In his sermon titled 'All Those Whose Spirits God Had Moved,' Jason Dohm explores the significance of the return from Babylonian captivity as detailed in Ezra 2:1-35. He emphasizes the historical authenticity and redemptive importance of this event, noting that it is not mythology but a real historical account. Dohm draws parallels between this return and the Exodus from Egypt, highlighting God's sovereignty and the spiritual giants involved like Zerubbabel and Jeshua. The sermon underscores the significance of Ezra 2 in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, as Zerubbabel is part of Christ's lineage. It also stresses the consequences of sin and the lengthy process of redemption, urging listeners to avoid sin and rebellion. Dohm reminds the congregation of God's intimate involvement in history, including pre-appointing times and habitations, and encourages believers to seek and walk in the good works prepared by God. The sermon concludes with a reflection on the Lamb's Book of Life, urging repentance and faith in the Gospel.

Today's sermon text is Ezra 2, 1 through 35. Now these are the people of the province who came back from the captivity of those who have been carried away, who Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his own city. Those who came with Zerubbabel were Jeshua, Nehemiah, Saraiah, R'lyeh, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mizpar, Big Vi, Rahum, and Bona, the number of the men of the people of Israel. The people of Parosh, 2, 172. The people of Sheffataya, 372.

The people of Ara, 775. The people of Pahath Moab, of the people of Joshua and Joab, 2, 812. The people of Elam, 1, 254. The people of Zattu, 945. The people of Zakkai, 760.

The people of Bani 642 the people of the by 623 the people of Asgard 1222 the people of Adonakim 666 the people of big vi 2056 the people of Aden, 454. The people of Ator, of Hezekiah, 98. The people of Bezai, 323. The people of Jorah, 112. The people of Hashum, 223, the people of Gibbar, 95, the people of Bethlehem, 123.

The men of Netofe, 56. The men of Anathoth, 128. The people of Asmaveth, 42. The people of Kurjath-Erem, Cherphara, and Beiroth, 743. The people of Rama and Geba, 621.

The men of Mikmahs, 122. The men of Bethel and AI 223 the people of Nebo 52 the people of Magbish 156 the people of the other Elam 1254 the people of harem 320 the people of laud hadid and ono 725 the people of Jericho 345 the people of Sinai 3630 second Timothy chapter 3 verses 16 and 2 Timothy 3 verses 16 and 17. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that we could be brought to maturity. We need it all. We need Ezra chapter 2.

If you have a category of scripture named Yawn and Move On, then change. We're not allowed to have a category of scripture named, yawn, and move on. And just because we might come to a text of scripture that we don't have the time to mine the gold out of it doesn't mean that the gold is not there, or that we should think less of the mine. Let's recap where we've been so far in the book of Ezra. So, have your Bibles open.

Just look at chapter one. To embark on a study of Ezra and Nehemiah is to enter a land of spiritual giants. We have Zerubbabel, We have Ezra, we have Nehemiah, these men that God raised up in their time to lead the captives out of Babylon and back to Jerusalem so that the temple would be rebuilt, Jerusalem and Judah would be re-inhabited, and God would begin to be worshipped again as he had prescribed. He wanted himself to be worshipped. But in addition to Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah, this is the time of Daniel.

Daniel is alive during the time of our text right now. There's no indication from Scripture that he returned. I don't think he did return. I think he was probably too indispensable to the kingdom in Babylon. But when you see the kings that he served in Babylon, he was definitely alive during the time of Ezra 2.

So Daniel is a giant and Daniel is roaming the earth during Ezra and Nehemiah. Haggai and Zechariah are prophets who have their own books in the Bible. They are alive during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Of course, Ezra and Nehemiah spans almost a century of time. Esther and Mordecai are alive and they're doing what they did probably between chapters 6 and 7 of the book of Ezra.

It's a particularly abundant time of God raising up people to do wonderful, significant things in his kingdom. So we've entered a land of spiritual giants in studying Ezra and Nehemiah. To study Ezra and Nehemiah is to consider what it means to Rebuild after captivity. And this has particular application for every follower of Jesus Christ. Every follower of Jesus Christ is rebuilding after Captivity.

To be saved is to have Jesus Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit, put His hand on you and to take you out of a kingdom of darkness, of slavery, and bring you into the kingdom of marvelous light. And then you have to rebuild. You know, you're not mature, you're just a baby when you're first born. And God begins that process of helping you to rebuild, coming out of captivity. So this is profoundly applicable to us at an individual level and at a church level.

God is working. He's moving in His churches to revive the hearts of His people, to bring us out of a land of famine of the Word of God and to teach us things. So his Word is more honored and more obeyed for his glory. In the first week of our study, we just looked at verse one, a single verse for a sermon. And in that verse we see Cyrus, king of Persia.

He becomes king in 539 BC, so 539 years before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And 70 years before that, right on the verge of going into captivity, Jeremiah the prophet, God starts speaking through Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah says, because of your sin, because of your rebellion, because of your disobedience, the Lord's people are going to be taken into captivity by the Babylonians for 70 years. He names the time precisely. He sets the date for the end of captivity.

So Cyrus becomes king in 539 BC, 539 years before the birth of Jesus. Seventy years before that, Jeremiah had prophesied that the captivity was just going to be 70 years. And 70 years before that, the prophet Isaiah, In what we're reciting every week, Isaiah chapter 44 and Isaiah chapter 45 prophesied the name of the king, the Gentile King, who would be raised up to accomplish the sending back of the captives. In Isaiah 44 and 45, God calls this Gentile king, my shepherd, my anointed. He says that this king will be raised up so that the temple will be rebuilt and Jerusalem and Judah will be re-inhabited.

He calls him out by name long before Cyrus was ever born. The prophet Isaiah was saying what God had told him to say, which is, Cyrus is the Gentile King who will accomplish these things. It's breathtaking. In the second week, we looked at verses 2 through 4. We really picked up speed.

And there was a sermon on three verses instead of one. And that was the proclamation of King Cyrus. And the proclamation started with acknowledgments, and acknowledgment by this Gentile king that all the kingdoms that he was governing had been given to him by God and that God had commanded him to build this God a temple in Jerusalem. And then the proclamation gives permission and encouragement to the captives to return. He says, go.

And then the proclamation ends by addressing those who aren't going to go and he says help. So everyone is given a role. Everyone among the Lord's people is given a role in this proclamation. Go or help? And then, in the third week of our study, which was last week, we picked up speed again and it was verses 5 through 11.

So we really went wild and looked at seven verses. And it followed the structure of the proclamation. So in the proclamation Cyrus had said go and help and Last week's text follows that structure and says, these are the ones who went. These are the ones who helped. Cyrus is included in the ones who helped.

He gives back the articles of the temple, which had also been taken into captivity. Now this week we have 35 verses that we're covering. So if you have an expectation that we're going to finish the book of Ezra next week, Let me just disappoint you now. We've been picking up speed, but we're going to start slowing down again for next week. As we come to our text, let's go to the Lord in prayer.

God, I pray that there would be a mighty treasuring of Your Word among Your people today. Oh, help us to love the words that you've given to us. You're such a treasure. We're so greatly in need of every word that you've said. Not a word that we need is missing.

Not a word that you've given to us is a throwaway word, but all of these things are profitable, are helpful, are a blessing to teach us, to reprove us, to correct us, to train us in righteousness. Oh, give us hungry hearts today for your word in Jesus' name. Amen. So here's the structure of the rest of our time. First, there's going to be an exposition of the text.

I'm going to explain as best I can what there is in verses 1 through 35. Then we're going to move to five things that I think we need to learn from the text. So there are probably many more that we could learn or maybe even should learn from the text, but I only have five, so that's what you get. An exposition of the text. What is this text about?

What is here? We're actually going to be spending three weeks in chapter two. This week is about specific families who return from captivity and specific locations that are re-inhabited. So people have been pulled, evacuated out of cities, taken into captivity, and now there's going to be a return, a re-inhabiting of those emptied out cities. And so We get the names of families and we get the locations that they're coming back to.

Next week, we move on to particular groups of people who are also returning. Priests, Levites, Singers, Gatekeepers, Nethinim. You're going to learn what a Nethinim is next week if you don't already know. Sons of Solomon's servants. So each of these groups has a specific purpose and a specific significance.

So next week we'll be devoted to talking about these groups who are also returning with the people that we'll talk about this week. And then finally, the third week in Chapter 2 will be about those who can't identify their genealogy. So certain captives can't track back the genealogy. So something has to be done with these who don't know their genealogy. So that will be the last week in chapter 2.

I believe this chapter, you cannot separate it from chapter 1 verse 5. So these are very connected. And in chapter 1 verse 5 you get the higher level broader statement of those who are coming out of captivity and going and re-inhabiting Jerusalem and Judah. So Ezra starts at a high level. He starts very broad.

He says this in chapter 1 verse 5, the heads of the fathers houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites with all whose spirits God had moved arose to go up and build." So he starts broad. He says there are some heads of houses from the tribe of Judah, from the tribe of Benjamin, and there are some Levites, and there are some priests who go back. These are those among the Lord's people who God stirs up their hearts to go back. God moves them to return from captivity, to re-inhabit Jerusalem and Judah. Now, in this week's text, we get the next level of detail.

So the summary statement is there are some of these two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, there are some Levites, there are some priests who come back, and now we get the next layer of detail which gets more specific about the who, the families that are coming back, and the where, the cities and towns that will be re-inhabited. But, God is still the main character. Remember we kept seeing that over and over again in the first three studies of chapter one. God is the main character, God is the main character, God is the main character. And he's raising up people and he's using them, they're doing things.

So there's a Gentile king who's doing something, but he's not the primary cause, he's the secondary cause. God is the primary cause. There are families who are going to be returning, and they are really moving, they are really doing something, but they are not the primary cause. God is the primary cause. So we take that out of chapter one and just pull it forward and say even though we've got more detail, we're not becoming detached from what we know to be true.

That God is moving the hearts of every family name you see in chapter two, God is moving their hearts. Every city that's named here in our text, it's because God wants that city inhabited. So nothing is happening by happenstance in chapter 2. Just like in chapter 1, God is the main character. God is the one moving these things to fulfill his will.

All the names are ones moved by God, by the Spirit of God. All the places are places that God said, I want that city or town inhabited again by the first wave of the captives who are returning. So that's what this is. This is the first of three waves of captives returning from Babylon to Jerusalem and Judah. In verse 2, we see that they are led by Zerubbabel, and that there are 10 other names that are helping to lead this return of the first wave.

So, Zerubbabel plus ten names. It's worth noting that there is a parallel passage in Nehemiah. So, it will be months before we get there, but in Nehemiah chapter seven, Nehemiah uncovers the list of the people who did come back in the first wave and it's very similar. It's identical in structure and there's lots of overlap, there's lots of agreement and there's some differences too. I think I'll wait to talk about the differences until we get to Nehemiah.

This list that we have in Ezra 2 also exists in Nehemiah 7 with lots of agreement and overlap. Now, who are these ten other names? So our text today, verse 2, Zerubbabel is leading the return of the first wave. And there are ten other names. Who are these ten other names?

Well, the text doesn't say. But my best guess is that linking this back to chapter one verse five, where we just were, that said that God moved on certain people's hearts, the head of households from the tribe of Judah and from the tribe of Benjamin. I believe these ten men are these heads of households. The rest of chapter 2 matches that format from chapter 1 verse 5. So when we get past today's text, then we're going to go to priests, Then we're going to go to Levites.

That matches chapter 1 verse 5 in structure. So that's my best guess. These ten names following the name of Zerubbabel are heads of households of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, but the text does not explicitly say that, so that might not be right. The most significant two names in this, and here's what I mean by most significant, we're going to keep seeing them. They're going to keep doing things in the book of Ezra and even in the book of Nehemiah.

We will see these names. The first is the first name on the list. At least the first two names are listed in priority. At least the first two. Zerubbabel.

It literally means, sewn in Babylon. Guess where he was born. Or, offspring of Babylon. That's what the word Zerubbabel means. Zerubbabel is the grandson of King Jehoiachin.

You can find King Jehoiachin in 2 Chronicles chapter 36. If you just flip the page once, you'll see him. He is one of the kings that Nebuchadnezzar takes into captivity. And so Zerubbabel is his grandson, he's the grandson of this man. He's also called Jeconiah in different places in scripture.

So he's another one of those who goes by two names depending on which text you're looking at. Zerubbabel, sown in Babylon, or offspring of Babylon, who was the grandson of King Jehoiachin, or King Jeconiah. Then the second name, the second most significant name on this list, is a Jeshua. This is an abbreviation for Joshua. So two Hebrew words, it would be like William and Bill.

This is a compressed form of the Hebrew word Joshua, which means Jehovah saves, And that's Jesus' name. Jesus is another form of that name. Jeshua also has a famous grandfather. Jeshua is the grandson of Saraiya, who is the chief priest, who is the high priest at the time where the temple is destroyed. He is the last high priest when the temple was destroyed and who was personally put to death by Nebuchadnezzar in 2 Kings 25 verses 18-21.

So if you want to see the end of Jeshua's grandfather, you find it in 2 Kings 25 verses 18-21 where an officer of Nebuchadnezzar rounds up the leaders, takes them to Nebuchadnezzar to find out what he wants done with them, and Nebuchadnezzar executes them on the spot. This was Yeshua's grandfather. So There are many parallels between the liberation of the people of God from Egypt and the liberation from the Babylonian captivity. You see many parallels. One of them is that in coming out of Egypt, God raised up Moses as a chief prince of the people.

He raised up Aaron as a chief priest of the people. We see that here. This is very parallel to the Exodus, the people of God from slavery in Egypt. Like Moses and Aaron were raised up by God, one to lead the people and the other to lead in the things of the worship of God. We see that here with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, a chief prince and a chief priest like Moses and Aaron.

The most famous names in verse 2 are Nehemiah and Mordecai. They're not the Nehemiah and the Mordecai that you're thinking of. Almost certainly they're not. The timing is way off from the prophet Nehemiah who writes the book of Nehemiah and from the Mordecai that is associated with Esther in the book of Esther. There are lots of the same name being used for different individuals throughout the Old Testament, and this is almost certainly a case of that.

So in verse 2 here in chapter 2 when you see the name Mordecai and Nehemiah, they're not the ones you're thinking about. We're coming to those later. Now in verse 3 through 35 we get to numbers, math, of those who return. And there's a division. So verses 3 through 20 are family names and the numbers associated.

So this family and 123 of them went back or whatever the number is. This family and 479 of them came back or whatever, whichever number. And then in verses 21 through 35, instead of family names associated with the numbers, it becomes the names of cities and towns, location names associated with the numbers. So 3 through 20, families and numbers. And 21 through 35, locations, cities and towns and their numbers.

Verse 2 of our text says that they are going back to their own city. That might be verse 1 actually. Yes, verse 1. Everyone to his own city. Meaning These people came out of captivity from certain towns and they're returning back to the towns of their heritage.

Of course, this is very significant in the life of Israel in that everyone has a family inheritance. The promised land was given to the people of God and it was divided among tribes and then among families. So your family had an allotment and if you sold off your allotment there was to be a time of a Jubilee year where you returned back to your inheritance. So families are very closely tied to locations. Here's a summary of what we have.

In the family section, verses 3 through 20, you have eighteen families returning from captivity. Eighteen families totaling fifteen thousand six hundred and six people. Eighteen families, fifteen thousand six hundred and six people. In the location section versus 21 through 35, you have 21 cities or towns, 21 different locations named, totaling 8, 540 people. So it gives you a grand total of 24, 146 people returning in this section of the first wave.

But we're not done with the first wave. We have two more sermons that will give us more people. So it will end up totaling about 50, 000 people. But This week, with the families and the locations, we're talking about a little less than 25, 000 people. This will give you some perspective on that.

Wake Forest today has right at 33, 000 people. So In the first wave, when we add up everybody in chapter two, we'll come to about 50, 000 people, which is less than double of Wake Forest. That is not a lot of people for Jerusalem and Judah as a geographical area in all those locations. So the task is monumental for the number of people spread out over that geographical area. Why the division?

Why verses 3-20 being families and then 21-35 being locations? Well, the text doesn't say. You know that's my favorite answer to the questions I ask myself in the pulpit. The text does not say. So we don't know for sure.

Commentators offer several possible explanations. The one that seemed most reasonable to me, so I'll offer it to you, is that perhaps the families in verses 3 through 20, that 15, 000 people, were the ones coming back to Jerusalem. Because there is a massive omission in cities and towns in verses 21-35, and that's Jerusalem. So all the cities and towns in verses 21-35 are cities and towns sprinkled around Jerusalem, throughout the province of Judea. So Perhaps these families that are named are named because they are in Jerusalem.

That would explain the omission of Jerusalem from that second section. That's my best stab at it. So that's a very brief exposition or explanation of what verses 1 through 35 are about. Now let's apply things that we see in that text. These are the five things to learn from the text.

And I've given you fill in the blank on the handout to help you track with these five points. Point number one, this is not mythology. That's blank number one, mythology. This is not mythology. This is not a made up story about origins and history like myths are, like Hercules or Zeus, Olympus.

This is history. This is history. This is a historical account of real people with real names who lived in real places, who woke up one day in Babylon and left Babylon on that day to return, to do what God had said would be done and to fulfill His will. It has all the marks of real history. You have real family names, some of which can be verified in non-biblical historical records.

You have real places, some of which can be verified by non-biblical archaeological data information. By non-biblical archaeological data information. Of course, the scripture is more reliable than those non-biblical, but it helps. It's good, it's comforting to us to find these things in so many ways lining up. For instance, I've referenced the Cyrus cylinder, which you can find in the British Museum today, which is a cylinder that's about four inches in diameter and nine inches long.

There's writing around and around and around it, and it says many of the things that verify what we're studying in the book of Ezra about Cyrus becoming king and conquering Babylon and releasing the Jews to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. Number one, this is not mythology. This has all the marks of history. Number two. Oh, wait a minute.

I'm not done with number one. I'm not done with number one. The ultimate importance, this is so critical, the ultimate importance of this history that God has given us is its place in redemptive history. So why this? So if we were going to write the Bible, there would be lots of things that we don't know from Scripture that we want to know.

If we were writing it, those things that we don't find there, we want to know, we would put in. Things like this, that in the year 2014 seemed so obscure, we'd make space for those other things we'd like to know by pulling this out. Probably, if we were in charge of writing. But the point is, God is wiser than us. And He's given us just what he wanted to give us, and it is better for us than what we would give ourselves.

So those things that we would like to know that are not here, that we would create space for by pulling out chapters like Ezra 2 to make room for all the stuff we're curious about. God was wiser in withholding the other and in giving us Ezra chapter 2. And one of the reasons is this has a beautiful place in redemptive history. What's that? In the history of Christ.

In the history of Jesus, our Savior. Zerubbabel is in both the genealogies of Jesus Christ. This Zerubbabel, Ezra chapter 2 Zerubbabel, is in Matthew chapter 1 verse 12, is in Luke chapter 3 verse 27. Zerubbabel is necessary for the birth of Jesus Christ. Bethlehem, is in Ezra chapter 22.

Ezra chapter 2, verse 21. So there's people back in Bethlehem again at the end of Ezra chapter 22. Some of their relatives will be there, 539 or 38, something very close to that years later when Jesus Christ is born. So God is raising up people and populating places and advancing history in just the way he wants to so that Jesus Christ would be born as Paul says in Galatians 4 verse 4 in the fullness of time at just the right moment. God has been moving around pieces on the board just as he wanted to, to have the right people in the right place at the right time.

So in the fullness of time, Jesus Christ would be born in Bethlehem, a distant great-great-great-great-grandson of Zerubbabel, in this place that was repopulated in Ezra chapter 2. The significance of this, the great fulfillment of all the law and the prophets is Jesus Christ. The significance of Ezra chapter 2 ultimately is its place in redemptive history. Now number two. I jumped the gun.

Number two. Consider where sin takes you and how long it can take to get back. So your three blanks there are sin, how long? Consider where sin takes you, and how long it can take to get back. Now the first wave is coming back, but the people of God aren't back.

There's going to be three waves and even then they're going to be under another empire. It's not going to be like it was. God gave the people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, the promised land, in the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham. He displaced nations, many nations, all mightier than Israel. You get that?

When the promised land is given, Israel is defeating nation after nation after nation. They're all mightier than Israel in numbers, in weaponry, but they cannot stand before the people of God. That's what the Old Testament says. They're mightier nations than Israel. And yet they cannot withstand Israel.

Why? Because the hand of God. Because God is giving them that land. And then David, Israel's greatest king, becomes king and he defeats enemy after enemy after enemy after enemy to the point that he delivers a kingdom totally at peace to his son Solomon. No one will mess with Israel after David is king.

Now that's not going to last forever, as you know. But we see this in 2 Samuel, that God made all of Israel's enemies to live at peace with them. Now, in Now, in verse 1, we see this word that I didn't talk about yet, province. We go from the mighty nation where everybody is afraid to mess with Israel because of the favor that God has given them. God gave their enemies over into their hand And now they are a province.

They're not Judah. Within a tribe, within a mighty nation, they're Judea. We see the word Judea for the first time in the Bible in Ezra chapter 5 verse 8, province of Judea. That's the phrase in Ezra chapter 5 verse 8. We've never seen it in the Bible before.

It was Judah, a tribe within a mighty nation that the nations surrounding them were afraid of and now it is Judea, the province of a foreign king. What happened? What happened to take this mighty nation and to reduce it into the province renamed by a foreign king. Listen to Deuteronomy chapter 28 verses 1 and 2 and then skipping to verse 13 for the sake of time. So this is Deuteronomy chapter 28, blessings for obedience, the curses for disobedience.

That's Deuteronomy 28, verses 1 and 2, then skipping to verse 13. Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God." Skipping to verse 13. And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail. You shall be above only and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today and are careful to observe them.

God promised that if They would be his people if they would obey him, if they would love him, if they would worship him faithfully. That they would be the head and not the tail, that they would always be above and not be beneath. That he would bless them for honoring him through obedience. Then the whole rest of Deuteronomy chapter 28 is what's going to happen to them if they will not obey this God who has been so kind to them, so good to them, who brought them out of the land of slavery and is giving them a land of milk and honey. If you'll just obey me, I'll bless you for your obedience, for honoring me through obedience." This is no different than what we studied in 1 Peter chapter 5 verses 5 through 7.

1 Peter chapter 5, second half of verse 5 through 7, we studied, Be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you." Peter and Moses are teaching the same thing. 1 Peter chapter 5 teaches the same thing as Deuteronomy chapter 28 just in different words. God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble. So we ought to humble ourselves under his mighty hand.

We ought to trust him. We ought to love him. We ought to worship him. We ought to demonstrate our love for Him by obeying His commandments. He gives grace to the humble.

But if we are proud, if we will not be governed by this God, He'll resist us. He'll bring us into a time of discipline. So don't play with sin and rebellion. This is what we should learn from what we're studying in Ezra. Do not play with sin and rebellion.

Don't dabble with it. Don't think you can manage it in small portions. Such a danger! To think that it can be played with, that rebellion against God can be done in small doses and controlled. That's a lie.

That's not true. That puts your feet on a track that ends here. 70 years of captivity. Even when they came back, they weren't a mighty nation. They were the province renamed by a foreign king.

Don't dabble. Don't try to enjoy it and control it in small amounts, thinking that it won't gain dominion over you. You think it will serve you, but you will serve it. And you'll open the door, and you'll dabble, and you'll play, and you'll end up enslaved to it. Galatians chapter 6 verses 7 and 8, this is what Paul says on the same subject Galatians chapter 6 verses 7 and 8, do not be deceived, God is not mocked.

Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit, will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. This is not the prosperity gospel. How Paul casts the same subject makes it so clear that we're not talking about a goody bag of wealth and materials.

We're talking about spiritual things. When you sow to the Spirit, you reap spiritual blessing and benefit. When you sow to the flesh, you reap corruption. We're talking about spiritual realities, which are greater than the physical realities that sometimes accompany them. Don't think you can dabble.

Number three. God has pre-appointed our times and habitations. So your blanks are times and habitations. He's pre-appointed them. You live in this generation because God placed you in this generation.

You live in the year 2014 because God has you here for this time. Sovereign God placed you in this generation. This is not boy meets girl. And so you happen to be here. This is a sovereign God placing you in this generation for his own good, wise purposes.

You live in Youngsville, North Carolina or Boynton, Virginia Because God placed you in Youngsville, North Carolina or Boynton, Virginia. Remember, Esther and Mordecai are during this span of Ezra and Nehemiah. Esther chapter 4 verses 14, Mordecai says this to Esther, Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Mordecai wonders out loud if Esther is where she is in this generation, in this location where she is, because God has raised her up for just this purpose. And That is what the book of Esther is all about.

That's exactly what God was doing. He raised her up to save His people from annihilation. Turn in your Bibles to Acts 17. In Acts 17, this is a very famous chapter. It's Paul in Athens.

Paul is waiting for people to join him in Athens. He goes for a walk. His spirit is provoked at all the idolatry that he sees on his walk around Athens. And he can't help but preach. So, Athens, they love new ideas, so a guy's preaching new ideas, they want to hear more.

So he's called before the Areopagus, which is their ruling council, and he gets to preach in front of the ruling council in Athens. So this is part of his sermon, what I'm going to read in Acts chapter 17, verses 24 through 28. Paul says to these men who are governing Athens, God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, and all things. And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him though he is not far from each one of us For in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring." And then in verse 39 he says, God's been overlooking your ignorance, but now God commands all men everywhere to repent.

Paul declares with the greatest confidence that God has determined our pre-appointed times and the boundaries of our dwellings. That's what we see in Ezra chapter 2. God has pre-appointed, beforehand determined, Our times, the time in which we would live, and the boundaries of our habitation, where we would live, God determined that way upstream before the foundations of the world. This is worthy of some reflection. Why has God placed me in this generation?

And in this location? Why me in 2014? Why me in Youngsville? Because Paul has declared the truth. He pre-appointed me for 2014.

He pre-appointed me for Youngsville. Why? It's a worthwhile expenditure of time to just wonder, why us? Why here? Why now?

God had something in mind. He has something in mind. Number four. These people believed God and He used them mightily. So your blanks are believed, used, mightily.

These people that were reading about family names, locations, all these numbers, all these 22, 000 people, they believed God and He used them mightily. These were the ones from chapter 1 verse 5 whose spirits God had moved. God moved on the hearts of all these people to send them back to those locations And they acted. God moved on their hearts, and it moved them to action. So there's the will of God, and then there's people living on the earth who are acting out of faith, believing God and acting.

James 2 says that faith without works is dead. It's not real, genuine, saving faith. There's a kind of faith that just is belief with nothing else. James says, That's dead. That doesn't save people, but saving faith, genuine faith, results in something.

Genuine faith is transformative. It changes you. A heart of stone becomes a heart of flesh. You just can't be the same when you used to be a person with a heart of stone, but now you're a person with a heart of flesh. You can't be the same person now.

Jesus says it's being born again. Paul says it's a new creation. The old things have passed away, the new things have come. You're not the same person. That saving faith pushes you forward.

It results in something. You've been transformed. Consider what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, for we are his workmanship. Ephesians 2 verse 10, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. There are good works that God has prepared beforehand.

He's not only pre-appointed our times and the boundaries of our habitations, but he's – I lost the verbiage – he's prepared beforehand good works. We should walk in these good works. Where's workmanship? We're created in Christ. We're born a natural man, but then born again in Christ.

Created in Christ. A new life in Christ. Why? Because God has good works. He's prepared beforehand.

We should just walk in those good works so that he would loom large as a glorious God over the earth. May we as individual disciples, may we as families, may we as a local church have eagerness to discover the good works that God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in. We should have eager hearts, eager spirits to find out the good works that God has prepared beforehand so that we can walk in them. May God give us eyes of faith, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, hungering and thirsting that God would bring us into good works so he would be glorified. People of faith, walking by faith and not by sight, eager, eager, Like a kid in a candy store to find out the good works that God wants us to walk in so we can rush into them.

Number five. Lastly, God is a list-keeping God. The blanks are list-keeping. God is a list-keeping God. How do we know?

Because there are lots of lists in the Bible, and God is the author of the Bible. We know He's the list-keeping God, because He's given us all these lists. He's caused them to be kept. What's the point? God is not the God of the deists who sets everything in motion and then steps back and just watches to see what happens, removes himself.

Just watch and observe He is intimately involved with even the smallest things. God is a sovereign God who's moving around atoms. The tiniest molecules. Consider what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 10 verses 29 through 31, Jesus says, are not two sparrows sold for one copper coin. Two birds, one coin.

And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your father's will. So we place no value on these birds. A bird's not even worth one coin. You've got to have two of them to make them worth one coin. They're worth less than a penny.

But not one of these things that we value so lightly falls to the ground without, apart from our Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore. You are of more value than many sparrows. God is intimately involved with even the littlest things.

He knows the number of hairs on your head. There's a list of that. I don't know if there's, I'm sure there's not a list. The lists are for us, not for God. I'm confident of that.

He knows. And the count will change. From the time we came in here, somebody's going to lose a hair. So the number's different. Don't pull your mother's hair, Stephen.

The number is different than when we walked in here. And God noted the change. That's what Jesus said. He knows the count of all the people and all the hairs on all the people. He's engaged down to that level of detail.

What a comfort. The point of it, Jesus says in Matthew chapter 10 is you don't have to Fear. Do not fear therefore. You are more value than many sparrows. So this fact that God is involved down to the littlest detail is designed to be a great comfort to the Lord's people.

That we would just be free from fear. We don't have to fear. We don't need to fear. It's sin to fear. As John the Baptist's father says in Luke 1, we can serve Him without fear, in righteousness and holiness all our days.

Isn't that beautiful? We can serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all of our days. We're free to serve him without fear in this life. Why? Because He knows down to the hair count.

And He values you. So we can just entrust ourselves to Him. And we ought to. Our God is not waiting to see what will happen. He is directing all things to a glorious end.

He's moving around the pieces on the board to be in place, in time for his will to be worked out. Turn to Revelation 21. We'll close Revelation 21. The end of Revelation 21. Revelation 21 beginning in verse 22.

John describes what he is seeing. But I saw no temple in it, For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it. For the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light. And the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day. There shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.

There shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Here's your list that matters. Ezra 2 is beautiful because it fits into redemptive history. It shows part of how God is moving the pieces on the board to have things in place for the birth of Jesus Christ so he could live and give himself to redeem a people. But the list that matters most is the Lamb's Book of Life.

It has names in it. Real people who lived on the earth at real points in time. Real people that God had compassion on and mercy on. And if you repent and believe the Gospel, your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life in this beautiful picture of heaven. It's hard not to weep to just read the description of the glory of it and the valuing of God, the honoring of God that happens there.

Repent, believe the Gospel. Let's pray. God, I thank you for the Lamb's Book of Life, that there are people who have been purchased by the blood of this Lamb, and that their names are known in heaven. The ones who have already lived and died many centuries ago, and the ones who are living on the earth right now, Even ones that have not been born again or are living on the earth right now, but their names are in the Lamb's Book of Life and you will accomplish your will in their life and you will pour out your compassion upon them. And then Those who may not be born for however many years in the future, but already you know each one.

God I thank you that you are so concerned with the details. We seem so small. We are a speck of dust on a speck of dust in the breadth of the universe. But you even know how many hairs are on our head. And you notice the change when we lose one.

And you care for us. What is man that you are mindful of him? And yet you are mindful of us. Your word gives us confidence that you do care. That we can cast all of our cares upon you because you care for us.

Oh Lord, I pray that there would be a mighty turning of hearts towards you in our homes, in our church, in this community that you would be exalted and loved among the people who you redeemed. May it be so in Jesus' name, Amen.