As a pastor, I usually have two
messages for Sunday that I want everyone to hear. And I know
that there's going to be more people here on Sunday morning
as a general rule than Sunday evening. And so that's a dilemma
sometimes. But I am thankful for those of
you who are believers who see the necessity of being in worship
services both times on Sunday, both Sunday morning and Sunday
evening. This is the Lord's Day. We know
that. And all of it is the Lord's day,
not just the morning, but the evening as well. Now, if you
will, here in Ezra chapter four, I want to read the first three
verses. Now, when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that
the children of the captivity built the temple unto the Lord
God of Israel, then they came to Zerubbabel and to the chief
of the fathers and said unto them, let us build with you,
for we seek your God as you, and we do sacrifice unto him
since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, which brought
us up hither. But Zerubbabel and Joshua, I
think that's Joshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers
of Israel said unto them, 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 as King Cyrus, the king of Persia,
hath commanded us. Let me remind us that the book
of Ezra gives a history of the Jews coming back after 70 years
in Babylon, 70 years in captivity in Babylon, and they've come
back now to build the temple unto the Lord God of Israel. The great kingdom of Babylon,
a mighty kingdom, had fallen. Babylon conquered Jerusalem,
the Jews, and carried them off into captivity. But now, the
tables have turned, and Babylon has been defeated in battle,
and Assyria, the Persians, are now reigning over what was then,
of course, the Middle East. You know, the kingdom of Persia,
replaced the kingdom of Babylon. Then the kingdom of Persia fell,
and the Greeks, Alexander the Great, he replaced the kingdom
of Persia. Then the kingdom of Greece was
divided upon Alexander's death into four parts, and the Roman
Empire came to be the ruling power in the world at that time.
And this was all foretold in a dream, a dream that God gave
to Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar, of course, was
the king of Babylon. He's the one who had defeated,
his armies had defeated the Jews and taken, burned Jerusalem,
destroyed the temple, and taken those into captivity. Look with
me, keep your places here, but turn over into the book of Daniel
just a moment. Nebuchadnezzar, as I said, he
had a dream and Daniel interpreted the dream to him. Of course,
Daniel confessed immediately that it wasn't because he was
able in himself to interpret dreams. It was God who gave him
the ability and gave him the wisdom to do what he did. But
here in Daniel 2, verse 31, Daniel is speaking to King Nebuchadnezzar. And as I said, he's relating
what's going to take place. You have Babylon, Persia, Greece,
and then the Romans, these empires. Thou, O King, sawest, and behold,
a great image This great image, whose brightness was excellent,
stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. This image's
head was of fine gold. That stood for Nebuchadnezzar
and the kingdom of Babylon. Fine gold. His breast and his
arms of silver. This pictured the kingdom of
Persia. And by the way, Persia, is Iran
today. Iran is what the kingdom of Persia
was. And I commented to my wife this
past week, isn't it amazing how much the Iranians hate the Jews,
the hatred that is there. Of all the countries around Israel
there in the Middle East, it seems like Iran is, I mean, they're
calling for the complete destruction. of Israel. That's what they want.
There's such a hatred for the Jews among the Persians, the
Iranians. But let's continue on. The imager's
head was a fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly
and his thighs of brass. This is a kingdom of Greece.
Alexander the Great His legs of iron, his feet part of iron
and part of clay. Now that's the pictures of the
Roman Empire. Now watch this. Thou sawest Nebuchadnezzar
in your dream. You saw this great image. Thou
sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands. Who is
the stone? A stone of stumbling? A stone
upon which the church is built, a living stone. It's Christ,
of course. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. You
saw in your dream until a stone, and notice it's cut out without
hands. That pictures to us our Lord,
His birth, His miraculous birth without the help of man. The Holy Spirit came upon Mary
and That holy thing which was born of her is called the Son
of God. This stone was cut out without
hands, which smote the image under his feet that were of iron
and clay and break them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay,
the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together
and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away,
that no place was found for them, and the stone that smote the
image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. We're
talking about Christ and his kingdom. Now it smote those kingdoms,
and isn't it Interesting to see that these great powers, these
world powers that rule for 100, 200, some of them longer, some
of them a shorter time, but they become like the chaff, which
the wind just drives away. That's the kingdoms of this world.
Well, look down further in that chapter to verse 44. And in the days of these kings,
those kings that are mentioned, those kingdoms that were mentioned
there, in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up
a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall
not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces
and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever. The kingdom of God. the kingdom
of heaven, as it is also called by the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord our God is a mighty God, a God who reigns over all of
his creation. He reigns over the armies of
heaven and the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? In Psalm 97 in verse
one, we read, the Lord reigneth, The Lord reigneth. Who's reigning
tonight? Who's in control of this world?
The Lord is. It's His world. He created it. And He didn't wind it up like
an alarm clock and just let it run until the winding has ended
and then it stops. No, God is in control. Our Lord said, He worketh hitherto
and I work. In other words, God is still,
He's in His creation upholding all things by the word of His
power. The Lord reigneth. And the next
statement is, let the earth rejoice. You and I tonight, as God's children,
if we know Him as our Savior, as our Lord, let the earth rejoice. Rejoice that your Father, your
Father, He reigns. He rules in this world. He makes
all things work together for your good if you love Him and
are one who is called according to His purpose. The Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice. Let the
multitude of the Isles be glad thereof. Now, when the Israelites
spoke of the Isles, they're usually speaking of the Gentile world.
Yes, not only the Jews, not only the nation of Israel should rejoice
that the Lord reigneth, but even Gentile believers. That kingdom
that the stone, which was cut out without hands, the kingdom
that he set up, it is forever. It's not like those kingdoms
that were here today and were gone tomorrow. No, his kingdom
is forever. We sang that in the words to
that hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God. I believe those were
the last words on that fourth verse. His kingdom is forever. It's forever. Aren't you thankful
tonight to be a part of his kingdom? If you're one of his children.
And he's your king. Every kingdom has a king. And
he's your king. He's my king. I want him to be
my king, don't you? I want him to rule in my life,
reign in my life. Absolutely. Well, let's go back
to Ezra now. And on our way back there, I
want to mention this verse. We're familiar with it, it's
in Proverbs 21 in verse 1. It says, The king's heart is
in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. That means these Prime Ministers
and Presidents and Speaker of the House and Majority Leader
in the Senate and whatever form of government a country may have. Their heart is in the hand of
the Lord. And He turns it. That is their
thinking. He turns it. Withersoever He will. Now look
in chapter 1. We have an illustration. Ezra
chapter 1. an illustration of this very
thing. Ezra chapter one, and we'll read
verses one and two. Now, in the first year of Cyrus,
king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah
might be fulfilled. What was that word by the mouth
of Jeremiah? It was that they would be 70
years in captivity. Now here's a man, think about
it, when Jeremiah spoke that prophecy, Jerusalem had not yet
fallen, but the Babylonians would come and conquer and destroy,
and then 70 years they would be in captivity, but Jeremiah,
that his words, the word of God would be fulfilled. The Lord
stirred up. Here's this king, Cyrus by name. He didn't just, of his own accord,
just think one day, you know what I think I'll do? I'll have
that house of God constructed over there in Jerusalem. He did
say that, but what happened first? The Lord stirred up his spirit.
The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. The Lord stirred
up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia. But he made a proclamation
throughout all his kingdom, and that was a great kingdom. He
ruled over, as I said, most of the provinces and countries in
the world there in that time. Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia,
the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth,
And he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which
is in Judah. And you see, it's not just the
king's heart that God stirs up. It's not just the king's heart
that is in the hand of the Lord. Yes, his heart was in the hand
of the Lord and God stirred up his heart and he gave this proclamation. But notice the next verses, verse
three through five. Who is there among you of all
his people? His God be with him, and let
him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house
of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any
place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him
with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts,
beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is
in Jerusalem. Then rose up the chief of the
fathers of Judah, and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites,
and notice this, with all them whose spirit God had raised. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. Cyrus gives a command, a proclamation. But who goes with him? Who has
a desire to go to build the temple there in Jerusalem? As many as
the Lord stirred up. That's what we see here. left and the Levites with all
whose spirit God had raised to go up to build the house of the
Lord, which is in Jerusalem. This is an example. Now, before
I continue with the message, let me point this out. This is
a very good example of what we call a general call and a particular
call. a general call, and an effectual
call. The proclamation is given, anyone,
everyone, whosoever. I believe we could write that
word, whosoever, in verse three. It begins, who is there among
you? Whosoever. We could put that there, whosoever. But then we see who the whosoevers
are. When I stand and preach, when
you witness and testify to others, we give out a general call. We saw that in the passage I
read this morning in Revelation. The bride says, come. The spirit
says, come. Let everyone that is a thirst
come. Come to the waters. It's what
we call a general call. Everywhere the gospel is preached,
and I believe not even, that doesn't, exclude other ways that
God may testify to man in general. There's a general call, whosoever
will, let him take of the water of life freely. That's what Cyrus
gave a proclamation, whosoever among you who wants to go back,
go back. But who are the whosoevers? They're those whose spirit the
Lord stirs up. You see that? What an illustration,
right? What an example. When we say
that salvation is of the Lord, it's of the Lord in its application
as well as its planning and purchasing. Now the number. I preached several
weeks, I think about a year, maybe two years ago, and I preached
several messages from the book of Ezra. And I went through chapter
two, and I added up every one it says that went back. For instance,
in verse six, we see 2,812. Verse seven, 1,250. I went through
that whole chapter with my calculator, added up How many actually went back? And the number was small. The
number was small. When you think about Israel entering
into the land of Canaan when Moses delivered them out of Egypt,
think of a nation that was over a million strong. And now when
they're given the opportunity to go back out of captivity,
the number is very small. People were content. They had
been in captivity. They had built houses, and they
were told to do that, to build houses, because you're going
to be there a while. And, you know, that got Jeremiah
in trouble. He sent that message to the people
in captivity, and he said, build yourself houses and pray for
the prosperity of that country, because you're going to be there
a while. And, of course, the leaders didn't
like that. And that was another reason Jeremiah
suffered as a prophet of God. But very few of these people
went back. No doubt they'd opened up businesses.
They'd built them nice houses. And they didn't want to go back.
Had no desire to go back. The same thing is true about
salvation, isn't it? Salvation is free. The gospel
invitation is open. So many people have no hunger. I'm happy the way I am. Don't
bother me, preacher. Don't talk to me about eternity.
I'm pleased. My life is good just the way
it is. But my point is not many went
back. So when we come to our text,
now go back to chapter four. Here comes these people. They're not the Jews who have
come back, a small number, and they've got a great work. They're
charged with building a temple to the Lord God of heaven. Now
this temple, of course, will not be near like it was when
Solomon built it. They don't have the resources
that Solomon had. They don't have the gold. They
don't have the silver. They don't have the timber. They
don't have near the people that Solomon had when he built this
glorious temple unto the Lord, but they're charged to build
a temple, and they've come back to build a temple. And then in
our text, here comes these people along, and they say, let us build
with you. Let us build with you. Let us
help you build, verse two. Look at it there in chapter four,
verse two. Then they came to Zerubbabel
and to the chief of the fathers and said unto them, let us build
with you. Let us build with you. For we seek your God as you. And we do sacrifice unto him. So here these people come. And what a blessing to me as
I read verse three. Because Zerubbabel was a governor. He's a descendant of David. He's
of the tribe of Judah. He's a governor. He's a man that
we would say would be in authority, and Joshua is a high priest here.
But Zerubbabel, now they said, let us build with you. We sacrifice,
we seek your God, we sacrifice to him. But Zerubbabel and Joshua
and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel. This has
impressed me that there was a unity. It wasn't just Zerubbabel who
answers this, but no, it's a whole congregation. All the leaders
are in unity. And it didn't take them long
to give an answer either. You have nothing. You have nothing
to do with us to build a house under our God. In other words,
we don't want your help. Not only do we not want your
help, we're not going to accept your help. Now, think about the
situation they're in. A small minority, a big project,
people come and profess to seek their God and to sacrifice to
Him And they want to help. And the leaders and the people
of Israel said, we don't want your help. You're not going to
help us. You're not going to build this
temple. That was a temptation, no doubt, right? Well, who were
these people? I want to answer two questions
tonight. First of all, who were these
who offered their help to build the temple? and their help was
turned down, their help was denied. Well, look at the answer in verse
three. You have nothing to do with us
to build a house under our God, but we ourselves together will
build unto the Lord God of Israel as King Cyrus, the king of Persia,
hath commanded us. They were those, these people
who came and asked to help, they were those who the king of Assyria
had transplanted into the land of Canaan. I want you to turn
with me, if you will, to 2 Kings, back to 2 Kings chapter 17. In
2 Kings chapter 17, we won't read
the entire chapter, but In about 722 BC, about 720 years before
the Lord Jesus Christ was born, the northern kingdom, remember
after David died and Solomon died and then his son came to
the throne, there was a split and Judah and Benjamin was a
southern kingdom and the other 10 tribes made up the northern
kingdom, usually referred to as Israel. And the first king
they had, was named Jeroboam. And Jeroboam set up two calves,
one in Dan, one in Bethel, and said, behold your gods. He was
afraid that the Israelites, if they went back to Jerusalem to
worship, that they would forsake him as their king. And you read
through the history, you're talking about a man's example, a man's
influence. the northern kingdom, no matter
which king came to the throne, no matter if he was a from a
different family was set up, they never could escape from
the sins of Jeroboam. I never did. And the idolatry
that they were part of, of course, cause God to sell them to their
enemies. and they're carried away. They
were captured by Assyria. Let's look here in verse 22.
Well, the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam. There he is, the first king. They had a number of kings later,
old wicked Ahab and Jezebel. They had a lot of them, but they
could never escape the sins of Jeroboam. Until the Lord removed them,
removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants,
the prophets, so was Israel carried away out of their own land to
Assyria unto this day. And the king of Assyria, now
here's the people we're talking about, the king of Assyria brought
men from Babylon and from Kuthra and from Ava and from Hamath
and from Zephorim and placed them in the cities of Samaria
instead of the children of Israel. And they possessed Samaria and
dwelt in the cities thereof. Now this took place about, as
I said, 722 years before the Lord came into this world. And
it was several years, I believe, before Judah was taken into captivity,
into Babylon. So these people who came and
wanted to help, and they said, now we seek your God, we sacrifice
to him, let us build with you. No way, not gonna happen. These
people eventually become known as the Samaritans. Remember in
the Gospels how there was such a hatred between the Jews and
the Samaritans. So that's my first question.
Who were these people that wanted to help? They were people that
the king of Assyria had transplanted into the land. He removed Israel. He removed the nation of Israel,
and he brought these other people in. My second question is, what
was it about these people that caused their help to be refused? They professed that they They
sought God and they did sacrifice unto Him. Again, if you still
have your Bible open there to 2 Kings 17, look at verse 25. And so it was at the beginning
of their dwelling there, they feared not the Lord. Therefore,
the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them. 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 the land. Therefore, he has sent lions
among them, and behold, they slay them, because they know
not the manner of the God of the land. Then the king of Assyria
commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom you brought
from thence, and let them go and dwell there, and let him
teach them the manner of the God of the land. Then one of
the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt
in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. Howbeit,
every nation made gods of their own. and put them in the houses
of the high places, which the Samaritans had made every nation
in their cities wherein they dwelt. And the men of Babylon
made," notice these different gods that are named here, the
men of Babylon, Succoth-Benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal,
and the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Abites made Nibhaz and
Tartak, Zephyrites burned their children in the fire to Adramelech
and Anamelech, the gods of Sephiroth. So they feared the Lord and made
unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places,
which sacrifice for them in the houses of the high place. They feared the Lord, and serve
their own gods after the manner of the nations whom they carried
away from this. Let me hurriedly point four things
out that we see in that passage. Number one, they did not seek
the Lord. They profess now in Ezra's day,
we seek God, we seek him, but they didn't seek God because
they recognize that he's the only true God. that they had
a need, that they were sinful and needed to be reconciled unto
God. The only reason they sought the
Lord was because of the lines, the lines that God had sent among
them. And number two, the king of Assyria
sent a priest back to teach them, it says, the manner of the God
of that land. But that priest, he was a priest
He was not a priest of God. He was a priest who worshiped
those calves that Jeroboam had set up. When Jeroboam made those
two calves and said, behold your God, the scripture said he made
of the lowest of the people, priest. Number three, they're seeking
God allowed them to continue their false gods. They say they
seek the Lord, but they continue to worship their gods, their
false gods, their gods that they had known in their country. And number four, their seeking
God allowed them to sacrifice in the high places. In other
words, they were sacrificing to demons. Now you see why their help was
refused. Why, when they offered to help,
that the Israelites said, no, no, we're going to build this
house to the Lord our God. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, and that man is the man, Christ Jesus. God will accept no compromises. Our Lord said, Unless we deny
ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him, we cannot be
His disciples. Man-made religion will allow
a person to worship a multiplicity of gods. But true Christianity
declares in no uncertain terms there's one God, there's one
way to Him, and that is through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is
a problem that missionaries have had who've gone from our country
into some of the foreign countries and appealed to men to accept
Jesus as their savior. And their culture is such that
they wouldn't do anything to displease someone. And they agree,
oh yes, I'll accept Jesus. But what they do, they take Jesus. and place him on the shelf with
other gods. Now that doesn't work. Other
religions, as I've said, they will allow that. You can have
many gods. But the true God, the true faith,
demands worship to God and God alone. That's just the way it
is. And these Israelites, they recognize
these people, they don't have any part with us, even though
they profess that they sought God and sacrificed to Him. And in a way they did, but they
also sacrificed to demons. Well, I pray the Lord would bless
this word to us here this evening.