Persistence in Rebuilding

Take your Bible, turn to the book of Ezra. I'm sure you've already turned there because of our scripture reading earlier. And like I said, we're going to be straddling between two chapters, between chapter four, the end of chapter four, and we'll get into chapter five, chapter four and chapter five. Now, last week's message, we saw the exiles get into the real world. Remember, they were facing that opposition. They had gotten back to their homeland. They began to rebuild. They begin to worship. As a matter of fact, there was a great celebration because they had begun to work. But we saw last week that the party was over.

And what I mean by the party, the good days, the easy times were over because they had began to see opposition. The real world hit them square in the face. Remember those Samaritans came up, rose up in opposition. Now, tonight's message really builds on last week's message. But there's a couple of things I want to remind you about last week's message. Remember that they had a tremendous danger that was at hand. They had a tremendous, I believe, temptation. They had a tremendous opportunity because those Samaritans came and they volunteered to help them. That had to be a very big temptation for those exiles. So it was a tremendous danger.

But we did learn that they took a very dogmatic approach. And this was very good. You know, in many places, if you take a dogmatic approach, you'll be scorned upon. But that was not the case here because they were being dogmatic in their obedience to the Word of God. And then they experienced that downright attack, that opposition. Like I said, the party was over. Real life hit some square in the face. And they had to fight tooth and nail to deal with this opposition. Now, I want to pause it. I want to make a little application here. And I want to stretch it just a touch.

We always, we need to be continuously reminded that opposition trials, struggles are good for us in our Christian life. You might not know it and you might not realize it. And you might not like it. But trials, opposition struggles that come our way, we must see they're ordained by God because God is sovereign over everything in our lives. And these are good because trials, opposition struggles, they prove us. They will prove us for really who we are. And not only will they prove us, but they'll prune us. A lot of times there'll be things in our lives and a trial, opposition struggles come and it is meant to prune us and changes.

And then it can, they can purify us. So we need to see that there is a whole host of works that God can do in our lives when opposition trial, when struggles come our way, maybe they hit us square in the face. We must look up past those circumstances and realize God is proving us, pruning us and purifying us for his purposes. I was reminded of that this past week. One of the men of our church was talking about a difficulty in his job. And he was talking about how the difficulty came and how it was a trial. It was a struggle, but God used it. And he was expressing how God had grown him as a result of that difficulty.

I've seen some of you come to the place where you realize that you have lost family. I've seen you come to the place where you realize that they have gone out from us because they never were of us. And it was a trial and they have opposed you in your form of gospel Christianity. And that had that opposition has been good for you because it is proving you and it is pruned you and it has purified the Christianity that you believe. You see, this opposition that comes into our lives is good. I jotted down in my notes this past week. It really, it's much like physical exercise.

You know, we love physical exercise because maybe we want to be in better shape and lose a few pounds, but we really hate it. Why? Because it involves pain. I mean, there is no such thing as physical exercise without pain. You've heard that phrase, no pain, no gain. And so we must have that negative resistance for it to benefit us. And our Christian lives are very much the same way. Now tonight we're going to see how the exiles react to this opposition. If you have a good memory from last week's message, you might say, well, I can tell you how they reacted. They quit. Some of you might even think, well, you taught us that last week.

That is the truth. They did quit. There was a 16 year hiatus, but there is another way that they reacted. There was an eventual persistence in the work. There was an eventual persistence in the work. And we're going to see in these verses, these exiles eventually somehow step up, pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, and they persist in this opposition quitting. It will not grow us, but persistence in opposition, in struggle, in trial is what grows us. And that brings us to the title of the message, persistence in rebuilding. We're holding onto the theme of reform and renewal and rebuilding within the people of God.

And that's what we see. They're rebuilding, they face opposition, and now they do persist in this opposition. You see the verses on the screen. We're going to cover really verses 16 through 24, verses one through five and chapter five. I will not read over all of these verses. I might glance over them, comment on them. Some of these verses, you can go back and read them on your own. That's why I've said this is not a true verse by verse study, because in a true verse by verse study, we try to turn over every stone.

But if you have trouble with any of these verses, I'll be glad to help you, but I will give you the gist of them and we will tackle the verses that I believe are pertinent to what we need to see. Let's look at our verses starting in verse six, chapter four. "Now in the reign of Erxes, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem." Remember those Samaritans offered to help, and then they fought against them when the exiles took that dogmatic approach. Then it transitions again, verse seven, "And in the days of Artaxerxes, there's a list of individuals there.

There's a whole group that began to write to the king." And notice verse two, "There was a letter and it was written." And then we see in verse eight, there's a commander here, and they wrote a letter against those who were in Jerusalem doing the work. And then in verse 11, what do we see? "This is the copy of the letter which was sent to the king, King Artaxerxes." So you see how this opposition has progressed. They offered to help. They said they were allies when actually they were not. Then they begin to discourage the people, and now we see just how far these Samaritans, the adversaries, took this accusation and this opposition.

Now, when we turn over to the end of chapter four, we see how far this progresses. Verse 23, "Then as soon as the copy of King Artaxerxes' document was read before Rehum and Shem Shiah, the scribe and their colleagues, they went in haste to Jerusalem, to the Jews, and stopped them by force." This is where it's progressed. "The letters gone to Artaxerxes and Artaxerxes commanded them to stop." And that's what's happened.

Verse 24, "Then the work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius, King of Persia." So there we see the finality of this opposition, these accusations, and them fighting against the exiles in this work. It worked. It stopped them, dead in their tracks. But notice chapter five.

"When the prophet Hagia and the prophet Zechariah, the son of Idu, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah in Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was sent, who was over them, then Zerubbabel, the son of Sheltel and Yeshua, the son of Jezadak, arose and began to rebuild the house of God, which is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.

And at that time, Tatyani, the governor of the province, beyond the river, and Shatz-Bazani and their colleagues came to them and spoke to them thus, 'Who issued you a decree to reveal this temple and to finish this structure?' Then we told them accordingly what the names of the men were who were reconstructing this building. But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop until a report could come to Darius, and then a written reply be returned concerning it." There's a lot of difference at the end of chapter four and chapter five.

And what we're going to do is divide these verses and look at this persistence in rebuilding. You see the truths that are before you on the screen. We're going to look at the false accusations out of chapter four. We're going to look at the faithful men and then the faithfulness to the work out of chapter five. Again, we want you to take notes. We want you to learn. We want you to go back and study so that we can learn together all that God wants us to learn so that we can be all that God wants us to be. So let's dive in. Let's look at main truth number one, the false accusations.

Those are in verses eight through 16, and then we see the result in verses 23 through 24. I'm not going to go back and read them for time, but we see the false accusations. Now, last week we learned that these enemies of the work hired counselors. Remember, they hired counselors to frustrate the work. These were palace officials who were bribed to hinder the work. In these verses tonight, we will see the extent at which these enemies go to stop the exiles from working, and we will see that they make accusations all the way to the king. So they frustrated them to stop.

They hired counselors to stop the work, and now we see that they take accusations all the way to the king. Let's examine their accusations. We're going to look at four things out of these accusations. First, I want us to see the breadth of these accusations. If you look at verses eight through 10, we see that their accusers were from all the different regions in the area. What I want you to see is this is a wide range of officials from different regions coming together to make accusations. This was not just one or two leaders there with the Samaritans who were making these accusations.

So if you do the study, these accusations come from a wide range of people. So that's the breadth of the accusation. Second, I want you to see the height of these accusations. We've already read the verse. They carried these accusations all the way to the king. Verse 11 says that the letter was addressed to the king. That was the king, artist Erksey. So we see the height. It wasn't enough for them to frustrate the work. They take these accusations all the way to the king. Then third, notice the depth of these accusations. We see this starting in verse 12. I'm going to go back and read these because I want us to get these.

This is part of the letter. "Let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem. They are rebuilding the rebellious and evil city and are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations." Verse 13. "Now let it be known to the king that if that city is rebuilt and the walls are finished, they will not pay tribute or custom or toll and it will damage the revenue of the kings." So I want to pause there. We're going to take a couple more minutes here and examine the depth of these accusations. And there are four things I want us to see about these accusations.

Notice they accuse them of being a rebellious people. Isn't that what they say? They accuse them of being rebellious. In this, they are assuming that the exiles have no permission or no authority to engage in this work. So they're saying, "Okay, they are rebellious. They are rebelling against your commands." Notice they accuse them of building an evil city. They plainly say that right there in verse 12. They are saying, "This is an evil city and it is with evil intentions that they are doing this work." Notice that they also accuse them of finishing the walls. Go back to the end of verse 12.

"And they are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations." Now, if you know your Bible, that is a total fabrication. The walls were rebuilt many years later. Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 3 tells us when the work was begun on the walls. And remember, that work was headed up by Nehemiah the cupbearer. So there was an accusation that was totally false, a total fabrication. Notice that they accuse them of a future rebellion. What does it say? "Now let it be known that if they continue, they will not pay taxes." That's what they say. They are presuming to say to the king that they will not pay their taxes.

This was very hypocritical on their behalf because they didn't like paying taxes or tribute to the king as well. So what I want you to see is the depth of these accusations. They accused them of being rebellious. They have accused them of rebuilding an evil city. They accused them falsely of finishing the walls. And they accused them of a future rebellion of not paying taxes. Now let's back up from these accusations. Notice the fourth truth. The exaggeration from their accusers. Go down to verse 16.

"We inform the king that if the city is rebuilt and the walls finished, as a result you will have no possession in the province beyond the river." That is the Euphrates River. And they are on the west side, whereas the king is on the east side. But what we have here is an exaggeration from these accusers. They are saying that all the other countries on the west side of the Euphrates River would instantly revolt if the work of the exiles was permitted to continue. So what do we see? We see the breadth of the accusations, the height of the accusations, the depth of the accusations in the exaggeration from their accusers.

In summary, they reported a false rebellion, a false work, and a false future consequence. They represent themselves as loyal in verses 14 through 15. I did not read them. You can go back and look on your own. And according to verse 14, they receive their salary from the court because verse 14 says that they were in the service of the court. And they use their supposed honor, they are paying to the king, and in contrast, they represent the Jews as dishonorable and disloyal. They are very hypocritical in these accusations. And again, notice the consequences. Go back to the end of the verse or into the chapter chapter 4.

And as soon as the copy of the king's letter document from artist's arcsees was read before them, what does it say? They went fast and in haste to Jerusalem to stop them by force. So immediate action was taken against the Jews from the top down, from artist's arcsees down, and they went and they made the Jews stop by force. And here we have a 15 or 16 year stop in this work. We've already discussed that. It does not come just to a brief stop, but this is a gigantic stop in the work. Now, an application or to help us in understanding, we must see that Satan has always been attacking and making false accusation about God's people.

This is just a work of the devil. You might say, pastor, I don't see the word devil in any of this. No, this is the spirit of antichrist alive and well in the Samaritans because the spirit of antichrist has been alive all along and he is always against what? God and the work of God, the Bible and the people of God. And so this is the spirit of antichrist energizing the Samaritans. And we see in this example that Satan has always been attacking and he's always making false accusation against God's people. I'll give you a great example in the book of Job. Job chapter one, we see Satan accused Job before God. Did you know that?

Do you really realize that right there, we see Satan himself accused Job, who was a man of God, right before God. And what does he say? Chapter one, verse 11, Satan says, but God, stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face. See that accusation? He is attacking and maligning the character of a man of God. And what we see is these Samaritans, they bring up false accusations all to attack the work of God. Let's continue. Let's notice main truth. Number two, let's notice the faithful men.

We see this here in chapter five, verses one and two, we see the prophets Hagia and Zachariah, they prophesied to the Jews and then Zerubbabel and Joshua. They began to rebuild the house of God. And then we see that the prophets at the end of chapter verse two, they were with them supporting them. So what do we see in the midst of this delay, they had a bright spot. Now in the delay, they did have worship. No doubt they did continue to worship on the new altar that was built on the old foundations. Now I want to pause here for a moment. I want to sidestep and make a little application. I've repeatedly said new altar on old foundations.

This was not an altar from Babylon. It was according to the word of God, but they built a new foundation on old foundations. Let me show you how relevant that is. You might not realize it, some of you do, but sometimes Christians in their journey on earth, they will find themselves in a church that is in disrepair. Many of you have been in those circumstances. Brother Keith and I have friends like that. They are in the midst of the church and the house of God is in disrepair. And listen, when Christians find themselves in those circumstances, they must be faithful to the altar sometimes when they are all alone.

And that's what we see with these exiles. The house of God is in disrepair, but they're faithful to the altar. Some of you have been in these situations before when the church has been sick and weak. And that is when you had to go to your own altar all alone to worship that new altar on the old foundations. Now, the next bright spot, because worship was a bright spot, but the next bright spot came in the faithfulness of God. God was faithful to provide leadership. And in chapter five, we see faithful men step up and they lead during this difficult time. That's why I chose the faithful men out of verses one and two.

So I want us to examine two provisions from God in this difficult time. First, the first provision, God provided them faithful prophets. Verse one, the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, they prophesied to the Jews. These men are always listed as the prophets of God. So we see here two prophets listed. First, Haggai and second, Zechariah. Both of these men started their work in the second year of Darius, King Darius. We see that in their books that bear their name. Haggai chapter one, verse one, and Zechariah chapter one, verse one. Tell us when they started their work.

And if we study their books, we see that they gave severe reprimands to the people and even issued threats to the people. If they did not get back to work, they told them that they would not have the national success promised by God if they did not obey God's command to rebuild. Now notice with that. This tells us that it was not God's will that they stopped rebuilding no matter the obstacles. Remember, I posed that question. Was it okay for them to stop? We see the men of God, they are faithful prophets, and they severely reprimanded them for stopping.

Now, under this provision of prophets, we're going to notice the impact of these prophets on this situation. Two things. Notice the work was restarted. Isn't that what happens in verse one? Then Zerubbabel and Yeshua, they began to rebuild the house of God. The text says that these prophets prophesied to the exiles. They declared the Word of God. And this work is restarted. Now look, this work, I want you to notice, it's not restarted by force. It's not restarted by political maneuvering. It's not restarted by great plans. This work was restarted by the prophets of God preaching the Word of God. That is very important for you to see.

The work was restarted in prophecy. Notice that the work of the prophets stirred up the hearts of the people. We see that in verse one. The prophets of God strengthened their hearts so their hands were strengthened to do the work. Remember back in chapter four, the discouragement and the intimidation and the fear tactics of the Samaritans weakened their hands. But now the prophets of God stirred up their hearts. Therefore, their hands were strengthened. The prophets gave them correction, direction, vision, and strength to do his work.

And it is important to see here that first, they were sent by God and second, they were sent to the exiles who were the God's people and were supposed to be doing God's work. So you see what happened? God provided faithful prophets. They prophesied to the people and it trickled down into the work. Notice the impact of the prophets and the prophecy on the situation. Second, in this provision, notice God provided them faithful administrators. Some translations say magistrates. Verse two, we're familiar with these two individuals. We see Zerubbabel, verse two, and then Jeshua, and they began to rebuild the house of God.

Here we see two administrators listed. That's what they were. Zerubbabel and Jeshua. Zerubbabel was the chief prince of the Jews, and he was a governor for the people, and Jeshua was their chief priest. And they were in positions to lead the people, and that is exactly what they did. Those names are listed first because they struck out in the work. So what do we see? We see faithful men out of these verses. God provided prophets and God provided faithful administrators magistrates. And it is important to see that it was the appointed prophets of God who preached the word of God that corrected and encouraged the men of God to get to work.

The prophets, the prophecy impacted the leaders, and therefore it impacted the people to do what? To build the house of God. Now an understanding or application. We must remember. We must remember. Or maybe you have never known before, but we must remember in times of building the church, in times of reformation and renewing the church, and reforming the church, listen, that work has come back. It has been brought back to the word of God, and it has been spearheaded by the men of God declaring the word of God. That is God's plan. It was God's plan in the Old Testament. It was God's plan in the New Testament, and it is God's plan today.

Travel all the way through church history, and when you see renewal and reform and rebuilding in the kingdom work and in the church, there are always faithful men spearheading the work, proclaiming the word of God. Let's continue. I want us to see the third main truth. I want us to see their faithfulness to the work. Verse 3, what does it say? "At the time, Tetiani, the governor of the province, beyond the river, who is that?" That's one of the Samaritans. We see these other individuals, these colleagues, they issued a decree. They said, "Who issued the decree?

Who said that you could rebuild the structure?" Verse 4, "Then we told them accordingly what the names of the men, who were doing the work." Right there in verse 4 and verse 5, it says that the eye of the Lord, the eye of God, was upon them, and they did not stop. So there was a faithfulness to the work. Here in these verses we will see a different turn of events as compared to chapter 4. Chapter 4, opposition. Chapter 5, opposition. But it's different now. Chapter 4, the opposition, led to a massive delay of work. 16 years. Listen, this delay was as deep and wide as the Grand Canyon.

Imagine laying the foundations of the altar, the foundations of the temple, and walking away. 16 years. I'll give you an example. It's in the form of a question. There are probably only a couple of people that can answer it accurately. How many years did this church, Nola Baptist Church, lay in disrepair? But praise God, He has sent us, He has sent people, He has sent Brother Keith and I, and He has sent you to rebuild this work. Now, their faithfulness to this work, I want us to examine this situation. It's different than chapter 4. Three things in their faithfulness. First, the opposition. We see that in verse 3.

We see those adversaries step up. Now, you will notice these two individuals listed here. First is Tetianni. He was a governor, probably a Persian official, of the province of Samaria. And this other one that is mentioned in the colleagues, these are most likely high officials. And notice what they said. They said, "Who issued you a decree? Who issued you an official document?" Basically, they were saying in our language, "Who do you think you are to do this work?" So, there is opposition. Second, notice their faithfulness. Verse 4, what does it say? "Then we told them the names accordingly." Notice the exile's response.

They did not really answer the question. You see that? They sidestepped it. They just gave them the name of the men who were doing the work. Basically, they were saying, "You have no right to ask this question." You see? The adversaries, "Who issued you a decree? Who do you think you are?" And now, they issued the names of the men, and they said, "You have no right to answer this question. Ask this question." Simply, they were faithful to the work. And then, notice God's favor. Verse 5, "But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews.

They did not stop until a report should come to Darius." We will see later, they did write to the king. And then, a written reply, "By returned concerning them." And here in verse 5, we see that God's hand was on them in this seeming dangerous work. This simply says that they were under God's favor in the work. God was overseeing it. God was protecting it. God was overseeing them. And God was protecting them. God's favor here. So, we see the opposition, their faithfulness, in God's favor. Now, in these verses, I want to take a step back. I want us to look at the big picture here, observations about this faithfulness.

First, there was no observation while the exiles were building their homes. What did they do in that 16-year gap? Hagia says that they began to rebuild their homes because he rebuked them. "You were building your homes while the house of God is in disrepair. But while they were building their homes, there was no opposition. But only when they were building the house of God was there opposition." I don't have this in my notes, but I need to say it.

If we as Christians ignore the house of God and give a halfhearted effort to the work of God and the church of God and taking the gospel around the world, listen, if we just allow the work of God to sit here idle and we give our attention to our own lives, the enemy will not take notice. But if we roll up our sleeves to dive in headfirst to do the work of the church and kingdom work, that is when opposition will come to you. Second, in this big picture of this demonstrated faithfulness by the exiles baffled their enemies. They were shocked. Earlier in chapter four, their efforts to thwart the work were successful.

They struck fear in them, but now they could not strike fear. They were shocked. Third big picture, this father encouraged the exiles in their work. "The discouragement which had led them to quit for 16 years earlier only brought on more discouragement, but their faithfulness in the midst of opposition here only brought on encouragement to persist in the work." Now an application helping us observe these verses, I want us to see that if the people of God are to be faithful, listen, I mean long-term faithfulness. Listen people, it's not enough for us to be faithful a year or 10 years or 20 years.

I mean faithfulness, multi-generational faithfulness to the work of the church. If we're going to build a church and hand off to the next generation of victorious church and obedient church, listen, it will only come by the faithful provision of spiritual leaders. Spiritual leaders who were faithfully admonishing, encouraging, teaching, and loving and helping you as the people of God. Notice the order, the men of God, the prophets, the prophecies of God, and then what do we see that energize them to get into the work of God again and afresh and anew. But notice at the end of verse 2, what does it say?

"And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them." So what do we see? Those prophets prophesied, energized the people, and yet in the work the prophets of God were side by side. And look, if this work of the church is going to be faithful, it only will succeed if the church has faithful men of God to faithfully do the work. And this work again is a multi-generational work. Now as I conclude, I want to read you a little story. I want to give you a little story that will help illustrate some of what we've looked at. I seek to use good illustration. I seek to use good examples that help solidify what God is teaching us.

Sometimes I'm more successful at doing that, but this past few weeks I've been encouraged in my own spare time. I've been listening to some oral biographies that have been given in the form of preaching from a well-known pastor. Many of you are familiar with him. His name is John Piper. And so what I'm going to read to you is his material. It's about an individual, a very famous Christian named John Bunyan. You might be familiar with John Bunyan. He wrote the Pilgrim's Progress. But John Bunyan was one of the great Puritans. He really came about at the beginning of the Puritan movement there in England.

If you really want to have some dates that will help you with that, the Puritans really burst on the scene about 1660, and they really lasted until about 1760. But John Bunyan was a great man of God. By trade he was what was called a tinkerer. He was just a tradesman. He worked with metals. He was of the poor class, and he was very uneducated, had very little education even into his adulthood. But because of preaching the gospel and because he was a non-conformist in that day, he spent two times in prison. The first time he spent 12 years in prison. The second time it was about a year.

But history tells us that after 10 years of marriage, he had four children. One of them was born blind, and his first wife dies. Now we do not know the name of his first wife, but his first wife dies and he remarries very quickly. She was a little younger than he was, and then after about a year of marriage, he was thrown into prison for 12 years. When he was thrown into prison, his second wife Elizabeth was pregnant, and she was left in charge of the four children and one of them being blind. We have an incredible account of how she handled this. Biographers, people who have written have given us this account.

Like I said, this was about a year after John's imprisonment, she goes to the authorities to try to seek his release. Now this is a very uneducated poor woman. As a matter of fact, it was in August of 1661. She had already been to London with one petition and now she went with another adventure trying to seek his release. Now notice this back and forth between the judges and this woman. This will help illustrate some of what I want us to see. They ask Elizabeth, his wife, "Would he stop preaching?" That's why he was in prison.

She says, "My Lord, he dares not leave off preaching as long as he can speak." Then they say, "What is the need of talking?" There is need for this, my lords, for I have four small children and I cannot help themselves. They cannot help themselves, of which one is blind and we have nothing to live upon but the charity of good people. Matthew Hale, one of the judges with pity, asks if she really has four children being that she is so young. "My Lord, I am but a mother-in-law or a stepmother to them, having not been married to him yet two full years.

Indeed, I was with child when my husband was first apprehended, but being young and unaccustomed to such things, I, being swayed at the news, fell into labor and so continued in labor for eight days and then delivered the child, but it died." Hale was moved but the other judges were hardened and spoke against him. "He is a mere tinker," they are speaking slandrously about its trade. "Yes, and because he is a tinker and a poor man, therefore he is despised and cannot have justice." Notice our boldness. One Mr. Chester is enraged and says that Bunyan will preach and do as he wishes. He preaches nothing but the Word of God, she says. Mr.

Twizden in a rage, "He runneth up and down and doeth harm." You see the false accusations there, much like we see in Ezra. "No, my Lord, it is not so. God hath owned him and has done much good by him." The angry man said, "His doctrine is the doctrine of the devil." See those false accusations? She replied, "My Lord, when the righteous judge shall appear, it will be known that his doctrine is not the doctrine of the devil." What do we see? John Bunyan bears the burden of false accusations. The leaders of the day who could have set him free accused him of being, listen, of the devil and preaching a demonic gospel, and that's not the case.

So what do I want you to see here? This is bearing under false accusations and all John Bunyan had to do to Seeker's Release was say this, "I will preach no more." His wife Elizabeth bore under these false accusations. Now I want you to see some more truth here out of this biography. This will help illustrate the fact that he was a faithful man. This will help you see that he was a faithful man and minister. History tells us that in 1655, it was when the matter of his conversion was settled. If you know his story, he spent years under conviction, under heavy conviction of his lost condition.

He was involved in a church and he was asked to exhort the church. History says that when he exhorted the church, a great preacher was born because, listen, it became very evident that that was his gift. He would not be licensed as a pastor until 17 years later. But his popularity as a powerful lay preacher exploded. The extent of his work grew. This is a quotation, "When the country understood that the tinkerer had turned preacher, John Brown, a biographer, tells us, they came to hear the word by hundreds and that from all parts." Another testimony, a comb maker, another tradesman in London said, "Mr.

Bunyan preached and he preached to in such a way that they would admire, people would admire him and they would weep for joy and they would give him mighty affections in the days of toleration." See, there was a period there where they were tolerated. "A day's notice would get a crowd of 1200 to hear him preach at seven o'clock in the morning on a weekday." And what do we see? This faithful preacher, once in prison, a whole congregation of 60 people, they were arrested and they were brought in at night. And we could go on. What do we see? We see this faithful man. One more thing I want to read you.

I don't know if you've ever heard of this individual, but John Owen, who was a faithful and very famous Puritan theologian who served the king's court. Let me read you this quote. "The great Puritan theologian and contemporary of John Bunyan, John Owen, when asked by the king, King Charles, why he, a great scholar, went to hear an uneducated tinkerer preach, Owen replied, 'I would willingly exchange my learning for the tinkerer's power of touching men's hearts.'" What do we see? He was a faithful man. And although he was famous for writing the Pilgrim's Progress, if you study his life, he was a very faithful pastor.

And then I want to show you real quickly that he was faithful to the work. Faithful to the work. What do we see? God spared him so many years during those turbulent times. And he was spared until August of 1688. History tells us that he traveled some 50 miles to London to preach. And listen to this. Isn't this very pastoral? "And to help make peace between a man in his church, a man, between a man in his church and an alienated father." What do we see? Pastoral work. He was successful in both of those missions. He brought about restoration.

But after a trip in an outlying district, he returned to London on horseback and in very difficult reign, what does it say? The history tells us that he fell sick. He took on a very violent fever and he died in 1688, August the 31st at age 60, not even at home. No doubt his family didn't even know that he passed away. But notice this. Upon his death, the inventory of Bunyan's property after his death added up to a total of 42 pounds and 19 shillings. It's not very much money. This is more than an average tinkerer would leave, but it suggests that most of the profits from the Pilgrim's Progress had gone to printers or pirated editions.

He was born poor. He never let himself become wealthy in his life. But what do we see? Faithful to the work. What am I trying to illustrate to us tonight? Just this brief haphazard look at the life of John Bunyan. He successfully and faithfully bore accusations, false accusations. He became a very faithful man, a very faithful Puritan, a very faithful pastor and preacher of the Word. And he was faithful to his work even to the day that he died. Now church, as I close, I want to say on behalf of myself and Brother Keith, no matter what, no matter where we go, the church must be governed by men such as this.

I do not claim to say that I can fill the shoes of a man like John Bunyan. We can only hope to attain the level of obedience and faithfulness of a hero such as this. But the church must be led and governed and cared for by men such as this. And going back to the text in Ezra, going back to the story with the exiles, they achieved their greatest success under Hagia and Zechariah, those wonderful and faithful men of God, persistence in rebuilding. And if we are going to be persistent in this work, not just for 10 years, not just for 20 years, but for the next generations to come, if the Lord wills, we must be persistent.

Father, thank you for these passages. Thank you for these.