1. "Memory is the faculty that God gives us as beings who exist through time. Memory integrates our personalities. It makes us more than simply a series of discrete, unrelated actions."

2. "What brings all of God's past provisions to be with us in present trials? Remembering. What lets us look at uncertain future with confidence? Remembering what God has done for us in His faithfulness in the past and remembering His promises to us for the future."

3. "In God's history, the earthly conquerors fade while His own people endure."

4. "Do you realize you are laying the foundation for your life? Are you laying a foundation of a significant life? Are you doing things that are important that will help you be able to love God more?"

5. "Poor Marxists. In history, the poor creatures are blind. They only know how to see motivations that are monetary. They act like people are so thin and shallow as to have only interest in money or power, like they cannot be motivated by anything else."

6. "God can take the most powerful emperor at the time and he can make him oppose him so that he gets to smash him in front of everybody to deliver his people. And then a thousand years later, God can take the Persian emperor with his great power and he can play him like an instrument."

7. "God is conducting His will among the orchestra of the nations to the symphony of His own purposes. He is the one who is sovereign."

8. "You realize that regardless of what all good has come through you, all of it has come by the good hand of God. No glory to you. Doesn't mean you didn't study hard, but your success came ultimately not from an earthly king, but from God."

9. "Do you know that one time God was unfaithful to you? Doesn't exist. Never happened. Never will happen. All that time God was unreasonable? Nope, not really."

10. "Artaxerxes may call himself King of Kings, but he and his role of authority is long gone. The true King of Kings, however, reigning long before Artaxerxes is reigning still."

Observation Questions

1. According to Ezra 7:1-5, what is Ezra's lineage, and to whom does his genealogy trace back?

2. In Ezra 7:6, how is Ezra described in terms of his occupation and skill, and what reason does the text give for why the king granted him all that he asked?

3. What three things does Ezra 7:10 say that Ezra "set his heart" to do regarding the Law of the Lord?

4. According to Artaxerxes' letter in Ezra 7:13-20, what specific items and resources was Ezra authorized to bring to Jerusalem, and what was he instructed to do with them?

5. In Ezra 7:25-26, what authority did Artaxerxes grant to Ezra regarding the people in the province, and what penalties were prescribed for those who would not obey?

6. In his personal testimony in Ezra 7:27-28, what does Ezra credit God with doing, and what phrase does he use to explain his own courage and success?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is Ezra's genealogy tracing back to Aaron the chief priest significant for understanding his qualifications and the legitimacy of his mission to restore God's people?

2. The phrase "the hand of the Lord his God was on him" appears multiple times in this chapter (verses 6, 9, 28). What does this phrase communicate about the relationship between human effort and divine sovereignty in Ezra's success?

3. How does the Persian king Artaxerxes' repeated references to "the God of heaven" and his fear of God's wrath (verse 23) demonstrate the limits of earthly power and the recognition of a higher authority?

4. Ezra 7:10 presents a specific order: study, do, then teach. Why might this sequence be important for anyone who desires to instruct others in God's Word?

5. How does God's use of a pagan king to fund, authorize, and protect the restoration of His people's worship illustrate the biblical theme of God's sovereignty over all nations and rulers?

Application Questions

1. Ezra "set his heart" to study, do, and teach God's Word. What specific, practical steps could you take this week to set your heart more intentionally on studying Scripture and putting it into practice?

2. The sermon emphasized that all Christians are called to share the gospel with others. Who in your regular sphere of life (work, neighborhood, family) does not know the gospel, and what is one way you could begin building a relationship or conversation with them?

3. Ezra attributed his success to "the hand of the Lord my God" rather than to his own abilities. How might acknowledging God's providence in your own accomplishments change the way you respond to both success and failure this week?

4. The sermon noted that young people are laying foundations for significant lives of service. If you are mentoring or parenting someone younger, what is one way you could encourage them to develop skills and character that God might use for His purposes?

5. Ezra was part of a distinct community that maintained its identity and faith despite living in a foreign culture for generations. In what specific area of your life do you feel pressure to blend in with the surrounding culture, and how can you remain distinctively faithful to Christ in that area?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Nehemiah 8:1-12 — This passage shows Ezra publicly reading and explaining the Law to the people, demonstrating the fruit of his preparation and the impact of God's Word on the restored community.

2. Proverbs 21:1-4 — This passage teaches that the king's heart is in the Lord's hand, reinforcing the sermon's point about God's sovereignty over earthly rulers like Artaxerxes.

3. Isaiah 44:24-45:7 — Here God declares His sovereignty over Cyrus, the Persian king, showing that God uses pagan rulers as instruments of His purposes for His people.

4. Romans 10:13-17 — This passage explains the necessity of preaching and teaching for people to hear and believe the gospel, connecting to the sermon's call for all Christians to share God's Word.

5. 2 Timothy 2:1-7 — Paul instructs Timothy to entrust the faith to reliable people who can teach others, illustrating the pattern of studying, living, and passing on God's truth that Ezra modeled.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Introduction: God's Provision of the Right Man for Critical Moments in History

II. The Two Cities: Babylon and Jerusalem

III. The Two Laws: Persian Decree and the Law of Moses

IV. The Two Kings: Artaxerxes and the God of Heaven

V. Conclusion: Jesus Christ as the Ultimate Deliverer God Sends to His People

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Detailed Sermon Outline

The French had collapsed.

The Dutch had been overwhelmed.

The Belgians had surrendered.

The British army trapped, fought free, and fell back toward the Channel ports. Converging on a fishing town whose name was Dunkirk. Behind them lay the sea.

Even today, what followed seems miraculous. Not only were Britain's soldiers delivered, so were French support troops, a total of 338,682 men.

But wars are not won by fleeing from the enemy and British morale was still unequal to the imminent challenge. These were the same people who, less than a year earlier, had rejoiced in the fake peace bought by the betrayal of Czechoslovakia at Munich.

Most of their leaders and most of the press remained craven.

It had been over a thousand years since Alfred the Great had made himself and his countrymen one and sent them into battle transformed. Now in this new exigency, confronted by the mightiest conqueror Europe had ever known, England looked for another Alfred, a figure cast in a mold which by the time of the Dunkirk deliverance seemed to have been forever lost.

England's new leader, were he to prevail, would have to stand for everything England's decent, civilized establishment had rejected.

They viewed Adolf Hitler as the product of complex social and historical forces. Their successor would have to be a passionate Manichean who saw the world as a medieval struggle to the death between the powers of good and the powers of evil, who held that individuals are responsible for their actions and that the German dictator was therefore wicked. A believer in martial glory was required, one who saw splendor in the ancient parades of victorious legions through Persepolis.

And could rally the nation to brave the coming German fury. An embodiment of fading Victorian standards was wanted, a tribune for honor, loyalty, duty, and the supreme virtue of action. One who would never compromise with iniquity, who could create a sublime mood and thus give men heroic visions of what they were and might become.

Like Adolf Hitler, he would have to be a leader of intuitive genius, a born demagogue in the original sense of the word, a believer in his national destiny, an artist who knew how to gather the blazing light of history into his prism and then distort it to his ends, an embodiment of inflexible resolution who could impose his will and his imagination on his people. A great tragedian who understood the appeal of martyrdom and could tell his followers the worst, hurling it to them like great hunks of bleeding meat, persuading them that the year of Dunkirk would be one in which it was equally good to live or to die, who could, if necessary, be just as cruel, just as cunning, and just as ruthless as Hitler, but who could win victories without enslaving populations, or foisting off myths of his infallibility, or destroying or even warping the libertarian institutions he had sworn to preserve. Such a man, if he existed, would be England's last chance in London. There was such a man.

That was from William Manchester's Preamble for his multi-volume biography of Winston Churchill. In it, Manchester masterfully paints the dark scene and then introduces Churchill as the crucial man for that very situation.

Friends, the Old Testament book of Ezra is like that. Find your Bibles, find the Old Testament, find the book of Ezra, and there you'll find that Ezra presents the restoration of God's people to their land after their exile in Babylon. The nation is refounded as God restores His people to the land leads them to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, and using Ezra himself restores his word to his people, and by that means restores his people to himself.

Chapters 1 to 6 mainly give us the history of God's work in this restoration before Ezra.

They mainly recount the miraculous return of God's people after 70 years in exile in Babylon. Once there they begin to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem but get distracted in caring for their own homes. Then in 520 BC, God re-applies them to the task of rebuilding, stirring them up through the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah. They complete the task by 516 BC. This is what Ezra provides as a prologue to the account of his own life and mission.

Chapter 7 of Ezra, which you'll find on page 393 in the Bibles provided, chapter 7, is our passage today. And it is our introduction to Ezra himself. We find as we read chapters 8 to 10, that even after all God had done, His people were in danger of disobedience, which would dissolve them into the nations and return them to pure paganism. Friends, that's the sentence you must grasp in order to understand the book of Ezra. This is what the book of Ezra is all about: a crisis that's addressed in chapters 8, 9, and 10.

This is what God has made Ezra for. In Babylon, there was a man that God was preparing to answer this very situation. And our chapter for today is the book section on Ezra, where we're introduced to him, first in the third person in those first ten verses, and then in a letter by the Persian king, verses 11 to 26.

And then finally in Ezra's own words. Listen as I read us this portion of God's Word.

Now after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahtarab, son of Ahaz, son of Jozadak, son of Ater, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Hozai, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest. This Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. And the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him. And there went up also to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and the gatekeepers and the temple servants.

And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

This is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a man learned in matters of the commandments of the Lord and his statutes for Israel. Artaxerxes king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, peace. And now I make a decree that any one of the people of Israel or their priests or Levites in my kingdom who freely offers to go to Jerusalem may go with you. For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of your God which is in your hand and also to carry the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel.

Whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, with all the silver and gold that you shall find in the whole province of Babylonia, and with the free will offerings of the people and the priests vowed willingly for the house of their God that is in Jerusalem. With this money then you shall with all diligence buy bulls, rams and lambs with their grain offerings and their drink offerings and you shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God that is in Jerusalem. Whatever seems good to you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and gold you may do according to the will of your God. The vessels that have been given you for the service of the house of your God you shall deliver before the God of Jerusalem. And whatever else is required for the house of your God which it falls to you to provide, you may provide it out of the king's treasury.

And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province beyond the river. Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of God of heaven, requires of you, let it be done with all diligence. Up to 100 talents of silver, 100 cores of wheat, 100 baths of wine, 100 baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons. We also notify you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute custom or toll on any one of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants or other servants of this house of God.

And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province beyond the river, all such as know the laws of your God. And those who do not know them, you shall teach. Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed on him, whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of his goods or for imprisonment.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. And who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors and before all the king's mighty officers. I took courage for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

Friends, as we look over this chapter, I want us to notice first the two cities that it's about, then the two laws, and finally the two kings.

And as we do, I pray that God's provision for his people through Ezra, will show you something of his provision for his people today and even his provision for you.

First, I want you to notice the prominence of the two cities that we find in this chapter. The first, of course, is Babylon, though no longer the exclusive seat of government since the Persians had overtaken the Babylonians. Babylon was still a seat of government, the Persian emperor had multiple capitals, and it was still the home of the Jews exiled from Judah, and it had given its name to the land along the Euphrates, Babylonia, as we see here in verses 6 and 9.

In fact, it's interesting that the city that gave its name to the nation that conquered Judah and destroyed Jerusalem is not even mentioned once in this chapter. Meanwhile, the other city in view, Jerusalem, the city captured and looted in 608 BC and then captured again and destroyed in 586 BC with tens of thousands of leading citizens exiled a thousand miles away, that city, beheaded as it were, whose name should have been obliterated from history, that city still existed. And its name is remembered and mentioned ten times in this chapter alone.

Friends, memory is important.

Memory is the faculty that God gives us as beings who exist through time. Memory integrates our personalities. It makes us more than simply a series of discrete, unrelated actions.

We are individuals with our own histories, with the ability to know God and the history of His dealing with His people and with us. Again and again in the Old Testament, the greatest judgment of God would be to be wiped out of all memory and the greatest blessing is that touch of eternity that allows us to know things from times before us that we're no longer in, but yet we can know them.

Do you remember the high point of God's comforting His people as He considers the coming judgment in Isaiah 49:15?

Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

Or you can read Deuteronomy 30, where the Lord through Moses warned of the peril of forgetting God and of there still being a way that God would remember his people.

Oh, friends, if you ever hear someone speaking of a mere memorial view of the Lord's Supper, sort of disparagingly, get rid of the word mere. That shows they don't understand memory. There's nothing mere about this memorial that Jesus himself commanded, do this in remembrance of me. Memorial, if they say that, just assume they've not done much work in the Bible and its understanding of remembering. What brings all of God's past provisions to be with us in present trials?

Remembering. What lets us look at uncertain future with confidence?

Remembering what God has done for us in His faithfulness in the past and remembering His promises to us for the future.

Here in Ezra 7 we see that the name of Jerusalem had not vanished as its conquerors had no doubt intended when they looted and tore down its walls and tore down its temple and exiled its people. But that the name of Jerusalem had been preserved and had grown in the affections of its former inhabitants and their exiled descendants who never had themselves been there in person and now was even spoken with reverence by the Persian kings who had themselves conquered Babylon.

Remember Jerusalem and God's promises to His people.

Of course, what made Jerusalem most special among the cities of Judah was the presence there of the temple of the Lord. This was the focus of obedience to the Lord's laws, requiring and regulating sacrifices and feasts for the people. Here were taught and acted out the sacrifices that foreshadowed the one sacrifice that was to come. By the time we come to Ezra in 458 B.C., the temple had been rebuilt for almost 60 years. So there's that kind of gap between chapter 6 at the end and chapter 7 when we come to Ezra.

It's 58 years to to be exact. And yet the people in verse 7 who had never seen the temple were known by names associated with it: gatekeepers, the temple servants. When you look at Artaxerxes' letter, this is clearly the focus of his concern. You see there in verse 15 he calls it the dwelling of the God of Israel, or verse 16, the house of their God that is in Jerusalem. Or verse 17, the house of your God, speaking to Ezra, that is in Jerusalem.

He says that again in 19. Again in verse 20, the house of your God. Even when he's writing to his own pagan treasures in verse 23, Artaxerxes refers to the temple as the house of the God of heaven. And then in Ezra's own prayer in verse 27, he refers to the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. Now the Persians had many of their own so-called gods.

Ahermazesda, Mithra, scores of others. But nothing in their religion led them to discount the reality of other deities, particularly one of such antiquity and notoriety as the God of Israel.

And so the maintenance of his worship was of special concern, worth special trouble and special expense. Friends, it seems that God was not done with His people Israel. Though conquered by the Babylonians, now ruled by the Persians, they were still identified as a separate community. Two generations had passed since their grandparents and great-grandparents had been carried from Jerusalem, but they had not assimilated into the general Babylonian or Persian populations. In their communities, their Scriptures were read, and their temple was remembered, and God's promises were studied and revered.

Two cities representing two different systems of worship by two different peoples were both present. And the account of Ezra turns on the continuing existence of Israel as a distinct people with distinct worship in a distinct land and city and the threat to that distinction. Friend, if you're going to understand chapters 8 to 10, which is the burden of the book of Ezra, we have to see this here in chapter 7.

In God's history, the earthly conquerors fade while His own people endure.

That's why all these people in verse 7 are ready and willing to accompany Ezra moving to a land they had never known in person. That's why they were willing to undertake this arduous journey we see in verses 8 and 9. We know by the time mentioned that they either celebrated Passover right before they left or very early in their journey, God was reminding them of His provision for them even when overshadowed by the great empires of the world. And what a journey it would have been.

Can you imagine walking from Babylon in the Euphrates Valley, tracking upriver through hundreds of miles, up through the trading center of Reseph, south of the Euphrates on the edge of the great desert stretching out to the west, on through the present-day war-torn area of northern Syria, Aleppo, close to Idlib Province, it's been in the news this last week, and then on down through Syria, through Damascus, on the King's Highway by the Sea of Galilee, down into the Jordan Valley until they actually came to Jerusalem itself, 900 miles, a 14-week pilgrimage, going at the rate of about 10 miles a day, maybe as many as 2,000 of them, including children, under royal protection on a royal mission. By the time they got to Jerusalem, the rebuilding recorded in chapter 6, had been done a lifetime ago, as long ago as I am from the day of my birth. That's how long ago this temple building had been completed. But magnificent buildings alone don't make spiritual life. So when they arrived on August the 4th, 458 B.C.

we can date it that clearly in Jerusalem, they arrived to bring the king's tribute of silver and gold. We see in verse 15, To the Lord God. Verse 16 lets us know they also had the free will offerings of others, Jews in Babylon's. With all this money they were, we read in verse 17, to buy and make offerings. Friends, money, even wealth, can be used well.

In verse 19 we see that they had brought another royal offering, new vessels to be used in the temple of the Lord. Cyrus, you remember, had returned the ones taken from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar way back in 586 BC. Now his distant successor had sent more. And we see in verse 20 that if there was anything else needed for the temple, it was to be paid from the royal treasury. The king said, basically giving Ezra a blank check.

Up to very high limits was to be used in the worship of the Lord at the temple. That's why in verses 21 to 24 Artaxerxes instructed his treasurers as he did. You see in verse 21, he tells them to do what Ezra asks. His letter then closes with instructions to Ezra in verse 25, to appoint magistrates, teach the ignorant, presumably within the Jewish community, and in verse 26, to execute judgment according to the law of their God. My friends, God's people are a special set-apart people.

This is what we understand of the Jews in Ezra's day. This is what we understand of Christians today.

So my non-Christian friends, we're very glad you're here. You're always welcome. I wonder if we Christians seem distinctive to you. That is, are there things which seem to typify us as a group?

Maybe some negative things.

Maybe some positive things.

Things that make us distinct to you.

As a former agnostic, let me just encourage you, that would be worth your noodling on a little bit. Just think about that. Maybe have an honest conversation with some friends, maybe some Christian friends, maybe some non-Christian friends, about these distinctives that you've noticed about Christians. See what conclusions you might draw from that. Because we are supposed to be a witness to you of the very character of God.

I'm sure we're not perfect at that. But I wonder if any of that has come through to you.

So much for the two cities. Let's turn now to the two laws, L-A-W-S, the two laws that are so evident in this chapter. I mean, on the one hand, this chapter is all about the law of the Medes and the Persians. The Persian emperor, King Artaxerxes, has made a decree. You look there in verse 13.

That's what he calls it, a decree. And in this decree, Artaxerxes' will on any number of matters has been made known on who may go where and what they may do once there. They're to make inquiries, they're to convey the royal silver and gold offerings. They are to bring the freewill offerings of others. They're to buy and make offerings and do what seems best with the rest of the money.

They're to make sure and place the special vessels in the temple as a memorial of the respect of the Persian emperor to the God of heaven. They are to pay all expenses from the royal treasury. In this regard, the king also made his will known to his own officials who were involved in this, the treasurers of his government. They are to do what Ezra asks up to a very high limit, whatever it takes. Whatever is seen is proper.

And to that end they are in no way to tax or burden any of those who are religious workers. Artaxerxes understood that it was in the interest of the state to have prayers being made for him, his reign, that of his sons and descendants after him. He further authorized Ezra to appoint magistrates and teach the ignorant and execute judgment, again presumably among the people of Israel. All of this is laid out in Aramaic in the original, a near relative of the Hebrew language that was used in many official documents of the time. That's the original language of verses 11 to 26.

One to 10 is in Hebrew, 27-28 are in Hebrew, but 11-26 are in Aramaic, which if you know anything about Hebrew looks indistinguishable from Hebrew until you start trying to translate it. At the same time, we can't help but notice that all of this Persian authority is being used to propagate another law.

The law that we read in verse 6, Ezra was an expert in, the law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. So Artaxerxes makes a decree that the law of Moses was to be taught to the Israelites, and that's where Ezra comes in. You see there in verse 10, Ezra it says, had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

We continue to see reference to this law throughout Artaxerxes' decree. In verse 12, Artaxerxes refers to Ezra as the scribe of the law of God, of the God of heaven. And in verse 14, Artaxerxes commissions Ezra to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of your God, which is in your hand. That's an interesting description. I don't know if you noticed that little phrase when I read it, which is in your hand.

He repeats it down in verse 25. I wonder if there was some distinction between the law of the Lord and the will of other gods in that the true God's will had honestly, truly been revealed verbally. And so much so that it had even been written down. It was in books, I mean, literally scrolls, that the Jewish exiles possessed. So in your hand, that phrase he uses here, could simply mean Ezra knew God's law.

But it could also have some reference to the unusual way in which among the Jews the Scriptures could be read and known as the very words of God. In verse 18, the king refers to the will of your God. In verse 21, writing to his own governmental ministers, he calls Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of God of heaven. In verse 23, he mentions, Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, To Ezra there you see in verse 25, Artaxerxes refers to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, showing the association of wisdom with the Scriptures. He refers to the extent of Ezra's authority there in verse 25 by being, Over all such as know the laws of your God, and those who do not know them, you shall teach.

Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, he mentions them both here together, let judgment be strictly executed on him. So, Artaxerxes was using his law to propagate and enforce God's law. And it seems like his chief instrument to do this would be Ezra. Chapters 7 to 10 are sometimes called the Ezra Memoir because this is the part of the book in which Ezra is introduced and described. He doesn't even appear in chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

And you're thinking, why is this book called Ezra? Well then you get to chapter 7 and it becomes clear why. The first 10 verses of chapter 7 are a summary of Ezra's journey and mission. The first half of it is Ezra's genealogy, which indicates appropriate significance for the main character in the account. And demonstrates that Ezra's heritage provides the highest qualifications for his work.

Verse 6 gives a famous description of Ezra. He was a scribe, so a scribe is an interpreter and teacher of the Law. So Ezra was qualified not only by his descent from Aaron, but also by his understanding of Moses and his Law. He was skilled. That is, he had given himself through hard work and study to know and understand the law that we read here in verse 6, God had given.

Interesting that God having given the law graciously didn't mean that Ezra didn't have to labor at knowing and understanding it. So I can do a lot of work on this sermon. And I can just give it to you on Sunday morning. That doesn't mean there's no work for you to do in sitting there and listening to it, paying attention, and trying to understand it and apply it in your own life. We see more about this down in verse 10.

Here is Ezra's honest self-description of his own preparation. Look at verse 10. For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. Ezra had long labored to make himself prepared for such a role. He had laid the foundation for a significant life.

And I couldn't help but think when I read this, young people, teenagers, Children who are younger than that who are here.

Do you realize you are laying the foundation for your life?

Are you laying a foundation of a significant life? Are you doing things that are important that will help you be able to love God more? And love others that you love. Be able to serve them better. Because even as a child, you put up your hand and took that book and you read it and even wrote a paper on it.

Do you realize how that can be part of how God prepares you for the family He'll give you someday? For other ways He will call you to serve Him that you don't know about right now. But if you're faithful now, you're building a deep foundation that God may use in erecting a large and significant life of blessing for other people. That's what he did with Ezra. He might be doing that with some of the young people here today who can hear my voice.

What did Ezra say? He set his heart on. Look there in verse 10. He took his heart and he set it on what? To study the law of the Lord.

Whatever else you do with your life, this is a worthwhile undertaking. And notice that Ezra set his heart not only on studying, but we read here on doing. He wanted not just to know what God's will is, but he wanted to do it. And in Ezra's case in particular, he had a desire to teach God's Word. So three duties that Ezra set his heart on: to study, to do, and to teach, to study, to do, and to teach, to study, to do, and to teach.

David had this ambition in Psalm 51, I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. So friends, how are you doing in giving time to study God's Word?

Are you in your own life setting aside that time? Do you assume that only preachers like me should do this?

Or that there is real, worthwhile benefit to be gained from you spending time to study God's Word, to meditate on it, and to apply it to your own life?

Ezra certainly stood out to Artaxerxes as the man for the job. Ezra was the one who was known to know God's Word, God's law. That's why Artaxerxes could so freely permit Ezra and whoever wanted to go with him to go and to do what they wanted to. In verse 13, he understood Ezra and the law of Ezra's God. He knew what it was like.

Brothers and sisters, this chapter 7 is rich material for meditation.

Now listen, not all of us are called to be pastors. I'm aware of that. But all of us are called to share the good news about Jesus Christ with others. All of us are. Remember what Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans chapter 10, verses 13 to 15.

You wonder what commissions you as a teacher? The need of the people around you commissions you. Romans 10, verse 13. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news! Now I think Paul had in mind when he was writing that people like himself.

But it applies beyond just preachers to talkers, to people who will speak and share the gospel in words with those who do not know. So just for example, take your life at work. Who in your office knows the gospel? Who in your office doesn't?

What are you doing about it?

Now, there are wrong ways you could do something about it. You could neglect your work and instead have an evangelistic Bible study during office hours. Let me discourage you from doing that. I don't think that would be a good witness. But, friend, I would encourage you to pray specifically that God would show you how He could use you and your witness.

What do you think your witness currently is saying to the other people in your job, at your office, in your classroom, friends, all of us should want to use our abilities to help others understand God's Word, whether that's our family or friends, people in a Bible study or small group, or what truths that we study here mean for various professions that God has called us into. Just a few chapters later in Romans 15, Paul praised the Roman Christians, he said that they were filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. If Paul knew this congregation, would he describe us that way? Would he say that we are able to instruct one another? I wonder if he would have the same observation about this congregation.

We should all want to be able to instruct one another. Some of us, however, like Ezra, are specially set apart for the teaching and preaching of God's Word. That's been my own surprising path through life. God led me through a series of circumstances to come here in 1994 as a pastor when I had planned on being a university or seminary professor. I have that kind of identity in my mind.

It saves me from feeling guilty over the way I interact with some of you. Sorry about that. The Lord called me here. He knows what he's doing. You affirmed it, and here we still are.

I can't help, but notice how wise and kind you have been as a congregation, not only to provide specially for me, but for other teachers of the word among us. You have been generously helping to supply for those who are preparing for ministry, like a young Ezra, who are training to be teachers of God's word among others.

I've used an illustration recently talking about every Bible believing church you call a red dot church or a green dot church. A red dot church would be net importers of teaching. That is when our teacher or preacher goes we've got to get one from somewhere else because we don't really have them ourselves. A green dot church would be kind of alive where it's producing more teachers and preachers than it can use. Brothers and sisters, Christianity since the Great Commission until now has spread because of green dot churches, churches that produce more preachers and teachers than they've even got space to use.

We would like every church in the world to be that kind of net exporter of gospel truth and teaching through the members of the church as they lead Bible studies and share the gospel, through raising up elders, through raising up preachers of God's word. So friends, the inconveniences of the weekend are upon us again this next weekend.

And this one even has the special added thing of coronavirus thrown in.

Well, let me just say, if you are nervous about your own health, as Jamie said earlier, please don't feel obliged to come next week. You stay home and pray for us. We want to work together with all of our friends in all the churches and synagogues and mosques and atheists who don't go anywhere, but in front of the TV or outside in the park on Sundays. We want to work together. Everybody in this district to see as numbers of infections go up, we want to see that to be as mild as possible so that our medical establishment is not overwhelmed.

So we want to do our part, we want to be helpful in that. And if that means you want to stay home because you just feel nervous and better about that, no guilt from the elders here, all right? We understand that under the category of neighbor love, you're trying to love your neighbors. This will not be an eternal indulgence.

This is a temporary matter. The Lord alone knows how long it will last, but should you choose to exercise this unusual freedom, we would encourage you to email your elders and let us know that you're doing it and let us know how you are, so that when we don't see you next week, we understand what's going on. Friends, we pray that we as a congregation will continue to labor through weekenders, through internship programs, through supporting seminarians to prepare and instruct and encourage preachers of the Word. So we should give ourselves to know and live and share God's Word like Ezra here is such a powerful model of. Well, throughout our chapter and issuing these two laws are of course finally, number three, two kings.

Two kings.

One king is immediately prominent in our chapter, King Artaxerxes. He reigned from 465 to 425 B.C. We see here in verse 7 that this is taking place in the seventh year of his reign. That would be 458 B.C. Artaxerxes, you see there in verse 1, he's called the king of Persia.

And his vast authority is in evidence throughout the chapter, even into the words of Ezra's testimony in the last verse of the chapter, where he refers to all the king's counselors and even to the king's officers as mighty. Friends, the Persian empire was one of the largest empires that this world has ever seen. And the Persian emperor was one of the most powerful rulers in the history of the world.

And yet, there we begin to feel the limits even of his great power. So for example, in this sermon, I have had to tell you his name. You wouldn't know it otherwise. You might not even know how to say it. His reign was limited in space.

I know he calls himself there in verse 12, the King of Kings, the Persian Kings always called themselves that, which means they won a lot of battles over other kings. But Artaxerxes himself was only King of Persia. He was not King of the Aztecs, the Incas, or the Mayans. He was not King of the Chinese or the Ethiopians. He was not King of India or Egypt.

No, he was king of Persia. And notice also in verse 1 even the limitation of time. He was the king only for a time, even for a long time, 40 years. So we have the words in verse 1 in the reign of. And Ezra has to write that because there were others who reigned before him and others who reigned after him.

As extensive as Artaxerxes' rule was, it was limited in both space and time.

And yet we see evidence of another monarch in this chapter, don't we? Do you notice toward the end of his letter he wants to make sure that Ezra gets these vessels into the temple because, he says there, verse 23, because his own potential vulnerability to whose wrath? His wrath. Whose wrath? It's the wrath of the God of heaven.

Somehow, Artaxerxes understood something of his own limits over it against this God. I will just give you some political background here. Two years earlier, in 460 B.C., Egypt had sponsored a Greek revolt against Persia. So the times were turbulent. And loyalty in a state like Judah, which was between Persia and Egypt, their loyalty was good.

But we don't need to then become skeptical about Artaxerxes' motives. Poor Marxists. Can I just say as a PhD in history, I pity Marxists. Not for their economics, I leave that to you guys, but in history, the poor creatures are blind. They only know how to see motivations that are monetary.

They act like people are so thin and shallow as to have only interest in money or power, like they cannot be motivated by anything else. Really? Are the people they know so one-dimensional? Do they not understand there are lots of motives people have for things? The world is so much more complex.

So Artaxerxes could well have a keen political eye to uprisings, Egypt paying Greece, let's tamp down this state here. And at the same time, honestly believe this God is an old God, he's well known, I don't want his trouble. I'm gonna pay his priests. I'm gonna make sure they are well taken care of. Because he could really believe this God could cause him trouble.

There's no tension between those two. They can both really be there and I assume they were there in Artaxerxes own mind. Because Artaxerxes knew something of the limitations of his own power. Artaxerxes would have believed that sponsoring religious worship would build up divine goodwill. And he even knew that earthly kings we're subject to heavenly ones.

The last two verses of our chapter are Ezra's testimony. This is the beginning of the rest of the narrative of the book of Ezra. It's about his own life and work, and the rest of Ezra is written in the first person. It's I, my, we, our. And here in 27 and 28, Ezra gives praise to the higher king, praise to God.

Ezra even gives God credit for the good things that Artaxerxes wanted to do.

Did you notice that? Look at there at verse 27. Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors and before all the king's mighty officers. I took courage for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me. What did Ezra mean by that phrase there in verse 27, Put such a thing into the heart of the king?

Does God incept kings and presidents? Yes. Is He the real ruler of them all? Yes. According to the Bible, He is.

Here's an example of it, Proverbs 21:1, the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever He will.

Caleb was reading commentaries with me on Friday and he was enjoying the parallels between the Exodus and this time here. And friends, when you begin to see it, you begin to see God can do this any way He wants. He can take the most powerful emperor at the time, the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, and he can make him oppose him so that he gets to smash him in front of everybody to deliver his people. And then a thousand years later, God can take the Persian emperor with his great power and he can play him like an instrument. He can make him do all his will.

In Egypt, they despoiled the Egyptians to get the wealth. The Persian king sent it freely. In Egypt they opposed it, and the armies were against them. Here the treasures were told, Open the royal checkbooks. Do what they want.

Friends, do you see who is the true sovereign in all of this? It is God who is conducting His will among the orchestra of the nations to the symphony of His own purposes. He is the one who is sovereign. And the book of Ezra is showing us that every bit as much as the book of Exodus. Even in the last sentence of the chapter, Ezra talked about his taking courage and his gathering leading men to go up with him.

Ezra was a leader of men. But notice the explanatory phrase in the middle: For the hand of the Lord my God was on me. That's what Ezra had written about himself too, up in verses 6 and 9. But here it's in the first-person testimonial form: the hand of the Lord my God was on me. Oh, friends, what is encouraged by acknowledging God's providences like Ezra did here?

More good things than we have time to go through, but let me just note a couple: humility. You realize that regardless of what all good has come through you, all of it has come by the good hand of God. No glory to you. Doesn't mean you didn't study hard, but your success came ultimately not from an earthly king, but from God.

And a second thing would be prayer.

You understand where help can come from. Because you know who's in charge. So you give yourself to turn to Him when you need help. When you're caring for those in your family or friends, you turn to Him and you ask God for His help. Those are the two kings that we see here.

Friends, there's so much else we could say from this wonderfully rich chapter, but we should conclude Ezra was a man that God prepared, like Moses before him, for one of the most terrible threats that God's people had ever endured. We'll be studying that throughout the rest of this month, Lord willing. But do know that Ezra is not the only man God has sent to help His people in their trials. Friends, we are trapped in our sins, already guilty, living in spiritual death by nature. We need someone to free us and change us.

We need someone to pay our debts, to bear our penalties, to substitute his obedience and love and trust for our own. We need God to be powerful and good enough to help us. And yet we need him to be man, to have our own nature, to represent us. 450 years after Ezra in Jerusalem, there was such a man. Ezra was prepared by God to help his people in their hour of trial.

Jesus was sent by God to save His people from our own deserved judgment. Even as God throughout the history of His people has sent kings and prophets and priests, so we read the Bible and we see that many have had good, real ministries, as we'll see of Ezra. But those ministries are limited and they are flawed. None of them are the leader that we forever and finally need. Moses and Joshua, David and Solomon, Elijah and Isaiah and Zechariah, as blessed as we are by all of them, All are raised up by God, yet all of them themselves sin.

None of them are the one we need finally and forever. Artaxerxes may call himself King of Kings, but he and his role of authority is long gone. The true King of Kings, however, reigning long before Artaxerxes is reigning still. The leader you and I need is the same one we previously rejected. He is the author of all that is good and the final judge of all that is wicked.

He is perfectly holy and perfectly good. He is the one true Son of God who became man for us. Of Him, Peter said, explaining a man who'd just been healed in Acts 4, that this man was healed by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. By him this man is standing before you well. Paul wrote of this same man, the grace of God and the free gift of the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. There is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Friends, Artaxerxes had more reason to fear God's wrath than he knew.

You and I have all sinned against God, a God who is perfectly good, against whom we've had no reason to sin. None, ever. Do you know that one time God was unfaithful to you? Doesn't exist. Never happened.

Never will happen. All that time God was unreasonable? Nope, not really. No, when we examine things in heaven, I think we'll see that His plans have been perfect beyond question.

There'll be no apology he needs to make.

Friends, that God has sent his only Son to live a life of perfect love and trust and obedience that we should have lived in heaven, to die on the cross taking the penalty for the sins of all those who would ever turn and trust in him. And God raised him from the dead. He ascended to heaven and presented this sacrifice to his heavenly Father.

And calls us all now to turn from our sins and trust in Him. And that includes you.

Are you trusting in Him alone today? He alone can give you peace with God now and forever.

Let's pray.

Lord God, put yout good hand upon us. Deliver us from evil. Bring each one of us home to Yourself.

Do it by the power of youf Spirit, using even these words we've shared this morning in prayer and song and from the Scripture and the message. And conversation afterwards. Bring glory to yourself and good to us. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.