Ezra 7

Lord God, thank you again for this gathering and Lord. Thank you for your word. We pray that your words would have their effect on us Lord that they would reveal more about what you're like and who you are and also God that they would Help sanctify us and help this to become more like Christ every single day God we pray that.

We pray that that sanctification process would happen we we ought we often don't want it to be with through discipline and and through Difficulties Lord, but we know it often is God either way. We pray that that you would change us change our hearts.

Help us to be more like Jesus in his name. We pray. Amen. All right. Ezra chapter 7 these are the words of God. Now after this in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia Ezra the son of Sariah son of Azariah son of Hilkiah son of Shalom son of Zedek son of Ahitab son of Amariah son of Azariah son of Mary off son of Zehariah son of Uzi son of Buki son of Abushua son of Phineas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the chief priest.

Ezra's Return and Artaxerxes's Decree

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 God 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 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.

This is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest the scribe a man learned in the matters of the commandments of the Lord and the statutes for Israel. Artaxerxes king of kings to Ezra the priest the scribe of the law of the God of heaven peace.

And now I make a decree that any one of the people of Israel or their priests or Levites in my kingdom who freely offers to Go to Jerusalem may go with you. For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of your God Which is in your hand and also to carry the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel whose dwelling is in Jerusalem with all the silver and gold that you shall find in the whole province of Babylonia.

And With the freewill offerings of the people and the priests vowed willingly for the house of their God that is in Jerusalem. With this money then you shall with all diligence buy bulls Rams and lambs with their grain offerings and their drink offerings and you shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God That is in Jerusalem.

Whatever seems good to you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and gold you may do according to the will of your God. The vessels that have been given you for the service of the house of your God.

You shall deliver before the God of Jerusalem and whatever else is required for the house of your God Which it falls to you to provide you may provide it out of the king's treasury. And I are desert sees the king make a decree to all the treasurers in the province beyond the river.

Whatever Ezra the priests the scribe of the law of God of the God of heaven requires of you Let it be done with all diligence up to 100 talents of silver 100 cores of wheat 100 baths of wine 100 baths of oil and salt without prescribing how much.

Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven. Let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven lest his wrath be kindled against the realm of the king. And his sons. We also notify you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute custom or toll on any one of the priests the Levites the singers the doorkeepers the temple servants or other servants of this house of God and you Ezra according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the peoples in the province beyond the river all such as know the laws of your God and Those who do not know them you shall teach.

Whoever will not obey the law of your God in the law of the king. Let judgment be strictly executed on him whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of his goods or for imprisonment. Bless me the Lord the God of our fathers who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors and before all the king's mighty officers.

I Took courage for the hand of the Lord my God was on me and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me. This is the word of the Lord. So today finally in chapter 7 we get introduced to the person the book is named after Ezra likely wrote chapters 1 through 6 as well, but now he enters the book as one of the active participants.

And so if you notice the last paragraph it actually switches voice it switches from third person to first person. Which I think is an indication that Ezra wrote everything. So he uses the third person when he talks about things He wasn't involved in and he uses the first person when he is in the action.

And so this week we start to learn a little bit more about Ezra what he was about what his role was in the nation of Israel. Also Again, we see the the common theme of almost every one of these sermons so far.

We see the theme of the length that God is willing to go. Who he's willing to work through to accomplish his plan again. We see God working through a political leader King Artaxerxes. This is in a Another official declaration another official law.

Artaxerxes is using all of his authority. Official channels of power letters, this is important stuff, I think you know we Have a 24-hour news cycle all kinds of politics is Pumping through the news and through Facebook all the time.

God's Providence in Politics

And this is the thing politics matters to God. He works through it. He works through it. What happens in the halls of Congress or in the White House or in the Supreme Court or even City Hall? God is working through all of this whether for good or for bad.

The acts of politicians can be a blessing or they can be a curse and I think this week We see that God is blessing the people through King Artaxerxes. I don't think there's any question about that. Even Ezra actually comments on this political activity.

He says that blessed be the Lord the God of our fathers who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king. You See Ezra identifies the very clearly kick this this whole idea of to help him and to provide for him.

This didn't come from King Artaxerxes. This came directly from God it came through Artaxerxes from God according to God's own will. So he gives the credit to God. And I think this is again something we can apply today.

So when when good things happen through our leaders, we can we can say, okay, that's the grace of our Almighty God. And of course when bad things happen through our leaders. We can still say this is revelatory of God's wrath against sin.

So we've talked about that. We spent six chapters talking about that already. So I want to focus on a different part of this chapter. I Want to focus on one verse what it says about Ezra. Verse 10 actually a few sentences before a few words before verse 10.

This is what it says about Ezra it says 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. Says that Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach it.

That's a very simple verse. It's very easy to interpret. It's not a difficult thing. You don't need to take a class in hermeneutics and know what that means. But there's a lot to draw from so let's just dive right into it.

Studying the Law of the Lord for Action

The first thing that I that struck me when I read that verse is that it shows us that for Ezra To know the law of God to be able to do it to be able to teach it. He had to study it. It takes effort. It takes work.

Now that might seem obvious. But I wonder how obvious it is you know a lot of times I will get into conversations about Scripture and not just the law of the Lord but but all kinds of passages in Scripture and and I'll talk about you know, what's justice?

What is sin? What is good? What is righteous and How the Bible is the standard that we should judge what what's good and what's bad? And a lot of times depending on who I'm talking to you. Well, the response I'll get is usually a bunch of questions like I'll get questions about how a passage applies to our modern context, right?

So this was written thousands of years ago. How does it apply to today? Or sometimes I'll get questions, you know, especially with the law. It's a beat we're so out of the context of the law, right? Like we don't deal in bulls and rams and axe heads around here anymore.

Well. And so they'll say well, how does that apply today like I don't plow my field with an ox I plow it with the tractor, right? So, how do you how do you make the application and the reality is I don't know all the answers.

I Don't know all the answers. I don't understand everything fully. I Think that you remember how I opened the sermon series about what it would how awesome it would be if President Trump said, okay We're gonna we're gonna start to implement righteous laws according to the Bible.

That would be awesome. But it wouldn't be something we could do overnight we would have to convene a Conference we would have to talk to people that are much smarter than I am. They'd have to debate it.

They'd have to apply sound Interpretation and figure out what are the scriptures actually saying and how can we correctly apply it? This would take a lot of work and Ezra according to verse 10 had dedicated his life to this work.

Even though he was closer to the context, right? So he would probably understand Deuteronomy a lot better than we could. But even though he was right there he was he was right next to the context. He still had to dedicate his life to understanding it and so.

The question we ought to ask is why would somebody do this? Why would somebody dedicate their whole lives? To understanding the law of God. That's the question. Now you see Ezra in this chapter. He credits this dedication to the study and to the application of God's law.

He credits that with the blessings that God gave. He says that the good hand of God was on him because he had Dedicated himself to this task to learn and to do and to teach the law of God. So to him to Ezra This was a necessary task.

That's why he dedicated his life to it. If if Israel would was to move forward and in God's blessing He needed to do this. And so that's one reason why he thought it was necessary. Now the thing is the reason so so studying, you know God's Word and his statutes and his rules.

It's not necessary just for knowledge sake like like we read scripture and we read the Bible not just to get the knowledge. But it prepares us for action. It prepares us for action. So when we hear the Word of God and we hear what God is like.

We see his law it reveals justice to us. It reveals righteousness to us. So you learn and you study theology and it's and it's not just for information sake it prepares you to act righteously it prepares you to act with justice and This is not magic.

Well, you know. Not not all of its magic. I don't know if you've ever noticed this. But if you've ever read a certain author a lot. You've read a lot of his books or maybe even listen to a preacher preach a lot and he pre you know.

You listen to every sermon. He's ever preached or you listen to every lecture. He's ever made ever given. I Don't know about you, but sometimes I'll start to talk like that person. And I don't even intend to do it.

It's not like I'm trying to emulate them. It's just when you think when you see when you hear how someone thinks enough. Sometimes their thoughts become your thoughts and so I'll emulate a preacher without even trying.

I'll use the same mannerisms. I'll use the same examples. And I'll start to explain things the way that they would explain and it just happens. Well, the law of God is sort of like that. The scripture is sort of like that.

Except even more so when the Holy Spirit is actually doing that to you. It's actually working to make you more holy as you read the scripture. So the more you understand God's justice the more you study it.

It's not just that you want it for the knowledge sake. It's because you want the Holy Spirit to change you and apply its principles to your everyday life. Christian theologian court Cornelius van Til who's an awesome guy if you've never read him, I recommend you do.

He says this he says. Systematic theology cannot be simply an exercise in thinking and a system systematization systematization of biblical thought. But rather it must be thinking for action in terms of knowing obeying and honoring God by fulfilling his mandate to us.

It can't be an abstraction. It is related to what happens in church state school family the arts sciences the vocations and everything else. My favorite theologian applies van Til's ideas. RJ rush Dooney.

He goes further he says theology must assert the crown rights of Christ the King over every area of life and thought. It must set forth and clarify God's command the Bible in order for to arm men for action.

The Bible is not just a devotional or manual or an inspirational book. But rather a command word for the army of God. To reduce theology to an academic or an ecclesiastical matter is to deny the God of Scripture.

Man's being requires a systematic and he will either live or die in terms of it. His faith will lead him to action or inaction. Thus systematics can't be avoided. The only question is which system He's talking about the law the law that Ezra dedicated his life to studying and the reason Ezra did that Was not just to be as smart as anyone's ever been not just to be the best lawyer that he could be.

But rather to lead and to act in Israel now, that was the Old Testament, of course, right. Ezra is an Old Testament saint. But how about today? The question is is this kind of thing necessary today? Like do modern Christians need to study the law of God order the scriptures to the same degree.

I Know and that is true. We are under grace. But we all know that grace does not replace the need for righteousness. The existence of grace does not mean that justice is unimportant. The existence of grace does not remove the need for God's people to be ready for action.

So absolutely, I think we need a house full of Ezra's these days. We need a legion of Ezra's to teach the people of God to Understand God to study to do the law of God. To teach it to others. But you don't have to take my word for it for that.

There are plenty of New Testament authors that agree. These are members of the Church of God. These are new testament context much closer to us. Listen to what they have to say about this topic. Paul the Apostle in in the book of Corinthians.

He talks about the Corinthians being like children. He says they're not ready for solid food, but they rather they need to be fed with milk. He doesn't really explain it as much as the author of Hebrews explains what he means by that.

Here's what Hebrews chapter 5 says we read this together earlier. It says this again. It says about this. We have much to say and it's hard to explain since you've become dull of hearing. That's not very nice author of Hebrews.

He says for this for though though by this time you ought to be teachers. You need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk and not solid food. And what's the solid food?

We'll get a little explanation here. He says everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature for those who have their powers of discernment.

Trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. The author of Hebrews whoever it is. A lot of people say it's Luke, which I think is super interesting. But the author of Hebrews says very plainly.

That you're like a baby if you're unskilled in the word of righteousness. That's how you know, you're like a baby if you're not skilled in the word of righteousness. Righteousness, by the way is just another word for justice.

And I think if we look at this contextually the word of righteousness. This is an explicit reference to the scriptures the Hebrew Scriptures actually. I Don't think that's hard to to see. I'm not gonna make that case right now, but I Think contextually that's what he's talking about.

Paul says the same thing. He says he says all scripture is God is breathed out by God and Profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for training in righteousness. So what's the word of righteousness according to Paul according to the author of Hebrews?

It's the Hebrew Scriptures. It's the Bible. The law and the prophets that's what they're talking about. When they're talking about solid food. That's the good stuff that's for the mature and Notice this is not about knowledge.

This is not about just filling up your head with with Trivia, right? This is about action. This is what Hebrew says it says the mature and he explains who are the mature it is. It is those who have the powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

It's not just constant reading. It's constant practice. The author of Hebrews even goes on he gets even further. He goes even further on this one. He says therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God and of Instruction about washing the laying out of hands the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment now.

That verse has made a lot of gospel centered people very uncomfortable in the past. Because it seems to say something that they don't believe. But I would say that this verse is not a threat to gospel centeredness at all.

But it is if you think that the gospel is only about personal salvation. Repentance faith eternal life eternal judgment if that's all the gospel is then this verse is not good for gospel centered people.

But that's not all the gospel is. Not by a long shot. See that's a that's a that's a very limited view of what the gospel is. Ezra knew this. The question is do we know this? See these things repentance and faith eternal life eternal salvation.

Resurrection eternal death. These are foundational elements of the Christian faith. So our salvation by grace through faith in Christ through his sacrifice. These are fundamental beliefs. But we need to build on that foundation.

See nobody sets up a foundation. Just to have the foundation to hang out on a slab of rock. The foundation hat is there to be built upon its it's there to be added to. The foundation is never an end in itself, but it has a purpose.

It has a goal. That's what the solid food is. Keep in mind this is we talked about this last week with the Exodus right how that's a picture of our own salvation, right? Parallels. Our own salvation. God saves the people he brings it out of bondage.

The bondage in Egypt represents our own bondage to sin and death. He saves the people and then he tells them and teaches them what to do. You see God does the same for us. He loves us and he takes care of us and he tells us that our performance is not what made us as children.

But rather we are as children because he chose us. He wanted us and he adopted us. And so we didn't earn our salvation. We can't unearn it. But our adoption has a goal in mind. It's not just for the sake of it.

He didn't choose people just for the fun of it. Rather he has a goal in mind. He wants to teach us how to love one another. He wants to teach us how to love our neighbor how to love him. He wants to show us what that looks like and he wants to give us the power to do it.

You see God saves us he saves the church because he's creating a new humanity in Christ. That accurately reflects his image and will have a righteousness that will shine like the Sun. That's what the solid food is for it's for the mature.

It's for the mature. It's not it's not that you move past the gospel. It's not that you you say, okay. The gospel is it's over now now we're gonna move to stage two. You don't move past it. But you build upon it.

It's a foundation. So you keep the foundation intact and yes, that's true, but you don't just hang out on the foundation you build a house upon it. God's building a new humanity on the foundation of Christ's work the gospel and We should apply that gospel in every area of life.

And that's why Ezra dedicated his whole life to this. This is a lifetime of work. God will sanctify you every step of the way all the way till your death and then he will complete the work. This takes a lifetime so that's why Ezra dedicated his life to studying the law to doing the law into teaching the law and That's the same thing we ought to do today, but you don't have to take my word for this either because Jesus Christ Directly says this.

We read together the Great Commission, it's a two-part Commission and it's so awesome. God says go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

That's part one. You see baptizing repentance and faith. That's the milk and that's the foundation. It's fundamental. That's where you start. You can't do anything until God regenerates you. So it's essential.

Just like the foundation is essential. You don't build a house without the foundation. And it's not like once the house is built you discard the foundation you keep it. But you don't stop there. You've got to go on to the next part of this verse.

Part two of the mission teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you see that's the solid food. It doesn't save you. Part one is what saves you. But it's the goal of salvation. It's the goal of salvation.

It's for the mature. This is necessary, this is what Ezra busied himself his whole life. He busied himself doing this because it was necessary. He saw why it was helpful. And he was right. So we should remember to apply this to our own lives as well all room all while remembering the first and final part of this verse.

This is the great comfort of this whole thing because teaching people to observe all that Christ has commanded. That's hard. And we can't do it on our own, but Christ doesn't leave us hanging. He finishes the verse and he says behold.

I am with you always to the end of the age. Let's pray Lord God, I I thank you so much for the book of Ezra and just the amazing encouragement we get when we see how Effective your will is how you can work through every person.

We read the words of Artaxerxes and I can't even imagine Any political leader of our time saying things like that. Thank you for working through political leaders. Thank you for blessing your people so often through them.

And we pray God that you would continue to do so Lord. I pray that we would Never forget the second piece of that Great Commission Lord. We want to see souls saved. Absolutely. We want to see tons of souls saved Lord, but we also want everyone to move on to maturity.

And luckily God we have a promise from you that that's what exactly what you will do. You will not start a work that you will not finish. You will sanctify us God. I know some days it seems further away than it than it does others.

But God you have promised that you will fix hearts and our souls that you will help us to be like Christ and Then in the last day Lord that you will complete the work God. And we'll have a society it will have a kingdom that we love each other and we love you.

Wow, that's that's quite a thought. You don't even have any way to conceive of what that would be like God we thank you for it. And so we pray that you would continue to do that work in us and that You'd help us to be more like Christ every day.

Thank you for your salvation and for your grace in Jesus name. Amen.