In this sermon, Scott Brown discusses Ezra as a character study in preaching, focusing on the man and his method. Ezra, a Levite and descendant of Aaron, came up from Babylon after a 70-year exile. He was skilled by God to understand and communicate the law of Moses, prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and determined to obey and teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel. Brown highlights the significance of Ezra's upbringing in Babylon and how it relates to modern believers living in a 'spiritual Babylon.' Ezra's teaching led to a great outpouring of repentance among the people, emphasizing the importance of studying, obeying, and teaching the Word of God.

Music We began today with a seafaring story and a text and we're going to end the day with a text and a story from a tavern. First the text and then the tavern story later. I want us to turn our attention to Ezra chapter 7. And What we will do is look at a man, look at a mentor. We will observe from one who has gone before us.

We have great need of mentors in this life. We never had perfect fathers, we've never had perfect pastors, but we do have many mentors in Holy Scripture and we will be brought to Ezra. This will be a two-part series today the man tomorrow the method. So I would like to read Ezra chapter 7 verses 1 through 10 now after these things in the reign of Artaxerxes King of Persia. Ezra the son of Sariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Shalom, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub, the son of Amoriah, the son of Azariah, the son of Mariyoth, the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzziah, the son of Bucai, the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the chief priest.

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 in all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God which was upon him some of the children of Israel the priests the Levites the singers the gatekeepers the nephine came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes. And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was the seventh year of the king. On the first day of the first month, he began his journey from Babylon.

And on the first day of the fifth month, he came into Jerusalem. According to the good hand of his Lord was upon him. 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. This is a character study. God gives us living examples in Scripture to learn from.

He not only gives us theology, He not only gives us didactic sections, He not only gives us principles, but He gives us examples. These things were written for our example that we might follow them. How important it is to learn from other men. How blessed it is that God Almighty would bring us into His Church and all life long He would bring before us elders, pastors, teachers, other gifted men of every stripe, and then He would bring before us this host really of heaven, these men who have gone before and died, these saints to help us, to lead the way for us. Did your father teach you these things?

Maybe not. Did your pastor teach you these things? Maybe not. But God has not left you without a mentor. What a blessing that is.

Aren't you grateful for God's mercy toward you? That He would give you many, many mentors. The Bible does give us various kinds of men as mentors. He gives us men who operated in variable situations and locations. And in this case, locations and personalities for preaching.

We see preaching taking place outdoors, indoors, in homes, palaces, councils, synagogues, places of business, philosophical discussions, rented spaces like the school of Tyrannus. We see preaching from an ark as Noah, the preacher of righteousness, spoke for a hundred years. We see Joseph and Paul and Silas preaching from where? In a prison. Elijah on Mount Carmel before the prophets of Baal.

Moses on the edge of the Nile proclaiming the Word of God to Pharaoh. John the Baptist at the riverside. Jesus in a boat at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Jesus on a hill delivering the sermon on the Mount. Stephen outside the city limits preaching and being stoned there by an angry mob.

Paul on the deck of a ship in a vicious storm. Philip on a lonely remote road to Egypt when an Ethiopian official came by. We find dramatic scenes of Jesus and Paul and Stephen holding forth in the synagogue. There's no place too sacred or too profane for the preaching of the Word of God. With Ezra, we find him on a wooden platform, high above the people, in a place of authority, opening up a scroll in front of over 42, 000 people.

The Word of God is not chained to pulpits or churches or any other geographical features. And according to the text that is before us, this testimony in the book of Ezra, a great religious awakening occurred. Don't we pray for that? Don't we long for it? Don't our hearts burn with us and we desire that there would be a mighty awakening, that the church would awaken, that the churches would be full of disciples, hot-hearted, hungry, humble, ready to hear, ready to submit to Almighty God, crying out to God, worshipping, praising at the top of their lungs, hungering for the Word of God like for the pure milk of the Word like a hungry baby who has to have it now.

Don't we long for that? God gave this to Ezra. Ezra read the entire scroll of the Torah to the people. And he and other scholars and Levites explained the meaning of what was being read so that the people could understand them. And when he did, everyone rose as one man in reverence before that scroll that was being opened.

Let me give you an outline of this book before we dive into the particular text that we have before us. First of all, in chapters 1 through 6, we find the people of God return to the land. Through a miraculous set of circumstances, God is giving favor to his people in the form of the fall of Babylon the great. The rise of artaxerxes and a flow of funds and personal guarantees from this world leader. The people are now free to return to their homeland.

The king gives them silver and gold and wheat and wine and salt and help. And as they come back, they find there's opposition, as there is with every work of Almighty God. We should never be afraid of opposition. Don't try to determine the truth by what is popular. All of the world is in opposition to God and sometimes it is true that some of our friends will oppose Him.

Votes do not determine what is right, what is popular should never ever determine what we do in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So first of all, the people return. Secondly, chapter 7 through 9, the Word of God is read. And that's the sequence we're in here in this text that we have. The Word of God is read and sin is revealed in chapters 7 through 9.

There is a repentance that is so wonderful and so healthful. Ezra himself says, I sat there appalled at his own sin. He says, our sins are higher than our heads. He says, not one of us can stand in your presence. He says, you have punished us less than our sins deserve.

So there was a great outpouring of repentance at the reading of Holy Scripture. And then the third section of the book is in chapter 10. The people of God repent and they are restored. And it all happened at the preaching and the reading of the Word of God. Don't ever underestimate the reading, the simple reading of the Word of God.

It is life. It is power. It is thunder. It is water. It is a sword.

It is mighty and powerful. Don't be misled. At the power of the Word of God inside the hearts of those who receive it. In Ezra 9 verse 4 we read, As those who trembled at the words of God of Israel, they trembled. Pray that God would give us trembling in our own souls as we hear the preaching of the Word of God, that even this weekend as we hear the Word preached that it would be for trembling in the churches, that each one of us would tremble, that every preacher would tremble at it as he preaches, and every person in the church would be trembling, would that God would give us this kind of experience.

First of all, we're going to speak about the man and then we'll speak about the method. Let's speak about the man. This is Ezra and there are six things about this man. I'm just going to recite them now and then we'll take them one by one. First, this man, he came up from Babylon, verse 6.

Second, he was gifted by God to understand and communicate number three his heart was prepared number four he sought the law the Lord number five he determined to obey the law and number six he worked to teach the statutes and the ordinances. Here before us is a list, a very particular and clear list that would provide for us mentorship for the kind of lives that we would live. What kind of lives are we living? What can we learn from this man? Can we somehow form ourselves to the godly pattern that is here before us, that would be our hope.

That we would look at the man that God has brought before us as our mentors and say, yes I see it there. Let me follow that man. Let me walk in his footsteps. The first thing we learn about this man is he came up from Babylon, verse 6. This Ezra came up from Babylon.

Of course, in this genealogy here, we learn that he was a Levite, and we also know that he was in exile his whole life long. This was a 70 year exile and according to the genealogy, Ezra was the son of Sariah, the high priest, taken captive by the Babylonians. He is a lineal descendant of Phinehas and the grandson of none other than Aaron himself. He has had an upbringing, but he comes out of Babylon. He is like anyone raised in Babylon.

You and I are living in Babylon and what has been the effect of that? How much of the world has gotten into your soul? How much worldly thinking is there in us? We are all relativists at heart. We have heard so much evolutionary teaching.

We have heard so much egalitarian gobbledygook. We have heard so much feminism that we are feminists and egalitarians and evolutionists at heart. We are relativists at heart. Why? Because we live, we breathe air of the world.

The media of every kind assaults us, from the Internet to other types. And who are we? We are Babylonians, regardless of how wonderful our spiritual heritage is. It would be very interesting to know what kind of Babylonian Ezra was. Here's the question.

Can anything good come out of Babylon? Yes. Yes. This is the joy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Yes, something good can come out of Babylon.

So He was up from Babylon. We too have been in a Babylonian captivity. As it is with Ezra and all those that he spoke to, all things must be examined and reformed and regulated by Holy Scripture. What else about this man? He was skilled by God to understand and communicate.

Verse 6, look at it with me. And he was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses. Do you see that? Which the Lord God of Israel had given them. This is a very weighty sentence to me.

It says he was skilled. What does that mean? Well, it doesn't necessarily mean that he was a brilliant scholar. The word doesn't carry that meaning. God does not need brilliant scholars.

Of course, we pray that God would give the church brilliant scholars. We're so thankful when they come along. But Ezra's skill was not necessarily the skill of innate intelligence his skill was that he knew the Word of God that was given to Israel he had worn out scrolls He knew what was in it and that was his skillfulness. A man can receive nothing unless it's given him from the Lord. But if he studies and becomes skillful, his value will rise as did Ezra.

He was skilled to understand and communicate the law of God. So let's take this as a challenge brothers. We don't have any control over our intelligence do we? We don't have any ability to make ourselves have photographic memories like we all wish we did but here's one thing we can do we can be skilled in the law of Moses that was given Israel and we can work at that the third thing we learn about this man is his heart was prepared. Verse 10, for Ezra had prepared his heart.

Focus on the word prepared. Prepared. What does that mean? It's an exertion of energy. It's the same word used in the narrative, the story of Noah in building the ark.

He had directed his heart. You know, it's amazing how many things fall into place when my hands move. It's amazing how many miracles take place, how many providences are accomplished when I exercise my will and I activate my own mind. I move my feet and I move my hands. How many wonderful things happen if I put out my hand in mercy?

How many providential wonderful things happen if I just put out my hands or make my feet go in a direction that I know I should go. He directed his heart. It's amazing how much gold you can find if you dig and how little you find if you don't. Ezra was a digger. He put his hands in motion.

He prepared. This term heart is about his whole being. It's his overwhelming concern, his genuine love. For the word heart appears 850 times in the Old Testament. Most of them refer not to this organ that pumps blood.

Most of them refer to spiritual vigor and energy and life. That's what this term is. So he energized his heart toward these things. You know, as a boy my father did me a marvelous favor. He bought hundreds of tapes of Charles Swindoll when he was in his heyday in Fullerton, California.

And we listened to hundreds of Charles Swindoll messages. I do not know how many times he told this story. He told it dozens and dozens and dozens of times. He loved this story of John Bunyan and Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon read Pilgrim's Progress each year.

By the way, Andy Davis has a group of audio messages on Pilgrim's Progress on his website, First Baptist Church, Durham, that is really neat. Well, Spurgeon read Pilgrim's Progress every year. And here's what Spurgeon said of John Bunyan. He had studied the Authorized Version till his whole being was saturated with Scripture. And through his writings, he makes us feel and say, Why, this man is a living Bible!

Prick him! And you'll find his blood is bibbling. The very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God. I don't know how many times I've heard that given by Charles Swindoll.

Ezra was like that. His blood was bibbling because he had prepared his heart through the energy exercised upon it toward God. Number four. He sought the law of the Lord, verse 10, to seek the law of the Lord. To seek means to study with care, to investigate, to inquire, to pursue, reading, meditating, considering, applying an open heart to hear the Word of God.

Pliable, open, not wise in your own eyes. You know, one of the blessings of this power outage just a few minutes ago was to sit back in the back in the darkness and just listen. I so enjoyed this meditation. It was unusual in contrast to when the lights are all on, but he sought the law of the Lord. Not just his favorite verses, but the whole of Scripture was preeminent.

If science and history and business are brought in, they're all under the shadow of Scripture in all of our preaching. He sought the law of the Lord. All these other things are subservient. They're secondary. If you have a gifted preacher who is able to tell stories so well that no one remembers the word of God, all they remember is the eloquence.

All they remember is the story. You have someone that is unlike as a because as yours focus was the mall of the lord this was his skill this was his major and brothers this should be our major We want them to remember the Word of God. We want them to remember the very statements and granular, particular principles that are there. That's what we want them to walk away with. Number five.

He determined to obey the law. To seek the law of the Lord and to do it. That has to do with obedience. This is a heart that sits under the Word of God and says, oh Lord, how may I apply this? How does this fit for my life?

How does this shore me up? How does this inform me? How does this change my life? He sought to do it. And so instead of reading to just gain knowledge, he read to gain faithfulness.

Instead of theoretical philosophy, he desired to come to God as an obedient son. Scripture was his master. It was his authority. It was his guide. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

His study led to holiness. Often study leads to dullness. It makes wonderful things, matters of scholarship instead of matters of life. This happens to people who study too much with no heart to do it. If we would become dead men, we would study and not do.

Ezra was not like that. He studied and he said, Lord, what would you have me do? It's interesting you have the term do it, do it. That's a popular thing. You can hear that broadcast in an advertisement.

But Ezra sought the law of the Lord to do it. Number six, he taught he taught the statutes and the ordinances verse 10 and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. So here we find this man. He is energizing his whole being to learn and to do and to teach. Those are the three things.

To study, to obey, and to teach. This is such helpful direction from this mentor of ours, Ezra. It's interesting that he did this in Israel. Do you see that in the text? In Israel.

This was a place God had put him. God had sent him back to Jerusalem to do the teaching there. Where has God placed you? His family was in exile for 70 years and now he's back in Jerusalem. Back in sort of his hometown.

Had he even seen Jerusalem growing up? We don't know. Perhaps not. My guess is he had never seen Jerusalem before. What a dramatic scene it must have been in 586 B.C.

As the Hebrew children were taken out of Jerusalem and they walked down the streets of Babylon. The seven wonders of the world are there. They're walking down this massive city, parading down the main drag of Babylon as captives, seeing things they'd never seen before. And now, 70 years later, they're walking where? They're walking out of the grandeur of Babylon or what once was Babylon and now into fallen Jerusalem he taught in Israel where is God placed you what town what format?

What venue has God provided you? Well, it would be your family. It would be your church. It would be your community. We all have these things in common.

We would bloom where we were planted, we would bear fruit in the place of God's appointment, wherever that may be. You might think, we made a mistake when we moved here. No, this is God's appointment. This is the place that God has brought you. You can't second-guess that.

You can't revisit those things. No, God has planted you right where you are. Bloom like Ezra. Study it, obey it, and teach it in wherever your Israel is. Do the work of God wherever you are.

And just do it. And God will see to it that you do not live in vain. This man who is diligent to study, diligent to obey, diligent to teach, diligent to sow seeds, diligent to declare clearly what God has said, brings me back to the tavern. The tavern is in England and there's a man, George Whitfield, whose evangelistic ministry is flourishing in Bristol. In this place he had many opponents.

One group of opponents was called the Hellfire Club. They hated Whitfield and they caused trouble wherever he went. The Hellfire Club tried to disrupt the meetings and discredit Whitefield with mockings. Whitefield, I think, must have been like Ezra in so many ways. His passion for the word, his passion to obey, his passion to communicate was so Ezra-like.

And so here we are with Whitfield in England and the Hellfire Club. The Hellfire Club set up a tavern contest one night. And in the contest they would they would have their drunken profane scorners of God take a text of scripture at random and then to defile it and also to dishonor George Whitefield. And the attempt was to sound like, look like, preach like George Whitfield, but make him look like a total buffoon. The Hellfire Club had set it up.

A few had already given their speeches and there's a man by the name of Thorpe present that night who was gifted, skilled at impersonations. And he said, I will beat all of you And he jumped up on the table. Whitfield had crossed eyes, and many of these scorners referred to him as Dr. Squintam. So Thorpe jumps up on the table in the tavern, ready to have the performance of the night.

He begins to impersonate Whitfield. His eyes are crossed. He begins to mock through his impersonation. He started up and he kept on and his eyes fell on Luke 13 3 unless you repent you will likewise perish and the sword of the Spirit pierced his heart it was alive it was a sword And it cut him to the quick. And he bowed his head and he wept on that table.

And he was converted that night. He went into a time of humiliation and sorrow for his sins, and it wasn't long after that that he began to be like his mentor who studied and obeyed and taught the Word of God and became a preacher of the gospel as a result. He had a manuscript of a man who had filled his heart with the Word of God and his eyes fell on a page of scripture that was living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. Who knows what can happen through an army of Ezra's who come up from Babylon, who are skilled by God to understand and communicate, whose hearts are prepared, who seek the law of the Lord, who determine to obey the law, and who work to teach the statutes and the ordinances. And so we have the man, Ezra.

Tomorrow we have the method. Would you pray with me? Lord, we Thank you for all of the territory we've traveled today, the beautiful scenery of Your Word, the principles that have thrilled our hearts. Oh Lord, let the Word spread mightily, let salvation move powerfully through our communities. Give us this awakening that we have read about today.

In Jesus' name, amen. For more messages, articles and videos on the subject of conforming the Church and the Family to the Word of God. And for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org. I C dot o-r-g.