Sermon for Lord's Day November 5, 2023 Revival and the Sovereignty of God

Revival and the Sovereignty of God

Thank you, Bill. Let's go to the Lord in prayer before we go any further today. God, our Heavenly Fathers, we come before your throne. Lord, as we read about in the psalm, in our responsive reading, as we sing about in the psalms, Lord, we recognize that God, you are holy, holy, holy.

God, you and you alone deserve our glory, honor, and praise. God, you have done and shown us great and many good and wonderful things. You have shown your love unto us by sending your Son to die on the cross for our sins.

God, by sending your Holy Spirit to abide and to dwell within us, to assure us, to give us confidence, to give us peace, that we are the children of God. God, you have justified us. You have adopted us.

You are sanctifying us, God, and for that we give you praise, honor, and glory. Lord, today as we enter our time together in the preaching and teaching of your word, God, I pray that you would prepare our hearts, God, mine, as well as the congregations.

God, I pray that you would help us to take the things that we have studied this week, to speak forth the truth of your word in a way that is, number one, God-pleasing and acceptable in your sight, and number two, in a way and in a manner that your people might be edified, that your people might be encouraged, that your people, God, today might be strengthened in their faith in you, and that, God, we would all be able to go away from this place.

Our prayer is this, to say, it has been good to be in your house. Show us, Christ, please, Lord, in the text of scriptures, save the lost, encourage the saint, as always, please, God, please, give me clarity in my mind and liberty with my mouth as we proclaim the word of the living God to this congregation today.

And, God, I give you praise, I give you honor, I give you glory for all things, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Stand with us, if you would, as you're standing, turn with us to Ezra chapter one. We're going to be reading verse number five in your hearing this morning.

Verse number five, Ezra chapter one, verse five, these are the words of the living God. Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred up to go to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.

Thus far as the reading of God's word this morning, you may be seated. It seems a little awkward at times to read one verse of scripture, but to know that we are going to be looking at many passages and many verses of scripture, nonetheless, it still seems a bit awkward.

I want to mention this as a word of encouragement that I am thankful today for this congregation. This congregation is made up of saved individuals who are real people, who experience real hurt, who experience real pain, who go through real sorrow, who have real trials, who have real tribulations, real people who really from time to time get disheartened and get down in the dumps.

But I thank God beyond that, that we as a congregation serve the true and the living God who is able to give comfort, who is able to give strength, who is able to give peace, who is able to bring revival to the saints of the living God.

And I'm thankful for that as we have been focusing on the last few weeks and as we continue to move through this summary of Ezra. By the way, it's not going to be a verse by verse exposition all the way through Ezra.

This foundation that we're going through in Ezra is to kind of establish our bearings, to get our footing so as we examine the sermons of Haggai and Zechariah that we understand what's going on in these sermons.

But this past week, Josh posted something on Facebook and it says this. I want to read this. Sometimes the kindness of God's providence is only visible in hindsight. It's only visible in hindsight. Years or decades after what was initially a huge disappointment, his loving kindness does indeed endure forever.

This was obviously a man who had been given some great thought to some things, to which I responded, keep that in mind for Sunday sermon as a word of encouragement. To which Greg Madison responded, do you mean we are to keep in mind that this Sunday sermon will be a huge disappointment?

But we'll look back on it and realize that it was a huge blessing. So that was not my intention, although it may be a reality. There are certainly many better preachers than I, and no doubt I had preached disappointing sermons.

But today we want you to be encouraged, encouraged by the word of God. Encouraged in not only hindsight, what we see and recognize as God's providence, but understand and trust that today that you are in the hand of your heavenly father who loves you and who cares for you and who keeps you and who guides you.

And in the future, our future is in his hands. There is no better place than we can be than in the hands of the almighty God that made the heavens and the earth. Today in your notes, if you would like to put this header on your notes, revival and its source, revival and its source.

And in parentheses, we're going to be really looking and examining a little bit about the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, the perseverance of the saints. Revival, in short, is what produces the perseverance of the saints of God or the preservation of the saints of God.

We are kept by the spirit's power. We are fed by the word of God. We are renewed in our inner man day after day by the goodness of God, the Holy Spirit. So by way of summary, as we make our way into verse five, let's just be reminded when we talk about God's sovereignty, as we consider God's providence, I want to read to you a quote from Derrick Thomas.

Now you may hear me saying, referring to him, you may hear me calling him Derrick Brooks. As I studied time and time again throughout this week, I kept even in my mind and when I would mouth words calling him Derrick Brooks.

Derrick Brooks was a linebacker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Derrick Thomas is a living preacher today, preaches with Ligonier Ministries. But nonetheless, Derrick Thomas said this, he said, every event of every circumstance is the outcome of the sovereign overruling of God.

That includes the actions of an otherwise godless king of a tyrannical empire. So we're talking about Cyrus. Remember in the last weeks, we considered Cyrus, how God brought Cyrus to where he was, gave Cyrus all that he had, caused Cyrus, incited or stirred up Cyrus, roused him to send God's people back to Jerusalem.

Now from the point of view of the exiles, Derrick Thomas said this, it was reassuring that God had not forgotten them, nor were they beyond his reach. What a blessing it is to know that even in the darkest of places, the Lord can overrule politicians and leaders to turn events around to favor the church of Jesus Christ.

God had a plan and not even Cyrus could impede God's plan. In fact, Cyrus was a part of it. So with Thomas, having said that, I would add this, let's consider this, that long before the children of Israel were given over to Babylonian captivity, there were wicked rulers.

There were wicked rulers in and out of Jerusalem, both in and out of Jerusalem. As I stated, the Lord was not wringing his hands. Have any of you ever been worried and wring your hands or you, this is not, I guess, twiddling your thumbs is this, right?

Tapping your fingers, whatever. There's a lot of anthropomorphisms for shows and signs of anxiety and worry, but God was not anxious. God has never been anxious or worried as though he does not understand or know the outcome of all things.

He was not thinking to himself in light of Ezra's situation here in the context of Ezra's book, he was not thinking to himself, oh me, I need to get a people to establish a governmental system so that I can finally be in control.

That was not anywhere near the mind of God. He has never been out of control. God has never been out of control and he has never, nor will he ever relinquish his sovereign authority over creation. And what we see in the course of human history is this, and the last part of Thomas's statement was this.

What we see in the course of human history is this, that the initiative of men and the sovereignty of God are concurrent or confluent. Now those are two big words. Concurrent simply means this, that there are two things happening simultaneously at the same time.

What is going on simultaneously at the same time is the initiative of men and the sovereign will of God. Now where the really difficult and hard thinking comes into play is trying to get our minds around this idea of the confluence of events, of the merging together of these events, the merging together of how man wants to make a plan, but how God directs man's steps, how the sovereign will of God is working here in the context of our passage concurrently, side by side, and confluently by merging the events of history.

Now this can be a volatile thing. Volatile means dangerous. Now I'm not a chemist nor the son of a chemist. I know the saying is not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I'm saying I'm not a chemist or the son of a chemist.

My father-in-law, I'm the son-in-law of a man who knows chemistry. Kenny, your other elder, knows chemistry and some of you likely may be aware of what goes on in chemistry. Chemistry can be a dangerous thing.

If you mix the wrong chemicals together, you might endure light pain or you may endure severe pain. There may be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, or if you do it right, there may be joy in whatever is produced and enjoyed.

But nonetheless, when we consider the confluence of the sovereignty of God and the initiative of man, this is very volatile. Man will never be able to figure this working out and truly it is to us still a great mystery.

But to try to bring it down to our level, think about this. Think about the blending of atoms. So how many of you have ever heard of H2O? Water. He's on it. He's not a chemist, but he's saved in a Holiday Inn Express.

Right? So H2O, two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom make H2O. Atoms cannot be seen, right? But what if just one molecule of oxygen was added to H2O? It becomes H2O2. H2O2 is hydrogen peroxide. Do you drink hydrogen peroxide for refreshment?

No, hydrogen peroxide will kill you. Right? But H2O refreshes you. Can we explain? How can we explain this? We can't necessarily, but just for the example, understand just how delicate the merging and the working together of all things for God, by God, according to his will is.

Thank God that he does not need us nor ask us for our help. We might say, what would one more atom do? How bad could it be? Right? So we see this. So we see the merging, the confluence of man's will and God's will and those things working together, God's will accomplishing all things.

So chapter three of the London Baptist Confession of Faith, paragraph one concerning God's decree. This is helpful to us. From all eternity, God decreed everything that occurs without reference to anything outside of himself.

How did he do this? He did this by perfectly wise and the holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably. Yet God did this in such a way that he is neither the author of sin, nor has fellowship with any in their sin.

In this decree, God's wisdom is displayed in directing all things and his power and faithfulness are demonstrated in accomplishing his decree. So without violating the way things happen, the meaningfulness of cause or effect, or the freely given agency of individuals, what God does is this, that God ensures that his will, his sovereign decree occurs.

Again, I won't say anything else on that, but this, it is a great mystery, but it is the consistent teaching of scripture. So we should cling to the scripture. We should trust in the sovereignty of almighty God.

That being said, now let's look at this verse and again, reading it, then rose up the heads of the father's houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites and everyone whose spirit God had stirred up to go rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.

What do we see here? What do we see here? We see here, the Lord stirred up just as he stirred up Cyrus, the Lord stirred up the heads of the houses and everyone who would go up to Jerusalem. This means the people also.

This one verse is very, very important because in it, we see the doctrine of the preservation or the perseverance of the saints, however you want to state that doctrine. We see this doctrine of the preservation of the saints.

To define this doctrine of the preservation of the perseverance of the saints, chapter 17 of our confession states this, those God has accepted in the beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his spirit and given the precious faith of his elect can neither totally nor finally fall from a state of grace.

Ain't that good news? They will certainly persevere in grace to the end and will be eternally saved because the gifts and the callings of God are irrevocable. Therefore, he still brings about and nourishes them in the faith, us in the faith.

He still brings about repentance, love, joy, hope, and all the graces of the spirit that lead to immortality. For even though, and the confession is so personable here, even though many storms and floods arise and beat against the people of God, yet these things will never be able to move the elect from the foundation and the rock to which they are anchored by faith.

The felt side of the light and the love of God may be clouded and obscured from them for a time through their unbelief and temptations of Satan. Yet God is still the same. They will certainly be kept by the power of God for salvation, where they will enjoy their purchase possession for they are engraved on the palms of his hands and their names have been written in the book of life from all of eternity.

So when we talk about this doctrine of perseverance of the saints, when we look at this text, what we see is revival. What we see is revival in the souls and in the minds of God's people. It is the reviving by God of his saints throughout history that demonstrates the truthfulness of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

Now, it is also necessary for us to be reminded that perseverance doesn't come from an inner moxie, nor does it come by self-will. No matter how hard you squint your eyes and grit your teeth, you cannot produce what God all alone produces in the heart of the believer.

It does not come by self-will. Rather, the perseverance of the saints is the work of the Holy Spirit who causes us both to will, to want, and to do his good pleasure. Philippians 1 .6 is the reference there.

So this word stirred up that's used in verse 5, he stirred up the spirit of God, whose spirit God had stirred up. This is the same word, the same Hebrew word that was used in verse 1 when God, when the word says that God stirred the spirit of Cyrus.

So now this word stir, it has negative connotations and it has positive connotations. There are understandably some negative connotations or some what may be frightening effects of something being stirred.

Like in the New Testament, when we read when the disciples got out on the boat and the sea became boisterous, it was stirred up, right? That might be a negative stirring. Another aspect of negative stirring might be when we hear of someone stirring up trouble.

Stirring up trouble is not a positive thing, but I am so thankful for the words of Charles Spurgeon. He said, there are such things as good stirs, stirs for the better, stirs which help us to remove the evil consequence of stagnation.

Does everybody know what stagnation is? Have you ever tried to drink stagnant water? Don't. It's a bad idea. Stagnation, becoming so still that there's no motion and everything just seems to be dead. But what God does, what the Holy Spirit of God does, what he did then through the preaching of the word, what he does now by the preaching of his word is that he stirs up the saints of God.

He stirs us, he rouses us, he incites us to worship him in all that we do and in all that we say. Spurgeon went on to say this, there are at certain times and certain seasons, blessed blowings of the sacred wind from heaven through the garden of mankind.

And as he said that, I want to incorporate this. These blessed blowings of the sacred wind are what we might know and recognize as revival. That when God, the Holy Spirit stirs and he moves in our hearts and he moves in our minds.

Now, we must recognize a couple of things when we consider this term or this word revival. Revival is a real thing. We read it throughout the scriptures. We've seen it throughout history. Revival is a real thing.

And yes, revival is necessary for all of us time to time. I would say this, that many of the younger generation, whether they're saved or lost, maybe have not ever experienced or known what the old people call Holy Ghost revival.

And it is something I pray that all of the children here get to see, to know, to experience as they grow, as they mature, as they come to faith, that they understand and they know that God is real. He is not an idol that we worship.

He is not something that we concocted in our mind. He is the creator of the heavens and the earth. He is the redeemer of mankind. He is God and he alone is God. So we pray that the young people will experience this in their lives, but know this, I want to be careful too when I say this, revival, revival is not just a resurgence of biblical knowledge.

We have experienced over the years, 10, 20, 30 years in America, a resurgence of, let's call it the doctrines of grace. There's been a resurgence of this knowledge. Many have latched onto this, these doctrines of grace, but just the knowledge alone, as was mentioned in Sunday school, knowledge alone does not make for a move of the spirit of God.

The spirit of God comes when God, the person of the Holy Spirit comes and he does a work in our hearts and he does a work in our minds. Biblical revival, biblical revival is an increase in biblical knowledge of knowledge of truth of the scriptures.

However, it is not that alone. It is also a resurgence of holy living amongst God's people because orthodoxy, right things, truth from God's word sanctifies us. What do we learn in Sunday school? Sanctification, right?

That is the work of God. By the free grace of God, God works and moves so in his people that he makes us into his image and after his likeness. Knowledge of the truth of God is inseparably connected to holy living.

So there are many instances, many instances of revival that have marked history itself. Some are little known in the church, church history, so on and so forth. Others are more well known, but just to name a couple, some biblical examples of revival.

In the Old Testament, you might read about Josiah's reforms. This was when Josiah set forth the law of God to the people. The people clung to the law of God for a period of time. Another example of biblical revival might be Nineveh.

When Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, which might've been one of the shortest sermons ever and yet people repented. In the New Testament, we have the book of Acts. After biblical history, we read of revivals taking place before the dark ages, after the dark ages.

We have the Reformation itself. Some of you may have heard of the Reformation being around here regularly, right? We have the Reformation itself. Then there were the great awakenings. Then we had, there was a revival on the Isle of Lewis in Wales, which was a made more kind of a popular revival that took place.

And we have many geographically specific revivals that nobody but the people in those areas know about even to this day. But my friend, God moves, God works, God changes, God revives his people. It is by the grace and the mercy of God that we are here today.

And no, Sarah, I will not be preaching for two hours as I jokingly told you. But what is revival? Again, in biblical context, what we're looking at, we see the Lord start up the spirit of people to go from Babylon back to Jerusalem.

So in biblical context, we should understand the term revival to be a move of the spirit of God in which God, the Holy Spirit, renews and energizes his people to do his work. And as such, we should always seek to have a biblical understanding of revival.

R .C. Sproul said this, our Lord will use any means necessary to provoke his people to repentance and to keep them in the faith. There's no getting out of the faith. Thanks be unto God that he keeps us.

We must be stirred, of course, to life unto salvation. And what follows is the resulting momentum of pressing forward in the faith. This is the perseverance of the saints. The Apostle Paul put it this way.

He said this, I don't count myself to have apprehended, even though I've done all these things, but I forget those things which are behind and I press forward toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God, which is in Christ Jesus, my Lord, that I might be found in him not having my own righteousness and so that I might know the resurrection from the dead as he was raised from the dead.

So concerning the texture, concerning the place of these people, folks may be made capable to do the work that God sets before them. There may be ability galore for God certainly provides means to accomplish his ends.

But until the Lord stirs the people, until God moves the people to do a thing, all is in vain. The Lord moved Cyrus, the Lord moved the heads of the houses of Israel, and the Lord stirred up the people to do a great work.

This great work was in reality far more than just building another temple. This temple pointed to the greater temple, that's Jesus. It pointed to the greater sacrifice, that's Jesus. It pointed to the greater promise, that's Jesus.

That is the person in the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in the New Testament, as we had finished going through Luke, you should likely recognize this accounting here. Jesus told them in the New Testament, as they stared and gazed upon the temple, Herod's remodeled temple, Jesus said, you tear down this temple and in three days I will build it again.

Now we know he wasn't talking about that temple. He wasn't talking about the brick and the mortar. He wasn't talking about the jewels. He wasn't talking about the inlaid gold. He wasn't talking about the tapestry.

He was talking about his own body. And so as Jesus was talking about himself, know this, that he did just what he said he would do. They destroyed his temple, but in three days he rose again from the dead.

So this task that was set before the children of Israel was no small task. To raise up the temple from the foundation upward was in fact a phenomenally large task. The foundation stones themselves were quite large.

The foundation stones themselves were likely up to 40 feet long and likely weighed up to 500 tons, just the foundation stones themselves. The manpower necessary to accomplish this feat was staggering.

In the remodel of this temple that was done in Herod's time, as I mentioned, it took around 100 priests and 100 ,000 laborers just for the remodel. So we can imagine the amount of work that it took to raise it from the ground.

The work would not only require a great deal of physical activity and strength, but even more importantly, it would require a large amount of spiritual fortitude. It would require a large amount of spiritual strength.

And again, this spiritual strength, this spiritual fortitude is the driving force behind the rebuilding of the temple. It was not done by the power of the flesh. It was done by the Spirit and the power of Almighty God.

So revival. Revival is the work of God. Turn over to chapter nine in Ezra, if you would. Chapter nine. And notice what Ezra writes here in this ninth chapter beginning in verse, we'll read verse eight and nine.

But now for a brief moment, favor has been shown by the Lord our God to leave us a remnant. Troy read to us about that remnant referred to in Romans, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within His holy place that our God may brighten our eyes and notice the words and give us a little reviving, give us a little reviving in our slavery for we are slaves.

Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but it has extended to us His steadfast love before the kings of Persia. And it's stated again to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God to repair its ruins and to give us protection in Judah and in Jerusalem.

So we can see in this text that the people needed the power of the spirit to enliven and to encourage them. Please never think that you are so far along in your spiritual walk that you no longer need the spirit of God.

Never think that you are so spiritually mature that you can do it on your own. Because I'll guarantee you, if you'll read from Genesis to the book of the revelation, you will find that you are sorrowfully and miserably wrong, that you are hopeless and helpless without the word of the spirit of God in your life.

So we see this. So our day and our time is certainly no different. Just as they needed the spirit of God, we need the spirit of God. And what we need to be able to do as God's people is to number one, recognize the work of the spirit.

We need to recognize the work of the spirit of God. And secondly, we must be willing to return thanks to him for his glorious work in his people. My goodness gracious, I encourage you, not now because it'd be totally awkward, but sit, just sit in Sunday school, stand outside after church, look at people, look at people, people that you know.

Some of us haven't known each other too awful long, so you don't have really a lot of paths to go on. But look at people you know, and look at where they are in their walk with the Lord. And think, just say to yourself, thanks be unto God.

Thanks be unto God for his mighty working in his people. When you get home, look in the mirror. And you won't know that, you'll know this person better than you know anybody else. Look at that person, and if you know you are growing in the faith, give thanks to God.

For God is doing his sanctifying work by his Holy Spirit in your life. You are a reason to thank God. In context, let's move along here. In context, it's likely been, as we remember our timeline, as we set before you a few weeks ago, likely 90 to 120 years is the timeline for the book of Ezra.

We see some time jumps as we move along. We'll examine one of those here in just a minute as well. But likely it's been 80 to 90 years that have passed since Israel returned to Jerusalem and began this rebuilding process.

To the point where here in chapter 9 we read the words of Ezra, that God has given some reviving to them. Ezra didn't come until about 80 years after the first exodus and the first exiles came to Jerusalem.

So he says this, looking back on the mighty work of God. The mighty work of God had been accomplished and undergirded, how? The scripture tells us by, in chapter 6, the scripture tells us this, in verse 14, and the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Edo.

So they prospered, they were revived by the prophesying, by the preaching, by the proclamation of the word of God. So Robert Fleming, another of the old dead guys, little less known, but he said this, one witness which holds forth the Lord's extraordinary power in the reformation of the church from anti-Christianism, and he's speaking about the reformation, he said this, is that large measure of the spirit which convincingly followed the gospel and ministry of the word in these last times.

This is God's own seal which is not put forth to a falsehood. He bears witness to his work in the hearts of his people, and by this also the Lord attests the doctrine of the church and commission of his servants.

Yes, at some special seasons, Fleming said this, at some special seasons when the truth has least encouragement from without, when men will not receive its testimony, then has this in a more full and large measure been discernible.

Thus did the Lord eminently confirm the Christian religion in the days of the apostles and for some following ages by so great a downpouring of the spirit, by such visible and extraordinary effects as then astonished the world and forced men to confess something above nature.

And we have also cause to say that the Lord has borne a very solemn testimony to the work of the reformation and to the doctrine of the reformed churches. That being said, to rule out the work of the Holy Spirit for any church is a great sin.

For us not to magnify the mysterious operation of the Holy Spirit in both the work of salvation and sanctification is unimaginable. May we ever and may we always say with the words of the song we sung last week, praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one, one in power, one in grace, that name above all other names.

May we ever praise the triune God. Now, are we supposed to think here in this text, or as we read the book of Ezra, are we supposed to think that this work was accomplished by the power of the flesh? How else would this be explainable that in the first phase of the return, 50 ,000, and this is an approximation and I'm going on the count given to us in the Ezra text here, that 50 ,000 people came to the broke down city of Jerusalem.

And for approximately 20 to 25 years, they've been working on the temple. They've been working on the temple, not in good conditions. They've been working on the temple, being under trial, being under tribulation, being under persecution, constantly having their lives threatened, their lives and their livelihoods also being at stake.

But what did the Lord do? The Lord helped them and the Lord encouraged them through the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah. If you turn to chapter five here in Ezra, Ezra chapter five, verse one and verse two, notice what the word of God says.

Now the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Edo prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel and Yeshua, the son of Josedek arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem.

And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them, undergirding them, holding them up. So consider this, consider that many of these returning exiles, 50 ,000 approximate number, many of these 50 ,000 returning exiles had not seen the former temple and many had only heard the accounts of what temple worship was like.

Because there were two generations, they were in Babylon, 70 years, two generations, children had been born, children had been raised, grandchildren had been had, great-grandchildren had been had, and many of these people had never known what it was to see the temple in its glory.

But now by the sovereign hand and the work of almighty God, they were going to experience for themselves worship, worship that was not pagan, worship that was not idolatrous. They were going to see the top and they were going to see the shadow of the sacrifice that would be set forth in the person of Jesus Christ some 500 years down the road past them.

They were going to see this. Matthew Poole states this, these whose spirit God had raised to go up, to whom God had given this pious disposition and that fortitude, that God had given them fortitude and God had given them resolution, which it required to break through their difficulties, which Matthew Poole said were many and which were great.

Now an example of these discouragements that they encountered, if you flip back backwards one chapter to verse 4, or chapter 4, I'm sorry, chapter 4, and let's look at verse 4 and 5 for just a moment.

As again, as our text sets it before us, the biblical text tells us some of the challenges and the discouragements that they faced. The text says this in Ezra 4, verse 4, then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build.

And they bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. We have specific details given to us. Now here's the beautiful part in this text, this timeline that is given us through Cyrus's reign.

So we know the year 538 is when the exiles came to Jerusalem. They were sent out of Babylon to Jerusalem in 538. Cyrus's reign ended in 530. So for eight years, the entirety of Cyrus's reign, that they were there, there was a period of time of a king who's not mentioned.

I can't remember his name right now. It starts with a G. For another eight years before Darius came to be ruler and reigned as king in Persia, that gives us about 16 years where the scripture tells us that they were made afraid to build, that they were lied on, that bribes were given to impede and to stop the work of God.

But what do we know? The work went on. Not only did the work go on, but the work succeeded. It prospered through and under and by the preaching, the proclamation, the prophesying of Zechariah and Haggai.

So we see that this is yet another reason. 16 years. You think, man, we have a rough month and we're ready to give up. Man, I'm through with God. God ain't doing nothing for me. Think about what he can do for you.

Look to what he has already done. The amazing part of grace is that not that God loved anybody, but that he loves you, that he loves me, that he cared so much that he sent his son to die for my sin. Thanks be unto God for this.

So these people for 16 years at this point, at this point in Israel needed to be revived and they needed to be revived regularly. And here as well, it would be good for us to make a point that in your time through the week, I encourage you if you haven't already been reading through Ezra to continue to read through Ezra because it is, it can be challenging.