lay those temple stones. And we got these guys,
they have worked and worked and worked. And if you just let us
come in, no, we want to come in and help you. And you know
it took a lot of guts, intestinal fortitude, on behalf of Zerubbabel
and Joshua and those other folks to say, and stop them from coming in
and corrupting the gospel of Jesus Christ and saying, no,
we will not. Now, if you want to come up and
sit right there in that chair and watch us build and keep your
mouth quiet and maybe learn something, we'll be glad to have you. But
since you have these burly guys coming up and I know they can
press 300 pounds and they'd really be a lot of help to pushing these
stones around. The Lord Jesus Christ preached
a message one time and 5,000 men left instantly. You know what he did? Nothing. He didn't go after him and says,
''What can we do to make an agreement here so you'll stay with us?''
He just let him go because their interest was in physical bread
and he was the one that gave the spiritual bread. They got
offended over his very gracious words. So we're going to find
out here in the Book of Ezra that these guys know how to write.
And they're going to write a letter and send it by post over to Babylon,
to the king. And he's going to write back
and say, you know, the records say these guys are really have
been obnoxious folks and we're going to stop it. But next week
we want to look at these folks in a letter and they found in
the records that Cyrus wrote a note. They're to build the
temple unto their God. Sometimes we just have to get
back to basics. Go back to the basics, and they got the word,
and the building started to commence again. We may have shallow times,
but don't give up the basics. Grace of God, that's all. Brother Mike.