01 January 4, 2015, EZRA, God Commands Obedience

EZRA
GOD COMMANDS OBEDIENCE
January 4, 2015
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI
USA

MemoryVerse:
Romans 10:9 NKJV
9
that if you confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus and believe in your
heart that God has raised Him from
the dead, you will be saved.

What’s the number one thing?

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The Glory of God!

1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV
31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink,
or whatever you do, do all to the glory
of God.

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http://www.foundationsforfreedom.net/References/OT/Historical/Nehemiah/_resNeh/EzraTime.jpg
458 BC

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458 BC

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458 BC

The theme of the book of Ezra is the
return to Zion following the close of the
Babylonian captivity.
• It is divided into two parts:
1) the telling of the story of the first
return of exiles (538 BC) and the
completion and dedication of the new
Temple in Jerusalem in 515 BC,

2) the telling of the subsequent
mission of Ezra to Jerusalem and
his struggle to purify the Jews from
what the book calls the sin of
marriage with non-Jews.

Together with the Book of Nehemiah,
it represents the final chapter in the
historical narrative of the Hebrew
Bible.

The God of Israel inspires the king of
Persia to commission a leader from the
Jewish community to carry out a mission;
three successive leaders carry out three
such missions, the first rebuilding the
Temple, the second purifying the Jewish
community, and the third sealing of the
Holy City itself behind a wall.

(The last mission is that of Nehemiah)

The Book of Ezra consists of ten
chapters: chapters 1–6, covering the
period from Cyrus the Great to the
dedication of the SecondTemple, are
told in the third person; chapters 7–
10, dealing with the mission of Ezra,
are told largely in the first person.

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Chapters 1–6
1) Decree of Cyrus, who, inspired by
God, returns theTemple vessels to
Sheshbazzar, "prince of Judah", and
directs the Israelites to return to
Jerusalem with him to rebuild the
Temple.

2) 42,360 exiles, with men servants,
women servants and "singing men
and women", return from Babylon to
Jerusalem and Judah under the
leadership of Zerubbabel and Jeshua
the High Priest.

3) Jeshua the High Priest and
Zerubbabel build the altar and
celebrate the Feast ofTabernacles.
In the second year the foundations of
theTemple are laid and the dedication
takes place with great rejoicing.

4) Letter of the Samaritans to
Artaxerxes, and reply of Artaxerxes:
The "enemies of Judah and Benjamin"
offer to help with the rebuilding, but
are rebuffed; they then work to
frustrate the builders "down to the
reign of Darius."

The officials of Samaria write to king
Artaxerxes warning him that Jerusalem is
being rebuilt, and the king orders the work
to stop.
Thus the work on the house of God in
Jerusalem came to a standstill until the
second year of the reign of Darius.

5)Tattenai's letter to Darius:Through the
exhortations of the prophets Haggai and
Zechariah, Zerubbabel and Joshua
recommence the building of theTemple.
Tattenai, satrap over both Judah and Samaria,
writes to Darius warning him that Jerusalem is
being rebuilt and advising that the archives be
searched to discover the decree of Cyrus.

6) Darius finds the decree, directs
Tattenai not to disturb the Jews in
their work, and exempts them from
tribute and supplies everything
necessary for the offerings.

TheTemple is finished in the month of
Adar in the sixth year of Darius, and
the Israelites assemble to celebrate its
completion.

Chapters 7–10
7) Letter of Artaxerxes to Ezra -
King Artaxerxes is moved by God to
commission Ezra "to inquire about Judah and
Jerusalem with regard to the Law of your God"
and to "appoint magistrates and judges to
administer justice to all the people ofTrans-
Euphrates—all who know the laws of your God."

Artaxerxes gives Ezra much gold and
directs all Persian officials to aid him.

8) Ezra gathers a large body of returnees
and much gold and silver and precious
vessels for theTemple and camps by a
canal outside Babylon.
There he discovers he has no Levites, and
so sends messengers to gather some.

The exiles then return to Jerusalem, where they
distribute the gold and silver and offer sacrifices
to God.
9) Ezra is informed that some of the Jews already
in Jerusalem have married non-Jewish women.
Ezra is appalled at this proof of sin, and prays to
God:

"O God of Israel,You are righteous!
We are left this day as a remnant.
Here we are beforeYou in our guilt,
though because of it not one of us can
stand inYour presence."

10) Despite the opposition of some of
their number, the Israelites assemble
and send away their foreign wives and
children.

The contents of Ezra–Nehemiah are structured
in a theological rather than chronological order:
"TheTemple must come first, then the purifying
of the community, then the building of the
outer walls of the city, and so finally all could
reach a grand climax in the reading of the Law."

The "plot" follows a repeating pattern in
which the God of Israel "stirs up" the king
of Persia to commission a Jewish leader
(Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah) to
undertake a mission; the leader completes
his mission in the face of opposition; and
success is marked by a great assembly.

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Why 70 years in exile?
Jeremiah 25:4-5, 11
2 Chronicles 36:19-21
Leviticus 26:31-35

Jeremiah 25:4-5 NKJV
4 And the Lord has sent to you all His
servants the prophets, rising early and
sending them, but you have not
listened nor inclined your ear to hear.

5They said, ‘Repent now everyone of
his evil way and his evil doings, and
dwell in the land that the Lord has
given to you and your fathers forever
and ever.
Jeremiah 25:4-5 NKJV

Jeremiah 25:11 NKJV
11 And this whole land shall be a
desolation and an astonishment, and
these nations shall serve the king of
Babylon seventy years.

2 Chronicles 36:19-21 NKJV
19Then they burned the house of God,
broke down the wall of Jerusalem,
burned all its palaces with fire, and
destroyed all its precious possessions.

20 And those who escaped from the
sword he carried away to Babylon,
where they became servants to him
and his sons until the rule of the
kingdom of Persia (Queen Esther),

21 to fulfill the word of the LORD by the
mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had
enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she
lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to
fulfill seventy years.
2 Chronicles 36:19-21 NKJV

Leviticus 26:31-35 NKJV
31 I will lay your cities waste and bring
your sanctuaries to desolation, and I
will not smell the fragrance of your
sweet aromas.

32 I will bring the land to desolation,
and your enemies who dwell in it shall
be astonished at it.
33 I will scatter you among the nations
and draw out a sword after you; your
land shall be desolate and your cities
waste.

34Then the land shall enjoy its
sabbaths as long as it lies desolate
and you are in your enemies’ land
(Babylon); then the land shall rest and
enjoy its sabbaths.

35 As long as it lies desolate it shall
rest—for the time it did not rest on
your sabbaths when you dwelt in it.

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The Sabbath is every seventh day and
also every seventh year. (Shemitah)

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The Jubilee
God’s ultimate message is always one
of redemption.
See Leviticus 25 -

TheYear of Jubilee
8 ‘And you shall count seven sabbaths
of years for yourself, seven times
seven years; and the time of the seven
sabbaths of years shall be to you
forty-nine years.

9Then you shall cause the trumpet of
the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day
of the seventh month; on the Day of
Atonement you shall make the
trumpet to sound throughout all your
land.

10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth
year, and proclaim liberty throughout
all the land to all its inhabitants. It
shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of
you shall return to his possession, and
each of you shall return to his family.

11That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee
to you; in it you shall neither sow nor
reap what grows of its own accord,
nor gather the grapes of your
untended vine.

12 For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy
to you; you shall eat its produce from
the field.

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Our word, jubilee, comes from the
Hebrew word, yobel, which means
“trumpet blast”.
The Jubilee was heralded with a
sounding of the trumpet (ram’s horn)
throughout the land.

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Shofar

During the Shemitah, the debtors
were set free but during the Jubilee,
even the prisoners and slaves were set
free.
It was a year of liberty.

Leviticus 25:10a NKJV
10a And you shall consecrate the
fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty
throughout all the land to all its
inhabitants.

In 30 AD, Jesus had prophesied that
Jerusalem would be destroyed and
that the people would be taken
captive into the nations and in 70 AD,
Jerusalem was under siege by the
Roman army led byTitus, son of the
newly crowned emperorVespasian.

The Roman soldiers broke through
the walls, theTemple was set on fire
and Jerusalem fell.
Countless thousands of its inhabitants
were killed and tens of thousands
were enslaved.

The Jewish people had lost their
homeland as Jesus had predicted and
they would wander the world for
almost two thousand years from
nation to nation – oppressed,
persecuted, and hunted down as their
land lay desolate.

The Scripture has foretold for
centuries that in the end times, God
would gather the Jewish people from
the ends of the earth and bring them
back to their ancient homeland.

The return of the Jewish people to the
land of Israel is the central event of
end-time prophecy even though it
seemed an impossibility.

In 70 AD the land was taken by Roman
armies and centuries later would be in
Byzantine hands.
The Byzantines were conquered by
Arab armies who claimed the land for
Muhammad and Allah.

Then came the Crusaders and after
them, more Muslim armies.
In the fifteenth century, the land fell
to the OttomanTurks who ruled it into
the twentieth century.

During the nineteenth century, revival
swept through England and one of the
fruits of that revival was a new love
for the Jewish people and for the
nation of Israel.

An English boy had been taught by his
mother (Catherine Anne) to include this
prayer in his devotions:
“O Lord, we would not forgetThine
ancient people, Israel; hasten the day
when Israel shall again beThy people and
shall be restored toThy favor and to their
land.”

In the twentieth century, the British
Empire was drawn into a war that
involved the OttomanTurkish Empire
(those who were ruling over the land
of Israel).

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British forces, led by General Edmund
Allenby, entered the
Holy Land and took
the city of Jerusalem
without a fight.

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General Allenby also commanded
T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia")
who assisted in
the capture of
Ottoman
Empire
territory.

General Allenby was that English boy
who had prayed every night for God
to restore the Jewish people to their
ancient homeland and now God used
him as a key instrument in bringing it
about!

For the first time in two thousand
years the land was in the hands of a
power (Great Britian) sympathetic to
the Jewish people which would allow
them to return to the land God had
given them.

Shemitah and the Restoration of Zion
The Jubliee must take place in the
year following the Shemitah.
It always begins in the autumn onYom
Kippur – the Day of Atonement.

General Allenby entered Jerusalem on
December 11, 1917 less than three
months after the year of the Shemitah
had reached its conclusion on
September 16, 1917 (which was the
beginning of a Jubilee year).

Fifty years later, in the spring of 1967,
the Egyptian government acting on
false reports provided by the Soviet
Union of an Israeli attack, ordered a
full mobilization of the Egyptian
military in preparation for war with
Israel.

The Egyptians blocked Israeli ships
from the Straits ofTiran which forced
Israel into making preemptive strikes
on Egyptian and Arab air force bases.
That was the beginning of the Six-Day
War.

During Israel’s war of independence in
1948, Jordanian forces had seized the
ancient city of Jerusalem.
Now, in the first days of the Six Day
War, Israel appealed to Jordan to stay
out of the fighting.

But based on erroneous information
from the Egyptians, Jordan joined the
other Arab nations in attacking Israel.

The Jewish forces captured Jerusalem
in spite of the opposition and for the
first time in two thousand years, for
the first time since the calamity of
70 AD, Jerusalem was in Jewish hands
and the Holy City was restored to the
Jewish people and them to the city.

The Israeli soldiers entered the Lion’s
Gate on June 7, 1967 and the year
before this was a Shemitah year
which began on September 27, 1965
and ended on September 14, 1966.
• The liberation of Jerusalem took
place during the Jubilee (liberty).

So we have here two of the most
pivotal events in Jewish history, each
taking place in the year following the
Shemitah, and each during theYear
of Jubilee.

Here are two of the greatest events of
restoration in modern Jewish history, each
representing the restoration of the Jewish
people to their land, each representing a
return, a relinquishing, a coming home,
and the redemption of an inheritance –
and both are linked to the Shemitah and
to the Jubilee.

1917 AD – Jerusalem liberated (WWI)
+ 50 years (49 + 1)
1967 AD – Jerusalem liberated (6 Day)
+ 50 years (49 + 1)
2017 AD

A new Shemitah year just began in
September 2014 and will end in
September of this year.
Thus the corresponding year of
Jubilee would be that of September
2015 through September of 2016.

This Jubilee Shemitah of 2015 will mark the
beginning of a prophetic series of events that
could ultimately culminate seven years later…
at the second coming of Christ (however only
God knows the time and date) when ALL real
estate of the planet will be returned to its
original owner, the Creator, the ultimate
manifestation of the Shemitah.

The year following the destruction of
the second HolyTemple was the first
year of a seven-year Sabbatical cycle.
In the Jewish calendar, counting from
Creation, this was the year 3829, 68–
69 AD on the secular calendar.

By counting sevens from then, we see
that the next Shemitah year will be
the year 5775 after Creation, which
runs from September 25, 2014
through September 13, 2015.

The sabbath year, Shmita in Hebrew,
literally means "release" and it is also
called the sabbatical year or sheviit
Hebrew: literally "seventh".

Chapter 25 of the Book of Leviticus
promises bountiful harvests to those
who observe the Shmita, and
describes its observance as a test of
faith.

There is little notice of the observance
of this year in Biblical history and it
appears to have been much
neglected.

In Judaism, the JubileeYear has not been
observed in modern times because it
only applied when representatives of all
twelve tribes have returned to Israel and
a majority of the world's Jews live in the
Land.
• Feasts are observed today, however.

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The next Feast ofTrumpets will be this
Fall on
September 13.

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Ray Stedman 1917-1992

Israel's return to Jerusalem from
Babylon involved about fifty thousand
Jews---much, much fewer than the
more recent return, which is such a
wonder of our own day.
• The Biblical record accords great
importance to this return.

The book of Ezra is concerned with
the building of the temple.
The book of Nehemiah is concerned
with the building of the city and walls
of Jerusalem.

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The temple was the last thing to be
destroyed when the nation fell into
captivity.
It was the last holdout of the Spirit of
God.

It is the last place (the temple
representing the spirit) to be
destroyed in an individual's failure to
relate to his God.

The temple is also the first place
where God begins to set about the
work of restoration; and therefore the
book of Ezra, which deals with
restoring the temple, is placed first in
the Scriptures before Nehemiah
which dealt with rebuilding the walls.

Ezra 1:1 NKJV
End ofThe Babylonian Captivity
1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia,
that the word of the Lord by the mouth of
Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred
up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he
made a proclamation throughout all his
kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, …

Now look at 2 Chronicles 36:22 -

2 Chronicles 36:22 NKJV
The Proclamation of Cyrus
22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia,
that the word of the LORD by the mouth of
Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred
up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he
made a proclamation throughout all his
kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, …

The same words exactly!
The book of Ezra begins right where
Chronicles leaves off.
This is one reason why it is felt that
Ezra wrote both books.

Ezra hence becomes a picture for us
of the work of God in the restoration
of a heart that has fallen into sin.
Restoration can be on an individual
basis.

It can be on a local church basis, or on
the part of any of the great God-honored
denominations of our day.
• It can be the work of God in a nation,
bringing it back from secularism and
materialism to true spiritual
knowledge and strength. (USA)

In any case, it always follows the
pattern depicted here in the book of
Ezra.
This is the picture of how God works
when he sets about to restore the
heart that has fallen into sin.

The book divides very naturally in line
with the ministries of two men:
Zerubbabel, in chapters 1 through 6;
and Ezra, in chapters 7 through 10.
Both of these men led the captives of
Babylon back to Jerusalem.

Zerubbabel, interestingly enough,
was a descendant of David.
He is of the kingly line.
Ezra, descended from Aaron the
priest, is likewise a priest.

Clearly outlined here is the need for
the work both of the king and of the
priest in accomplishing restoration.
The work of the king is to build or, in
this case, to rebuild and the work of
the priest is to cleanse.

Both are essential in the work of
restoring someone who has fallen into
a sinful state.

Restoration in the individual life
involves rebuilding the control of the
Spirit of God through obedience to
the kingship and lordship of Jesus
Christ.
• Thus, it involves his ministry as king
in our lives.

It means the recognition, again, of
God's right to own us, to direct us, to
replace our plans with His, to change
us, and to make both the major and
minor decisions of our life.
But restoration also means cleansing.

The spirit and the soul are cleansed by
our great High Priest Who, when a
human heart earnestly confesses its
sin, washes away the guilt, tidies up
the past, and restores us to a place of
fellowship and blessedness in His
sight.

God always takes the initiative.
Romans 5:8 NKJV
8 But God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.

No one, after falling into a sinful
experience, would ever come back to
Christ unless God brought him back
and this is indicated so clearly in the
case of these Israelites.

When they had gone into Babylon,
they became a different kind of
people.
Dr. J.Vernon McGee has pointed out
that while they were in Israel they
were sheep-keepers, or shepherds.

When they went to Babylon they could no
longer keep sheep, so they became shop-
keepers, or merchants and they became
very successful, too.
• So much so that this stereotyped
image of the Jew is popular worldwide
today---the merchants of the earth.

They became so prosperous, so lost to
materialism, that they did not want to
go back to Jerusalem even though
they were still slaves and exiled from
their own land.
• Many of them refused to return
when God opened the door.

John 5:6 NKJV
6When Jesus saw him lying there, and
knew that he already had been in that
condition a long time, He said to him,
“Do you want to be made well?”

The Spirit of God stirred up the hearts
of some of the Israelites and made
them unsatisfied with material
prosperity.
Mere things will never satisfy the
deep-seated cry of the human spirit.

When we feel that crying need, God
the Spirit is stirring us up to return and
rebuild the things that make for
spiritual strength.
Under Zerubbabel the first return
takes place.

This great kingly descendant led about
fifty thousand people from Babylon
back to Jerusalem.
The account of that return is given to us
in the book of Ezra, chapters 1 and 2.

When they came to Jerusalem, it was
the seventh month of the year---just
in time for the Feast of the
Tabernacles of the Jews.

This Feast ofTabernacles (also called
the Feast of Ingathering) was the time
when Israel dwelt in booths to remind
them of their pilgrim nature.

Incidentally, this feast looks forward
to the eventual regathering of Israel
from the vast worldwide dispersion
for the millennium and is the feast
that is mingled with tears of sorrow as
the people saw the foundations of the
temple being relaid.

Their first act was to build an altar on
the original temple site in the midst of
the ruins.
• Out under the open sky they
erected an altar to God and began
to worship and offer sacrifice as the
law of Moses had bid them.

This is significant because the first act
of a heart that really desires to return
from wandering in darkness in the
ways of the world to real fellowship
with God, is to erect an altar.
• An altar is always the symbol of
ownership.

It is both the acknowledgement that
God has sole right to us and the
symbol of our personal relationship to
Him.

Therefore, an altar almost invariably involves
sacrifice, worship, and praise---the sacrifice of
recognizing the truth, "You are not your own;
you were bought with a price" (1 Cor. 6:19-
20); the worship of again enjoying a restored
relationship, when again the heart is
ministered to by the only OneWho can meet
its needs; and the praise of a rejoicing heart.

Ray Stedman relates an account when
a man had taken time off work to
come talk to him about his prayer life.
He had brought along sheets of paper
on which he had written all the things
that he had been trying to pray about.

He had three or four sheets and said,
"I have a great deal of trouble with
this. I find that it's hard to remember
all these things and to go through
these lists. It's so mechanical, so
empty."

Stedman suggested, "Why don't you
just forget all this and spend your
time, for a few prayer sessions
anyway, just praising the Lord."

The man later told him, "I was mad. I took time
off work to talk to you, and all you told me was,
"Why don't you spend your time praising the
Lord?" I wanted some advice for organizing my
prayer life and handling it a little better. But
after I got over being mad, I tried it---and I
found that it worked.There was a sense of
restoration, a restored personal fellowship."

That is what God is after.
That is why the altar is the important
thing in this work of restoration.
The second thing they did was to lay
the foundation of the temple.

The work was met with mixed feeling, in
chapter 3, verses 10-13:
10When the builders laid the foundation of the
temple of the LORD, the priests stood in their
apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the
sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the
LORD, according to the ordinance of David
king of Israel.

11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving
thanks to the LORD:
“For He is good,
For His mercy endures forever toward Israel.”
Then all the people shouted with a great shout,
when they praised the LORD, because the
foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.

12 But many of the priests and Levites
and heads of the fathers’ houses, old
men who had seen the first temple,
wept with a loud voice when the
foundation of this temple was laid
before their eyes.Yet many shouted
aloud for joy,

13 so that the people could not discern
the noise of the shout of joy from the
noise of the weeping of the people,
for the people shouted with a loud
shout, and the sound was heard afar
off.
Ezra 3:10-13 NKJV

Have you ever felt that way?
Have you ever come back to God after
a time of coldness and withdrawal---a
captive of sin's power---with a great
sense of joy as the foundations of
fellowship were relaid by the Spirit?

Yet also with regret for the lost and
wasted years?
This is exactly what is portrayed here.

Tears of joy mingled with tears of
sorrow as the people saw the temple
being relaid.

The third factor in this return under
Zerubbabel is the opposition that
immediately develops, as we read in
chapters 4 through 6.

A force is at work in every human heart,
as in world affairs, that immediately rises
up to oppose everything that God
attempts to do.
• A force is found in every human
individual that resists with enmity and
hatred the work of the Spirit of God.

This force immediately manifests
itself here, and there is a great lesson
in how it does so.
This opposition first appears as
friendly solicitude in chapter 4, verses
1 and 2:

1 Now when the adversaries of Judah
and Benjamin heard that the
descendants of the captivity were
building the temple of the LORD God
of Israel,

2 they came to Zerubbabel and the heads
of the fathers’ houses, and said to them,
“Let us build with you, for we seek your
God as you do; and we have sacrificed to
Him since the days of Esarhaddon king
of Assyria, who brought us here.”
Ezra 4:1-2 NKJV

Incidentally, this is the beginning of the
Samaritans, who frequently appear in the
NewTestament.
These Samaritans, worshiping the same God
said, "Let us help you.We would like to join
with you in this enterprise.You are rebuilding
the temple. Fine.We would be glad to help."

They come with an earnest, openhearted,
friendly wish to participate in the work.
A very subtle request, isn't it?
It is not very difficult to say no to an
enemy who breathes fiery threats of
slaughter.

But when he comes dripping with
solicitude and offers to help in your
projects, it is very difficult to say no.
• The only way you can do it is with a
heart that is willing to be obedient to
the word of God, as these people were.
We read in verse 3:

3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest
of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel
said to them, “You may do nothing with us
to build a house for our God; but we alone
will build to the LORD God of Israel, as King
Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded
us."
Ezra 4:3 NKJV

That may have seemed a bit churlish,
but it was not mere capriciousness
that made them reply that way.

God had commanded that Israel was
not to fellowship with other nations,
or to engage with them in enterprises
that concerned the faith.
• Does this mean that it was wrong
for one nation to intermingle with
another?

No, this has been twisted and
distorted, and applied today to
situations in which it has no
application.
• It means simply that God rejects
utterly the philosophy of the world
in carrying out His work in the world.

There is a worldly religion.
There is a philosophy that tries to
interject worldly concepts, worldly
philosophies, and worldly methods
into the lives of God's people.

God has simply made it clear that
these are to be rejected.
The philosophy with which the world
would defend its actions and its
attitudes is quite contrary to the work
of the Spirit of God.

The world reflects the spirit of the devil,
who is the god of this age, in the
philosophy, "Advance yourself. Do this for
your own glory. Use religious ways to
advance your purposes and win
admiration, power, fame, or whatever
your heart desires. Use religious ways to
achieve self-satisfaction."

God rejects this principle here.
The veil of friendship that was offered
quickly turns to hatred.
In verses 4 and 5:

4Then the people of the land tried to
discourage the people of Judah.They
troubled them in building, 5 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.
Ezra 4:4-5 NKJV

And in the next two chapters is the
story of how successful they were in
stopping the work of rebuilding the
temple.

By deliberately attempting to
frustrate these people, by mocking
them and taunting them, they
discouraged Israel from doing work
that God had commanded.

These so-called friends even used
legal means to undermine Israel's
authority and right to build.
This is what goes on any time
anybody wants to stand for God.

As Paul wrote to the Galatians, "The
desires of the flesh are against the
Spirit." (Galatians 5:17)
This is the picture that we have here,
and the principle was quite successful.

The work was stopped for sixteen
years and the temple lay half-
completed, overrun with weeds and
grass so again, worship ceased.
Then God sent two prophets, Haggai
and Zechariah.

These two men were God's instruments to
move the people's hearts.
The minute the people began to turn back to
God, He also turned the hearts of the kings,
Darius and Artaxerxes, and they issued the
decree that started the temple work again.
Finally the work was finished.

In chapter 6 we read that the first thing
they did was celebrate the Passover,
marking the beginning of their life under
God.
• Similarly, you can never make sense
out of your conversion unless you are in
fellowship with the living God.

You have nothing to celebrate.
You have nothing to thank God for
unless you are enjoying the glory and
the light of heaven upon your heart.

It is only when you are in fellowship,
with the temple built, that the
Passover can bring joy to you.
The latter part of the book concerns
the ministry of Ezra, who also led a
return to the land.

Ezra was a most remarkable man, a
priest of the line of Aaron.
In chapter 7, verse 6, we are told:

6 this Ezra came up from Babylon; and
he was a skilled scribe in the Law of
Moses, which the LORD God of Israel
had given.The king granted him all his
request, according to the hand of the
LORD his God upon him.
Ezra 7:6 NKJV

Wouldn't you like to have that written
of you, "the king granted him all that
he asked"?
• What kind of man is this, whom a
heathen gentile king regards so
highly that he will give Ezra
anything that he asks?

The secret of this man's character is given
in verse 10:
10 For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek
the Law of the LORD, and to do it, and to
teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.
Ezra 7:10 NKJV

That is something else isn't it?
We may be Bible students, but are we
Bible doers?

James 1:22-25 NKJV
22 But be doers of the word, and not
hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word
and not a doer, he is like a man
observing his natural face in a mirror;

24 for he observes himself, goes away, and
immediately forgets what kind of man he
was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect
law of liberty and continues in it, and is
not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the
work, this one will be blessed in what he
does.
James 1:22-25 NKJV

As a result, Ezra could ask anything of
the king and the king would grant his
request.
Now this man is a man of theWord.

Therefore, God sent him to Jerusalem
to strengthen and beautify the
temple.
That is the work of theWord of God in
our lives.

It strengthens and beautifies within us
the place of our fellowship with God.
Ezra came to Jerusalem and found an
incredible condition.

In chapter 9, verses 1 & 2 Ezra writes:
1When these things were done, the leaders came to
me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and
the Levites have not separated themselves from the
peoples of the lands, with respect to the
abominations of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the
Perizzites, the Jebusites, theAmmonites, the
Moabites, the Egyptians, and theAmorites.

2 For they have taken some of their
daughters as wives for themselves and
their sons, so that the holy seed is mixed
with the peoples of those lands. Indeed,
the hand of the leaders and rulers has
been foremost in this trespass.”
Ezra 9:1-2 NKJV

What does this mean?
They were simply starting the whole
wretched mess all over again.
This is what had broken the strength
of the nation before.

This is what had undermined the
power of God among them and finally
dispersed the people, broken up the
tribes, and separated them into two
nations.

At last, as they had carried on this
idolatrous practice, God had delivered
them into the hands of their captors.
Now, after seventy years, they hadn't
learned a thing because the flesh
never changes.

No matter how long you walk in the
Spirit, you will never get to the place
where you cannot revert to the worst
you ever were, if you depart from
dependence upon the Spirit of God.
• They are right back to the same old
ways.

Ezra, in chapter 9, verse 3-4, says:
3 So when I heard this thing, I tore my
garment and my robe, and plucked out
some of the hair of my head and beard,
and sat down astonished. 4 ...until the
evening sacrifice.
Ezra 9:3-4 NKJV

It was unbelievable.
As the book nears its close, Ezra prays
to God and confesses this great sin.
In his graciousness God moves in the
hearts of the people.

The leaders come in broken-hearted
contrition to Ezra and acknowledge
the wrong.
A proclamation is issued.
The people assemble together.

It happens to be a day when it is raining,
but despite the rain, the people stand,
thousands of them in front of the temple,
and confess their guilt---the fact that they
had disobeyed God---and agree to put
away the wives and children they had
acquired outside the will of God.

Now this is a hurtful thing, isn't it?
It isn't easy.

This is what Jesus meant when He
said, "If any one comes to Me and
does not hate his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and
sisters, yes, and his own life also, he
cannot be My disciple."
Luke 14:26 NKJV

Our relationship with God comes first.
It doesn't mean that a man is to put
away his wife today.
This is a symbolic teaching.

It means that we are to put away
whatever stems from the flesh, which
is always pictured by these Canaanite
tribes in the land.

But we love the flesh, don't we?
We like to feel angry and resentful
toward others.
Do we want to be healed?

We love to nurse a grudge, cherish
feelings of bitterness, or keep an
unforgiving spirit burning away in our
hearts against someone.
We love it and we don't want to give it
up!

These things can cause physical
ailments in us.
Perhaps more than fifty percent of the
nervous and physical problems that
we suffer are due to wrong attitudes.

But when someone points it out to us,
we would rather go on having the
problem than change the spirit or the
attitude.
It is hard, isn't it?

It was hard for the Israelites to put
away their wives and children, but they
realized that the only chance of being
restored to the place of fellowship with
the living God and finding the power of
God manifest once again among them,
was to be obedient to His word.

Be ruthless with things that are
against God’s will and cause God not
to be first in your life.
Put them away.

The Plan of Hope & Salvation
Romans 3:23 NKJV
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23a NKJV
23a For the wages of sin is death,

• Death in this life (the first death) is 100%.
• Even Jesus, the only one who doesn’t deserve death,
died in this life to pay the penalty for our sins.
• The death referred to in Romans 6:23a is the second
death explained in Revelation 21:8.

Revelation 21:8 NKJV
8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable,
murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and
all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns
with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Romans 6:23b NKJV
23b but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
Romans 5:8 NKJV
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in
that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Revelation 21:7 NKJV
7 “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will
be his God and he shall be My son.”
• Romans 10:9-10 explains to us how to accept Jesus
as our Savior.

Romans 10:9-10 NKJV
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus
and believe in your heart that God has raised Him
from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart
one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10:13 NKJV
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be
saved.”
• If you have questions or would like to know more,
Please, contact First Baptist Church Jackson at 601-
979-1900 or http://firstbaptistjackson.org/contact/

01 January 4, 2015, EZRA, God Commands Obedience

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01 January 4, 2015, EZRA, God Commands Obedience