The sermon by Jason Dohm on the Book of Ezra emphasizes that God is the central character, orchestrating events for His glory and the benefit of His people. Ezra's primary themes include God's sovereignty, demonstrated by His control over kings like Cyrus, Darius, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes, and the return of His people from Babylonian captivity in two waves. The sermon highlights how God's hand was evident in the rebuilding of the temple and the reestablishment of worship, with prophets and leaders like Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra playing pivotal roles. The Book of Ezra also foreshadows Jesus Christ, seen in the repopulation of Bethlehem and the symbolic representations in temple worship. Key observations include the devastating consequences of sin, God's faithfulness in trials, the importance of distinct worship, and the necessity of fearing God over man. Applications from the study encourage continuous spiritual growth, recognition of the believer's privileged status as the temple of God, maintaining distinctiveness from the world, and a call to abandon accepted sins, all to bring glory to God.

So God is the hero of the book. Ezra is not the hero of the book. God is the hero of the book of Ezra. When we think back on these 10 chapters, how mighty God has been on behalf of his people. It's such a faith building book, isn't it?

As we go to the summary, let's go to the Lord in prayer. God, I thank you for this magnificent book and how the study of it increases our confidence in you and builds our faith. Thank you for all of your word and how when we study it we see glimpses of your greatness and your beauty and your goodness towards your people. And how the things in our lives and circumstances that seemed big shrink when we see you on display in these books. And you who might have seen small grow large and dwarf everything else.

Oh God, as week by week we study your word, may this be the trend line in all of our hearts that the things that we're afraid of or cause us concern or cause us to stumble and fall in this life would shrink in our eyes, would become small and such insignificant things, but that you, O God, would grow larger and larger and more beautiful and more compelling as we see you for who you are. We pray this in the name of your son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Okay, so you've got a handout And the handout has some numbers on it, one, two, and four. So I'm going to take guesses as we go along.

So it's one blank. Any guesses? In the book of Ezra, one? What's that? One god, yes.

It's always a good guess. Sunday school, if you guessed Jesus you were probably right so so it is here one God Deuteronomy 6 here oh Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. God himself is the central character of Ezra. Wasn't it fantastic to have this reminder from Isaiah, Isaiah 44 and Isaiah 45 which we just looked at with our own eyes.

Written 150 years before Ezra 1, God calls the name of Ezra and in the text he says, Cyrus, you've not known me but I gave you your name. That was written 140 years before Ezra chapter 1. God calls out the name of the pagan king that he will raise up to send his people back out of captivity. And he says, they're going to rebuild, they're going to repopulate. He says exactly what this king will be raised up to do for his people.

Here's a survey of the central character God in Ezra. Ezra chapter one verse one, The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia. That's it in the first verse of the book. That's the summary of what's happening. God is causing all these things to happen for his own glory.

He's raising up kings, he's putting down kings. The beginning of Ezra, a king is being put down. It doesn't say so in Ezra, but it says so in Daniel. This grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, is lifted up in his pride. He brings out the utensils from the temple of God who had been brought into captivity and he gives a feast for the gods of gold and silver.

Oh boy was that a mistake. And the hand writes on the wall, this disembodied hand writes on the wall and God takes the kingdom from him. God puts down kings and then he raises up another king. He brings Cyrus into Babylon to be the king of an empire. And in chapter 1 verse 1 we found out why.

Because the Lord had stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia. And we saw in Isaiah how God gave him those kingdoms and it was so that the captives would be sent back to Jerusalem and Judah. The very next verse Ezra chapter 1 verse 2, all the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me so this is part of Cyrus's proclamation and he just acknowledges it he knew it not only did God do it not only did God raise up this king, but God convinced this king that it was his own hand that had given him these kingdoms. So that when he gives this proclamation, he says, all the kingdoms of the earth, the Lord God of heaven has given to me. Then in verse 5, Ezra chapter 1 verse 5, we read, Then the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits God had moved arose and they came back to Jerusalem.

So why were they at liberty to go back? Because God raised up a king to send them back and he stirred up his heart. Why did they come back? Because the Spirit of God moved on their hearts and they arose and went back to Jerusalem. In chapter 5, verse 1, Ezra 5, verse 1, after the building of the temple has stalled out for 16 years because of the opposition, we read in verse 1, chapter 5, verse 1, that God raises up two prophets and he puts his own word in their mouths.

Haggai and Zechariah, they've got their own books in the prophets. You can go read the words that God put into Haggai's mouth and into Zechariah's mouth. And then in chapter 614 we read this about that prophesying, about these men who had the words of God placed in their mouth. Chapter 614, So the elders of the Jews built and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai, the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built and finished it according to the commandment of the God of Israel and according to the command of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, King of Persia." So the author of Ezra tells us how the temple got finished after the work had stalled for 16 years, it was, it was, they prospered through the prophesying of these men, these prophets that God raised up.

In chapter 8 verse 18, the second wave is about to come back out of captivity to Jerusalem and Judah, but they don't have Levites and they need Levites. And then we read in chapter 8 verse 18, then by the good hand of our God upon us. They brought us a man of understanding." Then it says the eighteen Levites came. It was by the good hand of God upon us. How many times do we see that kind of language in the book of Ezra.

It seems like we were hitting it almost every week. According to the God's eye upon us, according to the good hand of God upon us, this happened. The favor of God was bestowed. God is the central character. He is the primary cause of everything that's happening.

Yes, he raises up secondary causes. He normally doesn't work through the magic wand with fairy dust, just falling out of the sky to make things happen. He raises up people to do certain things at certain times to draw attention to himself to show himself as the glorious God whose arm is never too short to accomplish his will. So we have the one God in Ezra And we have Jesus in Ezra. How many times did we hit Jesus Christ in Ezra?

We have the promised Redeemer who's never far below the surface in Ezra. In chapter 2 verse 21 we have a mention of a little town that's repopulated. In chapter 2 verse 21 we see this little town called Bethlehem is repopulated. No mention of Messiah there, no mention of Jesus there, but God is laying the groundwork for 400 years later when his son is going to be born in this little town. He's bringing his people back in preparation for the Messiah.

This is the start of it. Think of the condition that Jerusalem and Judah is in before Ezra, before the time of the book of Ezra. Not ready for the Messiah, but God is going to make it ready. He brings people back and he puts them in Bethlehem. Bethlehem will be ready for his son.

In chapter 3 verse 3, they've come back. They just arrived. This first wave of captives has just come back and they offer the morning and evening burnt offerings do you remember the morning and evening offerings you can go back to numbers chapter 28 and read about them There are three essential parts of the morning and evening offerings. There's the lamb without blemish, Jesus, there's the bread, Jesus, there's the wine, Jesus. Jesus is in the morning and evening offerings.

Then in the very next verse in chapter 3, verse 4, they're celebrating the feast of tabernacles. And then in the very next verse, chapter 3, Verse 5, it says that all the appointed feasts of the Lord were consecrated. And they start after 70 years had been evacuated out of Jerusalem and Judah. And taken into captivity, taken into this pagan land and being captives. In Babylon, now they're brought back.

And the worship that God has prescribed is back and it's because God did it and all these things, all these appointed feasts of the Lord which are consecrated and started again are about Jesus every single one of them in chapter 6 verse 19 the temples complete and it says they kept the Passover this takes us right to 1st Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7 where Paul says Christ is our Passover. It's a short line between the Passover and Jesus Christ. It's a direct connection. In chapter 8 verse 35, now the second wave of captives has come back from Babylon 85 years later. And as soon as they get back, what are they doing?

They're offering burnt offerings to the God of Israel. They're doing what the first wave did when they got back to Jerusalem. They're starting to offer. And then in chapter 10 verse 19, the last chapter of Ezra, There have been these pagan marriages, these God-dishonoring marriages where the holy seed has been mixed with the people of this world. And even the sons of Jeshua, One of the heroes of the book of Ezra, even his descendants, probably his great grandsons, have been caught up in this sin of mixed marriages.

And it says here in chapter 10 verse 19, Being guilty, they presented a ram of the flock as their trespass offering. So all throughout chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 6, chapter 8, chapter 10, all throughout Ezra we have Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 Jesus says, Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. And this means a couple of things, But one of the things it means is that all that system of worship built around a temple and Sacrifices for sin that the wages of sin is death So there are these pictures of death and bloodshed To atone for sin all this is fulfilled in Jesus Paul says it so clearly in Colossians chapter 2 verse 17.

In Colossians chapter 2 verse 17, Paul says that the ceremonial was a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. All those sacrifices, the morning and evening offerings, the burnt offerings, the feast of tabernacles, the Passover, the trespass offering, All these things are a shadow of things to come, but Christ is the substance of them. He fulfills them all. They were just a picture to point us and to set A sense of anticipation among the Lord's people that a Redeemer would come and once for all offer himself so that sinners could be reconciled to God. So I've begun the summary of Ezra, speaking of the one God, the central character of Ezra.

Now, two blank. Any guesses? Two waves, yes. Two waves. It's not just one group coming back.

There will actually be three. As soon as we get done with Ezra, what are we going to do? We're going to start Nehemiah. Nehemiah is the third wave. So the people of God are brought out of captivity, not all at once, but in three different waves.

And these are the two waves of captives that God brought back from Babylon into the promised land after all it is the promised land God said to Abraham I give this land to you and your descendants forever They can't stay in captivity because God is too faithful for that. As unfaithful as the people of God were, as much as they richly deserve their captivity, it simply cannot last forever because God is faithful and God is mighty and he's able to turn the hearts of his people back to him and to grant them repentance and to bring them back into right relationship. Isn't this a blessing? We're learning this in Ezra. God is able not only to start work but to finish it, to bring it to completion.

And as a person who has been saved but finds myself stumbling and falling, what a comfort it is to see that God is able not only to start things but to bring them faithfully to completion. The first wave was chapters 1 through 6 authorized by Cyrus king of Persia. It started about the year 539 BC. I'm going to give you some dates. The first wave began in 539.

This is in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia. God raised up Zerubbabel. Who was Zerubbabel? He was the grandson of a radically faulty king. The last king who was drug into captivity was Zerubbabel's grandfather.

So God raises up a bad king's grandson to lead the people back out of captivity. And God raises up, Jeshua, the grandson of an unfaithful high priest who's the last high priest before Nebuchadnezzar utterly destroys the first temple. So the first temple is Solomon's temple and the last high priest that serves in that temple is Jeshua's grandfather. So God raises up these two grandsons. The grandson of a wicked gang and the grandson of a bad high priest.

And he reaches into these family lines and reverses things and turns their hearts towards him. And he makes them ready to lead the Lord's people in righteousness. In chapter 2 verse 64, we see that there are about 50, 000 people who come back out of Babylon back to Jerusalem and Judah as part of the first wave and they began worship the worship prescribed by God and They rebuild the temple and it takes them 20 years. Why does it take them so long because they're discouraged By opposition so they stopped for 16 years And then once God sends the prophets Haggai and Zechariah in chapter 5, they're on it and they finish it in a little over three years, which is actually really fast for building a temple that grand. The second wave is chapter seven through ten authorized by Artaxerxes king of Persia around 458 BC so it's about 85 years later So the first wave has come back and it's probably their great grandchildren who were there in Jerusalem and Judah when God brings back the second wave around 458 BC.

God raised up Ezra. Ezra is introduced to us in chapter 7 verse 10 as a man who prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. What a man Ezra is, but it's because God raised him up for this thing. In chapter 8, we get the listing, a genealogy of the men who came back. There's 1, 496 men who God brought back as part of the second wave.

And so there's probably something like 7 to 8, 000 people total. If you make some assumptions about wives and children, these 1, 496 men probably equal a total of something like 7, 000 or 8, 000 people who come back in the second wave. So the first wave was 50, 000. The second wave only 7, 000 or 8, 000 come back. But they come back to reestablish the law.

In fact, Ezra is authorized by King Artaxerxes to appoint judges and magistrates for this massive region beyond the river, which is so much larger than just Israel. But Ezra is empowered to set up judges and magistrates to apply the law of God, Deuteronomy, in a region that extends far beyond the borders of Israel. And he's actually given the authority to imprison and confiscate property and even put to death to make sure that the laws of God are honored in the region beyond the river. So one God, two waves, four what? Four kings.

Four kings. Teachers bet. Four kings. How many times did I quote Proverbs 21.1? The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water he turns it wherever he wishes.

If I quoted Proverbs 21 once, I quoted it a dozen times. How many times do we see that in Ezra, that the king's heart really is in the hand of the Lord. He just turns it like a water course. Wherever God wishes to turn the King's heart, he turns the King's heart. The first king was Cyrus.

He reigned from something like 539 to 530, about 10 years. And he was a Persian king, and Persia conquered the Babylonian Empire, swallowed it up. The second king was Darius. He reigned from 522 to 486. You'll notice there's a gap there.

Cyrus reigned from 539 to 530. Darius' reign doesn't begin until 522 and extends to 486. The reason the numbers are getting smaller and not larger is we're counting down to zero and then we count up because Jesus Christ is the peak of all history so that's when we count. So we're counting down to Jesus. That's why the numbers are getting smaller.

Darius was probably the son-in-law of Cyrus but not all historians agree that that's true. So he may or may not have been. In any event, he was a general who put down a rebellion against one of the previous kings. There are two kings between Cyrus and Darius that the book of Ezra never mentions. If you care, it's Cambyses, Cyrus' son, and Smyrdis, who was a usurper who just took over the kingdom illegitimately.

So Darius began as an opponent. He was sort of poisoned by these letters that we read in Ezra about how bad the people of God were and about how high risk it was to let them to keep building. So Darius for a while was poisoned against the people of God but God changed his heart. His heart was in the hand of the Lord and God changed, he moved it like a water course wherever he wanted to. So even though Darius started out inclined against the people of God, he ended up inclined towards the people of God.

Why? Because God changed his heart, that's why. The next king The next king is Ahasuerus. He reigned from 486 to 464 BC. He is the son of Darius and he is also known as Xerxes.

Ahasuerus or Xerxes are the same king and this is the son of Darius. And it's during the time of Ahasuerus that Esther and Mordecai are on the scene. Esther is actually a queen of Ahasuerus, not his only wife, but one of his favorite wives, if you read the book of Esther. Certainly she's one of his favorite wives, maybe his favorite wife. And then Esther's Jewish uncle Mordecai actually rises to the second in command of the kingdom during that time.

So very little is said of Ahasuerus but we get more in the book of Esther about his reign and then the next king mentioned Ahasuerus is actually mentioned in one single verse in chapter four. The next king is Artaxerxes. We see a lot of him in Ezra. We'll see more of him in Nehemiah. He's the king during the time of Nehemiah.

He reigns from 464 to 423, almost 42 years. What a whopper of a reign. God gives to Artaxerxes, 464 to 423, and he's the son of Ahasuerus or Xerxes. And he grew up in a home where his father's favorite wife was Esther. So here's a king, you have to keep that in mind as we're studying Ezra, here's a king who grew up in a home where Esther was one of the favored wives.

It's not impossible that Esther is his mother, though most historians think that she was not, and where Mordecai was the second in his father's kingdom. So these four kings, Cyrus, Darius, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes, have reigns that span 117 years. And their hearts are in the Lord's hand. And he does whatever he wants with them. And he actually uses these kings, these pagan kings, to bless his people.

Now I want to give you key observations from the book. I want to give you seven of them. I'm summarizing 29 sermons, so I could say a lot more than this, but I have limited myself to seven key observations. Number one, sin is devastating. We learn this everywhere in the Bible.

We certainly learn it in the book of Ezra. To quote Scott, sin will take you farther than you ever wanted to go, keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay, and cost you more than you ever wanted to pay. This is what sin does. It promises good and it delivers that. It takes you further than you ever wanted to go, ever intended to go, it keeps you there longer than you ever intended to stay there.

And it makes you pay more than you ever wanted to pay. These are people being brought back from captivity. Seventy years in captivity. You think the people in the lead up to the captivity thought that God was actually going to do this, actually going to evacuate the promised land and make them slaves of people who were even less righteous than themselves. No they never thought they didn't believe God even when he said he was going to do it they didn't believe God and they paid they ended up paying more than they ever wanted to pay for their sin.

Think of the 16 years the temple's foundation has been laid but then they encounter opposition so they stop and God raises up prophets to rebuke them and then to encourage them. Think of how Ezra ends with the pagan wives being put away and the children. Do you think when these men, these 113 men from chapter 10, engaged in these pagan marriages, do you ever, do you think that they thought that the price for sin would ever be that high? They would have to pay that much to put away these wives and to put away the children from these marriages. Imagine what that would be like to send these wives and these children, your children, away in order to obey God.

Number one sin is devastating. Number two, God knows the end date of every trial. God knows the name of every pagan. He will stir up to bless you. What an encouragement.

The time of the captivity was 70 years, not 69 years, not 71 years, 70 years. God had a specific reason for that. It had to do with 490 years of not letting the land keep its Sabbaths. So God says, okay, I'm pulling you out and the land will rest for 70 years now. The land's going to get it 70 years.

God knew the end date of that trial before the trial ever began. And God knew the name of the pagan king he would stir up to bless his people. The same is true of us. God has brought many of us into and out of trials. Some of us are still in them, a time of great testing and trial and discouragement.

God knows the end date. Before it ever started, He knew it and He knows the names of the pagans that he'll stir up to bless you. Isn't that an encouragement? 150 years before Ezra, God says through Isaiah, Cyrus is his name. Number three, God raises up men and women to lead his people and to bless his people.

God raises up men and women to lead his people and bless his people. Think of the names of those who were raised up in the book of Ezra to be a blessing to his people. Hey, God is raising up men and women now to be a blessing to us. If you're in the Lord, God is already in the middle of, there are three year olds now that God is going to raise up to bless you, to help you. Names like Zerubbabel and Jeshua, how faithful these two men were.

They were always leading the people in righteousness. Their grandfathers had led the people into sin, but God has broken that pattern in a family line. And now they're leading the people in righteousness. Think about Haggai and Zechariah, these mighty prophets that God raises up to speak his words to the people. First to rebuke them for having stopped the work, but then to encourage them in the work of building the temple prospered through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah.

Think of Esther and Mordecai, not in the Book of Ezra, but during the time of the Book of Ezra. How God raised them up to foil the plans of Haman, who almost succeeded in annihilating the Jews. So close, but no. God had other plans. God raised up his people to be a blessing.

And their names were Esther and Mordecai. Think about Ezra and think about Shekiniah. This man who came from nowhere. We didn't see Shekiniah before chapter 9 and we didn't see him after chapter nine, but there he was. God raised him up to strongly exhort Ezra.

To tell Ezra that the people were with him, but that it was his job to do it, and that he should do it. And he emboldened Ezra to obey the Lord. God is the main character in Ezra but he raises up people. This is how God works. It's not usually through fairy dust.

It's usually through people that he raises up to work in his name to bring glory to himself. Number three. Oh, that was number three. Number four. God's worship is paramount.

Paramount means top of the mountain. God's worship is paramount. There's nothing more important than the worship of God and to worship Him as He's prescribed to be worshiped. The object of worship gets to say how He's worshiped. The ones who are worshiping shouldn't decide these things.

That makes no sense. So God has prescribed that he desires to be worshipped in a certain way. And God reaches in and causes his people to obey him in this. All of Ezra was about studying about priests and Levites and singers and gatekeepers and Nethanem the Nethanem were given to the Levites to help them in the temple service and The temple and the feasts and the Passover the whole book is about the people of God coming back. Why?

In order to worship God as He desired to be worshiped. How do we know how He desires to be worshiped? He says. He says in the Old Testament and then again in the New Testament he tells us how he wants to be worshipped. So it's our job as the Lord's people to search out those things and then to do as we've been told.

Because that's how the object of worship has said he wants to be worshipped. Number five. Number five. The gratitude of God's people ought to overflow in their free will offerings. This is a key observation from the book of Ezra.

The gratitude of God's people, I forget where it is in Philippians, but there's a chapter in Philippians that starts out, if there's any comfort of the Spirit, if there's any fellowship among the saints, things of that nature, is just making you say, what if there's any comfort in the spirit, are you crazy? Of course there's comfort in the spirit, and then he says, be like-minded, be of one mind. And that's the same here. Right, If there's any gratitude, if there's any comfort of the Spirit, if there's any blessing about being among, there should be an overflow of it. It should overflow into something.

It should change us because we're so happy-fied by the goodness of God that this should bleed into our lives. This should flow over into our lives. Gratitude of God's people ought to overflow in their freewill offerings. Here's a couple of places it did in Ezra. Chapter 1 verse 6, and all those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered.

So you remember Cyrus' proclamation in chapter 1. He says, for God's people you either go or you help. So there's this group of 50, 000 who are going to go But there's this other group who are going to help and there's just this overflow of free will offerings that sends back the captives to Jerusalem and Judah in abundance then in chapter 2 verses 68 and 69 In chapter 2 verses 68 and 69 the first wave has just gotten back. Imagine what that would be like. After 70 years of captivity now 50, 000 people are free to go back and they've survived a long and dangerous journey and now they're back and here's what we read.

Some of the heads of the fathers houses when they came to the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to erect it in its place. According to their ability they gave to the treasury for the work, 61, 000 gold drachmas, 5, 000 miners of silver, and 100 priestly garments. So they get back, they've been happy-fied by God's goodness to bring them safely back out of captivity into the promised land and there's this eruption of giving. Or how about chapter 8 verses 26 and 27. In chapter 8 verses 26 and 27, Artaxerxes is sending back the seven waves.

You remember there's this description of the things that were sent back of gold and silver. And I calculated it into modern day currency. Do you remember what it was? $162 million. Okay, $162 million worth of resources.

They weren't coming back in rags and empty handed. They were coming back in abundance because there was an overflow of free will offerings. Number six. Number six, we must expect sustained spiritual opposition. You go to the Christian bookstore, you buy a book on the promises of God.

This is not in there. But this is a promise of God that we will encounter sustained spiritual opposition. That's all chapter 4 was about. You remember chapter 4. Things have been proceeding Nicely, orderly, chronologically, and then in chapter 4, the author of Ezra, probably Ezra, zooms out and shows you a century.

A century of sunshine and singing? No, a century of sustained spiritual opposition. Chapter 4 gives you a bird's eye view of a century, a hundred years of sustained spiritual opposition. In chapter 4 verse 4 we see that the enemies of God's people were going out of their way to discourage God's people. They were going out of their way to trouble God's people.

They were writing letters to the king trying to subvert the Lord's people. And then in chapter 4 verse 23, almost at the end of that chapter we read, By force of arms they made them cease building the temple. When they got word back from the king that they could make them stop. Immediately by force of arms they made them cease. Paul in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 12 says yes and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

Write that into your book of promises. Paul in 2 Timothy 3 verse 12, yes and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. Is that you? Do you desire to live godly in Christ Jesus? Then you will suffer persecution.

He has promised it. We have to grow up and not be surprised. We can't act surprised anymore when we encounter sustained spiritual opposition. God said it would be true. He gives us examples in Ezra.

They had a century of it. He raises up Paul to say, if you desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, you will suffer persecution. We can't be surprised anymore. That's an immature response. Number seven.

Number seven. In the most encouraging sections, these people feared God more than man. So we don't see that for the full century that Ezra covers, But we do see wonderful pockets of it, don't we? In the most encouraging sections of Ezra, and there are many encouraging sections in Ezra, these people, the Lord's people, feared God more than man. In Matthew chapter 10 verse 28, Jesus says, And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

So thankfully, Throughout much of Ezra, the people are fearing God more than they fear man. They aren't just fearing the one that can kill the body. The one that can kill the body is done. They can't do any more than that. But God's not nearly finished when our life on this earth.

He'll either bless us forever or we'll be tormented forever. He's the one we should fear. In chapter three, verse three, They've just gotten back and the first wave has come back and 50, 000 sounds like a lot, but it's not a lot compared to all the people are in the land and they're surrounded by hostile people. You get that right. It's not all just happiness and joy when they get back.

They're a small people surrounded by a large unhappy people that they're there that they're coming back to restore worship and in chapter 3 verse 3 we read this though fear had come upon them because of the people of those countries they set the altar on its bases and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord both the morning and the evening burnt offerings. In other words they were afraid to do it but they did it anyway because they feared God more. They were surrounded by hostile people but in chapter 3 verse 3 they overrode their fear of man because they feared God more and they knew what God required and they knew if they obeyed God that God would take care of them. Or how about chapter 5 verse 5? There's been 16 years, no work on the temple, Then God raises up Haggai and Zechariah and we read this in chapter 5 verse 5.

Then the people around them come and say, who told you you could build the temple? And here's what we read in 5 verse 5. But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews so that they could not make them cease until a report should go to Darius. The hostile people around them couldn't even make them quit once they had been awakened by the word of God through the prophets. Of course we see the fear of God is just oozing out of the pores of Ezra.

He's the man who had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it. And to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. We just see that when Ezra is faced even with the people who might not be happy about the separation of the pagan marriages, he obeys. He fears God more than man. Those were the seven key observations, mine, from Ezra.

You probably have others. Now here are seven key applications. Applications, what should we do? Okay, so that we're not just hearers, that we're doers of the word. Here are seven things I think I should do and I think you should do about Ezra.

Number one, okay, this applies to us. This is about a people being brought back from captivity. That is you and that is me. We weren't born saved. We were born sinners.

Most of it proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt with our outward behavior. Some of us were very respectable and we were still rotten to the core on the inside. But in any event, the life of a Christian is a life of coming out of captivity and then trying to build a life that honors God. This is what Ezra is about. So concern yourself with always growing.

That is the application. Concern yourself with always growing. Don't freak out that you're not at the end state. Okay? Do not.

We all start out of different depths of captivity in our circumstances. Isn't that true? Some of us were more tangled up than others, and so we started at a different point. You can't look at somebody who's been in the Lord for a long time, been rebuilding a life that honors God for a long time and say, I'm so far from there and just throw up your hands and say, I just, I can never get there. No, no, no, no.

Our concern is always making progress. To be more faithful tomorrow than we were today. To be more faithful today than we were yesterday, and on and on and on. They get back to Jerusalem, they don't have anywhere to worship, they're just trying to set up an altar under the stars, under the sun, there's not even a roof over their head and they're starting. They're so far from the end state which is a glorious temple.

They don't care, they start. They do what they can today. Don't be discouraged that you're not at the end state. This isn't a license to sin. Of course it's not a license.

We all wish we were further. We all wish we would go faster. And so I'm not saying this to give you comfort in you dragging your feet. But I'm saying, if we don't acknowledge the patience of God, we're missing something beautiful about God. He's so patient with us.

He's so patient with these people for a century in these ten chapters of Ezra. So number one, concern yourself with always growing. That was how we ended Peter too. Do you remember that? Grow in the knowledge and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's how 2 Peter ended. Number two. Never forget that the temple is a shadow. So it's about a people, they come back, they put stones on top of each other to build a physical building and what a building it was, it's just a picture. It's just a shadow.

The substance is something else. What's the substance? You are. I am. We're the temple.

And we're built on a chief cornerstone and it's on Jesus Christ. And here's what I'm exhorting us to. Don't forget the great privilege. Life is filled with a lot of discouragement. You are the temple of God built on the chief cornerstone, the son of God who came to lay down his life for sinners.

It's a glorious thing to be a part of his temple. It's a glorious thing. It's the highest privilege to be a part of his people and to be built up together into a temple. Why? To bring glory to God, to offer spiritual sacrifices.

This is 1 Peter. The things that we're seeing that are physical in Ezra are just pictures. The realities with respect to the temple and the temple worship is us built on Christ. Don't forget what a privileged place you offer, you occupy if you're in the Lord. Don't forget what a privileged place you occupy if you're in the Lord.

We are His temple. We're built on Christ. Number three, maintain a distinction. Maintain a distinction. You should not look like the world.

You should look weird. You should be peculiar. We are to be a peculiar people. Ezra chapter 4 verses 2 and 3. That first wave has come back.

50, 000 people came out of captivity they're in Jerusalem and Judah now and then the surrounding peoples come and try to take part listen to this Ezra chapter 4 verses 2 & 3 they came to Jerusalem but Zerubbabel they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the father's 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 Aseradon king of Assyria who brought us here. 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." The Lord's people must be distinct. The great commission depends on being a distinct people who offer a compelling vision and who say, you come across the line here. The world wants it to go exactly the other way. Let's just do stuff together.

Here's a quote from that sermon. I know it's bad when you quote yourself, but I'm going to quote myself from that sermon. Offers of peace from the world are not really offers, they're demands. That's what's happening in Ezra chapter 4. An offer of peace, we'll help you in the work.

They say not for a minute you won't. The Lord's building is not built by pagans, not for a minute. They say, we're just like you, we worship your God like you. Yeah, you set the God of Israel beside a hundred other ones and say, yeah, He's our God too. Just like you.

We must be a compelling, separate people and call people to come over the line. Chapter 6 verse 21 was so beautiful. In chapter 6 verse 21, the temple is finally finished and they're celebrating the first Passover. We read this, Ezra chapter 6 verse 21. Then the children of Israel who had returned from the captivity ate together with all who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations in order to seek the Lord God of Israel and then we're one.

This is called repent and believe the gospel. Until you repent and believe the gospel, until you separate yourself from the filth of the nations In order to seek the Lord God of Israel, we live in two different kingdoms. Number four, don't sweat the government. Don't sweat the government. Sometimes they shower you with favor.

Don't be too happy. Don't get too attached. Sometimes they oppose you and persecute you. Don't be too discouraged. All these things are from God.

They're in the hands of God. We cannot depend on those things. The solutions to the world's problems are not political solutions. So I'm not saying we shouldn't be politically active. I'm not saying we shouldn't have an interest in these things.

I'm just saying the Lord's people don't count on that. The Lord's people count on the Lord. Number five. Prepare your heart to seek the word of God, to do the word of God, to teach the word of God. This is what we learned from the life of Ezra.

Prepare your heart to seek the word of God. And to do the word of God. To teach the word of God. Here again is Ezra chapter 7 verse 10 where we're introduced to Ezra. 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.

Wouldn't it be great if they could etch that on your tombstone? Here lies Jason Dome who prepared his heart to seek the word of God and to do it and to teach it. It would be a great epitaph. Because you know when you seek the word of God, you seek God. You seek the God of the word when you seek the word of God.

Number six, We should seek God like never before. Coming out of Ezra we should seek God passionately, like never before. Remember these words from Ezra chapter 8 verse 21. We memorize them. Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.

Ezra is a man who's just seeking the Lord and seeking the Lord and seeking the Lord. In chapter 9 this report comes to him that the people have been engaging in mixed marriages, marrying pagan women, and he plucks out the hair of his beard, and he plucks out hair from his head, and he sits down and he prays and he weeps. And then in chapter 10 he's continuing to fast and grieve over the people's sins. This is a man of such passion. This is not a bookworm.

Chapter 7 verse 10, Ezra prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord. It might make him sound like a bookworm, but if that's what you thought in chapter 7 with that verse, what you find out in the rest of Ezra, chapter 8, chapter 9, chapter 10, is he's a man of passion for God. He is seeking the Lord. That's what the book learning is about for Ezra. It's his passion for the Lord and for his people.

We should come out of this book encouraged to be weaned off the world and to seek God like we've never saw Him. To be the kind of people when we see sin among the Lord's people that we're pulling out hair, figuratively. Number seven, finally, We should divorce all of our accepted sins. You know what I mean by accepted sins? The sins that you've made a place for, the sins that your wife doesn't know about, the sins that your husband doesn't know about, the sins that your children don't know about, the sins that your friends, your neighbors don't know about, but you have made a place for them.

The divorces in chapter 9 and 10 aren't primarily about marriage, it's primarily about divorcing sin. It's primarily about having an allegiance above all other allegiances like Jesus says in Luke 14, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father or mother, his wife or children, his brothers or sisters, he cannot be my disciple. Jesus Christ lays claim to our highest affections. If he cannot have your highest affections, you cannot be his disciple. So we can't have accepted sins, we have to divorce them and put them out.

Jesus says if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It's better that you should enter life with one hand and to perish with both. Ezra is about the glory of God in Ezra. It's a book about God. It's a book about how God fights for his people.

And he takes people who are captive and he sovereignly grants them a release from their captivity and then he brings them back and he super intends their building a life that honors him. May it be so of us. God I thank you for this great book that you've brought us through. It's always like leaving an old friend whenever we exit a book. So in a way this is a celebration that you have brought us here and taught us many things while we were here.

And we fall in love with these books and we always come away feeling the same way about the Gospel of Matthew and the Book of 1 Peter and the Book of 2 Peter and now Ezra. Thank you God for bringing us to these books and showing us the depth that we never saw when we had only read over them a few times. But helping us to just slow down and stop and look at your beauty as you reveal yourself in your Word. Oh keep revealing yourself through your Word among us. In Jesus' name, Amen.