Morning, brothers and sisters. I’d like for you to turn with me this morning to the book of Revelation, Revelation Chapter 3. We’re going to use a couple of verses out of this letter to the church in Sardis as our theme verses for our time together.
To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
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.
Wake up, and strengthen 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.
You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up. Strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die. For I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. Remember, therefore, how you have received and heard; keep it and repent.
Lord, it is a great privilege to be together in Your presence this morning. Lord, we thank You that it is You who have set this time apart. Lord, it is You who have called us unto Yourself, and we are such a privileged people.
Lord, we thank You that it is still called today, and we can hear Your voice. Each one of us comes unto You now, and in the freshness of this day, we present ourselves unto You, Lord. May Your Holy Spirit have freedom in speaking, and may we hear within our innermost being the words of life that You are speaking in this hour.
Lord, as we see the time drawing nigh, we do not have a lot of days to waste. We want to be those who are truly redeeming the time, and we want to redeem this time for Your name’s sake, Lord, that You could be glorified and honored within our midst today.
We worship You, Lord. By faith, we apprehend all that You have for us this morning. In Jesus’ name, amen.
As we look at this letter to the church in Sardis, this is our Lord speaking to His beloved ones. What is He looking for? In each of these seven churches, as He writes these letters, what is He looking for?
Really, within this whole matter of the seven letters, our Lord is looking for one thing. Our Lord is looking for the very character and nature of His beloved Son. He is looking to see His life being expressed amongst the people of God.
When He sees that life expressed, He speaks forth words of commendation. He says, “I witness to that. Keep on going.” But when He sees things within our lives that are not that measure, that are not the reflection of the life of His Son, He points them out to us.
The wonderful thing about our Lord, as opposed to the way we handle things, is that He points them out out of a heart of love, so that we can be liberated from the things that are entangling us and set free by His great love and mercy to be about what He has called us to.
When He looks at this particular church and says, “You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. I have not found your works completed,” when we say that in our natural self, it comes out as condemnation. But when our Lord echoes those verses from His heart, it is a love call to His beloved.
He is saying, “I have put My life within you. There was a life; there was a work that I started within you, but it is not complete. Wake up.” We have fallen asleep. We have become so accustomed to the things of the Lord that we are becoming dull, and we are becoming very comfortable.
The Lord cries out in a loving voice: “Wake up, and strengthen those things that remain.” Praise God that we can still hear His voice in this hour. Praise God that it is His love song that sings to us every day, that the life of His beloved Son could be formed within us.
We know we are not where we should be, but we thank the Lord that He does not disqualify us. He does not throw us out because of that. While it is still called today, He still speaks to us, and He says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
Because of that love, continue. I have given you some works to start, and you started them, but they are not complete. Continue on. Remember how you received those works at the beginning. Remember the call that I had upon you to come out and to come unto Me.
That same call is what the Lord has for us in this hour. He is desirous that we, not only as individuals but as His corporate expression, would return to the simplicity and purity of our devotion to Him.
I think, when we are all honest, we confess that we have been distracted by many things in this hour. There is a way within this country where we can live a comfortable Christian life. The Lord, out of His love, is shaking us. Out of His love, He is crying out unto us not to settle down, but to wake up and strengthen that thing which remains.
It is His life within us that is still there, and He says, “Wake up. I want to show you more and more of Myself.” He says, “There is a purpose that I have called you to. You are a people of purpose, and out of My heart of love, I want you to continue that which I called you to.”
Because He says, “Your works are not complete in the sight of My God.” I love that little phrase because sometimes we can think our works are complete. Our standard can be parallel with one another, but may we remember that it is in the sight of the Lord—that is the standard.
Our standard is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is what He is calling us unto. The wonderful thing about our Lord, when He says, “Strengthen those things that remain,” when He says to wake up, is that He does not then say to go do it in yourself. He provides the way for us.
There is no condemnation here. He says, “Wake up and strengthen the things that remain.” How do we wake up? How do we strengthen that aspect of His life that remains within us? He echoes this wonderful word: “Remember how you received.” Remember.
Brothers and sisters, we have been here, as was mentioned last night, at Westmont for twenty years. We have received a lot. So remember how you have received and heard, and keep it. We have received so much. We have such a great heritage.
You look back at these books sitting on this table back here—this is a tremendous heritage. You look at the tapes that are being made, and the tapes that we have over the years—this is a tremendous heritage. We need to remember what the Lord has already spoken to us.
In this hour that we are looking at, the hour that we are living in, by this word remember, it is not that the Lord is going to do a new thing. He is not going to do a new thing. He has already done a new thing.
There will be a day when He will do a new thing, but today the Lord is not going to do a new thing. As we touch the Lord and experience Him, we will have new experiences of Him in our lives, but He has already done that new thing.
As we stand and enter into the new thing that He has done, we will experience in a new way the greatness of what He has called us into. As we remember the foundation, as we remember what He has already spoken to us, and as we enter into that, we can enjoy all the good of our beloved Master.
He says, “Remember how you heard.” I have to confess that I have the blessing and the curse of being at too many conferences, if I can say that in a right way.
I remember the first time I went to a conference like this. It was at a little college called Randolph-Macon. I remember how I heard. There was a hunger there.
I was so convicted a few years ago after my fourteen-hundred-and-thirty-second conference. I was sitting there as a connoisseur of the Word: “Oh, that brother, he did pretty good. Oh, yeah, I remember. Last time he shared that, he did this.”
The problem was not with the speaker. The problem was how I was listening. The Lord brought back these verses to me: “Remember how you received.” How did we receive? We received with a hunger and a thirst.
The Lord is calling us again, that His Holy Spirit would reinvigorate us to receive what we have heard so much, and that we could enter into that. May He rekindle and breathe upon that fire, that in the freshness of His life, the testimony of Jesus would really go forth.
The Lord penned this letter to the church in Sardis because, at that time, the church in Sardis was in a weakened condition. Brothers and sisters, I think if we look around in all honesty—within our lives and within the lives of our assemblies—we are in a weakened condition.
But again, out of His heart of love, He does not condemn us. He does not throw us out because of our weakened condition. In His love, He comes to us and calls us to wake up, to remember what He has shared with us.
Remember that heart of first love when you gathered together. Remember the zealousness that you had when, all of a sudden, you discovered that there were some other brothers and sisters who had this little glimpse of what God desired—the beauty of sitting around someone’s living room, the four or five that were there.
All of a sudden, there was this revelation: “Wow, you see that God has more for us than just being saved. You and I are one in Christ.” As we come to this conference, is there that appreciation for the oneness that we have in one another? Is there that zealousness, or has it just become so common and everyday to us?
Twenty or so years ago, we did not talk much about the body of Christ; there were just a few. But now “the body of Christ,” that little phraseology, has become so common that it has lost the luster, the beauty, and the preciousness of it.
The Lord wants us to wake up. We have a name, but are we really alive unto Him? We thank the Lord that there is life within us, and He wants that life to be rekindled in a fresh way. He wants that life to shine as a bright testimony in this hour that we are living in.
I do not think I have to convince any of us that these are the last days that we are living in, and they are accelerating so rapidly. The Lord, in His heart of love, cries out unto us to wake up and strengthen the things that remain.
As we look throughout the Scriptures, there are wonderful ways in which we can see the marvelous faithfulness of our Lord. As we sit here today in a weakened condition, we have a whole Book full of ones who were in weakened conditions.
Whether we are talking about the time in Egypt, the time of the Judges, the time in captivity, the time just at our Lord’s birth before He came, or the time when these letters were written, it was when the people of God were in a weakened condition.
But the wonderful thing about our Lord is that when we find ourselves in a weakened condition, we get to see the great faithfulness of Himself being displayed. When the people of God are at their weakest, our God displays the greatness of His power.
This is what He desires to do in our lives today. As we allow the Spirit to rekindle afresh the heart within us, He wants us to see the exceeding greatness of the life that we have together in Christ.
During our times together, I would like us to use one of these Old Testament pictures as a lesson to help us. I find myself—I am an accountant by training—and I need little pictures and lessons to help me.
I have found the books of Ezra and Nehemiah to be very helpful in seeing when the people of God were in a very weak condition, yet the Lord, in His marvelous faithfulness, raised up ones to draw people back to Himself.
So I would like us to fellowship on the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. When we think about Ezra, we say, “Oh, that is when they returned, built the altar, and rebuilt the house of God.” That is true. That is the first six chapters of the book.
But the book does not end there. There is a second half of the book where Ezra returns and their life within the house is strengthened. Ezra returned to adorn, beautify, and strengthen the house of God. That is the second half of the book.
In Nehemiah, the first part concerns rebuilding the wall. But again, the book does not end there. There is a second half of that book where life together is strengthened. When the wall was rebuilt, there is a tragic testimony in the next chapter: the city was spacious, but the houses were few.
It was a big city, but they were in a weakened condition. The Lord has just as much desire for the wall to be built as He does for the life within the city to be strengthened.
As we look through Ezra and Nehemiah, we can see some of the ways that the Lord desires to strengthen us, as He strengthened His people in those days. He raised up men and women of character. In a New Testament phrase, they had the life of Christ within them.
They were more concerned about God’s interests than their own interests. They denied themselves and allowed the Lord’s interests to dictate and drive them.
Two other things we see that are so precious within these books are the power of the Word of God, that living Word of God to which people respond, and also the power of prayer. There are beautiful prayers throughout these two books.
As men allowed the Lord to become real in their lives, through the Word of God and a spirit of dependency and prayer, they were able to bring the people back, that there would be an expression of the Lord’s life in the city known by His name.
As we look at Ezra Chapter 1, the setting is when the people of God were in captivity in Babylon. Why were they there? It was really because of their unfaithfulness—unfaithfulness to God. The Lord had allowed them to be taken captive and taken back to Babylon.
A while before this, Israel was at its zenith under David and Solomon. Through Solomon, the temple was built. But then Solomon, because of his marriage to foreign wives and the idolatry into which he entered, heard the Lord say, “I am going to snatch the kingdom from you.”
But out of His love for Solomon’s father David, the kingdom would not be divided in Solomon’s time, but in the time of his sons. Following Solomon’s death, that kingdom was divided into a northern and southern kingdom.
Again, we see the Lord in His loving-kindness and mercy. He raised up prophets to go to the people in the northern kingdom and cry out unto them, but they never responded. In the southern kingdom, prophets were raised up, and at times there were ones responding to the Word of God.
But after a season, they would fall away. There was this ebb and flow of ones responding to the Word, then falling away again. Eventually, because of their unfaithfulness, they were all led away into Babylon.
Now, what is Babylon? We know it is a country, but when we are looking at it from the Scriptures, what is Babylon? The contrast between us as believers is contrasted with the world. Throughout Scripture, we see this great contrast between the kingdom of God and the world.
In the Old Testament, there are two countries that typify the world. You have Egypt, which typifies the secular world. We thank the Lord that He redeemed His people out of Egypt, and we too have been redeemed and brought into such a wonderful promised land.
But then there is Babylon, and we know the word Babylon means confusion. Babylon speaks of the religious world. There were all the religions of the world there, and it was utter confusion.
Throughout church history, at times there has been such utter confusion amongst believers that it has been a time of Babylon, a time of confusion. It is sad today that there is great confusion amongst the people of God.
There is not a clarity of who the Lord is or of what He is doing, but there is grave confusion. We, as the people of God, have been captured by this spirit of confusion. But again, the Lord in His mercy cries out unto us.
He says, “I desire that you return to that simplicity and purity of your life with Me.” So, as we look at Ezra and Nehemiah, may the Lord speak to our hearts. May He touch us in a way that we could be drawn back to Him.
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying:
Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord, the God of heaven, hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whosoever there is among you of all His people, his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—He is the God which is in Jerusalem.
And whosoever is left, in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.
Then rose up the heads of fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, even all whose spirit God had stirred to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.
As we read these verses, Cyrus makes this wonderful proclamation that whosoever desires is free to go back to Jerusalem, the city of God, where His name is, where His house is, and where He desires His house to be rebuilt.
Does this occur just out of happenstance? Does it just suddenly occur by fate, that Cyrus, this heathen king, makes this proclamation? No. The introductory verses of this book show us that our God is a God of purpose, and He is ruling over all things.
We know from the prophet Isaiah that, a couple of hundred years before this, it was spoken that Cyrus would be used of the Lord. Cyrus would be used to bring about this return to Jerusalem.
One of the great encouragements of these books is how they show that God has a plan and a purpose. Even when it looks as though everything is in total ruin, our God, in His marvelous sovereign way, can use a heathen king to allow His people to be set free and return to Jerusalem.
We thank the Lord that even after Isaiah, He gave the prophecies of Jeremiah. Through Jeremiah, it was prophesied that there would be a time when the people of God could return.
Who was captured by that prophecy? Who was reading the Word of God one day in Babylon, and that prophecy captured his heart? It was one named Daniel.
Daniel was reading the Word of God, and he saw the seventy years. This was it—the revelation of God came upon him. Daniel fell on his knees. Later, we are going to look at the prayer of Daniel, but it was a prayer that came as the Word of God hit Daniel’s heart and the Spirit came upon him.
He was before the Lord in sackcloth and ashes. He humbled himself because the Word of God captured him. As I read that, it made me ask a question of myself: When was the last time the Word of God brought me to my knees?
When was the last time that the Word of God hit me in such a way that I was prostrate before Him? Or have I allowed this Word of God to become so ordinary that I simply say, “Oh, yeah, the Lord is returning. Oh, yeah, this is happening, this is happening”?
Has the return of the Lord really hit me? Has it hit us? This is what He wants us to wake up to. Daniel was awakened by the power of God in the Word of God.
In the hour that we are living in, the Lord is calling us to wake up and allow His Spirit, in the Word of God, to touch our hearts in a wonderful way.
Another thing that encourages me so much about this book is that, again, as we have said, the people of God at this time were in a state we would categorize as utter ruin. Yet we see that marvelous faithfulness of our Lord.
Sometimes today people will say, “Oh, the people of God, they are in utter ruin. It is no use. It is no use.” Outwardly, we might look as though we are in utter ruin, but in spiritual reality, the Lord is doing a great thing.
When we start looking horizontally, we will be discouraged. We can say, yes, there is ruin. But who are our eyes upon? Our eyes are upon the King, upon the Faithful One, who, in spite of our unfaithfulness, remains faithful.
He will accomplish that which He has purposed to do. We are so thankful for that. Even in spite of the times we are living in, in spite of what we would call our ruined condition, it does not limit Him or His power in any way as He calls us to return unto Him.
There was a time when the Lord used Cyrus. There was an appointed time. There is an interesting phrase in the book of Esther. Esther comes right in the middle of Ezra, between Chapter 6 and Chapter 7.
Mordecai speaks back to Esther: “Esther, maybe you are where you are for such a time as this.” Brothers and sisters, maybe we are where we are today for such a time as this.
Mordecai said to Esther, “If you do not do it, God will raise someone else up. You and your family will perish, but God’s purpose will still be accomplished.” Brothers and sisters, we are here for such a time as this.
The Lord has a call upon our lives. If we do not do it, He will raise others up. But how much better if we are those who respond to His calling, because He has us right where we are for such a time as this.
May we be the people of God who respond to His Word, who return to that simplicity and purity of our devotion to Him, and who allow Him to work within our lives in that marvelous way.
Just meditate on that phrase sometime afterwards: for such a time as this. We are so careless of the time. The Lord wants us to redeem the time.
In Ephesians, He talks about redeeming the time. Why are we to redeem the time? So that we can have a good time? He says, “Redeem the time,” so that you will know the will of God. There will be those of wisdom who know the will of God.
How we need to be those who really know His will and His desire in this hour. May He really help us.
As we look back at Ezra, these first five verses show this wonderful, great grace of how the Lord uses this heathen king to open the doors for whosoever will to return.
There is no limitation. It is total grace. Whoever desires, whoever is living there in Babylon, whoever is amongst the people of God, you are free to return. If that is not grace, there was nothing hindering them.
God had made every provision for them. Brothers and sisters, in that same way, God has made every provision for us in Christ Jesus, that we are free to return unto Him. There is absolutely no excuse.
We might have many reasons and rationalizations, but there is no excuse. Why were they to return? They were returning with purpose. They were returning to Jerusalem to build the house of God.
Today, the Lord has a call upon us in a similar way. He desires that a people would return unto Him, that His house, that His testimony, would be strengthened.
Let us not kid ourselves into thinking that the house of God is just our individual assembly. The Lord wants us to see the vastness of His house, the greatness of what He is doing, and to wake up to see the call that He has upon our lives as we return to that simplicity that we have in Him.
If you look at the book of Ezra, you may think, “Wow, this is really great. We can all return to Jerusalem.” Go to Chapter 2. How many returned? Out of the millions that were living there in Babylon, how many returned? About fifty thousand.
If you go through that chapter, name after name is mentioned. Why were there so few? Even before we get into why there were so few, I want to ask you a question. I have been trying to catch myself—I was going to say, “I want to ask y’all a question.” There are only a couple of people here who understand “y’all,” so I am trying not to say it too much.
When you are reading this chapter, when you come to Ezra Chapter 2, how do you read it? We look at it, then flip over to Ezra Chapter 3: “So-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so.” All right, we are doing a speed reading.
We have not taken a speed-reading class, but we can get right through Chapter 2—boom, just like that. Now, this chapter is golden nuggets. It is a precious testimony of how the Lord notices each and every one of us.
Last night Dana used the numbers three thousand and five thousand in Acts to speak of the mega works the Lord is doing, and He does do that. But there are also times when the Lord uses very specific numbers.
Look in Ezra Chapter 2: the sons of Parosh, two thousand one hundred seventy-two; the sons of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy-two; the sons of Arah, seven hundred seventy-five. Very specific numbers.
This is the Lord taking notice of each and every one of us. None of us get grouped together in times like this. The Lord notices each one of us. Whether we are number one thousand two hundred fifty-one, He says, “Aha, that’s Mac.”
He notices and numbers every one of us. Oh, what an encouragement that is. The God of the universe, that magnificent King of kings—even though He is looking for this wonderful corporate expression of His life—still notices each and every one of us.
Each and every one of us is vitally important to Him. One of the great lies of the enemy is to say that God does not care about you, that He does not notice you. Yes, He does. Your name, your number, is there.
He has every one of us written upon His heart. Our name is graven in His hands, those hands that were crucified and pierced. These are not frivolous numbers; this is not some accountant trying merely to accumulate numbers. It is showing us that God cares for each one of us and how precious we are.
Why did all the rest not return? Why did so many stay in Babylon? They stayed in Babylon because they had a pretty comfortable life. Even though they were slaves there, they had a lot of liberty.
They could build their houses, have their businesses, and have their religious life. They had their synagogues there. They could have a pretty good life.
Here was the proclamation: You are living in Babylon. You have your nice, comfortable home. You have your nice little business going. You can go to the synagogue once a week. Or you have this choice: you can return to this desolate city where the wall is torn down and the temple has been destroyed.
You can take your family back there. There are a lot of enemies there, and they will hate you and fight with you all the time. You have a choice. You can return there, or you can live here in comfort.
There were those who chose to live there in comfort. But thank the Lord, there were also those who, even though they were living in Babylon in captivity, had their hearts in Jerusalem.
Brothers and sisters, today, where are our hearts? As we said, we can live in this country in a very comfortable way. One of the tragedies of this country is that we can live a very nice religious little life, have a good job, and have a good family. We can be very comfortable here.
I am not trying to say that in condemnation. But we do not need to see that as our security. The Lord is calling us, in His heart, to get out of our comfort zones and return, and to be spent on Him—to return to that purity and simplicity.
Maybe some did not return because of family. They had just built a new house. They said, “No, I like it here. I am going to stay here in Babylon. We have children. There is not a good school system back in Jerusalem. We have a good school system here.”
They might have said, “We can even teach them in the synagogue. They can have all this good training. What is back in Jerusalem? There is no school. How are we going to care for them?”
We can get so occupied with our work. We say, “Oh, my job is going so well, and I have an idea. Instead of going and having to rough it there, I will send Jerusalem some money. I will just use PayPal and wire them some money every now and then.”
“They can have the money and build whatever they want to do. I will just send money here, and that will solve the problem.” And there were some who were very comfortable in their little synagogues there.
They said, “Well, you know, the synagogue here—I am the number one teacher. If I leave, what is going to happen to the other people here? I like my little teaching ministry. This synagogue has a good children’s program. It is really family-oriented. This is where we are going to meet.”
“We are going to stay here because there is nothing back in Jerusalem.” It is all a challenge of where our hearts are.
Are our hearts in Babylon—that spirit of Babylon that even lives today—or are our hearts where the Lord wants to put His name, where the Lord desires that His people be built together as that testimony? That is the challenge.
What distinguishes Babylon from Jerusalem? In Babylon, they could have their little synagogue where they could read the Word and pray. But what was it in Jerusalem? What distinguished Babylon from Jerusalem?
When the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.
Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.
The altar was in Jerusalem. That place where they could place those sacrifices could only be in Jerusalem. Now, to us, what is the altar? The altar is the cross. Or perhaps we could say: who is our altar? Our altar is Christ.
Our altar is Christ. That altar testifies of the cross, and the cross testifies of all that Christ has done. It speaks of our acceptance in the Beloved.
In Jerusalem, where He has His name, that is where His altar is, and that is our place of acceptance. When we come to consider this whole matter of strengthening the things that remain, there is only one place to start: at the foot of the cross.
At the cross of Christ, we see all that He has done for us. We see how we are accepted in Him, and we can testify, “Not I, but Christ.”
One contrast between Babylon and Jerusalem is that, in Babylon, everything was self-centered: me, me, me—my house, my business, my religious life. But in Jerusalem, who was the center? It was God’s interest. It was for His heart to be expressed as a testimony to the world.
We thank the Lord that there were those who went back and first built the altar of God. If we start at any place other than the foot of the cross, we are already starting on the wrong foundation.
It is interesting, as you look at Ezra Chapter 3, verse 2: What was the attitude of those who returned toward those who stayed in Babylon? How is the altar described? Is it described as the altar of the God of the remnant? No. It is the altar of the God of Israel.
They were there in Jerusalem, and out of love they were not elevating themselves. They knew that just because they went back did not make them any better than anybody else. They were there by the grace of God.
They were standing for all of God’s people and for all of God’s interests. They were there to be that testimony. Too often, as people have tried to return to the simplicity of Christ, instead of falling down in humility, we have a tendency to puff ourselves up.
We think that we are somehow better because we see something, perhaps, of God’s eternal purpose. If we say we see God’s eternal purpose and it elevates us, we do not have a clue what we are talking about.
When we really see God’s heart and His purpose, we are on our face like Daniel because of the condition of His people. We are not sitting around singing beautiful little ditty-dab choruses about “I Will Build My Church.” I love that song; I am only using that as an example.
But if we really see how God is going to build His church, where does the material come from? The material comes in through prayer and through the people of God who have been touched by that—down on their face—that His purpose would be accomplished in this hour.
Oh, would that the Lord touch us this way in freshness, that we could be those who are strengthened.
When they returned, what was their pattern? What was the way in which they conducted themselves around the altar? The pattern and the way they conducted themselves was the Word of God.
Several times in Ezra Chapter 3, we see that they offered the burnt offering “as it is written.” As it is written. They used the Word of God as a living way to return unto Him and allowed it to show them how to conduct themselves.
It was not that they took a survey. It was not their opinion. It was not what they wanted to do. “Oh, I want to do it this way. Oh, I think this would be really neat. If we do it this way, everybody will say, ‘Hey, look how neat these people are.’”
God has His way, and He has shown us His way in His Word. As we allow the Holy Spirit to make that Word of God real within us, others are drawn to Christ.
Why are people not drawn to Christ in this hour? Because we have been pretty lousy examples of the Word of God being lived out within us. We need the Lord to wake us up, that we could be strengthened.
Does it make us uncomfortable when we talk about being in a weakened condition? Does it make us uncomfortable when we talk about the Word of God not being alive within us?
I pray in my life that it will always make me uncomfortable, that I not become so comfortable that even when someone accuses, challenges, or exhorts, I let it slip over my head. “Great message of exhortation. Great challenging message.” And we go on.
The ones who returned to stand for that simplicity in the testimony of Christ were ones who allowed the Word of God to change their lives. It was what directed them.
It is interesting, as you look at Ezra Chapter 3, that after the altar, they started rebuilding the house of God. The foundation was laid. This is one of the most interesting pictures that we have here.
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.
We have this shout of joy and a shout of weeping. We can understand it, because when we see the wonderful faithfulness of our God—that out of nothing, the Lord moved in a sovereign way, brought the people of God back to Jerusalem, allowed the altar to be established, and allowed the foundation of the house of God to be laid—God brings forth praise from our hearts.
But also, when we look around and see what God’s full desire is, what God’s heart is, it causes us to weep.
As I looked at these verses, the way I wanted to look at them today is like this bottle. Is the bottle half empty or half full? The optimist looks at it and says, “Oh, it is half full.” The pessimist says, “No, it is half empty.”
So often, when we look upon the things of the Lord, we do the same thing. Some say, “It is half full,” but the critical ones say, “It is half empty.” When someone says it is half empty, we say, “Do not be so critical. There is a lot of water in here. It is half full.”
Then the other people say, “What do you mean? You have to be more realistic. It is half empty.” So we have both sides of it. Is one necessarily right? Is it half full or half empty? It is both.
This is one of the things within Christianity today: we look at things too much from an either-or mentality. It is either this or that. It is either half full or it is half empty. But it is actually both.
We end up using the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: either this or that, either good or bad. It ends up causing us trouble. Praise God, it is actually both. When these work together, we see the full expression of His life coming forth.
There is rejoicing in what the Lord has done, and we are so thankful for that. But there is also weeping for what needs to be done.
We rejoice that there are a couple of hundred people gathered here for this conference, and it is wonderful. But we also weep that there are not more here. We can rejoice that there are so many at a prayer meeting, but do we weep that there are not more there?
In this Christian life, it is not an either-or, but there is this inclusive fullness of what the Lord has in life. Too many of these either-or situations end up dividing us and weakening us.
We have battles within Christianity: evangelism or building the house of God. Either this or that. It is both. It is not an either-or. It is both. It is His life being expressed.
We have the sovereignty of God and predestination, and man’s responsibility and free will. Men can battle over this, and it ends up dividing.
I love a quote. Someone was interviewing Charles Spurgeon one time and asked, “How do you reconcile the sovereignty of God, predestination, and man’s free will, man’s responsibility?” Spurgeon said, “Good friends do not need reconciling.”
God created them all. They are good friends in God’s sight. When we look at it from our perspective, it is because we are not seeing from God’s heart. Good friends do not need reconciling.
We might not fully understand it all, and we go back and forth at times. But there is an inclusiveness in the things the Lord is doing. That is what touched my heart so much here in Ezra Chapter 3, when there were those both weeping and rejoicing.
We can rejoice all the time and never weep, or we can weep and not see what God has done. There is a weeping and rejoicing in a healthy life together.
You ask any parent. As a parent looks back upon the life of a child, there was a lot of weeping and a lot of rejoicing, and at times they were together.
I remember when my mother passed away a couple of years ago. It was an amazing emotional experience because one moment I was rejoicing that she was with the Lord in His presence, and a split second later I was weeping.
There is this fullness of life. There is the inclusiveness of the Lord’s life and His ways that He wants us to enter into. As we take of that tree of life, His life is expressed in us, rather than that either-or mentality that weakens us.
That either-or thinking is our mental taking from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thank the Lord that He puts His life before us to strengthen us.
As we continue looking through the book of Ezra, we have to be sensitive to the time. After they had laid the foundation, suddenly the enemy started to appear. In Ezra Chapter 4, we see how much the enemy hates what the Lord wants to do.
The enemy came and wanted to start helping the people of God rebuild the house. They said no. So the people of the land discouraged, or weakened, the hands of the people of Judah and frightened them from building.
They hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius. They sent a letter to King Artaxerxes, and the king replied: the work stops.
The work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius. Great opposition came forth. Outward circumstances were getting more and more difficult.
At this point, the fear of people and the fear of the adversary were greater than their faith in God, and they stopped the work.
But it is interesting to read right through the chapter break. At the end of Ezra Chapter 4, the work stops. But then look at Ezra Chapter 5.
Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem; in the name of the God of Israel prophesied they unto them.
Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and with them were the prophets of God, helping them.
What changed? In one verse they stopped, and in the next verse they started. They had these prophets come through. What changed?
The outward circumstances did not change one bit. The outward circumstances and the tactics of the enemy remained just the same. But what changed? The people’s hearts changed. The people’s perspective changed.
The prophets were able to come in and get their eyes back upon the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
We do not have time to go through Haggai and Zechariah today. But Haggai came to the people and was really speaking to their conscience. He said, “Consider your ways,” because He gave them that wonderful promise: “I am with you.”
The people of God had stopped and said, “It is not time to build the house of God.” It got a little tougher. Things got tough, and instead of the tough getting going, the tough stopped. They went over and built their own houses.
They said, “It is not time to build the house of God. We will wait.” It is interesting how the tactics of the enemy work. It is never time to build the house of God. It is always tomorrow.
God has one word: today. God says, “Today, if you hear My voice.” Today is the day of salvation. Today, serve Me.
The enemy has two words. First, he says, “Yesterday,” because he is trying to condemn you for your past. If that does not work, then he says, “Do it tomorrow.”
“Wait until you finish college. Wait until you are married. Wait until you have kids. Wait, wait, wait. Tomorrow, tomorrow.” The enemy is always focusing either on yesterday or tomorrow. God is saying, “Today.”
This is where Haggai came in. He said, “Consider your ways. Do not be putting this off.” The people of God had lost their first love.
When they returned to Jerusalem, they were in love. They had this first love capturing them and leading them to be about what the Lord had called them to do.
What is first love? First love is that quality of love that controls your life. It is the basis for your choices. It motivates you and controls you. Out of this love, you do this or you do that.
Experientially—not doctrinally, but experientially—we are always in a state of first love. In our daily lives, we are always in first love. The question before us is: Who are we in first love with?
Are we in first love with ourselves, or are we in first love with the Lord? As we go through our lives, experientially, what controls and motivates our lives is either a love for self and our own pleasure, or it is a love for Christ and what is upon His heart.
We are in that continual place of first love. Haggai came in and said, “You have fallen out of your first-love relationship with the Lord, and you are in love with yourself.”
“You are in love with building your own houses. You are in love with doing your own things and living in comfort. You have set up your nice little meeting. You are going through all the rituals and routines.”
But He is calling us to return to that place of being in first love with Him. “You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” That was the church in Sardis.
It is so tragic within Christianity today that many of us have that outward name. But are we the true church of God, or are we just some Christian social club that enjoys being together—oh, a wonderful little social time together?
It is sad how many Christian social clubs there are in this day, when the Lord is calling us to return to Him and be that testimony of life unto Him.
Would He touch our hearts? Would He make us uncomfortable? Would He stir us in a way that we would be awakened to return to that place of first love, that we would have that desire to really be about His business and His way?
The Lord also used Zechariah to challenge them with boldness and remind them of that coming glory. He reminded them that it is not by might or by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
At the end, there will be shouts of grace. You started in grace; you will end in grace. As we respond to the grace that God has given us, we will allow the fullness of His life to be expressed.
It is not that you started in the Spirit and end up in the flesh. Zechariah gave them this precious promise: “Return to Me, and I will return to you.”
Brothers and sisters, we have a great promise from our Lord. As we return to Him, He says, “I will return to you.” May we be the people of God in this hour who are returning to Him, coming back to that place of first love.
We thank the Lord that the people of God responded here. They put aside building their own houses, came back, and continued building the house of God. Later, we see how the house of God was completed.
Nothing in the outward circumstances changed. If you look back in Ezra Chapter 5, verse 5, they started rebuilding, and they were able to testify that the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews.
The enemy challenged them as soon as they started building again. They said, “What are you doing? Who do you think you are? You cannot be doing this.” But they realized that the eyes of their God were upon them.
The tragic thing was that the eyes of the Lord had always been upon them. They just did not recognize it. The eyes of our Lord are upon us every hour, every moment. “I am with you. I will never leave you or forsake you.”
He is with us in the situations. The house of God was finished because, as the people of God got into the place where they should be, it released the power of God to work within their lives.
When they returned to that place of first-love relationship with Him, the God whose eyes were upon them was able to release His power, because they were in the right place.
So often we are looking for the power of God to be released, and God desires to release that power. But we are the greatest hindrance. We give the enemy too much credit.
The greatest hindrance in the house of God today is not the enemy; it is our own self. We need to humble ourselves and repent of that, that He could be about His work.
As we are in our rightful place, seeing His grace calling us back to where He wants us to be, the power of God can be released. He will defend us against the enemy, and His house will be built.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord is calling us in this hour to wake up and strengthen the things that remain. As we have our times together considering this, we want the Lord to really show us.
Are there areas in our lives where we are asleep? Are there areas where He has put things in our hands and He has not found our deeds complete? Are there areas where we are not in first love with Him? Are there areas where we are living for ourselves?
Are there areas where we are serving ourselves? May the Holy Spirit work within us to restore that heart of first love unto Him, to convict us, and to allow the convicting work of the Holy Spirit to show us more of Him.
How is the house of God strengthened? It is not by might. It is not by power. But by His Spirit, says the Lord.
As we are in our rightful place, in our right condition in Christ, the Spirit of God can come forth. That Spirit of Christ, the testimony of Jesus, can come forth. There can be that strengthening of us individually and of His people together.
May there be that increase of His life within us. And may He start with me.
Lord, we thank You that You have such a great desire for Your Son to be testified of in this hour. Lord, we want to be those who are found cooperating with You.
We do not want to be a hindrance to Your work, but we want to be those who are cooperating with You. Lord, we thank You that it is still called today. We thank You for the Word of God that still speaks to us.
Lord, we thank You that we have opportunities where we can be set apart for a couple of days to allow You to speak to us and to meditate upon You. Lord, help us.
We are familiar with these stories. Many here could give many messages on Ezra and Nehemiah. But Lord, we are looking for Your Holy Spirit, in a fresh way, to speak to us—not just to gain knowledge about You, Lord, but to know You in the freshness of Your resurrection life.
In Jesus’ name, amen.