8/19/18 Intro to Ezra (Foundations for understanding Ezra-The sovereignty and providence of God

I am so thankful this morning for the Word of God. I am torn. You know how sometimes when you are preparing to, I'll just say it like this, I really can't speak for you. When I'm preparing to preach, there are times when I feel like the message may be very short and the thought crosses my mind this might very well be one of the shortest messages that I've ever preached.

But inevitably if I get up and say that, I end up preaching for an hour and make myself.

A liar.

So I'm trying to learn how to discipline myself, not necessarily to make assumptions on what I think so much as compared to what we have prepared to share with you. But I do feel like it is very important, and I do not ever want us to back down off as far as from a preaching perspective to say that we want to give you any less than what the Word of God says, even more so than any less than what we feel like you need to hear.

It's very, very important that when we are preaching from the Word of God, that we stay in the Word of God, that we stick to the Word of God, and if the Word of God seems a bit more teachy than preachy sometimes, then so be it.

Our desire for this church, for Reformata Baptist Church, is to be built upon, said this most probably most recently, just a couple of years back, but that this church be founded and based and built upon the preaching of the Word of God.

You can get a positive thought, you can get positive reinforcement from the world, but the Word of God will simultaneously not only build positivity into you, but it will tear you down at the same time, amen?

There are plenty of places and plenty of times when we read and look through the pages of the Word of God where personally we are offended. Kenny talked about it last week in class, the Sunday school lessons he didn't much care for because it talked about our responsibility on how we as Christians ought to behave at.

Work.

And throughout the Word of God, we find that the Word of God effectively changes the believer. Beginning this week, what we're going to do, we're going to be going to the Old Testament. It's been some time since we've been verse by verse through an Old Testament book, and we are not today, don't get afraid, but we are going to be going through verse by verse, word by word, through the book of Ezra.

Good news here, the book of Ezra is only ten chapters long. Philippians was only what? Five chapters? And it only took us seven months to get through. But this is a different, it's going to be kind of a different, not necessarily a different approach, but a different perspective when we're looking at the Old Testament, this book of Ezra.

And if you're taking notes, there are just a few things I want to share with you and leave with you today to kind of build the foundation for the book of Ezra as we study.

Through it.

The Sovereignty and Providence of God in Ezra

We're going to see the theme of the sovereignty of God, we're going to see the theme of the providence of God, and today we're going to kind of define those terms a little bit to you. And also, from the book of Jeremiah, we're going to be reading to you a little bit of the foundation for where we are here in the book of Ezra.

Just a quick overview, the book of Ezra is the history of God's people Israel coming out of Babylonian captivity. They had been taken captive by the Babylonians due to their disobedience to the Lord himself.

And so, in looking at this, some of it may not seem like it's that happy-go-lucky, but throughout this book of Ezra, we're going to see the sovereignty of God at work in His creation. And when I say the sovereignty of God, to define that term, and any time we use that term, regardless whether it's concerning the book of Ezra, concerning the book of Psalms, concerning the New Testament, whatever it may be, when we talk about the sovereignty of God, this is what I want you to kind of have in your mind what sovereignty is.

Very simply, define the sovereignty of God as this, it is God's authority. The sovereignty of God, when we speak of the sovereignty of God, we are speaking of God's authority and God's right to govern all things.

So when we say God's sovereignty, we're talking about God's authority and God's right to govern all things. By the way, we are a Christian church, amen? So our worldview ought to be biblical. I'm not here to present to you a worldview outside of the Scriptures.

The worldview that is preached and taught is going to be a biblical worldview. Don't expect it to line up with the world's standards. Don't expect it to line up with the world's view of God. The church has a responsibility, the preacher has a responsibility within the church to preach who God is according to God's Word, amen?

A lot of folks have an idea, a lot of folks have an interpretation of who they think God is and how they think God speaks and how they think God works and how they think God moves. But friends, we have it from the Word of God itself that this is how we know who God is.

That through the Holy Spirit illuminating the Word of God to us as His people, we can know who God is. We can know who God is. Now, so we know that according to the Scriptures, several different places, and I'll just quote you a couple of different verses, Psalm chapter 66 and verse 7 if you want to make a note of that.

Psalm 66 verse 7, Psalm 135 verse 6, the psalmist writes this concerning God, that God who rules by His might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations and to not let the rebellious exalt themselves.

So keep in mind, when we speak of sovereignty, we're speaking of God's authority and God's right to govern all things. To have authority and to have right in anything really means that you need to have ownership of that thing, amen?

Now does anybody in here have ownership of this world by a show of hands?

No?

Truly, truly none of us have ownership of anything. It's given to us by the Lord if we've got anything, amen? Good or bad, it comes through the hand of God. So the psalmist also said in Psalm 135 verse 6, whatever the Lord pleases, He does.

Now whatever the Lord pleases, He does in heaven alone.

Uh uh.

Whatever the Lord does, He does what He pleases in heaven and in earth. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. He owns the cattle of a thousand hills, as it's said, quoted many times by old timers,.

Amen?

He is sovereign over all of creation. And being sovereign over all of creation means that He is sovereign over all of the creatures. When I say the creatures, I'm talking about everything that is created.

He is sovereign over. We think about Noah and the ark. When the Lord decided that He was going to flood the earth because of the wickedness in the heart of man, the Bible says He commanded Noah to build an ark.

He gave Noah specific instruction on how to build this ark, right? He gave him the prince, He gave him the plan, Noah built the ark according to God's plan. According to God's sovereign direction. Now, the Lord told Noah, Noah, take you and your family into the ark when it is time.

And the Bible says the Lord closed the door of the ark. The door of the ark was not something that a man could close in and of himself. It was only God that was able to do such a thing. But even greater than that, speaking of God's sovereignty, remember, over all creation, God not only directed Noah and his family into the ark, but by his sovereignty and by means of his providence, God directed the animals into the ark.

I mean, I don't believe you know how the Robertsons, the Duck Dynasty bunch are famous for duck calls, right? But imagine, imagine, I don't know how he did it, but imagine how in the world would Noah have gotten all those animals on the ark, had he even had a call for each of them animals to draw them in.

Only the Lord could have done such a thing. The Lord is sovereign overall. So the sovereignty of God means that he has the right, he has the right and the authority to govern all things. To govern means to oversee all things.

As I said, we're going to speak about the providence of God. The providence defined is this way. God's providence is God's governance of all things. Not only does he have the right and the authority to govern all things, but providence is God actually governing all things.

You motorheads in here, Kenny, Pat, probably Chris, you just look like a motorhead. I don't know. James, you may be. Isaac, you know anything about motors?

What do they do?

NASCAR, Kenny was telling me about this a while back. NASCAR, they have to actually put governors on the engines, right? To slow them down to a certain speed or so they'll only go so fast. Stock cars.

Lawnmowers.

Lawnmowers. Governors. I need to be corrected on this because like I said, I'm ignorant generally speaking of engines and motors. But they are governed. They are slowed down. When you go to the go-kart track, right, they've got some go-karts that'll go a little bit and some will go a little bit more because they're governed, right?

They're slowed down. But what God does is God in his sovereignty, because he has the right and the authority to govern all things, God governs all things. God oversees all things. God oversees and directs all things.

However, I do want to make a point of clarification here and I want to make sure no one ever gets confused on this issue. God is not the author of sin, okay? So when we speak of God's sovereignty and God's working through means of his providence, we are not saying that God causes sin, but I'm saying God permits sin.

We know that because guess what? Every one of us are under the curse of sin. But he does so in order to bring glory and honor unto himself. So God's providence is God's governance of all things based upon, God's governance of all things based upon his omniscience, based upon his omnipresence, and based upon his omnipotence.

Omniscience, meaning that he is everywhere. Cyrus, where are you? Can you see God?

Amen.

Thank you.

That's the desire.

That's what we want at this church, for the church to be so theologically sound that when you ask a five or six year old, they can answer these questions. The world needs to see a church who knows who God is.

A theologically sound people. So God is omniscient, he's everywhere. God is omnipotent, meaning this, that he is king above all. Amen? He is the king of all kings and the Lord of all lords, according to the word of God.

And so in considering and in thinking about and in laying the groundwork for this study through the book of Ezra, we're going to see God's sovereignty. We're going to see God's omniscience. We're going to see God's omnipotence.

We're going to see the guiding hand of God's providence throughout the lives of his people, Israel. But friends, we will not see this or know this outside of the word of God. We might likely go back to the New Testament for references.

We might likely go back further in the Old Testament for references. But every one and all of the references will be from the word of God. And I'm making a distinct point about this today, because there are many in the church world today, popular church world, who will tell you that we do not need the Old Testament.

But my friend, the Old Testament is just as necessary as the New Testament. It is not less important, nor is it more important. Nor is the New Testament more or less important than the other. God gave us both testaments that we might know Him.

That we might know who He is. Much of what we read within the pages of the Old Testament are going to be prophecy concerning and foretelling the coming of Jesus Christ. We're going to see many books, as this book of Ezra is, a historical book telling us about the life of God in relation to His people.

I want to share something with you very quickly if I might. Let me see if I can find it here. Because it's easy again many times for a preacher to make a statement and to not give you any evidence that people actually will try to lead you away from the word of God.

But I want you to listen to just one little statement here concerning the Old Testament, concerning the word of God. This has been said, doing what He says, this is what is spoken concerning the Old Testament in the law, doing what He says is far more than reading what is written and obeying it.

That is a given. What if He actually is talking about listening to His current, present, active, ongoing, personal and powerful voice that we can hear in the now? When the phrase, I will do what I say is translated, it is speaking of logos, which is way more than the written word.

This is a quote from an individual who is saying that God speaks to His people outside of the word of God concerning who He is. Now God does not speak and tell us who He is. He does not come and whisper in my ear and say, Claude, I want you to tell the people of Ephraimata Church that I am good and that I am kind.

We know He is good and kind, not because I had that whispered in my ear or had that thought come through my mind, but because the word of God tells us He is good and He is kind. Those folks who want to stray from the Scriptures are all about telling you that God is good and that God is kind, but God not only is good and kind, but He is a just God who must carry out righteous judgment, which is who He is, righteous.

And many times that is worked out through the wrath of God. We learn about the law and the wrath of God from the Old Testament, and we learn about grace and truth in the New Testament. You see why you can't have one without the other?

Jesus Christ is the Logos. It's not something that we imagine or hear whispered in our ear, He is the Logos. In the beginning was the Word, John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Logos. And He was the Word, and the same was in the beginning, and He was in the beginning with God.

And the world was made by Him, and without Him nothing that was made is made, according to the Scriptures. So as we delve into this Old Testament book, it is so important that you do not discount the importance of both the Old and the New Testaments.

They are very, very, very important. J. I. Packer said this, It is inadequate to regard this term concerning the wrath of God merely as a description of the inevitable process of cause and effect in a moral universe, or as another way of speaking of the results of sin.

It is rather a personal quality without which God would cease to be fully righteous, and His love would degenerate into sentimentality. This is J. I. Packer that said this back around the 1900s. He said, The wrath of God is as personal and as potent as His love.

And just as the blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus was the direct manifesting of His Father's love toward us, so it was the direct averting of His Father's wrath against us. In the Old Testament, we see much of the outworking of the wrath of God, the displeasure of God with the sin of His people.

And many folks don't want to hear about this because the world in which we live, everybody wants to be able to do what they want to do without any kind of consequence or without any kind of repercussion.

But my friend, there is a price to be paid for sin. And the wages of sin is death, according to the Word of God. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. However, you also must know this, that there is a, old-timers put it this way, a heaven to gain, and there is a hell to shun.

That was in our Sunday school lesson. Most people wouldn't even see hell in that. But my friend, Jesus said that those who did not obey Him did not live according to His Word. The goats and the sheep who were divided, the sheep on the right and the goats on the left, the goats on the left were sent to depart into everlasting punishment.

Hell is a real place. Whether you believe that or not, it does not change the truth and the veracity of what the Word of God says. Hell is just as real as heaven. We need the good along with what we deem as the bad.

And so in understanding the Old Testament, in understanding the sovereignty of God, in understanding the providence of God, we must recognize and fully, and I have to say this myself personally, surrender to the sovereignty of God.

And many times we read things that God did as He sold Israel into slavery to the Babylonians as a punishment for their sins. But here's the good news. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 29 please. Jeremiah chapter 29.

Jeremiah chapter 29. And let's begin in verse 10. And we're going to read down through verse 14. And as we read through this passage of Scripture, tell me if you recognize a much used verse of Scripture.

You'll see this on plaques. You'll see this on notebooks. You'll see this on t-shirts. And you'll see this one verse touted as an explanation that God wants good for everybody. Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 10.

The Bible says, For thus says the Lord. After 70 years are completed at Babylon.

By the way,.

That's another point of reference that if you're taking notes, you keep down, keeping your mind as we're studying through the book of Ezra. That was the length of time that God left Israel in captivity to the Babylonians.

After 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you and cause you to return to this place. The context of this passage of Scripture many, many years before this has taken place, this is what the Lord has sent through the word of the prophet Jeremiah as a warning to the people of Israel concerning their being sold into Babylonian captivity.

And he says, I will visit you and I will perform my good word toward you and cause you to return to this place. So before we move any further, in this passage, in that one verse of Scripture right here in Jeremiah 29 10, we see the sovereignty of God, God's right and authority to govern all things.

And we see in this the faithfulness of God that God is always, always, always true unto His word. That God is not limited by time and space as we are.

Amen.

Ain't that good? And that He is faithful and that He is true. And He said, but I will cause you to return to this place. What a word is this. April talks about, I won't say repeatedly, but quite a bit.

She remembers, ma 'am, going on trips with you. And when she would get in trouble, you would tell her, wait until we get home. And she said she always hated the ride home because you were true. When you got home,.

She got it.

By the way,.

Sir's a softy.

Ma 'am was the punisher.

Just so that you all know. But the Bible goes on here and He says this, verse 11, For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope.

Have any of you ever seen that on anything? How many of you ever heard the folks who only want to preach the goodness of God and not preach the severity of God say, well, God wants something good for you.

This is the plan God has for you. They have no idea likely that the context of this verse is God saying, because of your wickedness and your evil, sinful rebellion against me, you're going to be taken captive by the Babylonians.

For 70 years.

And for 70 years, you will have to suffer. But God says, know this, I know the plans I have for you. God is speaking to Israel in the face of their captivity, in the face of this awful, horrible circumstance.

And He says, but know this, I know the thoughts that I think to you. And because God is omniscient and God is omnipresent and God is omnipotent and God is not limited by time and space, that He's not going to be like you and me where if we go for a little period of time after we said we're going to do something, we forget that we're going to do it, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not intentionally, sometimes just simply because nature takes its course.

But God is not a man like you and I where He forgets, where He ceases to do every single word that He says He is going to do. It is why the Old Testament is just as important as the New Testament. So, going on, verse 12 there, He says, Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me and I will listen to you.

Here we see the love and the compassion of God. And you will seek Me and you will find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. And the Lord says in verse 14, I will be found by you, says the Lord.

And I will bring you back from your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord. And I will bring you to the place from which I caused you to be carried away.

And when we, Lord willing, next week when we get into, actually get into the book of Ezra itself, when we get into this and we begin to read through this, you are going to see that this is the fulfillment of the prophecy that God gave unto Jeremiah.

Men want to throw that term around today, prophecy, prophecy, prophecy. Friends, prophecy concerning God and His people and God's Word are what we find in the Old Testament. And throughout the Old Testament we see the Word that God has spoken fulfilled time and time and time and time again.

Faithfully and regularly. It's as sure as the sun rises and as the sun sets is the faithfulness of the Word of God. Heaven and earth, Jesus said in the New Testament, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Word shall endure forevermore.

Turn back to Jeremiah chapter 25 for just a moment please. We are going to read a short passage here. Jeremiah chapter 25, so back four chapters. Beginning in verse 8,. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not heard My words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against all these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations.

The sovereignty of God, the providence of God, the providence of God is God working through means because He is governing all things. When God works through His providence, He uses natural means many times, natural circumstances, natural situations to get us and to place us and to put us exactly where we need to be.

Because God is not a mean God in the true sense of the word. Many people think when you preach the sovereignty of God that you are preaching a God that is like that little mean kid that sits with the magnifying glass on top of the anthill and burns ants.

No, God is not mean in that sense. God is not mean in that sense. But God is holy, and God is righteous, and God will not allow sin to go unpunished from the very foundation of the world. He has intended that His only begotten Son be the sacrifice for our sins.

God is that sovereign. He is that omniscient. But notice here in verse 9 there, He says, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, My servant. When you look at that, you think, Well, Nebuchadnezzar must have been a godly man.

Oh no!

God can use the ungodly just as good as He can use the godly. Because guess what? He is sovereign over all. That is what the Scripture says. Nebuchadnezzar, My servant,. And will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants.

This is how God works through means of providence, by using the wicked Nebuchadnezzar to bring God's own people into captivity because of their disobedience. And God didn't sugarcoat the situation. He didn't try to make it more palatable for them, more easy for them to take the truth.

He simply said that He is going to utterly destroy them. He is going to make astonishment. He is going to make them a hissing, so that when people look at them, they go,.

You ever heard that before?

Right?

That is what He says.

That when people think of them at this time,.

That they are going to do that,.

They go,.

Oh!

When I see people give blood, or think about giving blood,.

That is my first response.

To hiss.

To think about that.

It makes me dizzy just thinking about that right now.

Let's move on.

Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp, and this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment.

And these nations shall serve the King of Babylon.

For how long?

Seventy years. Now do you think that God is going to be untrue to His Word?

No.

Let's close in this.

I am going to give you all what I have put down in my notes as the summary of what we are going to see when we go through the book of Ezra. Twenty things that we are going to see through the book of Ezra.

Number one,.

In chapter one, we are going to see the end of captivity as promised by God Himself. In chapter one, we are going to see the sovereignty of God on display.

In chapter one,.

We are going to see the providence of God put on display. In chapter one, we are going to see the provision of God put on display. That God. In chapter one, as well as two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten, we are going to see the protection of God put on display.

When we are... The thing about it is, I think as children, children will think...

Let's see.

Let's pick on you a minute.

You ever get in trouble?

Yeah.

When you get in trouble and are corrected, do you deserve to be corrected?

Yeah.

But it could be worse, right? Kira, what about you? My voice is almost gone, so good news. Do you ever get in trouble?

Right?

Do you ever think, they were too rough on me when they punished me?

Honestly?

Yeah.

I mean, parents, if you are a parent, we have all been there. Our child does something stupid, and we say, that's it, you are grounded for the next 32 years and three months.

Don't come out of your room.

Right?

Not until your 22nd birthday, Hannah. That punishment is extreme. That punishment is harsh. God never over-punishes. Though the punishment may be extreme, though the punishment may be harsh to us when we are chastised for our sin, it's still not an over-much punishment.

Because God is just.

He is righteous in all of His doings.

And guess what?

We are protected even in times of punishment.

It could be worse.

Right?

God, even in the Babylonian captivity, we'll see when we look through the book of Ezra, that God, even in their punishment, is protecting and preserving His people.

That is so good.

In chapter 2, let me not skip that. In chapter 2, we are going to see,.

Let me just put it this way,.

We are going to see the omniscience of God. And I'll give you a forewarning. I don't want you to skip church that week that we go through chapter 2. I want you to be here. But there's going to be a lot of names read in that.

It doesn't seem like the most super exciting, fantastic, wonderful, horrific passage of Scripture in the world.

But it's important.

Because we are going to see how omniscient God is. Just down to the minute details of human beings' lives. How omniscient that He is. In chapter 3, we are going to see the worship of God restored to the children of Israel.

In chapter 4, we are going to see the subtle and the sneaky attempts to thwart the work of God. In chapter 5, we are going to see that the work of God continues based upon God's Word Himself. In chapter 5, we are going to see the purpose of God being told to King Darius.

In chapter 6, we are going to see the provision of God by means of providence. In chapter 6, we are going to see the Lord's Passover practiced again by God's people. In chapter 7, we are going to see that the work of God.

Is not limited by time.

In chapter 7, we are going to see a period of 60 years pass between the 6th and the 7th chapter of the book of Ezra.

By the way,.

This book of Ezra is going to cover the span of about 255 years, give or take a few years.

That's a long time.

And we'll sit down and read this book in an hour or two and we'll think, well, that's how it all happened. No, there's a big picture. And there's a great big God overseeing all things. And there's a great big God working behind the scenes by means of His providence because He is sovereign over all things.

In verse 7, we're going to see that all glory goes to God alone. In verse 8, we're going to see Ezra's confidence in God demonstrated. In verse 8, we'll see God deliver yet once again His people. In chapter 9, we'll see that the cycle of sin, just as it has from the Garden of Eden until now, and shall continue until the very end when the Lord wraps everything up, that the cycle of sin continues in human beings.

In chapter 9, we're going to see that confession and repentance are made to the Lord. In chapter 9, we're going to see the loving kindness of God being testified to by Ezra and by God's people themselves.

And in verse 10, we'll close everything up and we'll see the people of God renewing their commitment to God once again. It is so important that you as a people of God know this, that there are times of renewal that you need to come upon in your lives.

That there are times of rededication, as it were, of yourself anew and afresh to God. You say, Preacher, how about a person you ought to be to have to do that? Well, I tell you just about every day, I've got to renew and rededicate my life to the Lord.

So, necessarily, it's not realizing how good a person you are, but it's just about realizing how holy and how righteous God is and that when you stand before Him that we are nothing. And yet, He has chosen to set His love on us.

So, I'm excited about going into Ezra. You say, Preacher, why did you have us turn to Ezra if we weren't going to even read nothing? It's a good practice. That's exactly right. Now you know where it is.

Now there's no excuse. I'm excited about going into this. But it is so important that we look at it from a biblical perspective. It was actual historical events that took place. And it was so preserved for us in the Word of God that it's necessary that we stand in proclaiming even today and until the end of days that there is a God in heaven.