verses one and two to get the context of what we're going to be looking at tonight. Now, these are the children of the province that went out of the captivity of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried away unto Babylon and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city. which came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Saraiah, Reliah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mishpar, Bigvi, Raham, Vahana. The number of the men of the people of Israel. Let's pray. Father, tonight, as we look into this chapter, help us understand some of the things that we're going to see tonight. Father, help us to understand, as in all the scripture, all scriptures given, as profitable for doctrine and for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness, that we might be truly furnished in all good works. So, Father, tonight, help us to understand that even There's lessons in a list of names and help us learn some of these lessons tonight as we get into our study. But I thank you, Father, for this book. I thank you for the people of God that In the past, they were stirred to do something for you. And, Father, that's the kind of stirring we want in our midst tonight. We want it in our hearts that we would definitely do a great work for you and that you called us to do. So, Father, help us tonight and be glorified through this message. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, before we get into our message tonight, In this chapter two, I want to remind you of chapter one. Some of you probably were not here last week. But we saw the overall theme of chapter one was the providence of God. That's an amazing, the hand of God and all this. I think there's some important points to bring up tonight. Number one, God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus. Amen. It says in verse Ezra 1 1 now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus. Now, this is in 538 B.C. That's when he issued a decree. He permitted all of these people, the people of God, to go back and rebuild the temple. Amen? Now that was prophesied many years before that by Isaiah the prophet. He said this, Thus saith Osiris, he is my shepherd, this is God, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, thou shall be built into the temple, thy foundation shall be laid. Isn't that amazing how God knew all of this? He knows the end from the beginning and God had a plan and he raised up Cyrus to fulfill his plan. God can use an unsaved king. God can use a donkey to do his will. God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus. But then we see also in verse five, God stirred up the spirit of the people. Look what it says. So God stirred up the king. God stirred up the people. We know in the New Testament, and we look to the hand of God to stir us up, it says, So God, His goal was to rebuild the temple, and certainly God not only ordains that, that's his will, but he also ordains the means to the end, and that's a willing people. Brethren, this is the characteristics of the people of God, and it should be the characteristics of throughout the Bible, and it should be our characteristic today, a people that are willing to do the work of God, that are wanting to do the work of God, amen? And then we see overall, not only the providence of God, but the faithfulness of God in chapter one. Remember the prophet Jeremiah, he was preaching. And he was warning the leaders of Judah that the Babylonian exile was inevitable. This is in Jeremiah chapter 20. He's telling the people he pled with them to repent of their sins, but he also pled with them to surrender. Remember, they're calling him a traitor. Treason. He was, you know, they wanted to kill him. But also in Jeremiah, he did announce that the captivity would be for 70 years. That's in Jeremiah 25 and Jeremiah. 29, chapter 29. So all of this, even the time of their captivity, now the end of the 70 years are here and God is stirring up. Amen. God's stirring up the king. God's stirring up the people. God is showing us he's faithful to his word. But I think one of the blessings is always, and this is amazing, God provides for his work. Amen? God provides for his work. Not only did the travelers carry out their own personal belongings, but they carried out 5,400 gold and silver temple vessels which had been taken from Jerusalem, remember, by Nebuchadnezzar. All these items were carefully inventoried by the treasurer and delivered to Shasbosar, the appointed ruler of Judah. Now, I do have a whole section here. I believe Shesh Bashar is the name, is the same as Zerubbabel, because you remember when they're in a foreign land, like you had Daniel and his three friends, they had names when they were in that foreign land. They were given other names, but the true names, you know, they're biblical names. And that's what I think, what we're looking here at, Shesh Bashar, and there's just, In the same book it confirms it because in chapter 5 verse 16 it states that chess bizarre laid the foundation in Ezra chapter 3 verse 8 it attributes this to Zerubbabel and Zechariah 4 9 Confirms it so I believe you you wonder who is just I believe he's Zerubbabel and All right, that's our review. Now we're getting into chapter two, lessons from a list. Even expositors of the Bible would be tempted to say, you know what? Let me just skip over this chapter and move on. Because it's not easy. It's a list of unpronounceable names to most of us. It's hard to understand, but This isn't, you know, God just putting something in the Bible to take up our time or waste our time. There's a reason here. And I think we ought not to skip over portions of the scripture, even though they're difficult to figure out or understand. We ought to seek God and to glean something from his word. And that's what we're going to try to do tonight. So I believe when he begins grouping all these people together, as you'll see, it's not a social motive, but it is a spiritual motive. Amen. You see, if you look at this whole chapter, it was a new opportunity for Israel to rise up to its calling again, to return and be restored. And when you go through this chapter, all the priests, they had to prove their credentials. You know, you just don't enter that lightly, and you had to prove your ancestry. all the families as well. And we'll find out that some of them could not do that. But at the end of the chapter, we see, we'll see a restored nation orderly and structured and ready for its purpose of worship and service to the Lord. So what are some lessons we can learn? Number one tonight, I think it's pretty clear. that we learn God calls his people. Amen? God calls his people. This isn't just a list of anybody. These are really God's heroes. God's heroes. These are the people who were willing to travel 1,000 miles over the desert and over difficult terrain and sacrifice a long journey to get back to the place of worship and back to the place of service of the Lord. So we can look at God calling his people. I think there's two categories, and that's what we're going to see in this chapter. God calls leaders, amen? And he always does that. When you think of chapter, there's another parallel list in Nehemiah 7. That's what's interesting. This list is repeated in the book of Nehemiah, amen? And I'll make a few statements here so that we don't get confused here, but you will see there's 12 men, one from each of the 12 tribes. Now think about that. Even though you have Judah being rebuilt in the South, you have the 12 tribes coming back after the restoration where they were a divided nation before. And so God is doing a great work in the people. And Mordecai, now when you see these names, Nehemiah is not the Nehemiah of the book of Nehemiah, even though he's this name, Nehemiah in chapter two, verse two, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, you have Nehemiah is not the Nehemiah of the book of Nehemiah. And Mordecai is not the Mordecai in the book of Esther. Jeshua is the high priest. He's mentioned 23 times in the post-exilic writings. So you could see Zerubbabel being the governor, being the leader. You have all these men, these principal men from the 12 tribes. You have these priests, you know, God's men. We're going to see Ezra the scribe, amen. And all these men. were leaders and they had to step up and serve alongside as a rebel. They had to step up and help in the work of God and lead the people of God. So God calls leaders. When you think about it, everything in God's work rises and falls on leadership. We need leadership. I think that's what we need in our country today. That's what we need in our churches today. We are in the condition we're in because of poor leadership and poor leaders. And churches are in the condition they're in because of leadership issues. And so when there's a decay of nation's leaders, it's an indication that troubles lie ahead. A British essayist, Walter Savage Lander, wrote, when small men cast long shadows, it's a sign that the sun is setting. Small men, you know, men of very poor character and stature. You know, what is a statesman? We wouldn't even know one if we saw one anymore. That's what I'm talking about. When small men cast long shadows, the sun is setting. God calls leaders, but God calls laborers. You know, this whole chapter is a list of families, amen? It's a list of people who truly love the Lord and want to serve God. I want you to remember the whole history of Israel. God called Israel. God called Abraham. God called Isaac. God called Jacob. Amen. And Moses, go back to Deuteronomy 7 for a moment. I want to bring out a couple of verses there just to remember the calling of God. The calling of God. Verse 6. Deuteronomy 7, 6, God said this, unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. And then the Lord goes over. Why did I choose you? Not because you were special, but I set my love upon you. Amen. Just because we're in the ministry or that we're being used of God or that we're in the right church. You ought to be just understand, you know, it's not because of anything we are. It's because of the grace of God and the love of God towards us. Amen. His goodness. And that should keep us humble as we serve him. And then he goes down, just skip down a few verses. Verse nine. Know, therefore, that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations and repay them that hate him to their face to destroy them. He will not be slack to him that hated him. He will repay him to his face. And this is God. God is letting them know. We need to love him. We need to, we need to be faithful to him. And so I think these verses are foundational to even understanding our list in Ezra chapter two, go back to our list in Ezra chapter two. And remember this list. We have to think of Israel in itself and how God raised them up, how God raised up Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and how God raised up the priesthood of Aaron and all that God did. So we have to say ancestry was essential to being a Jew. And being a Jew is essential, was essential to be a part of a covenant nation. I mean, this was it. This was God's people. And the ancestry was very important. So that is why we have a long list of families and names and people. I think of verses 2 down to verse 20. You have a list of various families and their numbers. From 21 to 35, you have a list of various towns and their populations. Verses 36 to 39, you have a list of priests. And then the Levites, those in the tribe of Levi, who were not the sons of Aaron. You have the Levites you have all these names being listed here Then you had the temple singers in verses 40 and down the 42 the temple Singers you had the gatekeepers the porters of the house of the Lord and you had the temple servants in verses 43 to 54 you have the the sons of Solomon servants verses 55 to 58 And then you come to a list, jumping down to 59, if you will. And these were they which went up from Tel Tamila, Tel Harsa, Cherub, Adan, and Emer, but they could not show their father's house and their seed, whether they were of Israel. That's like, They lost their birth certificates. They lost their records. This is a serious thing. And so you had several names here. It says in verse 62, they sought the register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found. Therefore, they were as polluted from the priesthood. And the Tershatha said unto them that they should not eat of the most holy things till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim. And that was to determine the will of God here at that time. So you have these lists and you have all these names. And so let's go to 64, the whole congregation together was 40 and 2,303 scored. Beside their servants and their maids of whom there were 7,337. And there were among them 200 singing men and singing women. Their horses were 730 and six, their mules 240 and five, their camels 430 and five, asses 6,720. So, here we have this list, and we have these families, and we have, you know, all the people of God, and their groupings, and the work that God called them to, and, you know, they didn't choose that, they were born into it, were they not? And we thank the Lord for that, that, you know, they were born in these, they were born Levites. They were born into these different, into the priesthood and so forth, the sons. And yes, they had to be qualified and, but they were, they were blessed by their lineage. They were blessed by their genealogy. And so we have the totals. Now, the sad thing is, you know, how important this was because they came back into the land and they rebuilt the temple. And then we're going to see in the book of Nehemiah, they're going to rebuild the city. So you have, you know, qualified people. You have the people back in the land. God did this. But by the time we get to the New Testament, what did the Jews do? How do they feel about this? Well, they took their ancestry too far, did they not? because they were full of pride. They believed that because they were Jews, they had a right standing with God, and they looked down upon every other nation. Remember what John the Baptist said to them when he confronted them? He said, Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham our father. For I say to you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. In Luke chapter 3 and verse 8. So here they are. you know, boasting about their lineage. They're so far from God spiritually. And that wasn't the point of all this. So Paul, in his writings, in the book of Romans, chapter four, chapter nine, Galatians chapter three, Paul is making this point. Those that are of faith, true faith in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, are the true children of God, amen? It wasn't just because you're of the lineage of Israel that you're a child of God. And so the evidence of this calling, and I think it was throughout the whole Bible, brethren, in a right relationship, is not your physical birth, but your spiritual birth, your new birth through faith in Christ. And that's what really counts. Jesus tried to teach them that. John the Baptist tried to teach him. Jesus, the apostles, remember Peter, And then Paul came on as an apostle to the Gentiles. And so we see, number one, God calls his people. And that's his purpose today in our church. Don't lose sight of that. Preaching too long, here we go. God cares for his people. There you go. Just click on this. Just make it work. Amen. God cares for his people. Not only does he call his people, we learn in this chapter and the overall context of this book that God cares for his people in what way? Well, let's remember this. God is faithful to discipline his people. I know that we don't like to hear this, But we should hear it. You see, God warned them. We read back in Deuteronomy. We read back in Deuteronomy 28. I'm not gonna go back and reread what we read last week. But isn't it sad that God had to use wicked Babylonians to discipline his own people? And he had to take them to Babylon to show them what? The emptiness of idolatry. the emptiness of idolatry. And why? Because they did not faithfully keep the Sabbath. And God expelled them from the land for 70 years of Sabbaths. 70 years of Sabbaths, according to 2 Chronicles 36, 21, to teach them the importance of obedience to his word. Brethren, that God will discipline us today to teach us the same. Blessing. See, God's faithful to call us, God's faithful to care for us, and he's going to discipline us in Hebrews 12, eight. What does it say? Hebrews chapter 12. It tells us about the discipline of God. But I like verse eight. and we need to expect discipline. If you're saved, you know, I had someone, I was trying to counsel him, and he was so confused about his relationship to the Lord, he was in sin, you know, he was caught being a drug dealer and all this stuff, and lying about it to the church, and God found him out. This is in another country. And so I sat down and I said, you know, try to counsel with him. I said, you know, are you saved? And I said, is God disciplining you? And he said, no, no, God's not disciplining me. And I'm like, what does that tell you? You know, I mean, I didn't say it in those words, but I'm like, What does that prove to you? If God's not disciplining you, it doesn't prove that you're a child of God. It proves just the opposite. But he didn't even see that. That's how far, you know, people get. Go up to verse 5, it says, And have ye forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children? My son despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth, what does it say, every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Think about your children. You're not just going to say, okay, you know, do whatever you want. And you know, whatever you feel like doing, it doesn't matter who you hurt and what you break and what you destroy in this. No, just do, no, you don't treat your children that way. God is a perfect father. Amen. And he says in verse eight, but if you be without chastisement, we're of all That's he's talking about the children of God, the sons of God, all our partakers. Then you are bastards and not sons. You see, God loves us so much that when we are going through difficulties. And that's where, you know, we got to sit back and ask ourselves. Am I sinning against the Lord? I'm am I an open sin? And what's happening in my life? Am I just? sinning and nothing's happening, where's God dealing with me? That's one question to ask. And then if you're going through a lot of trials and difficulties, yes, a lot of trials are to build your faith, amen? But sometimes we gotta sit back and say, God, is this to build my faith? Or God, is this because I'm living in disobedience to you? And the truth of the matter is God is such a faithful father. He's going to show you which it is. Amen. You don't have to guess. He's going to say, yeah, this is the sin in your life. You need to get right with me. So he's going to point it out one way or the other. Amen. And your Bible reading in the preaching of God's word. God's going to just speak to you and say, you know what? You need to get this right with me. This is why you're going through these things. But if God doesn't rebuke you, and you're not in sin, then you have to trust and say, hey, God knows what's best for me, and I'm going through this trial because He's growing my faith. He's growing me spiritually, amen? God loves you, God disciplines you, God takes care of you. And that's what he was doing in this chapter, brethren. He was disciplining them. And now, think about this. It's not the children that went there. It's their children and their grandchildren now coming back and really being used of God. Amen? So God is faithful to discipline his children, his people, but God is also faithful to restore us. Amen. So 70 years were up and God restored them to the promised land. This chapter, when you look at this, and you read these names, I want you to think of this. This is a detailed record of God's faithfulness. That's what it is. It's a detailed record that God completes his word. God is faithful, yes, to discipline, but he's also faithful to restore. And this is, this list of names is because God loves his covenant people and God's gonna do what he says he promised them he's going to do. And so I, God will always restore his children when the time is right. Amen. Now, one of the things that we must understand, and I mentioned it, I think I mentioned it in the morning service, that God does not wipe out the consequences of sins, even though he forgives and restores. How do we know that? They didn't come back to beautiful cities. You remember when they inherited the land at first, it was a land of milk and honey. It was the cities were already built. Their homes were already built. I mean, walled cities. And they just went in there. The vineyards were there and. All the blessings of God, and they went in and they just inherited the blessings of God, amen. Now they come back and everything is in ruins. There's no cultivated fields waiting for them. There's no beautiful cities and homes. There was piles of rubble, fields overgrown with weeds. So they go back. Yes, it would have been difficult. I think about these folks that went back, brethren. They could have bitterly complained. It's not fair. It was our, it was our grandparents. It was our parents. That's their fault. Why do we have to come back, you know, and fix all this? We'll never tell you this. That attitude always reflects a rebellious heart. It's never right to have that attitude. that it's, you know, complaining against the Lord and how it's not fair and how it's so difficult. And it's really a rebellion against the Lord. Our attitude should always be as these people. Don't get me wrong. They could have said that, but they didn't. Amen. Their attitude was one of submission to the Lord in all his dealings and gratitude to the Lord because He gives us things that we really don't deserve. Amen? Think about the goodness of God in your life. And that's why it's so good to give thanks unto the Lord. And everyone should be more prepared to come into the house of the Lord and give thanks. Remember, that's something that should be a part of worship. It should be on your lips. The fruit of your lips giving praise unto His name. When you praise the Lord, it's giving thanks unto Him. Hebrews chapter 13. Verse 15, I think, around there. Your lips give praise unto him and thanks unto him because your heart is accepting all these good things, amen? And even the difficult ones, because you know, this is God. This is God. God's working here. So I think last of all tonight, but not least of all, you know, God calls his people. God is faithful to restore his people. But God's people commit their lives to God. That's the answer, amen? We commit ourselves back to him. Just think about these people. They pack up and move 1,000 miles across a hostile desert land and devastated by war. And think about the commitment that was, amen? It wasn't convenient. But you know why they did it? Remember what we read in Psalm 137? They couldn't sing. They couldn't worship the Lord in that foreign land. And so they were longing to be back. Amen. And to build the temple and sing the Lord's song again. That's and they long that the glory of God would be restored back. to the land again, to the temple. And so they were willing to do whatever that took to see God enthroned again in his holy place among his people. Brethren, this is the same commitment we have today. So I think of three areas of commitment. It was a commitment to worship. I think this whole chapter, when we break it down and you start reading the names and you see the priests, you see the Levites, you see the singers, you see the doorkeepers. Brethren, it was all about going back and being ready to worship God. They were organized for this purpose. I realized that we should be able to, you know, worship at any moment and maybe spontaneity in worship is a good thing. But do you know that worship also needs proper planning and proper order? And that's what we see in this chapter. Worship is planning, order, and putting things in the right place and preparing your heart. The fact that the priests who could not confirm their ancestry were considered unclean and it prevented them from serving shows that holiness is essential in worship. We need to be a holy people. That's what God was teaching us there. Listen, this should not be our lives. Maybe it was at one time in your false religion to be living in the world. all week long and then living a life in the world and living for the things of the world and pop in the church for a few minutes on Sunday and call it worship. No, it isn't. It's abomination unto the Lord, not worship. We can't do it that way. You can't live in the world all week and just pop in church and say a few things and call it worship. We need to be worshiping daily. And we need to be really be thinking about that. Amen. All week, our lives should bring glory unto the Lord through our holy thoughts, through our holy words, and through our holy deeds. Then our public worship on Sunday will be an overflow of gratitude overflow of holiness, overflow of obedience under the Lord and how pleasing that is to him. Amen. A commitment to worship, but not only that, a commitment to service. The list shows us a variety of service with the priest, the Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, each having their duty to perform and for the smooth functioning of the whole corporate body. Some were more visible, some were up front, others were behind the scenes, but no less important in God's eyes, amen? All were important. Even so today in the church, Every member has been given a spiritual gift and every member is important to the Lord and can exercise that gift and I think of How Peter says it over there in 1 Peter 4, verses 10 and 11, he says, As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Thank God for that. Amen. It's not because we're special, but because God's grace is upon us. If any man speak, remember we talked about the speaking gifts. the preaching gifts, let them speak the oracles of God. You know, if you're going to be a preacher or a teacher, preach the word, teach the word. And then if any man minister, if any man serve, do it as of the ability which God giveth. You know, do it with all your heart. Amen. Do it as under the Lord, the Bible tells us. that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So there's a commitment here to these things. And there's a commitment to give. There's a commitment to give. Go back to our chapter. I didn't read the last few verses for a reason. I want to save them 68 to 70 for now. says in Psalm of the Chief of the Fathers, when they came to the house of the Lord, which is at Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to set it up in his place. They gave after their ability under the treasure of the work, three score and 1,000 drams of gold, 5,000 pounds of silver, 100 priest garments, So the priests and the Levites and some of the people and the singers and the porters and the nephenims dwelt in their cities and all Israel in their cities. Do you see? It's a commitment, yes, to worship. It's a commitment to serve. But there's a commitment to give unto the Lord. Amen. This is free will offerings. This is something that wasn't commanded. It came from a heart of love unto the Lord. And I thank God for that. You think it says every man, what does it say in verse 69? Gave after their ability, after their ability. And what does that mean? Wealthier people gave more. Amen. But the poor also gave as they could. Every man gave according as they could. And that's, that's what the tithe is. You know, you make $10,000 a month. You make 5,000 a month. You make 500 a month. You make a hundred a month. Everything. The tithe is a tithe of all that you take the tithe and we're all giving the same unto the Lord. Amen. And so we thank God for his plan. And that's what 1 Corinthians 16, 1 verses 1, 16 verses 1 and 2 tells us that every first day of the week, let us lay up in store as God hath prospered us. Amen. As he's blessed us, let's give back to him. And even Paul, when he went to the Macedonians or he commends the Macedonians, when he went and preached there, he's saying to the Corinthians, he's using their example. Remember how they gave? They gave willingly, they gave sacrificially, they gave beyond their ability, the Bible says. And so we see. a list here. And I hope tonight that we've gleaned some lessons from the list. Yes, I know there's a bunch of names here, but I want you to understand God's word does not return void. You read this and you start meditating on this and you start pulling out some truths. You also will be benefited and edified from a list of names. Amen. First, I think you need to realize this. You are called of God. What are you called? You're called to be a leader. Some are called to leadership. Some are called to laborers. We're all called to do something for God. Second, we need to ask ourselves, are we experiencing and submitting to God's faithful discipline in our lives? Let's not fight against the Lord. What are you going through? You know what you're going through. It could be every day frustrations. It could be major trials. But all these things train us in one thing, to be righteous and holy under the Lord, if we submit. If we reject it, obviously we're in trouble with the Lord, because he's going to turn up the heat more and more, amen? And then last of all, are you seeking to live a committed life? Brethren, the only response to the calling of God and the care of God and seeing the purpose of God, His provision, His power, and how He works, how He stirs people up, how He blesses us, is to be faithful unto Him. Be committed to the church. Be committed to giving. Be committed to worship and service. And so I think when we just look at this chapter, it is a witness to God's enduring faithfulness to his people. And he's the same God for us today. He will help you. He will be faithful. But you ought to recognize you're his covenant people today. You're in the New Testament church. You're in the new covenant. It is still a covenant. And let's be committed to him. and be committed to this covenant that we're in, the New Testament. Church, amen? Glory to God, let's stand tonight.