Address—D. Bilisoly
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For 11 in the back of the book.
11 in the appendix.
What cheering words with their sweetness, who can tell in time and to eternal days?
Kills with believers well in every state. Secure watch by the Savior's eyes.
Is well within should life endure, and well called God well in affliction ways.
Or on the mount with John well, when they join and sing and pray, or buffet with the flood.
6.
But above all, how? Well when Jesus speaks the word, and at the trumpet sounding swell, they rise beneath their God.
What hearing words are there?
By now you'll be from all day.
Here will give me words well.
Save your pride.
Peace well.
Well.
When there is joy in heaven and pray.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh.
Oh oh oh God. Nowadays to lay all my God.
And grow damnation.
Well.
When they?
Call her now true.
But all how well?
When she saw us peace, our world.
After that.
Strong brother.
Sounding as well.
And they rise into the rising to me and the air gone.
Now let's ask the Lord's help.
Now let's turn to the book of Ezra.
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Just a verse in chapter 6.
As with chapter 6.
In verse 14 Ezra 614 and the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet in Zechariah the phantom ISIL, and they builded and finished it.
According to the commandments of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus and Darius and Arthur's king of Persia. And this house was finished.
Now the other day, well, yesterday we were talking about the beginning and finishings of things.
And of course we consider the one who is supreme.
The one who, for the joy that was set before him, endure the cross despising the shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God, the author and finisher of faith in all perfection. And we considered how tall had a longing desire that he might finish his course with joy. And he reached that point where he realized that his testimony was about over.
And we came then to the Old Testament here, and we considered.
We considered how in the book of Zechariah how that the prophet Zechariah encouraged the heart of Zerubbabel by assuring him he would finish this work. He began it and he would finish it and lo and behold and when we get here to the book of Ezra to this 6th chapter.
We read that the work was finished and that work could not be stopped and that should greatly encourage our hearts.
That God's work will continue. Man cannot stop it. God will bring it to pass according to his will and.
We are nearing that time when our work will be finished.
And will be suddenly with the Lord. That will be it. So, brethren. And the time is short. That's what the apostle said. The time is short, and we need to take heed and consider it. Now let's back up a little in this book, because I believe that there are some things very instructive for our hearts in the book of Ezra. It had to do with a remnant testimony. What I mean by that is that.
This was a.
Post captivity book It was a book that took place after the captivity and the people went into captivity for 70 long years. Just think 70 years and.
You know, it says that in the book of Jeremiah that 70 years were determined for The Desolation of Houston. He's not a song saying 170 years.
Well, the most responsible times in Israel's history was during the times of the kings. I'm talking about before the Lord Jesus made venture into this world.
Their most responsible time was during those times of the king.
And those kings were responsible to write for themselves a copy of the scriptures.
Have you ever had to write out the word of God for yourself?
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That we've got a past, wouldn't it? But if all our Bibles were taken away and Bibles became very scarce as they were in the communist country at one time, and even yet today they're not real plentiful.
You might come across some hands written copies of scriptures, and if the Bible was gone, we may have a greater value of it than perhaps we do now.
And so people were handwriting copies of the scriptures, and the kings of Israel were required to write for themselves a copy of the scriptures. And why is that?
To impress it upon their memories and on their hearts, so that they knew what the law said, what the word of God said, and what was expected of them. Because they were the leaders of the people and they they bore greater responsibility as leaders. That holds true today.
That holds true today.
But for 490 years of the crimes of the king, they did not observe the law as they should have. Maybe to some extent. But one thing they did certainly did not acknowledge even during the days of David, even during the days of Solomon.
Even during the days of Hezekiah and ASA and Jehoshaphat and Josiah that your godly king during all those times are the kings, They did not recognize one sabbatical year every seven years. They were to leave the land dormant. They were not to kill the land. They're not under the law, of course, we know that. But that was a retirement. They were to let the land fly at rest.
Every 7th year they disregarded that publicly.
Where shall I put it this way, that God, in his ways, in his governmental ways, saw to it that his land, Emmanuel's land, Jehovah's land, got its?
It's 70 fabric.
Well, that's very solid to consider and.
You know, the time was about up in Daniel's day when you get to the 9th chapter of of Daniel.
Daniel was reading the word of God, brother. How are we going to know anything? How are we going to be informed? How can we be assured of the will of the Lord if we don't read our Bible?
And it's it's so important that we personally read our gospel. You personally read your Bible today.
That's a searching question for our hearts, isn't it? I know it's busy times that we can find time to do what we want to do. A little bit to read a little of the scriptures anyway. Oh, how important that is. And Daniel, you know, he was busy in the Kingdom. Don't think for one minute that he wasn't, because he wasn't a man of real rank in the Kingdom.
But Daniel was busy, and he was getting older too. But yet he was into the word of God. And it just so happened that he picked up a copy. He somehow or another he got a copy of the book of Jeremiah.
But that's all they have in those days was just the Old Testament. And if they even had a copy of one of these books of the Old Testament, that would be quite a prize. Not everyone had those. But Daniel had the book of Jeremiah, and he was reading it, and he was reading it. Lo and behold, he came across that passage.
Where Jeremiah said that 70 years we've determined in the desolation of Jerusalem, Daniel realized that that time was up. And what did he do about it? Well, I believe he was getting too old personally to consider the possibility of him going back to the land, but he got down on his knees and he really prayed about this marriage he knew.
That the time was about up and he knew in his heart that surely God would do something, but he also knew the condition of his people and we see when he prayed, he prayed in dead end. Read for yourself the 9th chapter of the book of Daniel. It is so good for the soul if you want an example of a of a fervent effectual prayer.
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There it is. Read it, and you'll see how that dear man of God poured out his heart in treating God in behalf of the people. Was God entreated? Indeed he was. I'm sure his heart was, was concerned, and was ready to.
Bless that people to do something. But I'm. I feel certain that God in a special way, was intrigued in behalf of that people because of the fear of Daniel. And so God moved the heart of that powerful King Siren. God can still move the hearts of these men in power, you know, and we really do need to pray for them. Our our brethren in other places are having difficult times and we need to pray for them. I am so thankful that the Peruvian government was able to.
To put down or at least to bring in to check that shining test terrorist movement, they've got the key man to begin with, and that's.
To break the whole tower of that system. And then they begin to get others. Oh, I'm so thankful, for the sake of our beloved brother, as well as all the other Christians of Peru, that that wicked thing was was put in check so that now the brethren can circulate freely up in the mountain areas of Peru, and visiting brothers can go up there now with a measure of safety.
For a while they could not. It was so bad. And I am so thankful that the government in Egypt is not putting up with that extreme Islam, that they are trying to put it down and suppress it. Because the wickedness of those people is to overthrow the government and to bring everything under Islamic law, which would mean too bad for the Christians. It will be the death sentence for the Christians, so we can be so thankful.
That God does work in the hearts of the powers that be. And they're not just opposed to the testimony according to the truth of the one body, the truth of the ground together, No. And we can see how God moved the heart of Cyrus in behalf of that people. That king went through something, I don't know what it was, But God called him his anointed, his elect, and he.
He passes a decree that is extremely favorable.
For the rebuilding of that temple. And he released the people of a little picture of the Lord Jesus Christ is the great deliverer of the people. He put down the power of Babylon, and Babylon is so representative of that which stands in opposition to God, whether he politically or religiously, or whatever the case may be. And we see that Cyrus, like the Lord Jesus, is the great Deliverer.
And he released the people. And so he gives a decree here that we read of in chapter one, and he lays it wide open. We should read a little bit of this in chapter one of Ezra.
Now you will notice if you just flip your page over.
Through the last chapter of Second Chronicles, you'll see identical words from verse 22 on.
Identical words as what we first read here in Asia Chapter one.
Is that? Is it a mistake? Is that superfluous? Absolutely not. But notice, notice how Second Chronicles 36 ends, verse 23 ends.
Let him grow up. I think that's so interesting. Let him grow up. Well, if he came over to the first chapter of Ezra, now we see that it was an incomplete statement sentence. In verse three it says let him go up to Jerusalem. But now, first of all, let's just read.
From verse one. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord for the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his Kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying Thus as Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven, hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him.
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And house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah, who is there 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 God of Israel. He is the God which is in Jerusalem. And then as we read on, he he writes, as it were a blank check. He says, help them out. Do everything you can to further this work. But Cyrus says, the Lord God commanded me to build him and help.
How did the Lord do that? Did he send the prophet to Cyrus? No, I don't believe so. I don't believe so. I don't know how he appeared to Cyrus, how he made this known. It could have been in a dream. It could have been. But Cyrus heart them to this message and and as King Cyrus though he was.
A ruthless conqueror and put down the Babylonians.
And you know that came about in the 5th chapter of Daniel. You can read how that Belshazzar, that propane man, you don't need to turn to it. But if the whole Kingdom of Babylon reached an intolerable state until finally here in his contempt for what's sacred and holy, he calls for these vessels of the temple, the vessels of God could be brought forth, and he and his wives and his concubines and so forth, and his ministers and the people of his court, they drink wine out of these sacred vessels.
And here comes the handwriting on the wall, on the plastic. And it was absolutely terrified. Here was a man's hand riding on the plaster of the wall, and he was terrified. He was so terrified that his knees started smiling once, one against the other.
And there was #1 sound. Who could interpret this writing except Daniel for the power of God, And it says.
Something like thy Kingdom is numbered and finished and so forth. There was the finish of a Kingdom. It did come to an end that began with Nebuchadnezzar, that was built up to such a point that he could say, Is this not great babbling which I have built for the might of my power? For the glory of my majesty and God had to reduce him to an animal?
The humble him and Belshazzar should have known these things. That's what Daniel said to him, that he was full of contempt and had no regard to the God of Israel. And so he was told in that very night that his Kingdom would be finished. And it was it was those those clever.
Needs and Persians. You know, they they blocked the they altered the course of the river.
Of the Euphrates caused the waters to go away from Babylon and the waters lowered down. Otherwise it was a city that was. It was such a fortress. The walls were so high. I think they were 75 feet high. They were so wide they could drive cherry. They had gardens inside. They had their water source. It was a city that couldn't be touched.
You would say that the waters lowered down past the bars, and the soldiers came through and took the city suddenly in the night and slew King Belshazzar and the meat. And the person took over the city, and they had it.
So here was this great deliverance. And so he says that the God of Heaven had charged me to build a house and he's, he's saying now, who is there among you people that will go up?
Has your little brother in there is something to learn from math?
It tells me if we relate to present day things, it tells me that God desires to have a testimony that he is not compelling people to be a part of it. It has to be a thing of the exercise of life of his own will.
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Who is there among you of all his people? Verse three, His God be with him, and let him go up. The way was open. If they desired to have a part, to be a part of this testimony. And God desired to have this testimony, and he said that it would be solved. And as we already read it was finished. Ultimately it was finished. Now this Osiris.
Is very open hearted. He gives up all the vessels of the temple as well as other things, and he entrusts them to this.
Czech desire to see in verse 8 of Prince of Junior. Well, that's the same as the rubble. That's the same as the rubble that was to be the governor. Now he was a Prince. He really was of the royal fleet of David and as I said the other day.
He could not reign because of the curse upon his family line. But here he has a willing heart, a ready heart to come and to do the work of John. And you notice we're given the number even of the Chargers and of all this.
These things belonging to the temple, the gold and the silver. And if you read carefully in verses 9 and 10 concerning an 11 Concerning these vessels, you'll see that there's more vessels of silver than there are of gold.
Well, I believe that that is suggested to us. I enjoyed the remarks of others in this connection, but the goal perhaps would suggest to us the deeper, precious things of God. That truth that pertains to the glory of the Lord Jesus as the divine gathering center, for example, and those precious truths. The silver perhaps, would be more suggestive of redemption now. We thank God for all our reviews, and we thank God for each one.
Who values the work of redemption, but we don't want to stop at that point.
You know, like Paul said that the Hebrews let us go on into perfection. You know, let's not just as it were relaxed at that point, but let's go on and enjoy what God has for us and to recognize and society the truth connected with the present testimony to be gathered under the precious name of the Lord Jesus. What a privilege, brother, in such a day of weakness and ruin.
And don't you remember what Zechariah said to Zerubbabel? Especially when they got the scurries? Were anticipating this part of the account, but they did get the scurries a little later. And remember what Zachariah said to to Zerebical.
He says, For who hath despised the day of small things? Oh, it is a day of small things, and that we must be willing to bear his reproach to continue on in a little remnant testimony, according to his name, and for his glory anyway.
Here in chapter 2.
We have a genealogy, a listing, I should say, a register.
Of those that came back.
You say, if I were God, write out all these names and give us the account of those that returned. Oh, brethren, I really believe this gives us a little hint of God's appreciation and value of those that were willing to bear this approach and be identified with this testimony. And as we read on here in this book of Ezra, we see that these people did bear considerable reproach.
By the people around them. Their enemies tried in every way to shame them, as it were in this report, this word, and to they showed hostility against this work. Oh yes, the enemy resents the testimony. I can remember Eric Smith raising the question in a conference one time. He says, why is the enemy so opposed to the testimony of the one body in practice? And the answer was, it is because that truth draws the same closer to Christ.
Oh, indeed it does. And no wonder the enemy resists that he hates that which honors the Lord Jesus in any way. Dear ones here tonight, who we really desire to honor the Lord Jesus. Are you willing to be subject to the word of God all the way? I I thank God for everyone here that knows the Lord Jesus as his savior. But are you willing to continue on in the truth? And there's his reproach? He will have all them to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
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He doesn't want us to just stand still, but he wants us to progress and to know the truth and to walk in what he has made known.
To our souls. But here we have a listing and we're given the number of the names of it and I don't know if.
This the number applies to just certain ones. I don't exactly know because if you tally up all the numbers listed here you would not get the same total, but that isn't the important thought. I just hope that I can convey this thought to you, but you will notice that in this registry that is listed here.
We have a total of the number of names and you'll see in verse 64 of chapter 2.
That the total number the whole congregation together was 40 and 2303 store.
Were given the total number.
That really wasn't very many when you consider the full number of the nations that went into captivity.
That wasn't very many, but God is so pleased with those that were willing to come back, they weren't compelled to do so. But he's so pleased that they desire to come back that he has listed these family names, as it were, and draws attention to this fact. Now hold your place here.
And turn over to the Book of Nehemiah.
To chapter seven of the book of Nehemiah.
No, in Nehemiah Chapter 7.
And verse 6.
Nehemiah says verse five. Rather Nehemiah Chapter 7 and verse 5, and my God put into mine heart to gather together in the nobles and the rulers and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of them which came up at the 1St and found written therein. And as we go down through this registry we see all these same names again.
And not only that, but when we come to the total of the names in verse 66 of chapter Nehemiah 7.
We see that the whole congregation together was 40 in 2303 scores. It's the same number you say. Is this just a duplication of God duplicating something for us? No, I don't believe so. I don't believe so. I believe what we have here in Nehemiah Chapter 7 is a revised registry.
And the comparison to make is the comparison of the number of names. Beside each of these prominent names you will see a discrepancy. You will see that in some cases there are more names added in Nehemiah than what we have over there in Ezra, and in other cases you will see that there are less names.
Than what we had in Ezra, what is the difference? And yet the sum total number still is as it says 40 and 2303 score.
Brethren, the thought that came before me a while back was this.
That I believe that in cases where.
There were less names in Nehemiah, perhaps some lost heart and wet back to Deathless. After all, there were advantages in the north. You don't. Don't you remember even hearing Nehemiah? They had the coax, some of the Levites to come. They were. They were settled up in those places, and they didn't want to uproot, as it were and come down to Jerusalem.
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For the purpose of their coming. And so it seems to me that in those cases where there are less, some perhaps churn and wet back, that's very sad to consider. But on the other hand, in the cases where perhaps the number increased, maybe some became exercised a little later after those initially came down with derubable, they become exercise and they came and they were identified with this testimony here in Nehemiah Chapter 7. You can weigh that for yourself.
In some cases there may have only been one atom little brother, and I believe that in itself.
Suggest to us how God values even one exercise soul that desires the truth and will return. Maybe it took some work in their soul, maybe they held back.
We don't want to give up praying. God certainly delights the restorative. He certainly wants souls gathered to his precious name. And we ought to be very concerned about the testimony.
But the thought that comes before me also in connection with these two registries is that God will have an adequate testimony. The total number was still the same. So now what am I saying tonight?
Well, dear brother, if I don't value the privilege of being gathered unto the name of the Lord Jesus, he can remove me and replace me with somebody else. Isn't that a dumb thing to consider? He will have the testimony to his own glory. Do we not desire to be identified with him? Oh, what a privilege it is. There's no place for boasting and we're only responsible for the life that we have. There are many dear Saints of God in this world.
That are going on faithfully in the life that they have, and they don't see the truth of the ground of gathering, but they're going on faithfully in the life that they have, and that is the measure of their responsibility. God knows the heart, and certainly we will rejoice to see them rewarded in that day for their faithfulness.
But I believe I am looking in the faces of those who have come to know the truth, and I trust we value the truth and desire to continue on in the truth as gathered under the precious name of the Lord Jesus. Well, I don't want to belabor that point, but I believe that that is really in context what is suggested to us in both Ezra and Nehemiah.
And so.
We see that these dear souls are named and number that God values this little testimony. He wants it. He wanted it for his old namesake. And as far as we're concerned today he wants the testimony for the glory of his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus, for his namesake. Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there are mine in the midst of them.
So anyway, here we see that.
That they come down to Jerusalem in the end of Chapter 2.
And.
Then in verse 70 it says so the priests and the Levites and some of the people and the singers and the porters and the mythonyms.
Dwelt in their cities and all Jerusalem in their cities. By the way, did you notice that little word, Miss Amendment? Who are the misamens? Well, I believe that they are those Gibeonites. Remember those people that way back there in Joshua's day and all, there's such a long chain and history. We were considering this at the table the other day. Such a chain of history of God's governmental ways.
But anyway, God permitted those highlights with giving Knights to deceive Israel and Israel.
Soon discovered that they were the people of the land, and Israel had been deceived, but they had made an agreement with them, They had made a covenant with them, and they they had to hold their word. And so they made servants out of the viewers of wood and drawers of water. And so as time went on, these Gibeonites remained among the people, and many of them were very devoted persons. They were very much attached to the God of Israel.
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And so they likewise went off in captivity with the people. And now comes the opportunity for the people to return. And these give you Knights could say, well, we have no more obligation to Israel. We'll just take advantage of this and we'll go our way and we'll.
Establish ourselves in the land and and we'll be finished with all that obligation to Israel.
We see that they are attached.
To Israel, I think that's lovely to notice that. Anyway, here they come and they dwell in their cities and it all looks rather good, does it not? At the end of Chapter 2.
But you know there is a problem, and the problem is this.
That they they so busy themselves.
Getting established and settled in the land that they neglected their purpose in coming.
Isn't that something to think about? But, you know, Scripture says his face answers to faith in water. You know, like a mirror, So does the heart of man to man. Our hearts are no different.
Our hearts are no different and if we go off to live in a different place in a foreign land.
The great tendency of the heart is to do your own things and establish yourself.
And perhaps the work might take a secondary place. There is that danger, and I believe this was the case here. They got so busy doing what they needed to do for their families and their own interests that they were neglecting why they came down there.
Well, I believe these things have a voice to our hearts and to our conscience. But in chapter 3 and verse one, God stirred them up. And how did he stir them up now when the 7th month was come?
The seven sons, you know if you went over to Leviticus 23, you remember we had the seven piece of Jehovah when I was first inverted and gathered a brother and older brother said to me. He says make it a point to study the seven piece of Jehovah and the seven parables of Matthew 13 and the seven addresses of Revelation 2 and three. That was a very good suggestion.
I appreciated that very much, and there's so much that can give us a good understanding of the word of God if we can lay hold of those three sets of sevens.
And so if we looked at Leviticus 23 and considered the seven feasts of Jehovah, we would see that the 7th month is the prophetic month when everything starts to.
Move in behalf of Israel when the prophetic time clock starts again.
When the church is gone, you know the church is like a big parenthesis in scripture. I'm sure most of you understand that the prophetic thoughts stopped at the cutting off of Messiah.
And it stopped.
Prophetic clock is stopped right now and it has been stopped for nearly 2000 years. But just as soon as the Lord Jesus comes, which could be tonight, that prophetic thought will start again. And the 7th year according to Leviticus 23 is the year is the month of all these things. There's three feet that are observed in that 7th month according to the law of Moses back in Leviticus 23.
The first one is a piece of trumpets. That's what calls Israel back to the land.
And then the second one is the feast of Atonement, when they go through a deep morning of soul as they realize that they crucified their Messiah. And like in Zechariah 12, it says they'll look upon him whom they have pierced and they'll mourn. That all takes place in the seventh month. And then finally comes the feast of Tabernacles. And that feast, prophetically, is what ushers in the millennial day.
When the Lord Jesus will establish His Kingdom, and once again Israel will be the center of the earth and the government of the whole world will issue forth from Jerusalem, and of course above it will be the heavenly Jerusalem. You know it's all a marvelous thing and and a subject in itself, but it seems to me that the spirit of God stirred up the people at this 7th month and that they got exercise. And so it says.
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And when the 7th month was come, the children of Israel were.
In the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man.
Jerusalem social. Like that expression. Don't you like that expression?
They gathered themselves together as one man.
How were they motivated to do that? Because we see they slacked off for a year.
Doing their domestic training.
What motivated them? I believe it was the Spirit of God what motivates you to be here and to be gathered under the name of the Lord Jesus. It is the Spirit of God if you are truly gathered in heart. And certainly God is extremely patient to help us, to understand and to realize that and to truly enhance together unto Him. And So what a good expression that is. In fact, someone suggested that we have.
In the third chapter at least.
And the 4th chapter, at least five or six things that are very much a part of the remnant testimony, which we very easily can apply for the present testimony. The first one, of course, is the thought of being gathered together, the work of the Spirit of God as one man, that truth of the one body, the unity of the Church, and all that we have in connection with Ephesians 4 and such truths.
And then we see another very important point in connection with this remnant testimony that's going to fly today. And that is to be absolutely subject to the word of God. You see how it's written there? In verse two it says as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. And we we noticed too that they established once again the true worship. There was no true worship all the time.
They were in fabulous. So now comes the opportunity for the true worship of the true God.
And that's all reestablished again.
And also.
We noticed that.
There is the laying of the foundation verse 10. It's like the reestablishing of foundation truth once again.
And then we see another thing that is notable here and that is that there is with the people both.
Weeping and rejoicing in verse 12.
Weeping and rejoicing over the laying of this foundation. Is something wrong? Well, I believe that if we make our application, I believe both thoughts are correct. We ought to weep inwardly, as it were, over the state of the Christian testimony, the dishonor that has been brought to the name of the Lord Jesus, the scattering and dividing of the faith of God. It also would make us weak.
As we consider how the enemy is, has succeeded in causing such devastation, yet, on the other hand, we ought to rejoice that he would be pleased to have a testimony to his name, That by his Maxwell's grace there is a way, a place, to be gathered unto the Lord's name, according to the truth of the one body. Well, these things are all very important.
And another thing too you see in the opening of chapter 4.
The enemies wanted to affiliate in this work and they have to be very plain with them.
And refuse, absolutely, flatly refuse any participation in this work. And I believe that that all is suggested to us that the truth at this very present time must be held in separation, vitally important, in order to continue on in a remnant testimony.
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But now, in connection with all the reestablishing of the sacrifices, first of all, in verse three, they set up the altar. Comics bases. Now here's the altar. You know they don't have any walls. There's no protective walls now that came in, Nehemiah said. And here's their their hostile enemies all about them in the land and yet have their confidence was in.
Jehovah's care of them and that altered.
Was the recognition of that and the sacrifice do unto him and so.
Here we have a listing of these various sacrifices that they were to make according as it is written, you see.
And one of the things that we certainly need to notice and that is that they re established verse 5.
The continual burnt offering, I think that's so important because that comes up later. What was that continual burnt offering? Well, if you went back to Exodus, way back to Exodus 29, I think it is, you would see that they were required to offer a lamb.
In the morning and a lamb in the evening every day.
Well, we know what the lamb is suggesting to itself. And when John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away to send the world, they should have easily put it all together, because they had before them that continual burnt offering in their history. It was they made most they made much of that because it was the prominent national sacrifice. The lamb in the morning and the lamb, lamb in the evening, they should have recognized.
That Jesus indeed, was that Lamb of God's providing.
And so as we follow that Lamb.
That continual burnt offering, that lamb we see as Israel began to.
Decline in its history, we see that we only read as it were, of the Lamb in the evening, and that happened in.
Elijah's day, and even right here in the book of Ezra, we see it come up again in.
As we can put our finger on this.
Yes, in Chapter 9, when trouble arose.
We see that poor Ezra sat astonished.
Until the evening sacrifice, verse four of Ezra. 9 What was that evening sacrifice? Was it that lamb?
And so we see that in the.
In the sad and declining State of Israel's history, here is this lamb in the evening. But when we get into the book of Ezekiel and we get a millennial picture of the people in the coming day, it's a lamb in the morning. We see the lamb in the morning. It's as though God is saying this is a new beginning. This is a new work of grace among the people.
Well, anyway, we have these things that are characteristic of the people, and we see that the attitude of the people is here in humility.
See those humility with the people.
What a work of grace and how we can parallel these things.
Well, anyway, it wasn't long before the enemy tried very hard to block this work.
And towards the end of Chapter 4.
We see that the work ceased in verse 24.
The work saved.
Of Ezra chapter 4 and verse 24.
The work see at that time.
But the truth of the matter was that.
That perhaps the work had come to a standstill, maybe even considerably before this, before there was a King's injunction against it.
Now the enemy succeeded in getting the king to stop this work.
But this king forgot that the laws of the Medes and the Persians altered not. He altered a law that Cyrus had made, and he had no right to do that.
And its most remarkable how that when that is brought to his attention.
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Oh, he recognizes the mistake of what he had done, and he makes a retranscript and the work begins again. But.
God would not permit that to happen until the people first of all got exercised and began the work again themselves. They were compelled.
God compelled them, as it were, to begin in faith, that work, And then He showed them that he could turn the heart of the powers of being in their favor. That ought to be a great encouragement to us. He wants us to press on in the testimony and trust ourselves to him. He can move, He can work with the powers of God to keep them favorable towards that testimony. So in chapter 5.
We see He raised up these two prophets.
Peggy eye and background. So I suggested yesterday that it would be a good practice to read the book of Ezra with the books of Haggai and Zechariah. And then then you get the real picture. You get the real picture.
But oh, I appreciate what I read here about these two prophets because in a certain sense they what they did, they did it at a great risk. They could have been accused of of insubordination. They could have been accused of a a conspiracy against the king by exciting these people on in this work.
But these two faithful men of God.
They were emboldened to come and to prophecy before these people disturb the people up.
And they proved that they were not afraid of the King's injunction against the work, which was not right.
Which was illegal. They rolled their sleeves up and they got right into this work and they started building with the people. Oh, their hearts were right. It'll be a a lovely thing to see those two dear men of God, Zach Ryan, Hagiah be rewarded in the glory for their faithfulness. And we have no more time. Or we could consider a little of what they had to say to the people we did the other day. Of course, we considered a little bit of what Zechariah had to say and how he stirred up, Especially Derubable because the rubber bowl was the leader. He was the one.
That was the responsible leader, And he was stirred up, and the others were stirred up with him. And they went on with this work. And the enemy tried to stop it, but could not stop it. And the work was finished. Oh, that should be a great encouragement to our hearts. The enemy may try in different ways to stand in opposition to the present testimony that he cannot stop it. I do not believe God will commit.
The enemy to stop it. Our unfaithfulness could cause the work to cease, just as it was with Derubable and the others when they lost heart and they slacked off, and they just went right back to their own things and and and doing their own domestic interests.
And they neglected the House of God there. But God is patient, you know. And he tried to exercise their conscience. Don't remember you. They had failures in various things that should have exercised their conscience. God was speaking to them. Finally they got the message and they got the question, Well, why don't we sing again while we see?
Let him lead on, Almighty God, lead on to victory.
Number three, 12312.
Lead on, Almighty Lord.
Laid on to the glory.
And curving by thy glass and we're we'll join, we follow thee.
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We follow.
The.
To hear salvation.
Bring.
We follow.
Grace by life now I can never be heard.
There was a Christ.
Closest.
We hear our war no more.
And all sweet thoughts forever.