Those of you who are married, you know that in order to have a good relationship, there's going to have to be compromise. There is no relationship without compromise. But here in this passage of scripture, we read where Zerubbabel and Joshua refused to compromise, refused to find a common ground because they said there is no common ground. I've entitled this message, Nothing in Common.

Now, when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin, the enemies, this is what they were. They were opposed to Judah and Benjamin. They were opposed to the temple being built. They were opposed to the walls going up. Now, when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity, that's the Jews who were brought into Babylon, builded up the temple unto the Lord God of Israel. Now, remember these people were enemies. Scripture says that. They were enemies.

Then they came to Zerubbabel and to the chief of the fathers and saying to them, let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do. And we've been sacrificed unto him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, which brought us up hither. Now they were adversaries, they were enemies, yet they said, we want to help. we're worshiping the same God, we have the same goals, we have the same objectives, we sacrifice to this God just like you do. But after they got this no from Zerubbabel and Joshua, look what they did, then the people of the land, after They refused cooperation.

Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in building, and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even to the reign of Darius, the king of Persia." Now, they spent 15 years, that's how long passes in verses four and five, they spent 15 years trying to pose them, trying to trouble them in building this temple. Now, who were these people who were adversaries?

Well, turn to 2 Kings chapter 17, he refers to this. They said, for we seek your God as you do, and we do sacrifice unto him ever since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria. Now, 2 Kings 17, here's what took place. Verse 22, for the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which he did, And they departed not from them until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by his servants the prophets.

So Israel was carried away out of their land to Assyria unto this day. And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthoth, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Shepharathim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. And they possessed Samaria and dwelt it in the cities thereof. Now the children of Israel were moved out. The king of Assyria moved some men back in to take possession of these cities.

And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there that they feared not the Lord. They had no fear of God. Therefore, the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them." Now, can you imagine how terrifying that would be? To have lions coming into the community and killing people? That'd be scary. And the Lord had this take place.

Verse 26, wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed and placed in the cities of Samaria know not the manner of the God of this land. Therefore he hath sent lions among them, and behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.

We're in trouble because we don't know how to worship this God. He's talking about the God of the Bible. We're completely ignorant of this, that he sent lions killing us. What are we supposed to do? We don't know the God of the land. They didn't realize he was the God of heaven and earth, the only one living and true God. They just thought he was a regional God. We need to know how to please this God.

Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence, and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. a true Levite, a priest of the Levites. Let him come and teach you all how this, as they saw, regional God needs to be worshiped. Then, verse 28, one of the priests whom they carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord. How be it? And that known as Lord's Jehovah, Jehovah.

Howbeit, every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places, with the Samaritans, and made every nation in their cities which they dwelt. And the men of Babylon made Sukkoth, and the men of Kuth made Nergal, and the men of Holoth, made Asima, these are all different gods, and the Abbots made Nibhaz and Tardis, and the Seraphites burnt their children in the fire to a Drammelech, and Amalek, the gods of the Sephirothim, all these different gods, they actually were sacrificing their children to these gods. So they feared the Lord and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places."

Now, this is where the Samaritans come from. They were not true Jews. They were transplanted back into Samaria, and they feared God and served their own gods. You can't do that, but they gave it a shot. Verse 33, they feared the Lord and served their own gods after the manner of the nations, which they carried away from them. And to this day, they do after the former manners.

They feared not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes or after their ordinances or after the law and the commandment, which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel, with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them saying, you shall not fear other gods, nor buy yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them. But the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall you fear, and him shall you worship, and to him shall you do sacrifice. And the statutes and the ordinance and the law and the commandment which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do forevermore, and you shall not fear other gods. And the covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, neither shall you fear other gods. But the Lord your God you shall fear, and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies, howbeit They didn't hearken.

But they did that to their former manner, so these nations feared the Lord and served their graven images. Both their children and their children's children, as they did their fathers, so do they to this day. Now, these people had what's called a pluralistic religion, plural. Different religions. All valuable. We can fear God and fear the other gods. They believed there was truth in both of them. The outstanding word in this passage of Scripture I read is the word and.

Look in verse 32, so they feared the Lord and made unto themselves the lowest of them. Priests of the high places would sacrifice for them in the house of the high places. They feared the Lord and served their own gods. Verse 41, so these nations feared the Lord and served their graven images. Now, these people were okay with the scriptures. What they objected to was the scriptures alone being the only source of truth.

There is no other source of truth in the Bible. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. I love what Peter said, the word of God's not up to any man's private interpretation. Somebody says, here's my interpretation. Nobody's interested in what your interpretation is. What does the Bible say? The scriptures is of no private interpretation.

For it came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now they would, there's some good in that book, but they had their books too. And they found truth in both. Now we are fine with Christ being saved by Christ, and not Christ alone, Christ and. We believe in faith just like you do. And, it's the introduction of the word and.

We believe in salvation by grace, but they didn't believe in salvation by grace alone. You know, even the whale spit at Jonah when he said, salvation's of the Lord. That's what people don't like. Scriptures alone, Christ alone, grace alone, faith alone, the glory of God alone.

Let's go back to our text in Ezra. Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity built of the temple under the Lord God of Israel, then they came to Zerubbabel and to the chief of the fathers and said to them, let us build with you. For we seek your God as you do. And we do sacrifice unto him since the days of this fellow that brought us in here, the king of Assyria. They sent a priest and taught us how to worship God. We do exactly what you do.

Now I want us to notice the difference between the language of verse 2 and verse 3. He said, we seek your God as you do. But look what Zerubbabel and Joshua say, but Zerubbabel And Joshua and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said unto him, you have nothing to do with us to build a house unto our God, but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel. Verse two, you read of God. Everybody's got a God. Verse three, we read of the Lord God of Israel, Jehovah God of Israel. Israel. So they say, we do not want your help.

Now, I can remember reading that. The first time I ran across that, I thought, well, you know, that seems kind of prejudiced. That seems kind of bigoted. That seems kind of non-inclusive, even mean-spirited and hard-hearted. We don't want to make any collaboration with you on anything. We don't want to work with you. We have nothing in common. We have a different God, and we have no desire for your help. Now, when I first read that, I thought, well, if somebody says, we want to help you, and you say, we don't want your help, that almost seems rude, doesn't it?

So what is the issue here? The issue is works and grace. The issue is the living God and a false God. The issue is Christ and or Christ alone. And that's why they said we don't want to have anything to do with you. When and where you have grace and, you don't have grace at all. And like I said, the big difference between verse two and three is found in their name of God. They said, we serve your God like you do. We've learned about him and we know how to offer sacrifices. Your priest taught us, we serve your God. But Joshua and Zerubbabel speak of the Lord God of Israel, Jehovah.

Oh, His name is so important. You know, it just seems like it's been the last few months that I've had some understanding of this thing of, not that I have much understanding of, but His personal name Jehovah. Jehovah is taken out of I am that I am. Jehovah means the self-existent One. And all of His attributes flow out of His self-existence. Every single one of them. That's why His name is so important. They left out this name.

He's self-dependent, self-sufficient, he exists. from himself into beings or nothing outside of himself or existence, the self-existent one. And that's why he's sovereign, he's self-existent. That's why he's all-powerful, he's self-existent. That's why he's all-wise, he's self-existent. That's why he knows everything, he's self-existent. That's why he's omnipresent, you can't go anywhere where he's not because he's self-existent, the self-existent one.

The Lord, Jehovah, God, Elohim, The plural of God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the God of Israel. That's the God we worship. Different gods, we have nothing in common. Now, these people believed in God, but they didn't believe in the Lord God of Israel, and that's why it's irrevocable.

And Joshua said, we have nothing to do with you. We have nothing in common. We don't need, we don't want your help. We're preaching a different message where you have a different God. Our God is the living God, the God of the Bible. You don't even know who he is.

Now, That attitude comes from love to the living God. It wasn't prejudice. It wasn't being narrow-minded. It wasn't being bigoted. It came from love to the living God. Now, we have nothing in common with your God. And I love to think of the gospel, the truth of the gospel, in that you put one and the other, they have nothing in common. God is either absolutely sovereign, or He's not sovereign at all. There's no in between. There's nothing else.

God either elected a people, and that means salvation's of the Lord. That means He did it all. The issue of election's grace. He did it all, or He didn't elect people, and salvation's dependent upon man. One puts salvation dependent upon God, the other salvation dependent upon man. Christ Jesus, he either finished salvation or he didn't finish it and it's up to man to finish it. But there's nothing in common between those two views. When he said it is finished, my salvation was accomplished. If there's something I have to do, he didn't finish it and I will not be saved.

I am sure of that. God's grace, can either be resisted or it can't be resisted. One of those two things. There's no common ground. There's no in between. God's grace either saves, it can't be resisted, or man can be resisted. Man actually has power over God and can thwart God's will. You see, there's nothing in common. We're talking about two totally different gods. One non-existent God and one, the God of the Bible. no blending of the work of the Holy Spirit.

There's the new nature and the old nature, not two blended into one. That cannot be. That's confounding the work of God, the Holy Spirit. How can two walk together except they be agreed? They can't. They can't. We do not want your help. So how did they respond?

Verse 4 of Ezra chapter 4. Then the people of the land, these people who serve God and their gods, who sacrifice to supposedly the living God and their gods, the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in building and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even unto the reign of Darius, king of Persia. Now this verses four and five cover a 15 year period, nothing's ever easy. There will always be opposition. And you can just write that down. There will always be opposition to the gospel. Verse six, and in the reign of Ahasuerus, if you read the book of Esther, he was the king during the book of Esther.

And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of the reign, wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. They were trying to get this building stopped. And in the days of Artaxerxes, wrote Bishlon, Mithridim, table unto Artaxerxes, king of Persia. And the writing of the letter was written in the Syrian tongue and interpreted in the Syrian tongue. The chancellor and Shemshai, the scribe, wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes, the king, in this sort. Now here's the letter they wrote to try to stop this building. Then wrote Rehoboam, the chancellor, and Shemshai, the scribe, and the rest of their companions, and the Asphorites, and the Archivites, and the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, and a bunch of people, right?

A bunch of people. They're even hard to say their name. I'm sitting here thinking, somebody's saying, can you do any better than that? You try it. And the rest of the nations, this is everybody, was gathered together against the children of Israel, whom the great and noble Osnabr brought over and set in the cities of Samaria, and the rest that are on this side of the river at such a time."

Now, these are the people that were transplanted into Jerusalem and were totally opposed to the building of the temple. Now, listen to the letter. This is the copy of the letter that they sent unto him, even to Artaxerxes, the king. by servants, to be on this side of the river. And at such a time, be it known unto the king that the Jews, which came up from thee to us, are coming to Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations." Now this place has a reputation. They're rebellious and they're bad. They're evil. There was a reason we took this place down. There was a reason it was leveled because they caused nothing but trouble.

Let's go on reading this chapter. Be it known unto the king that if this city be builded up and the wall set up again, they'll not pay toll. Tribute and custom. You're going to lose a lot of money out of this. They're going to think they're protected, and they won't pay you the money that you have coming to you. That's what's going to happen if you let this take place. They appeal to his self-interest. This is going to come out of your wallet. And so they should endamage the revenue of the kings. They'll take money from you.

Verse 14, now because we have maintenance from the king's palace, we know you're the one who supports us and we want to please you. We're on your side. Now because we have maintenance from the king's palace and it was not meet for us to see the king's dishonor, therefore have we sent and certified the king that search may be made in the book of the records of thy fathers. So shall thou find in the book of the records and know that this city is a rebellious city. and hurtful unto the kings and provinces, and that they have moved sedition within the same of old time, for the which cause this city was destroyed."

There was a reason it was leveled. These people caused nothing but trouble, and it's going to be nothing but trouble to you, and it's going to cost you a lot of money if you let them rebuild the walls and rebuild the temple. We certify the king that if this city be built again, and the walls they have set up, by this means they shall have no portion on this side of the river. You won't get any money from them at all. and answer under Rahun, the chancellor, and Shemshai, the scribe, and the rest of the companions that dwelt in Samaria, and under the rest beyond the river, peace.

And at such a time, the letter which you sent unto us had been plainly read before me, and I commanded, and search had been made, and it's found that this city of old hath made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and sedition had been made therein.

Everything you're saying is true. We've read the history books. And there have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem. I'm talking about David and Solomon and Hezekiah, Josiah. Mighty kings. I love that scripture where it speaks of David. The fear of David came upon every nation. He was the most feared man in the world, and this was Israel at this time.

If you let them build the walls back up, we're going to have this problem again. And they're movers of sedition. They cause nothing but trouble, insurrection, rebellion. They don't conform to our ways. They refuse to conform to our ways. They refuse to acknowledge our gods. They're divisive. They do nothing but bring trouble.

There have been mighty kings, verse 20, over Jerusalem, which have ruled over all countries beyond the river, and told them tributes and customs was paid unto them. They were the ones getting the taxes, and it will be that way again. Give you now a commandment to cause these men to cease, that this city be not builded until another commandment shall be given from me. Take heed, now that you fail not to do this, why should damage grow to the herd of the kings? All you're going to do is hurt yourself if you allow this building to go on. Now, when the copy of King Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehom and Shemshi the scribe and their companions, oh, how they rejoiced.

They went up in haste to Jerusalem under the Jews and made them to cease by force and power. They brought armies in to put a stop to this. God intended for it to take place, and these men somehow get it to stop. As a matter of fact, it stops for 15 years. God told them to do this. They started. They ran into trouble. Evidently, they shouldn't have stopped, but they did stop. For 15 years, this construction event was over. Then ceased the work of the house of God, which is of Jerusalem. So it ceased into the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia.

Now it is going to continue. You see, God's purpose is never frustrated. His will is always done. And we're going to meet trouble We're going to meet more trouble. We're going to meet more trouble. That's all they had. God had ordained for this to take place, but they met trouble. They were made for a while to quit.

Now I'd like us to look at something that was very similar in the New Testament. Will you turn with me to Acts chapter 24? And remember how they hired counselors to go against them and they even had somebody compose a letter to bring it in to the king. Now look here in Acts chapter 24. And after five days, Ananias, the high priest, descended with the elders and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul.

That's the same thing that was taking place in this chapter in Ezra. And when he was called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, seeing that by thee we enjoy great kindness and quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence.

Boy, he's really sucking up here, isn't he? Talking about his providence and so on. We accept it always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. Oh, we're so thankful that you're such a wise, kind, benevolent, generous ruler and you've done us nothing but good. Boy, he's buttering him up. Notwithstanding, that I be not further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldst hear us of thy clemency a few words.

For we have found this man a pest. A pestilent fellow, a disease. The way they were talking about the children of Israel, the exact same thing. We found him a pest, a mover of sedition among the Jews. He doesn't bring people together, he divides. He sets people at odds with one another. He doesn't try to find a common ground. He's a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He's a sect leader. Who else would have gone about to profane the temple?

Whom we took and would have judged according to our law, but the chief captain Lysias came upon us and with great violence took him away out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come unto thee, by examining of whom thou thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things wherever we accuse it.

And the Jews also assembled, saying, these things are so. I can just see the crowd saying amen to everything he said. It's all true. Then Paul. after the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself.

Because that thou mayest understand that there are yet but 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem for worship, and they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues nor in the city. Neither can they prove the things where they accused me of. All these accusations are false.

But this I confess to thee. I plead guilty. These other things, I didn't do them. But here is where I am pleading guilty, guilty as charged. After the way which they call heresy, a sect, error, evil, wrong, untrue to the scripture, after the way which they call heresy.

Now, what is that way? Didn't Christ say, I am the way that excludes all other ways? Christ is the way of peace. The only way God will be at peace with me is for Jesus Christ to make my peace before God, which He did when He made peace by the blood of His cross. And the only thing that gives me peace is that all God requires of me, I have without respect to anything I've ever done. It's because the Lord Jesus Christ and the glory of His person put away my sin.

He is the way of righteousness. The only righteousness there is, is His righteousness, His perfect obedience, His law-keeping. I can't be saved by my own righteousness. If I got to stand before God in my own righteousness, I'll be cast off. The only way I can be saved is if His law-keeping, His actual righteousness becomes mine. To where I'm saved by the law-keeping of somebody else, but He did it in such a way where His law-keeping becomes my law-keeping. And I make the very righteousness of God.

This is the way of grace. Salvation by grace. Not by words, not by what I do, not by what I think. Salvation by grace. This is the way I worship. You see, the issue is worship. This is always the issue. Worship. Bowing down before God as he is, worshiping for who he is.

And the only way a man worships God is by faith in Christ. There is no other worship. If you look right now to Christ alone as your only grounds of acceptance before God, that's worship. Now if you don't, you have no reverence for God, you have no respect for God, you have no regard to His glory, you have no fear of God. The fear of God is to look to Christ only. Now this is the issue. What they're accusing me of, heresy.

What do I do? Verse 14, but this I confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresy, the way of Christ, the way of grace, the way of faith, So worship I, the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets. I believe everything in this book. And by the grace of God, my mind is going to be conformed to whatever God says in this book. Now, they call it heresy. That's how I worship the God of my fathers. Verse 15, I have hope toward God. Which they themselves also allow. They say they have hope in God. Well, I have hope in God.

And that there shall be a resurrection of the dead. both of the just and the unjust. Now, I love to think of the resurrection of the dead. All the gospel is founded in Christ's resurrection. He really died and He was raised from the dead. And there's going to be a future resurrection of two people, the just and the unjust.

Every believer is called just. Just before God. That's what Lot was called. You know, we give Lot a hard time. You look at the way he lived, but how does God the Holy Spirit refer to him? Just Lot, that righteous man. Every believer is just before God, righteous before God, sinless before God. Who are these people? The people Christ died for. That's what he accomplished for them. And there's gonna be a resurrection of the just and the unjust. Who are the unjust? Everybody that doesn't believe the gospel. They're unjust before God, unclean, nothing but sin.

And herein, verse 16, do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. Now, I used to read that verse of Scripture. I thought, well, how do you come up with that to where you're gonna have a conscience that tells you that I've never offended man or God, everything's been good. You know, the only way you do that is by preaching the gospel. It's only preaching the gospel, it's only the message of the gospel that makes a conscience void of offense toward God or man. Preaching his gospel, you're doing the best thing for man, and you're doing what God requires.

Now after many years I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings were upon certain Jews from Asia, found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude nor with tumult, who ought to have been here before thee, and object if they had ought against me, or else they Let these here say if they found any evil doing in me while I stood before the council except to be for this one voice that I cried standing among men touching the resurrection of the dead, I'm called into question by you this day.

Now that is the issue. You know, everything's the issue that's true. But right here, what's the issue? The resurrection of the dead. When Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, guess who else was raised? Everybody he represented. He was delivered for our offenses. He was raised again for our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he knew something of that way, he deferred them and said, when Lysias, the chief captain, shall come down, I'll know the uttermost of your matter. And he commanded the centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty, that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come to him. And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, who was a Jewess, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ, and as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." Now, there is a summary of the gospel. Righteousness, the work of Christ for you. temperance, the work of Christ in you, and the judgment that is to come.

Felix trembled and answered, go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient season, I'll call for thee. He hoped that also the money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him. Wherefore, he sent for him the author and communed with him. But after two years, Porteous Festus came into Felix's room and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.

But you see that Paul was accused of the same things that the people building the wall were. He's a mover of dissension. He causes sedition. He causes insurrection. He causes nothing but problems. I want to be a good citizen. I want to be a good friend. But I want to be hated by the religious world just like Paul was.

For my maintaining of his truth, may the Lord enable you and I to have this blessed privilege of being persecuted for righteousness' sake, standing for the righteousness of Jesus Christ as the only righteousness God will accept. May the Lord enable us to do so. Let's pray together. Lord, enable us to have such an understanding of your gospel that when people come with other gospels and want to collaborate and cooperate, we'll be enabled to say we have nothing in common. Lord, give us wisdom to do this. Deliver us from being Proud and arrogant cause us to be lowly, meek, and humble, but enable us to stand firm for thy gospel, just like Zerubbabel, just like Joshua and the people building the walls did in that day. Bless us for Christ's sake. In his name we pray. Amen.