Let’s have another word of prayer.
Lord, we do thank You that You are that lover of our soul. And You loved that soul so much that You came and died, that we would not be separated, but that we would be brought near—brought into the precious oneness, Lord, of Your life.
And Lord, You not only brought us into that oneness of Your life, but by Your death, You have made each one of us members of Your precious body. Lord, we bless You for that. We come and we give ourselves unto You today.
Lord, in just the best we know how, we lay aside things that would hinder, and we come to truly look off unto Jesus. Lord, that You would really be satisfied with our time together.
Lord, we thank You for how our brother read to open the time: You have poured forth Your Holy Spirit for renewing regeneration. Lord, would Your Holy Spirit just come forth in this time to renew us, to quicken us, to open us, Lord, to all that You have for us, both in the speaking and the hearing.
That, Lord, we could be those who are found walking with You in this hour. Lord, thank You for Your Word. Thank You that You have not left us alone. And we come with an expectant heart unto You, Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
I’d like for us to turn again this morning to the book of Revelation, Revelation 3. We’ve been using this letter to the church in Sardis as kind of our theme for our times together.
The Lord, as He writes these letters, as we’ve said, looks upon each church. He has this desire within His own heart to see His very life. When He looks upon each church, He is looking for Himself to be manifested in the brothers and sisters there.
And just as He looked upon these ones in the first century, as we are here gathered as the Lord’s people in this hour, the Lord is looking for the same thing. We get distracted a lot of times, and we look for many things. But the Lord is always looking for one thing.
He is looking for the very life of His Son made manifest in a people—not just a knowledge of His Son, not just a familiarity with the Son, but the very life of the Lord Jesus lived out individually and together amongst the people of God.
May the Lord be quickening us in this hour to allow Him—we could say, to grant Him that permission—to do what is necessary to bring us back to that simplicity and purity of our devotion to Him.
As we see here in Revelation 3, the Lord writes to the church in Sardis:
“He who has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars, saith this: I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead.
Be thou watchful, and stablish the things that remain, which were ready to die: for I have found no works of thine perfected before my God.
Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear, and keep it, and repent.”— Revelation 3:1-3
We’ve looked particularly at this phrase in Revelation 3:2 about waking up and strengthening the things that remain. What is it that remains? We know that is our precious Lord; it is the life of our Lord Jesus. All things else fade away, but His life is that life that remains.
He is jealous that that life would be formed within us in a fuller and greater way. Where we have not continued on—because He says it is not completed—He calls us to wake up and strengthen that which is there.
How do we wake up? He simply calls us back. He says, “Remember. Remember what you’ve received. Remember what you’ve heard. Keep it. Practice it. Do it. Obey it. And repent and continue on.”
As we’ve been considering these verses together, each one of these seven letters to the churches during the first century shows, in a very particular way, the love of God. These are love letters, because it is our Lord’s love.
He is not writing these letters just to say, “Ah, look, you failed here, and you failed there, and you’re doing all this wrong.” No. It is out of His love and a jealousy for us, and for the life of His Son, that He brings these things to mind.
He says, “Okay, look, I’ll point this out.” But that is not to condemn us. It is to say, “Okay, repent of that. Remember what I’ve shared with you, and go on. Let that life come forth in a fuller and greater way.” That is the love and mercy of God.
We see it throughout the centuries. We thank the Lord that, as we’ve been using the books of Ezra and Nehemiah as examples of how the Lord desires to strengthen things when they come into a weakened place, we have seen the love and mercy of God.
Where Israel, because of their unfaithfulness, was in Babylon, out of His love and mercy He touched Cyrus’s heart. He said that whoever wanted to return could return to Jerusalem to build the house.
There was purpose there. It was not just to return to your homeland in a nationalistic way. It was a return with purpose: to build the house of God. Thank the Lord, the Spirit stirred about fifty thousand or so to return with that one purpose.
It is tragic because there were millions there in Babylon who did not return. But we thank the Lord for those who did return. As we think upon it in this hour in which we are living, the Lord is not interested in great numbers. He is interested in those whose spirits are stirred by the very love of Christ to return unto Him and to build that house.
He desires to allow the house of God to continue to be manifest and to be that testimony unto Him in this day and in this hour.
When they returned to Jerusalem, they first built that altar—that place of dependence, that place of a testimony unto Christ, of all that He is and all that He has done. It was a place of acceptance in the Beloved.
The altar speaks of the cross and His great work. That is so precious as we take the table every week: we are brought back to the preciousness of all our Lord has done and who He is.
Every week, as we come to this table, we have another wonderful opportunity to explore the riches of Christ. This morning we touched on the kindness of the Lord. Wow. You could stop and consider the kindness of the Lord, and it just brings forth more.
Another week you can touch on another aspect. There is so much of our Lord, and it will still take all eternity to explore all of those riches. It is tragic, brothers and sisters, how we get satisfied with so little. We are actually paupers, and we think we are rich.
At times, we are pretty poor. But in His love and His kindness, He touches us and gives us that hunger to go on.
Even those who returned to Jerusalem started building the house, but then a little opposition came up, and they stopped building. They stopped building, and they started building their own houses. They got occupied with all of their own things.
But the Lord again, in His love and mercy, raised up Haggai and Zechariah. Haggai said, “Consider your ways.” I remember a few weeks ago Jerry talked about how the Lord roars. I do not know, but in a way, when Haggai went in there, I think that was a pretty direct word.
“You guys, consider your ways. You are building your own houses while the house of God lies desolate.” That is not a namby-pamby message. It is the roaring of the Lord.
The Lord roars in this hour, and He speaks in many different ways. In Zechariah, we see a whole different way of the Lord’s speaking. He comes along and gives hope. He says, “Return to Me, and I will return to you.” There is a coming glory. There is encouragement there in how the Lord comes in.
We see how the Lord uses many vessels to bring forth His message and to encourage His people to continue on. We see in the body of Christ, as we are living today, the preciousness of all the vessels and the wonderful ways in which the Lord encourages us on.
We have mentioned all the different messages we have been hearing lately, from repentance and justification. They are all with purpose, and the house of God is where all of this is being worked out. It is through many vessels, and we are so thankful for that.
When the Lord raised up Haggai and Zechariah, none of the outward circumstances changed at all. But the people rose up, returned to their first love, continued building, and finished.
The outward circumstances and the opposition were still there, but what changed? Their hearts changed. This is what the Lord is always after: our hearts. They were brought back to that heart of first love, that heart of encouragement, and that heart of hope in Him—that the work which He has started, He will complete.
What a hope we have. I love studying 1 Peter because Peter, as we said, is an apostle of hope. The people of God need hope in this hour, because this is a hopeless world in which we are living.
If we look around with our own eyes, there is not a lot of hope. But thank the Lord, in Christ, He is our hope. He is our faith. He is our love. He is our hope—the living hope that we have living within us, restored in this hour, so that we can continue on in Him.
Today I would like for us to continue in the second part of Ezra. If we could turn over to Ezra 7.
Ezra returned with a purpose. When he went back, again the Lord in His mercy moved upon the king’s heart and said, “Whoever wants to return.” This time, only a few thousand returned.
Between the end of Ezra 6 and the beginning of Ezra 7, there is about a sixty-year period. During that period, the book of Esther took place. To keep things in perspective, between Ezra 6 and Ezra 7 is the time of the book of Esther. We know what went on during that time.
Again, the Lord in His mercy touched the king’s heart and issued this proclamation that whoever willed could return. It was total freedom—whoever would. A few thousand returned with Ezra.
Ezra had a burden upon his heart, as the king wrote of it in Ezra 7:27-28:
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem;
and hath extended lovingkindness unto me before the king, and his counsellors, and before all the king’s mighty princes.
And I was strengthened according to the hand of the Lord my God upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.”— Ezra 7:27-28
Ezra had this burden upon his heart to beautify the house of God. This is one of the things we want to share about today. What does it really mean? When we say, “Beautify the house of God,” what are we talking about?
In an introductory way, as we have heard, we can no longer just say, “What is the house of God?” We must ask, “Who is the house of God?”
We beautify the house of God when there is more of Christ being lived out within us. Christ is the house of God. As we allow that life to come forth in us, the house is beautified. We decrease, and He increases within our midst.
But before we do that, I would like for us to consider this question: Who was this man Ezra, the messenger of God? Who was this man?
I do not think we are going to have time today, so we will probably do it next week. If we look at Ezra 9 and Ezra 10, you will really see Ezra’s prayer and the impact of Ezra’s ministry and actions upon the people.
But as we look at Ezra, let us start with this question: Who is this man Ezra? In light of strengthening the things that remain, who is he, and how was he used?
Let us first see him here in Ezra 7. Look at Ezra 7:1-10. We are not going to read all of them for the sake of time, but in Ezra 7:1-5 we see Ezra’s great heritage.
His heritage is traced, as it concludes in Ezra 7:5:
“Son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest.”
— Ezra 7:5
Ezra had a beautiful heritage. He could trace it all the way back to Aaron, the chief priest. Ezra was a priest.
We see also in Ezra 7:6:
“This Ezra went up from Babylon: and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.”
— Ezra 7:6
Ezra was a scribe skilled in the law. That does not mean he was just a good writer, with good penmanship, who could copy the law real quick. No. Some translations say he was a ready scribe. The law was living within him.
When something came up, he knew in a living way what the Word of God said and how it applied in a certain situation. He was ready. He was skilled to be used of God when the Word of God needed to be brought in. How precious this man was.
Continue in Ezra 7:7-9. It says that some of the sons of Israel, priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and temple servants went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes. Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, because the good hand of his God was upon him.
Now look particularly at Ezra 7:10, this precious testimony of who Ezra was:
“For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances.”
— Ezra 7:10
Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.
Who was this man Ezra, the messenger of God? In Jewish circles, they treat Ezra as the scribe of Israel. He was the scribe of Israel.
Again, he was not merely a scribe because he could copy things. He was one who knew the law within his heart. He had set the Lord before him. He set the law, the Word of God, before him. He studied it and put it in his heart. He did not just put it in his heart, but he practiced it, and then he taught it.
How precious that is. One of the things we can see in Ezra, when we think of Ezra the messenger and the message he had, is that the Lord is just as concerned about the messenger as He is about the message.
The Lord is just as concerned about the very character and nature of the messenger as He is about the message. Oftentimes, we can see a great contrast between the messenger and his message. But the Lord desires that there be synchronization.
I was recently reading Amy Carmichael. She had a wonderful quote:
“It is the life lived that gives force to the words spoken.”
It is the life lived that gives force to the words spoken. In modern-day terms, we could say Ezra walked the talk.
Whatever he said was real in his life. He was the living message. It was in his heart. It was governing him. It was directing him. He was not saying one thing and doing something else.
He was captured by the Lord, and he allowed this Word to come in and really work within him.
Now, we know we can start talking about the message and the messenger, and immediately get self-condemned. Really, there is only one perfect messenger. There is one perfect messenger, and that is our Lord Jesus. The rest of us are all in process.
Let us not be condemned. In our Christian life, it is pretty normal to always have a little bit more that we have not entered into. You have something that you are seeing, but there is always more to enter into.
If you are standing up here sharing about the messenger and the message, you can pray for me. It makes you pretty self-conscious. If I am honest before you, it is like you do not even want to touch that subject, because you see yourself.
But the Lord, in His mercy, sees us too. Yet He does not disqualify us. He says we are all in process, and by faith we keep going on. Is anyone worthy to stand up here in themselves? No. It is all the grace of God and the work that He is doing in any of our lives that enables us to come and share.
Who are the messengers of God? Yes, they are the ones who speak. But the Lord is so concerned about the message and the messenger being in synchronization.
We can see a great contrast in the Old Testament with ones who could speak the truth, but in whom there was a great contrast between the message and the messenger. One of these in particular was Balaam.
Balaam spoke the truth. But if you looked at the character of his life, he was motivated by money. There was that self-motivation. Yes, he spoke the truth, but he did not enter in. That truth was not real in him. He did not practice the reality of what he spoke of.
We can think of it in the New Testament too, where the Lord says, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” There is this responding, this doing, and this practicing of what we hear.
Really, this is one of the poorest testimonies that we as the people of God have today upon this earth. We can all talk—all of this talk—but when the world sees the contrast, it weakens the testimony.
One of the precious things in Ezra is that he had told the king that God would provide for them. Ezra was going back to Jerusalem, and he told the king, “God will provide for us.”
Then the king offered all this help. He said, “I’ll send my army with you.” Ezra said, “No, no. God will provide.” He practiced what the Lord had touched his heart with: “I will be all-sufficient for you to return to Jerusalem.”
Then the situation arose immediately. Was Ezra going to rely upon the king’s army, or was he going to rely upon the Lord? They called a fast, they came before the Lord, the Lord answered, and the Lord protected them.
Ezra even said, “I was ashamed to ask of the king for his protection because I had testified of the sufficiency of God.” Oh, brothers and sisters, do we testify of that all-sufficiency of God, and then, when something comes up, run here or run there for our help and protection?
I am afraid, at least in my life, I do that too often. This whole thought of practicing has really touched my heart. I see the contrast in my life between the walking and the talking.
But the Lord—I want to make this really clear—does not show us that contrast to condemn us and tell us to stop walking and stop talking. No. He shows that to us because He loves us, and He wants us to come on and allow His life to work within us in a way that we can go on and be that testimony unto Him.
It is the kindness and mercy of God that we can see these things. We do not need to end up disqualifying ourselves.
A minute ago, when I asked, “Who are the messengers?” we said, “Those who speak.” Is that all? No. Really, we are all the messengers of God.
We are all messengers of God in our homes, in our schools, and at our work—wherever we are. We are the messengers of God, and we have a message. The Lord desires that that message be proclaimed and lived out in this hour.
Again, what is the Lord looking for in the messenger? As He looked upon the churches in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, He was looking for that message to be lived out.
Remember what He said to the church in Sardis: “You have a name, but you are not alive.” He is not looking merely for the name “Christian.” He is looking for the life of Christ to be lived out within us and expressed in our lives.
As we have a desire that the gospel go forth, I think the greatest gospel tool in the hour in which we are living is the life of Christ being lived out in the people of God on a daily basis. Would the Lord help us.
Ezra was this scribe who was skilled in the law. How did he become skilled? We saw in Ezra 7:10 that he set his heart to study the Word of God. He set his heart to study it, practice it, and teach it.
Where was Ezra when he set his heart to study the Word of God? He was in Babylon. He was in horrible conditions and horrible circumstances, but he did not allow the circumstances of his life to dictate his heart relationship with God.
I know in my own life I allow outward circumstances to dictate a lot of things I do. But I thank the Lord that Ezra, even though he was in horrible situations in Babylon, set his heart to study.
He did not wait for the circumstances to change. He studied. He set his heart that day. When are we called to set our heart? It is today.
We can always wait for tomorrow: “Tomorrow I’ll study the Word. When I have more time, I’ll do this. Tomorrow, tomorrow.” But the Lord is saying, “Today.” We set our heart to study His Word with the intent of practicing it and learning of Him, so that His life can be lived out within us.
Ezra had this desire not only to study, but to practice it. There was not this dual life. He did not have one life in which he studied the Word and then went on his own way.
It is interesting when you look at Ezra 7:10, because it says: study, practice, and teach. So often, why do we study? We study in order to teach. We forget the whole middle part of this—the crux of it.
We can study so that we can teach something. But you can tell the difference. We all know it, as we have had different teachers. You can tell the difference between a teacher who has a head knowledge of a subject and one who has studied, yes, but then practiced it, and out of life teaches.
How much richer those classes were. I can remember back through school. I do not say this too much, but I am from Petersburg—you do not say that too loud.
It is interesting how I remember studying history back then. Obviously, every year we studied Virginia history. But you could tell the difference between a teacher who moved in from outside Virginia and was studying the textbook the night before, then trying to teach the lesson, and those teachers who had grown up in Virginia.
They had walked those battlefields. They had walked the various places. They were sharing because they had been there and, in one sense, had practiced it. They knew it. It was part of them, and it came out in life.
Brothers and sisters, how we need to be practicing all the precious things that we have heard. Remember, the Lord said to bring them to remembrance, put them into practice, and do all that He has given us.
There is another precious thing about Ezra. The Scriptures say that the hand of the Lord was upon him. What does that mean?
To me, with Ezra, it simply meant that Ezra had experience in living with the Lord. He had the experience of living the Word. Ezra was a well-balanced man.
He not only had the Word within him, but he had the experience of life. He had seen the hand of God open the door to return. He had seen the hand of God protect him going back. He had this Word, and he had the experience.
So often, we can just have the Word with no experience, and then we end up with legalism, dead theology, or mere intellectualism. At times, we can have experience without the Word, and then we can easily enter into deception.
We can start desiring an experience. You know, we can have a soulical experience. But Ezra had the Word, and out of the Word came experience. He was well-balanced.
What Ezra had was not an experience plus the Word. As he lived the Word of God, life came forth, and it brought forth an experience of that Word.
How, at times, we can just look for an experience. The enemy can deceive us with a lot of them, and our own soul can be so happy with them. But Ezra knew that experience came out of living the Word of God.
As we seek the Lord, have our times of Bible fellowship, and meditate upon these verses, we let the Word come in. Then we can enjoy the experiences that that Word brings forth to us in the days that we have.
Ezra brought the Word of God in to strengthen the people. If you think about the book of Acts, which we just finished studying, how was the church strengthened then? All through the book of Acts, we see how the Word of God grew, expanded, and continued to go forth.
It was through this precious Word of God, living and active, that the church in the book of Acts grew. Oh, that we would take advantage of the opportunities that we have today.
As we have these experiences of the Lord, how do we know that they are of the Lord or not? Is there a test? How do we know whether what we experience is of the Lord?
In one way, we could say one of the greatest experiences of all time was the day of Pentecost. They were speaking in tongues, there was fire, and there was a great experience of things they had never experienced before.
How did they know that this was of God? How was the experience of Pentecost validated? Peter stood up and validated it with the Word of God. He said, “This is that.”
“This is that which Joel spoke of.” The Word of God validated the experience that they were having.
If we look through the life of our Lord Jesus, even when John the Baptist’s disciples went and asked Him, “Are You the One?” how did our Lord Jesus respond? He validated it with the Word of God, out of Isaiah 35.
He said that the blind would see, the lame would walk, and the deaf would hear. The Word of God validated it. We know how the Word of God, over and over, validated even His birth: “That the Word of God might be fulfilled.”
There is a relationship between experience and the Word of God. If we have experiences that are not validated by the Word of God, we need to go back and really examine that. What was the origin of it?
Every time we have a wonderful experience of the Lord, or any kind of experience, we need to go back and ask, “Is this that?” Then the Word of God will say, “This is that. This is that which you are entering into.”
Just as Peter was able to testify, “This is that which Joel had spoken of,” so we need the Word of God in this hour. There are many experiences in the name of the Lord, but does that validate them? No.
We need to be careful, particularly as the days draw near to His return. We need to be aware of all that is going on.
As I mentioned, this phrase about how Ezra practiced and did the Word of God has touched my heart in a fresh way. I see how I have so much more knowledge than practice.
But I thank the Lord that, as we give ourselves to Him, He gives us opportunities to enter into that. If we look at the house of God, we see this recurring theme with Moses, David, and Ezra.
It was said of Moses that he was faithful in all God’s house. How was he faithful in all God’s house? What is written of Moses in those books where he was constructing the tabernacle? He did all that God commanded.
He practiced what God had commanded. Therefore, he was faithful in all God’s house.
We think of David in the house of God. Even though he ended up not building it, think of the preparation he made. We love that little phrase: David was a man after God’s own heart.
But how was he a man after God’s own heart? Do we know the second part of that verse? He was a man after God’s own heart because he was a man who would do all God’s will.
How did David do all of God’s will? He served the purpose of God in his generation. How do we serve the purpose of God in our generation? We simply do God’s will. What He speaks to us, we do. By faith, we continue on, and we practice.
We see the most beautiful and perfect example of this in our Lord Jesus Christ. As He was upon this earth, preparing to draw all the material for the house of God, even at Gethsemane He said, “Not My will, but Thy will, be done.”
He was an obedient servant in God’s house. He was faithful. In one sense, He is the house, but He was the faithful One who laid His life down so that we could come into that.
That is really the beauty of the house: it is Christ.
As I was thinking about practicing everything we have heard, I was thinking about words like justification, repentance, and forgiveness. How much have we really entered into the fullness of what these are?
In one way, I do not think we ever fully do. We are always in the school of Christ. We will always be learning more and more of our justification. We will always be learning more and more about forgiveness.
How quick we are to demand forgiveness, but how we can rationalize away forgiving another person: “Oh, I do not need to forgive them. It was their fault.” We can rationalize away forgiveness.
Repentance—again, so much of these things need to be entered into and practiced in a fuller way. We often talk about the Lord’s soon return, but has the Lord’s soon return impacted our life in one iota?
Am I living any differently now than I was before I really considered the Lord’s soon return? Is it impacting my life?
We talk about consecration and all these different things. Are they impacting our lives in a way that affects us, so that we decrease and Christ comes forth? Or do we just throw these terms around? We talk about the house of God.
This revelation of the house of God—the revelation of more of Christ—when we really see it, will revolutionize our life. One brother has said that revelation will lead to revolution.
When the Lord reveals something to us, it will revolutionize our lives. Have our lives been revolutionized, or do we just continue on our own little merry way, gaining more and more of what we hear and know?
Where is the greatest place to practice what we have heard? You know where the greatest place to practice is? It is the house of God.
The Head of the house has a wonderful plan for us. He will work it out. You want to learn? Ask Him. “Lord, I really do not understand forgiveness. Lord, I do not really understand some aspects of this.”
He will arrange those circumstances because He loves you so much. All of a sudden, we are brought in.
We talk about the house of God and how we want to be together, but actually, if we are honest, there are some people we would rather sit on that side of the room while we sit on this side of the room.
But if we really see the house of God and offer ourselves to Him, He is going to bring us together with that person. All of a sudden, we are working together, walking together, clashing together, and fighting through it together.
Have you ever had a fight with a brother or sister in the house of God? That is actually a wonderful privilege. Now, do not go out and start fighting.
But if we really fight through something and fight to the end, our relationship will be stronger because it is founded in Christ. Yes, we may have a clash and butt heads, but we also end up down at the foot of the cross, with Christ being our way through.
Christ is holding us together, and Christ is our relationship.
We will see how Ezra confronted some things head-on. He butted heads with these people, because really, that is what a peacemaker is. We will talk more later about there being too many peacekeepers in the house of God.
We like to separate and keep calm, but the Lord came to make peace. Sometimes we have fights, but that is how it gets worked out.
Peter and Paul had those confrontations. I love how Paul confronted Peter in the letter to the Galatians and rebuked him publicly. He got right up in his face, in front of everybody, and said, “You have fallen back into all these legalistic ways.”
How did Peter later refer to Paul? “This is my beloved brother Paul.” My beloved brother. They worked through it. They were stronger after that in their relationship in Christ than they were before.
I hope this week everybody does not go out and start fighting. But capture the spirit of what we are trying to get across here.
Praise the Lord for ones like Ezra. If we could just see within Ezra the Lord’s desire for the message and the messenger to be in sync.
Ezra walked the talk. I thank the Lord for his life, how he was faithful to study, faithful to practice the Word, and faithful to teach the Word. May we have ones in this hour—as we are all messengers of God—who learn and are encouraged by Ezra.
May we leave the comfortable places, the palaces of Babylon. Ezra had a great place there; the king knew him. But he forsook it all to go live in this ruined little city of Jerusalem, in the midst of ones who would utterly break his heart and disappoint him when he saw their condition.
But the hand of the Lord was upon him, and he responded to that hand. May we learn from Ezra.
In Ezra 7 and Ezra 8, one of the things we mentioned is that Ezra went back to beautify, or strengthen, the house of God.
When Ezra went back, he took along silver and gold—the provision from the king and freewill offerings—and utensils for the house of God. He brought these back so they could be used.
We know that silver speaks of the work of Christ, that redemptive work of Christ. Gold speaks of the very character and nature of Christ. Those utensils were vessels for service within the house of God.
The king had also decreed that those who were serving—the priests and Levites, who before were having to pay taxes—did not have to pay taxes. They were free to serve.
Brothers and sisters, as we today have this desire to beautify the house of God, it all brings us back to more of Christ being possessed and more of Christ being expressed within our lives, individually and together, that He might increase.
When you think of something beautiful, what is beauty? For an accountant, I do not usually think, “That is a beautiful balance sheet or spreadsheet.” But what is beauty?
To me, beauty is one of those things that is tough to say exactly what it is, but you know it when you see it. You can see ten sunsets, and then one sunset is beautiful. You can see a tree or different things, and all of a sudden, one is beautiful.
There is something about it. There is balance. There is symmetry. Everything is in its right place, and you are seeing the wholeness. You see the completeness of it.
Nothing is out of place or improper that distorts the picture. You look at it and see the whole thing.
What is the beauty of the house of God? David had one desire: to dwell in that temple and behold the beauty of the Lord. When we see the life of our Lord Jesus, we see that beauty of the Lord. He is the beauty of the house.
There is symmetry and balance. Everything within our Lord is in its right place and functioning. We see the fullness and completeness of Him.
That is what the Lord was looking for in those letters to the churches in Revelation. He was looking for the fullness and completeness of Himself.
What is it that can negate beauty? If we say there is beauty in this house, what is it that negates the beauty? In a simple way, maybe we could say that it is when something is taken away or something is added to that original beauty.
You have a beautiful scene or picture, but something is taken away from it, and it throws it out of balance. Or something is added to it, and it starts distorting it. Suddenly, the original beauty, intent, and purpose are no longer being seen.
The Lord has a desire for the beauty of the life of Christ to be expressed in His house. In so many ways, we have allowed things to be taken away, or we have added things so that we are not seeing the beauty of the Lord.
We can think of the letter to the church in Ephesus, where He says, “You have left your first love.” That first love was taken away. There were things that were taken away.
We can see within Christianity today different aspects of the Lord that have been taken away: the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and the cross. This is a crossless Christianity that many are growing up in today. The cross is not a popular message.
So much ends up being taken away, and we are not beholding the full beauty of the Lord—the beauty of the house—because things are missing.
This is why Ezra was so skilled in the law. He knew everything that needed to be there. We have an example in Ezra 8. They were getting ready to return, and this skilled scribe looked around and said, “Wait a minute, something is missing. There are no Levites.”
There were none of those to be serving within the house of God. The priests were doing their priestly function, ministering to the Lord, but the Levites were also called to minister within the house, minister to the people, and help the people.
Ezra stopped because there were those designated by God to function in a certain way, and they were not there. He stopped, sent for them, praise the Lord they came, and then they went on.
In the New Testament, in the new covenant, the priests and Levites are one. We are all priests and Levites unto God. We minister to Him, and we serve in the house and to one another. We help one another. We come alongside.
There is this function going on in which we have all been made priests.
It is interesting how, in the Old Testament, when they numbered the men of Israel who were going out to war, they said, “Twenty years old and upward.” But do you know what age they began numbering the tribe of Levi? When they were born.
From one month old and up, the Levites were numbered. Brothers and sisters, when we are born again, one aspect of our birth is that we are born as priests.
There is no waiting until maturity to serve. There is no waiting to enter in. We are born, and He wants us to come in and fulfill this vital ministry as priests, serving one another unto Him.
That is why it is so precious. We have mentioned the precious opportunity for serving on workday. It is precious when families are here together.
It is sad how we can have this desire for our children to be serving the Lord, but are we really giving them opportunities to enter into this priestly, Levitical service?
It is wonderful when families come on workday and the young ones, at a young age, learn to serve within the house of God. When we have visitation, when families are doing things with one another, it is wonderful how the children can see and learn at that young age to serve within the house of God and serve brothers and sisters.
We can become so occupied with many things, but we need to be conscious of providing opportunities for our children to be serving—not just here on Sunday, not just within the framework of this building.
Sometimes I wish we did not have a building, but we do, and I am thankful for it. Do not anybody take that the wrong way. I am very thankful for it; that was an example.
But sometimes our blessings can even limit us, because we can unconsciously think that service is related to a place. That is Old Testament theology. Service is related to life, as we have life together and life with one another.
May we not allow our younger ones to miss this precious opportunity for service and visitation, and may we not miss it either.
Why do we not serve? Why do we not enter into all that the Lord has for us? There can be such a lack, such a taking away of what the Lord desires. We can think somebody else will do it, think we are not worthy, or maybe we just do not want to do that. We want to do this.
But the Lord puts each one of us right in a place to serve. It is like that little phrase, “Grow where you are planted.” We want to grow somewhere else, but the Lord has us in these circumstances and arranges things right where we are.
He has got us here. He has got us together. Let us allow Him to really grow us and bring us into it.
There is another aspect of taking things away. We can get things out of balance. We see it in many places. In the book of Acts, we see a beautiful life of the Lord together.
They were continuing in the breaking of bread, the apostles’ teaching, prayer, fellowship, and the gospel going forth. There was a wonderful balance of life there.
But so often, we get focused on one aspect of this life, and it throws the whole thing out of balance. We can focus on prayer and say, “Oh, we need to be a house of prayer,” and then all we do is have a house of prayer and forget everything else.
Or we say, “Oh, we need to have worship,” so we have a worship center, and all we do is worship. We can go on and on. These things of the Lord can somehow lead to the neglect of other aspects.
There is a balance within this life. The Head will lead us, guide us, and direct us into that. May we not get out of that balance. If we find ourselves out of balance, may the Lord search us and allow us to return, so that it could be strengthened.
Think of the gospel. It is like there are two extremes with the gospel: you are either all gospel or no gospel. I do not think either one of those is right. There is a way in life for us to find His way as we go forth.
If we have allowed something to come in and take away from the balance and beauty that the Lord has for His house and for Christ, may the Holy Spirit touch us.
We also mentioned how things can be added that affect beauty. We can call this the “Jesus plus” scenario. We have the Lord, but we have something else.
If we look throughout history, look around today, and look in the Scriptures, we can see it. Sometimes it is Jesus plus a man. The Corinthians had Paul and Apollos. “We will go this way.”
Because a man has been greatly used of God, we can gather around him. We can base our gathering on the form of government that a place has. Different things can come about. It is the “Jesus plus” scenario.
I have heard people say how they enjoy gathering here because we have a plurality of leaders. I thank the Lord that the Lord has a government and does have a plurality of leaders. But is that the basis for our gathering? No.
The basis for our gathering is Christ and the desire to be a testimony unto Him. People can say, “We like to have the open worship.” Do we gather here because we have open worship? No. We gather here to be a testimony unto Christ.
Others say, “I gather here because of the children’s ministry. I gather here because of this or that.” There is one reason for gathering: to be a testimony unto our Lord Jesus Christ.
May we not add anything to that in this hour. We can say we love to gather here because we have great teaching—especially today, we are getting a great message. I am just seeing if you are still awake.
We have a couple more minutes here. We went to get the pizza; they are not here yet, so you can relax.
But we can elevate the teaching and become a teaching center. The Lord wants us to behold the beauty. There is a balance and fullness there.
We can focus on the type of building: “Oh, we have got to have a house church.” One can focus on the size of the group: “You cannot have over a certain number of people.” It is funny how we can take things and make them the reason for our gathering.
Instead, there should be that simple desire to be a testimony unto our Lord Jesus Christ and that His desire would be expressed. May we return to that.
There is another thing, in closing, that adds to and diminishes the beauty of the house because it has been added to. As I get older, I appreciate this more and more: it is rust.
Maybe we are too rusty in these days in certain things. If you have a tool, what kind of tools rust?
If you have a brand-new tool—it still has that protective paint on it, whether it is a hoe or a rake—something you have never used generally does not rust because it has that protective coating on it.
What rusts? It is tools that you used to use but are not using anymore. They develop rust.
Things that we used to have, things that used to be of value, things that we used to use—they develop rust when we put them aside.
Why do we put them aside? Bringing it into the house of God, maybe we got offended. Maybe we used to offer a prayer of thanksgiving and worship every Sunday morning, but perhaps somebody said something to us and we got offended.
“Well, I am just going to sit down and shut up. If they do not like that, I am not going to pray anymore.” Then our prayer life and our worship life rust.
We serve brothers and sisters. We spend all afternoon fixing somebody a meal, and it is not even appreciated. “Well, I am not going to fix any more meals for them. I am not going to do a thing.” Then our hospitality starts to rust.
These are things that we need to consider. I was thinking even of this simple thing called visitation—being with one another, whatever term you want to use.
We can get rusty at it. It takes away the beauty of the Lord.
As most of you know, I am very thankful for emails and all this other stuff. But with every blessing also comes a downside. With the telephone, emails, IM, and everything, we can lose that personal touch.
Do you know how great it is just to be able to go and sit in someone’s house, have a cup of coffee, have a cup of tea, go to lunch, or go to breakfast with somebody?
There is something about that personal touch that, in this age of technology, we can kid our conscience into thinking, “Well, I emailed them this week.” Now, that is good. I do not want to take this too far. That can be a good thing too.
But do not let that replace the personal touch within the house of God. We are living stones. The Lord desires to build us together.
Where we have allowed things to become rusty in our life—things that once were valuable, things that were used of the Lord, but for some reason we have allowed them to sit and become a little rusty—may the Lord bring in His WD-40, the Holy Spirit, and clean it up.
May He bring us back to using those things. Remember what He said to the church in Sardis: “Remember. Wake up. Complete the work He has started.”
We were using that tool to do a certain work, and then we stopped. Wake up. Remember what you have heard. Use that, and let us keep going on together. Those are the precious things of the Lord that we can see.
Maybe we can finish here today, and next week we can consider how Ezra was really used to address the issues of sin and unholiness within the people of God in Ezra 9 and Ezra 10, and how through that a beauty was brought back to the house of God.
But we thank the Lord for this man Ezra and his burden to beautify the house. We pray that the Lord would work within us in such a way that we would realize we are His messengers and that we have a message.
May we study that message. May we practice that message. May our lives teach and be a testimony of that message to others.
Within our lives, individually and together, if somehow the beauty of the Lord has been diminished—if something has come in to dissipate that beauty, if things have been taken away, if things have been added, if we have been distracted, or if we are rusting—would the Holy Spirit search us?
May we really be those standing so that the beauty of the Lord would be recovered within our midst in the days in which we are living. Let’s pray.
Lord, we started this morning with the kindness and the love of God manifested in our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we see how that is still so much upon Your heart: that the love of Christ, the very life of Christ, would be manifested through Your people in this hour.
Lord, we thank You for the help that You give us. We thank You, Lord, that in Your love You touch those areas where we consciously or unconsciously, subtly, allow things to rob us of the beauty of the Lord.
Would You work within us, Lord, where we are not allowing the message to become a greater reality within our lives?
Lord, we cry out for Your mercy, that we could receive and take the help that You provide in this time of need. In Your precious name. Amen.