Success in Rebuilding

Well take your Bible tonight, turn to the book of Ezra. I'm sure some of you already have because of our scripture reading. Like I said earlier, we will be in chapter 5 and chapter 6. Just like last week, we'll be straddling two chapters. And we're going to finish up chapter 5 and then we're going to cover all of chapter 6. And some of you might think, "Oh wow, we're going to cover all of chapter 6." I've said all along this is not a true verse by verse study. There are lots of historical details that we don't have to spend that much time in. And I'm not just hitting the high spots. I'm hitting more than the high spots.

But I'm taking it as the Lord brings it to the table for me. And it's speaking to me during the week and even after I'm preaching them. And again, the title of the series, the theme of the series is "Reform and Renewal in God's People." And we already see that all through the messages that we have had thus far. Now if you look back at our past two evening messages, you will see that they go together with the message tonight. They tell the story when you look at these three messages together. I know the first two messages were important. They returned. But then when they returned, they got to work.

But they tell the story of these exiles coming out of Babylonian captivity. And they're rebuilding the temple and they're renewing not just worship, but temple worship. I hope that you know that the temple was the very center of their activity in their worship of the one true God. But let me go back and mention the title of those messages. Remember the renewal of worship. When they got back and they began to rebuild, they rebuilt the altar and they rebuilt the foundation of the temple. And then we saw opposition to rebuilding. Remember those adversaries discouraged them. They discouraged them in such a manner that they quit. They lost heart.

Their hands became faint. And that opposition really did work. And then last week we saw the persistence in rebuilding. They restarted the rebuilding through the prophets that God had provided. And they persisted in that rebuilding and persisted through that opposition. The opposition didn't go away, but they were able to persist through it. Now tonight's message really finishes this story. And what I mean by this story, we see an unfolding story. And tonight's message finishes if you know the Book of Ezra, the first half of the book. The first half of the book is comprised of chapters one through six.

Everything around chapters one through six or around that first wave of exiles that came. Zerubbabel was the one that brought them back or led that group of exiles back. And then in chapter seven, that begins the second half of the book. In chapter seven records Ezra bringing back that second wave of exiles. And then we're going to see Ezra institute reforms in the life of the people. And Ezra, if you know Ezra's role in this situation, you know that he is really, really used to bring about spiritual reform in their lives. And you might say, well, that's what we've been seeing.

Really, we've not been seeing reform as much as we've been seeing renewal and rebuilding. And I can't wait to get into Ezra's work in the life of the people. Now the title of the message tonight is success in rebuilding. And I think you see what I mean by these messages fitting together. We see the renewal of worship, opposition to rebuilding, persistence in rebuilding, and then success in rebuilding. You see the passages that we're going to cover. I'm not going to read all of these passages. Just time will not permit. And I would bore you and it would be very labor intensive to try to read them all.

And any time we have a study such as this, I charge you, I encourage you to go back and read these passages on your own. After the message, I think if you read through them, take some time this week, it will really speak to you and it will all come together. But we see the passages that we're going to cover. Last week we looked at verses 1 through 5 there in chapter 5. We saw that the work resumed and then we're going to pick up in verse 6. We're going to cover the remainder of the chapter and then we're going to get over into chapter 6. Now, you see the truths that we're going to cover. We're going to look at their validation.

They are validated. We're going to see how they're validated in many different ways. We're going to see their dedication. And then we're going to see their celebration. And anytime I give you main truths, there's a lot to be fleshed out around those main truths. I encourage you to take notes. If you have trouble with those notes, don't get bogged down in your note taking. I'll be glad to help you. I can provide you with the message notes. Many people ask me for those and I don't mind sharing those with you because like I always say, I want you to get all that the Lord would want you to have.

So let's look at main truth number 1, their validation. Look at the text with me. You will see in chapter 5 verse 6, you will see that their adversaries write another letter. They've done this before, but they write another letter to protest the work of the exiles. And they write another letter. And the governor there, Tetiani, is the one who heads that up in all of his cogs leagues. And they write a letter to King Darius. And they write a letter protesting what is going on. And then we will see as we go through this main truth, I'm going to touch on different verses and you'll see what's taking place in this situation.

Now, hearing their validation, we have a large portion of scripture. I've already given you most of the overview. They write a letter. They send it to Darius. And they're surprised. What I mean by surprised, their adversaries think that the king is going to try to stop them. They want to stop them. Remember, this has been a long ordeal, 15 years, 16 years. But we will see that their fighting against God backfires the adversaries. It backfires on them. Now, there are three things in this validation I want us to see. First, there's an accusatory letter. We see this in verse 6 through 17.

It says, "A copy of the letter, which Tetiani, the governor, and all of these colleagues," it says, verse 7, "they sent a report back in which it was written. Thus, to Darius the king," see? They wrote a letter. They addressed the king. And then we see at the end of the verses, verse 17, "and now if it pleases the king, let us search be conducted in the king's treasury, your treasure of the house, which is there in Babylon." In other words, they are saying, the Jews are saying, "We have permission to do this work." And they are saying, "King, search out the records to see if what they say is true." And then this continues on in chapter 6, as King Darius does search the records, and he sends a reply back.

So this is an accusatory letter. Now, in these verses, we see the character or the flavor of the letter. What I mean by that, we see the character, the intentions, the flavor of the letter. Verse 6 states that this was Tetiani the governor. I've mentioned that. And the construction of verse 8 seems to indicate that they were saying, "King, as we were passing by," we noticed a few things.

Look at verse 8, "Let it be known to the king that we have gone to the prophets of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is being built with huge stones and beams, and they are being laid in the walls, and the work is going on with great care, succeeding in their hands, successful in their hands." So the construction of the language seems to indicate that they were just passing by. But actually, we know that they were spying on men, and they had been spying on them in the entire situation.

One Bible commentator that I read this week pointed out in verse 8 that the words, "huge stones and beams and walls," would indicate that they were trying to tell the king that the exiles were possibly preparing for battle or defensive positions. Again, that gives us the character, the flavor of the letter. In chapter 4, we saw that they accused them of being very rebellious, but that wasn't the case, and this would fall in the same vein of thought. What are they saying? "Oh, King, we just happen to be passing by, and it looks like they're building fortifications." And that just shows us the flavor of the letter.

In verses 13 through 15, Tatyani the governor was saying, "They said King Cyrus told them to do the work." You go back and look at those verses, that's what he's saying. He's writing and saying, "The Jews said they had permission to do this work," indicating that they did not believe their claim and that they were accusing them of making a false claim and having no authority for the work. And then in verse 17, which I mentioned earlier, "They said to the king, 'Please, King, search out the royal records and see if this so-called decree was made.'" So we see this accusatory letter. We know their intentions. We've already learned that.

They're enemies and they're adversaries, and the character and the flavor of this letter tells us that they were against the work. They were accusing in this letter. Second, notice that there is evidence that is found. Chapter 6 verses 1 through 5, "Then King Darius issued a decree, and a search was made in the archives where the treasury was stored," where the treasures were stored in Babylon. And if we go on down to verse 5, they searched the records, and lo and behold, they found those records. So here in these verses, we do see that King Darius, he did decree that a search of the records to be conducted. Now what was found?

In the end of verse 2, it reads that a memorandum was found. Look at verse 2. Look at verse 2. It says, "Then in Ekbana, in the fortress, which was in the province of Media, a scroll was found, and there it was written in it as follows, a memorandum in the first year of King Cyrus." Now why do I mention this word "memorandum"? The English Standard reads "scroll," the King James reads "roll," but the New American reads "memorandum." This is a key word. This key word here, it is a word that describes an administrative document of decisions made which were still unsettled.

This document was an open document, waiting on these actions found in the document to be completed. And in this document, there is a description of everything the Jews were to do and were doing. Nothing had been changed. It was exactly like Darius had written it so many years before, and this was an open document. It was on the shelf, it had been on the shelf waiting to be completed. So there's the evidence that was found. Third, the protection, there was protection and provision made. Look at verse 6.

This is the response, "Now therefore, Tatyani, governor, all these colleagues, all these men," they're listed, their names have been coming up all through this situation. Verse 3, "Keep away from there." This is the key. "Leave this work on the house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover, I issue a decree concerning what you are to do for the elders of Judah in the rebuilding of the house of God. The full cost is to be paid to these people from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces beyond the river and that without delay." So what do we see?

There is protection given. Verse 12, "And may the God who has caused this name," excuse me, I lost my place. "And may the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who attempts to change it so as to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem." And previously, verse 11, he says, "And I issue a decree that any man who violates this edict, a timber shall be drawn from his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a refuge heap," or a refuge heap on this account. So this is great protection and great provision. Notice that there was complete protection in verses 6 through 7.

Notice that every official that had been a hindrance was named and they were ordered to stay away. This word "keep away" can be translated to "stay at a distance." King Darius was saying, "Keep away from them." Second, there was a great provision that was made. Verse 8 tells us that they were ordered to provide. Verse 8, the end of verse 8 says that they were to supply these needs without delay. Verse 9 reads, "Given to them daily without fail." In other words, they were to supply all of those needs without fail daily. And then third, there was a threat made to those who did not heed the order.

This was a punishment that was a normal cultural punishment for such disobedience to the king's edict. So what do we see? They are validated. There is an accusatory letter. There was evidence found that they were acting in accordance to what King Cyrus had said. And there was protection and provision that was made. Now, with all that we've looked at with this validation, I want to step back and I want to highlight two big things here. First, God preserved a document which completely validated their work.

Well over 15 years later, other kings had come and gone, but Darius searches the treasury and he finds the document, and look, God preserved that document that validated their work. And this was the sovereign work of God. God's sovereignty was on display here because God had said it. He was going to carry this work through. Second, I want you to see, they now received provision for the work without polluting the work. Remember earlier they were tempted to allow the Samaritans to get involved with that work? They would not let them come in and pollute the work.

The Samaritans would have polluted the work of God, the Word of God, and the people of God. But now there is provision without pollution. Earlier, if they had partnered with him, everything would have been polluted. But now they get help and much more. I don't know if you realized what verse 8 said. The king said, "All the taxes on their side of the river give it to them." Did you notice that? Isn't that good? He's saying, "Supply all of their needs from the treasury," which is what Cyrus said.

"You stay away from them." And now he's saying, "And besides that, all of the taxes on that side give it to them." Now notice what happens in looking at these two things. God sovereignly provided. God sovereignly protected. And because they would not let the Samaritans get involved and pollute the work, not only did they have those provisions, but they had an abundance. They had those provisions and then some. Isn't that good? That's just so good. That is validation. If they were struggling before, they are not struggling now. If they are down in the dumps before, they are on cloud 9 there. If their faith is weakened, now it is strengthened.

Because they can see what we had sung earlier. They knew the Lord was on their side. Now, in application, I want us to see a few things here. For us as Christians in the church, in the work of the church, and what we are doing here, we must see that both validation and provision must come from God. We must allow God to validate our work. And if we are not careful, we can seek validation. And if we are not careful in seeking validation, we can express faithlessness. We trust wholly and totally in God. And no matter what people may say, no matter what our circumstances may look like, it is God who validates us and validates us at His time.

And even if He never validates us to our family and our friends in the world around us, we must hold on to the faith to do the work of God, God's way. And not only that, we must see that God can and will provide all of our needs. God can and will provide all of our needs. The biggest problem is not the provisions. The biggest problem is that we must be willing to strike out and accomplish great things for God. One of the things that I pray, I pray in prayer meetings, I pray privately, I pray this with Brother Keith, and I mean it.

I say, "Lord, help us to reach our potential and then enlarge our potential." With that said, I want to ask you a question, not necessarily to be answered out loud, but answer it to yourself. Maybe you've never thought about it. But do you believe that a little church like Nola Baptist Church can accomplish great and mighty and wonderful things for the Kingdom? Remember, we learned about those exiles. They were a ragtag group. When we study church history, we see that God has used ordinary, common, normal people to do great things for God. I mean, just look and study church history. Sometimes God has used people that everybody overlooked.

And look, if we strike out, and I'm not talking about on our own, under the leadership of the Spirit, being willing to do great things for the Kingdom, things that would be unheard of, God can provide because He owns it all. And for these Jews, He made sure that the right document was stored away, unhindered, untouched, unaltered, that would validate them, and through that document came great provision to do His work. Let's move on. Let's notice their dedication. Verses 13 through 18. Tatyani the governor, all of these colleagues, what did they do? They obeyed the king. Wasn't that awesome? Their enemies turned out to be their servants.

I'm sure they loved that. Verse 14, the elders of the Jews, they were successful. They were successful in building through the prophesying of Hagia and the other prophet Zechariah. They finished the temple. They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel. Verse 15, and the temple was completed on the right date. So what do we see? We see in these verses their dedication. So here we see that in these verses they finally do complete the temple. Remember there had been a 16 year gap in finishing? The first wave of opposition came in Chapter 4, and then they had to work through spiritual leadership.

God provided spiritual leadership, and they worked when that spiritual leadership came, not only to restart the work, but to complete the work. That opposition never went away. They couldn't work around it. They had to work through it. Now we see this dedication. Two observations about this dedication. First of all, successful completion. We've already read that in the text. No doubt the provision by Darius was a jump start to not only the work, but their hearts. No doubt it had to strengthen them and encourage them. They had to see this great provision as a wonderful gift from God. That validation, and there was successful completion.

Now, about this completion, I want you to notice three things. Notice the work of the prophets. Verse 14, and the elders of the Jews were successful in building through. Notice that word through. Through the prophesying of Hagia and Zechariah. This is very important. The work was restarted through their work. Their work as in the work of the prophets. It was sustained through the work of the prophets, and it was completed through the work of the prophets. This is extremely important for us to see not just the physical work, but the spiritual work of the prophets. Part of that completion. Also notice the work of the people.

Verse 14 tells us this. We see the work of the elders who were in charge of the people working there on the temple. They rolled up their sleeves and they got the work. And then we see the protection and the provision from the king. We see that in verse 14. Here we see a repeat of the decrees of the king. We see the names of Cyrus Darius and Artis Erxes. But notice where this protection and provision came from. Verse 14 tells us that this was first a command from God and second a command from the king. The king issued the command, but it was only because it came from God.

You see, there was protection and provision from the kings that aided in the completion. There was the people working on the temple, and that brought about the completion. And then there was the work of the prophets to energize them spiritually. And when their hearts were right with God, then their hands fell into the work. So there was a successful completion. All of these came together for success. Second, notice the celebration of dedication. We see that in verses 16 through 18. The sons of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the exiles celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.

Then we see in verse 17 all of the offerings they made and a sin offering for all of Israel, 12 male goats corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel. And then they had the priests and their divisions in the right place. Notice, according to what was written in the law of Moses. So they celebrated the dedication. It's important to notice this word "dedication." This temple was built by human hands for sacred purposes. They were separating the temple from common uses to be used for the worship of God and the glory of God. And it is important to see that they understood the necessity of doing this.

Two things out of this celebrated dedication. Notice they celebrated. Based on what we have learned so far, you might say that the exiles, specifically the exiles from Babylon. I want you to see that. Who celebrated the exiles that came out of Babylon? But I want you to notice something else. There's another group that's listed. Look back at verse 16. In the sons of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the exiles. You might not have noticed that, but that answers this. Who celebrated? We know who the exiles are. Those were the ones who were in Babylonian captivity. They were the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

But why does it mention the sons of Israel? The sons of Israel, those are those who were taken by the Assyrians over 100 years earlier. So what that tells us is it was the Israelites and the exiles who had gone into Babylonian captivity. God brought some back from Assyrian captivity and from Babylonian captivity. And if verse 16 seems vague, verse 17 is not. Because look at verse 17. They offered for the dedication of this temple of God, 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs. And as a sin offering for all Israel, 12 male goats corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel. There were some from every tribe that were there.

What am I showing you? The celebration was celebrated by all of Israel. You see, it wasn't just two of the tribes. Notice how they celebrated. They offered sacrifices. They offered sacrifices and they made a sin offering corresponding to the 12 tribes of Israel according to the law of Moses. So they celebrated. 12 tribes. And notice how they celebrated according to the law of Moses. Now again, like we did earlier, I want to take a step back and I want to highlight two big things here. First, they made more progress when they had spiritual instruction from God's appointed prophets. You notice that? We learned that last week.

That's why it's important to see all of these messages together. They fizzled out, it seemed, when they did not have the prophets. But then when the prophets came energizing them spiritually, we see that they had more progress under their spiritual leadership. This tells us that when their hearts were right with God and their hearts were energized by the work of God, then their hands were strengthened. The second big thing is this. Their dedication was a true dedication because they did it according to the word of God, which was mentioned as the law of Moses. It was the holy temple. It was sacred.

And they did everything according to the law of Moses. In application, I want us to move today to the work of the church. And I want us to see the example here. So relevant. I want us to see that the work of the church flounders, the work of the church flops, and the work of the church fails when they are not true men of God, elders of God leading the church. They have the prophets, and we have the appointed elders. God called men. And when the church does not have strong biblical leadership, she flounders and flops, and she fails. And the work of the church succeeds. The church is victorious.

When they are true, God called men leading that work. And to add to that statement, the church reaches the pinnacle of kingdom achievement when those leading the church do not settle for anything less than God's perfect will. Isn't that what happened with Zechariah and Hagia? What was the pinnacle of kingdom achievement? Finishing the temple. Halfway, half of the job done would not cut it. In the church, she reaches the pinnacle of kingdom achievement when she is led by men of God, and there are people of God in the life of the church that are energized by their leadership to settle for nothing but God's perfect will for them.

And listen to the work of the church. It must be pure instead of polluted, and it must be dedicated as sacred rather than common according to the Word of God. I was reminded of this truth this week. I was on the telephone with a friend of mine, a good Christian brother. I was asking him to pray about some things that we are praying over in the life of this church. And I have a few guys I value their prayer and input. He was telling me about a guy that he knows that is seeking to revitalize a church. Anytime I hear the story of a person who is seeking to revitalize a sick and weak church, I always perk up because that's what we are doing here.

He told me about this individual, and he began to tell me about certain things that this individual was doing. He was in a depressed area, had a lot of things culturally working against him. But I was grieved by some of the things that he shared with me. Because I think of a lack of knowledge and understanding, and because there are certain people in the life of this particular church who do not want to do it God's way, I begin to listen and I begin to hear that this individual, although he might want to revitalize and rebirth the church, he is going about it in a polluted manner. He is resorting, I am afraid, to worldly methods.

Adding a little bit of the world, adding some of the things of men and man into his efforts. I pointed that out to my friend. He was telling me about some of the leadership in the life of the church. There is a deacon structure in the life of the church. I am not against deacons, but I am against any structure, any structure of leadership that is unbiblical. Their approach to the work of the church is unbiblical. And he was telling me how he was having to work against them. And right away I said to my friend, his work is polluted.

It is polluted by worldly methods, and it is polluted by men in the life of the church who are supposed to be leading the church who are not right. My friend was grieved. As a matter of fact, I shared with him truths that we were learning and have been learning. And I basically said, the Samaritans and Samaritan ways have come into the life of this church. And as he is wanting to rebuild and renew and rebirth that church, he is running his race, seemingly in vain. Because we have got to do this work God's way. What do we see? They dedicated the temple. They dedicated the work. This was a sacred work and a sacred task and a sacred temple.

And they did it according to the Word of God. Remember, they were the people of God doing the work of God based on the Word of God for the glory of God. So, their dedication. We must always realize that we cannot relax. And in every way that we approach this work, we must do it God's way. I want us to continue main truth number three. Their celebration. Verses 19 through 22. Your Bible probably says something over with a heading over that. The Passover or the Passover celebration of the Passover observed. And the exiles observed the Passover. The priests, the Levites, they purified themselves together. All of them were pure.

Then they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all of the exiles, both for their brothers, the priests and for themselves, and the sons of Israel who returned from exile. And all those who had separated themselves from the impurity of the nations of the land to join them to seek the Lord, the God of Israel. And they ate the Passover. So we see this Passover celebration. What I want us to see is here, we see after the completion of the temple, they celebrated the Passover. And you might say that they celebrated at the dedication. That's true. They did celebrate at the dedication.

But here we see that they celebrated according to the Jewish calendar. Verses 19 tells us that they were true to the Jewish cycle of compulsory celebrations. And the Passover was the most important one of all. And it was the next one on the calendar. So they're being obedient to the Word. And there is a celebration here. Now, I want us to see some things about this Passover. First of all, with the Passover, this is the past work of God. Part of the Passover celebration was the Jews remembering that God had done a great work for them when he called them out of Egyptian captivity. Y'all know that story?

God was going to judge the nation of Egypt. He was going to judge from the house of Pharaoh all the way down to the lowest slave. And he was going to kill the firstborn. And what does it say? The Scriptures said that God commanded through Moses that they slaughter an innocent lamb. And they were to take that blood of that innocent lamb, and they were to put it over the doorposts, the door frames of their homes. And when that death angel would come through, as the death angel saw that blood, the death angel would pass over that home. And that home would not experience judgment and death. And that's part of the celebration.

They remembered how God passed over them and how God judged Egypt. They experienced that wonderful Passover. So they remembered the past work of God that their forefathers experienced. Second, then they had the Passover lamb itself. Within the Passover celebration, the Passover lamb was central. And there was a central theological theme within that Passover celebration. And that central theme was propitiation. During the Exodus, God was judging Egypt, as we've already said. And all who lived in Egypt, God was going to slaughter the firstborn in the household of Egypt as judgment.

The Jews were to slaughter that perfect innocent lamb, place the blood over their doorposts and door frames, and that death angel would pass over their homes when he saw the blood. And the blood of that lamb turned away God's wrath and judgment. And that blood was a propitiation for the obedient, faithful Jews. And I want you to see that, the role, the purpose of that Passover lamb. And look at verse 20. What does it say? Verse 20 says that they celebrated the Passover, and they celebrated the Passover by slaughtering a lamb. But notice who celebrated. Verse 20 through 21, the exiles and the Israelites.

In the end of verse 21 says, "Those who were of the people, who were of the impurity." Those were the proselytes. Those were the ones who were the non-Jews who were called proselytes. So what do we see? The exiles, those coming from Babylon, the Israelites coming from Assyria. And notice we see the proselytes, the non-Jews, who were trying and were worshipping the one true God. They were celebrating that Passover lamb, that great propitiation. So the past work they celebrated, they celebrated with the lamb. And then third, notice their present circumstances. This had to relate to their present circumstances. God once again had delivered them.

This was a very important time in the life of the Jews. They had been delivered from the hands of their enemies, so the Passover celebration here would have been a lot more meaningful. God delivered them in the past from Egypt, and he had done it again by his good grace. So this did pertain to their present circumstances. And then fourth, what do we see? We know that we see the person of Jesus. Of course, we do know that the Passover is a picture of Jesus. He was the perfect Passover lamb. He became the propitiation for our sins.

First John 2.2 reads, "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Hebrews 2.10 reads, "Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, by speaking to his humanity, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest, by speaking of his deity in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people." And this Passover was a picture of Jesus. So notice the celebration. There's the work of God. This total work of God. Then there's the Passover lamb. There's their present circumstances. The picture of Christ.

And just like we've done, I want to take a step back and I want to highlight two major things here. First, they dedicated the temple to God according to the Word of God. And they built it according to the Word of God. And the work prospered under the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God. And they dedicated it according to the Word of God. That must be remembered. It was central. And that's why they celebrated the Passover. Because it was the Word of God who commanded them to celebrate this at the appropriate time. Second, they celebrated the Passover, which was the most important of all of the Jewish celebrations.

It was a picture of what God had done in the past. And it was a picture of what God was doing for them currently. And we see that it was a picture of the Messiah that was to come. In an application, I want us to see that the work of the church must be dedicated in like manner. The work of the church and the worship of the church must be according to the Word of God. And I want us to see that the central message of the cross of the church must be Christ, Jesus crucified. It must be the Gospel. Listen to 1 Corinthians 2. This is a description of Paul is how he came and ministered with the Corinthians.

And he said, "And I, when I came to you brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Christ Jesus and Him crucified." And that must be the message that we celebrate. That must be our proverbial broken record. That must be the continual song that we sing. Christ and Christ crucify. Remember my conversation with my good friend. And he was telling me of his friend who was trying to reform the church. And he was leaning on worldly methods. And I explained to him that that would not work. I explained to him that God would not bless that message.

Because the church cannot have the Gospel plus. God is a jealous God. And he desires glory for himself. God is a self-centered God. And that sounds sinful to say that to some of you. But he and he alone can be. Because he desires glory. And when the church preaches the Gospel and the Gospel alone, the great Passover message, when that becomes the central message of the church, then and only then can God save and therefore get glory through that work. And I use this phrase with my friend. I said it like this. And I'm sure I heard it somewhere else. The church must proclaim the naked Gospel. Nothing else.

And it is the naked Gospel that draws people. It's the naked Gospel that convinces and convicts people of their lostness. And it's the naked Gospel that saves. And listen, anything other than that we must die to. And if the Gospel won't save, then we must be failures. It was unheard of for the Jews to leave out a celebration of the Passover. It was unheard of. Why? It was the most important celebration on their calendar. And it's a picture of Jesus. And I'll tell you this as your pastor, and I can speak for Brother Keith on this.

If we're going to add to the Gospel, if we're going to dress up the Gospel, if we're going to repackage it in a worldly way, I quit right now. If we're not going to proclaim the Gospel and the Gospel only, a bloody Christ, listen, we might as well fold up shop and go to the lake. Why? Because we have no hope to reach the masses nor reach the world. And that was their celebration. They celebrated the Passover Lamb. Now, as we move to the conclusion, what we've been learning in these messages are very relevant, and they need to be digested. Listen together.

If you've had trouble listening and digesting these messages, missed any of them, I encourage you to go back and listen to them, maybe in your spare time, maybe as you're driving, maybe as you're doing housework in your home or doing yard work, we have modern technology that can help us, that they can be digested together. And if we miss one truth, listen, we miss the message. All of these truths come together, and they need to be solidified in our minds and in our hearts.

And I want to take some time real briefly as we close to make observations about the Jews' overall experience, their overall journey, their overall journey of success and failure and obedience and ultimate success. First of all, rebuilding takes faith and obedience. What was the object of their faith? They were being obedient to the Word of God. Their faith was, they did not have a faith in something abstract and out in the air. They did not have a faith in their own ideas. It was the Word of God. There was an object to their faith. It was to fulfill the Word of God.

And remember, it was the Spirit of God that energized them to obey the Word of God. And this rebuilding by the Jews took faith and obedience. Long journey, no protection, a rag-tack group, but they had faith in the Word of God, and they had to obey that, no matter what they felt like. Rebuilding takes hard work and time. It didn't come easy. I mean, they had to roll up their sleeves, a lot of blood, sweat and tears. No doubt they collapsed in their beds at night from exhaustion. It was hard work, and it took time. Now, we know they had a delay. We're going to speak about that delay. But this took a long time.

Rebuilding takes persistence and opposition. They had to persist. They had to persist. They had to persist. If God is sovereign over these circumstances, don't you know that God knew that that opposition was there? Listen, nothing came by God's throne and took him by surprise. Somehow, someway, God allowed that opposition there for a reason. And looking back, it was to teach them persistence. God could have taken care of that opposition right away, but he allowed it. Rebuilding takes godly leadership and obedience to the Word of God. Notice how the work changed when those prophets came on the scene.

If you look at the book of Hagia, Zechariah, what did they do? I'm telling you, they jumped on them with both feet. What do you think you're doing? Building your house when you have not finished God's house? And they energized them to fulfill the Word of God. And they thrived under godly leadership. And they were able to obey the Word of God because of that. And the fifth thing, rebuilding takes a singular mindset. What was their mindset? What was their motive? It was all for the glory of God. It was for the glory of God. They knew that this was for the worship of the one true God, a testimony to the one true God.

Listen, if you would have cut them, they would have bled the glory of God. And God had done that work in them. And I don't know if you realize this, but this relates to us in every way. If we're going to rebuild this church, and we are rebuilding, if we're going to allow God to work in us to create, and if we're going to allow God to work in us to build a victorious church, a successful church, a gospel preaching church, a church that grows godly families, strong families, led by men to reach the next generation, to impact all over the world. It's going to take great faith and great obedience to the Word of God.

And it's going to take hard work. It's going to take rolling up our sleeves. It's going to take sacrifice. And it will take time. This is not a fast food microwave work. It takes time. And it's going to take persistence. It's going to take a stick to itness because opposition is going to come into your life. Opposition is going to come into my life. Opposition is going to come against us. And God allows opposition for a purpose. And when opposition hits us square in the face, we ought to look to Him and say, "God, you're trying to do something in me.

At least you're trying to teach me perseverance in the work." And it's going to take godly leadership. Brother Keith and I, we have a great task at hand. We have big shoes to fill. We've got to be these kind of men of God. We've got to be the Hagias and the Zechariahs. And we've got to lead you. And we've got to teach you. But we can't push you. We've got to lead you to be obedient to the Word of God. And our singular mindset must be to build a church that we would be so proud to give to Jesus when He comes back. Maybe not large in number. But obedient to the plan that He has for us. And every church throughout all the ages are different.

But the true church, the victorious church, the glory of God-focused church, is the one who takes the church, and they're obedient to the work of the church and the plan that God has given for them. Now I don't know about you, but I am more excited about kingdom work. I am more excited about the work of the church than I have been in a long time. Because I believe God wants to raise up for Himself a church that will do great and mighty things for the glory of God. And not just in the next five years, but in the generations to come if He does not come back sooner. All for the glory of God.

And I hope and pray that we can have the success in rebuilding that is marked out for us. A lot of truth in these messages. Renewal of worship, opposition, persistence, and now we see success. Lord, may we be successful with what You have lined out for us.