tonight, if you will, to Ezra
chapter 3. Ezra chapter 3, and let's read
verses 1 through 6. And when the seventh month was
come, and the children of Israel were in their cities, the people
gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. Then
stood up Jeshua the son of Josedach, and his brethren the priests,
and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel. his brethren, and builded the
altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings thereon,
as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. And they
set the altar upon his bases, for fear was upon them because
of the people of those countries. And they offered burnt offerings
thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening.
They kept also the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, and offered
the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom,
as the duty of every day required, and afterward offered the continual
burnt offering, both of the new moons and of all the set feasts
of the Lord that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly
offered a freewill offering unto the Lord. from the first day
of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto
the Lord. We'll stop our reading here.
I ended the message last Wednesday evening mentioning that there
was almost 50,000 people that returned with Ezra from Babylon
to Judea. Now we don't know how long it
took them to travel that far, We do learn later in the book
of Ezra in chapter seven that Ezra made a second trip from
Babylon to Jerusalem, which took four months. This trip, this
first trip may have taken longer because there were more people
in the company. They came to Jerusalem where
some settled and others settled throughout Judea. Now, the verses
that I read and the verses we are looking at tonight speak
to us of these two things. They speak to us of more than
these two things, but these two things I want to mention. They speak to us of the altar,
of the altar, and secondly, about the seventh month, the seventh
month in the year. First, the first thing they did
when they came back from Babylon was they built an altar. Notice that in verse two, we
read of the high priest Joshua and the civil leader Zerubbabel
and their brethren built the altar of God of Israel. Now, if you notice in verse six,
you've got to look at this. from the first day of the seventh
month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord. So that
tells us that if they began to offer burnt offerings unto the
Lord on the first day of the seventh month, the altar was
already built. That was the first thing that
they did when they came back from captivity. That is, they
built an altar. They knew As all believers know
from the Word of God, there is no approach, there is no worship
without a sacrifice. There's no coming to God apart
from a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice. And I want you, if you will,
to turn with me to a few places tonight. But number one, notice
the first thing, the very first thing that Noah did when he came
out of that ark, He built an altar. Look with me in Genesis
chapter 8. First thing that he did when
he came out of that ark, upon the ground that he and his family
were the only living survivors from the flood, the first thing
he did, if you look in chapter 8 of Genesis verses 20 and 21,
and Noah Well, let's look in verse 18. And Noah went forth, that is,
he went out of the ark, and his sons and his wife and his sons'
wives with him, and every beast, every creeping thing, every fowl,
and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth after their kinds,
went forth out of the ark, and, what's the first thing he does?
And Noah built an altar unto the Lord. And he took, notice
he took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl and offered
burnt offerings on the altar. And this is something I know
you've noticed this before, but we read, and the Lord smelled
a sweet savor. The word that's translated sweet
actually means rest, the Lord found rest in this sacrifice. Typically, of course, it typified
the sacrifice of Christ, but the Lord found rest in this,
this sacrifice, these sacrifices that Noah had offered unto the
Lord. And I know you're familiar with
this verse. Notice it says, and the Lord
smelled a sweet savor. In Ephesians chapter five and
verse two, the apostle Paul said, walk in love as Christ also hath
loved us, now listen, and hath given himself for us an offering
and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. That means that
God smelled a sweet savor of rest in the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Noah's sacrifice was only typical
of Christ's one sacrifice, which we know fully, absolutely, completely. What other word can I use? Satisfied the justice of God. That one sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ, it completely, absolutely, forever satisfied
the justice of God for his people. But the point is, the first thing
that Noah did when he came out of the ark, build an altar. Got
to approach God, got to worship God, and that's only through
a sacrifice. And the same did the Israelites
when they came back out of captivity into the land of Judea to Jerusalem. Notice this also, the first thing
Abraham did. Turn over to chapter 12, Genesis
chapter 12. When God called Abraham, told
him to get out from among his kinsmen, called him out of Ur
of the Chaldees, what's the first thing he does? Look in Genesis
12. Now the Lord had said unto Abram,
get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I
will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make
thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless
them that bless thee, curse him that curseth thee, and in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abraham departed
as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him. And Abram
was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
And Abram took Sarah his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and
all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that
they had gotten in Haran. And they went forth to go into
the land of Canaan. And into the land of Canaan they
came. And Abram passed through the
land unto the place of Sikkim, unto the plain of Morah, and
the Canaanite was in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram
and said, unto thy seed will I give this land. And there builded
he an altar unto the Lord. When the Lord called Abram and
told Abram that he would bless him and in his seed, We know
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. In his seed, all the families,
all the nations of the earth would be blessed. There's only
one Savior, right? For all the world, for all the
people in the world, there's only one Savior, and that is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether a person is born in China,
the USA, or Canada, or Australia, or no matter where, you know,
He's the one Savior. In thy seed, the Lord Jesus Christ,
shall all the families of the earth be blessed. But notice,
the first thing he did when he came into the land of Canaan,
he built an altar. Now, every time he moved, and
he moved around several times, what's the first thing he does?
He builds an altar. Look in chapter 12, verse 8. Then he removed from thence unto
a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having
Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built
an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord." Chapter
13, verse 8. I think I've got the wrong scripture
there, but when he moved again, he did the same thing. Let me
see. verse 18, chapter 13, verse 18. Then Abram removed his tent and
came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron and
built there an altar unto the Lord. We know that for any man,
any woman to approach and worship God, there are three things that
are necessary. We must have a priest, We must
have a sacrifice and we must have an altar. Now the scriptures
reveal unto us that the Lord Jesus Christ is all three. He's
our priest, he's our sacrifice, and he's our altar. Now these
Old Testament types, they all pictured Christ. He is our high
priest to bring us to God, to bring us to God. He is our sacrifice
to atone for all our sins, and He is our altar upon which His
sacrifice was offered. The Lord Jesus in the Gospels
showed that it was the altar that sanctified the gift. The Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself
a sacrifice, that is, His body bled and died But the altar was
his deity. And that's what gives efficacy
to the sacrifice. In fact, the scripture Paul said
in Acts chapter 20 that he purchased the church. God did. He purchased
the church with his own blood. Look with me in Hebrews chapter
13. I think I may have mentioned this recently about the fact
that we don't have an altar here in this church building. because
we don't have a priest. We have priests, all of us, all
believers are priests unto God and the sacrifices that we offer
are praise. The praise of our lips is a sacrifice
that we offer unto God. When we're singing here and praising
God, what are we doing? We are sacrificing unto God. We're all made priests. who loved
us and gave himself for us, the scripture said, and washed us
from our sins and made us kings and priests unto God. But here
in Hebrews chapter 13 and verses 9 and 10, the apostle said, be
not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. And look
at this next statement. This is so important, so important. For it is a good thing that the
heart be established with grace, and not with meats which have
not profited them that have been occupied therein. Your heart, as a believer, as
a child of God, will never be established if it's not established
by grace. You know, that term, a yo-yo
Christian. I don't know if you've ever heard
that. I used to hear that years ago. You know, you yo-yo, it's
down, it's up, it's down, it's up. And some believers, that's
the way they are. And the reason is they're not
established by grace. And they get up one morning thinking
that they're saved, believing they're saved. They get up the
next morning, maybe they've done something. They know, I didn't
please God. And so now they're lost. They
don't fully realize, or it hasn't really dawned on them the way
it should, that it's grace. It's grace in the beginning,
it's grace all along the way, and it's grace at the very end.
It's all of grace. Remember what Charles Spurgeon
said, I've told you this before, he said, if the Lord were to
carry him all the way and set him down one foot out of heaven
and say, now you make it on your own now. He said, I wouldn't
make it. It's all of grace. And the heart,
your heart, my heart, can only be established by grace when
we really see and know and believe and are convinced by the Spirit
of God, with the Word of God, that by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Now notice
the next verse, verse 10. We have an altar, we have an
altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Those Jewish people who profess
to be believers, but they wanted to hang on to this Old Testament
ritual, the temple and the worship that went with that. Paul says
they don't have any right to eat of this altar. We have an
altar and our altar is Christ. And that altar that was built
here in Ezra chapter three that we're looking at tonight, that
altar was like the altar, no doubt, maybe not as large, I'm
not sure about that, but still like the altar that God gave
Moses the instructions in the tabernacle. Now when I say I'm
not sure if it was the same size, we know that when Solomon built
the temple, everything was larger. Everything was larger than the
instruments in the tabernacle. And the altar that Solomon built
was large altar. I'm not sure about this, but
I know it pictured Christ. You know, the altar was made
of two substances, wasn't it? It was made of wood, incorruptible
wood, and brass, overlaid with brass, even as the Lord Jesus
Christ is both God and man. the wood picturing his manhood,
the brass picturing his deity, and brass is known for its hardness,
its endurance. And it had to be hard for the
fire to be burning on that altar. It was supposed to be burning
24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The fire was
never to go out on the altar. It pictured Christ had four horns,
didn't it? And a person could run and grab
hold of one of those horns. It was a refuge. Christ is our
refuge. As sinners, we run to him, lay
hold upon him, and we're safe. But outside of him, there is
no safety. The altar sanctified the sacrifice,
and it pictured the deity of Christ, which sanctified the
sacrifice of his his humanity, his body. Now, that's the first
thing, the altar. That's the first thing they did.
As far as I can see here in the Word of God, the first thing
they did, they built an altar. And that was right. They're going
to approach God, they're going to worship God, got to have an
altar. They had a priest, Joshua, the
high priest here. Now, the second thing I want
us to see concerns the seventh month. Notice back here in Ezra
chapter 3 verse 1, they obeyed the law concerning the seventh
month. Notice it says, and when the
seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were
in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man
to Jerusalem. Now according to the commentators,
the seventh month answers to parts of our months of September
and October to give us some idea of the time of the year. The
law that God gave through Moses, who is called here the man of
God. I like that, don't you? The man of God. What greater
word could ever be said about any of us here today? A woman
of God, a man of God. Moses, the man of God. But the
law that God gave through Moses, the man of God, the seventh month
was very special. Out of all the months of the
year, the seventh month was especially special to the law, to obey the
law. Now, I have four things I want
to point out about this, the seventh month. But the first
thing is, what was done in the seventh month was done all 11
months. That is, every day there was
two lambs which were offered in sacrifice. There was a morning
sacrifice and there was an evening sacrifice. In Numbers chapter
29, we read, Now this is that which thou shalt
offer upon the altar two lambs of the first year day by day
continually. One lamb every day in the morning
and one lamb every evening. The law, as I looked at this
this week, I thought the law kept this truth. before the Israelites,
and that is the need of a lamb and the blood of a lamb, the
sacrifice of a lamb, the blood of a lamb. The law kept that
before them because every day there was two sacrifice. That's according to the law.
Now, the second thing about this seventh month, the first day
of the month, and I want you to go back to Leviticus chapter
23 with me. Leviticus chapter 23, where we
have the various feasts mentioned. We're looking at the seventh
month, a special month, a special month according to the law. In
Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 24, we read, speak unto the children
of Israel saying, in the seventh month, in the first day of the
month, shall you have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets
and holy convocation. This was called the memorial
of the blowing of the trumpets. Now, no other month did they
do this, but on the first day of the seventh month, they had
a day set apart. Didn't matter if it was Thursday,
Monday, Tuesday, Sabbath, whatever. The first day of the month, it
was a special day in the seventh month, and they blew the trumpets. They blew the trumpets. Now,
some believe that this blowing of the trumpets was to put the
people in mind of the holy things during this month, because this
is just the first thing. They've got some more things
that are going to take place in this seventh month. But it
starts off with the blowing of the trumpets on that first day.
All right, look down to verse 24, Leviticus. I'm sorry, 27, 23 verse 27. So that's the first day of the
month. Now here's the, here's the 10th day of the month. Also
on the 10th day of this seventh month, there shall be a day of
atonement. Now, you know, you're familiar
with this. This day of Atonement was especially
special, wasn't it? That's the only day in the year
the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies. That's the
day the blood of the goat was taken in and sprinkled on the
mercy seat and before the mercy seat. Now this happened on the
10th day in the seventh month. Now we don't read about that,
we're not through here in Leviticus 23, but let me just say this.
We don't read about that here in Ezra chapter 3, because there
was no Holy of Holies. There was, the temple was not
built, they just come back. They built an altar, but there's
no place for the priest to go in. into a holy place and sprinkle
the blood. So we don't read about them doing
that when they came back, at this time at least, when Ezra
and them first came back. Now the next thing, verses 39
through 43 of Leviticus 23. So we've got the first day of
the month. We've got the 10th day of the
month. And now, we have the 15th day of the month. Also in the
15th day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the
fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven
days. On the first day shall be a Sabbath,
and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath. And you shall take
you on the first day of the buyers of goodly trees, branches of
palm trees, and buyers of thick trees and willows of the brook,
you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. And
you shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year.
It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall
celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths seven
days. All that are Israelites born
shall dwell in booths. that your generation, notice
this especially, that your generations may know that I made the children
of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the
land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. They were to take branches from
the trees and build themselves shelters, and they were to live
in those shelters for seven days. This Feast of Tabernacles, it's
called. And that's what we see here in
Ezra chapter 3. If you go back there to verse
4, Ezra chapter 3 and verse 4, they kept also the Feast of Tabernacles
as it is written. and offered the daily burn offerings
by number according to the custom as the duty of every day required. Now this feast lasted, as we
see, for seven days. I thought about this again. What
did this feast serve for? God made it plain. He wanted
them to continue this in their generations that the future generations,
the youngsters coming on, that they would know, he said, that
I am the one that delivered the children of Israel from Egypt.
Now, they would learn I am the one who guided them. I'm the
one who guided the children of Israel through the wilderness.
I'm the one who fed the children of Israel for 40 years. to learn
to depend upon God, to learn to trust in God as our guide
and as he who will supply all our needs as we go through this
world, as we go through this land as pilgrims to a better
land, the land of Canaan, heaven, the land that flows with milk
and honey. Of all the feasts, I believe
maybe this feast called for the most sacrifices. Let me give
you what they were to do. On the first day, they were to
offer 13 bullocks, I believe, 14 lambs, 13 bullocks, 14 lambs,
two rams, and one goat. Now the next day, as they counted
down seven days, There would be one less bullock every day
until they came to the seventh day, there would be seven bullocks.
But the number of lambs and the number of rams and the number
of goats remained the same. And I took my calculator a little
while ago and tried to figure that out. And of course, they
were also offering the two lambs the morning and evening sacrifice
every day. But when you calculate that,
there was over 200 animals sacrificed there on that altar during that
week. Plus, if any Israelite brought
a peace offering to offer unto the Lord, those too would have
been sacrificed. Now, I want you to turn with
me to the New Testament, to John chapter 7. Now I suppose that when the temple was built,
sometime after that, they added two other things to the Feast
of Tabernacles, two other things that they did. They called it the pouring of
water and the illuminating the temple. The ritual of pouring
the water took place each of the seven days. One priest would
take a golden pitcher and he would go to the pool of Siloam
and get the water and bring it back and pour it out in a basin
at the foot of the altar. They did that for seven days. The significance of that, we
believe, was twofold. It signified, first of all, they
were praying for rain. They had brought their fruits.
This is the feast of end gathering. They had harvested their fields,
but they're looking forward to the next year. They need rain
to have a harvest. And so they're praying for rain
that was signified by the pouring out of the water, praying for
rain. And it was also prophetic. of the pouring out of God the
Holy Spirit upon believers. Now, while this was going on
on that seventh day, they sent the priest to get the water.
He comes back and he's pouring the water out into that basin.
The people are chanting, are singing these Psalms, Psalms
113 to 118. And the last verses of that Psalm
118 are, save now, I beseech thee, O Lord. O Lord, I beseech
thee, send now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. We have blessed you out of the
house of the Lord. God is Lord, which hath showed
us light. Bind the sacrifice with cards,
even unto the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, and I will praise
Thee. Thou art my God, I will exalt
Thee. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,
for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. But here's
the picture. While they're chanting those
Psalms, and while the water's being poured out, the Lord Jesus
Christ stands. Notice here in John chapter seven,
and verse... What chapter? Number 37, yes, number 37, thank
you. In the last day, the seventh
day of this Feast of Tabernacles, that great day of the Feast,
Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink. He that believeth on me. Can't
you picture that in your mind? All the chanting, the singing
of those Psalms, the water being poured out, and the Lord Jesus
Christ stands up and with a loud voice, no doubt, cried saying,
if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. What was he
saying when he said that? If any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. By implication, he said, I am
the answer to your prayers. You're praying for rain? I am
the answer to your prayers. If any man thirst, that is have
a spiritual thirst, let him come unto me. I thought about his
beatitude in Matthew 5 when he said, blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. The seventh day, the seventh
month rather, was a special month in the law of Moses. And we say
this is what they did when they came back. First of all, build
an altar and then observe the Feast of Tabernacles. I pray
the Lord will bless this word. And isn't that a great invitation? Isn't it? If any man thirsts,
any man, any woman, anyone thirsts for righteousness, to be right
with God, to know God, have your sins forgiven, anyone thirsty,
come unto me. That hymn we sang a few minutes
ago. My faith has found a resting place, not in device nor creed. but in the ever living one. In
Christ, salvation is in him. Come unto me. Don't come unto
a creed or anything like that, or church. Come unto me. He's the savior of sinners. To
know Christ is to know God, is to know everlasting life. All
right, Bill, if you will,