The sermon titled 'Keeping the Feast with Joy' by Jason Dohm explores the significance of celebrating religious feasts, particularly the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, with joy. It emphasizes that joy is essential in worship, as joyless observance does not honor God. The sermon reflects on the completion of the temple in Ezra and the need for sacrifices to cleanse the works of guilty hands. It underscores that only works cleansed by blood are acceptable to God and that believers are the ones who can perform good works. The sermon discusses the role of remembrance in worship, highlighting the significance of the phrase 'descendants of the captivity' which serves as a reminder of God's faithfulness in delivering His people. It connects Old Testament Passover to the New Testament Lord's Supper, emphasizing the continuity of remembrance and the importance of approaching worship with a heart full of joy and gratitude for God's past deeds. The sermon concludes with a call to maintain a clear distinction between the Lord's people and others, while welcoming those who separate themselves from the 'filth of the nations' to join in worship. It stresses the importance of seeking God and ensuring that religious practices are centered on rejoicing in what God has done.

The title of the sermon this morning is, Keeping the Feast with Joy. Those are the two main elements of the sermon. Keeping of the Passover Feast and the Feast of Unleavened Bread that comes after the Passover. But it was done in a certain way. It was done with joy.

It's not enough just to keep the feast. If it's a joyless keeping of the feast, then it is not worship of the living God. And so, it's a blessing to have these two things joined together in our text today. Last week we saw the temple completed and in verse 16 Ezra says that they celebrated the dedication with joy. So that leads nicely into this week's text because we already had joy in the dedication of the temple.

Even so, even with the obedience of the people, the rapid progress and completion of the temple, and they were doing what God had told them to do, even so at the dedication, 712 animals had to die. Why so? Because every second, even when they were doing what God had told them to do, they were building with guilty hands. It really should make us think soberly about our own work, and to know that the only works that are acceptable to God are those that have been cleansed by blood. Only believers can do good works.

Did you know that? It's impossible for unbelievers to do good works. They might do things that relieve suffering or that are helpful to people, and in that sense they're good on the human plane. When we look around we say, that's good. But in the eyes of God they're not good.

Only things that have been cleansed by blood are acceptable to be offered to this holy God. We see that so clearly with the dedication of the temple. They were obeying, they were doing what was right, and yet in all their building they were building with guilty hands. And so the finished temple needed to be dedicated and cleansed with the shedding of blood. This week we're in the first month of the year which would straddle March and April.

And last week it was in the month of Adar which is the 12th month. So this is just a month of time has passed, maybe even less than a month has passed between the events of last week's text and now at the end of chapter 6. There are certain phrases in our text today that tell the tale. And so this sermon is going to be a little bit different in that I'm just plucking out certain phrases from the text because I think they tell us all that we need to know about the text. So I'll be going phrase by phrase and saying, okay, here's the phrase out of this verse.

And here's what this phrase means and This is how that should shape how we think and then how we live. So it will just be a series of those looking at the phrases in the text, key phrases. And then at the very end I'll connect them. We'll have sort of established these different phrases, these different dots, and then we're going to connect the dots at the end, and hopefully have a unified view of what the text is really about. Also, it's worth noting that this week is our final week of the first wave.

The captives returned from Babylon in three different waves, and Zerubbabel and Joshua, or Joshua, led this first wave. We've been in that chapters one through six. Well, that's coming to a close, and then many years will pass between 6 and 7 and chapter 7 begins the second wave with Ezra during the time of Artaxerxes. So from the time of Cyrus, the very beginning of Ezra chapter 1 to the beginning of chapter 7 is 70 or 80 years. So there'll be many years between the end of chapter 6 and the beginning of chapter 7 that we just don't have any visibility to, except in the book of Esther, but more on that next week.

As we go to the text, let's pray. God, I pray that you would help us to be a remembering people, as your people in Ezra chapter 6 were. They engaged in these acts of worship that were acts of remembrance. So I pray Lord that you would use this text to establish this even more firmly among us. That we would be a people who remember what you've done.

And that we would be a people of joy having been made joyful by you. God, I know so many of the stories of the people in this room, and I know that You've given us so many reasons to be full of joy in Your presence. So God, come and use your word to drive this deep within our souls that we would remember your goodness and your kindness and that you would use all these things to make us joyful in our worship of you. May it be so in Jesus name amen. So the series of phrases I'm going to begin with a phrase that we have in verse 19 and the phrase is this, the descendants of the captivity.

The descendants of the captivity. It's a key phrase. That exact phrase with no variation is used six times in the book of Ezra. So it's definitely repeated many times. And That does not include the slight variation of it that we see in verse 21 in our text today.

It's used in some other forms, but with no variation it's used six times. It's definitely a repeated theme, a repeated phrase in the book of Ezra. And it's speaking of those who returned, the descendants of the captivity, those who came out of captivity. And it serves as a reminder of the goodness of God. That's what the phrase is.

It's a reminder that God has been good and faithful to his people, that he's kept his promises to his people. Remember our memory text from a couple of quarters ago, I think it was two quarters back. This from our memory text, 1 Peter 2 verse 9. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Peter is doing in 1 Peter chapter 2 what was happening among the Lord's people in Ezra chapter Peter says, you are, you're a royal priesthood, you're a holy people, you're special.

But you were that. Don't forget that you were in a kingdom of darkness and that God called you out of it because He's a God of compassion and He brought you into a kingdom of marvelous light. Don't forget what you were. You're this. You're special.

God has put His hand upon you and set you apart for His own good purposes, but you weren't always that, don't you forget. So Peter is doing what we're seeing is happening among the people in Ezra chapter 6. It is good to remember what we were. It's necessary. It is essential that we can remember often what we were before God brought us into a kingdom of marvelous light.

Here's how Paul says it, and this gets quoted a lot here, and it's going to get quoted more here. We say it every week, I think, out of the abortion clinic, but it's 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9 through 11. Same thing, Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 through 11. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God and such were some of you and Such were some of you but you were washed, you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

So Paul has reversed it. Peter said, You are this, but you were that. Paul reverses it. He says, You were this, But you are this. You're washed, you're cleansed, you're sanctified, you're justified by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The people of God in Ezra chapter 6, their sins took this people into captivity 70 years back. Their sins, their rebellion, their refusal to cast off the idolatry that was plaguing them, took them into captivity. For some of them, for generations, we saw at the laying of the foundation of the temple that some of them actually were the ones who had gone into captivity, but most of them that wasn't true. For most of them, their grandfathers had gone into captivity. And their fathers were born in the land of captivity.

So not even their fathers remembered anything of the old temple and of living in the promised land. Their dads were born in captivity, their mothers were born in captivity, and then they were born in captivity. So that any knowledge of worship in the temple and being in the promised land was two generations back. God did not leave them there. God had made them promises.

And God kept His promises as God always does. He always keeps His promises. He makes many promises. He's not obligated to make one promise to sinners. Can we agree on that?

He doesn't have to promise things to sinners, but He's made many exceedingly great and precious promises to sinners. And then he keeps them one after another, after another, after another. And so The phrase, the descendants of the captivity, is so that they'll remember what they were. Not to wallow in the guilt of what they were, but for joy. That's the purpose, for joy.

It's not to stick them with the label that they can never escape, as if they could never escape those past sins, that past captivity, But it's for their joy, it's for their good. It's not that their past was inescapable. It's that they should never forget their past. And it should be a source of joy to think back on what they were and what God has done. So that's the first phrase, the descendants of the captivity.

The next phrase is also in verse 19, they kept the Passover. They kept the Passover. Exodus chapter 12 is the account of the first Passover and the institution of the Passover as an ongoing observance. They're supposed to do this every year, year after year after year. So Exodus 12 is our go-to text for the Passover.

Leviticus 23 verses 4-8 is a good summary of it. If you just want a short summary of the Passover, Leviticus 23, 4-8 is great. What we find in Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23 is that it's to be observed in the first month on the 14th day of the month. So what we see in Ezra is that the people are doing it exactly. They're observing it.

They're keeping it exactly as it was prescribed by God, as it is written. Remember we keep hitting that phrase, it's not in this text, but we see them doing it as it is written. They're keeping it in the first month. They should keep it in the first month. They're keeping it on the fourteenth day.

They should keep it on the fourteenth day. That's what God prescribed. And then on the fifteenth day, that very next day after the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread begins and continues for a week. The first Passover was the substance. In other words, Exodus 12 is the real thing.

It's the substance. It's the time when the destroying angel was really going and really killing firstborns. The subsequent passovers, the passovers after the first one, were remembrances. So the first time, Exodus 12, that night the destroying angel really was coming as God said he was coming and anyone who didn't have blood on the doorposts, their firstborn was going to be dead in the morning. The subsequent Passover's, it was a remembrance of that and there weren't first borns dying in households.

In fact, Exodus 12 speaks of the subsequent Passover as remembrances and it says in Exodus 12, your children are going to ask you about this. Your children are going to be saying, what does it mean when we do this? Why do we do this? And It's an opportunity for the parents to say, God spared us. God paid the wages for sin.

And that's how he chose to bring us out of Egypt. But for all those who had blood on the doorposts, that destroying angel passed over it. It was the mercy of God and He used this mighty act to bring us out of bondage and slavery and 400 years of captivity. Now, imagine how meaningful this is for the descendants of the captivity. God had not only done this once in Exodus, where he brought a people out of slavery and he delivered them but he had done it again.

And now they're back in the promised land. Remember they were all born, they're descendants of the captivity. They were all born in Babylon and most of their fathers were born in Babylon too. God has brought them out of that and now they are celebrating the Passover, which is all about coming out of bondage. It's all about freedom after bondage.

It's all about the mercy and the faithfulness of God and now they're coming together in the promised land again. They have new homes in the land that God had given to his people and they're celebrating the Passover. I'm sure it was meaningful for generations to follow. It was a sweet time for generations to follow, but could it have been sweeter than this time when these descendants of the captivity celebrated for the first time after the temple had been completed? Of all the Old Testament pictures of Christ, think of them.

There are so many. The morning and evening offerings, all the sacrificial system, Everything in the temple pointing to Christ. The showbread is Christ. The lamp stand is Christ. Christ, Christ, Christ.

Of all these pictures, perhaps the most clear, the most beautiful picture of Christ in the Old Testament is Passover. I can't think of one that's clearer, I can't think of one that's more beautiful than the Passover. The innocent in place of the guilty. A little lamb, a one year old male lamb, perfect, without a blemish, innocent, killed because of the seriousness of sin. And that blood of the innocent standing in the place of the guilty.

The blood of the innocent applied to the doorpost so that the destroying angel passes. Now listen to what Hebrews 11 says about this first Passover. So Hebrews 11, you're very familiar with it. It's the Hall of Faith, the great faith chapter that recounts all these people who were saved by faith in God. And in Hebrews 11, 28, it's in the middle of talking about the faith of Moses.

And it speaks of the Passover. Listen to Hebrews 11 28 about Moses. By faith he kept the Passover. By faith he kept the Passover. And the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them." So the Passover screams salvation by faith.

It's not your work in doing the things associated with the Passover. Finding the Lamb, getting the right Lamb, bringing everything together, killing the Lamb, taking the hyssop, and painting the blood on the doorpost. This isn't what does it. It's not the work that goes into the Passover that does it. The Passover is effective because of God's work.

And then you lay hold of it by faith. By faith Moses kept the Passover. In the New Covenant, it's the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper supersedes the Passover. Jesus was the Passover lamb.

So Jesus fulfilled the Passover. But there's a continuation in the Lord's Supper. So that's for us. The Passover was for them. The Lord's Supper is for us.

And like the Passover, the first is the substance of it. In other words, Jesus Going to the cross and really having his body broken and really shedding his blood is the substance of the Lord's Supper. And then every time after is a remembrance. It's not a resacrificing of the Lord. That's what makes the Catholic Mass so wrong.

It is not a re-sacrificing of the Lord. It's a remembrance in the same way as it was with the Passover. Jesus says at the institution of the Lord's Supper, at the Passover meal, do this in remembrance of me. So it couldn't have been more explicit. This is a remembrance.

Do this in remembrance of me. So the question is for us, is this what it ought to be in our lives? We see it in the Old Testament being so central to the worship of God that he wanted this remembrance, this Passover. And now under the New Covenant, it's the Lord's Supper. That's what is for us.

And the question is, is it what it ought to be in our lives? Now I'm pleased, I'm glad we do it every week. I think it's the right frequency. I think the broken body of Jesus Christ and the shed blood of Jesus Christ ought to be before our eyes every week and that's a blessing. But could it be more?

Yes! Of course it could be more for us. It's a channel of grace. Not magic. It's not magic.

But it's a channel for grace. It's something that God has given us. And when we obey God with a right heart. Obeying God with a right heart means we don't think we're pulling a lever and we can manipulate God through our obedience. That's obeying God with a wrong heart.

Anytime you think, I obeyed God so now God owes me. That's with a wrong heart. But obeying God with a right heart saying, God I love you. You've redeemed me. I want to obey you.

Because all your ways are right. For all you've done for me, I ought to obey you. When we obey God that way, we should expect grace to flow to us because we know what kind of a father he is. How many times does he have to prove it to us what kind of a father he is, what kind of a father's heart he has. If earthly fathers want to give good gifts to their children, how much more God, Jesus says earthly fathers are evil.

If evil fathers are predisposed to give grace to their children, how much more so the heart of this heavenly Father. So I want to say with this, it is appropriate to come out of this text and say, the Passover was for them, the Lord's Supper is for us, how do we get more from it? How do we bring an extra measure of earnestness to the Lord's Supper when we keep it? How do we bring an extra level of intensity every single week so that more grace flows through the channel to us? We experience more of the Lord's blessing by being in his presence during this time and thinking upon what he has done for us.

So the first phrase was the descendants of the captivity. The second phrase was they kept the Passover. The next phrase comes from verse 20. The priests and the Levites had purified themselves. The priests and the Levites had purified themselves.

Why is this important? Because God had commanded that the priests and the Levites be ceremonially clean, have purified themselves anytime they were ministering. Anytime the priests and the Levites are ministering in the temple, they're supposed to do these certain washings, ceremonially being cleansed. And they're not to have touched a dead thing. There are different things that they're supposed to do to make themselves ready, to make themselves ritually clean, I believe is how our text says it today.

So it's important because it was commanded, but why was it commanded? Because the priests and the Levites are a picture of Jesus. It is a picture of the great reality which is our high priest, Jesus. And so it's not right for them to come unclean because Jesus has no uncleanness in him. So the priests and the Levites, because they stand in this place.

They stand as a representative, as a shadow of the substance which is Jesus Christ because He is our great high priest. They need to be cleansed. In Exodus 28 verse 36, it says that the priest is to have a plate of pure gold which says, holiness to the Lord on it. And he's supposed to wear it on his turban so that it's right here on his forehead. A pure gold plate, holiness to the Lord.

Now, this was a holy people. Israel was a holy people and yet within this holy people in a unique way The high priest was to be holy. Even among a holy people he was to be holy. This is significant for ministers of the gospel. For people like me and elders, pastors everywhere, they represent Christ in a unique way.

They are among a holy people as we saw in 1 Peter 2. Everyone here who is redeemed by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ is holy. And yet among that, the ministers of the gospel represent Christ in a unique way. How is this? Well, in 1 Peter 5, Peter talks about a chief shepherd and then under-shepherds.

They work for him. They represent him in certain ways in the life of the Lord's people. And so, they need to be qualified. 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 has A long list of qualifications, things that they need to be. They're not separate qualifications.

They're things that all Christians should be, that the Bible calls all of the Lord's people to. And yet, if a man is going to serve in this unique role, you have to verify it. He needs to come under inspection and you need to make sure these things are true in his life and he's blameless in these different areas. So it starts with being in Christ. A minister of the gospel, not being in Christ is a useless creature indeed.

But it doesn't end with being in Christ. These men should be so careful over their lives. They should be guarding their lives because they've been given unique things to do. Those who would stand and speak for Christ should do it trembling. That phrase, the priests and the Levites had purified themselves.

The next phrase comes from verse 21. Together with all who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations. Together with all those who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations. More people are eating this Passover in Ezra chapter 6 than just those who had returned from Babylon. There's more.

It is the people who had returned from Babylon, but not just them. They were eating together with other people. The text is purposefully broad. There were Jews there who did not go into captivity. If you read the account of Nebuchadnezzar taking the Lord's people out of Judah into captivity, it says that they left the poor people.

They took the leaders, they took the rich, they took the important, and they left behind the poor people. So there are some of them still in the land. I'm sure they were eating together with these people, the ones who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations. There were half Jews. 200 years earlier, the Assyrians had brought in other captives from other conquests, and they had populated the northern kingdom, repopulated the northern kingdom with Gentiles and they had intermarried and so now there are half Jews, half not Jew people in the land.

I'm sure they were there eating the Passover, those who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations. There were complete foreigners in this land. Those who had been brought in, or those who had drifted in and settled there over the last 70 years. Imagine how much movement happens over a territory that size in 70 years. Where will our families be in 70 years?

Where will our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren be? We can't even predict the answer to that question. A lot of them won't be around here. A lot of movement happens in 70 years. There were complete foreigners eating this Passover.

Those who had separated themselves from the filth of the nation. So I think that's why the text is purposefully broad. It's because there are different categories of people who are outside of the children of the captivity. And the ones who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations can come and partake of the Passover. Exodus 12, our go-to text for the Passover, Exodus 12 speaks of foreigners who want to participate.

Listen to this, Exodus 12 verses 48 and 49. And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover of the Lord, let all his males be circumcised and then let him come and keep it. And he shall be as a native of the land, for no uncircumcised person shall eat it. One law shall be for the native born and for the stranger who dwells among you. One law for the native born and the foreigner.

If you want to keep the Passover, one law. The native born are to be circumcised. And if you're a foreigner who wants to Join in and be someone whose God is the God of Israel, then all your males are to be circumcised. And then you're like you were a native born. You're brought in.

You're grafted into a people that weren't your people. There is to be a line of separation. That's what we see in this text. A clear, bright, Immovable line of separation. There is to be a distinction, a clear distinction, between those who are the Lords and those who are not the Lords.

But it can be crossed. That's the beautiful thing we get from verse 21. Bright line, immovable line. But it can be crossed. The purpose of the line is not to exclude.

This is so relevant today. There should be a bright line between the Lord's people and not the Lord's people. A clear distinction between us and them. Our kingdoms are in conflict. We can't just jumble it all up and think that the Lord is going to be pleased with that.

So we need to keep the line of distinction, but the purpose of the line is not to exclude. Come on over the line! Come on over the line! Let this God be your God. Let His people be your people.

Now, you can't bring that filth with you. You're going to have to be cleansed of that filth. You're going to have to turn your back on that filth. You're going to have to forsake that filth. You're going to have to repent to come over this line.

You're welcome. By all means, come over the line. The line is not to exclude. But the line is to keep the Lord's people distinct and honoring him and not bringing in the filth of the nations. There are two texts I think which speak to this.

Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. This is the first of two texts that I think talk about this separation from the filth of the nations and the essential distinction, the line of demarcation between the Lord's people and those who are not His. 2 Corinthians chapter 6, I'll begin in 14 and read through 18, which is the end of the chapter. 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14, Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?

What communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols for you are the temple of the living God as God has said I will dwell in them and walk among them I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from them and be separate says the Lord.

Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." Paul comes at it from every angle you could think about. Believers and unbelievers, righteousness and lawlessness, light and darkness, Christ and Belial, the temple of God and the temple of idols. He just keeps attacking it from different angles to get you to see how important it is to maintain the line of distinction, how important it is that the Lord's people be a peculiar people, a strange people in the world. Now turn to Ephesians 4, 17-19, which answers, I believe, in a very clear way, the question, what is this filth of the nations?

What exactly is the filth of the nations? I believe Ephesians 4, 17-19 describes it very well. Paul writes this in Ephesians 4, 17-19, This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. Paul here in Ephesians 4 develops what we see in Romans 1 when people won't acknowledge God as God and be thankful that they're given over to futility of mind, to a darkening of the mind. Paul says in Ephesians 4 exactly where this leads.

It leads to being past feeling, to being dull to sin, to becoming totally insensitive to sin, past feeling. So that the pangs of conscience that you used to have, because you've trampled on your conscience again and again and again and again, and you wouldn't acknowledge God as God and you wouldn't be thankful and you insisted upon serving yourself day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year that you've dulled your conscience, your past feeling. Once that happens you just give yourselves over to lewdness and you work all uncleanness with greediness and there's never enough of it and there's never an end to it. That is the filth of the nations. And it works its way out in a thousand vile things that you can't even speak of without shame.

Paul here talks about the life of God. He says that these Gentiles, because they have walked this way, that they are alienated from the life of God. It means that the life of God means something. The life of God means that you walk in a new way. And when you're alienated from the life of God, that is when you go past feeling.

You've stomped on your conscience enough that it stops bothering you like it used to. I think this is what it means, the filth of the nations, walking as the Gentiles walk. And that's why they walk that way, because there's been this progression. They wouldn't acknowledge God and they won't live thankful lives to him. Whenever the Old Testament speaks of the filth of the nations, two things always rise to the top.

One, idolatry, Having an affection for something more than God, displacing God with an inappropriate affection. Idolatry and practices that are in violation of the law of God. And usually one of those practices mentioned is intermarriage, which goes right back to being unequally yoked. So the Old Testament speaks a lot about the filth of the nations and those two things rise to the top. Idolatry and the practices of those pagan nations.

It is essential that we're always searching out the ways in which we've learned the ways of the Gentiles. I'm going to say that again. It is essential, non-negotiable, absolutely crucial that we're always on the lookout for how we've learned the ways of the Gentiles. Jeremiah 10-2 says, do not learn the ways of the Gentiles. Pretty straight forward.

Jeremiah 10-2, do not learn the ways of the Gentiles. Pretty straightforward. Jeremiah 10-2, do not learn the ways of the Gentiles. Here's the thing about the Gentiles, they're always teaching. They're always teaching.

They're always wanting to pull you into their ways, out of the ways of God, and into their ways. And we live among them. And we should live among them. But we shouldn't live among them unwisely and oblivious to the fact that they're always teaching, they're always pulling, they're always wanting to bring us into compromise and we are not to learn their ways. So we should always be on the lookout for the things in their lives.

Just even putting the question this way has us pointed in the right direction. How Have I learned the ways of the Gentiles? Assumes that. There are things there that you're blind to now, and you've learned them. You've pulled on practices that are great for Gentiles, but not appropriate for the Lord's people.

When you ask yourself that question, you're headed in the right direction because you've acknowledged there's probably something you're not thinking about. Something you've adopted and you never should have adopted it and now you better get rid of it because it will drive you from God. The next phrase, in verse 21, in order to seek the Lord. So That's finishing the sentence from the phrase we just looked at. Together with all who separated themselves from the filth of the nations in order to seek the Lord.

We were not just saved from, we are also saved to. And I don't think that's strong enough. We are not only saved from, we are especially saved to. We have to be very careful in our family lives not to just separate and then stop there. It's impossible.

It's unsustainable. It's impossible. It's unsustainable. It is absolutely unsustainable to just separate and stop and to not go any further than that. That is the road to Phariseeism.

That is the road to disillusionment. That is the road to abandonment of the faith. If you've never seen a family that separated from the filth of the nations and stopped there and seen the devastation that comes a decade in the future, then you haven't been around for very long. They're everywhere. Paul Washer tells a story.

He's a missionary in Chile. He's had a hard day dealing with problems, trials, persecutions, difficulties. There's a knock at the door, he answers the door, and there's a seventh-day Adventist who wants to evangelize Paul Washer. And his big question is, do you eat meat? Paul Washer's at the end of a long day, and he's had it.

And this seventh day Adventist caught him at the end of the wrong day. And he said, Do I eat meat? That's your gospel? That's what you have to offer me? That's what you think is going to sustain me through persecution, and trial, and hardship, do I eat meat?

Is the gospel you're living just a sophisticated version of do you eat meat? You have to ask yourself that question. Not the gospel you profess, not the gospel you'd write down on paper, but is the gospel that you're living Just a sophisticated version of do you eat meat? Is the gospel you're pressing on your children just a sophisticated version of Do You Eat Meat? It will not sustain them through trial and hardship and persecution.

There will be no joy in it. It will be this mechanical, sterile, lifeless path to Phariseeism and disillusionment and abandonment of the faith. Count on it. The power of the Gospel to be lived is in knowing God. You've got to have power to live a gospel over the long haul.

And the power of living our gospel is knowing God. That is what will sustain you through persecution and hardship and trial. That has power in it. Listen. Listen to Paul in Philippians 3, 7-11.

Paul says this very thing in Philippians 3, 7-11. But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death, if by any means I may obtain to the resurrection from the dead. Paul speaks of the two essential ingredients. You leave out an ingredient and it's disaster.

Paul does talk about the loss. He does talk about separating from the filth of the nations and about how those things that used to be gained, He left them. But what for? That I may gain Christ for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.

Paul gave up to know God. That's why he gave up. That's why you separate yourself from the filth of the nations. To seek the Lord. That's why.

The final phrase that I think is key is in verse 22. They kept the feast with joy, for the Lord made them joyful. They kept the feast with joy, for the Lord made them joyful." This is the great test of our religion. You want a test for your religion? By religion I mean stuff we do related to God.

Things we do related to God. Things we do related to God. Sunday, this. Family worship. Your quiet time.

Your personal time with your Bible. Your personal time of prayer. Here's the great test is there joy Is there joy there should be joy I Don't mean giddiness every second I don't want us to paint a smiley face over it and have to act like everything's the best all the time. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying our religion, The things we do related to God should be marked by joy.

Otherwise, we know we've got trouble. It's a way to know when you have trouble. In verse 22, it says that God did three things. One, He made them joyful. Two, He turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them.

Three, He strengthened their hands for the work. I want to make one point about each one of these things that he says God did. The first thing is that God made them joyful. I want us to consider Psalm 30 verses 11 and 12. I'm going to give it to you.

Psalm 30, 11 and 12. The psalmist writes, You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. To the end that my glory may sing praise to you and not be silent. Oh Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.

This is what God does. He turns our mourning, our times of sorrow into dancing. He puts off our sackcloth and he clothes us with gladness. Why does he do that? The very next verse tells us why we do that.

So we would praise him so that his praises would be on our lips. This means that we'll have time of mourning. It means that, figuratively speaking, we'll have time where we're in sackcloth and sitting in ashes. But know that the Lord does this for his people. He turns the morning into dancing.

Reformed folk are very subdued, aren't we? We don't think a lot about dancing, but God wants us to know that the joy that he brings makes the transformation so complete that it takes you from there to there, from one end of the spectrum to the other end of the spectrum, from the morning to dancing. His joy is full. In the end game is that God would be praised. God would be glorified.

He made them joyful. He took descendants of the captivity, and he brought them in to the promised land and he gave them favor so that the temple was completed and now they are celebrating the Passover. That is the turning of mourning into dancing. The second thing verse 22 says that God did was that he turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them. Now why the king of Assyria?

Already in chapter 1, Cyrus, I think it's four kings earlier, was already the king of Persia. So Assyria was an empire further back. So Cyrus conquered the Babylonians and further back than that it was the Assyrians. So it was empires ago. Why call him the king of Assyria?

Well, the best answer is the text doesn't say. But, Jorge has been waiting patiently for a month for me to answer this question, so I'll take a better stab at it than the text doesn't say, even though that's the best answer. In Nehemiah 13.6, Artaxerxes is called the King of Babylon. He's the King of Persia too. Why drag up these old titles from long ago conquered empires and use the title with the modern day kings at the time of the writing.

Why do that? Well, these kings viewed themselves rightly as the successors of the kingdoms that they had conquered, of the empires that they had conquered. So there's nothing inappropriate about the term. But there are certain reasons why you would use a certain title at a certain time. And here's why I think he's called the king of Assyria.

The Assyrians had been oppressing the Lord's people for two centuries now. The Assyrians had come and conquered and carried into captivity the Northern Kingdom more than 200 years earlier than this. And though Judah hadn't been conquered, they had been oppressed by these Assyrians all along the way. In fact, in Nehemiah 9, when we get there many months from now, there's a recounting of God's hand of judgment against the people. It speaks of exclusively the kings of Assyria in Nehemiah 9, 32 and 33.

You can look it up. The kings of Assyria. They're the ones used by God to bring judgment. And now, here's one that is used by the hand of God to bring blessing. I think the title is used to show the contrast.

For 200 years, God had been using these kings to bring judgment upon a stubborn people. But now he's relenting in his mercy. And he's caused a king of Assyria not to bring judgment, but to bring favor and blessing upon these people. That's why the king of Syria. Thirdly, verse 22 says that God had strengthened their hands for the work.

This is a point of application. God had strengthened their hands for the work. So as a little church, we're busier now than we've ever been. True? More activity.

Buy a long shot than we've ever been. I think going back even through the hope years. We're busier now than we've ever been going back to the founding of hope, eight years ago, more than eight years ago. Will we be more fruitful or just busier? Does anybody want to be just busier?

Isn't that a depressing thought? If we're just going to be busier, let's just relax. Fruitfulness comes from the Lord. I want to call myself and I want to call you to a radical dependence on God in all the things that we're doing. A radical, prayerful, prayer-filled dependence upon God.

We should be crying out to God. We should be humiliating ourselves before God, humbling ourselves to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. One man sows another waters but God gives the increase. We need increase. We don't want to be busier.

We want to be fruitful and bring glory to God. We're dependent on God for that. Totally dependent. We need to pray more and we need to pray with such greater intensity. We need to radically throw ourselves upon God for fruitfulness.

Will we be more fruitful or just busier? Okay, finally, an attempt to connect these and have a unified view of what the text is really about. I think the text is really about this. The center of our worship must be God and what He's done. Okay, that's it.

It's Not things to check off a list. It's not about us. The center of our worship must be God and what He has done for us. We have to have this point so clear in our mind. We are not doing for God He doesn't need anything from us Psalm 50 says God says if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you We are not doing for God We are acknowledging what He's done for us.

That is the nature of worship. The nature of worship is not doing for God. It's acknowledging what He's already done for us. In a hundred ways, but in the sweetest way through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not just acknowledging what He's done for us, we're rejoicing in what He's done for us.

That's the nature of worship. Not doing for God but rejoicing in what He has done for us. I want to end by reading out of 1 Corinthians 5. We know 1 Corinthians 5 as a church discipline passage but it's also a Passover passage. I want to end with this scripture.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 5 verses 6 through 8. He's just talked about gross sin in the church and now he says this first Corinthians 5 verse 6 your glorying is not good Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. God in this text is calling us to worship in sincerity and in truth.

To have the fact, the central fact of all of history, that Christ is our Passover, he was sacrificed for us. Bring us into the therefore. That's what we have in this text. Christ is our Passover. He is the spotless lamb that was slain so that his blood could be painted on our doorpost so that the destroying angel would pass over us and not destroy us as we deserved.

Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and in truth. Oh God, I thank you for our study in Ezra so far. It's been so rich to me. And God, I pray that you would continue to use your word given through Ezra to bless us as we continue in this study. We thank you for our Passover Jesus Christ who was sacrificed for us.

I pray that our Passover lamb would be at the center of our worship week after week after week that we would not move on from this but it would continue to be the center. Not that we're doing for you but rejoicing in all that you've done for us. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.