Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to have the oversight of the work of the house of the Lord.
Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to have the oversight of the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites.
And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the order of David king of Israel.
And they sang one to another in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord, saying,
For He is good, for His lovingkindness endureth for ever toward Israel.
And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, the old men that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:
So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people; for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.
Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity were building a temple unto the Lord, the God of Israel; then they drew near to Zerubbabel, and to the heads of fathers’ houses, and said unto them, Let us build with you; for we seek your God, as ye do; and we have sacrificed unto Him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up hither.
But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us in building a house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord, the God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.
Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
I was saying last week that Ezra and Nehemiah, along with the first and second books of Chronicles, are all part of one work. It is quite remarkable because it covers ground which, on the whole—certainly Chronicles, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles—had already been covered by the Word of God.
We have everything in the books of Chronicles already in the Bible, from Genesis to the last book of Kings. But whenever God says something again, it is always very, very important.
Every now and again in the Bible, we get a book which goes back over the ground of other books and, as it were, focuses our attention upon something very, very important indeed. Deuteronomy is such a book. The Gospel of John is such a book. First and Second Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah are also such a work.
Because here in Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, we are introduced to that which has been on the heart of God from eternity. We discover the thing that lies most deeply upon His heart: that we might become a holy temple in the Lord.
Or, if you like to put it another way, that we might be so brought into union with God in Christ that, together, we share the very life of God. We become partakers of the divine nature. We become members of Christ and members one of another.
That is really, of course, in Old Testament form, what Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah are all about. Chronicles is the whole story of how the house of God was finally built, and the great conflict there was over the house of God, ending in its ruin and destruction.
Now, in Ezra and Nehemiah an added note is struck, and that added note is recovery. This is, of course, of tremendous interest—and more than interest, of tremendous importance, vital importance—to us.
Recovery always comes toward the end of an age, not at its beginning. At the beginning, everything is sort of blossoming; everything is in its initial freshness. Later on, God has to start to recover because, through our sin, through our disobedience, through our unbelief or disbelief, we fall away.
Then the Spirit of God has to move from the throne of God to recover what has been lost. Therefore, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah have tremendous lessons for us Christians who live toward the end of this age.
We also are in a movement of recovery, and that is not being obnoxiously immodest. The fact is that, if we look at church history, all the way through church history there have been moves of the Spirit of God seeking to recover something which has been lost.
Every time the Spirit of God has recovered something, even though the instrument of its recovery has finally gone off the rails or become institutionalised and organised, the truth recovered has become a household word. Whether it is justification by faith, the truth of the new birth, the truth about the anointing of the Spirit of God, or the truth about the oneness of believers, these things have become household words among the people of God.
Yet, at the time they were recovered, it was like pioneering something altogether new. People despised those who were in this recovery move. They called them cranks, enthusiasts, fanatics—somehow unbalanced, to say the least.
It is a tremendous encouragement, surely, to all of us that right back in the Old Testament we find these dear people in a recovery move, facing exactly the same kind of criticism, exactly the same kind of antagonism, exactly the same kind of false report and slander, and so on, as we do.
From Ezra and Nehemiah, I believe, we learn some very great lessons.
Last week we said something in general about this whole matter, and then we started to look at the first return. The return was over one whole century, and it was in three parts.
First, there was the initial crowd of about fifty thousand who went back with Zerubbabel. Then there was the second return under Ezra, which was probably only about three thousand strong, if that. Finally, there was an even smaller number who went back under the leadership of Nehemiah.
In the first return, they rebuilt the house of God—and that is about all. In the second return under Ezra, it was the law of God, the Word of God, which was reinstated in all its purity and significance. In the third return under Nehemiah, it was the walls of the city of Jerusalem which were finally built, and the city—the house of God—was enclosed within fortress-like walls.
We are just talking about the first return because we have not the time to deal with the other two.
There were two things we touched upon last week which I would like once more to underline, and then go on to other matters. The first was this: recovery is a question of ground.
It is most interesting when we look at Ezra 1, and indeed all through these early chapters of Ezra, to observe the emphasis upon the house of God which is in Jerusalem. It almost becomes wearing, because sometimes in one verse you get, “which is in Jerusalem, which is in Jerusalem, which is in Jerusalem.” You almost feel like saying, “Well, You do not need to say it any more. We know that the house of God is in Jerusalem.”
Why do we have to say it again and again and again? The God of Israel, Who dwelleth in Jerusalem. They go up to Jerusalem. There is hardly any mention of the land; there is no mention of any other cities in the land, no mention of Galilee, no mention of other tribal areas. The only place mentioned is Jerusalem.
Furthermore, it is the house of God which is in Jerusalem. The emphasis is upon the dwelling place of God—indeed, if you like, the dwelling of God in Jerusalem. He has chosen Jerusalem, and there, of all the places of the earth, He has chosen to dwell and to manifest His presence.
This has a tremendous lesson for us. If we are in any recovery move of the Spirit of God, we must understand that we cannot just build the church anywhere we choose.
We cannot just build it, firstly, in an abstract kind of way. There are plenty of Christians who are always talking about the church in abstract terms: “Oh, we are all one, and it is all up there.”
We can be colliding, squabbling, fighting, and generally parting company down here, but evidently the church of God is all up there. We are being built together by the Spirit of God, and the church is going to be presented without spot or blemish or any such thing. But down here there are plenty of spots and blemishes, and we put up with them quite happily in our own lives.
The idea is that somehow this whole matter is there, up there; it is all happening up there. We are being built together up there. We hardly know each other’s Christian names down here, but we are being built together up there. Do you understand that?
We never share our things. We never open up our hearts to share things with one another. But we are being built together up there. It is all up there.
The first thing about any recovery is that it is intensely practical. God brings us back to a certain spot, if you like, and locates His recovery. He ties us down to a place. He ties us down to a certain place—Jerusalem.
It was no good all fifty thousand saying, “Ah well, it is a spiritual thing, isn’t it? Why do we not go to Nazareth and do something there? After all, did not the prophet Isaiah say, ‘Galilee of the nations; the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light’? I think we should go there.”
Or perhaps another group said, “What about Bethlehem? Did not the prophet Micah say, a hundred or two years ago:
But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
which art little to be among the thousands of Judah,
out of thee shall one come forth unto Me
that is to be ruler in Israel.
“Oh, I think we should do it in Bethlehem. Let us get back to Bethlehem as fast as ever we can. We do not want to stay with all that great crowd in Jerusalem. They are a stuffy lot anyway. Let us get down to Bethlehem and do a little bit of building there.”
But if they built it in Bethlehem, or if they built it in Nazareth, God would not have been with them, because God expressly said they were to go to Jerusalem.
We can talk about being one with the saints of God on the other side of the earth, but God says, “What about the saints where you live?” We can say, “Oh, I feel so much in sympathy with the brothers and sisters in Auckland, New Zealand.”
Well, of course, you can feel great sympathy with the brothers and sisters in Auckland, New Zealand. They are thousands of miles away. It is always easier to feel one with people at a great distance. As I said last week, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Sometimes the farther away the people of God are, the more one we can be with them. But God says, “What about the people you are rubbing shoulders with? What about the believers you are worshipping with? What about the people of God in your own locality?” That is where the house of God has got to be built.
We Christians can be very smug. We must be careful that we do not get into a self-condemning spirit, but we Christians can be very smug. We are always telling the world that we have got the answer.
“United Nations? Disunited Nations,” we say. But, of course, if we Christians got our hands on the thing and were able to get everybody converted, oh, it would be bliss. Would it? I wonder whether it would. I really wonder whether it would.
The fact of the matter is that God has to put this whole thing to the test, and He puts it to the test where we live. We cannot escape from it.
So the first thing about this whole matter of recovery is that we are trapped. Do you live in this area? You are trapped.
“Oh,” you say, “no, I do not feel that I really am. I mean, I am putting up with you lot while I am getting spiritual food and blessing, but the moment I do not get any more food and blessing, I shall ask the Lord to lead me to another company.”
That is a marvellous get-out. I have known people who spend their whole lives flitting from company to company, and always the excuse is that they do not get anything there, so they are not there.
Now, there may be a place for a holy discontent and a holy dissatisfaction. Hang on for it. But woe betide us if we deceive ourselves and delude ourselves into thinking in spiritual terms when the fact is that we are not prepared for the discipline of having to stay together and get through together.
Oh, it is very, very easy: “The Lord has led me. I am going to the company down the road. The Lord has led me there. I do not want to discuss it; I do not wish to discuss it. But the Lord has definitely—I have had two or three words about the matter.”
The fact of the matter is that we have found things too difficult, so we have a little fire exit, a little sort of fire escape. When things get too hot, we bang open the bar and we are gone.
But this matter of recovery is simply this: God is building in Jerusalem. It is no good going off to Bethlehem or Nazareth or somewhere else. You have got to stick it until the job is done, and you are trapped with the lot that went back.
You are simply tied and trapped to them all. What God does in those lives is forever.
Many of those people we do not know by name. They belong to that vast innumerable multitude of the nameless ones. Only when we get to glory will we find that every one of their names is known.
Then, when we are there, we shall find out from them that lessons taught and learned right back in the Old Testament have qualified some of those people for divine government.
They had been overcomers in their own generation because they would not give up, they would not divide, and they would not become paralysed. They went on, and they went on together.
So really, one of the first things in this whole matter of recovery is this matter of ground. What is ground? It is Christ in the locality in which you live. Here we are, caught with one another—caught in a building programme of God in which He is educating us and instructing us.
The second thing about this recovery is that it is always a small remnant who pay the price and return. It does not matter where you look in the Old Testament or in church history: you will find that it is always a poor, weak, despised remnant who pay the price and return.
It was so in the Reformation. It was so in the great Quaker movement. It was so in the Puritan movement as well. It was so in the Wesleyan movement. It was so in the Brethren movement.
It has been so all the way through church history: a small, despised, weak remnant has seen something in its own day and generation, and given itself to God and to one another in Christ for that work to be done. They are in that great army of overcomers from every generation of history.
This remnant who returned to Jerusalem were quite weak, helpless, and for the most part unknown. There were not too many notables amongst them.
One very interesting thing, when we compare the Scriptures on this matter, is that all the livestock are given which went back. By comparing the number of camels, asses, and donkeys that returned, we find that the vast majority of those who returned walked back. Work that out. The greater number of them walked back.
Evidently certain ladies, I suppose—although it is certainly not true of these. When I was in Egypt—I perhaps should not say this—I do not think I ever saw a lady on an ass. But I saw many men on asses, and I have even seen the wives tied to the ass, running along behind it because he was going along.
So, by the way, I do not think this would have been true of the people of God. Let us put it like that. I am sure those who were weaker and had needs were put upon the various means of transport. But, for the most part, they walked. Everyone who was able-bodied evidently walked.
These people were people of vision, people of faith, and people of determination. They would never have gone back if it had not been for that. No one would return to Jerusalem—to that awful mess and confusion there—who had not got vision.
These people had seen something. Let us not devalue their return. They had seen something. In seeing something, however small, of the purpose of God, they were captured by God. Never forget: vision disturbs us. It never leaves us in a self-satisfied way.
Whenever we see something of the Lord, we become disturbed. We become hungry. A quenchless desire is produced in us to follow after the Lord and, like the apostle Paul, forget those things which are behind and reach on toward those things which are before.
But vision is not enough. Faith must also be a quality of any of those who will return, believe me—and the enemy will see to that.
You young married couples all have enough problems with finding accommodation. Once you are going to be part of the house of God, you will be tested to the nth degree in this matter. It is much, much easier to move right away and get something pleasant and nice for a third of the money you would pay here.
Those of you in earlier days, in the nucleus of this company, will remember the sacrifice that one after another of you young married couples had to make in order to give God a way to do something. This area was always so difficult to find a home in; it was always dearer than other places.
So there is always the temptation, and the enemy is always there to offer that temptation and say, “Get away.” Faith is the only thing that keeps us together. If we have vision, it will override everything else, and faith is the second great quality.
Now listen to what I say. There may be times when we should move away, but there is all the difference between the Lord saying to you, “Move,” and it costing you something to move, and going, led by the ring through your nose, because you have found something easier somewhere else.
Priorities are priorities. You can only ever give God those priorities when, first, you see Him and therefore see what is the priority; and secondly, you have faith to believe that, by seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, everything else will be taken care of.
If that is true, you need determination. No group, no company of people, can ever be in a recovery move who have not got determination. My, the enemy will find you out.
You may have had vision and you may have had faith, but if you have not got steadfast patience and endurance, you will be knocked out of the battle. Sooner or later, you will be undermined.
So we need these three things:
I would like to speak on one or two other things as well in this matter of recovery. Another matter which always characterises recovery is found in Ezra 3:1-7. We did not read these verses this evening, but it is all about the altar.
Here is a very interesting thing, and listen carefully to what I have to say in this matter. The Old Testament is the illustration book of every principle in the New Testament. Whatever principle we have in the New Testament, we find it illustrated in the Old Testament—in figure, in type, in history.
This third thing which characterises recovery, and all those who would be part of such a move of the Spirit of God, is the cross—the work of the cross. This is how I would put it: the work of the cross is fundamental to recovery.
Here is a most interesting thing. What was the very first thing these people did when they got back to Jerusalem? First, it was a matter of ground: they went back to Jerusalem. Secondly, it was a remnant who returned—a people of vision, faith, and determination.
What was the first thing they did? The very first thing they did was to set up the altar. Before ever they cleared the foundation and relaid it, before ever a single stone was built on the foundation or another stone laid to it, they set up the altar.
This great brazen altar, this altar of brass, was the place where all the offerings were offered: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering—all these offerings we have in Leviticus.
These offerings symbolise the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ in every single aspect. The sin offering and the trespass offering are all to do with sin, wittingly or unwittingly committed.
Do you know what that means? Sin which you know you have committed, and sin you do not know you committed, but which you have committed.
Many of us, if we understood a little more of Leviticus—when I was first saved, Leviticus terrified me. The very name: Leviticus. You folks from the Continent get away with something when you call it the Third Book of Moses. That is simpler and more attractive than Leviticus.
Anyway, the fact is that if we only understood the book of Leviticus, it would mean so much to us. Why? Because many believers think only the sins which they know they have committed and have confessed are forgiven. They think that anything else is unforgiven.
But in the offerings there was not only an offering for sin knowingly committed; there was an offering for sin unconsciously committed. When we come to it, every one of us sins unconsciously—in thought, by action, by deed. It is often only when we get nearer to the Lord that we suddenly realise, “Oh, that thing I have been doing—that is wrong.”
I remember years ago—this is a digression, so be careful—listening to some of the problems of work in India. I remember being told by one missionary of the great problem they had in a testimony meeting, when a brother jumped up and said, “Brothers and sisters, praise the Lord with me.”
“You were all asking about that drug for my wife that she needed. Well, I asked the Lord, and I know you all did. What do you think? When I got to my master’s home this week, the medicine chest was open, and there it was. I praised the Lord and took it.”
But the thing that most disturbed the missionary was that all round the meeting there was, “Amen. Praise the Lord.”
Now, the point was that in that society, so often, unless you actually locked the door, it was an invitation to take it. Remember that if you should ever travel. If it is unlocked, it is often an invitation—you can help yourself, you see. But, of course, stealing is stealing.
Later on, such ones come to a realisation where suddenly the whole standards change. They begin to realise that what once before they would have done, they do not do any more.
There are many such problems we have, and some of us would love to dive in and give somebody a conscience about these things. “It is only an apple.”
I remember years ago there was an old sister here in this company. I will not mention her name. She had long since gone to the Lord, and I am one hundred per cent convinced she is there. But she used to come every Friday for a cup of tea, and we used to weep with laughter with her. She was such a character.
One day she saw me tearing up the football pools coupon. “Oh,” she said, in a lovely broad accent, “it’s such rubbish, isn’t it?” “Yes,” I said, tearing them up righteously and putting them in the bin, “it most certainly is.”
“Yes,” she said, mentioning her friend, “so-and-so and I gave it up some time ago. We found it was a waste of money. But,” she said, “we still do the horses.”
Now, I was tearing up the thing in righteous ire. I said, “What did you say?” She looked at me with her blue eyes and said, “Oh, we still do the horses.” I said, “You mean you put money on the horses?” “Oh yes,” she said. “Why not?”
Well, I say, “Mrs So-and-so”—drawing myself up to my full height, and with my best honourable fashion and manner—“if you bring this, Mrs So-and-so, into the presence of the Lord, I am sure you will feel some disquiet.”
Looking at me with those beautiful blue eyes, she said, “Oh yes, I and so-and-so always bring it into the presence.” So then I said, “What do you mean, you bring it into the presence?” “Well,” she said, “we study the form.”
Then she said, “We have a word of prayer, and He never fails. We two could not live on our pension if it was not for what the Lord does.” So I just thought, well, I can tell you, I sat down and had to have a cup of tea over that one. I really did.
I felt very tempted to give a long lecture on the evils of gambling and all the rest of it. But the point is that somehow or other there is an offering for sin consciously committed and unconsciously committed.
Sometimes some of the things we would do when we are young in the Lord, we would never dream of doing when we are a little older in the Lord, because somehow we have got nearer the Lord and our whole outlook has changed. But it is still sin. Who covers it? How is it covered? It is covered by the sin offering and the trespass offering.
And the peace offering—do you know what the peace offering is? It is that wonderful offering which means that Christ has been offered for the oneness of us all, that we might be one body in Him.
He has been offered for every single thing which divides us, every single thing—whatever it is, legitimate or illegitimate—which somehow or other becomes the means of alienating us from one another. Our Lord is the peace offering.
He is the meal offering, which speaks of the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the new man. He is also that. And He is the burnt offering—that is service and worship unto God, that which alone can meet God. Here is everything we need.
The very first thing they did when they got to Jerusalem was to set up the altar. The work of the cross is fundamental to any recovery. It does not matter what it is; it is absolutely fundamental.
If you and I are really going to be part of God’s recovery move, then first, we must know what it is to be saved. Secondly, we must know the work of the cross progressively in our lives.
What do we mean by that? We mean simply this: until we know what it is to lay down our lives for the brethren, we shall never see a single stone built against another.
All the building, apparently, will disappear at the first great onslaught of the enemy, because it is not a real building. No two people can ever live a shared life unless both are prepared to lay down their lives for each other.
There can be no real teamwork of any kind unless there is a measure of laying down of one’s personal life in order that the work may go forward. Is that not true?
Please turn your cassette over at this point. Do not wind on.
It is true of unsaved people. It is absolutely true of unsaved people. You cannot have a team where everyone is wholly fighting for themselves. Then you get all this infighting, rivalry, jealousy—oh, it is just hopeless.
But even in the world, where you get a good team, it is because people have sunk their personal interests and ambitions for the good of the whole. How much more is this true of the church.
The church is in the life of Christ. It is not a theory. It is not just a static pattern. That is why playing at church can be so disastrous.
We have all this sort of Lord’s Table, the set-up, elders and deacons, all the New Testament jargon and pattern, and it all looks so polished. But inwardly it is dead.
The pattern of the New Testament church, if you like, is not a static thing. It is in the life. What you have got to do is get the life flowing.
You must have the life in more than one believer. But once you have the life of God flowing through more than one believer gathered in Christ, you begin to have the church. That is why Jesus said:
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
— Matthew 18:20
Two or three. It is not enough to have a full-scale pattern, is it? Elders and deacons and all the rest of it; pastors and congregation—if there are only two of you.
The secret of church life is that we care for one another, we love one another, we lay down our lives for one another, and we share our life together. As we grow in number, the Spirit of God says, “Now we must have something else. We must have more definitely defined government. We must have more definite ministry here. We must have more definite positions, functions, gifts.” Do you understand? It develops with life. If we bother about life, the rest comes.
But how do we get the life going? “Oh, get very excited,” somebody says. “Yes, we must all get excited. Once we get really excited, and we have a few swinging choruses and a few other things, we will all get alive.” You will not. You may get something very different.
It is a very different thing when the choruses come out of the life. But if you think you are going to get eternal life by raising the temperature of the meeting—which is so often what happens—we give it a swing, then a kick, then another kick, another punch, and a shot of something in the arm, and then whoom, we are up.
The fact is that by no amount of excitement or emotion or anything else do we get life. Let us be quite clear about this: we must not be afraid of excitement, and we must not be afraid of emotion.
But life comes in only one way. It comes through the Spirit of God working as a result of the work of the cross.
When the Spirit of God finds Calvary at the heart and foundation of a life, then the Spirit of God starts to work. When the Spirit of God finds Calvary at the heart of a company of people, then the Spirit of God begins to work.
When we are prepared to lay down our lives, then the life starts to flow. You get your life out of the way, and God starts to let His life flow through you. The fullness of His life comes the deeper you go with the Lord in the matter of the cross.
The more you are prepared to be broken, the more you are prepared for God to deal with you, the more you are prepared to lay down your life, the more you are prepared to be a living sacrifice—so the more life comes.
It is no coincidence that the apostle Paul says:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
— Romans 12:1
Then he goes on and talks about the body. The church comes out of this presentation of our bodies, our whole beings, as a living sacrifice unto God. Out of that comes one body in Christ, and severally members one of another. It is all in the life.
Oh, how we need to know something of the work of the cross. Sometimes we can begin with the work of the cross and leave it. Then, without our hardly knowing it, the soul has taken over.
Listen to this: the lesson of church history lies just here. Again and again, something which has begun at the cross and has been a real work of the Spirit of God has ended up very, very far from the cross and far from the Spirit of God.
We must understand very simply that if the Lord is really going to use us in any way, we have got to know the work of the cross. The cross has got to be operative before any rebuilding can begin. The Lord demands that every single thing be brought to the cross and offered as a living sacrifice.
I will say this at the risk of repetition. We often have problems about our natural gifts. Some people have problems about spiritual gifts, but I find the greatest problem most people have is about natural gifts, because they do not know what to do with natural gifts.
They have no problem in the sense that their natural gifts become a problem to everybody else, because it is no problem for them.
This whole matter of natural gift is a very interesting thing. For instance, here is a person with a great gift for organising. So we say, “Come on, come on, get moving,” and they start organising it. “Get it all organised,” you see.
Oh, how the church has suffered from organisers. They have organised everything so beautifully that, in the end, the life of God has simply died. It has been quenched.
Sometimes we have people with lovely voices, and they push so much to the fore that the only thing we ever hear is their voice. We never hear the Spirit of the Lord speaking truth, only their voice.
Sometimes it can be a musical gift. The only thing we are ever conscious of is that person, never the Lord. Sometimes it can come in other ways. Sometimes it is just the gift of the gab, you see.
Any natural gift we have, whatever it is, the idea so prevalent in Christian circles is that we should consecrate it. That is, we take this natural gift, give it to God, and then use it to the full.
The thing goes into the hands of God—well, really, we think it is in the hands of God; it is not. The consecration is paper-thin.
What God does with natural gifts is this: He demands that everything—good and bad, legitimate and illegitimate—be brought to the altar and there consumed. Then it is up to God’s sovereignty what He gives back.
When this happens, there comes into that natural gift a quality that was never there before, a dimension that was never there before.
We have got to be so careful. We have two extremes in this matter. One is that you have a natural gift and you must use it: “God gave you this gift, so you ought to use it.” The church has suffered tremendously from this.
The other side is that if you have a natural gift, you should be very, very careful. It must be stamped upon, broken, hindered, sat upon, suppressed in every possible manner, because it is violently dangerous.
Then you get this idea that someone who cannot even be heard two rows from the pulpit is going to be a great preacher because he has not got the wind in him. This qualifies him for becoming a great preacher.
Spurgeon had no such nonsense. He used to say, “If a man has not got good lungs, it is no good training him as a minister of the gospel.”
You have got these two sides, you see. The fact of the matter is that God does use natural gifts, for He formed us in our mother’s womb. He knows every single thing that is in us. He knows our temperament, our natural gift, the character and type of personality we have.
But it must go through the cross. Once the Lord has taken it into His hand and broken it, we may become very self-conscious and lose our nerve for a while. But in the end, if it is the will of God, He gives it back to us.
Now it is under the government of the Spirit of God, and then it is marvellous. A person can sing the gospel, and then you can find the Lord.
I remember when I was first saved there used to be a man who accompanied Alan Redpath, who used to sing the gospel. I have never heard anyone sing the gospel like it. More people were converted through his singing of the gospel than anything else, especially men.
There was a quality in it. The voice of God came right through that voice. It is so with other things, is it not?
This is the whole matter of the altar. If God is going to do this work, we have got to be prepared for a deep work of the cross. It is not just that we bring all that is bad about us to the cross, all that is poor about us to the cross, all that falls short about us to the cross. We bring the whole—everything—and let God consume it.
In the end, we are taken up and burnt to a cinder. Then God gives you back something that has gone through death, burial, and resurrection, and the Spirit of God can come upon your natural gift.
The apostle Paul was, I suppose by any standard, a great brain. Thank God he knew the cross. Can you imagine what a bore he might have been if he had not known the work of the cross?
We would have got theology, theology, and more theology; theories and theories; ideals and ideals; and all the rest. But when the Spirit of God took that brain into His hands and really did something with the apostle Paul—blinded him almost, made him dependent upon the Lord—that brain was filled by the Spirit of God.
It became the means by which the whole church throughout this age has been built up.
Now I want to say something else. A fourth matter in this matter of recovery is that we must have a practical corporate experience of the life and oneness of Christ.
The actual work of rebuilding is found from Ezra 3:8 to the end of that chapter. It is very, very interesting.
They began with the relaying of the foundation. We can never overemphasise the absolute necessity of the right foundation in God’s rebuilding work. What is the foundation? I think you all know it. It is Jesus Christ—Jesus Christ alone.
Not Jesus Christ plus a particular teaching, plus a particular experience, plus a particular method or technique, but Jesus Christ alone.
Upon that basis, we start to get built together. If we add anything to the foundation, Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God refuses to build. He will bless us individually; He will bless us as units; but He will not build.
Only when we recognise the foundation as Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone does the Spirit of God start the work of rebuilding. But, oh, how wonderful it is. God said:
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious.
— 1 Peter 2:6
How wonderful it is that God has a foundation which is absolutely clear, absolutely sure, and certain. The apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:19:
Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His.
This foundation is the first thing. There are plenty of false foundations. There are also plenty of foundations which are basically right, but believers have added so much to them as a basis of fellowship that the Holy Spirit can do no building.
Christ alone—here is the foundation. The Holy Spirit will not, if I may say it reverently, budge until we recognise that Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the only foundation for our building and for our fellowship.
What is the foundation of your fellowship? Why are you here? “I come because I am blessed,” you say. Then there will come a time when you are not. What are you going to do then? You come because you are fed. Then there will come a time when you are not. What are you going to do then?
“Well, you come because people are friendly.” So what happens if they get unfriendly? What happens when you begin to find out the real side of them? Are you going to run off? Why do you come?
Can you say with the apostle Paul:
I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
— 1 Corinthians 2:2
“I will not belong to any faction, or any group, or any clique. I know only Jesus Christ, and the basis of my fellowship is the Lord Jesus Christ. I will love every one of my brothers and sisters on that basis. I will receive them on that basis, as God has received me.”
Oh, how important it is. Once the foundation was laid, the work commenced. Stone was laid upon stone.
Building work is quite interesting, as some of you know even from the work up the garden, or from observing work earlier on in this place. There is an old Chinese proverb—let me tell you it:
A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. We can say that a huge building begins with one stone being built upon another. That is my proverb, added to the ancient wisdom of the Chinese.
You want to know how to be built? Do not just wait for this thing to materialise. Some people have the idea that God is going to stand here one day with a kind of wand and wave it over us all.
People say, “Well, I am there because one of these days something is going to happen for that lot. It is going to be a revival, you know. When that happens, whew, it is going to be marvellous.” Well, I am not so sure.
I do not think God will ever stand over something with a wand and say, “Now you are all built together.” Would it not be lovely if it were like that? Although, knowing us as human beings, I am not sure it would be.
If the Lord built us all together in an instant like that, I have a very shrewd suspicion that within a week or two we would all be screaming to get out. The Lord has His own wisdom, and He knows what He is doing.
If you are waiting for some marvellous thing to happen whereby we are all suddenly built together, it will never happen. Building work starts with one stone getting built with another.
It all begins with our getting down to the practical realities of the shared life—really committing ourselves to the people of God. Many of us have not even taken the step of really committing ourselves, of being available for anything, really sharing, opening ourselves up.
Why, some—I do not think I have ever heard them open their lips in a meeting. That is an incredible thing. What is wrong with it? Why do we not do that?
Sometimes it is fear, and that needs dealing with. But sometimes it is as if we are not really committed. There is an area in our lives in which we are, to a certain extent, spectators.
It is so much easier to be a spectator. There is, of course, a problem connected with being a spectator, because you always feel somehow you are out. But there is a great blessing, in inverted commas, about being a spectator, because you are not really in.
It is much easier to judge things and say, “Well, I thought that was quite good. I did not think that was so good.” Do you know the kind of thing?
Let me explain something. Have you ever felt something rather hard and heavy going, and then some matter comes along in which you have played a part? Have you noticed that the whole time becomes different?
You may go away and say, “My word, the Lord Christ helped me, because when I prayed, blessing came from the whole prayer meeting. The whole thing lived from that moment on.” No, no, no—you were the one that was changed.
When you gave something, suddenly you flowed in. You found that. You can go to a meeting where you just sit out on the thing and say, “Well, that is so good. I am not going to—so good, so good.” You feel miserable all the way through and go out just the same.
Give yourself. When that happens, you have committed yourself. You see, that is really the practical reality of being built together.
This is not just a question of contribution. Let us get that quite clear. Just because the first note is announced, that does not mean a thing on one level. There is much more to it than that.
There is a question of your character, a question of your own life with God, a question of what goes on in your home, your business, your work, and so on. But nevertheless, we have to say that there is this matter of really being committed.
So God starts to do this work of building us together. It is really a corporate experience of the life and oneness of Christ.
If you read through these verses when you get home—Ezra 3:8-13—we read them together this evening, and you find that everyone is there. All these different people: some have the oversight, some are here, some are there, but all are there.
It is a wonderful thing to see this work. Everyone has their part to play in the work, and is a living stone being built together.
It is another very interesting thing to note that worship is so clearly associated with the relaying of the foundation. This is just a point which might be a very real help to some.
So often we associate worship with the top stone. In other words, we would associate a great flood of praise and worship with the completion of the building. But here, in this recovery move, it began with the foundation.
The moment they got the foundation, they all sang and praised the Lord, and they shouted with such a shout that it was heard a great way off.
True, some of the older people wept, but the younger people drowned their weeping with their joy. So the joy and the sorrow mingled together.
One cannot help feeling that these older people who remembered the city and the temple when it was destroyed must have been of the most extraordinary ilk.
These must have been the choice ones of God who kept alive the whole vision of the Lord concerning the temple all the way through those years. Fifty years they would have been there—those who saw the last thing, because the seventy years dates from the first destruction of the city.
For fifty years these people had been in exile. These old people were probably twenty years of age when they saw the city destroyed and the temple razed to the ground. These were the people who kept it alive. They wept.
I find that very interesting because it seems to me it is a picture of death in them and life in the rest. These wonderful old people were not imposing, not going around saying, “Oh, shush! Shouting like that! We know something about the sufferings of Christ.”
Oh, God help us to grow old gracefully, if the Lord tarries. May we grow old gracefully. You either grow old and become a dreadful sort of—well, I will not say more—or you become those kind of people who bear much fruit in old age, who are attractive and winsome, and an integral part of all that God is doing.
These people did not stop the young ones from shouting with joy. Their very weeping might have been caused by the joy they saw on every face of every young person around them. But they had paid the price.
These were the people who knew something about travail. These were the people who had a vision of God’s purpose and had never let it go all the way through those years in exile. It had been alive in them. They had never settled in Babylon—never.
They lived for the day to come when they would go back. In their old age, in their seventies, they took and made the long journey back to Jerusalem.
Is it not interesting that worship was associated with this recovery move? Is it not surely something of very real interest that perhaps in every real recovery move of God there has been worship—such a spontaneous outburst of worship and praise to the Lord?
It is interesting, is it not, that song has nearly always been associated with every move of the Spirit of God, except the Quaker movement? The Quaker movement, that tremendous movement of the Spirit of God, was the only one not associated with a tremendous outburst of song.
Whether it is the Reformation, the Methodist movement, the Brethren, the Pentecostal movement, or whatever you like to call it, there has been a tremendous outburst of song every time.
Every recovery move has been attended with worship because the Spirit of God is there. It is as if the Spirit of God is so thrilled, to put it reverently, that something of the joy of the Lord overspills into everyone who is part of this recovery.
Lastly, there is the conflict over the recovery, and we have that in Ezra 4. That is really quite interesting.
In this chapter we have a number of different incidents put together. You would not notice that unless you carefully observed the dating. You will see that we have Cyrus in Ezra 4:3, Ahasuerus in Ezra 4:6, and Artaxerxes in Ezra 4:7.
The Artaxerxes part, quite a large number of verses, belongs to a much later period—to Nehemiah’s time, really later on in Ezra’s return, the second and third returns.
So here we have a most interesting fact: the Holy Spirit has brought together a whole number of incidents in one portion. Now why? One thing sweeps all these incidents together: undying opposition.
We have always associated with recovery tremendous conflict. It does not matter where you look in the Old Testament or where you look in church history. Every time the Spirit of God has started a move for recovery, there has been tremendous opposition. Every evil thing has come out into the open.
It is amazing the things that are said sometimes. But you have got them all here for your comfort in this chapter. All kinds of attacks: sometimes a frontal attack, sometimes an inside attack, sometimes a muted attack, sometimes a very bold attack. It is all here.
First of all, they were the Samaritans, because they were just mixed. They came along: “Let us build with you.” What? Most of us would have said, “Oh, sweet folks. They want to help us build. Well, that is very nice indeed. We should accept their offer of help.”
“Maybe they could help us. They may not be able to do everything, but we need real help. There are probably some jolly strong fellows amongst them, and others who are intelligent and skilled. We could use them.”
Then you hear what they say: “For we worship your God.” They went on, “We sacrifice unto Him since the days of Esar-haddon.” Yes, but they did not say how. They did not say anything about the mixture that was there.
They did not say that there was a mixed multitude. They did not say that they did not really belong to the people of God. They did not observe the law of God. Oh, apparently they were so nice.
Many a work of God has been destroyed by the introduction of those who are mixed right into the actual work. There is not a pure spirit; the origins are not holy in God. When that happens, it is the end.
Of course, it happened. The great historical incident is Constantine. Constantine was converted, and probably it may have been a real conversion to him. Suddenly, overnight, it became popular to be a Christian. It became the state religion, and thousands and thousands and thousands flocked into the church.
And the church died.
It is not very easy to say, “We will not let you.” My, these people could be called exclusives, almost. Listen to what they say:
Ye have nothing to do with us in building a house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord, the God of Israel.
— Ezra 4:3
Oh, I bet that annoyed them. Now we begin to see what was really in these people. As we go on, we find them up to every trick they possibly can, right through this recovery move, right through to Nehemiah.
They do every single thing they can. They try to get them to come down and talk with them. “Come, let us have a conference. Let us talk about this matter.” Anything to stop them building.
Sometimes they make snide remarks: “A fox could push over the thing you are building.” At another time they say, “These Jews—they think that they are building something.”
If you read the letter to Artaxerxes, you will find that they say some very nice things about Jerusalem:
Be it known unto the king, that the Jews that came up from thee are come unto us to Jerusalem; they are building the rebellious and bad city, and have finished the walls, and repaired the foundations.
— Ezra 4:12
Opposition. We will always have opposition. Thank God for opposition.
It was the Lord Jesus, in that great message preached on the mount—the Sermon on the Mount—Who said:
Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.
— Matthew 5:11
That does not mean, of course, that we must court that kind of thing, as some believers do—making sure that people think badly of you by rubbing them up the wrong way all the time.
But the fact is that if you are in a recovery move of God, you do not have to go out of your way to upset the enemy. The enemy is already upset.
This work concerning the temple got done. Is that not one of the most wonderful things? The work was completed. It stopped for some years, then started up again, then stopped, then started—but it got done.
Haggai and Zechariah, if you want to read those two prophets, were an integral part of getting this work completed. Oh, how they ministered to the people, telling them, “Do not give up, do not give up. The Spirit of the Lord is among you. Go on.”
And the work got done.
May the Lord teach us all these lessons and write them deep upon our hearts. We do not know how many more years we have left to us, but this we know: the recovery work of God is not over.
Soon—how long it will be, we do not know—we shall see the top stone go into position. Then the work will have been completed. The Messiah will come. He is the top stone.
The One Who is the foundation, the chief cornerstone, and the head of the corner is also the top stone. May God help us, then, to be part of what the Lord is doing in our day and generation, seeing something of those principles which have governed every single move of the Spirit of God right through this age.
May He, in making us part of this recovery move, teach us and educate us that we might be qualified to be part of eternal government and administration.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we do commit all that we have said this evening into Thy hands. It is a hot evening, and we have had these planes going over, but we praise Thee that Thou art able to write upon our hearts by Thy Spirit whatever lesson we need to learn.
Do not let it be wasted on us, Lord. May every one of us be really in what Thou art seeking to do in our day and generation.
How thankful we are, Lord, as a company, for that month of training we had this time last year. How little we realised then that it would come into its own, as it were, in the months that were to succeed those weeks.
Father, we do pray that we may not slow up or become lethargic, or somehow or other go under a cloud, or get diverted or sidetracked. Lord, by Thy Spirit, we pray, stir us all up.
May every gift that is in us, Lord, be exercised. May every contribution that we ought to be making, may it be made.
Oh Lord, come upon us all, and let us, we pray, hear those words of Thine, that we should watch and pray.
So hear us, Lord, for we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.