What Defines You

Ezra’s Genealogy and the Setting of the Sermon

Okay, our preacher this morning is Pastor Raymond Fung from—am I pronouncing that right? Is it Fung or Fung? Okay, Fung, okay— from San Francisco Bible Church. I'd written down some notes to introduce him, but I cannot find them.

So he is the husband of wife and father of two children, aged one and three, and he spent a long time serving at Grace Community Church down south, and has been at SF Bible Church for the past four years.

So thank you for coming and preaching for us, and do send our greetings to the Saints back up in San Francisco. If you don't mind, I'll go ahead and take a liberty of reading your passage. I'll just read from the beginning of the chapter.

Please stand for the reading of God's Word. Now after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, Ezra the son of Saraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shalom, son of Zadok, son of Ahithob, son of Amoriah, son of Azariah, son of Meret-yoth, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Buki, son of Vabishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest.

This Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. And the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him.

And there went up also to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, and some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants.

And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem.

For the good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. You may be seated. Dear Holy Father, I ask that you would bless the preaching of this word this morning.

That you would be with Pastor Ray as he comes and brings the word to us, and you would be with us. You would open our eyes and hearts that we might receive everything you have for us here today. Pray that by your Spirit our eyes would be turned to your Son that we might know you.

I pray that we would contemplate the great salvation that you have given, that there would be conviction where we have sinned, and there would be assurance of forgiveness in your Son, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Ezra, the Post-Exilic Context, and the Christian Epitaph

Well, good morning, everyone. It is indeed a joy and a privilege to be able to come here to minister to the Word of the Living God, who is the author and assurance of our salvation and faith. Thank you, Pastor Conley, for inviting me.

I know this was the very last minute, and I do pray for your pastor as he recovers, that he can return to be able to minister to you, dear folks. Again, it is a privilege to be able to be here. A little bit more background about me.

I was saved when I was in high school. I actually grew up in the Bay Area on the other side of the East Bay. I grew up in a Christian school called Chinese Christian Schools. It was a school that I later found out that was actually connected to the same church that I'm serving at now, because the founder from that place is the same founder.

He's the same church planter. So it's amazing to see God's providence and how he uses one individual to plant all of these churches that are connected, and I had no clue about that until I started serving at that church.

I graduated from high school 2007 and went into LA to do college. I went to seminary at the Master's Seminary. I was also interned there. I got married in 2016. I graduated TMS the next year, and then I was called to serve at the current church I'm at at 2017.

My first child, Ruby, was born in 2018, and my son was born in 2020, so he's one of the COVID babies. Currently at my church, I serve as one of the outreach pastors there. I serve as outreach and overseeing outreach and missions, and I also oversee the college and career ministry as well.

I'm also currently back in school at TMS to do my doctorate. I hope to finish that in about two years or so. That's just a little bit about me. But before I start, I would like to open our time with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this privilege to be able to come and worship you. We know that we are completely undeserving of your grace, that you came into the world and died for us wretched sinners, that you rose from the dead, signifying that we indeed have assurance that when we leave this life, that we will have eternal life with you.

Lord, thank you for this time, and we do want to pray for Pastor Josh as well, that you can watch over him, that he can recover soon. Thank you for this time that we have to worship you, your son's precious name.

Amen. As mentioned at first, our text is Ezra chapter 7 verse 10. You know, one of the unique joys of serving at a church, that church I'm at, is I was able to teach church history. And one of the cool things about teaching through church history is you get to learn about different saints in the past, and oftentimes they're known for certain things, right?

George Whitefield was known as the greatest evangelist. Charles Spurgeon was known as the prince of preachers. And over and over again in history, and if you even go into graveyards or cemeteries, you realize that there are names that often do that, these epithets that will say, this person, here lies so-and-so, he was born on this day, and he died at this day.

And then they'll usually have little phrase, usually like father or husband, or these things that describe him. And the reason for that is the hope that the people that walks by it, that will see them, and they'll say, okay, this person here are these things, that they're known as a father, as a worker, as a husband, as a son, and whatever it may be.

But I think when I think about those things, I think, what is the Christian's epithet? Like if we were to die, and there were to be, and someone was to engrave something about us, what is the first thing that will come to their mind?

Obviously, we could put it in the will, say, I want to be known by this. But let's say that you didn't have that, and some loved one is supposed to put a description about you. What will it say? I hope that for us as Christians, that the one thing that will be marked about us, is that we are all devoted to Jesus Christ.

That we're known in this life as someone that's devoted to the Word of the Living God, and to live according to Scripture. The question that I have for us is, how can we do this? How can we be such a person?

And Ezra here gives us an example of that. He gives us an example of a man that is devoted to the Word of the Living God. A background about this book, this book is in the post-exilic time. That means that this is after Israel, when they were, because of their sin, they were taken out of the land of Israel by the Babylonians, and then eventually the Lord raised up the Persians to bring the Babylonians back, bring the Israelites back into the land of Israel.

Israel, during the time when they were in the Promised Land, failed to obey the Living God. They failed to obey Him, they failed to keep the covenant of God, and God said that, because of that, I will remove you from the land.

In fact, the Israelites, toward the end, as you see in 2 Kings, has become so wicked and pagan that they're worse than the pagan nations that they took over. Israel was not like the world. They were worse than the world.

And every king that's revealed in 1 and 2 Kings just became worse and worse as time progressed. When we get to this book, when we see Ezra, this is someone that lived for the Word, and he lived by the Word.

And I feel comfortable in starting in this part of the text, because in the book of Ezra, Ezra actually doesn't show up until this chapter. So I feel fine that we, as we parachute in, this is when Ezra shows up.

The name Ezra is actually a shortened form of the name Azariah, which means Yahweh has helped. And Ezra is someone, by the working of the Lord, was able to use by God in a very unique way in this time of Israel history.

Ezra is a unique figure. He actually gives us as a template of what it's like for someone like us, humans, to devote his life to the Lord. He is a unique character in the Old Testament. Ezra, in a lot of ways, he stands out.

Even the Jews today see Ezra as a special figure in history. He's known today by a lot of Jewish people as the second Moses. Ezra was someone that knew the scriptures well, and it's said that he memorized most of the Old Testament.

And what made him unique was that he was able to recall much of the Old Testament from memory. Again, this is why, even in today's time, people have such high view of Ezra, because he was known for his studying, his devotion to God, and living that out and teaching it to the people at the time.

At the time, and during Ezra's time, a lot of the scrolls were burned, so a lot of the Old Testament had to be recalled and remembered. And Ezra was one of those unique figures that was able to remember most of the Old Testament.

He was a powerful man and an important figure in the post-exilic time. You'll notice that in the beginning, as Pastor Conley read, he read through this genealogy here. And what's unique about Ezra is that most of the prophets don't have such a long list.

Most of them are like, Elijah, he's the son of this person, or this other prophet, he's the son of that person. But Ezra here has several verses devoted to his genealogy. For Ezra, it's written because it's significant.

In the Old Testament time, the genealogy is supposed to signify that this person, he's important, he matters. That's why the kings are always, he's the son of so-and-so, he's the son of so-and-so.

But what made Ezra so unique was that he was actually part of this priestly line, which means that his parents, his grandparents, his great-great-grandparents did exactly what he's doing. They taught God's Word.

They followed the principle that's laid out in Deuteronomy chapter 6 about passing and teaching your sons, and he was a recipient of that. And that's something that you as parents here need to understand, that your faithfulness in teaching your kids can be a blessing, which your kids can teach your grandkids, and so forth.

That we pass down the faith through the shepherding and discipling of our children. And Ezra is a recipient of being in a line of faithful worshipers. He is known by his devotion, and you can summarize Ezra's life in this one verse here.

You'll notice that in this chapter, or actually in chapter 6, that there's this phrase that comes up. Actually in chapter, verse 6, sorry. It says that the hand of the Lord was upon him. In verse 9, it says,.

Same thing, the good hand of God was upon him. Later on, verse 28, the hand of Yahweh, my God, upon me. And then later on, chapter 8, verse 18, it says,. According to the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of insight.

Chapter 8, verse 22, it says that the hand of our God was over us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the ambushers by the way. And again, in chapter 8, verse 30, oh that was 31. Verse 22, the hand of our God is favorably deposed to all who seek him.

And over and over again, this idiom, it should sound familiar to us. This means that God, because of his unique handling on these individuals, that they were used by him in a very special way. Ezra had the hand of God upon him, and because of his faithfulness to the Lord, the Lord used him in such a magnificent way.

Here's a question for us. Are you devoted to the word of God? Are you someone that is defined by your love and devotion to the word of God? Or are you defined by something else? The Bible doesn't simply define us and tell us who we are, but it also tells us that what we know about God defines who we are.

How you handle God's word will define you. How you use God's word to navigate life's struggles and difficulties will show you who you truly are. How you think about the world and world issues while using God's word reveals to you and other people what you are truly about.

It tells others more about your profession, or your education, or your social status. And oftentimes we hear people say that this year I'm going to spend more time memorizing scripture and prayer and doing all of these spiritual disciplines, only for a little while, not long after the little honeymoon period, they don't really care about those spiritual disciplines.

It's just lip service because that's just a Christian thing to say. It's a real commitment in your heart to follow and be the child of God that he wants you to be. Does God's word matter to you? You see this in Ezra.

If you want to be a person that's devoted to God's word, let us look to Ezra as a template on what a faithful devotion to the word of God looks like. And I want you to look at this and see is this you?

Are you marked by these characteristics that is said of Ezra? How do you know if you truly have a devotion to God's word? Here's three indicators in your life. The three indicators that you're devoted to God's word is first that you spend your time studying God's word.

Studying God's Word with a Heart Set on God

Our first point today is that are you devoted to the word of God? Is there a devotion to studying the word of God? You'll notice at the beginning of verse 10 here, Ezra is known as someone who has set his heart to study.

This phrase, set his heart, this idea is firmly resolved or the intent on it. To want to know God's word, he set his heart and his mind to know the things of God. Ezra's affection is grounded in wanting to know Yahweh more.

Let's put it another way. He had a great love that's evident by his dedication and devotion in using his time to study the word of God. During my, the day before I was married, actually the day of the wedding, I was with all my grooms and we were in a hotel together and there was a football game going on and one of my grooms loved the Raiders when they were still Oakland Raiders.

He loved the Raiders and he would get really upset whenever those other teams scored and he would cheer very loudly when the Raiders scored. So what does this tell you? This enthusiasm that he has, that his heart is set on the Oakland Raiders.

I know it's now the Vegas Raiders. But then you can ask yourself this question. What is your heart set upon? What excites you the most in this life? What are things that when you see is offensive to the Lord, does that offend you when you see in the news or in the world today?

There are things even in your life that you see as a blessing of God, the good things of God that makes you love the Lord more. What moves you? You can tell much about a person by what they devote their time to.

And notice that Ezra was inclined towards God's word. He was inclined in studying and knowing God. Ezra set his heart to God's word. His heart was gravitated towards the study of scripture. And this was what his heart was devoted to.

Evidence that you are devoted to God's word is that you spend your time studying God's word. You can't expect to be someone that is devoted to fighting sin or to grow in Christlikeness if you're not devoted into studying the word of the living God.

You can't expect to be someone that is living uprightly with godly integrity if you're not devoted to studying his word. Please don't spend your time pursuing things that have no eternal significance.

I'm not saying you can't have hobbies. I'm not saying that those things are bad. I'm just saying the thing that you love most, the thing that occupies your mind the most, must be the word of the living God.

If there was a way for us to, let's say, pour out our minds and see in terms of like a pie chart of what occupies our mental space, what would occupy the most in terms of volume? Would it be a diet or a lifestyle?

Would it be fashion? Would it be pop culture? Would it be a movie or television or sports? If you look at those things, again, those things are inherently wrong, but in relative to the word of God, how much of your mind is occupied by the word of God?

Does the word of God, in terms of the understanding of who he is and the knowledge of scripture, trump everything that you know in this life? Would it be equal in volume or would it be more or less? What you know most reveals what you love most.

In this book, Ezra is known as someone that's skilled in the word of God. It says in verse 6, this Ezra went up from Babylon and he was described skilled in the law of Moses, which Yahweh of Israel had given, and the king granted him all that he requested because the hand of the Lord, his God, was upon him.

Ezra is not someone who has some sort of general understanding of God's word. It wasn't just Bible trivia. He knew God's word. He knew the little intricacy, the nuances of scripture. He devoted his life in studying to know God's word fully.

He was skilled in governing the nation of Israel because he knew God's word. Later on, in verse 11, you'll notice that it says that he actually learned it, that he actually learned this. It wasn't something that came naturally for him.

It was very easy to think that just because this person's in the Bible, he's somehow uniquely supernatural, right? Oh, Ezra is in the Bibles, therefore he didn't have to work hard at studying God's word.

That somehow came automatic to him, and that's not the case. He spent his time learning and learning and memorizing and contemplating and meditating on God's word, digesting his own mind so that he can know God himself.

He made himself know God. He's the one that started the school of scribes. In the New Testament, we always know the scribes failed, but the scribes were a unique group of people in the time of Ezra. It was said that if you roll up the scroll, you puncture a needle through the scroll, that the scribes of the time can tell you which word it hits.

And if that's true, that means that it's because they were devoted to memorizing God's word. It was something that they spent time learning. And I used to think that memorizing the scripture in such detail is actually impossible until one day, as Pastor Conley mentioned, I served at Grace Community Church, I remember I was just walking in the halls one day and one of the fellow pastors there, he was talking about some baseball game and he's talking in very detail about like, oh, this one game and the players are here in this field and they're at this inning and then the wind was blowing this direction, all these little details.

Then I realized that he wasn't talking about the game from the night before. He was talking about a game from decades ago. He was just talking about how this one play is the reason why in the next game for this other team, they could do this.

It's just a massive amount of detail to which I thought it was just a complete waste of mental space. Because why would you spend all your time memorizing all of these little details? Ezra here was not someone that devote his mind to learning the trivial and the temporal.

He spent his time learning and learning and learning about eternal things, about our eternal God. He knew God's word, so that he's considered, again, one of the greatest Old Testament figures. How can we be someone that is devoted to God's word?

We must cherish Jesus, and we must be drawn to his beauty. We must see Jesus as attractive as he's our savior. He's the most loveliest thing in all of creation, and he's the eternal God. He's the creator.

We love him because he's the one who made everything. And the gospel, as we say in Christian circles, is something we have to teach ourselves every single day. We have to remind ourselves of God's truth.

And oftentimes, we may be able to do that for maybe a day or a week or so, but that's not something that we're called to do just for something for a short period of time. This is a lifelong process. We must be daily looking and marveling about how great our savior is so that we're drawn to him, so we want to know him more in studying God's word.

The more God is attractive to you, the more you'll spend time studying and knowing him. This is a war for our affections. Jesus said that if you love him, you'll keep his commandments. If you love him, you'll do all that you can to know him more each and every single day.

Applying God's Word in a Life of Holiness

Not only was Ezra a man that was devoted in studying God's word, but Ezra was a man that lived out what he learned, which puts us to our second point. First, how do you know that you're defined by your love for the Lord?

First, you go by learning and studying God's word, and second, you have a devotion to applying God's word. So first, you learn, and second, you apply. Look at the middle of verse 10. It says, first, for Ezra has set his heart to study the law of God and to practice it.

Ezra is someone that practices God's word. Ezra knew God's word, and he lived out what he learned. Ezra devoted his life to a life of holiness. God's word must change you. It doesn't matter if you have reformed theology if your life is not reformed.

It doesn't matter if you know what tulip means if your life is not a fragrant to God and to the Lord, a pleasing fragrant to the Lord. What does it matter if you understand all of the heavy theology and doctrines of scripture if God's word is not weighing in your own heart to draw you to a life of obedience?

Again, I'm not saying that you need to know every single thing about God's word in order to live out God's word. I'm just saying that you need to live out what you know about God's word. So you could be a young Christian that just says, okay, I now know I cannot speak a certain way because I don't want to be offensive.

That's all, then you just need to apply that into your life. And then when you study the Bible some more, when you go to church, you learn more about God's word. Then you apply those things to your life.

You must devote yourself to practice what you know. You should strive to be obedient to the scriptures every time you hear it on a Sunday or a midweek Bible study. Your devotion is evident by actions is what James chapter one, verse 22 tells us.

The Christian life is a struggle for obedience and you must override your mind with biblical truth so that you can live a life that's free from the bondage of sin. You need to saturate your mind with God's word so you can live out God's word.

God's word changes your thoughts and your actions. You have a renewed mind. This is Romans chapter 12, verse one. Ezra is marked by holiness and purity. Throughout this book and in book Nehemiah, he goes around confronting people because of their sin.

The only reason why he could do that is because he lived it out. There was a credibility that he has. A few years ago when I actually first, I think it was like the first year when I started pastoring at San Francisco Bible, we had an elders meeting and right when I started ministry, my head pastor told me that every year you will find that there will be two people that you know that are pastors that will be disqualified from ministry.

And that one particular elder meeting, that happened. There was a famous pastor that was preaching at that year's Shepherd's Conference that was disqualified and that had a friend that was also a pastor in the Bay Area that was also disqualified.

But I remember when I was thinking about that pastor that was preaching at Shepherd's Conference, I had it in my notebook. I wrote down his, you know, I was taking notes on his message and his message at the time was on topic of sanctification.

And I remember rereading some of his notes and it said things that we need to be holy church of Christ is to build us up or Christ has a sanctified the church through his blood so that we need to be sanctified for Christ.

And although those things are true, those statements are true, all the things that he preached were profound, it's very hard to take it seriously because you find out what kind of life that he was living.

For the Christian, you cannot expect people to take your life seriously or your faith seriously if you live a life of hypocrisy. If you ever wonder why your evangelism is not effective, sometimes it's because you live exactly like the world.

Why do I need to give up my life for Jesus when your life looks exactly like mine? Why do I need to count the cost in following Jesus when you haven't counted the cost? You need to be distinct. We all need to be holy.

That's why it was by providence that Pastor Connolly read from Matthew chapter five about being a salt and light in the world that we need to be distinct. We are living in a very dark culture and the more we are Christ-like, the more we'll be noticed and it'll either draw people to Christ because we see the joys and the blessings of following Jesus or it'll draw people away from Christ because they hate light and they love darkness.

You need to live in such a way that shows that your life is different from the rest of the world. If you try to tell someone that they need to have control over their anger, you need to demonstrate that in your own life.

You need to be known as someone that's free from losing control. If you're going to confront someone on their Bible read, you need to make sure that you're committed to Bible reading yourself. Whatever it may be, if you apply God's word faithfully in your life, you will be able to remove the log that is in your eye.

A person that's devoted in living out God's word will be appalled by sin. You must live and want others to live out God's word. Ezra was able to do this because he walked the walk and he walked the talk.

And God's, is God's word sharp enough to cut you and to shape you to be more like Jesus Christ. I think some of you guys have no, you know, kids, sometimes we just play with different things. Sometimes we play with sticks or play with plastic swords.

And I remember my brother and I, when we were kids, we'd play with this little plastic sword and we would, you know, pretend we'll play, fight like pirates or whatever. And then eventually we'll have these moments where we'll stab each other and we'll pretend that like our guts are falling out and we're hurt.

But in reality, there wasn't really any pain because the sword is not real. It's a plastic sword. You can't really cause that much damage. There's no real consequences because the sword is not real. And it's evident by the fact that I'm here today without any cuts in my face or anything like that.

Sadly, some of the people in the church view God's word that way. It doesn't pierce them the way that it should. It doesn't chip away at them because in their life, God's word is not real. It doesn't pierce you.

It doesn't move you. It doesn't transform you because you have a very low view or a wrong view of God. If you have a high view of God, then every little passage of scripture will penetrate your heart because it reveals to you that you are indeed a sinner and needing to grow in Christlikeness and the needing of God's grace to transform you to be more like a son.

When you read God's word, it reveals your sin and shortcomings. It should cut you because it convicts you and you need to cut those things out of your life. That's what it means when it comes to applying God's word.

You need to study God's word and then you need to see your life relative to scripture and then it tells you how you need to change to live in a way that's pleasing to the Lord and it cuts you so that you can be more and more shaped and molded to our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's more than just knowing God's word, but you must devote your life in applying God's word in your life. Not only is devotion to the word is shown through the study of God's word, but also being sanctified by God's word.

Teaching God's Word and Making Disciples

But lastly, you also need the evidence that you are devoted to God's word if you're devoted to teaching God's word. That you spend your life not only learning and applying to your life, but you teach other people the word of a living God.

Look at the end of verse 10. For as Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it and to teach his statues and ordinances in Israel. You'll notice that at the very end of verse 10 that he taught God's statues and ordinances to Israel.

The word statues means rules, basically things that God allow and God doesn't allow. This is just basically right and wrong and that if you want to follow God, here's what you need to do. If you don't, if you don't, if you want to follow, if you don't want to follow God, then this is what you're not supposed to do.

And the second one here is ordinances. It's this idea of a step-by-step, like not only does Ezra tell you what the right path or the wrong path is, but he tells you exactly the steps to follow in order to fulfill walking in the right path.

Ezra was someone that knew his stuff because he was able to teach and he lived it in his own life. He lived it so he can give, he can shepherd people that are struggling with sin. He can say this is how you live in a way that is pleasing to the Lord.

Ezra demonstrated his devotion to God, but devoted his life in teaching other people. He's able to teach with authority because he knew God's word. He lived out and when he spoke, people knew that this is the real deal.

Now, you have to ask yourself when you teach God's word, do people see that in your life? When you teach with authority, when you teach with firmness and conviction, do they look at you and say, yeah, this is, I can see it in this person's life?

Or do they say, no, that's not really you. Now, obviously, all of us are imperfect in that way, but that does not give us excuse to not live a godly life and teach a godly life. Ezra also didn't have some sort of device or concordance to help him find information about what he taught.

No, he memorized it and he's able to correct sin because it was in his own mind. It was moving his heart and he was able to point out sin in other people's life. He can look at someone and say that is sin with definitive and precision because he knows the word of God.

He's able to teach that. He's able to discern and use God's word to draw out their people's sin and expose it. Someone can ask him about the Bible and he would know exactly where to go and he would be able to teach them the word of God.

When I was in LA, my car had this problem once where there was just this clicking sound. It was kind of like one of these sounds when I was driving. And someone recommended that I take it to this store that was known to fix Priuses.

That's like the only car that they fix. And when I got there, they had these signs at the front saying, oh, we are the master of fixing Priuses. There was this Uber driver that I bumped into in the store.

I said, oh, I bring all my Priuses here to get it fixed. And when you see the shop, it's like almost a butcher shop for Priuses. There's like car doors everywhere and then engines and parts all over this place.

So I had this assurance that, okay, they must know what they're doing. So I explained to them my situation and then after hours later, they told me, hey, you can pick up your car now. So I went there.

I explained what happened, why was it that clicking sound? And they said, oh, it's because of your license plate. There's this little thing that's just tapping on the car while you drive. So I thought, okay, that was simple.

So then I left. And as I got on the freeway, the tapping sound came back again. So, okay, this is ridiculous. They just told me that they fixed it. So I called them and said, hey, there's still that clicking sound.

They told me, hey, return, bring it back to the car, just to the shop again. We'll take a look at it. And they did. They looked at it and they thought, and then they thought they fixed it. They said it was something else.

Then I drove out again and there was that clicking sound. But this time instead of calling, I just drove back and said, hey, you need to get in the car. This clicking sound is still there. And we drove on the freeway for almost 10 minutes, just back and forth in circles, exiting and then entering back in the freeway, exiting, and he was looking at it and couldn't discern that clicking noise.