Sermon for Lord's Day October 22, 2023 "Means and Ends"

Let's go to the Lord in prayer first and foremost this morning. Heavenly Fathers, we come before your throne today. I want to come first and foremost to say thank you for your love and your mercy. Lord, I want to thank you for your grace and thank you for your goodness.

Lord, I want to thank you for your assurance of salvation, the hope of eternal life, for the forgiveness of sins, for the looking forward to of the promise that you have made unto us. Dear God, today as we corporately come, as I individually come, today I stand in great need.

Lord, I've been in fear concerning the message, Lord, any time that we have to step out of, maybe necessarily, I have to step out of my comfort zone, God. It becomes a challenge to me. But, Lord, I want to ask you today for your peace, for your presence.

Lord, I want to ask you as always, Lord, to give me clarity in my mind and liberty with my mouth that we might, as we stand today, speak forth the words of everlasting life. Lord, I understand and I know that this privilege that I have to stand before your people is just that, is a privilege and it is an honor.

And, Lord, I do not ever want to take it lightly or to take it as a small thing. Lord, our desire for this body today is this, that we, as we hear your word, Lord, that we would be, that our spirits, God, would be edified, that you would be magnified, that you would be exalted, Lord, and that you would be pleased with the worship in the preaching of your word that we attempt to lay before you today.

Lord, it is my prayer as well, I would ask you, please, oh God, give assurance of salvation to those who are in question. Bring conviction of sin to those who do not know. God, your word is like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.

Lord, I pray that today, that as only you can speak to us as your people. Help us, Lord, that we may know you more and love you better. For it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. If you would, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to the book of Ezra, Ezra chapter 1.

Ezra 1 and the Fulfillment of Jeremiah’s Word

If you would stand, when you get to your place there, we are going to be reading all of Ezra chapter 1, and the first verse is all. And really, our focus today on instruction from the word of God will just be primarily from the first half of this verse.

It may be a very slow process today, or through this foundational series to get to Hagin and Zechariah, but nonetheless, Ezra chapter 1, verse 1, this is the word of the living God. In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing.

As far as the reading of God's word, you may be seated this morning. By the way, I'm not drinking from the Alabama cup because we beat Tennessee. I'm drinking from the Alabama cup because it was a gift given to me and I thought, what a more fitting time to use it.

I would like to say very quickly as we enter the text, I would like to give another big thank you, a word of appreciation to you, the congregation, for the gifts and the kindness that you showed to us last week.

The dinner was fantastic. The fellowship was that much even better. So I thank God for you all. Each passing day, just know that. So here in Ezra chapter 1, Ezra chapter 1, if you're taking, at the top of your notes, if you just want to write this, Ezra chapter 1, verse 1, and then maybe a parenthesis or in a parenthetical or in a quote, means and ends.

Because that's what we're going to be talking about today. This term means and ends. We'll be giving definition for that shortly as well. Many of you have heard the term means to an end, so on and so forth.

But that's what we're going to be talking about here in this short section of Scripture. That's going to be the focus here. But here in the coming weeks, we'll be examining the significance as we shared with you a week before last.

We'll be examining the significance of the preached word, particularly the sermons of Haggai and the sermon of Zechariah, that they preached to the returned exiles from the Babylonian captivity. This is what we're going to be examining too.

This is what we're working to. And as we make our way to these,.

What are essentially,.

These are the sermons transcripts of Haggai and Zechariah when we get to them, but we're going to take some time to familiarize ourselves. Here in the book of Ezra, we're going to familiarize ourselves with the context of the events that took place that led to the sermons that were preached by Haggai and Zechariah and not only the sermons that were preached, but the result from these sermons.

Preaching, as we mentioned in the past, week before last and today, preaching is very, very important. And the events in the book of Ezra, the events in the book of Ezra, we are going to find, they lead us to worship God.

That is why we are here to fix our eyes, to fix our minds, to fix our hearts, to fix our gaze, to put our focus on the Lord of glory. And from the old Testament to the new Testament, we find God. And God is to be worshiped in spirit and in truth.

So it's very important for us, as we take this journey, this survey, if you would have it, however specific and detailed it may be, it's very important for us to keep in our minds, ultimately, this fact that this rebuilding of the natural temple that takes place in the book of Ezra, this rebuilding of the natural temple is to point God's people to the heavenly tabernacle that God himself has prepared for his people.

We are not looking for a natural, for a natural, we are looking for the spiritual. And so more specifically, more specifically, this points to Christ. It points us to Christ, who, by the way, is our rest.

And it points us to Jesus, who tabernacled with men. So the temple, by definition, or for definitive terms, the temple is a top and a shadow that points us to the anti-top and the substance. The Old Testament temple, the Old Testament tabernacle is a top and a shadow that points us to the true temple, to the true tabernacle, and that is God.

The Old Testament as a Survey of Christ

So,.

For a little bit of, just a little bit of a survey, if you would have it, of the Old Testament so that we have our minds refreshed, so that we are all on the same page going into this, this will help us all.

So the Old Testament has 39 books of Scripture. The Old Testament has 39 books of Scripture, and I want to give you the breakdown of these books so that we understand. The first five books of the Old Testament are referred to as the Pentateuch, or the Torah,.

The Law of God,.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These five books were intended by God, according to the Word of God, to be the history of the beginning of the people of God. If you would have it, the beginning of the church in the wilderness.

So Genesis we have creation, Exodus we have the deliverance out of captivity, Leviticus we have sacrifices, Numbers, Deuteronomy, we have the recounting of these things. And then the next section of Old Testament books are called to and referred to as historical books.

So there are five books of the Pentateuch, and the next number is twelve, there are twelve historical books. The historical books give the accounting of the history of God's people as they move through the wilderness to the promised land.

So Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, and then we have where we are in Ezra,.

And we have Nehemiah,.

And then we have Esther. Ezra we have the accounting of the rebuilding of the temple, in Nehemiah we have the recounting of the broken down walls in Jerusalem, because remember everything was taken down to the ground.

The next books, five books, are referred to as the poetic books of the Old Testament. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Psalm of Solomon, poetic books. And then the next seventeen books of the Old Testament are referred to as prophetic books, or books of prophecy.

Remembering what our definition is biblically of prophecy, prophecy points to Christ. Always and above everything else, prophecy points to Christ. Now in those seventeen prophetic books, they are broken down into two groups, major prophets and minor prophets.

Major prophets and minor prophets. The major prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Those are the major prophets. And the minor prophets, Hosea, Joel, Amos, or Bediah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Haggai, or Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

These are referred to as minor prophets, not because they were less important. Typically, the size of the book determined the major or the minor, right? The major prophets are larger in content, the minor prophets are smaller books.

And again, most people do not even realize that the book of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the last three books there in the Old Testament, Haggai, Zechariah, are sermons that were actually preached and proclaimed.

And not just into the air at a random time, but they were preached at a particular time to a particular people so that God's people might be encouraged and aided greatly by the preaching of the Word of God.

We see this testified to, and we see this idea spoken of in Ezra chapter 5. The scripture says in Ezra chapter 5 verse 1,. 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.

And we find it in chapter 6 verse 14,. And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and of Zechariah the son of Edo. And so it's going to be very, very important as we go through this book of Ezra to get our footing, to get the lay of the land, if you would have it, so that no matter where we turn, no matter what direction we look, if we're facing this way in Ezra, we see how this points to Christ.

If we turn this way, we see Christ. If we turn this way, we see Christ. If we turn this way, we see Christ. So that we do not become disoriented because, as I'm going to state to you here in just a minute, it would be very easy to get disoriented if we do not get our bearings here at the very beginning.

Who Is in View in Ezra

So, the book of Ezra. The book of Ezra is 10 chapters long. It takes the average reader, according to Google, 30 minutes to read through the book of Ezra. 30 minutes to read through the book of Ezra. So, some historical and some biographical information that we want to lay out before you that will be very, very helpful for us to know ahead of time as we begin to survey the book of Ezra.

Historical and biographical information. By that I mean giving some context because context is very, very important. So, some contextual questions that we're going to ask. Number one, who is in view here in the book of Ezra?

Who is in view here in the book of Ezra? It's important that we know who we're reading about and not only who we're reading about, but who these people are and what significance they play in this book in particular.

So, who is in view here in the book of Ezra? In order of chronology, what we read through the text, the plain reading of the text, who we see here first? We see and hear mention of Cyrus. Cyrus, the king of Persia.

Next, secondly, what we see in the book of Ezra is a, if you would have it, it's a genealogical reporting of all the families that came out of the captivity in Babylon. We'll see that in chapter two. Specific genealogical records.

So, we see Cyrus, king of Persia. Next, we'll see a genealogical reporting of all the families that came out of the captivity of Babylon back to Jerusalem. And next, we see Joshua, the son of Josedek and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,.

Mentioned by name.

Zerubbabel, the governor.

Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest. Next, fourthly, who we see are the adversaries or the enemies of the work of God. The adversaries or the enemies of the work of God. Now, we have specific names of these enemies for the sake of simplicity.

As we get there, we'll of course read their names. But for the sake of simplicity and keeping your notes uncluttered, we're just gonna call these the enemies of the work of God. Because truly, that is what they were.

And next, lastly, who's in view in this book of Ezra? The kings. Several kings that are mentioned. Four specifically. Four kings that are mentioned in this book of Ezra in the text that we see from Ezra 1 to the end of chapter 10.

Four kings by name. First king, Cyrus. Next king, King Darius. The next king, Ahasuerus. And lastly, the fourth king, Artaxerxes. So we have Cyrus, Darius, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes. And next, you would think I would have already mentioned it because the book is named after him, but we see Ezra.

Ezra.

We see Ezra himself. Now, who was Ezra? We have that answered for us in the Scripture in chapter 7 verse 11. In Artaxerxes' letter, he addresses Ezra as chapter 7 verse 11 says, this is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a man learned in matters of the commandments of the Lord and his statutes for Israel.

So we see Ezra was a priest. Ezra was a scribe. He was a man learned in matters of the commandments of the Lord and the statutes of Israel. And again, we're taking this very, very slowly because we want to kind of try to absorb and take in all of this information that we can because as we begin to go through, you'll understand how important knowing all of this is.

It keeps you from getting off track. So we've answered the question, who is in view in the book of Ezra? We've answered the question, who is Ezra? The next context question that we want to ask basically are two in one, but who were and when did these kings reign that we see mentioned in the book of Ezra?

Who were the kings and when did these kings reign? We already know their names, right? Cyrus, Darius, Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes,.

Four kings.

When did these kings reign? So Cyrus reigned from the year 560 B .C. 560 B .C. to 530 B .C. 560 to 530 B .C. Rough estimates on these numbers. 560 to 530, which again, if you remember before Christ, the days didn't go forward as they do after Christ, the days kind of went down, right?

So 560 to 530, that's still how many years? 30 years. Next, when did Darius reign? It's important that we make a distinction. Darius I is who we're thinking of. Darius I reigned from the year 522 B .C. to the year 486 B .C.

522 to 486. That's King Darius I. That's 36 years that he reigned.

Ahasuerus.

Ahasuerus reigned from 486 to 465, which is 21 years. Artaxerxes, the last of the kings, and again, this is Artaxerxes I. Artaxerxes I reigned from 465 to 424. 465 to 424, which is 41 years. So the next context question is this.

What is the time span covered in the Book of Ezra? What is the time span covered in the Book of Ezra? Anywhere from 90 to 120 years. So what takes us 30 minutes to read this accounting of Ezra, there is a span of 90 to 120 years that take place.

You see why it's so important for us to understand what's going on. So up to 120 years takes place. As a matter of fact, the Reformed expository commentary said this. The Book of Ezra begins in the year 538.

So it's likely long into Cyrus' reign that this being delivered or set free out of Babylon is accomplished by God. And it's a half a century after Jerusalem's collapse. Ezra, the man Ezra, does not appear in the Book of Ezra here until about halfway through the book, which is likely roughly about 80 years into the rebuilding of the temple that Ezra comes.

The opening paragraph of Ezra tells the story of the first two generations. The generation is 30 to 40 years. Ezra tells the story of the first two generations.

Of the returning exiles.

And how they rebuilt the ruined temple. So you see, with Ezra itself being a historical book, we have the accounting of the rebuilding of the tabernacle, the temple of God by the Jews after they were set free from Babylonian captivity.

Means and Ends in God’s Providence

So with that being said, our topic today being a means to an end. Know this, that creation, creation is the means that God uses to His ends. Creation is God's. No one creates, I guess as would be the old Hebrew ghost, ex nihilo, out of nothing except for God.

God creates all things. And what do we read in the book of the Revelation chapter 4? For thy pleasure they are and were created, all things. So creation is the means that God uses to His ends. Now, let's define these terms, ends and means.

Ends, when we say ends, we're talking about the goal, the goal or what we aim to do. The ends are a goal or what we aim to do and the means, means are defined as what we use to do what we aim to do.

How do we get to where we're going?

Or in this case, how does God accomplish what He's doing? He does it through creation. He does this through creation. And remember, the ultimate view, the ultimate thing that we're looking for is Christ.

How does God work all things together for the good of those whom He loves? How does God use means to accomplish His ends? Concerning Cyrus and the other kings. How does God use means to His ends? Concerning Cyrus and the other kings.

What can we learn? Number one, we can learn this, that God uses even godless governments to the advantage of His chief ends being carried out.

That's true.

The idea that the Lord needs a Christian government to accomplish His goals is foreign to the Scripture. Let's read Psalm 146. Psalm 146, verses 1 through 10. Psalm 146, verses 1 through 10. The Word of God says this, Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes or in a son of man in whom there is no salvation.

When his breath departs, he returns to the earth. On that very day, his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made the heavens and the earth.

He made the sea and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever. He who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.

The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.

The Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord watches over the sojourners. He upholds the widows and the fatherless. But the way of the wicked, he brings to ruin. The Lord will reign forever. Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord.

As a matter of fact,.

Concerning that, we see quite the opposite throughout history. Despite the fact of godliness, godlessness, being rampant in history, the Lord always works things according to the counsel of his own will.

As Christians, as Christians, we can take comfort in this fact. Not only can we, but we should. I exhort, I encourage you, Christian people, take comfort in the sovereignty of God. As Christians, we take comfort in this fact.

Our hope lies, again, in the sovereignty of God and not in the sovereignty of man. Kings and kingdoms will all pass away. Governments, politicians, and civil servants who have no saving knowledge of the gospel may still implement policies that enable the kingdom of God to advance for this is what we see in the book of Ezra.

And we see God working out his plan, his will, by means of his sovereignty and by means of his providential intercession in the affairs of human beings. People will say it would be evil of a God who would intercede in the affairs of man.

Oh, my friends, it would be an evil God truly who stood back and did nothing for his creation. But our God intercedes in the affairs of man. It may have been Cyrus who issued the decrees,.

For notice what the text says.

In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, that the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus,.

King of Persia,.

So that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and he also put it in writing. It may have been Cyrus who issued the decree for the Jews to return to Jerusalem, but from another far more important point of view, it was God's doing.

It was the Lord who worked this out. Reformed expository commentary said this, man proposes, but God disposes. Thus, the author of the first chapter of Ezra makes it very plain indeed that it was the Lord who stirred up the spirit of Cyrus.

God did it. At no point did the Lord abandon his control. He oversees the affairs of this world. Now, what is very noteworthy for us here concerning the history of Cyrus, as we are looking at Cyrus right now, notice point one, Cyrus was the king of Persia.

He was the king of Persia. Now, why was he the king of Persia? I'm proclaiming to you that he was king of Persia because providentially by God's hand, Persia overtook Babylon.

So what, right?

This may seem like a not so important piece of information until we consider this, that Babylon was instrumental in taking God's people captive. And this taking of God's people captive by Babylon was prophecy set forth hundreds of years before, spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah, as we see declared here.

Let's look at that prophecy. In Jeremiah chapter 25,. Jeremiah chapter 25, beginning in verse 8. Jeremiah chapter 25, verse 8. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and notice how Jeremiah puts this, the king of Babylon, my servant.

The king of Babylon was not a godly man, just in case you're wondering. He was not a godly man, but the scripture calls him, God calls Nebuchadnezzar his servant.

And he says,.

I will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction and I will make them a horror, a hissing and an everlasting desolation.

Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of millstones and the light of the lamp. In other words, it ain't gonna be a good thing.

This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon for 70 years. But the Lord does not stop there. He says then after 70 years are completed, what does he say?

I will punish who? The king of Babylon and that nation that the land of the Chaldeans for their iniquity declares the Lord making the land an everlasting waste. I will bring upon that land all the words that I had uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations for many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them and I will recompense them, God said, according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.

So what we see here is that God uses means, his creation to achieve his ends. What did the Lord do? The Lord used the Persians to destroy the Babylonians just as he said he would do, so he did. Nearing the end of 70 years of captivity in Babylon, the Lord brought destruction on Babylon by the Persians and who was the king of Persia?

Cyrus was the king of Persia. Providentially, by the hand of God, Cyrus. And hence we read in verse 1 of chapter 1 in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia. Now, here's the thing. We don't want to get tripped up on this.

It says in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, not the first year of Cyrus' reign in Persia for he had reigned in Persia for many years. But through those many years, there were conquests made of lands and it just so happened that during the first year of his reign of Babylon that this comes to pass, that this act of providence comes to be.

Next, let's notice this. Notice what the Lord did. What did the Lord do? According to the text here in verse 1, he stirred up the spirit of Cyrus. Again, an ungodly man.

Not a good man.

An ungodly, wicked man. But the Lord caused Cyrus to let the children of Israel go back to Jerusalem. Now, the children of Israel, God's people, were slaves in Babylon. They were slaves in Babylon. They had been slaves in Egypt hundreds, thousands of years before, right?

God delivered them and here God delivers them through their chastisement back to Jerusalem and it is the Lord stirring up their hearts and their minds that causes even them to desire to rebuild the temple of God.

So they were slaves in Jerusalem and the Lord caused Cyrus to set them free. Now, from a very natural human perspective, it's highly likely, very likely, that in many ways that God's people were well adjusted to life in Babylon.

How long were they there? Seventy years. So it's likely that they had gotten used to life.

In Babylon.

Now, when I began to consider this, I thought about a sermon by the old preacher Vance Havner and the title of this sermon is called Getting Used to the Dark. Just to read you a snippet, Vance Havner said this.

And you would have to imagine,.

If you look up a picture of Vance Havner, he's just a little skinny old man,.

Horny nose,.

But he said, sometime ago a friend of mine took me to a restaurant where they must love darkness rather than light. He said, I stumbled into the dimly lit cavern, fumbled for a chair, and mumbled that I needed a flashlight to read the menu.

When the food came, Havner said, I ate it by faith and not by sight. Gradually, he said, however, I began to make out objects a little more clearly and my host said to me, funny isn't it, how we get used to the dark.

We are living in the dark, Havner said. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. The night is far spent, the blackness is more extensive and more excessive as it deepens.

Just before the dawn.

However, Havner says this, early Christians set the world aglow because absolute light was pitched against absolute darkness. The early Christians believed that the gospel was the only hope of the world and that without it all men were lost and all religions were false.

The day came when the church and the world.

Mixed light with darkness.

The church got used to the dark and lived in it for several centuries with only occasional flashes of light.

Today, Havner said,.

Too many Christians think there is some darkness in our light and some light in the world's darkness. He said we half doubt our own gospel.

And half believe the religion of this age.

We are creeping around in the dark when we should be flooding the world with light. We need to get our candles out from underneath our bushels and beds, take off the shades of compromise and let them shine in our hearts.

Let them shine in our homes, in our businesses, in our churches, and in our communities with that light that shines in the Savior and in the Scriptures and shines in the saints. The people of Babylon had likely gotten used to life in Babylon.

They had become accustomed to the ways of their world. Church, we are not called to be used to this world. We are called to come out from this world and be a separate people. Besides, when we think about these people, these Israelites in Babylon, when we think honestly to ourselves now, why would they want to leave Babylon for a city that had been completely destroyed like Jerusalem?

Why?

Well, hopefully,.

As what we just stated to you, it would become clear that when we consider the events that took place in the land of their own captivity, Babylon, that they understood that Babylon, the Babylon that they had come to know over the 70 years they lived there, was not the Babylon that they were in now.

They began to see Babylon for what it was, a ruined, run-down, destroyed city as well. You can go from geographic location to geographic location, and my friend Abel said it in Sunday school this morning, it does not change.

Sin has ruined all of creation and life. It's the same anywhere you go. And it's likely these Israelites in Babylon began to understand, well, we can go back to Jerusalem because there is hope.

What was their hope?

A rebuilding of the natural temple. Now, we know the natural temple, top and shadow, right? To them, it was everything. It was what they were looking for. So, their captors had been taking captives themselves, and the city was likely in rubble itself.

So, to bring this even into more focus, let's bring this into more focus. They realized that they would have it better in Jerusalem than they had it in Babylon. They realized that they would have it better.

In Jerusalem,.

Even though it was a run-down, beat-down city, than they did in Babylon. We can bring this into focus by considering the account of the prodigal son. Remember what the prodigal son said in Luke chapter 15, verse 11.

And he said,.

This prodigal son,.

After he had squandered all his goods on rides of sinful living, this prodigal son, the scripture says, he came to himself, right? The scripture says, there was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me this portion of my goods that's coming to me.

So, he divided his property between them, and not many days later, the younger son gathered,.