The Sermon explores Ezra 7:1-10, arguing God raises scribes like Ezra to teach existing laws rather than prophets bringing new revelation. The speaker critiques dispensationalism for fostering bad eschatology and excessive financial support for Israel, while noting attendees attend Presbyterian churches due to a lack of courage regarding Black Lives Matter and COVID protocols. Ultimately, the message calls for balancing intellectual study with practical obedience, urging listeners to either become scribes or find guides to apply God's word effectively today. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Prophets Before and After Ezra00:13:13
All right, let's stand for the reading of God's word.
We are continuing our series through the book of Ezra.
Our text for today is Ezra chapter 7, verses 1 through 10.
I'll read the text in its entirety.
When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say, This is the word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying, Thanks be to God.
Again, one final time, our text for today is Ezra chapter 7, verses 1 through 10.
The Bible says this.
Now, after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, Ezra, the son of Sereriah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shalem, son of Zadok, son of Ahitab,
son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Marioth, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Buki, son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eliezer, son of Aaron, the chief priest.
This Ezra went up from Babylonia.
He was a scribe, skilled in the law of Moses, and 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 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 the word of the Lord.
All right, please be seated.
Amen.
I'm not going to reread the first couple verses.
Those names are tough.
But one takeaway from that, just I love that the Bible does this continually again and again and again because it's not a story.
It's not merely a narrative.
There are narratives in the Bible, there are stories, but it's not fiction.
It's not fantastical.
It is history, it's a record.
And I love how it ends with verse 6.
It says, after all these different names in his lineage, this Ezra, which one?
You know, because they didn't always use last names back then, and you didn't really necessarily have them.
Your last name was, you know, Joel, son of Edward.
You know, it was that kind of, you know, the father would have been the last name.
But in this case, they're like, hey, we're going to make it real clear.
This is history, this is record, it's not just a story.
Which Ezra?
This Ezra.
The son of, the son of, the son of, the son of, onward and upwards.
Lots of important names tracking all the way back to Aaron.
All right, so there are three main points that I want us to see in the text today.
Let's go ahead and start with this.
The Lord is faithful to raise up new leaders for a new day.
New leaders for a new day.
In your notes, I've written the following It is not until the seventh chapter that we finally meet with the man for whom this book of the Bible is named, namely Ezra.
Here we are in the seventh chapter, and this is really the first time that we come face to face with Ezra.
By this time, we are meant to assume that Zerubbabel and Jeshua have grown old and retired, or perhaps died.
Neither do we hear any more of Haggai and Zechariah.
We are meant to assume that they have finished their prophesying.
But when these useful instruments are laid aside, the cause of the Lord continues to go forth.
God remains faithful to raise up others to take their place.
Ezra here, and Nehemiah in the next book of the Bible that follows Ezra.
They both prove to be just as useful in their days for the will of God to be accomplished and the good of Israel as their predecessors were in their own days.
So that's the first thing that I feel like we see in the text that stood out to me is that we're being introduced to.
A new character, and it's the particular character that this book of the Bible is actually named for, Ezra.
And we see that his predecessors, they're at the end of their journey, their chapters have ended, but the overarching story of what God's doing, the narrative, God's will, it continues to go forward.
God is faithful to raise up leaders in each generation, particularly geared towards, there's always a common denominator, there's always faithfulness, faithfulness to his word, and faithfulness.
Righteous character and these kinds of things.
So, no matter where it is, what culture or what time period, there's going to be a few common denominators across the board for anyone that God raises up to be a leader.
But there are some, when it comes to the realm of gifting, there may be some unique giftings and particular traits that may be more suitable in one place at one particular time.
And one of the things that we'll see with Ezra as we move on to verse six, I want us to spend some time there, is that Ezra is very different.
His skill set, His learning, his education, his abilities, likely even his personality and many other traits.
Ezra is very different.
He has godly, righteous, moral character, just as his predecessors had, but he is very different in his learning and his skill set and his gifting from the Lord than those who came before him, especially Haggai and Zechariah.
So, this is Ezra chapter 7, verse 6.
It says this 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.
See, at this point, Haggai and Zechariah had finished their prophesying.
So you had certain, you know, different sets of leaders as Ezra is now coming onto the scene.
You had Zerubbabel, and we saw him in the first few chapters of the book of Ezra.
He was a prince.
In many ways, he was a leader among his people, Israel, when they were still in captivity in Babylon.
Many people looked up to him and admired him, many of the Israelites, and he helped kind of lead the way.
He was a civil ruler, a prince of some sort among his people as they were in Babylonian exile.
He goes with these exiles as they're released to go back to the land of Israel, and he helps leading Israel in a, well, in many ways.
Not divorce.
It's not that he just leads politically and he doesn't lead spiritually.
All these things are tied together.
But if we had to put him in a practical category, he would be more in a civil, political category.
Again, that's Zerubbabel.
Jeshua, he seems to be a priest, but there's also some civil capacities there.
But we have prophets that are very clearly in this church category Haggai and Zechariah.
They, you know, the book of Ezra, as we saw in chapter 5 and chapter 6, it says that they built the temple as Haggai and Zechariah were prophesying, that the word of the Lord was literally going forth, and it was God's word that was establishing this temple.
It was God's word that was making it happen, that was building a house for Himself.
The people were doing the work in the human sense, but they were invigorated and they were strengthened and they were pushed on by the very words of God spoken by these two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah.
But what we should notice is that Ezra is not another prophet.
Ezra comes on the scene, and Ezra, as we see in our text, he is a scribe.
Again, this is verse 6.
Ezra chapter 7, verse 6.
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.
So, Ezra is a scribe, and you're probably familiar with the gospel narratives, the gospel accounts.
During the earthly ministry of Jesus, there were Pharisees, there were Sadducees, but there were also scribes.
And a scribe was someone who was very skilled in the law, particularly the law of God, the law of Moses.
And so, this Ezra, he's not a prophet.
And so, in a nutshell, I'll say it like this Ezra is not raised up by God for this time, for the good of Israel and the glory of God.
In order to provide more revelation, that's not God's purpose in raising him up.
God doesn't send Ezra and raise him up and give him to Israel to say that the prophetic words that God had already given through the prophets Haggai and Zechariah were not enough and they were insufficient.
So we need another prophet.
No, in this particular case, God raises up Ezra to take all the words of God which had already been revealed.
Especially a focus on the law of Moses, which is God's word revealed through Moses, who was a prophet.
But essentially, God is saying, My people already have enough words.
They've heard from me plenty.
The problem is not a lack of communication on my part, God's part, to Israel.
I've sent my prophets, I've spoken my words.
The problem is not that Israel needs a fresh word from the Lord.
The problem is that Israel, maybe just once, Should obey a word from the Lord.
It's a bold strategy.
We'll see if it works out.
But maybe they could consider just not killing one prophet and obeying one commandment that God has given.
Would be a great strategy.
Let's change it up.
Couldn't hurt.
Give it a shot.
And that seems to be the sentiment.
That's what the Lord is doing.
He's saying that my word is sufficient.
My word is sufficient.
I've given my law.
What is needed now is.
To obey.
And more than that, we'll see a little bit further in the text, especially in verse 10.
Not only to obey, but in obeying, to obey properly, there has to also be a proper understanding.
My people have heard my word, but they don't have understanding.
They're deafened and blind and they're dumb.
And I don't mean it in the, you know, a dumb beast not able to speak.
But no, I mean, they can't interpret, they can't understand.
They're not understanding what I'm saying.
Saying.
And so, what God is doing through Ezra is he's sending a scribe to say, You have enough fresh words from me.
Over, at this point, centuries, I have been speaking.
But you have not been hearing and you have not been obeying.
And so I'm sending Ezra the scribe.
And what Ezra's going to do, as we'll see in the rest of the book of Ezra, is he is going to take this book of the law, these prophetic words.
They were fresh revelation at the time that they were given through Moses.
But he's going to take this law, this revelation from the Lord through his prophets of old.
He's going to dust it off.
And he's going to say, This is what it means.
This is what it means.
And this is what you need to do.
You need to hear a revelation from the Lord, but then you need to understand.
You need to have minds and hearts to interpret the proper meaning of this revelation, and then you need to have hands and feet that are willing to go into action and obey.
Now, God sent some prophets after Ezra, certainly.
We know that we had many prophets in the first century church at the time of the apostles.
We know that we had prophets before Ezra, we had prophets after Ezra.
Malachi would have been one.
So, it's not that Ezra, that God raising up Ezra as a scribe is to say at this point in chronological history, in God's redemptive plan for his people, that God is saying, all right, no more prophetic words.
Ezra's on the scene now.
It's only scribes.
Chronologically, that just doesn't add up.
There were prophets before Ezra, and there were prophets after, and there were fresh words that came from the Lord after the time of Ezra.
But I think the principle, the picture that we see, I do think that that is something that applies to this New Testament gospel age.
We Need Courageous Scribes Today00:07:55
And I think it certainly applies to our time today.
I'll use it like this not only when it comes to new revelation or the gift of prophecy or those kinds of things, which is controversial and people hold different views, but even revelation that you're not claiming to be infallible words from the Lord.
I don't think in our generation, just being honest, this is my opinion, I could be wrong, but I don't think, even if we're not.
You know, if the individual is not presenting it as words from the Lord, infallible prophecy, I don't know if we need a whole lot of new books in this generation.
Like, honestly, I've heard people say, you know, we need a really good book on, you know, a theology of politics.
And it's like, really?
This generation is going to write that?
Why?
Like, read Lex Rex, you know?
I mean, we've got some great, great works.
And honestly, like, I think one of the things that we can do out of love for our children and our children's children is try not to write too many books.
Our grandchildren will be well loved if we leave them little works of literature and just point them to Calvin, Luther, a bunch of other guys that actually were intelligent.
Like, I've had people, you know, some people are, you know, they hold to the conviction of.
The TR, the Texas Receptus, the received text, the King James.
It doesn't have to be the King James, it could be the Geneva Bible.
But they believe that that particular text that was preserved, that it was used for the Geneva Bible, it was used for the King James Bible, a few others, they would say that that is the infallible Word of God, and the ESV or the NASB, the critical text, is.
Contains mostly, almost entirely, the Word of God, but it's not perfect.
It has, you know, because it's not the same text.
It's a different text.
And there's debates with Erasmus and all this stuff.
And it's a long thing.
If you ever want to look into it, feel free not to.
But you could.
For the record, my position I think the King James is great.
I also like the ESV.
I think we're okay.
But my point is some have said, you know, it doesn't have to be the King James.
It just needs to be a good translation from that particular text.
But if that work is going to be done, if we're going to have a new King James, a new, new King James, or something like that, It probably shouldn't be done in this generation.
And again, I'm including myself in that.
I'm not picking on everybody else except for me.
Like, no, I.
It wasn't that long ago, 200 years ago, people would walk into church, everybody could sight read music.
People had memorized, you know, hundreds of questions, little kids of catechism questions and verses.
And yeah, we just.
We have fallen.
We have fallen.
And we just need to be aware of that.
We need to be aware of that.
We don't need fresh words, more words.
We don't need more words.
We certainly don't need more words at some kind of, you know, strange fire, new apostolic reformation summit where you come and somebody's, you know, some chick's wearing a flowing gown and going back and forth and laughing like in a hysterical, like she should be in some kind of asylum.
It's very clear, you know.
And I just feel the Lord.
Like, we definitely don't need that.
But we also really don't need a bunch of new books on old topics that have already been done better than what we could produce ourselves.
We need, here's my point.
As I was reading the text this week and preparing, I think that we are in an age, a generation where we need Ezra's.
We need scribes.
We need lots of scribes.
And scribes are really well trained, for the record.
Ezra has pedigrees.
He has his bona fides.
He is.
He's very intelligent and he's very studied.
Much more than probably 99% of pastors today.
Again, I would include myself in that 99%.
Ezra is very educated, very gifted, very intelligent, very studious.
And I think that that is in large part, it's not the only thing we need.
We need courage today, but we also need Ezra's.
We need Ezra's who are not going to write new works or give new prophetic words from the Lord.
But who are going to take the Bible first and foremost, but then also take other works, theological works, and help them to be understood by the church and help them to be obeyed by the church.
And in order for that to happen, you need Ezra's, you need scribes.
Scribes don't come in with brand new novel strategies.
Scribes come in and they've been spending their entire life studying the law of Moses day and night, like David says, meditating on the law day and night.
They know it backwards and forwards.
They've been meditating on God's Word.
They're not coming in with novel strategies and ideas.
They're coming in with something tried and true, namely the infallible Word of God, but with unique insight, not even unique, but deep, profound insight into the Word of God because they've just been marinating in it for years and years and years and years.
In other words, scribes, if you met them when they were 12, they probably got beat up on the playground.
If you're wondering, like, is that guy a scribe?
Like, they're very disciplined.
And they're okay being a little nerdy.
And it's not flashy.
It's not novel.
It's not necessarily attractive.
It's just week in and week out, faithfulness, faithfulness, faithfulness.
We need scribes.
That said, okay, I banged that drum.
We need Ezra's.
That said, we also do need Zerubbabel's.
Or as we'll see, you know, if we come back to it when we're done with Ezra, we're going to go to the New Testament for a while.
But if we come back in the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah would be a good example.
And there are others as well.
But you need scribes, but you also need courage.
You need brains, you know, intelligence, giftedness, and someone who's highly disciplined and has been studying God's word day and night.
It's not given to the flashy or to the novel or to the new, that's just willing to say, This is the word of the Lord.
Here's tried and true interpretation of God's word, and this is what it looks like to obey God's word and to understand properly God's word.
You need scribes.
But then you also need courage, you need spines, you need leaders.
And somehow, I don't know how this exactly works, but you need the leaders with spines and the scribes to get along.
You need them to be able to play well with each other.
That they don't give in to turf wars and petty pride and arrogance, that they're actually willing to see themselves, view themselves with sober judgment.
Remember the scripture that said, Do not view yourself more highly than you ought, but each man should view himself with sober judgment.
You don't need to debase yourself.
God's not pleased with that.
Relating to High IQ Leaders00:03:38
He's not impressed if you say, Oh, I'm the dumbest person on the planet.
Well, if you are, then praise God.
Go ahead and say that and confess it.
But honestly, if you're the dumbest person on the planet, you're probably not aware.
That's, you know, I mean, they've done a lot of tests.
You know, people who think they have lower IQs usually have higher IQs.
People who think they have higher IQs usually have lower IQs.
There's a pro tip, you know, if anybody asks you, What's your IQ?
Just whether you believe it or not, just say something low.
Oh, probably like, I don't know, 90, 95.
You know, they'll walk away and say, Oh, he's so humble.
He's probably a genius.
But my point is this it's good to have sober judgment and to know, first and foremost, of course, who God is.
But then, in light of God and His calling and His equipping and gifting, who are we?
How has God made me?
Who has God made me to be?
One of the things that's been helpful for me over the past few years of pastoral ministry, and as I've continued to grow just as a man, a Christian man, and wanting to grow in character and wanting to grow in usefulness and all these different things.
It has been helpful for me to grow in an accurate, more increasingly accurate assessment of myself.
Realize where I'm gifted and realize where I'm not.
A lot of my friends are much more educated and trained and just raw IQ than I am.
And I think that's something that the Lord, and I'm saying this not to make it about myself, I want you to think about this in your own terms.
How's the Lord from childhood equipped you?
But for me, I was adopted as a baby.
Both of my brothers, they're younger brothers, but they were both National Merit Scholars.
They're both highly intelligent, very gifted.
And so I'm the older brother, you know, and there's a sense in which, you know, physically I've got superiority and dominance, but intellectually, you know, I'm having to work really hard to keep up with little brothers.
Not older brothers, little brothers.
They're just, my brothers are very, very intelligent.
And so, you know, growing up with that, sensing that, the Lord used that.
And one of the things He used was not, you know, that through osmosis, you know, that it just, you know, I was in proximity close enough to my brothers that it made me smart.
That's not my point.
My point is what I did learn early on from childhood is not necessarily how to be the 170 IQ guy in the room, but I did learn how to relate to the 170 IQ guys in the room.
It didn't make me a genius, but it did actually make me pretty decent at interacting and talking and relating and being friends with people who are highly intelligent.
And so now, here I am later in life, and most of my friends are smarter than me.
You know, like Stephen Wolfe is a friend.
I don't agree with everything, you know, that he holds to, but that dude's smart.
You can dislike his position, but that guy's smart.
You know, I'm friends with John Harris.
John Harris is a better, he's better at research and a better historian than I am.
And, you know, every time I talk to him, it's like, it's very clear that he is providing more, he's bringing more to the table than I bring.
It's not mutual, you know.
God Equips Us Differently00:03:20
He's like, all right, I brought this whole potluck, the main course, you know, the appetizers, the dessert.
And I'm like, and I brought paper plates.
Our powers combined, you know, we're going to have quite a meal.
You know, it's, it's, so there are guys like that, and there are several more.
That's just to name a couple.
My point is just to say that God equips us in different ways.
And I think of Ezra as a scribe.
He's not a prophet.
He's not bringing new revelation like Haggai and Zechariah were.
And if it was no Ezra, then you'd have Israel still wanting fresh words from the Lord again and again and again, but never understanding any of them and never actually putting it into practice, never obeying.
That's what would happen if you didn't have any Ezra's.
You needed Ezra.
But if all you have is Ezra's, Well, then what you have is guys who are, you know, pushing up their glasses and arguing about Gehardis Voss and his, you know, 17th edition of XYZ as their churches are closed for 15 months during COVID.
And we had plenty of that.
So we don't really need that either.
Like a lot of you guys, I just say it like it is.
Maybe not a lot, but probably 10, 15, 20% of you.
You're Pado Baptist by conviction.
You believe that infants should be baptized.
But you're not going to a Presbyterian church on Sunday morning.
Even though you do disagree with me, you think I'm wrong, and you may be right.
But why?
Why would you go to a church where you knowingly believe that the pastor holds to a position that, according to your conscience and your understanding of the Word of God, is just wrong?
And it's not some minuscule fringe position, it's something that matters.
It engages all of your covenant theology and how you view the household and the family and the church and the new covenant and all these different things.
It's a big deal.
But you're here.
Why?
Because there are Ezra's in the Presbyterian churches down the road, but there's no courage.
They folded on Black Lives Matter, they folded on COVID, and they'll fold on the next thing, too.
Right?
That church with its robust liturgy, you know, and its high, you know, William Laud type high church, you know, where the clerical robes, the pastor would never be caught wearing a primitive Neanderthal suit like a Baptist, you know, that church, you go, and turns out that, you know, they're closed for months and months and months, and then they open and they do two services.
Two services, and they do it intentionally so that one service can be required mass.
And have no singing.
Even though Ephesians and Colossians literally tell us that when we gather together, that's one of the commands.
It's one of the ordinary means of grace.
We're called to sing, it's a command.
And they're going to say, no, we will not obey the word of God.
And we're going to have two services one where you can sing and one where you don't.
And this one where you don't, you also mask will be required.
The other one, they're optional.
And then you look and see which service all the elders' wives and their kids go to.
And neither service is great, but they go to the worst one.
Dusting Off Old Written Things00:14:28
And there's your sign.
And that's why you're at Covenant Bible listening to a Baptist.
And you know that.
I don't have to convince you that.
You know that.
You know that's true.
That's not the only reason.
I'm not saying it's the only reason.
But the point is this you need Ezra's.
You need guys who are seasoned in the Word of God, who are not given to the flashy, the novel, and the new, but will take the Word of God chiefly.
And other men who have studied the Word of God and written good, helpful theological works, and they'll dust that off and they'll help us in our time understand what it means and obey.
We need Ezra's.
And you also need some Nehemiah's that's like, well, Ezra's studying right now, and, you know, God bless him.
He's got like a pencil in each ear, you know, he's got a protractor tied to his waist.
Ezra's doing that, and God bless him.
I'm Nehemiah and I'm over here.
I've got a sword and a trowel.
I like to build things and chop heads.
That's my gift.
That's my spiritual gifting, you know?
And we need that too.
And so that's what I just, I don't know, in the text, reading the text, those are some of the things that I see.
So let's go ahead and end now with verse 10 of our text.
The Bible says this Matthew Henry, he says the following in commentating on this verse.
But observe the method.
Ezra, he first learned, then taught.
He sought the law of the Lord and so laid up a good treasure, and then instructed others and laid out what he had laid up.
I like that wording.
He instructed others and laid out what he had laid up.
He laid out teaching for others, but it's something that he had been laying up, studying, and building up, and learning himself privately for a very long time.
He also first did and then taught.
Notice that he first did, not only studied, but he studied, he did, that is, he obeyed, and then he taught.
Practiced the commandments himself, and then directed others in the practice of them.
Thus, his example confirmed his doctrine.
Again, that's Ezra chapter 7, verse 10.
For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord.
We need that.
And to do it, we definitely need that.
And to teach.
To teach God's statutes, that is, His precepts, His commandments, His laws, and rules to Israel.
And not just teaching them to the pagans who were gathered in that area after Israel had been in captivity for 70 years in Babylon.
No, to teach it to Israel.
Why?
Because Israel needs help.
Turns out, at the time of Ezra, Israel needed God's law.
Israel needed learning and understanding of the meaning of God's law and application of God's law, what it meant, what it looked like.
To obey God's law.
Let me read one more quote here.
Backing up in your notes, just the point above, Matthew Henry again here.
He says, Ezra was a man of great learning, a scribe, a ready scribe, in the law of Moses.
We see that in verse 6.
And he was very much conversant with the scriptures, especially the writings of Moses, had the words ready, and was well acquainted with the sense and meaning of them.
It is to be feared that learning ran low among the Jews in Babylon, but Ezra was instrumental to revive it.
In other words, think of that.
How does that apply to our time, our place?
Well, Israel, of course, represents the church.
The church is true Israel, the fulfillment of Israel.
And all Israel, according to the flesh, they were warmly invited in by the prophets and by Jesus Christ to come into the church.
Think of Israel, according to the flesh, under the old covenant, as the scaffolding and the workers who are building a temple.
And the temple is not.
You know, the third temple mound or what, you know, a literal temple in the Middle East.
The temple is not the nation state of Israel.
The temple is the church.
It's a living temple made with living stones.
It's a spiritual temple, the people of God who are children of Abraham, true children of Abraham, according to the promise by the Spirit and not by the flesh.
Okay?
Israel, according to the flesh, was used under the old covenant like the worker crew.
On scaffolding to build this temple, and the temple again I'm speaking of is the church.
And when this project, by the grace of God, was completed with the apostles and the prophets laid as a foundation, and Jesus, after his earthly ministry, his incarnation, his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, as the capstone, the cornerstone of this foundation, and now pastors and evangelists, right?
Shepherd teachers and evangelists are now building the drywall of this temple.
The foundation is laid, and they're building the drywall.
As all this is going on, Israel, according to the flesh, By the prophets and by Jesus and by the apostles, again and again, is warmly invited in to join, to come into this temple.
So don't get the wrong idea.
It's not that Israel, according to the flesh, builds this thing with the scaffolding, and then when it's done, you know, God says, and get out of here, thanks for doing this work, there's no place for you.
No, Israel is invited in and in and in again and again and again to join true Israel according to the Spirit, the promise, to join the church.
What Israel was always meant to be, to culminate and to fulfill, to culminate into the church.
And they are invited in, but unfortunately, the prophecies are fulfilled and proven to be true.
He came to his own, but they received him not.
Some were saved, but many, many rejected the gospel, rejected the prophets, rejected Christ.
So, all that being said, in our day, true Israel, the church, And that's what God was doing from the very beginning.
It's not that God changed his mind.
It's not dispensationalism.
It's not that God is really excited about what he's doing with this one ethnicity.
And then he pushed pause because they rejected the Messiah.
And so he's got this B plan, this side project going for 2,000 years with the church, but he's really not that interested.
As soon as Israel can get it together, then God will get back to what he really cares about his chosen people.
And the church will get raptured out of here, and God will get back to work with the real story of the gospel, which is Israel according to the flesh.
If that's your theology, please repent.
That is false theology.
That is terrible theology.
And it has hurt so many people.
It's hurt, it's brought reproach to the name of Christ, it's brought shame.
To the church.
It has hurt the whole world in tangible ways.
Even the news that we saw yesterday with Iran and missiles being launched.
I know this sounds, you know, some of you will probably be maybe a little offended, but yes, I absolutely fault dispensationalism.
I do.
I don't say that dispensationalism is exclusively to blame, the only cause.
But yeah, theology, here's the thing, unless we're going to be pietists and just say, oh, what you believe has no impact in the world.
You just think about it in the 17th dimension, who cares?
If we really want to be done with that kind of Christianity and we want to actually admit that Christianity is muscular and tangible and it actually has an effect in the world, then we have to admit theology, good theology, helps people and bad theology hurts people.
And 150 years of dispensationalism and convincing 90% plus of evangelicals in the West, especially in America, to have bad eschatology, to think that Jesus is going to come back.
You know, within 15 minutes, and to believe that things can only get worse and worse and worse until Jesus comes back in 15 minutes, and on top of all that, to think that they should split their tithe, half of it to a New Testament Christian church with a pastor who preaches the gospel, and the other half, you know, needs to be sent to Israel because those who bless Israel will be blessed.
If you don't think that that kind of theology has an impact on the real world, then you're just not thinking straight.
Of course it does.
And it has been a terrible impact.
Our nation and our tax dollars giving billions of dollars to Israel year after year after year.
I saw something online, social media, said, through a mom's voice, a meme, a mom's voice, it says, Do you have money to buy another war?
You already have two wars at home that you haven't finished.
America.
Right?
But part of that is theology.
Isn't that crazy?
So, it's not just politics.
It's people's theology applied to their politics.
They would say, well, but we've, you know, Israel is our greatest ally.
Remember the illustration I gave earlier about someone bringing every single course for a potluck meal and then I show up with paper plates?
That's America and Israel as allies.
You can guess which one contributes and which one does not.
Like you've been brainwashed if you think there are irreplaceable, valuable allies in the Middle East.
No, they're not.
No, they need us.
We don't need them.
Not at all.
And not only do they not contribute, but I think there are strong arguments to be made for them being subversive to America.
And again, I'm not speaking about each and every individual person, there will always be exceptions.
But we have to be able to speak in generalities.
Like if I say men today are effeminate, well, that doesn't mean that there's not one courageous man on the planet.
All right, before I say that women today are bossy, well, that doesn't mean that there's not one God honoring, Christ like woman on the planet.
That's not the point.
But the point is, we need scribes, we need Ezra's to dust off the old things that have already been written.
There's so much over these past few years as I find new material, new books, I'm like, oh my goodness.
People thought this.
I thought I had another new novel exciting.
I thought, man, God has revealed to me this thing that no one in 6,000 years has ever known.
Quit kidding yourself.
No, it turns out every single one of my best ideas in the last three years, since COVID and BLM and this crazy thing and that crazy thing, my best ideas, all of them, have basically been just basic ideas from the Puritans and the Reformers, but not as good.
Like, that's my secret sauce.
People are like, wow, you're such a gifted speaker, or I love your theology and theology.
Here's the secret, right?
You want to start a YouTube channel and have 100,000 subscribers?
This is what you do.
Ignore everyone, everyone who has been alive since 1960.
Anything they have to say, it's wrong.
It's wrong.
But World War II, they're lying and they're wrong.
And maybe they're not lying, maybe they're just deceived.
I think a lot of people really are ignorant.
It's not all malicious, but they're wrong.
They're wrong.
So just go back and just go back and go back and go back a little bit and then find a few trustworthy guys who spoke the truth.
And then just dust that off and think how is a good way to explain this to my family and my children and my friends and my local church in our day?
And how could we follow that and obey that?
And where do I find that in Scripture and how does it apply?
That's it.
That's it.
And if you don't have the skill set to do that, which is, it's okay.
Not everybody's created the same by God.
One, work on it because you can grow.
You really can.
And two, find some people that do.
Find some Ezra's.
If you're a Nehemiah, you're like, I'm not super great at all the studying thing because I'm usually like holding a sword in my mouth and one in a hand and a trowel over here.
And so I don't always do well with books.
You know, like you're like, you know, you show up to a study party and.
You look like Edward Scissorhand.
Like, then, you know, then that's maybe not your gift set, you know?
But here's the point if it's not you, then find an Ezra.
If you're not Ezra, you need an Ezra.
And you need to listen to him.
And slow down sometimes.
Because you want to go in, guns blazing, and listen to Ezra.
What is he saying?
And if you're an Ezra, right, and you've got your glasses right now, you've got like a rope, and it goes, you know, it's attached behind your head, you know, to keep it on, and you're under the age of 30.
You might be an Ezra, you know.
And you need a Nehemiah.
You need someone to say, okay, but let's put that book down for a second.
And let's go do some street preaching with Jacob Miller or something, you know.
And that'd be really good for you.
So we need the body of Christ.
We need the team.
Haggai and Zechariah are done in our text today.
Those are the prophets getting new words from the Lord, but they're done.
Because at this point, Israel had already had enough words from God.
And we too, as true Israel, the church, we've had enough revelation from the Lord.
He has given us all that we need.
All that we need.
But what we do need is we need men to help us understand it and apply it.
And we need other men to say, charge and lead us into battle with courage.