Let us turn in our Bibles today
to the book of Ezra chapter 4. Ezra chapter 4. I'm going to read the first five
verses in this chapter, Ezra chapter four. Now when the adversaries of Judah
and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded 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 do, And we do sacrifice
unto him since the days of Esauhaddon, king of Assyria, which brought
us up hither. But Zerubbabel and Jeshua 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. 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 until the reign
of Darius, king of Persia. I need to review several things
to prepare us for this message this morning. When Solomon died
in 930 BC, the nation of Israel was divided into two nations. That was a punishment because
of Solomon's sin. But Solomon, he wasn't the only
one responsible for this, but the nation itself, the people
in the nation, were given to idolatry. When the nation was
divided into two parts, One nation called Israel would then consist
of 10 tribes occupying the territory of Samaria. And the first king
that they had was a man by the name of Jeroboam. And this kingdom
lasted for about 200 years, roughly. And he was the first king. He
was a wicked king. And every king they had after
him followed him. He set up two calves to worship,
two golden calves, one in Bethel and one in Dan, and told the
nation of Israel, these are your gods, worship them. The kingdom
was carried into captivity by Assyria. The other nation, called
Judah, consisted now of two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. And King
David's descendants continued to reign over this kingdom in
Jerusalem. This man in our text, the rubble,
he was a descendant of David. However, they too were infested
with the sin of idolatry. And roughly 40 years after the
Northern kingdom was taken into captivity by Syria, The southern
kingdom, or Judah, was captured and taken into Babylon, as had
been prophesied by Jeremiah, for 70 years' captivity in the
land of Babylon. Now, during their 70 years' captivity,
Babylon itself was captured by the Medes and the Persians. And
so at this time, after the 70 years had ended, A king by the
name of Cyrus was upon the throne. If you look back in chapter one,
he was on the throne of Persia. Now in the first year of Cyrus,
king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah
might be fulfilled. And we are told that Cyrus was
actually showed that his name was written not only in the book
of Jeremiah, but in the book, the prophecy of Isaiah, 200 years
before he came to be king. God had told that such a man
would be raised up and he would be the one who would deliver
or set free the captives. Cyrus, king of Persia, that the
word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. Let me just stop here and say
this, remind us of this, that God's word will always be fulfilled. God is a God of truth. God's
word is true. Everything that he has revealed
unto us in his word, we may be sure it's going to come to pass. It's so. Whether we believe it
or not, whether men in general believe it or not, it's not going
to change God's word. God who cannot lie, the scripture
says, he cannot change, and his word doesn't change. The Lord stirred up the spirit
of Cyrus, king of Persia. The heart of the king is in the
Lord's hands. And as the water brooks, he turneth
it. And here we see that God stirred
up King Cyrus, his heart, that he made a proclamation throughout
all his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying, thus saith
Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all
the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him
a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 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. Now here in our text we see those
whose hearts had been stirred up by the Lord, Not just the
king's heart was stirred up, but also the Israelites, the
Jews, many of their hearts were stirred up. And so they leave,
they leave the place where they had actually put down roots. Many of them did and came back
to Jerusalem to build the temple of the Lord. Now I call our attention
in these verses back in chapter four, to the offer of certain
people who were in the land. And they offered to help them
to build the temple. And notice what they say in verse
two. Let us build with you, for, now
notice this, we seek your God as you do. We seek your God as
you do. And we do sacrifice unto him. In other words, we are one. We
worship the same God. Let us help to build the house
of God. Well, their help was immediately
rejected. Zerubbabel and Joshua the high
priest and the elders, they didn't need time to consider this matter. They didn't rationalize and think,
well, this is a big project, you know, and we need all the
help we can get. No, no. As soon as they made
their offer, let us help. build with you, they immediately
responded in verse three, you have nothing to do with us to
build a house under our God. You have nothing to do with us
to build a house to our God. Someone might say, well, was
this just prejudice on the parts of the Israelites upon the parts
of the Jews? Was this just prejudice on their
parts? They didn't want these people
to have anything to do with them in building this house. Who were
these people? Who were these people who offered
to help? Well, if you notice the name
in verse two, Esarhaddon. Esarhaddon. He was a king of
Assyria. He's the man who conquered the
northern kingdom and carried them into captivity. And I want
you to look back in 2 Kings chapter 17 with me now. Turn back just
a few pages. 2nd Kings chapter 17 and verse
24 and I'm asking the question who were these people who offered
to help the Jews and their help was flatly rejected, immediately
rejected. In chapter 17 of 2nd Kings in
verse 24 we read, and the king of Assyria, that's this man that
is mentioned in our text there. Brought men from Babylon, and
from Cuthath, and from Avah, and from Hamath, and from Sepharim,
and placed them in the cities of Samaria, notice, instead of
the children of Israel. And they possessed Samaria, and
dwelt in the cities thereof. So when the king of Assyria carried
the Israelites away, he repopulated the area of Samaria with these
people from these various nations. And I want us to look here in
this passage in 2 Kings chapter 17 at four things that we are
told about these people and make application to us today. We're not just studying a history
lesson. This is history, and it's reliable history itself.
There's no question about that. But if that's all we see when
we read the Old Testament as just history, true history, we've
missed the point because there's a message for us today. And that's
the message I want us to see about these people who offered. Let us help you build the temple
because we seek your God, as you do, and we sacrifice to Him. Now, we want to help you build
the temple. Well, let's look at four things
about these people. First, these people feared not
the Lord. Notice that in verse 25. And so it was at the beginning
of their dwelling there, those that the king of Assyria had
brought into the land, at the beginning of their dwelling there,
that they feared not the Lord. That's the first thing that we
read about these people. They feared not the Lord. Now,
are we saying that they were atheists? When we read here and
we repeat what is written here that these people feared not
the Lord, is that the same as saying that they were atheists?
No. Not at all. Not at all. But they represent so many in
our day, living around us and among whom we live. People who
live in God's world, they lived in God's world, and in their
case, They were living in a part of God's world that is the land
of Canaan that God especially claimed as His own. It was always
His land that He allowed the children of Israel to possess.
He owned the land. That's one reason the land could
not be changed from one owner to another owner. It was God's
land. He gave them that land. And here
these people, they'd been brought into that land They were living
in God's world and in God's land that He especially claimed, and
yet they feared not the Lord. In other words, they were indifferent,
indifferent to Him. They didn't respect the Lord,
and they had no interest. They had no time to seek the
Lord, no time to know the Lord. Oh, if it could be taken care
of in 30 minutes on a Sunday morning, maybe so. But really,
and truthfully, they had no real interest in knowing the Lord.
They brought their gods with them, as we're going to see. They brought their gods with
them. When they were brought into the land, they carried their
gods along with them. And they couldn't see the inconsistency
in this. How blind is lost man? How dead is lost man? They're so dead, they're so blind
that they take a God that they have made with their hands or
some other man has made with his hands, and they have to actually
carry this God, they actually have to bring this God with them
into the land. How could a God like that possibly
help anyone? How could a God like that possibly
serve to save a sinner? A God that doesn't even have
power to move himself from one location to another. Do we not
see, my friends, how that the God of this world hath blinded
men? And all of us, by nature, when
we come into this world, we are blind to the fact that God is
God alone, and He's not some wannabe God, that He is God Almighty. They may have heard Well, you
know, at one time in this area where we're living now, Samaria,
at one time there were some people here who knew the true God. There
were some people here who worshipped the true God. But we've heard
this about Him. He had a lot of commands. He
had a lot of rules. And those things were very irksome
to the flesh. Why would we want to know Him?
Why would we want to know Him when we have a God that we can
carry? We have a God that we can manipulate. We have a God who has eyes but
cannot see. Why would we want to know the
God of this land, the God and only God of creation? They feared not God. We have
our own gods. Isn't it amazing that so many
live, and you may be here today, and you may be one of them, who
live as though there were no God, who live as though they
do not have an immortal soul. I mean, if when a person dies,
if he was like one of the animals, and that was the end of its existence,
that would be one thing. But man, God breathed into man
the breath of life. And man has a soul, my friends,
a spirit that is going to live on. It's going to live on somewhere
throughout all eternity. Not just for a century or two
centuries, but for all eternity. And there's only two places where
men are going to go. Men are either going to go to
be with the Lord where there's pleasures forevermore, or men
are going to be with the devil and his angels in hell and be
tormented throughout all eternity. That rich man that our Lord spoke
about. And he wasn't in hell because
he was rich. He was in hell because he was
a sinner. without a Savior. But you know,
he said, I'm tormented in this flame. That man's still there
this morning, isn't he? After 2000 years since our Lord
told that story, and it's not a fable, it's not a parable,
it's a true story. One of the men was actually named
in that story, Lazarus. The Lord didn't name the rich
man because he had brothers who were still living. But he's still
there today. And the torment that he experienced
hasn't changed. It's just as much torment today
as it was then. And if there could be any hope,
think about this, if there could be any hope that sometime, no
matter how far off into the distance, that this is all going to come
to an end. But no, there is no hope in hell. It's eternal. These men, they
offered to help. We sacrifice to your God, we
seek your God. They didn't fear the Lord. They
had no fear of God. They were not atheists. You know,
the devils believe and tremble, the scripture says. Notice the second thing. So many
people are indifferent, indifferent to the things of God. And we're
all guilty of it at times. We become indifferent. We just
imagine that we will always have these opportunities to come and
worship the Lord. We'll always have a church family
to fellowship with. We'll always have a preacher
who'll preach the gospel to us. We'll always hear the gospel
of the grace of God. We take these things for granted.
When I came to Houston 42 years ago, we began this service. There
was four Sovereign Grace churches that I knew of in Houston. Three
of those four are no more. That's serious, isn't it? I know there were others, but
I'm just saying God has blessed us greatly, and we must not be
indifferent to the things of the Lord. Notice the second thing
about these people. They came to experience a need,
but it was not a need concerning their sin. Notice that in the
last part of verse 25. Therefore the Lord sent lions
among them which slew some of them. They've got a need now. But the need just concerned the
fact that God sent lions among them. Caused them terror, no
doubt. They asked for help, but the help they wanted It only
had to do with the lions. If somehow we can get rid of
these lions, if somehow these lions can be driven out of the
country, we'll be happy. We'll be content. This is the
only thing that's troubling us. It had nothing to do with the
fact that they had sinned against God. They did not fear God. They have a need now, but it
has nothing to do with the fact of sin. If they could just get
rid of these lines, everything will be well. I see this, it's
so common in our day. For so many, their concern in
religion is all about how I can be healthy. How I can be wealthy. over the years, a few times,
not many, but I've had people come to me and they have had
bad relationships, husband and wife, and they've asked me to
speak, to try to work things out or help them work things
out. But they were not interested
in anything but the lines, not the sin, what caused the problem. You know, we're always wanting
to just just cut off the top of the weeds and they come right
back. The problem, the root problem
has to do with the heart. It's pretty much forgotten in
our day that Jesus Christ came into this world for one reason.
He didn't come here to set up a kingdom in this world. He said,
my kingdom is not of this world. And this world is never going
to be a place where God's people are accepted and where righteousness
is going to be the norm of the day. The whole world, the scripture
says, lieth in the wicked one. The God of this world, the God
of the prince or the prince of the power of the air is the God
of this world, my friends, Satan. pretty much forgotten that Jesus
Christ didn't come into this world to establish a kingdom. You see these people, they're
out with their signs demonstrating against pornography and against
betting, parimutuel betting, and all these things we've seen
over the years. And they're still going on. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to save sinners. That's our problem, sin, sin. It's pretty much forgotten that God
has made him to be the propitiation for our sins. We're not concerned
about our sins, we're concerned about the lines. We want to be
healthy, we want to be wealthy, we want to have good relationships
in our homes and in our families. That's what we're concerned about.
We want to have a good job and good house and good car. All
of these things that make us happy in this world. We're concerned about the lines.
The third thing we see about these people, they listen to
a false messenger. Notice that in verses 27 and
28. Well, let's read verse 26. Wherefore
they spoke 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. What manner is this God of? Therefore he has sent lions among
them, and behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner
of the God of the land. And they sure don't, in our day,
know the manner if we think of God as a God of absolute holiness,
absolute righteousness. A God who is of pure eyes than
to behold iniquity. 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 them
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. These people listened
to a false messenger. You see the priest, and it's
pointed out to us two times in those verses, that the priest
that the king of Assyria sent them was a priest that he had
brought from there. This man was not a priest of
the tribe of Levi. That first king I mentioned a
few minutes ago, Jeroboam, when he set up those two golden calves
and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, worship them. The scripture
there tells us that of the basest, the lowest of the people, he
made to be priest. This was one of those priests
that had been made by men. He wasn't of the tribe of Levi.
a man that had been ordained of God. And you notice that he
settled in Bethel. Well, that's the place where
one of these golden calves had been set up. That was the center
of this false worship. And here comes a false priest
in a false center of worship. And we are told he taught them
how they should fear the Lord. In other words, how they might
rid themselves of these lions. That's your concern? That's your
problem? Well, listen to me. Listen to me. God has a wonderful
plan for your life. Here it is. Just join the church. Become moral. Turn over a new
leaf. Be baptized. Learn the Ten Commandments. Practice the Golden Rule. He
taught them. He was a false priest, a false
messenger, and the message that he preached was a false message. But the people were content because
he told them how to get rid of the lions. That's all they were
interested in. That was their main concern. It wasn't because of a sin nature,
a sin problem. I've sinned against God. That
wasn't it at all. And then the last thing about
these people, they received a false message. Verses 29 through 41. Howbeit every nation made gods
of their own. Now remember, he taught them,
the end of verse 28, he taught them how they should fear the
Lord. Howbeit every nation made gods of their own. What was he
teaching them? What was he declaring unto them?
Well, not the truth, because we read, they continued to make
their own 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 then were their names several
of these gods, the Babylonians made Succoth, Benoth, The men
of Kuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, and
the Avites made Nahaz and Tartak, and the Seraphites burnt their
children in the fire to Adremalek and Anamalek, the gods of Sephirot. So they feared the Lord and made
unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places,
same thing that they'd been doing all those years. before Israel
was taken into captivity, making priests of the lowest of them,
which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
They feared the Lord and served their own gods after the manner
of the nations whom they carried away from them. He taught them, this false priest,
false messenger, taught them a false message. And notice what
is not included in this false message. Number one, it was a
message without repentance. A message without repentance.
It was, you can keep your gods, You're familiar with these gods
that you brought into the land. We'll make you some more of them.
That's okay. But at the same time, take up
this God, this God of the land. Now all these other gods, and
this is always the case, my friends, because they are nothings, that's
all they are, these false gods, they are nothings, they can always
get along. And they can always accommodate
each other. But the true God, the living
God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God with
whom we have to do, He will have no rivals. No rivals. No man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
no man can serve two masters. God's message will always include
repentance. In other words, turn from these
vanities from these gods. Repentance. You know, when Paul
wrote to the church at Thessalonica in that first chapter, he was
convinced of their election, that they had been chosen of
God. And he was convinced, he tells them, for several reasons.
But one of those reasons was this, you turn to God from idols. Repentance. Men would love to
take the Lord Jesus Christ and continue with their drunkenness,
continue with their adultery, continue with their idolatry,
continue with the things that they have enjoyed, the things
of the flesh, but the message of Christ always includes Repentance. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he
came, I believe in the Gospel of Mark, the first message, repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And in Luke chapter
13, he told some self-righteous religious people who were so
proud of themselves, he said, nay, but I tell you, except you
repent, you shall all likewise perish. What is repentance? Well, a big part of it is a change
of mind. These people, you see, they didn't
change their mind about God, the God of the Bible, the true
and living God. As I said, He will have no rivals. But these people, they didn't
change their mind about God. They thought that they could
just add Him to their other gods and everything would be fine. There was no message of repentance.
You know, not only is there a change of mind included in repentance,
but there's some sorrow involved. Sorrow, not because we got caught. You know, every criminal, when
he gets caught, he's sorry, right? He's sorry he got caught. That's true of all of us. But
you see, repentance is more than that. It is a change of mind
and a sorrow that we have sinned against God. It's not just that
we have sinned, that we are sinners, but we've sinned against God.
And such a good God, such a gracious God, such a loving God. How he
has supplied our needs, how he has kept us alive, how he has
given to us from the very first time The first day that we came
into this world, we have been in Him. We've lived and moved
and been in Him. He's given us air to breathe,
water to drink, clothes for our backs, food to eat, and yet in
spite of His goodness, how have we rewarded Him? We've sinned. We've said we will not have this
man, Jesus Christ, to rule over us. Now this message was a message
from a false priest and it was a false message. It did not have
repentance included. And the second thing about this
message, it was a message without the appointed sacrifice. You
see these priests, they went ahead and they sacrificed all
right. And these people say, we sacrifice
to your God too. But where were they sacrificing?
Scripture here says in the high places. But where had God commanded
and all that land of Israel, once they came into it, God had
commanded that sacrifice would be offered at the place and the
only place where he put his name. And that was Jerusalem. And in
Jerusalem, Once the temple was constructed, there was that brazen
altar. That's the only place that sacrifice
was to be offered, and it was a type. Those sacrifices, how
many animals were slain over the years? Who knows? But they
were all to be pictures and types of the one sacrifice that God
provided that was offered on the cross on Calvary, now some
2,000 years ago. They all pictured that one sacrifice. The blood of those animals, it
couldn't take away sin, but it could picture and did picture
the blood of Jesus Christ. As we sang just a few minutes
ago, saved by the blood, saved by the blood of the crucified
one. Sing praise to the father. He
has spoken and it is done. Sing praise to the son. He redeemed
us, not with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, from
our vain conversation, but with the precious blood, his precious
blood. Sing praise to God, the Holy
Spirit, who hath called us, if we've been called and opened
up our eyes, to see Christ and to trust in him alone. You see what kind of people these
were? No wonder the Jews said, no, you're not going to help
us. We don't need your help. We're going to build this house
to God. And just as soon as they were told that, what did these
people do? They did everything they could to hinder the building
of the temple in Jerusalem. I pray that the Lord will bless
this word, all of us here today, and I want us to sing this hymn. I like to sing, oh happy day,
oh happy day. This is a happy day, isn't