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Well good evening, and thank you for everyone that is here this evening and Andy when we were in our last Elders meeting he said well Mike you don't have a time limit because nobody's going after you so that means I have till nine o'clock in the morning when Andy comes on So is that better Okay All right well before we get started let me open us up with a word of prayer because just like we have just sang Lord, I need him, so let's pray Father God I pray that as I open my mouth that father The hearts of your people would be edified that the words that come out of my mouth would be faithful They would be true and that father it would bring honor to your son and to glorify the power of the Lord of the Spirit and that father ultimately One day I'll be able to stand before you and you will be able to say to me Well done, my good and faithful servant so father this time.
We give to you in Christ's name Amen Well, I will begin first of all by reading one passage from the book of Isaiah in the book of Isaiah the 64th chapter Verses 1 through 3 and this is what Isaiah prayed Oh that you would tear open the heavens rend them opened and come down that the mountains may quake at your presence as fire kindles the brushwood and as Fire causes water to boil We want to make your name known to your adversaries that the nations may tremble At your presence and when you did awesome things Which we did not expect you did come down and the mountains quaked at your presence that is the call of Isaiah for God to revive his people and that is what this is about this is This conference is about revival So what is revival? Revival is a sovereign work of God by the Spirit in the hearts of God's people By which he brings his people back from spiritual infidelity indifference Secularism and worldly oppression and brings them back to himself to spiritual fidelity and To obey his commands now, we could break each one of those down and that would take us a whole weekend But that is what revival is It's not like Keith just said there's a tent popped up and there it is Waiting for people to show up and that's what the revival is revival is a sovereign work of God at his time with his people under his of means Necessary and that is the preaching of the word and prayer.
It's always been preceded by the preaching of the word or the prophets that spoke Through reproof rebuke and a call for all sinners to repent and worship God as he prescribed As we consider history and how great revival and Reformation has taken place over the years There's always events preparatory events Preparatory people that God puts in place that leads these great moments in History that you and I long to see in our own day and time We could say what what it was like at the Great Awakening you had Such men as John Wesley George, Whitfield Samuel Davies and the one who led all that charge would be Jonathan Edwards and it would be the preaching of the word which was in response to the Enlightenment and the Enlightenment was nothing more than the Intellectual and philosophical way for men to try to pursue happiness So what did they do those men? Began to bring the church would had fallen into secularism begin to preach the word the second Great Awakening would come along and It took place after the Revolutionary War it's interesting that the first Great Awakening took place with hundreds Thousands maybe even tens of thousands of people dying and there was a Great Awakening a revival right before a great war You look at the second Great Awakening It took place after the Revolutionary War and it led to social equality individual independence which leaked down through to the theology and even some of the preaching Where the first Great Awakening took place and primarily preaching was Dependent on preaching of the wrath of God towards sinners and the Calvinistic flavor to its teaching when you get to the second Great Awakening it led more on the freedom of man's will to do what he wants to determine his own destiny and He rise of dispensationalism It would also lead to the rise of revivals of such as the Cambridge revivals which led to all these fantastic things that were taking place and that would lead to Excitements instead of the preaching of the word Despite those failures though during the second Great Awakening There was many that came to faith in Christ for the preaching of the word Probably some people that some of y'all have never even heard of you think of Archibald Alexander who faithfully preached the word Dan Baker who faithfully preached the word you had other men as Asahel Nettleton most of those people y'all have probably never heard of in the Great Awakening second Great Awakening and those men faithfully preached the word and led hundreds of thousands of people to faith in Christ But during that second Great Awakening There was also some heretics and false teachers and preachers that rose up in that time You had such men as Barton stone Alexander Campbell they were part of the the restoration movement which led to heresy you had Unitarians that came out of that You had the Millerites who who will later be part of the great disappointment of 1844 When they said that Jesus would be back Seneca the second advent and People waited and Jesus never returned then you had such people as Antoinette Brown come to rise She was the first Protestant female Appointed minister and had his cause irreparable damage to America ever since then you had Such false teachers and heretic is Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints that rose up out of that time But I'll tell you what there has been one man that has caused Incalculable damage in the second Great Awakening that as man by the name of Charles Finney Charles Finney is where we get our walk today Charles Finney is where the anxious been anxious bench came from Charles Finney It did not believe in a substitutionary penal atonement of Christ He continually preached he did not believe in the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to the sinner or the transfer of the sinners Ungodliness and sinfulness to Jesus Christ and I tell you what Charles Finney preached a gospel that did not save You have no substitutionary atonement you have no imputation to the righteousness of Christ you have no gospel I probably need to redirect to my notes or I could continue on I have allergic reactions to Charles Finney Though as we look at those things that took place and preparatory Events and people that God put in place to leave to great times of wakening and revival We could even go back to the time of the Reformation which we would say began at 1517 when Martin Luther put the the the 95 theses on the Wittenberg Castle But you we we often forget that just there were men long before him that came along a hundred years before him was Johan Huss who was preaching and teaching the same things and was put to death because of it and before him there was John Wycliffe and the Lawlords and those men's that went out as evangelists for John Wycliffe And I'm probably going to say somebody that maybe nobody y'all have even heard of but Peter Waldo and the Waldensians those men were fighting against the Roman Catholic Church and all of its all of its fallacies and the papacy and its corruption and Transubstantiation and indulgences and God had put those men in place hundreds of years before 1517 so you see how God put men in place hundreds of years before Before revival what we would see as a revival taking place Revival was already taking place in the hearts of those people long Before it ever showed up on the what we would say the big stage of the world But we fail to remember when we look back in the Old Testament That there were things that were preparatory there were things put in place Events that we should look and investigate how God prepared Men's hearts in the Old Testament for a great time of revival Revival is God by his spirit by ordinary means having extraordinary responses Do you know That the preaching of the word is foolishness But where does revival come from the faithful preaching of the men of God over time prayer Faithfulness Steadfastness, let's look at these events that led up to that and in my understanding This is the greatest revival in all of the Old Testament, and it will probably be hard for y'all to follow where I'm going in the sense of trying to keep up in the text because I'm going to go from Chronicles through some of Jeremiah, which is going to lead up to the book of Ezra but I will give you the The addresses and you can write them down if you want to go and look at them at another time you can But in the Old Testament redemptive history there were two watershed moments that took place one Was the Exodus? It was when God led his people out of bondage And he led them out into the Sinai Peninsula And it was there where Moses would go up onto the mountain and he would then get the covenant between God and Israel But there is another Watershed moment and that is the exile The exile was the actual punishment for those men Violating the very thing that God gave them on Mount Sinai and they failed to repent Isaiah prophesied that there would be a destruction because of their violation of their covenant laws The covenant laws that they had violated specifically was that of the Sabbath And it was not of the Sabbath of the Saturday They were hauled off into captivity for 70 years for not obeying the land Sabbath Every seven years the land was supposed to lay dormant So that it could heal and rest as a worship as an act of worship to God They failed to do that for four hundred and ninety years and God was patient with them God sent covenant prosecutors time after time after time after time Begging and pleading for them to repent and turn back and they failed God revealed to the prophet Habakkuk that that coming destruction and exile and he did it in graphic terms he told that he would stomp them down like mud in the streets and He prayed this after God had revealed this to him He said Lord, I've heard the report and I tremble at what you have said Oh Lord Revive your people in the midst of those years and in the midst of those years.
Oh God and that wrath, please remember your mercy Jeremiah preached for decades after that No convert Decades for them to turn from the coming destruction and they did not listen And it says this in 2nd Chronicles 36 Verses 17 through 21 It says therefore he brought them up against the he brought up Against them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword in the house and in their sanctuary They had no compassion on the young men.
They didn't have any compassion on the virgins the old men or the young It did not matter They killed the well the infirm He gave them all into their hands all the articles of the house of God great and small the treasures of the house of the Lord were hauled off to Babylon Then they burned the house of God.
They broke it down.
They tore down its walls in Jerusalem They burned all of its fortified buildings with fire Destroyed all of its articles and valuables Those who did escape the sword Nebuchadnezzar carried off to Babylon and They were his servants to him and all of his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia This was to fulfill the word of the Lord that came from the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed its Sabbath All the days of its desolation the land remembered its Sabbath for 70 years were complete This was a preparatory event that God was doing to his people for their disobedience to one day bring revival the exile would begin in 605 and 605 the first deportation would take place.
They would be hauled off to Babylon You would have Daniel Shadrach Meshach and Abednego those would be the men that would go in that first wave the second wave would take place and 597 and Then the final deportation destruction of the temple would take place in 586 Jeremiah after seeing the utter destruction and ruin of Jerusalem After he had preached for 40 years had now saw the bloodshed and the slaughter and God's Covenant people stomped down like mud in the streets and he gave a faithful Promise to them that although the temple was laid flat to the ground Their people slaughtered that God would Revive his people you can go and read Jeremiah 29.
It says that God was going to be faithful to his rendement He was going to raise a restoration and prosperity to his faithful people Then Daniel while being in Babylon Some 70 years later he would be reading the prophet Jeremiah and Him reading it it says and Daniel 9 that he is reading it and he recognizes that the 70 years is over That God's punishment towards his people is over in the following verses Daniel would pray these words he would say to God in adoration and worship and he would Claim God's awesomeness his faithfulness his kindness his loving kindness his patience and Daniel would then confess the sins of His people he would concess the the sins of the nation where he had not even yet been born but recognized the sins of his people as being his own and in he Would pray this So now O God listen to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication and For your sake O Lord let your face now shine on your desolate sanctuary Oh my god, please incline your ear to me Open your eyes See our desolations the city which you called by your name For we are not presenting our supplication before you on our own accounts or on any of our own merit But on the account of the compassion that you have for your people.
Oh Lord.
Oh Lord here.
Oh Lord forgive.
Oh Lord listen, oh Lord, please take action for your own sake and for your name's sake For your city and for your people who were called by your name Daniel intercedes for the people that had Continually disobeyed God and he interceded for them that God would now revive his people This would be a round 538 to 537 when he would be reading this He would make that prayer Cyrus the Great would have already come in and had Persia and would have decimated the Babylonian Empire Cyrus would make this decree and you can read it in Ezra chapter 7 chapter 1 and 2nd Chronicles 22 through 23 that in the first year Cyrus the King King of Persia in order to fulfill the word of the mouth of Jeremiah the Lord stirred up in the heart of Cyrus the King of Persia so that he would send out a proclamation to all the kingdoms that he was going to build a house for the Lord and Here's what the king of Persia says The Lord the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth He has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah Whoever there is among you of all his people may his God be with him Let him now go up to Jerusalem Which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the Lord the God of Israel.
He is the God who is in Jerusalem Every survivor and whatever place he wherever he may live Let the men of that place support him with silver gold goods and cattle and together with all of their voluntary offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem and then the heads of the fathers of the household of Judah and Benjamin all the priests the Levites and Everyone who's the Spirit of God had stirred up Left and went to rebuild the house in Jerusalem All of those who went them with them were encouraged and they were given silver they were given gold goods cattle all kinds of valuables also King Cyrus brought out the articles which Nebuchadnezzar had taken and put in and had put in his house King of Persia Cyrus had then brought out all those things out of the treasury by mere Mirthra dath the treasurer and he sent them through the hand of Shesh Bazaar the governor of Judah all these articles and there's a list of articles that went and Implements that were in the temple Shesh Bazaar brought them and placed them in Jerusalem when he brought the exiles back The Jews are now back in the land by Shesh Bazaar.
You go Wow who the world is Shesh Bazaar Shesh Bazaar is a rubble Shesh Bazaar was his Babylonian name just like Shadrach Meshach and Abednego were Babylonian names just like Belteshazzar was Daniel's Babylonian name Shesh Bazaar was the rubble's Babylonian name and now the king of Persia is sending them back.
Why did the king of Persia send them back? Why did people go back? because it says that God the Spirit of God began to stir up in their heart to go back and Rebuild that which God destroyed through the hands of the Babylonians.
The Jews are back in the land they're in Jerusalem with Shesh Bazaar or Zerubbabel and the descendants of Judah go with them After seven months Zerubbabel is there Joshua the priest they lay the foundations of the altar and after laying that foundation of the altar They then put the altar on it and they begin to do something that hadn't been done for some 80 years And they begin to offer Morning and evening sacrifices to God as an act of worship Zerubbabel then Says this It's recorded deep in in Ezra chapter 3 on the first day of the seventh month They begin to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, but the foundation of the temple of the Lord had yet not been laid They they gave their money to Masons and carpenters and they gave food and drink and oil to Sidonians and Tyrrhenians to bring the cedar and the wood from Lebanon from the sea to Joppa and According to the permission which they had been given by Cyrus the king of Persia They did now in the second year of their coming back into Jerusalem in the second month Zerubbabel the son of Sheltiel and Joshua the son of Jehozadah the priest and the rest of their brothers and the Levites and all who came back from captivity with them begin the work of and the appointment of the Levites from 20 years and older to begin the Construction of the house of the Lord Then Jeshua and his sons and brothers they stood united now when the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord the priests stood in their apparel with Trumpets and the Levites and the sons of Asaph with cymbals praised the Lord according to the directions of the king of King David of Israel they sang praises they gave thanks To the Lord and they said he is good and he has loving-kindness for he is loves Israel forever and All the people shouted with a grouch with a great shout and they praised the Lord because the foundation of the Lord's House had been laid Yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of the household That had seen the temple of the past wept with a loud voice Many shouted with joy and others weeped so that people could not distinguish between the sound of the shout of joy and the sound of weeping Why were those people weeping and crying? Why were the others? jumping with joy Because of the older folks that had seen the the temple of Solomon and all of its glory and all of its beauty That which was laid was not even anything to be compared That's why Those that had saw the destruction Weeped that it's never going to be like it was before It'll never be as good as it was and then you have the younger people that come along And they're looking at it going.
This is going to be good.
This is going to be great God is doing a great work This is now about 536 535 BC and if anybody wants to argue with me about my times later you can we've signed They work to rebuild the house of God and it's met with opposition like always Under pretense that they're going to revolt and they're going to Have all these other things that are going to take place.
They're not going to pay their Taxes and they're going to raise up revolt They're going to try to overthrow the crown and our desert sees makes a decree king of Persia He says stop building the house of God and what do the people of God do? They obey men Rather than God it takes some 15 years later That God sends a prophet by the name of Haggai to rebuke Zerubbabel The rubble had been sent back by God under the commission of Cyrus the king to go back and build the house of God So rubble had become complacent.
He feared men rather than God Haggai then Rebukes both him and Jeshua the priest and we have their prophetic dates down to the T I transfer them over from the time of Under the Persian time to the actual dates that we could recognize August 29th of 520 the prophet Haggag.
I'm a Haggai He rebukes them for not Continuing the work of God not for continuing the to build the house and that whilst they were not building the house of God You know what they were doing for 15 years They were taking the money in the wood and everything that God had provided for them to build the house of God and we're building Their own houses.
They were beautifying their own things serving themself and God rebukes them and rebukes the rubble the governor and Says you go and you quit pro crack procrastinating and you do what I've called you to do and you build my house God says it is no longer time to wait.
So consider your ways Then October 17th 520 BC he says this Promised that this temple will be better than Solomon's temple God says I'm gonna shake the heavens.
I'm gonna shake the earth I'm gonna shake all the nations and who is left among you that has saw the temple that was here in its former glory Who saw it? It would have been all of those that were there at the time of the destruction Says well, what do you see now? Does it not look like it would be anything compared to that which was in the past? But now take courage the rubble take courage Joshua All that you do and all the people take courage For I am with you the latter glory of this house Will be greater than the former Says the Lord how could God say that to them? Because the very house that they were fixing to build Five hundred years later would have the Son of God clothed in human flesh Walk across those stones walk across those Foundations and it would be that glory that would fade in comparison to the glory of Solomon Because all of what Solomon pointed to was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The temple was only Typological it was only the picture of a place where God would dwell and when Jesus Christ come onto that scene And he walked his sandals across that that temple mount He was walking across Solomon's porch all of the typology faded in comparison Because Jesus the Son of God the prophet the prophesied Messiah had come That pales in comparison to Solomon's temple and then on December 18th 520 Aggie I says one more time He says be careful and consider your ways priest You are defiled You have not done what I have asked you to do And the Lord and his loving-kindness says I'm gonna bless you anyway, and then later that day On December 18th 520 God tells Zerubbabel Zerubbabel You will be my signet ring You will be my impression you will be the one to complete this house and you'll do it for me and for my glory and And no one can stop what I'm fixing to do through you That encouraged them that encouraged them to continue on that encouraged them to continue to build the house but once again There would be detractors as the house is being built and they would appeal to King Darius And they would say halt the work That's going on on this house through King Darius And this is what is written in the book of Ezra chapter 6 It says this is the response of the people to Darius when these men came and said hey You got to quit building this house It says this now if it pleases the king let us search be conducted in the king's treasury That was taken in Babylon and see if there was a decree that was issued by Cyrus for us to rebuild this house in Jerusalem and let the king send to us his decision concerning this matter Then the king Darius issued a decree the search was made the Treasury was found in the archives And it was found in the province of Medea and a scroll was found and there was written in the first year of King Cyrus Cyrus the king issued a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem.
What the temple be built The place where the sacrifices are offered To be built and its foundations to be retained and to be restored its height will be 60 cubits high and 60 cubits in width With its layers with huge stones one layer and timbers and let the cost be paid for by who? the Treasury of the pagans the Royal Treasury He also said let the gold and silver and utensils of the house of God Which Nebuchadnezzar took out be put back in the temple? return and everything that was taken and be brought in their place and laid in the temple and You shall put them in the house of God in its place Leave this work on the house of this God alone Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews Rebuild this house on its site Moreover I Issue a decree.
This is Darius Whatever you do Do not stop these elders in Judah from rebuilding the house of God Let the full cost be paid for by the Treasury and the taxes of the Providence is around that held up the delay Whatever is needed both young bulls and rams lambs for burnt offerings The God of heaven the wheat the salt the wine the anointing oil as the priest in Jerusalem requests.
Let it be given to them That they may offer acceptable sacrifices to God in Heaven and pray for long life for the king and his sons that does seem somewhat self-serving and Then he issued this decree let this be done swiftly and Whoever violates it Let a timber be pulled down from his house and the man who holds up this work be impaled by it.
Let his house become a dung heap May the God who has caused his name to dwell in this place overthrow any king or any people who attempts to change or Destroy God's house.
Do you see what God is doing? God is using pagan people And put in place to help God's people do the work that God has ordained them to do The rebuilding of the temple began and 520 It was completed in 516 Is a rubble then dedicated the temple to God in its use It says the sons of Israel and all the priests and the Levites they had gathered themselves and all of those who were in exile Had come that were there that had come to had come to Jerusalem They offered for dedication the temple a hundred bulls 200 rams 400 lambs and sin offerings for 12 male goats corresponding to each tribe of Israel Do you see what God is doing? He is developing a place for now that which had been destroyed over time God is developing that house that temple that Priesthood so that these people would be revived and revived for a while It says that they then observed the unleavened bread they observed the Passover for seven days Imagine this those people had not observed the Passover for almost a hundred years Eighty years has passed This is now 5 458 in The seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes the king The house is built People are going about their life doing their own thing and God stirs up within the heart of Ezra To go to Jerusalem He says that he put it in his heart to go and study the law of God to Practice the law of God to teach the people the law of God and its ordinance and its statues in Jerusalem Ezra then would get permission from Artaxerxes the Persian king to then return to Jerusalem With Levites and priests who wanted to return with him on a four-month journey It would take four months to leave from Babylon to get to Jerusalem four months and he sends Ezra on his way Artaxerxes sends him with a letter giving him permission for provisions and anything necessary that he would need from the royal treasury He even gave him authority listen to this he gave Ezra the authority to Enforce the law of Moses once he returned to Jerusalem Listen to the letter from Artaxerxes that was sent with him.
I have a copy of it Y'all do too it's in Ezra chapter 7 Says this whatever is commanded by the God of heaven.
Let it be done with zeal for this house So that there will be No wrath against the kingdom or the king or his son We also inform you that it is not allowed to impose taxes toils Tributes any type of tolls on the priest the Levites the singers the doorkeepers the nephilim That's not to be confused with the Nephilim, but nephilim Let this be given to them no taxes be them or any other servant for the house of God you Ezra according to the wisdom that God has given you which is in your hand you appoint magistrates and Judges that they may judge the people of God who are in the in and beyond the Providence beyond the river even all of those Who know the laws of your God so that you may teach Everyone so they may not be ignorant of his law whoever will not observe the law of your God Ezra and The law of the king let judgment be executed on him strictly Let him either be put to death to be banished Have all of his goods confiscated or even imprisonment The returning of the Israelites now to the land with Ezra They are now going to be able to be self-governed by the law of Moses You understand how significant that is in history? No Persian King No Roman King as they would go on you know who? Rules and reigns over people whoever the king is the emperors even under Rome You know what they did they gave them some leeway to rule and do their own thing with their people They let the Jews kind of govern themselves that it was a gracious act of God, but the leaders perverted it Ezra has the right now to go back and as the priest and the scribe the teacher of the law to now enforce What goes on within the city? Ezra fills the temple treasury with the money of the Persian Empire He receives animals from the Persian Empire so that sacrifice can take place and all and gets them from all the surrounding providences and Then he begins his ministry but upon his arrival he begins to teach the law of God and As he is teaching the law of God something is made known to him Something is made known to him about the people intermarrying with pagan wives It says in Ezra 9 that the priest and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the land Nor have they Not continued in the Lord, but have continued according to the abominations of the Canaanites the Hittites The Perizzites the Jebusites the Ammonites and the Moabites the Egyptians and the Amorites For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themself and some of some of them have taken them for sons so that now this holy race is intermingled with Pagan race and this land indeed is filled the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost Unfaithful understand what he's saying the people that were there that took over after Zerubbabel had died became unfaithful to God When I heard about this, I tore this is this is Ezra speaking when I heard about this I tore my garment and my robe and I pulled some of my hair and some of my beard out and I sat down appalled and then everyone trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the Unfaithfulness of the exile who had gathered to me and I sat appalled until the evening you understand what Ezra is doing He is grieving.
He is going look.
We just went through 70 years of captivity.
It's 80 years now that I'm here Now that I'm here.
You're doing the exact same thing that God hauled our ancestors off in to Exile and slaughtered them and you're doing the very same thing interesting how when Men of God die and nobody's there to take their place that Nations and people follow after their own hearts and desires Ezra then prays an intercessory prayer a prayer of confession prayer of repentance For the sins of the people and understand he's doing the same thing that Daniel did He's praying for the forgiveness of sins of sins that he didn't commit but that his ancestors had committed He prays and asked God to revive them in their in their bondage he said you revived us when we were in bondage as exiles and you gave us a place of Revival to rebuild and restore the dwelling place of God and you gave us the law of God Ezra says no one can stand before God in the sinful condition and that is true No one can stand before God in continual disobedience If you want to write these down read these sometime when I've taught through prayer in small group I'd certainly use the model prayer that the Lord taught his disciples how to pray Ezra Daniel 9 Ezra 9 and Nehemiah 9 those are three prayers that can be Exegeted and as sin and each one of them shows how we should pray Confession repentance desire to follow God desire for his word read them Ezra says there's no one that can stand before God in a sinful condition and while Ezra was praying and he was making Confession and intercession for God's people he was weeping and it said he was laid prostate Before God at the house that a large assembly of men and women had come and they gathered to him It says that people were weeping bitterly so that no one let us now make a covenant with our God and put away all the wives and their children according to the counsel of the Lord and Those who trembled at the commandment of God he's saying look According to the law, we're going to put away our pagan wives.
We're going to put away our pagan children These were the priest and the Levites You understand that the the very people that were supposed to be teaching and preaching the Word of God to God's people While back in the land, what were they doing? They were becoming Complacent they had become secularized again They had become loving their places of extinguishment where they could have all of those things and the pleasures of what came of being a priest But did not want to obey God's Word and they begin to intermarry and become an unholy seed It says let this be done according to the law They had mixed on holy seed with unholy seed that was forbidden under the Mosaic legislation now We go.
Wow, that's tough You just had however many I ever people divorce their wives and their children.
I thought God hated divorce I thought God was against divorce This was a commandment from God for them to put away the pagan wives not because they were unequally yoked and If you use that passage to talk about marriage, don't do it anymore.
That's not even talking about marriage They were intermarrying unholy seed with holy seed and God demanded that his Levites and his priest and his people be a holy people of people that were Pure and a people that were good and they were apart from the pagan world Unequally yoked passages talking about a donkey and an ox riding together and they can't work together because they work against one another And if you're thinking about when Paul said it Paul was talking about The tractors that were going against him and it was do not be a yoke together with unbelievers they were believing that Paul was not a Apostle and they put away these wives and their children and is that harsh you better believe it is But what's harsher than that the judgment of God? Not obeying the Word of God Confession and repentance begin with the priest and the Levites And they begin to teach the people of God his word 13 years later for 45 Nehemiah is burdened for the city of Jerusalem for the remnant and For those who had returned that were either distressed disgraced the city walls were in ruins the gates were still burned and Nehemiah being the cupbearer of our deserts.
He's asked for permission to return He said return repair.
Can I please return to repair the gates of my people? Can I go back to where my people had? had been buried and Nehemiah was appointed the governor of Judah by our desert sees the king and was granted permission and provisions for his travel It would be at this time that you would have the continual work of Ezra It would be around this time that you would have Malachi around 450 right before this would take place that he was already talking to the priest of those that they would already begin to bring the the lame and the Sick and all of those wrong Offerings that were robbing God of rightfully what was his that's what was taking place at this time upon Nehemiah's arrival Not only does he inspect the walls For repairs, but he finds out that the people of God are mistreating one another They're charging interest to one another They're selling each other into slavery They're selling each other's vineyards They're selling fields and groves and then what does Nehemiah do? He calls them together and tells them to quit He calls them together and says no more quit doing this to one another He says you give back their property.
You quit selling one another your call You're you're charging a usury, which is interest.
This is forbidden under the Mosaic legislation and To stop they had assembled together they had taken an oath and Nehemiah 5 and they all said amen They took an oath to no longer hurt one another They took an oath to no longer sell each other's property They took an oath to no longer Defame or defraud one another and I don't know how they all said.
Amen.
It might have been Amen I don't know.
It might have been one of them long Seven syllable amens.
I don't know but it says they all said I mean means they agreed and they affirmed it And that's what they were going to do.
But as always they're detractors and conspirators that tried to Take away the work of God when men's has it placed within their heart There would be such men as saying ballot and to buy it who would try to keep them from building the wall and putting up the gates They would attempt to stop the work And to stop the building of the wall to keep the city from being protected But God puts it in what God puts in a man's mind and what God puts his hands to no man can stop it and in 52 days Nehemiah had showed up there and had built the wall and Surrounded God's people with protection You see what God had done over time He had raised up men to go back and set up the the altar He raised up men to go back and slay the foundations of the house of God Then he laid on the hearts of men and sent them back and what did they do? They built the house of God then he lays on the heart of Ezra to go back and teach the Word of God Ezra has been there one time Nehemiah had gotten there 13 years Preaching God's Word teaching God's Word Raising up other priests other Levites teaching in the ordinances of God and we have not seen yet a Congregational or assembly that has re has repented before God have we all the people gathered As one man in the square which was in front of the water gate and they said Ezra Will you bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord gave us? Ezra the priest Then Brought the law and he said it before the assembly of men women and all that could listen and all that could understand on the first day of the seven month He read it before them in the square which was in the front of the water gate from early morning until midday He did it in the presence of the men and the women The children and anyone and all those that could understand all the people were attentive as the book of the law Was read do you hear who all was there men women and children? That's why children should be in worship with their family They should be in worship with their family hearing the Word of God preached And some of the kids are better than the adults I'd rather hear a two-year-old scream than have an adult texting or sleeping The children were there and they were hearing the Word of God they were seeing their parents convicted They were hearing the Word of God preached And Ezra preached all day So never complain when Keith wants to go another 30 minutes longer It says that Ezra the scribe he stood up on a wooden platform that had been prepared for this purpose and There's a bunch of names after that that I can't pronounce so I won't mess them all up Then Ezra Opened the book and he opened it in the sight of all the people and he was standing above them and when he opened it up all the people stood up and Ezra blessed the Lord the great God and all the people again said a man and a man And while lifting up their hands they bow low and they worship the Lord with their faces to the ground And he says that Joshua Bonnie Cherubi Jamin Aqaba Shabbati Hodai Messiah Kiliya Azariah Jezebel Hanan Pele and other Levites explained the law of the Lord to the people who remained in their place as Ezra Proclaimed the Word of God you had now those he had trained and raised up for 13 years now Explaining the Word of God to these people so that they could understand what was being said was some of that probably Translating I would say to a certain degree.
Maybe some of those men were translating Understand that most of them probably spoke Aramaic Maybe only the devout at this time had kept the Hebrew language So they had to be explained in such a way that they could understand So they begin to explain that to them the Word of God So that they could understand The sense of what was being read This was a monumental moment It says then that Nehemiah who was the governor and Ezra the priest and the scribe and the Levites who taught the people Said to all the people this day is a holy day to the Lord Do not mourn and do not weep for all the people are weeping When they heard the words of the law, why were they weeping? over conviction of sin in their life Hey, am I the only one that man sometimes when he keeps preaching the Word of God cuts me like a knife and Shows me where I failed as a husband where I failed as a father where I failed as an employer Well, I failed as a son where I failed as an elder and it breaks my heart And although we may not be crying on the outside Heart is broken on the inside because the law of God has quickened me.
It says what they grieved But listen to the comforting words of Ezra and the Levites Be still this day is holy.
Do not grieve Stop your grieving This is a time to rejoice Why because they had heard the Word of God They had been cut to their heart and now these people wanted to they wanted to obey the Word of God It says they wanted to have a festival and look it goes on to say this is an Ezra chapter 9 I'm sorry Nehemiah chapter 8 it says and then on the second day the heads of the fathers of the household and all the people and the priests gathered Ezra together and the scribe that they might gain insight from the law and that they they celebrated the Feast of Booths You understand what the Feast of Booths was it was a remembrance of when God had brought them out of the land of Egypt And that they were traveling around it was the remember that gives God that protected them and gave them the law It says so the people went out and they brought them and they made booths for themselves each on his roof They had their courts Some were built within the courts of the house and some were in the square the water gate some were at the gate of Ephraim the entire assembly and Those who had returned from the captivity they had made booths and they lived in them Obedience to the Word of God the sons of Israel had indeed not done this from the days of Joshua and there was a great rejoicing Ezra read the book of the law of God daily From the first day until the last day and they celebrated the feast for seven days and on the eighth day They had a solemn assembly according to the ordinance given by God Now that it being the 24th day of the month the sons of Israel assembled with fasting and with sackcloth and with dirt upon them It says the descendants of Israel had separated himself at this point from all foreigners They stood they confessed their sins before the Lord God and all the iniquities of their fathers They stood in their own place they read the book of the law of God there For they read the book of the Lord their God for the fourth day and for another fourth day They confessed their sins before God you understand what they did for a fourth of the day They heard the word preached the other fourth of the day.
What did they do? They confessed their sins as being disobedient This would be then followed by a beautiful prayer of repentance and worship Which would leads to the renewal of the covenant which would be organized by Nehemiah the priest then be affirmed by the priest and the Levites and the leaders of the community you can read that in Ezra chapter 10 It's interesting that each person That took place in these last few chapters Ezra Nehemiah and the Levites they all knew Their role you didn't see Nehemiah jump up there and try to get on the platform and preach the word Why because he knew his role his giftedness God did not gift Nehemiah to be a preacher.
He gifted Nehemiah to go back and be a governor He didn't he didn't see Joshua the priest stand up and say you know what Ezra? I think I can say that a little better than you What did he do he let Ezra read the Word of God and then Joshua and the other priests explained it they knew their gifting and they knew their role and They obeyed God in their giftedness the Levites and the leaders and all of the community and all of the assembly Confessed their sins before God and they renewed the covenant before God in a way that they did back in 1st Samuel chapter 7 when they had been to the time of the judges and they had gotten out of the covenant and the covenant needed to be renewed and they came to Samuel and Samuel renewed the covenant before the people before they belly ached about wanting a king the covenant had been renewed Now we're seeing the renewal of the covenant among the people of God in 445 BC so if you back up to Habakkuk's prayer Oh Lord revive your people Remember your and your wrath remember mercy It would not be until this time here where God's people would be revived a 150 years later so men women What's our role in? Revival as God changes men's hearts over time It's for preachers to faithfully preach God's Word it's for church members To faithfully pray that God would use his word to revive his people and preachers and church members Hold fast to the Word of God.
We don't know what God's doing We don't know hey back at being Ezra 13 years back when the law in the land There's the temple.
There's the altar for 13 years He'd steadfastly preached and taught never saw the assembly calling him to bring forth the Word of God Not one time.
I mean, I he fell over if I was him Like oh, yeah, bring the Word of God, but can you say that again? Haven't heard that It's almost as as much as when Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost and he's preaching with power And he's calling those men sinners and murderers of the sons of God and while he is preaching.
What do they holler out? What do we do? He says repent men We must be faithful to preach God's Word whether it be from a pulpit from a street corner from a classroom podium or to your family be faithful and church member Be faithful to proclaim the Word of God where you go as you go You don't know what God's doing and it ain't none of our business Our business is to remain faithful to the Word of God It's to preach the word be in season and out of season that don't mean when it's raining and when it's Sunshine and that means when people like it and when they don't like it And I can tell you right now most of the time they ain't gonna like it It's easy to preach in here It's easy to preach here people like you you came on your own volition to hear it Take it out that door and see if it preaches the same hostile World Just as Sam bought Sam ballot and to buy it or obstructors of the Word of God Obstructing trying to rebuild the temple of God.
There's going to be out there But what are we to do what to remain faithful to God's Word knowing that God will revive his people It's not a once in a split second thing A revival is not a tent popped up with a sign with a big blue arrow Revival here and just to let you know that come from Charles Finney, too.
You can't create a Revival You can't make a revival That's God's job your job Is to remain faithful father God Thank you for this opportunity To show through redemptive history how you raised up men after men after men and then raised up a man who would come and be the embodiment of Every priest that was before him every sacrifice that was before him That Jesus Christ would come and he would give true life and life everlasting Father thank you for your word Thank you that you gave us a book to study to read to examine Thank you Lord that you didn't give us a movie to watch.
Thank you.
You didn't give us a Song to sing, but you gave us a book that has steadfast Been truthfully all these years Father God, thank you for your word.
Thank you that what we have in your hand is faithful It is true and that when the word goes out it will not return void Father, thank you that one day True revival will be evident May not be in our lifetime.
But father we know that you will in Christ's name.