How many of you have one of these? It's not a credit card, so you have to look carefully. It's a classic card. From where? Carnegie Library. Maybe you don't have one yet. It's an extensive system. Well, you tell me, what's a library? You can get books there. You can get videos. You get all kinds of information. You can borrow things. And this is a sign of trust. You have a library card. You can go to a library. You can borrow things freely. And the librarian trusts you to bring the book back, or whatever else you've borrowed, whether it's a video or music or whatever, in a timely fashion and in good shape. And if you bring it back and it's completely destroyed, or you bring it back much later than you said you would, Josh Manili will come looking for you. Josh works for the library. He's concerned about all these books, that they are where they're supposed to be, that they know where they are if they're actually not in the system. But if you bring it back and it's all destroyed, or you bring it back late, you get a fine. You might even lose your privileges. Well, that's just embarrassing. Frankly, that should be a shame to Christians if the library will not allow you to borrow books. That's saying you can't be trusted. How you treat a library book, how you treat a rental car, How you treat anything that is not your own says something about your character. In fact, it reveals your character. And you think for a moment, we don't really own anything. Everything we have actually belongs to someone else. We are stewards. So whether it's actually a book that belongs to the Carnegie Library system, or to the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Library, or to Avis Rental Car, even the stuff that's in your house has been entrusted to you by God. And how you handle it reveals your character. Are you a person of integrity? Are you one who will do what he or she says? We're going to discover today in Ezra chapter 7 that that was Ezra's reputation. He was a man of integrity. So let me invite you to turn to Ezra chapter 7. It's on page 498. And we're going to see in the character of Ezra things that are perhaps lacking in our own culture. There is a great need at this time for men and women of integrity, men and women who are honest and trustworthy who will follow through on what they say. So Ezra chapter 7. Now, after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, Ezra, the son of Sariah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shalem, son of Zadok, son of Ahitab, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Merioth, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Buki, son of Abishua, son of Phineas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, the chief priest. This Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. And the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him. And there went up also to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests, and Levites, and singers, and gatekeepers, and temple servants. And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For on the first day of the first month, He began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month, he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. This is a copy. of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a man learned in matters of the commandments of the Lord and his statutes for Israel. Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, peace. And now I make a decree that any one of the people of Israel, or their priests or Levites in my kingdom, who freely offers to go to Jerusalem, may go with you. For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of your God, which is in your hand. and also to carry the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, with all the silver and gold that you shall find in the whole province of Babylonia, and with the freewill offerings of the people and the priests vowed willingly for the house of their God that is in Jerusalem. With this money, then, you shall with all diligence buy bulls, rams, and lambs with their grain offerings and their drink offerings, and you shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God that is in Jerusalem. Whatever seems good to you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and gold, you may do according to the will of your God. The vessels that have been given you for the service of the house of your God, you shall deliver before the God of Israel, the God of Jerusalem. And whatever else is required of the house of your God, which it falls to you to provide, you may provide it out of the king's treasury. And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province beyond the river. Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, requires of you, let it be done with all diligence. up to 100 talents of silver, 100 cores of wheat, 100 baths of wine, 100 baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons. We also notify you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, custom or toll on any one of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or other servants of this house of God. And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province beyond the river, all such as know the laws of your God. And those who do not know them, you shall teach. Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the King, let judgment be strictly executed on him, whether for death, or for banishment, or for confiscation of his goods, or for imprisonment. Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the King, to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, and who extended to me his steadfast love before the King and his counselors and before all the king's mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me." And we'll end our reading there. We're over halfway through the book of Ezra, and we finally meet him. It's a book with his name, but you've got to go seven chapters before you actually finally meet Ezra. What do you find? A man trusted by Artaxerxes, the most powerful king on the face of the earth at that time. Calls himself the King of Kings. He clearly considers Ezra to be a capable leader, because he authorizes him to lead this expedition to Jerusalem. Why? To check on the spiritual condition of the people. I want you to go to make inquiry. And he's sending a scribe. He's sending a lawyer who is skilled in the law of God. He's entrusted him with a financial gift, a very large financial gift. He's trusting him with the gift for its safekeeping and for its stewardship. Do all this, and by the way, whatever's left over, you can do whatever's in your heart. That displays a large measure of trust that Ezra is not going to then live on that money at the expense of others. He's going to do what is right and what is proper with that money. He gives Ezra almost a blank check personally. Pay all this. Pay whatever you need out of the king's treasury. What an opportunity for abuse. What an opportunity for fraud. What an opportunity for theft. Artaxerxes seems to have no concern about that. Why? Because he trusts Ezra. Ezra has a character that doesn't bring that temptation up. Artaxerxes is not concerned about that. He orders the local treasurers to assist him. And then he charges him to appoint judges who know the law of God. Appoint judges and magistrates. Teach the ignorant and see that justice is done. Wow. Ezra comes back by a letter that gives him all kinds of authority. And Artaxerxes trusts him to do what's right. Why does he trust Ezra so? Because the hand of the Lord was on Ezra. Three times in this chapter, that observation is made. The hand of the Lord was upon Ezra. He gets safety in his trip because the hand of the Lord was upon him. And he's thankful at the end because of this letter because the good hand of God was upon him. And Ezra had set his heart on the law of God. Verse 10 is critical. 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. In fact, he says, the good hand of God was upon me because I had done this. He really sought to be a person of integrity. In our nation, in our community, in our family, in our church, we need leadership like this. Leadership that is faithful. Leadership that is full of integrity. Leadership that is wise. Leadership whose mind and thinking has been informed by the word of God. And you can supply that kind of leadership if you give yourself to the things that occupied Ezra. And now what I want to do is just simply look at verse 10. What marked Ezra's life? He studied God's law. He practiced God's law. And he taught God's law. That's what the Lord wants of us. See, Ezra is a scholar. He was skilled in the law. I told that in verse 6. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses. Verse 11, Artaxerxes notes that. A man learned in matters of the commandments of the Lord his statutes for Israel. He knew the law inside and out and in detail. Not just the Ten Commandments, which is a great place to start. That's a simple summary. But no doubt Ezra knew the case laws. He was skilled. He understood the application of the law. This had been his lifelong study. He understood the value of the law. And Psalm 19 lays that out in a very nicely poetic form. The law of the Lord is perfect, converts the soul, it gives wisdom, it gives insight. Paul will say in 2 Timothy 3 about the law, that it's inspired and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, that we may be adequately equipped for every good deed. Do we value the law of God like that? It has value not only for us personally. It has value for society, how we organize our communities, how we live in community, how we do our politics, how we do our art, how we do our business. All of it is to be informed by the word of God. And we have a need today for people who are committed to studying God's law. We need people who will give themselves to the study of the Word of God so that they can apply it in the home, and in the church, and in the marketplace, and then in the culture generally. There have been lots of debates on television recently. And the voting process has begun for the next president of the United States. How do we evaluate what we hear? By what standard do we evaluate? Well, this is the standard we should be using. The question is, do we know it well enough to use this as the standard. We need to know what God has said. We need to know how He said it. And we need to know those things so that the Word can inform and renew our thinking. Because left to ourselves, we don't think rightly. We don't think rightly about relationships. We don't think rightly about the creation. We don't think rightly about anything. So our minds need to be informed and renewed by the spirit of God. We might give ourselves to study, well, what is true? How do we think about that and apply it in the world? So how do you learn the law? If you don't know it, how do you learn it? Well, first, you ought to hear it. We need to be hearing it regularly. We need to be reading it regularly. We need to be singing it regularly. That's the most basic. There needs to be a routine in our life of consistent intake of God's Word. Reading it, singing it, hearing it, from page one to the end. And when you get to the end, you start over. And you go from the beginning to the end. And then you start over. Throughout your entire life, there should be a constant intake of God's word. That's most basic. Well, then secondly, sit under sound teaching. There are so many resources available, whether it's videos or sermon audio, or coming here weekly, sitting in on our Christian education classes. Why do we do these things? And so we begin to think rightly about the world, about ourselves and our role in it. Do some in-depth study on your own and with others. This is where the small group becomes very important. Reading God's Word and hearing it together and talking about it together. What did you hear? How do you apply that? What does that mean for this or for that circumstance? You have a question, who do you ask? You have a small group of people around you in your life that you can go to and say, I got a question about this. Does this really mean this? How do you read that? And what does that mean for our life together or for my living in this circumstance? Memorize it. Meditate on it. Meditation is not like Eastern meditation where you empty your mind. Christian meditation is filling your mind, thinking it in, and then thinking it through, and then thinking it out into its application in the world. But it's got to get into us. Psalm 1. The one who meditates on the law day and night is like the tree planted by waters of life. It bears fruit. But he meditates on it. He's thinking it. The psalmist says that the law is his delight. Is the Word of God our delight? It's not an easy task. It takes dedication. It takes work. If you intend on Bible intake, expect resistance from your flesh. Your body, your life, does not want this to happen. It will fight. Try not to read your Bible at 11.05 PM in bed. My guess is the bed will win. Every time, you will fall asleep. And any preacher will tell you, they notice things about people that, during sermons, the flesh can be weak, and people fall asleep. Say, why? Because the flesh is fighting. It does not want you hearing the Word of God. The world will fight. There are lots of things competing for your attention. So maybe you try to read the Bible in the morning. Do you read the Bible first or do you read the newspaper first? Newspaper's interesting. It's what happened yesterday? What happened last night? What's the score? And before you know it, the morning's gone. The world beat out your time with intake of the word of God. We just sang in Psalm 101, I will put no vain thing before me. No idolatrous thing. Sometimes a newspaper can be a vain thing. What gets first priority? The devil, of course, doesn't want you listening to the word. He will fight. He will distract. So once you intend, like Ezra, to study No, there will be pushback. But in learning, there is great reward. Psalm 19, there is great reward. Psalm 119 says, I have more wisdom than my teachers. I know more than the old. But for this to happen, you need to get into a routine. And much of our life is governed by routine. My guess is that most of you get up at about the same time every day. You have a routine. Well, put word intake, put Bible study, Bible reading, Bible hearing into the routine. It becomes then habitual. Because if you don't put it into the routine, it won't happen. I have an avocation for investing. One of the things they encourage is to automate as much of your savings and investing as you can, because you won't, if you have automated it, you don't really have to think about it, and it just happens. But if you haven't automated it, if there's not a routine, you won't do it. Well, it's the same thing for Bible intake. If we haven't automated the process, I get up, I read. Or I eat lunch and then I read. I have breakfast and then I read. Or at 5 p.m. when I'm home, I read. Whatever it is in the routine, work that in. Ezra had set his heart to know the law of God. Well, being well-taught is fine, but it's not enough. We are to be more than mere hearers of the Word. We are to be doers. So what do we read? Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it. The practice becomes very important. He had set his heart to do it. The need of the hour not only is for people to know the law of God, but to actually put it into practice. Many of us are very well taught How's our practice? Bible study is never finished until it is applied. It's never finished until it's applied. Always try to answer the question, so what? So what? And I try to give you, in sermons, some so what's, how this might apply. But when you read on your own, when you listen on your own, try to answer that question, so what? What difference does this make? And we need to apply the word of God, what we're learning, in our personal life, and then in our home, and in our neighborhood, and in the church, and in the marketplace, and in politics, We study, and then we apply. That's good science, by the way. Study. And then where does the scientist often go after his study? To the lab. Let's see how this works. They try things. They experiment. Does this work in the real world? Here's the theory. What does that look like in practice? We should be doing a lot of that. What does this look like in practice? There is a great need for people to live ethically, to do what is right. We now have a class at Trinity Christian School for seniors called Ethics. I told the class, easy. You can get an easy A in this class. Why do you do what's right? This is not a redundant question. Go ahead and answer it. Why do you do what's right? Because it's right. A plus. Past ethics 101. You do what's right because it's right. Even though there may be a penalty in doing what's right. Even though no one might ever know that you did what was right. You do what's right because it's right. Remember that in the next six weeks as you file your taxes. You declare your income because that's what is right. Even if no one knows but you and God, that's a good enough reason to do what is right. The big penalty is not coming from the IRS. But we do what is right. And we need people who will do what is right, who speak the truth, who keep their commitments. We need to be regularly spending time with the Ten Commandments. And I'm glad that we read it from time to time in our worship service. It should be memorized. It's giving us a structure on how to live. And I put right next to the Ten Commandments the Sermon on the Mount. And I go back to that time and time and time again. By the way, where do you find the Ten Commandments? Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5? Where do you find the Sermon on the Mount? Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Good. If you don't know what those words mean, Matthew 5 or Exodus 20, Hang out some more with us. You'll learn it. Then we ask the Spirit, show me how I need to change. We ask that of God. When I read your word, when I'm getting together, show me how I need to change. My guess is that if you have a boss, periodically you have a performance review. They might call you in and ask, well, how are things going? What further training do you need? Where do you feel at a loss? What do you feel your strengths are? Those kind of things. And they'll try to shore up where you're lacking. In our professional life, we are lifelong learners. We go to conferences. We read manuals. We study to keep up on the latest developments in our field of work. If you don't, you might find yourself unemployed at some point. Well, it's the same in the Christian life. We keep studying. We keep studying. We keep asking the Lord, show us, show me how we or us, me, how do I need to change? And then we change. Purpose to change. as he shows us. Maybe you have a problem with gossip. Stop talking about other people. It's not hard to understand. It might be hard to do at your practice. Well, change the practice. Ask somebody, look, God's convicted me. I need to stop talking about other people. When you hear me talk about somebody else, tell me. Get some accountability. Somebody comes alongside you and say, yeah, I'll start watching. I'll start listening for that. I will help you. Are we that serious about our practice? Ezra was. He's going to study it. He's going to put it into practice. And again, there's a routine that needs to come in. A personal commitment to being persons of integrity. Maybe this next week, we've already sung some of the Psalms about integrity. Maybe you say, you know what, this week I'm going to read Psalm 15 every day. Psalm of integrity. What does this look like? You're going to put it into practice. Romans 12, which I preached through back last January, there are lots of exhortations, 30 some. How is God leading us? We hear those things. Where do we need to change our practice? And then do it. Work it into routine. Find some accountability. But again, most basically, husbands, love your wives. That's part of the practice of ethical, moral living. It's part of integrity. Love your wife. Wives, respect your husbands. Fathers, train your children or grandchildren. Children, obey your parents. Again, those are the most basic things. Are we doing those? Are we loving God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and our neighbor as ourself? By the way, there's the entire summary of the Old Testament. Love God and love your neighbor. Do we do that? Do you do that? Do I do that? Those are the questions we need to be asking. Put it into practice. If it's not loving, don't do it. If it's not loving, don't say it. Or it might be not loving not to do it. So do it. If that would be the loving thing. Put it into practice by faith in the power of the Spirit routinely. get into the habit of thinking and acting like Christ. So Ezra studied the law and he did it, and then he sought to teach it in a vision to see righteousness and justice flourish in Judah. He wanted to see them be a people of integrity. a moral and ethical people under the lordship of God. And so to that end, he goes to teach. He's going to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. And he was given authority to appoint judges and magistrates who also knew the law. And Artaxerxes commissions him, and if you don't find them, teach them. He was a teacher. And society today is largely ignorant of the law of God. It just doesn't know what God has said. And sometimes we don't want to know what God has said. I had a situation like that down in Maryland when I pastored there. I found out after the fact that a guy had decided to do something. And so that was a pretty major decision. I'm just interested, why didn't we talk about that first? He said, I didn't want to know what you thought. This wasn't friend to friend. This was to pastor. And we talked about that. He said, yeah, I didn't. He'd kind of already made up his mind. He didn't really want to know if the Bible said anything about that for fear that it would cross what he wanted to do. So he figured he could go ahead in ignorance. That's bad. That's a bad way to think. I hope we don't think like that. There should be nobody who's willfully ignorant. We're all ignorant to some degree. We just don't know. But to choose not to even explore, thinking perhaps God has said something about this, but I don't want to know what it is, that's actually saying I have more wisdom than God. So not only is the ignorance abroad in the society, we discover that the ignorance is sometimes prevalent in the church. God's standards are ignored. And the church has lost her voice. And why have we lost our voice? But it's because we've lost our practice. And we lost our practice because we gave up the study. Why should the culture listen to a church who herself does not walk in integrity? There's no reason for that. And so the church now, big capital C, has very little to nothing to say to the culture. We need to find our voice again. to take up that prophetic role. But we really can't do that until we're serious about the study and the practice. Otherwise, we'll simply be thought of as hypocrites. We have much to teach, however. This is a rich, rich book. We have much to teach. But first, we have to win a hearing. Oh, that every one of us is having Gabe's kind of open door. Let's get together on Friday and talk theology. Wow. My first thought was when he said that was, can I come? Probably not. This is for him. But wow, what an open door. Pray for that. Pray for that interaction. Pray that you get that kind of same opportunity. We have to win a hearing. And that will only come when we walk by the Word of God in every area of life. When we ourselves have a reputation for compassion and grace, people begin to ask us, why are you like this? And then we can teach the Gospel. We are this way. We think like this. We live like this. We act like this by the grace of Christ. We do this because of what God has done for us in Jesus. So we pray for that. We work for that. But some of us do have duties even now to teach. Some of you have children at home. Some of you have grandchildren, which are around quite regularly. Teach them. Teach them. Far too often, men especially, abdicate this responsibility. We live in a neighborhood where men, in large ways, are absent. It's a large part of how they abdicate. They're just not around. And sometimes when they are, they still abdicate. They're uncomfortable with spiritual kind of things. We now talk about the man cave. Well, get rid of that and bring back the study. I will be in the study. The Neanderthal can live in the cave. I'm going to be in the study. It is our duty and an amazing privilege to teach the things of God to the next generation. Do it. Lead your household in family worship. Rear your children in the fear of the Lord. If we won't do it at home, now this is men and women both, if we don't do it at home, why do we think the culture will give us an opportunity to teach? We have to start at home, start in the church. And people will see our households and say, why are you guys that way? There comes the opportunity to teach. Why do you teach at a Christian school? Well, I'll tell you why. Why do you do your work like this? Why do you come early and stay late? Why are you the most faithful worker at your place of work? I'll tell you why. Great opportunity, then, to teach. The small group, we're told to teach and admonish one another. Where do we do that? Who's teaching and admonishing you? Who are you teaching and admonishing? I would love to see each one of us in some kind of small group where this kind of interaction is going on, where we study together, and we think together, and we apply together, and we teach one another, so we might all together grow in grace. I love Ezra personally. He's one of my mentors. He and I have similar work. He's a teacher. I'm a teacher. He no doubt knew his law much better than I know the law. But I learned from him, his study and his practice and his teaching. He had great integrity because he taught what he first lived. And he lived what he had studied. So I'm rebuked by that. This is why I love to spend time with him. And I hope some of you may have developed biblical mentors. Who do you look to in the scriptures to particularly teach you? Who do you connect with in the Bible? Your mentors don't all have to be living. Some of the best ones are long dead, but they can still teach. And what I conclude is this. Ezra didn't achieve his success on his own. God made Ezra. I'm in awe of Ezra. But what I find great joy in is that he didn't make himself that. God made him that. The good hand of God was upon him. And that is my hope, and that is also your hope, that the grace of God that gave him and made him a man of integrity, is available to us. It's available to you and it's available to me. Because the true Word of God has come into the world. Jesus, our Savior. He's the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. And He came into the world to save sinners. to make people who were not people of integrity, people of integrity. People who were selfish to become great lovers of others. That's what he has done by the work of his spirit. So maybe today that some of you don't have a heart for him. You diverge from Ezra because Ezra said his heart to know the law. That's not where your heart is. Repent. Your heart is somewhere else. The heart of our culture, I don't even know where they're playing the game tonight. It's there, wherever there is. You can tell I'm not a big fan of football. But our culture's heart is with the Super Bowl today. Maybe that's where your heart is. I don't know. I hope not. I hope that's not where your heart is. You might have some passing attraction to it, but I hope it's not your heart. Ezra set his heart to know the law. I hope you've set your heart to know Jesus. To know the word of God who has come into the world. To set your heart on him that he might first teach you. That you might be changed. And that you might live out the Gospel. And then that we might set our corporate heart on the Lord. That we together might learn of Him. And we together might live it out. Teaching others then in word and deed to do the same. As Ezra set his heart to know the law of the Lord and to do it. and to teach. May God do that in our midst. May he give us a heart to love him and to know him and to practice what we know to be right, that our families and our community and the world might be taught and themselves be led to faith and repentance. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this model But even as we look at Ezra's practice, just from this one verse, and it was so clearly reflected in the letter that Artaxerxes gave him, authorizing him to do all of this stuff, because he trusted him, because he was a man of integrity. And we read this and think, I can never be like Ezra. Right. In and of ourselves, we can't. But Ezra wasn't Ezra on his own. You made him that way, because the hand of the Lord His God was upon Him. And our prayer today is, Lord, that we too will purpose to give ourselves to the study of Your Word, to the practice of Your Word, to the teaching of Your Word. And we pray that Your good hand would be upon us, that we might be people of integrity, and we might give leadership to our families and to the church and to the community Lord, again, be with Gabe as he has this wonderful opportunity to teach. But let him go with a willingness to first hear and understand, who is this guy? Why is he interested? And may this develop into a fruitful relationship for now and to eternity. And then Lord, give us as well opportunities just like that to lead others in faith and repentance. That the nations might say what good things, what great things God has done for them. And then what great things God has done for us. That your name might be glorified now and forever. Amen. And may you, the people of God, be blessed. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. And the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Now and forever, amen.