The sermon titled 'The Word of the Lord Fulfilled' by Jason Dohm focuses on the fulfillment of God's promises as exemplified in the biblical book of Ezra, specifically Ezra 1:1-4. The sermon opens with the proclamation of Cyrus, King of Persia, who declares that the Lord has commanded him to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, fulfilling the prophecy spoken by Jeremiah. Dohm emphasizes that God is a promise-keeping God, having fulfilled many promises and promising to fulfill more. He relates the story of the Israelites' return from captivity to the broader theme of redemption and rebuilding after spiritual captivity, applicable to both individuals and churches today. Dohm also discusses the prophetic writings of Jeremiah and Isaiah, highlighting how these prophecies, including the naming of Cyrus, illustrate God's sovereignty and precision in fulfilling His word. The sermon underscores the importance of trusting in God's promises and living fearlessly under His sovereign rule, while also acknowledging the historical significance of the events discussed in Ezra and Nehemiah. Dohm concludes by drawing applications for contemporary believers, encouraging them to trust in God's timing and sovereignty over trials and blessings, including the influence of pagan rulers for the benefit of His people.

In preparation for the sermon today we'll be reading from the book of Ezra chapter 1 verses 1 through 4. Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing, saying, Thus says Cyrus King of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me, and He has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all his people? May his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. He is God, which is in Jerusalem.

And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the free will offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem." The title of the sermon this morning is The Word of the Lord fulfilled. This is about a God who makes promises and then keeps those promises, every single one of his promises. So that's the punch line. You've already heard the punch line. It's what this sermon is all about.

That's what the verse that we're covering is all about. God makes promises and then He keeps His promises, all of them. And so we should be a happy people because He's made great and precious promises. Exceedingly great and precious promises. And He's already kept most of them and there are a few left that he will also keep.

The scope of the sermon this morning is Ezra chapter 1 verse 1. You can be thankful that we won't be going Ezra just one verse at a time. I should have added up how many Sundays and weeks and months and years that would be. Anyway, we'll pick up steam after today. I loved reading all ten chapters of Ezra last week.

Wasn't that fantastic to just imbibe the whole thing and see from start to finish what God has given us in this book. And I'm very excited to be preaching through Ezra and Nehemiah. Here's why. It is about rebuilding after coming out of captivity. I've said this before, but I'm going to say it many more times in the weeks and months to come.

This has very particular, special application to us. The things that you need to know to rebuild when you're coming out of activity applies to us individually. You know that no one is born saved. You're born and then you're a mess. You're an enemy of God and you need to be rescued.

If you don't get rescued and raised from the dead by the Spirit of God, there's no hope for you. So we all find ourselves in a way, in the position that the people of God are in, in Ezra, coming back from captivity. So this applies at the individual level. And it applies to churches, I believe particularly now, in a time of great apostasy, in a time of great departing from the ways of God and casting off His government, even in the life of the church. But God is moving on his people.

I can see that. I believe you can see that. Things are being recovered by his people that have been lost for decades or longer. And as these things are recovered, In a way, we're coming back from captivity and we're having to rebuild walls that are broken down, and lay foundation stones again to rebuild the temple on, so to speak. So this has application to us at an individual and at a church level.

As we go to our verse, let's pray. Oh God, I thank you that you have sent your Son Jesus Christ to preach good tidings to the poor and to proclaim liberty to the captives. This was the work of your Son, the promised Messiah. That He has proclaimed liberty to the captives and freedom in His own work, the atoning work of Jesus. Now God, as we study history, the history of your faithfulness to your people, that you have made promises and then you have kept them.

With such beauty and precision, may our faith be built up. May we be built up in our most holy faith. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I think Ezra wrote the book of Ezra, and the book of Nehemiah, and the book of 1 Chronicles, and the book of 2 Chronicles.

Historically I'm on solid ground saying that, especially among early Jewish scholars. Early Jewish scholars all held that Ezra wrote Ezra Nehemiah, 1st and 2nd Chronicles. But there's not an overwhelming consensus of that. But I just wanted to put that on the table because I'm going to talk that way for the next year. I won't be saying the author, I'll be saying Ezra.

It's possible that Ezra just wrote parts of Ezra, but When we get to chapter 7, he's going to go into the first person. So at least seven forward and parts of Nehemiah are in the first person. At least those sections are written by him. As the book of Ezra begins, the Jews are in captivity in Babylon. So that's where we start.

The Jews are not where they are supposed to be, in that sense. They have been given the promised land by God, and they're not there. They're in Babylon, they're in captivity, and God did that. It was no king that did that. So you can read the history books and it will tell you about Nebuchadnezzar and where he went and what he did.

But over that is a God doing this actually also in fulfillment of his promises. God had promised, if you will not serve me and if you go after false gods, if you become idolaters, you won't get to stay here in this land that I've given you. He fulfills that promise too in his workings among the nations. Something happens that Ezra points to in Ezra chapter 1 verse 1, and Ezra points to that thing and he says, this happened to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah. In other words, God raised up Jeremiah the prophet and he put words in his mouth to say what was going to happen.

And this thing that Ezra is pointing to in Ezra chapter 1 verse 1 is the fulfillment of what God said through that man. Now you have to understand this. In Ezra chapter 1 verse 1, or verse for today, Ezra is relating events that happened 80 years before he himself actually returns to Jerusalem in chapter 7. So chapters 1 through 6 of the book of Ezra is Ezra recounting history. Ezra 1-1 is 80 years before the start of chapter 7 when Ezra himself returns from Babylon to Jerusalem, leading another group of Jews back to help continue with the rebuilding.

So Ezra is pointing back 80 years. This begs the question, what did God say by the mouth of Jeremiah? God raised up a man, a prophet, his name was Jeremiah. He put words in his mouth to say the things that were going to happen. And Ezra is saying this thing in verse 1 is the fulfillment of that.

We should consider two places in the prophecies of Jeremiah. Turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 25. We're going to look at Jeremiah 25, a portion of that, and then Jeremiah 29, a portion of that. This is what Ezra is pointing to, pointing back to as the prophecies that are being fulfilled in verse 1. So Jeremiah chapter 25 beginning in verse 1 reading through verse 13.

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the Lord has come to me. And I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early in sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear." They said, Repent now, everyone, of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, and I will not harm you. Yet you have not listened to me, says the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not heard my words, behold I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon my servant and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, against all these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstone and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the King of Babylon seventy years. Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the King of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord, and I will make it a perpetual desolation. So I will bring on that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied concerning all the nations.

So we have a number of things in Jeremiah 25, verses 1-13. We have that It's the first year of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar has just become the king of the Chaldeans. Babylon is the capital of their nation. We have in verse 3, Jeremiah saying, Judah, you have ignored me for 23 years.

That's what he says in verse 3. I've been prophesying for 23 years, rising early, and you haven't listened and haven't listened and haven't listened. We have in verses 4-7 that it's not just Jeremiah that's been ignored, but God's been sending prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet, and the people wouldn't heed any of them, so Jeremiah is not special in that respect. We have in verse 11, Jeremiah prophesying that the people are going to serve the king of Babylon for 70 years. And then finally we have that Babylon is going to be judged.

So God is going to take this wicked nation, the Chaldeans, under King Nebuchadnezzar, and use them as an instrument to judge his people who are acting in wickedness in their idolatry. But the wicked nation isn't off the hook themselves. Their time is coming. That's how God does it. He uses the wicked sometimes in His plan.

That doesn't let them off the hook. Their time is coming. So this is what we have in Jeremiah 21. And Ezra is pointing back to that. Now let's look at Jeremiah 29.

Just flip a couple of pages to Jeremiah 29. In Jeremiah 29, what he was prophesying in chapter 25 has already happened. The captivity that God foretold through Jeremiah is in place. So There are captives in Babylon, but not everyone has been taken to Babylon. Some are left.

A few are left. Jeremiah has been left. He is still in Jerusalem and he writes to the captives who are in Babylon. So this is part of his letter in Jeremiah chapter 29. I'll be reading 10 through 14.

This is Jeremiah writing prophetically to the captives in Babylon. For thus says the Lord after 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good toward you and cause you to return to this place, where I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

I will be found by you says the Lord and I will bring you back from your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord. And I will bring you to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive." Verse 11 is such a famous verse. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. If you've ever heard a sermon on that, it's the most sunshiny sermon you've ever heard in your life.

All the context is left out. You got dragged into captivity for 70 years because of your sins. It's on the heels of that. So that verse is often ripped out of context, even though the central truth remains, which is God is a God of mercy, and He often restores. So these are the places in Jeremiah that Ezra is pointing back to and saying, this thing that's happening here is the fulfillment of the words of Jeremiah.

It should be noted that Ezra isn't the only student of Jeremiah. In other words, we have evidence in Ezra chapter 1 verse 1 that Ezra has been reading Jeremiah. But he's not the only one who's been reading Jeremiah. Listen to Daniel chapter 9 verses 1 and 2. Daniel actually went into captivity as a boy, as a young boy.

He went into captivity in the second wave of captives. There are three waves of captives. Nebuchadnezzar comes, they surrender, he takes a few captives, They rebel. Nebuchadnezzar comes back. They surrender.

He takes more captives. They rebel. Nebuchadnezzar comes back. He levels the temple. Complete utter destruction of the temple.

And he destroys Jerusalem. And he takes most captive back in the third wave. Daniel was in the second wave. He was a boy, and he's put under the care of the chief of the eunuchs, along with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The rest is history, you know the stories there.

Daniel says this in Daniel chapter 9 verses 1 and 2. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. So Daniel now, in his eighties or older, probably, is reading Jeremiah, and he sees the number of years is 70 years so we're almost at the time where God is going to return us to Jerusalem. And then following in chapter 9 is this beautiful prayer of repentance on behalf of His people, asking God to be kind to them. So Ezra has been studying Jeremiah, we see that in verse 1.

He's not the only one. Daniel has been studying Jeremiah too. And it's made them know that 70 years is the length of the captivity. And that at the end of that 70 years there should be expectation that God will fulfill his promises. There certainly was expectation in the heart of Daniel.

He knew that God would keep his promise and so he's ready. He's ready for the end of the captivity. Now Jeremiah spoke of other prophets who were sent by God and ignored. Remember that in Jeremiah chapter 25? He wasn't the only one ignored.

There were other prophets that were sent and ignored. Like who? Like Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 39, Isaiah prophesied to King Hezekiah that everything that he has accumulated, in fact everything that has been accumulated by his fathers up until that day, will be taken by Nebuchadnezzar into captivity along with his sons and carried away to Babylon. That's not all that Isaiah said about the captivity.

So turn to Isaiah 44. We were there last week, we were there this morning in our recitation. We'll be there for 13 weeks, but we're going to go further than we've been in our reciting. Turn to Isaiah 44. We're going to begin our reading at our recitation spot 24, but then we will continue through 45 verse 13.

So Isaiah having prophesied the Babylonian captivity that God is going to reach the end of his long suffering with the idolatry of the Israelites. He's going to send them into captivity. He doesn't stop there. He doesn't let that be the end of the story. He prophesied that he's going to be kind to them again, even after their captivity, after the 70 years.

Isaiah 44, beginning in 24, and continuing through 25-13. Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb. I am the Lord who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of the babblers and drives diviners mad, who turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolishness, who confirms the word of his servant and performs the counsel of his messengers. Who says to Jerusalem, you shall be inhabited, to the cities of Judah you shall be built, and I will raise up her waste places. Who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers.

Who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and he shall perform all my pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, You shall be built, and to the temple your foundation shall be laid. Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors so that the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.

For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel my elect, I have even called you by your name. I have named you, though you have not known me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. There is no God besides me. I will gird you, though you have not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness. I make Peace and create calamity. I the Lord do all these things. Rain down you heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness.

Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation. And let righteousness spring up together. I the Lord have created it. Woe to him who strives with his maker, let the potchards strive with the potchards of the earth. Shall the clay say to him who forms it, What are you making?

Or shall your handiwork say, He has no hands? Woe to him who says to his father, What are you begetting? Or to the woman, What have you brought forth? Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel and His Maker, ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, you command me. I have made the earth and created man on it.

I, my hand, stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts I have commanded. I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct his ways. He shall build my city and let my exiles go free, not for price nor reward, says the Lord of hosts." So that's a long reading, but I want to point out several things from what I just read. The first comes from verse 24 of chapter 44, where you have this fantastic claim of complete and exclusive sovereignty. This is definitely Sovereign Sunday here.

We've been talking about sovereignty since the opening minutes of the service. God asserts that in verse 24. Complete and exclusive sovereignty. God says, I do that all alone. I do it by myself.

I don't need anyone's help or counsel. In verses 25 and 26 God says that he frustrates the wise of the world. He drives diviners mad, because he is the sovereign God. But he establishes the words of his servants. He raises men up like Jeremiah and puts words in their mouths.

He makes promises that way. And then he keeps all of them. In verse 26, he says Jerusalem is going to be inhabited. Judah is going to be rebuilt. So Isaiah has prophesied the captivity, the desolation, of Judah and Jerusalem.

But that's not the end of the story. He prophesied the end of the captivity and the re-populating of Jerusalem. In verse 28, he actually prophesied the name of the pagan king who will be the instrument of this happening. He says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd. A Persian king, Cyrus the Great, is the shepherd of the Most high God to accomplish his purposes.

And he says that this shepherd of his is going to say to Jerusalem, you shall be built into the temple, your foundation shall be laid." This is the book of Ezra. This is what we're going to be studying for weeks and months. In chapter 25, verses 1 and 2, Cyrus then is called by God his anointed, his chosen. He says, whose right hand I the Lord have held to subdue nations. Why was Cyrus victorious over nations?

Because God was accomplishing his purposes. God said, I held him by his right hand to subdue those nations. And then in verse 6 God says why He chose to do it this way. Here's really the end of the matter. Why did God choose to do it this way?

Isaiah 45 verse 6, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, there is no other." God chose to do it this way. He chose to call out the name of the pagan king 140 years before he would fulfill his promise, so that we would be in awe. So that God would be glorified. Why did he do it that way?

So our mouths would drop open in considering these things. And he would receive the glory for being the God whose arm is never too short. Never, never, never, never too short. He can always accomplish his purposes. That's why you want promises from God.

Because he's always able to fulfill his promises. Then he says, I have named you, though you have not known me. Cyrus' mother and father, considering what they should name this little boy, this infant boy. His name is fixed in heaven. His name is Cyrus.

Then in verse 13, He shall build my city and let my exiles go free. This is the book of Ezra. So here's the summary of the timeline. Here's where we are so far in the sermon. And so far in the history that the sermon represents.

In Ezra 1.1 it says, in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, that's 539 BC. 539 years before the coming of Jesus. There is very little debate that that is the year that Cyrus became king in Babylon. More than 70 years earlier, just before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, Jeremiah says the captivity will be 70 years. Cyrus the Persian becomes king in Babylon in 539.

70 years earlier, plus a little, Jeremiah said it's going to be 70 years of captivity. And then About 70 years before that, in rough numbers, Isaiah prophesied that this was going to happen, and gives the name of the pagan king. So that's the 140 year span, roughly, that we're in. Ezra won one back to Jeremiah 70 years, back another 70 years to Isaiah and what he said. This is breathtaking to me.

This is breathtaking to me. That God made such precise promises. In the seventy years, in naming the time of the captivity, in naming the king who would end it. God made promises, and He kept His promises. And He always keeps His promises.

Finally, Ezra chapter 1 verse 1 says that the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to make this written proclamation. That would put the Jews at liberty to return and would actually supply them to rebuild the temple. So Cyrus makes a written proclamation and Ezra tells us why he made the written proclamation because God stirred up his spirit to do it. Consider Proverbs 21 verse 1. The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water.

He turns it wherever he wishes. This is what's happening in Ezra 1, verse 1. The heart of Cyrus the Great, the Persian, his heart is in the hand of God the Greater of Heaven. It's just like a water course. He's just directing it wherever he wishes.

Jesus is the King of Kings. Jesus is The Lord of Lords. Don't spend time worrying about the under kings and the under lords. I'm an under shepherd. This is how authority works in every sphere.

So the local church is a sphere of authority. It has shepherds. They're under shepherds. There's a chief shepherd. In nations, there are kings.

They're under kings. There are lords. They're under lords. All authority is derived by God. A home is a sphere of authority.

There are fathers, there are under fathers. They derive their authority completely, utterly, absolutely from God who rules from heaven. Don't spend time worrying about the under kings and the under lords. God is the one who is determining the things that happen on planet earth. I'm not saying don't be a good citizen, don't participate in the process, I'm saying don't worry.

Don't worry, Rest in God. So do your duty, obey, lift up the banner of righteousness, and then rest in God. Josephus, the Jewish historian after the time of Christ, he's the one who brings us the first hand accounts of 70 AD and the utter destruction of the second temple. This Josephus says that one of the captives in Babylon showed Cyrus Isaiah 44 and 45, what we've been reading. King Cyrus, see your name.

Our prophets have been saying this for some time. Now I don't know if this is 600 years earlier or so for Josephus. He has no first-hand experience there. He's quoting other sources. But that's what Josephus said.

Josephus says one of the captives, many commentators, speculate that it's Daniel because Daniel has favor with all the kings in Babylon. Maybe Daniel, who's been studying Jeremiah, has also been studying Isaiah and says, King, look at this. And that Josephus says that Cyrus was inspired by seeing this prophecy, and it just made him want to fulfill the prophecy. Maybe that's what God used to stir up His Spirit. It's possible that's all comes from out of the Bible.

Except for the stirring up the Spirit part, that's right there. Whatever means God used, he stirred up the spirit of this man to send these captives back to their homeland. So that Jerusalem would be inhabited, so that Judah would be rebuilt. To fulfill the promises of God through his messengers. Whatever the case, God compelled Cyrus by stirring up Cyrus' spirit.

Not an external, physical, make you compulsion, but an internal compulsion. Jeremiah actually speaks of this. Jeremiah was so fed up with being ignored at one point that he says, I'm not saying anymore. But then he says, then the words of the Lord became like fire in me. I couldn't contain it.

There was this burning in me. I had to speak the words that God was giving me. This is the internal compulsion of God. He doesn't have to make you move your, he can compel you through the ways he works on the inner man. Even in the heart of a pagan king.

It's like a water course. God is directing it wherever he wishes. Listen to Isaiah 46. We've been reciting out of 44, and we read 45 today, and then One chapter later in Isaiah 46 verses 9 and 10, God says this, Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me.

Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure." This is why Cyrus, because it was God's pleasure to raise up a man and take him by the right hand and give him kingdoms to fulfill his promises and send the captives back. If you don't understand this, that God decrees, says what the end is going to be from ancient times, then you will spend your life trying to manipulate the secondary causes. Cyrus is just a secondary cause. God is the primary cause. God is why the people went into captivity, and God is the reason people were returned from the captivity.

And he used a king, Nebuchadnezzar, to take his people into captivity because he had promised if they were idolaters they would be removed from this land flowing with milk and honey. He used the king of the earth to send the people back from their captivity. If you don't get this, you're going to have a lifetime of trying to pull the right strings, manipulate the right secondary cause to get the result that you want. It will be the king. You'll be trying to pull the governmental strings to get the right result.

Or it will be your boss at work. You have things you want out of work. You'll try to pull the right strings on the secondary cause, your boss, to get the results that you're desiring, or it'll be your spouse. Your spouse is going to have a miserable life if you don't understand that God has decreed from ancient times where we're going. You're going to try to manipulate your spouse to get the right result.

God help us. But God is the primary cause. So you should read His Word, and you should do your duty, and you should pray, and you should rest. Duty is ours, results are God's. So you do what God has told you to do.

Obey Him because you love Him. And pray to Him. Ask Him. Bring all your requests to Him. Cast all your cares upon Him because He cares for you.

And then, rest. If you do understand this, you can live the fearless life that we are called to. We are called to such fearlessness. The men and the women who grab a hold of this great truth of all of scripture can do anything for God because they are not afraid. They are not protecting turf.

They are not trying to manipulate secondary causes. They just want to obey God because they love Him. They are not afraid to obey Him in anything. This is where God is taking us, so that we trust Him so implicitly, knowing that He has declared from ancient times what the end will be. What the end will be.

We can just obey Him because we love Him and then rest. Four other introductory comments about Ezra and Nehemiah. Four other introductory comments. Just lead us into this study. Number one, This regards the southern kingdom.

So there's been a fracture between the southern kingdom Judah and the northern kingdom Israel. Ezra and Nehemiah and this captivity and this return from captivity has to do with the southern kingdom. Judah, whose capital is Jerusalem, which will be rebuilt. There are two tribes, so I think in two weeks when it starts talking about the tribes who are represented in the return, it's going to talk about Judah and Benjamin. And there are going to be Levites in there too.

But the Levites were sprinkled through the northern and southern kingdoms. The northern kingdom, Israel, Samaria was the capital of Israel, the northern kingdom, that's ten tribes, and two centuries earlier, they've been taken into captivity by the Assyrians. So it's the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, that take the southern kingdom into captivity. But two centuries before that, The Northern Kingdom, because they were more advanced in their idolatry, more persistent in it, worse at it. They were taken into captivity by the Assyrians.

God did it all. All that happened because he promised it would happen and it did happen. He fulfilled his promise. So all that we're going to be studying about has to do with the southern kingdom. Predominantly the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who were taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar and now are returning.

Number two, the exiles went into captivity in three stages and they returned from captivity in three stages. So I described the three waves of captivity. Nebuchadnezzar was driving all three of those waves. And then 70 years later, they return in three stages. The three stages are led by three men.

The first stage is the ruba bell, and then 80 years later Ezra, and then something like 14 years later Nehemiah. So into captivity in three stages, returning from captivity in three stages. Number three. The three stages of return and rebuilding cover about a century. It's something like a hundred years.

It spans the reign of six kings. It's either four of them are named in Ezra and Nehemiah or five of them. I'm not sure which yet. My confusion is there's a Darius one and a Darius two, and I haven't really sorted out well who's doing what and when. So what we're going to be Studying in Ezra and Nehemiah spans 100 years historically.

Number four. I want you to listen to the names associated with the time period in question. Just Listen to the names. It's about 200 years beginning at the start of the captivity through the return and the rebuilding. Jeremiah.

They are already in captivity and Jeremiah is writing letters to the captives from Jerusalem. Ezekiel chapter 1, Ezekiel is with the captives on the river Chebur. That might not be the right way to say that, but anyway, by a river in Babylon. Ezekiel is with the captives in Babylon. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel.

He goes into captivity with the second wave, and he's there recognizing that it's time. His whole life. He saw Jerusalem as a boy, then he goes into captivity, and he recognizes by reading Jeremiah. Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, the prophet, Zechariah, the prophet. They show up in chapter 5.

We're coming to them in Ezra. They've got their own prophetic books in the Bible. They're in this span of history. Esther, Mordecai. They're between Ezra chapter 6 and Ezra chapter 7.

1-6 are about Zerubbabel and that first wave of return from captivity. Then Ezra chapter 7 begins where Ezra came back with a group of captives. Somewhere between chapter 6 and 7, Esther is on the scene with Mordecai and Ahasuerus, who is known as Xerxes by the historians. This is a period of time. We're studying a period of time where spiritual giants roamed the earth.

God seems to do this. During particular periods of time, He sends spiritual giants. Jesus, Paul, Peter, the apostles. At The time of the Reformation, there were spiritual giants during the time of the Reformation. There were spiritual giants during the time of captivity and return from captivity.

The time of the patriarchs. We are studying a time so rich in great men and women of God we should study them. We are going to study them. We should pray. I think we should pray towards times like this.

God would raise up men and women who are so rigidly faithful to Him, who love Him so much that they can do the exploits that we'll be studying. Maybe our children will be that, or maybe our grandchildren. May it be so. May God raise up mighty generations to serve Him, whose names will endure as faithful to their God." Okay, applications. This isn't intended to simply be fascinating history, although I have to tell you, It is fascinating history.

I'm like a kid in a candy store studying this stuff. The history is so fascinating, and I'm so unfamiliar with it, honestly. To my shame. But anyway, I'm learning it now. We're acquiring it now.

Better late than never. But it's more than just great history. It has profound meaning for us in the year 2014. So here are the four applications that we must come away with Ezra chapter 1 verse 1 with. Number 1, God has fixed the end date of all your trials.

Every single one of them. God has such tenderness towards His people, He will not let them languish forever. The end date of your trials is fixed in heaven today. Brothers and sisters, of the trials you haven't even been brought into yet, the end date is fixed. The trials that you're in the middle of right now, the end date is fixed.

Sometimes he tells you It's 70 years. So you can read Jeremiah and know when the captivity is going to be over. Most times he doesn't tell you, but he knows. He is a merciful God. He knows just how to bring your trial to a close.

Praise God. He knows the end dates. Your trials are not indeterminate. Number two. This is Not the most important one, but this is my favorite one.

God knows the names of the pagans that He will stir up to bless you. Ever been blessed by a pagan? How many times? We tend to think we are blessed by our brothers and sisters in Christ, and that is so true. But it's not exclusively true.

I've been blessed in a thousand different ways by God-haters. God raised them up to bless me. His people. One of the reasons, not the only reason obviously. The world doesn't revolve around us, but he knows the names of the pagans that he will stir up to bless you.

He knew those names 140 years ago. He said the name Cyrus 140 years before he was on the scene to do what God had appointed him to do. He was God's anointed. Listen to what Matthew Henry says, God governs the world by his influence on the spirits of men. And whatever good is done at any time, it is God that stirs up the spirit to do it.

Puts thoughts into the mind, gives to the understanding to form a right judgment, and directs the will which way he pleases. Whatever good offices therefore are at any time done for the Church of God, he must have the glory for them." This is the point. God gets the glory. God did it. God stirred up the right one at the right time for your blessing, and he gets the glory.

Number three, God is always in control of the governments of the nations. God is always in control of all the governments of all the nations. All, all, all, all. In Daniel chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar is going to kill all the wise men because they can't tell him his dream. They say, tell us the dream and we'll interpret it.

He says, no, you tell me the dream. No king's ever asked his wise men to do that. You can't do that. I'm killing all of you. That's where they are in Daniel chapter 2.

God out of His mercy shows Daniel the dream. Here's what Daniel says right after he's been shown Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Daniel 2 verses 20 and 21, Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings.

He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. Daniel, having received what will save his life, says that forever and ever, wisdom is God's and might is God's. He is all wise and all mighty. He'll always do the right thing and he's always able to accomplish it. He removes kings like Belshazzar, who was removed by Cyrus.

And he raises up kings. He takes them by the right hand. He names them centuries before they're born. Don't worry about the under kings. Number four, finally, most importantly, God always fulfills the word that he puts in the mouths of his prophets.

He makes promises and he always keeps his promises. And this is a million miles beyond historically interesting. Why? Beyond historically interesting. Why?

Because Jesus Christ is the main focus of God's promises. What happened in 539 BC is small potatoes to you and me. But God has made promises and they're fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And the footing for our salvation rests securely on the fact that God makes and keeps His promises. Because Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.

Our salvation depends on the promises that God made about the Messiah. And we need to know with the greatest certainty that when Jesus Christ says, it is finished, that the once for all sacrifice has been accepted by God. That it really is finished. That it's a promise that has been made and kept in Jesus Christ and so we can be set free from our debts. That's why it matters.

That's why 539 BC matters. Because our eternal salvation or our eternal damnation depends on whether God is a promise keeper or not He is. He is decreed from ancient times the ending. Let's pray. God I thank you for all that is wrapped up in this one little verse about your sovereign hand in the workings of men.

We are so small that you are wise and mighty. You are all wise and almighty. We praise you. You can take the dreams of one man and show them to another man. You can name kings hundreds of years before they are born.

You can set the times of our trials. You are greatly to be praised. I pray that you would be lifted up in our hearts today and known as the sovereign God. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.