Morning, brothers and sisters.
Let’s turn again to our theme verses out of Revelation 3.
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write:
He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this:
I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
Wake up, and 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;
and keep it, and repent.”
And verse 2:
“Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die;
for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.”
Let’s pray.
Lord, it is with worshipful hearts that we gather in Thy wonderful presence this morning. Lord, we thank You for another day. We know You have made this day, and whatever You make, it is good. And so, by faith, we want to enter into all the goodness that You have for us today, because we know that goodness is a greater expression of the life of Your beloved Son.
Lord, today we want to have our hearts, in a fresh way, attuned unto You. Lord, we thank You for Your great love. We thank You that You do not just leave us to ourselves, but in Your love and mercy, You continue to speak to us. You continue to strengthen us and encourage us, Lord. Lord, You pick us up and You get us back on that way.
Lord, how great and wonderful You are. As we come to Your Word now, we do open our hearts, Lord, that You would have freedom to speak within each one of our lives. Lord, that in the hour we are living in, we would not be those that are asleep—we would not be even sleepwalking—but that we would be awake to the things of the living God. In Your precious name. Amen.
As we mentioned yesterday, when the Lord wrote these seven letters to these seven churches, He was looking for one simple thing within each church. He was looking for the life of His beloved Son. And that is what He was looking for then, and when He looks upon our lives in this hour, that is what He is still looking for.
He is looking for the manifestation of the life of Christ within us—not only individually, but together. And the wonderful thing about our Lord, in His mercy—I love that phrase in the Gospel of John when He washed the disciples’ feet—is that He loved them to the uttermost.
And He loves us to the uttermost. He is not going to leave us to self-destruct. He says, “I see some things within you that are breaking My heart, and I want you to wake up. Remember what I have shared with you. Return unto Me—not for condemnation, but that you can be set free from the entanglement of self, the entanglement of sin that so easily besets us.”
Oh, this is a love letter, brothers and sisters. We have One who has loved us to the uttermost. And that always touches me—that story there in John. He washed the feet of the one who would betray Him. He washed the feet of the one who would deny Him three times. And He washed the feet of the other ten who would all abandon Him.
And, brothers and sisters, He has washed our feet. We have a place that we can return unto Him. And He cries out in this hour, “Wake up. Wake up from our lethargy. Wake up from our religiosity of life that we can so easily fall into.”
And there is simply one thing He wants us to be aware of: His beloved Son. He desires that His life would be expressed within each one of our lives. Oh, that we could be awake to the hour we are living in, and that we could hear what the Word of the Lord is saying to us.
Sometimes, when we think about this matter of waking up, how do we even know? Sometimes I ask myself, “Am I awake? Am I asleep?” Some dreams can seem so real. How do we know if we are awake or asleep?
And one of the precious ways we know is that the Lord has put us with brothers and sisters. They will wake us up to reality real quick. They bring us back to a reality that is such a loving reality. Sometimes, because we are brothers and sisters, we do not treat each other so lovingly. But we thank the Lord that even the rough-and-tough wake-up calls that we get do awaken us, that we can see the times that we are living in and continue on.
We can hear His words: “Remember. Remember all that I have done for you. Remember Me.” Behold, this is the hymn we sang: “In Christ Alone.” In Christ alone. We try to add so much to that: Christ alone plus this, plus that, all these pluses. But He brings us back: in Christ alone.
And this is what the call was to each of these seven churches, this love letter that the Lord has written. As we are having our times of sharing together, the burden the Lord has put upon my heart is the simple phrase: “Strengthen the things that remain.”
Outwardly, they might look like they were dead, about to die. But there is a life within us. It is that life of Christ that remains, that abides forever. And He is desiring that we would wake up and that that life would be strengthened.
How are we strengthened? We are strengthened by allowing more of that life to come forth, to experience more of that resurrection power. When we are in the midst of a crisis, or in the midst of chaos or uncertainty, and we allow the Lord to come in and meet us in that way, there is a strengthening there. As we allow Him to strengthen us, we see more and more of His wonderful beauty and glory. And that is what He is calling us to in this hour.
During our times together, we are looking at the books of Ezra and Nehemiah to give us some examples, to give us some lessons on how the Lord strengthened ones who were in a weakened condition. As we said, they were in captivity in Babylon at the time because of their unfaithfulness.
But the Lord, because of His wonderful sovereignty and love, and because He is a God of purpose, raised up ones. He turned the king’s heart and allowed ones whose spirits were stirred to return—not to Babylon, but to Jerusalem—to leave Babylon. They came and rebuilt the altar. They rebuilt the house.
What was that altar? Who was the altar? It is Christ. That is the starting point. Whenever the Lord is doing anything in our lives, the starting point is always at the foot of the cross. This is where we learn, and things get put in perspective in a way that we never saw before. As we say no to ourselves and yes to Him, then we can enter into the joy of our Master and all that He has for us.
Also, these ones rebuilt the house of God. Again, what is the house of God? Or we could say, who is the house of God? It is Christ. It is the body of Christ. Again, it is not something separate from Christ. It is not Christ plus a house. Christ is the house. His life is the very life within the house.
And as we see the Lord, over and over He just keeps bringing us back: “Behold My Son.” He wants to strengthen us. He says, “Look at My Son. Behold His face. Allow Him to work within you in a way that we can continue on, to grow in the grace and the power of His resurrection life.”
Today, we would like to look at the second part of the book of Ezra. Let’s turn to Ezra 7. There is one verse in particular there, and it really summarizes the burden for the second part of this book.
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers,
who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart,
to adorn the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem,
and has extended lovingkindness to me before the king and his counselors,
and before all the king’s mighty princes.
Thus I was strengthened according to the hand of the Lord my God upon me,
and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.”
We see, as Ezra returned, there was this first return in the first six chapters, and then there is this gap between chapters 6 and 7. We know that is the time when the book of Esther occurred.
Yesterday, we referred to one verse out of the book of Esther. As Mordecai was encouraging Esther in the midst of a crisis, he said, “Esther, maybe you are there for such a time as this.”
And, brothers and sisters, we need to be reminded: our Lord is not a God of fate or happenstance or any of that. But He has us living in such an hour as we are living in for such a time as this. For such a time that we would be that generation that hastens the return of our Lord; that we would be those who return to the simplicity and purity of that testimony unto Him.
I was really touched, too, by these books of Ezra and Nehemiah—how the first six chapters of both of these books speak of outward building. In the first six chapters of Ezra, you have the building of the altar and the building of the house. But it does not stop there. The rest of the book deals with beautifying the house—the quality of the life amongst the people of God within the house.
We will see later, as we look at Nehemiah, that the first six chapters tell us that a wall was built. But it does not stop there. Then the Lord is so interested and focused upon the life within the city that there is a whole second half of that book. Our Lord is always interested in the life of His people being expressed amongst the people of God—not just building these outward things, but allowing the life to be expressed in a fuller and greater measure.
As we look at this second part of Ezra, we need to remember that we are only looking at a glimpse. There are many various lessons that you could learn from studying these precious books. We are just picking a few from a bird’s-eye view to help us in this hour.
So, do not get the impression that the couple of points we make each time are the lessons from the book. No, they are just starting points. There are many lessons and many wonderful things. Would it be that the Lord would continue to touch and stimulate our hearts, that we would hunger and thirst after Him in a greater way, to learn more and more of His strengthening ways.
I would like for us to look, really, at two issues this morning:
So, who was this person, Ezra? Turn again to Ezra 7. We can look at the first ten verses, and they describe Ezra for us.
“Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, there went up Ezra, son of Seraiah”—
and I am not going to read all those names—but if you look at the end of verse 5, you see that he was a descendant of Aaron, the chief priest.“This Ezra went up from Babylon, for he was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all he requested because the hand of the Lord his God was upon him.
“Some of the sons of Israel, and some of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes.
“He came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For on the first of the first month he began to go up from Babylon; and on the first of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, because the good hand of his God was upon him.
“For 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? Ezra was obviously living in Babylon at the time. We can see from these verses that he had access to the king, so he was probably a prominent person there—well respected within the Jewish people, and even known by the king.
Yet Ezra, even though he was living there in Babylon—perhaps in the comfort of a nice place—where was his home? His home was in Jerusalem. His body might have been in Babylon, but his heart was in Jerusalem.
And when the Lord opened the door for him to return, Ezra went to the king and made this request. Out of that, we see Ezra being allowed to return to Jerusalem with this charge to strengthen and beautify the house of God.
Now, it says there in verse 6 that Ezra was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses. He was a ready scribe. What does this mean? Does it mean he just had pretty handwriting and was such an expert writer that they let him scribe everything? No. He had that law written upon his heart.
Ezra was one who was so skilled in the law because it was living. The very Word of God was in his heart. He was skilled, and he knew how to use the Word of God in the right way—that way designed for that priestly family to be able to handle it, not with the sword of a butcher, but with the sword of a skilled craftsman who could divide and separate that which is of God from that which is of the natural.
Ezra was one skilled in that. And what touched me so much, and what I would like for us to consider this morning as we look together at Ezra, is the relationship between the messenger and the message.
So often, we can see a contrast between the messenger and the message. But in Ezra, we see one who was living the message. We see one who was walking the talk. We see one in whom the very life of Christ was present. The message was something real within his life, and it came forth in life.
Today, we see so many contrasts. We have messengers saying one thing, but then when we look at their lives, there is such a contrast. Actually, I have to confess to you, it is a little awkward standing up here speaking about the messenger and the message being one.
I know a little bit of myself, and I say, “This is a contrast.” But may the Lord help us all. There has only been one perfect messenger, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. Every other messenger has been imperfect. Every other messenger has simply been one who has been washed by the blood of the Lamb.
Sometimes we can look upon our lives and say, “I am disqualified. How could I ever be a messenger?” No. The blood of the Lamb is what qualifies us. Is it something within us? No. It is the blood of the Lamb that has cleansed us, the life of Christ within us that comes forth, that allows us to go on in these days.
Who were these ones that returned to live in Jerusalem? Were they superstars? No. They were just simple, we could say, brothers and sisters. And they wanted to live a normal Christian life.
What is a normal Christian life? It is just trying to live as a Christian in an abnormal time. And we are living in abnormal times. So, when we appear to be normal, there is such a contrast, even within Christianity, that ones look upon us as funny. They say, “Oh, you think you are so much better than me.”
No. If we really see that normal Christian life, Paul was not just being poetic at the end of his life when he said he was the chief of sinners. The Lord had touched him in such a way, and he saw so much of the beauty of the Lord, that he saw himself as the chief of sinners.
Would the Lord touch us in a way that, yes, we are those sinners, but we thank the Lord that by the blood of the Lamb we can be those who have returned unto Him, allowing His life to strengthen us and to go on, and to be the messengers in this hour.
Who are the messengers of God today? Just the ones who speak up here? Just the ones who preach the gospel or stand out in public? No. Yes, there are those more publicly seen messengers. But, brothers and sisters, I think the most important messengers the Lord has today are each one of us within our daily lives.
Each one of us is to live the message of the life of Christ right within our homes, right within our neighborhoods, right within our jobs. That is where the message of Christ is seen.
When you are in a work situation and all of a sudden fifty people get laid off, and they all know that you are a Christian, what does each one of them do? They turn around and look to see how you are going to react. How do we react at those times? Do we allow the message of the comfort of Christ to come in?
Allow the message to be lived out within our normal daily lives. This is where we are the messengers of God. Each and every one of us has been called to be that messenger.
I love Amy Carmichael. She has a quote. She says:
“It is the life lived that gives force to the words spoken.”
It is the life lived that gives force to the words spoken. And that was the power of Ezra’s message, because he was living the message. When he came, it was not just something upon his lips. He came, he saw the people of God, and he brought the Lord into their presence.
Oh, thank the Lord how, when ones bring the very presence of the Lord—that fragrant aroma—into a situation, sometimes it is not even by saying a word. Sometimes a message is conveyed by a touch. Sometimes the message is conveyed by a look. Sometimes it is a word—not 526 words, but a word can be the message that transforms one’s life when it comes as the fragrance of Christ being released.
What is the Lord looking for in His messengers? He is looking for the life of His Son. He is looking for the life of His Son to really be made manifest.
We were looking at a video a couple of weeks ago called First Love. It is the story of some of the singers and performers who, back in the seventies, were first used of the Lord to share the gospel in a mighty way.
The thing that was so precious to me about these ones was that they were testifying of their experience back in those seventies—Love Song, Second Chapter of Acts, and different ones. They said, “We did not know much. The two things we knew: Jesus loves me, this I know; and I was blind, and now I see.”
That was their message, and lives were transformed because it was life to them. They did not try to develop some theological teaching. They said, “This is what I know. Let me tell you about it.”
And so often, if we will just simply allow what we know of Christ to come forth, it will be transforming within our lives and amongst the brethren around us. Sometimes we try so hard—because I am guilty—to create some theological thing. But what do we know?
People are always asking us questions: “Well, how about the little baby who dies? Where are they going? How about all the people that die in the earthquake?” I do not know. But this is what I do know. We share what the Lord has touched and made real in our lives.
This is where the message is so powerful, because ones can spot a hypocrite so quickly. But the hardest thing to really debate and overcome is the reality of life. You just stand on what you know. It is not a debating subject. “This is what I know: I was blind, but now I see. Jesus loves me, this I know.”
Do you look down upon that little song? Is it too babyish for us? Would that it would be precious to us every day—that we would know the love of Christ in a freshness within each of our lives, and that we could be those who are living the message, those who have been captured by His love.
It says that Ezra was one who was skilled in that law of Moses. How did he become skilled? Down in verse 10, it says he set his heart to study.
Now, where was Ezra when he first started studying this? He was in Babylon. He did not wait for better circumstances. He did not say, “Well, this is such a bad place. Once I get to a better place, once I get to a better setting, once the circumstances are a little better, then I will study the Word of God.”
“Once I get through these times, then I will study. These circumstances are so terrible that I am in.” That is actually a lie of the enemy: that if your circumstances are better, you will have a better Christian life.
If we really stop and think about it, it is a total fallacy. You can look throughout Scripture. Those who had fabulous circumstances—what happened? Sometimes I think, “Wow, would it not be great to live in the early church? You would just love the Lord and be going on in wonderful circumstances.” Oh, Ananias and Sapphira lived there.
How about Adam and Eve? They had great circumstances. We know what happened to them. And who had the best circumstance of all, leading all of the universe in worship before the very throne of God? The beautiful one. He was there beholding the Lord. What a circumstance he was in. Yet even in that, he started looking at how great and beautiful he was.
Do not fall into this trap: “If I get in better circumstances, I can be a better Christian.” The Lord has us right where He wants us, because in the circumstances we are in now, He can allow the message to become reality within us.
This is what Ezra experienced. He knew the reality of that Word, and he was allowing it to be settled within his heart.
Look at verse 10 here in Ezra 7, because this verse has really touched my heart:
“For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances.”
The word I love within that verse the most is that he practiced it. How often do we come to the Word of God saying, “I want to study so I can teach”? We have a Bible study, and we want to study so we can teach it. We forget there is this little part in here: he practiced it.
Many of us, because of some education, training, gift of gab, or whatever, can take a Scripture, look at it, and teach it. You can give a great sermon. Some of the greatest sermons on this earth have been given by non-believers. They have three good points, they have it all doctrinally correct, and they can say it right.
But what is the key? What is the key for the message and the messenger to be in sync? He practiced it. He read something in the Word of God, and when the Lord brought opportunities within his daily life, he practiced it.
Where is the greatest place for us to practice what we are hearing from the Lord? It is in our local assemblies. It is in our homes. It is at work.
In the local assembly, we have those ones, and we wonder why the Lord would ever allow some of them in there. Sometimes we just do not understand the Lord. “How does He allow this guy to come in here and meet with us?” But then we talk about, “Oh, Jesus loves you.” Well, do we really know that?
The reality of the message gets worked out by those opportunities that the Lord gives us. Again, we start at the foot of the cross, because it is a denying of ourselves.
How does the message become real within our lives? It is by the cross working within us. As that Word of God is there, as the things of the Spirit touch us, as we say no to ourselves and yes to Christ, it releases the power of God within us to make that message reality.
But so often we are found resisting that. May we not be resisting in this hour. May we be those who are really allowing this message to be worked within us.
This was one of the wonderful things about Ezra: when he shared something, when he testified of it, it was a reality to him.
There is one example. Look over in Ezra 8, starting in verse 21. This is when Ezra is getting ready to return from Babylon.
“Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions.
“For I was ashamed to request from the king troops and horsemen to protect us from the enemy on the way, because we had said to the king, ‘The hand of our God is favorably disposed to all those who seek Him, but His power and His anger are against all those who forsake Him.’
“So we fasted and sought our God concerning this matter, and He listened to our entreaty.”
Here is Ezra. He had testified before the king, and the king was giving him everything that he requested. The king says, “Do you need bodyguards to go with you?” Ezra says, “No, our God will protect us. Our God will go before us.”
Then they get out there and they are getting ready to leave. Maybe the king says again, “Are you sure you do not need some bodyguards?” There is this wondering: “Well, maybe a few would not hurt. We could get a couple of front guards, rear guards, and help us get back there.”
But no, that message was real within Ezra’s heart. He knew that if God was sending and calling him back to Jerusalem, God would get him there. God would provide. He had made this testimony to the king, and praise God, the Lord did watch over him.
Did they have a peaceful trip? I am not sure they did, because if you look at the end of Ezra 8, verse 31, it talks about how they journeyed from the river Ahava on the twelfth of the first month to go to Jerusalem, and the hand of God was over them. He delivered them from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way.
That was some testing. You say God is going to protect you, and there are some enemies over here. It is kind of like the old westerns—remember how they go through the canyon, and all of a sudden all the Indians are lined up on top of the hill? I am sure all those enemies were up on the hills, just looking down, and Ezra is saying, “Oh, they are going to come kill us.”
But he said, “No, God is going to keep us. God said He was going to get us there, and He will.” There were ambushes set up—all of these things that the enemy was trying to use to test and tempt.
But what we see in Ezra is that I believe Ezra’s faith was stronger when he arrived in Jerusalem than when he left Babylon. He might have had some faith to testify, “Our God will protect us.” But once he went through those crises, he could testify in a stronger way, “Oh, God will protect us, because He did.”
So, as we allow the Lord to prove our faith, we will see Him ever faithful. He is ever so faithful to us.
There is one phrase that is used several times about Ezra: the good hand of the Lord was upon him. Several times in Ezra 7, verses 6 and 9, tell us about the good hand of the Lord being upon him.
What does that mean? God just kind of laid His hand on him? I think it means Ezra had some experience with the Lord. He not only knew the words and practiced them, but as he practiced them, he had learned. He had experienced how the hand of the Lord was with him, carrying him on and on in such a wonderful way.
He had not only the truth, but he had the reality of experience—experiential truth—as the hand of God had proven faithful to him.
I see within Ezra one of the keys for the message and the messenger to be one: having this experiential truth. Often we can know the truth. We can know the Word. But if we do not have experience with it in the Lord, all we have is legalism, intellectualism, cold theology.
But, on the other hand, if we just have experience without truth, we are going to be so easily deceived. We are not going to have any benchmarks. We are not going to have those rails that help us to be kept within them.
Ezra was one who, as he studied the Word, saw how the Word of God strengthened him. If we look at the book of Acts, the Word of God continues to strengthen the early church. And the Word of God strengthens us.
Do we really thank the Lord for what we have today? Do we take advantage of allowing the Word of God to strengthen us and quicken us?
There is a little phrase in Psalm 119. It is used over and over again. It has recently been coming to our hearts: “Revive me according to Thy Word.”
I was convicted because I could come home in the evening totally exhausted, and I would try many other things to get revived. Then I read this little phrase that says, “Revive me according to Your Word.” I said, “Wait a minute. I am too tired. What do You mean, revive me? Let the Word revive me?”
And you know what? I started reading it a little bit when I came home, and lo and behold, the Word revives us. But we are tricked in modern society. There are so many other reviving techniques—from the hot tubs to whatever we need to do, going to work out at the gym, or whatever.
But there is a reviving according to His Word that comes in and really strengthens us.
And the precious thing is, as we talk about being revived according to the Word, what are we talking about? We are talking about the Word of God, yes, but it is the Word made flesh, who came and tabernacled amongst us, and we beheld His glory, full of grace and truth.
It is that living Word that comes in and revives us. Would we learn? It has been a prayer upon my own heart that I would allow the Word of God to be that reviving force within my life, and not try so many other things. Lord, help us all with that.
Because as the Word of God is within us, it not only revives us and strengthens us, but it allows us to know what things and what experiences we go through are of Him and what are not.
How do we know whether some of the experiences that go on within our lives, or within Christianity, are of the Lord or not?
If you look back at the book of Acts, I think we would all probably agree that the day of Pentecost was one of the greatest experiences that many have ever had. To be walking around that city, and these ones have the Holy Spirit come down, they are filled, they are speaking in other tongues, they see fire and wind and everything going on—talk about an experience.
How did those disciples know that that experience was from God? What validated Pentecost? Peter stood up and said, “This is that which was spoken through the prophet Joel.” The Word of God validated Pentecost.
If we do not have the Word of God grounded within us, there could be many experiences going on, but we will not know whether they are of God or not. Just because something is a blessing does not necessarily mean it is of the Lord.
We have been going to Brazil for a good number of years, and quite often ones hear about black magic doing all the evil. Well, there is white magic down there too. There are magicians and sorcerers, and they can heal people. They do—people get healed, people are blessed.
So, just because some blessing occurs, we do not automatically assume, “Oh, that is God.” No, it can be a trap. White magic is simply used as a back door to trap you. Those who are first involved in so-called white magic end up eventually on the darker side. It is like they come in and get a hook in you. The enemy has got that hook.
But if we know that the Word of God is what validates those experiences—look at Jesus’ own ministry. When John the Baptist asked that question, “Is this real? Are You really the One?” what validated Jesus’ ministry? He used the Word of God out of the prophet Isaiah. He said, “This is what Isaiah spoke of. This is what I am doing.” And that validated it within John’s heart.
Even our Lord Jesus’ birth—what validated His birth? We know from the prophets Isaiah, the virgin birth, and Micah, One being born in Bethlehem. The Word of God validated it.
Brothers and sisters, as we go through the experiences that we have in our lives, do we have the Word of God living within us to validate them—to say, “That is of God; that experience is not”?
We also thank the Lord that we have brothers and sisters with whom we can be in fellowship. We share one with another. We are not lone rangers out here, but we share with one another. In that way, the Word can be brought in and we can continue on.
So many experiences. So many. Which ones are of the Lord? Which ones are just our own soulish emotion? Which ones are the enemy? Outwardly, they can all look exactly the same. But there is the life within, and it can be validated by the Word of God.
Would we learn? Because one of the things in these end times is that more and more of these so-called experiences are going to come about, and we can be confused, we can be misled. May we take the opportunity we have to allow the Word to become very living within us and to practice it.
This word practice has really caught my heart. As I looked at the different ones involved in rebuilding the house of God at different times, there is always this similar phrase about each one of them: they did the will of God.
You think about Moses. The Lord called Moses, and Moses practiced everything that God had spoken. It is testified of Moses that he was faithful in all God’s house.
You think of David. There is that wonderful testimony of David in the book of Acts. We love this testimony: David was a man after God’s own heart. We say, “This is good. A man after God’s own heart—that is what I want to be.” Well, what is the second part of that verse? How was he a man after God’s own heart? He did all the will of God. He did it.
Sometimes we want to be those people of God, but we do not want to practice. We do not want to be doers of the Word. David did it. What did he do? He served the purpose of God in his generation.
Would that we be those, yes, who are after God’s own heart, doing His will by serving the purpose of God in our generation. Ezra was the same. He practiced, he did, and allowed the Lord to be real within his life.
I was thinking upon this whole issue of practicing, and I got challenged. There are so many things we can talk about within our Christian life. We can speak about justification. We can speak about forgiveness. We can speak about the house of God. We can speak about the Lord’s return.
But are they just words upon our lips, or are they lived out within us? When we think of justification, we think of being justified in Christ by the blood of the Lamb, and yet we sit around condemned all day. The contrast.
We talk about the house of God, and yet the way we treat our brothers and sisters makes one scratch their head. You say, “Wait, I thought you were talking about the house of God being this habitation, this dwelling place where God brings ones in, where He builds them up together. But the only thing I am seeing is division, division, fighting.”
I mean, instead of being a house of peace, we are a war zone a lot of times. Then we wonder why people question this teaching about the house of God. As they say, using Peter’s words, “If this is that, I do not want it.”
Would that we could walk our talk in a greater way. The Lord would bring us back to see straight: we have a name, but is there a life there, as it said in Sardis? Would we be brought back to living this life of simplicity and purity of our devotion to Him?
We all talk about the Lord’s return in these last days, but has it impacted our lives in one iota? Have we adjusted or changed our lives?
Actually, I hate that word adjusted. I am sorry I used it, because our lives do not need to be adjusted. Our lives need to be transformed. The problem with most of us is that we think our lives just need a little tweak here, a little tweak there—a program patch around that little problem—and we will be okay.
No, we do not need adjusting. We need transforming. Because when the Word of God is real within us, we see through Revelation that the fruit of revelation is revolution within our hearts. When something really grasps us, we will not be the same.
If somehow the Lord’s return grasps us in such a living way, we will not continue living day after day worrying to death about our 401(k)s, our retirement plans, and this and that. But we will be making those changes as the reality of His return captures us and is lived out.
Ones will see that we are the people anxiously looking, anxiously awaiting the return of our Beloved One.
As we look at Ezra and his whole message, this matter of the message and the messenger being one is something I think we all need to repent of, because we have been pretty lousy messengers.
Sometimes we can call and challenge ourselves to repent, and repentance gives us that feel-good feeling. No, I am not talking about, “Okay, we repented of that,” just for the sake of feeling better.
No, we need to really have some time before the Lord and say, “Lord, where Your life within me is not being lived out, where I am not really practicing all that You have touched my heart with, where I am not observing, doing—whatever word we want to use—Lord, I want to enter into that in a fuller and greater way.”
“Lord, I want to be captured again.” Because when we first came to the Lord, when we first saw something of His heart for His house, everything else was put aside. There was a changing of lives.
I know ones within this room who, twenty years ago, when they saw something of the house of God, everything else became secondary. The job would have to fit in with God’s call and purpose. The family was going to have to fit in. Everything was fitting into God’s call and purpose.
But as we have slowly become accustomed to the phraseology, and we got tired—because it can be very wearing on us—some things start to slip away.
The Lord, in this hour, because He loves us—again, He is not condemning us; He loves us—says, “Wake up. Strengthen those things that remain. Remember how you heard. Remember all I have said. Return to that place of being in first love with Me, that we could be those who are hastening His return.”
How we need the Lord. As we pray, may the Lord raise up Ezras in this hour. Yes, publicly, may there be those ones proclaiming the message, but also may each one of us have that spirit of Ezra within us, that our walk and our talk would be closer together, that we would not be such a contrast within our lives.
May the Lord help us in all of that. Because as this occurs within our lives, there is that strengthening—not only individually, but there is that strengthening of the Lord’s testimony for the hour in all that we are living in.
Ezra was one who studied, practiced, and taught the Word of God. As the power of the Word of God came in through Ezra, we can see it having an impact upon these ones’ lives.
Let’s look at Ezra 9. When Ezra returned, there was a great revolution that occurred within the people.
“Now when these things had been completed, the princes approached me, saying, ‘The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, according to their abominations: those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
“For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has intermingled with the peoples of the lands; indeed, the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness.’
“When I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled some of the hair from my head and my beard, and sat down appalled.
“Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening offering.
“But at the evening offering I arose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the Lord my God.”
When Ezra returned and brought the Word of God in amongst the people, there was a great conviction of sin. We knew earlier that Ezra was this priest. What does a priest do? He brings the Lord into the situation, and he brings the people before the Lord.
When there was this transaction going on—the Lord being brought in and the people being placed before the Lord—there was that conviction of sin, because the people had entered into these unholy alliances.
But the thing that touches me here about Ezra is this: as he saw the situation, what was his reaction? Did Ezra condemn them? Did Ezra pack his bags, shake his hands, and say, “I am leaving. I am going over to this other city and starting my own little meeting. You all are such sinners. You have intermarried, disgraced the Lord, and are a reproach”?
Was he rebuking them? No. His reaction was that he was down on his face before the Lord.
Why was that? Because as Ezra had come to know the Lord, he knew that he was a man of like nature. Except by the grace of God, there he would go. He knew he was of like nature.
As he came in, he came in not with his own interest but with God’s interest in view. As he brought the Lord into the situation, Ezra sat down. I cannot imagine the agony that Ezra must have felt.
We read this: he tore his robe, tore his garment, pulled out some of his hair. We think, “Okay, that is pretty severe. That is a pretty strong reaction.” And it is a reaction of being grieved.
To me, this is one of the greatest temptations Ezra faced, and it is one of the greatest temptations that we face: not to be discouraged or disillusioned when we see the condition of ones who know better.
When we see the condition of ourselves first, and the condition of one another, those who should know better because of our history, not to become disillusioned, discouraged, and give up is one of the greatest tests we face in this hour.
It is sad to say that so many of us fail that test quite often. We either beat ones up, trying to make them holy again; we pack up and leave; or we develop our own little elite group and say, “We are not like them.”
We just end up being the Pharisees: “Lord, I thank You that I am not like that sinner.” But the spirit of Ezra came in.
We are going to look at the prayers of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel. The one word you never see in those prayers is, “Lord, look at their condition. They have sinned.” They came in and identified with the people. They said, “Lord, we have sinned.”
If we really see the house of God and the call that God has upon our lives, there is no “they.” It is “we.” The revelation that we have of the house of God is reflected in our prayer life, in our attitude, and in the way we pray.
Tomorrow, we want to look at this whole matter of mixed marriages. In my plan and scheme of things, I was going to cover that today, but there is not enough time.
We want to look and consider this matter of foreign wives tomorrow. There is this whole issue here—these ones that entered into this sin. This is not something that was just for them. We see it as a picture, but we also see how it has impacted our lives.
The Lord has a call. It is a call of holiness, a call of separation. We have joined and made some unholy alliances. The Lord, in His love and mercy, calls us to separate ourselves from them and return unto Him.
Just as the prophet Zechariah encouraged the people, he said:
“Return unto Me, and I will return unto you.”
That is the wonderful love that we have in our Savior: as He calls us, He is always trying to reveal more of Himself unto us.
So, may we allow this thought today—the message and the messenger being one—to work within our lives. May the Lord be convicting us and working in a loving way.
Because if we do not, the person we end up hurting the most is ourselves. We will think we know something, and then when the going gets tough, we stumble.
We have an opportunity now because of the Lord’s patience—His loving patience. He says, “I want to work some more reality within your life. I want you to know more of Me in those situations. You talk about Me as the God of all comfort. I want you to know the reality of that.”
How does He teach us the reality of being the God of all comfort? We have to be in some pretty discomforting situations.
He does not teach us that He is the God of all comfort by having us sit down on the beach. Somehow, we go through some things of life—very unpleasant things—and we know the reality of the God of all comfort, the Father of mercies.
Those are words that are no longer just written on a page, but there is a testimony of the reality of them within our lives.
So, let’s pray.
Lord, we do thank You ever so much that You do not leave us to ourselves. I thank You, Lord, how You interrupt our lives. Out of that loving hand of the heavenly Father, You come in and You interrupt our lives.
You say with that loving voice, “Wake up, and return unto Me.” Lord, we thank You that we still have today, that we can respond, that we can allow the reality of all that You have spoken.
Lord, we sit here as the most blessed people. Lord, You have shared so much with us over all these years. Lord, we have heard so much. We have the preciousness of families. We have the preciousness of meeting with brothers and sisters. We have touched glimpses of the reality, Lord, of Your heart for Your people.
And yet still, we are so far short. But we thank You that in Your love, You come down. You awaken us, and You tell us to return unto You, to behold Your Son, in whom You are well pleased.
Lord, today we want to be those found not looking at many things, but looking at one thing, at one Person: our precious Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.