Sermon for Lord's Day December 3, 2023 "Deceived Deceivers, Consensus Opinions, and Lost Time"

I don't know if you noticed or not, but as we, throughout the years, have become more intentional about the songs that we sing and the theology of the songs, particularly when we begin to understand and we begin to think about specific truths that we gain, particularly referring to natural revelation and special revelation, did you notice how, particularly in that last song, it moved from natural revelation,

God's revelation of Himself in nature, causing man to praise Him, to God's special revelation that God sent

His Son to die on the cross for our sin, to the special revelation that one day

Christ will come again. And so in this observance of communion, this is one of the things that we remember.

We do remember Christ's death until He comes again. So what a blessing and what a privilege it is to once again be with you, to be with you in God's house.

We look forward to being in the Word together today. Before we go and read the text, let's go to the

Lord in prayer. Father, I'm reminded of the psalmist's words,

I'm reminded of the psalmist's mindset, I'm reminded of the psalmist's thought.

He declared, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight.

O God, I stand today to proclaim the truth of your

Word to your people. It is a great burden, it's a great concern that I have,

Lord, this morning to rightly divide your Word, to rightly teach and preach and to proclaim your

Word. I pray, God, that by the power and the wisdom of your

Holy Spirit today, that you would give my mind clarity, give me liberty with my mouth, that as we speak forth and proclaim the

Word of God, that it would go forth, Lord, not only in Word, not only with the information that's communicated, but God, that there would be the power of the

Holy Spirit, the power to convict the hearts of the sinner, to change the hearts of the sinner, to make the sinner a new creature,

God, that your Holy Spirit would so work in the hearts and in the minds of your people to energize, to revive, to encourage, dear

God, to enliven the saints of God, to stir us, dear God, to love and to good works in your blessed and in your holy name.

We pray, O God, today that our worship would be acceptable in your sight, for it is in the name of our

Lord Jesus we pray, amen. Stand with us if you would,

Ezra chapter 4, Ezra chapter 4, and in your hearing we're only going to read verses 1 -5, but today will be basically this survey of chapter 4,

Ezra chapter 4, verses 1 -5, these are the words of the living

God. Now, when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the

Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel in the heads of the father's houses and said to them, let us build with you, for we worship your

God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here.

But Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the rest of the heads of the father's houses in Israel said to them, you have nothing to do with us in building a house to our

God, but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as king

Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us. Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and 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.

Thus far is the reading of God's holy word this morning. If you would like to put a header on your notes, you can put this.

What we're going to see in the text today are deceived deceivers, consensus opinions, and lost time.

These are the three things that we're going to be examining in the text today, deceived deceivers, consensus opinions, and lost time.

When we left off last week, last week in the text, we left off, you can literally glance back and see that now, encourage you to reread it again.

We left off last week hearing both shouts of joy and noises of weeping.

The young were excited that the temple was being rebuilt and the old were mourning that the glory of this rebuilt temple was nothing in comparison to the original.

Remember chapter three, as we had looked at that, remember chapter three is what's referred to as a retrospective, which means it's simply a way of circling back the writer circles back to give us a picture of what happened when the foundation of the temple was laid.

And as we enter chapter four, we have it set before us here in the text, the accounting of the people of the surrounding towns coming to offer to assist in the work of rebuilding the temple.

So concerning this event taking place, we'll look at three things. Number one, we're going to look at the people's offer.

Here we'll see the deceived deceivers. Number two, we're going to see, consider the consensus opinion of Zerubbabel, of Yeshua and the heads of the houses, the agreeing opinion of them.

And thirdly, lastly, we will learn right at the end, we're going to learn the duration of time that the work had halted due to the adversaries of this great work.

And again, remembering this, that we are going through this detail.

We are going through this survey of the book of Ezra so that as we, and when we look at the sermons of Haggai and the sermons of Zechariah, we can understand what was going on and understanding the context helps us a great bit to understand the scriptures themselves.

So concerning number one, concerning the people's offer, we must ask ourselves this question.

Was this offer sincere? Was this offer sincere?

Was it motivated out of a pure heart by the people of the land?

Again, we must let the scripture interpret the scripture.

When we answer this question, was this offer of the people sincere? When we consider sincerity,

Matthew Meade wrote this, he said concerning sincerity, it is this that commends both the doer and the duty to God.

With sincerity, God accepts the very least that we do. Without sincerity,

God rejects the most that we do or can do. We see this throughout the scriptures.

This sincerity, Meade says, is the crown of all our graces and the commendation of all of our duties.

Thousands perish and go to hell in the midst of all their performances and duties merely for want of sincerity of heart to God.

When there is not a change of state, when there is not a work of grace in the heart, there can be no sincerity toward God.

So if God has not made you a new creature, all of the outward doings of works, of coming to church, of baptism, of communion, all of these things, none of this means anything unless your heart has been changed and made new.

That you have been born again by the Spirit of God and the new birth aids you as a believer in sincerely worshiping the true and the living

God. Folks will say, well, I go to church every week and I don't get nothing out of it.

Repent and believe the gospel and you will get blessed. You cannot help but be blessed by the word of the living

God. But Meade said this in closing, he said, where there is not a change of state, where there is not a work of grace in the heart, there could be no sincerity toward God and as it is in the eloquence of the old timers, he said, for this is not an herb that grows in nature's garden.

What a beautiful turn of phrase there. But concerning sincerity, was this offer of the people sincere?

Notice what they said, let us build with you. But before you read that statement, don't forget what it says right before that.

It says in the text, now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin came to offer help, do you really think that you will get a sincere offer of help from your enemy?

No. Do you think that you would give a sincere offer of help to your enemy? Let's turn the tables.

The answer should have been no right there too, just as quick. Be honest about yourselves as quickly as you're willing to be honest about others.

Pay careful attention to what they said here. They said, let us build with you, for we seek your

God as you do, and we have sacrificed to him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here.

So first of all, again, if your enemies want to help you build, you might want to be on the lookout for sabotage.

Sarah, this is where I define a word, sabotage. Sabotage defined is this, it means to deliberately destroy, damage, or obstruct.

To intentionally destroy, damage, or obstruct something, especially for political or military advantage.

So, when their enemies came, this was not a genuine offer, but we're going to look more into this.

But know this, it was not a genuine, sincere, pure of heart motivation that they were coming to aid.

So there were many things, many ramifications at stake here. The political ramifications themselves would have been great.

King Cyrus commissioned only the children of Israel to do this great work. So if others were brought in without the king's permission, it might not be a good thing for the people of Israel.

Also, it would look like Israel had overstepped their bounds by going beyond Cyrus's command.

After all, Cyrus, being moved by God, told them that everything they needed was going to be provided for them.

However, as we will soon see, as we'll soon see in Joshua and Zerubbabel's response, their response was not, not politically motivated at all.

They did not consider the politics of the matter in their response. As a matter of fact, we'll see that their response, the response of Zerubbabel, the response of Yeshua, the response of the heads of the houses was religiously motivated.

As Christian people, we should be motivated and we should be moved by what is pleasing to the

Lord. We should be moved and we should always consider this question, am

I doing what I'm doing because it pleases the Lord. The apostle

Paul in the New Testament reminded the church, I believe it was at Colossae, everything you do in word or deed, do all for the glory of God.

So when it comes to the work of the ministry, motive should be at the heart of everything we do.

The motive of the heart. The scripture says in Proverbs chapter four, verse 23, keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flows the spring of life.

In Proverbs again, chapter 21, verses two and three, the scripture states this, every way of man is right in his own eyes, but the

Lord weighs the heart. To do righteousness and to do justice is more acceptable to the

Lord than sacrifice. Jeremiah chapter 17, verse five, hear the word of the

Lord. Thus said the Lord curses the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the

Lord, for he is like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come.

He shall dwell in the parts, places of the wilderness in an uninhabited salt land.

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the

Lord. He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when he comes for its leaves remain green and is not anxious in the year of drought.

Why? For it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart, Jeremiah says here, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

That magnet motto, trust your heart will lead you to death.

Your heart, the scripture tells us that our hearts are wicked and sick. Who can understand it?

I, the Lord, says the Lord, I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.

Remember here, we're still considering the question, was their motive sincere?

Let us help you build, for we worship the same God that you worship and we want to be of assistance is what they were saying.

But again, concerning motive and sincerity, let's go to the scripture in Matthew chapter 15,

Matthew chapter 15, verse seven through 20. The scripture says this,

Jesus in speaking to the Pharisees said, you hypocrites, well, did

Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me in vain.

Do they worship me teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men.

And he called the people to him and he said to them, hear and understand.

It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a person.

Then the disciples came to him and said, do you know that the Pharisees? I can't help but laugh.

Do you not know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this say? He answered and he said, every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be rooted up.

Let them alone, for they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.

But Peter said to him, explain the parable to us. And he said, are you also still without understanding?

Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. And this is what defiles a person for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.

So when we consider motivation, when we consider sincerity, particularly as we examine, was this a sincere offer of help from these people?

We've got to understand what the works of the flesh produce. So we can see from the

Bible that motive and sincerity of the heart matters when it comes to worship, because worship was what we is at stake here.

Worship is what we're going to see is the heart of the matter. So let's consider the next question.

This question, I want you to consider this. Why does the or for what?

Maybe better said like this. Next question, for what does the church exist? For what does the church exist?

Did the church in the wilderness exist or does the church now exist simply to do good in the world?

Does the church exist so that there might be a lot in the darkness of this world? Does the church exist simply for the sake of missionary endeavors?

I would say yes. However, I would say it's necessary for us to understand this, that these aren't the primary reason the church exists.

In the reformed expository commentary, Thomas said this missions is not the ultimate goal of the church.

Worship is missions exist because worship doesn't.

Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.

When this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more.

Missions is a temporary necessity, but worship abides for ever.

Worship, therefore, is the fuel and worship is the goal of missions.

Missions for the sake of missions is not the aim of the church. What we are doing and proclaiming is this.

We are going, therefore, to all nations, teaching and commanding them to observe all things whatsoever the

Lord has commanded. The church's mission in the world is to teach people to worship

God. It's the goal of missions, because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white hot enjoyment of God's glory.

These oft -quoted words, Piper quotes this all the time, he says this, but it captures the mood of this chapter particularly here in Ezra wonderfully.

Piper says this, the exiles have returned to Jerusalem and the surrounding area with one principal aim, and that is to worship

God. How is this being carried out? It's being carried out in the rebuilding of the temple, right?

The restoration of the old -time religion, as we talked about two weeks ago.

Next, what do we see? Notice, the adversaries claim to worship

God and to sacrifice to Him as the children of Israel did.

That's what the text says. Let us build with you. For we worship your God as you do.

And we have been sacrificing to Him ever since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, ever since the time that He brought us to this place.

Now, was this a true statement? We worship the same God as you. Was this a true statement?

No. For the answer, though, we can answer that plainly. But for the answer, for the biblical answer, let's go to the scripture.

Let's go to 2 Kings chapter 17. That's just going to be two books backwards.

2 Kings chapter 17. And notice what the scriptures tell us here.

2 Kings chapter 17. And we'll begin reading in verse 24. The scripture says this.

Why were they placed there instead of the people of Israel? Because Israel had been taken in captivity.

And now these areas were empty. So Esarhaddon repopulates these areas with people from these nations.

Now, notice what the scripture says. They took possession of Samaria and they lived in the cities.

And at the beginning of their dwelling there, the scripture says, they did not fear the

Lord. They did not fear the Lord. This is a good reminder for us to consider as we begin examining where they came from.

The gods that they worship. This is good for us. In our own confession, chapter 22, paragraph 2, chapter 22, paragraph 6, concerning religious worship.

Religious worship is to be given to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and to Him alone.

Not to angels, not to saints, or any other creatures. Since the fall, worship is not to be given without a mediator, nor through any mediation other than Christ alone.

And, under the gospel, neither prayer nor any other part of religious worship is now restricted to, or made acceptable by the place where it is done, or toward the place in which it is directed.

God is to be worshipped everywhere, in spirit and in truth. Daily, in each family, and privately, by each individual.

So the place does not make worship more or less holy.

It's important for us to remember this. Notice what the scripture says here, moving on. Therefore, the

Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. So the king of Assyria was told, this was the quote.

The king of Assyria was told, the nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the

God of the land. Therefore, he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them because they do not know the law of the

God of the land. Then the king of Assyria commanded and said this.

Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the law of the

God of the land. So the scripture says this. So one of the priests who they carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the

Lord. But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the

Samaritans had made every nation in the city in which they lived. The men of Babylon made

Sirkuth -binoth. The men of Kuth made Nergal. The men of Hamath made Ashima.

And the Avots made Nibhaz and Tartak. And the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire of Adrebalek and Enamelek, the gods of Sepharvam.

They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places.

So they feared the Lord, but notice, they feared the

Lord, but also served their own gods after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.

And to this day, the scripture states here in context, to this day they do according to the former manner.

They do not fear the Lord and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the

Lord commanded the children of Jacob whom he named Israel.

These are the people who are coming to Zerubbabel and Yeshua and they're saying, let us help you build for we serve the same

God that you serve. Now we can say with absolute certainty that this was not true.

We can say their offer wasn't sincere. In other words, they weren't there to help build out of motivation of a pure heart.

So next, let's consider this based upon this passage in second Kings. We can be certain that they did not worship the same

God that the children of Israel worshiped. They did not worship Yahweh and they did not worship

Yahweh in God's prescribed manner. How do we know this?

It's pretty clear. They made false gods. They made false idols. Matter of fact, they went so far as to call their own priests to do their own thing so that they could think that their gods were being appeased and they were happy.

The scripture goes on. The scripture goes on. Notice, let's go one by one by these so we don't get lost in this.

Number one, number one, they started off on the wrong foot. They started off on the wrong foot.

Now, many of you have heard this statement, starting off on the wrong foot.

How many of you have actually lived this statement? How many of you know that you walk with a natural gait, that when you get up from a place, you normally start with the same foot?

Try starting on the different foot than you normally start with and tell me if you don't get just a little bit out of balance.

And what happens when we get out of balance? Sometimes we take a fall.

Now, here's the thing about falling. Some people fall gracefully. Some people are ugly fallers.

And what we're going to see here, what's happening here, is this is a horrible, not only a horrible fall, but it is a slow, ugly fall.

It's one of those falls that you don't want to watch, but you can't help but watch. They started off on the wrong foot.

Why? Number one, because they did not fear the Lord. The scripture tells us that fear of the

Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So they started off on the wrong foot. They did not fear the

Lord. Number two, they continued to be out of step. Why?

Because they did not know the law of God. This is why this must be proclaimed.

There must always be a law gospel distinction given for how are men to know that they are sinners except they have a standard.

God's standard is His holy righteous standard are the commandments. Have you perfectly kept all the commandments?

Then you're a good person. But if you haven't, then you're not. And the truth be told, you are not good people.

I am not a good man. So they did not fear the Lord. They did not know the law of God.

Next, remember in the text, they were sent a priest to teach them the law of God.

So they ignored what they were taught. This is what we read in the call to worship every week.

If those who have ignored what

God has spoken through His prophets and His apostles are in a dire condition, how much greater is it for you to know that it is

God who has said those things? And that it is God that you stand in front of. That God is your judge.

They did not listen to the Lord. They ignored what they were taught. Number four, the slow ugly fall continues.

They burn their children in the fires. And number five, they took it upon themselves to appoint priests for themselves who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places.

And number six, they do not fear the Lord. And they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the laws or the commandment that the

Lord had commanded them. This is such a clear and a vivid description and example that we have here.

So without reservation, we can say with absolute confidence that their motive was not right.

That answers that question. The Hebrew term that's used in verse three. So as we go back to Ezra here, as you go back to Ezra, chapter four, verse three, what we're going to see is the consensus opinion.

The agreed opinion of Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the heads of the houses.

In verse three, the scripture says, But Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the reds of the houses of the fathers' houses in Israel said to them,

You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our

God. That word, that Hebrew term that's used there plainly means this.

You have nothing in common with us. What a statement.

We want to help you. We want to build with you. We worship the same gods. Let's lock arms and let's do this thing.

No. Zerubbabel said, You have nothing in common with us.

For we do not serve and worship the same God. So in the plainness of speech, he was drawing a clear line of demarcation here between the pagan religions and the worship of the one true

God. Now, concerning Zerubbabel's response, he knew what was going on in the people's lives that came to offer help.

So Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the rest of the heads of the houses, they weren't speaking rashly.

They weren't speaking out of turn. But I would say this, they were speaking with Holy Ghost conviction.

For he answered them with an undeniable certainty that was not based on his feeling, but based upon the work that the

Lord had done in and through the lives of the children of Israel, in his heart, and in his mind, and in the lives of his fellow exiles.

I think if he would have had a hymnal, he would have said, Get your razzle -dazzle hymnal out. And let's turn the page.

What is it? 359. And let's sing here. What are we standing on? We're standing on the promises of God.

We're standing on the promises that cannot fail. Listening every moment to the

Spirit's call. I'm resting in my Savior as my all in all. People of the land, we're standing on the promises of God.

We have a firm foundation on which we stand, church. A living, unshakable kingdom.

What might have been going on is Zerubbabel's mind. I like to think about this. And again,

I know you might be much more holy than I, but I like to imagine these conversations.

I like to dig and think about what might have been going on. And again, if we hold to the text of Scripture, it's easy for us to do this.

Now, William Wheatley, one of the old Puritans, said these words. And I believe these words are likely an accurate summary of what

Zerubbabel was thinking about these folks and their offer. Particularly in relation to the doctrine of total depravity.

I think that from the very beginning, as we see in the text of Scripture, moving through the

Old Testament and the New Testament, there is a clear picture painted of what man is and who

God is. That man is unholy, unrighteous, and unredeemed. That God is pure, high, holy, exalted, lifted up, completely other than man.

That He Himself is the Redeemer of man. But in the attitude and the mindset of total depravity,

William Wheatley said this, and I think this might have been what was going on just as these people started to speak, this offer of help to Zerubbabel.

William Wheatley said, That a man in the state of corrupt nature is nothing else but a filthy dunghill of all abominable vices.

He is a stinking rotten carcass become altogether unprofitable and is good for nothing.

His heart is the devil's storehouse, a heap of odious lust. His tongue is a fountain of cursing and bitterness and rotten communication.

His hand is a mischievous instrument of filthiness, deceit, and violence.

His eyes, they are great thoroughfares of lust, pride, and vanity. His feet are swift engines moving strongly to revenge, wantonness, and lucre.

His life is a long chain of sinful actions, every later link becoming more wicked than the former.

Yes, Wheatley said, it is. But as it were, one continued web of wickedness spun out and made up by the hands of the devil in the flesh, an evil spinner and a worse weaver.

And he closed out his statement by saying this, speaking of the condition of man, he is nothing but a pitcher of earth.

Now, because I'm country, it sounds like some of you may think I'm talking about a picture, a

Polaroid picture. He wasn't talking about this being a picture, but he said a pitcher.

Now, what is a pitcher? A pitcher is an earthenware jug, a jug full of dirt.

He said man is nothing but a jug full of dirt filled up to the brim with the poisonous liquor of hell.

And I can almost imagine as these people are coming, Zerubbabel knows what they're doing. Zerubbabel knows where they're coming from.

He knows what they've been up to. Yes, one knows what's been going on. The heads of the houses know what's been going on.

So what we should recognize here, what we should recognize brothers and sisters today is that we must have a certainty.

We must have a certainty of understanding who God is and who we are.

For worship is at stake. We can rightly worship God when we understand who we are before a holy

God. We can do such a thing. The importance of understanding the faith that was once delivered to the saints is vitally important for us.

This is why we can be grateful for the doctrines of grace that have been clearly and systematically drawn out for us as a learning aid.

This is why learning theological truth is so vitally important. If you're not remembering, if it's slipping your mind,

I want to list these to you, the doctrines of grace. First of all, number one, total depravity. Man is totally depraved.

We are unable in and of ourselves to redeem ourselves out of our sinful state.

Why? Because we're sinners. Number two, concerning the doctrines of grace, unconditional election.

That God does not save a man, woman, boy or a girl because there is any goodness that he sees in us, but that simply for the fact that he chooses to set his love on us.

Number three, the doctrine of limited atonement or definite atonement.

The idea that the scriptures teach is this, that Christ's death certainly was good enough and plentiful enough to save the entire world.

However, it is efficacious for those whom he calls. Number four, irresistible call or effectual call of God, that the grace of God, when

God calls a man unto himself, when God calls a woman, a boy or a girl unto himself, that we will come to him.

And then the last of these doctrines is the perseverance of the saints. Number five, the perseverance of the saints or preservation of the saints.

However you want to say it, it means the same exact thing, that not only does

God save us out of our sinful state, not only does he save us out of the good pleasure of his will, not only is his sacrifice efficacious for us, not only is his call irresistible, but my friend, his keeping power is unlimited.

There is no way for us to get away from the grace of God. And if we, if we as the people of God are to stand fast, we must cling to the truths of the scriptures themselves.

Zerubbabel was clinging to God's word. He was clinging to God's word based on the assurance of the spirit of God.

Our confession again in chapter one, paragraph five states this concerning the holy scriptures, the testimony of the church of God may stir and persuade us to adopt a high and irreverent respect for the holy scriptures.

Moreover, the heaviness of the contents, the power of the system of truth, the majesty of the style, the harmony of all the parts, the central focus on giving all glory to God, the full revelation of the only way of salvation and many other incomparable qualities and complete perfections.

All provide abundance evidence that the scriptures are the word of God. Even so, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority of the scriptures comes from the internal work of the

Holy Spirit. The internal work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the word of God in our hearts.

So based upon the whole of the group that means rebel, Jeshua, the heads of the houses, they were in absolute agreement.

The consensus opinion was no. They were in absolute agreement that the people of the lands around about them would not and should not build with them.

This was the consensus opinion. And lastly, very quickly, let's examine the time, the span of time that took place where the work of God was hindered.

So notice, they said Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the rest of the houses of the heads of the fathers in Israel said to them, you have nothing to do with us in building a house to God.

But their response was this, but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.

Lastly, as we look in the text, turn our attention to the timeline here because this is very, very important.

The very point, the very goal, the very aim of the reason that we're going through doing this survey of Ezra is so that when it comes to the sermons of Haggai and Zechariah, which by the way, they're coming up, not today, don't worry.

But so that when we get there, which is leading, which is where this chapter leads to, that we're going to have a bit of a grasp on what's going on, a bit of an understanding of what's going on in the people's minds, what's going on in their lives.

So how long was it that the work was hindered? How long was it that this work was hindered?

Reading the text, then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and they made them afraid to build and they brought counselors against them to frustrate their purposes.

All the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia.

And if we could just skip down to verse 24, the last verse in that chapter.

And let's read that last verse as well. Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia.

When we began, we gave you a timeline of the kings. I'm going to go through a quick rundown on that here so that we can know the period of time that lapsed here.

So the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid from the time that they came basically till the second year of the reign of king

Darius. This is very important for us to know that because this is what leads us to Haggai's first sermon.

So how long was the work suspended or how long was the work ceased? How long did they endure tribulation and trial?

How long, how fragile they must have been until the word of God came.

Cyrus let the people leave Babylon in the year 538

B .C. 538 B .C. And remember, time's counting down here.

538 B .C., the children of Israel are basically sent to rebuild.

We learn in Ezra that it was the second month of the second year after their return that the foundation of the temple was relayed.

The scripture clearly states this. So here, just to give you the rundown, we have roughly a year and a half that has passed from 538 to the foundation of the temple being relayed.

So, looking at the dates of the kings of Persia, Cyrus reigned until the year 530.

So from 538 to 530 gives us eight years, correct?

Right. Which makes a total of eight years. We know that there was a period of eight years before Darius began to reign in 522

B .C. Which I think Canbisus may have reigned in that time frame.

So, there's another eight years. Right? So we have eight years for that.

Yep, so we have eight years for that remained in Cyrus' reign and eight more years before Darius' reign.

Which gives us around 16 years. Plus at least one more year into his reign because we have here in the text that it was in the second year of his reign.

So that is a total of 17 years. 17 to 18 depending on how the dates are historically read.

In any case, that's a total of 17 years. So for 17 years the work was halted.

For 17 years the people were plagued with problems, delays and difficulties from within and without.

For 17 years. What was going to be the remedy? It was going to be the preached

Word of God. For it is there and here where we'll pick up Lord willing next week.

And we'll hear Haggai's first sermon to the people.