Welcome from all of us at Albuquerque Reformed Church, a particular congregation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church located in New Mexico. We thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about Albuquerque Reformed Church or to contribute to its ministry, visit abqreformed.org. And now, we invite you to open your Bible and listen to the preached Word. I'll give you an introduction, a little bit of a background to the structure of the book of Ezra. That's what I'm preaching through chapter by chapter in our congregation now. And this passage comes from the very beginning of the second section of the book. of Ezra. If you go and read that book, it's kind of strange. You read six chapters in and you've heard nothing about Ezra. That's the name of the book. And now we get the introduction to Ezra here at the beginning of chapter seven. So this is where we are. As we look at Ezra, it also fits with the next book in Scripture, Nehemiah. Those books go together, and together they comprise three returns of God's people to the Promised Land. That's how they are structured. These books are a fulfillment of God's promises to His people to work a second exodus. Remember, the first exodus happened when his people were in slavery in Egypt, and by his powerful hand, God delivered them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. And then what did they do when they got there? Actually, they didn't wait to get there. What were they doing all the way there, and then again once they got there? They were disobeying God. They were breaking his law. And finally, what was the consequence of these actions? God exiled them out of the Promised Land. He sent nations to conquer them and carry them away into captivity. And yet, because God is gracious, because His covenant is based not upon the works of His people, but is grounded on the work of His Son, Jesus Christ, both in the Old Testament and in the New, He gave them promises. He said, I will deliver you again, even from exile. There will be a second exodus and I will bring you back. And that is what we have in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah coming true. Except it happens in stages. As I said, three stages. There are sort of three second exoduses. There is the first second Exodus under Zerubbabel, and that's in Ezra 1-6. And the point of this is to rebuild the building of the temple. And the people do that. That brings us up to where we are here. There is, in the book of Nehemiah, sort of a third second exodus, if I may say so. It's all part of this theme of second exodus, but this is a third return, and Zerubbabel was the first. Nehemiah is the last, who comes back to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem. His name, Nehemiah, some people teach their children as they try to have them remember the books of scripture. Rebuilt the walls when they were knee high, Nehemiah. And if that is really corny, and that's why you'll not forget it probably. So maybe that'll be helpful if you try to remember what his books are about. But the second section in Ezra, in the book of Ezra, the second section, the second second Exodus, where our text begins here for us in chapter seven, is not to rebuild the temple as a building. It is not to rebuild the walls as a defensive structure, but it is to rebuild the people as the community of God who is to obey his law. Ezra is sent back to make sure the people are obeying the law of God. And if you read the rest of this chapter, you'll see that. There's a hint here of what, as I preach through this book, I kind of took a break from Ezra and preached in Ephesians. And I quoted some of that language before about God building the two into one new man, a temple for the dwelling of the Holy Spirit. We see that in 1 Peter 2 as well. The dwelling of God is the people of God. And Ezra is sent back to build them up with the word of God. It's not just about the building of the temple, but it's about the people, the community in which God's temple stood. It's about teaching them to obey the Lord. It's about teaching them, here's how you worship the Lord. You've got the temple to do it in, now make sure you are doing it according to his word. And what we see in this book is that in order to build up the people, the people of God need a leader. A second Exodus needs a second Moses. And that is what Ezra is presented as here. He is someone bringing God's word to his people. Somebody leading and guiding them and reforming them according to that word, so that they might keep the law as God's restored community. And that is the job of Ezra throughout this book, and even we see him appearing in the book of Nehemiah as well. What I want to highlight for you this morning, that our text is presenting to us as it introduces Ezra. is that in this person, in this man, Ezra, we have one who is qualified to bring God's law to his people because he knows it well, because he does it in his life, and because he is ready to teach others. We have in Ezra one who is qualified to lead the people of God with the word of God. And in so doing, Ezra also in scripture points us beyond himself. He points us to a greater leader, a greater teacher who was to come, one who perfectly knows the law, one who more than Ezra perfectly kept the law, and one who through his spirit which he pours out teaches God's word to his people. I think you know who that is. Ezra points us to the coming of Jesus Christ. That is what we want to see this morning. But first we'll look at the man, Ezra himself, and how he is presented here immediately. As Ezra is a type and a shadow of Christ, one who in the history of God's people does something good and is used by God, but points us forward in the history of redemption to one who will perfectly do these things, as all things are summed up in Christ. Let us look at Ezra's qualifications. Let us look at Ezra's qualifications. And that's something the author of this text wanted to stress to these believers who would read this in the Old Testament. One of the things our author does is he presents Ezra here as a second Moses. Ezra is presented as a second Moses. We see this because of his relationship to the law. Obviously, Moses was the one who God chose to bring the law at first to his people. We see it as well in the emphasis on Ezra as one who is devoted to the law. But we see it, if you skip down to verse 25, if you have your Bible open, I'll read it. Part of what Ezra is to do is 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. And all such as know the laws of your God and those who do not know them, you shall teach. If you recall the first exodus, one of the things that Moses did is he was leading God's people and giving them the law. Everybody who had a problem and said, Moses, How does the law apply to this? They would all bring them to him and he got overwhelmed. And so he got some good advice to appoint judges over the people. We see a hint of that in what Ezra is to do here. We see this as well in his genealogy. One of those things that sometimes we're a bit concerned about. Maybe we fall asleep. We're trying to do our Bible reading and we come to these genealogies, but they have a point. and a purpose. We see Ezra's qualifications in the sense that he is one like Moses, but we also see them in that he has the genealogy of a priest. He has the genealogy of a priest. Let me first say a note, give you guys a little reminder of part of the role of a priest. In my own congregation, we, and you guys got little bits of it, but we've been, we were working through Hebrews before we came to Ezra and Nehemiah. And Hebrews puts a lot of emphasis on the high priest's role in offering a sacrifice as an atonement for sin. But that's not what's going on here. In the Old Testament, priests had another role. Part of what the priests did was to teach the law. Part of what they did was to teach the people the law of God. And that's the aspect that the book of Ezra picks up on here. In this way, the role of the priest is actually kind of overlapping a little bit with the prophet. The priest teaches the word that's already been given. The prophet brings new words from God as God does new works in the Old Testament. But that is still a priestly role. We see this in the book of Deuteronomy. They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law. They shall put incense before you and burn whole burnt offerings on your altar. So you see, the priest did both. They had a teaching function as well. Leviticus 10, 11, speaking again to the priests, you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses. And as we go throughout the history of God's people, we see as well that the high priest becomes an important ruler and leader of the people. Think of the New Testament. When Christ comes on the scene at that time, there was no king in Israel, right? They had been conquered. They were under Roman rule at that point, not Persian. But because of that, the high priest took on this more important role in leading the people. So the genealogy given here shows us that Ezra is qualified for the task of teaching the law in a few ways. For one, this is not a complete genealogy. And that's typical in scripture. They're not always exhausted. We think you left some stuff out. You got it wrong. That's how we think about it. But that's not their intent in scripture. They use genealogies often like highlight reels. You don't have to show exhaustively every link in the chain, but perhaps some of the most important ones. And we note that in Hebrew as well, as in the New Testament, sometimes saying son doesn't mean direct descendant. Sometimes it means grandson or great-great-great-grandson. Just as, you know, in the Chronicles of Narnia, if you've read it, they were called sons of Adam. That doesn't mean Adam was their direct father, but that they are descendants of him in a less strict way. That's what we have going on. And you'll notice that this genealogy begins with Ezra, the son of Sariah. If you look at the other genealogies in the Old Testament, he's not the direct son of Sariah. But who was this guy, Sariah? He was the last high priest before the exile. And so actually by giving us this highlight reel, our author highlights the fact that Ezra comes from the family of the high priests who lead God's people. And he does the same thing with the end of the genealogy as he works backward. Where does he go back to? He goes back to Aaron, the chief priest. He highlights for us that Ezra is from this priestly family. who is qualified by his genealogy to bring the word to the people, to teach the people as a priest was to do. We notice also though that not just because he is patterned as a second Moses, not just because of his genealogy, but because of his own relationship to the law. Ezra is the one. who is qualified to lead and teach God's people. He is called here a scribe. He is called a scribe. And there might be two meanings to this, excuse me, two meanings to this word. For one, in the context, if you keep reading this chapter, Ezra is sent by the king. And he is a scribe in the sense that it seems very much like he has some official Persian position. He might be, some commentators said, the secretary of Jewish religious affairs in the kingdom. If you don't know much about the Persians, they had this policy of trying to keep people happy so they wouldn't revolt. So they said, let's get you back in your land and do your religion so that you won't get mad and revolt against us. So we have to go. do a costly invasion again, and we don't want to do that kind of thing. So that was part of why the Persian kings wanted these things to be done appropriately. So they had somebody like Ezra who said, tell us what our policy needs to be about Jewish religion over here in this province. And historically it was a very important province at this time because Egypt was being rebellious and they're kind of close in that neighborhood. So like we need to really keep the peace here. So on the one hand in God's providence, he's appointed a scribe in that Persian sense. There's a letter showing his appointment in the rest of chapter seven. But that word has a very different meaning in the Jewish sense. And God in his providence uses Ezra, who gets appointed to this Persian position, but also is qualified by his genealogy and by his relationship to the law itself personally, to be one who is able to teach God's people. The scribe is the one who studies and copies the law of God and knows the law of God, who's sort of an expert in the Bible, as it were. That was the kind of tagline for my seminary. We make experts in the Bible. That's why you go and spend all of those years not sleeping and drinking coffee and up all night trying to write your papers. Because you want to know the Word of God. Verse six, it says, he was skilled in the law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel had given. He knows his way around the scriptures. He studied them. He understands them. He can interpret them and apply them to the people. This is not stuff Ezra made up. This is the law that Moses was given by the Lord. It came from God himself. And how was it that he gained this skill in the word of God? What is Ezra's character like? We are told in verse 10, Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes of rules in Israel. We see here the seriousness of his intent. The word is not something that he dabbles in. Oh yeah, every once in a while I'd dust it off and pull it off the shelf. Ezra set his heart on the law of God. He was concentrated on this goal, to know what God said to his people. He had set his heart upon it. One commentator says that we should note the order, and he puts it this way. He taught what he first lived, and he lived what he first found in the scriptures. You see where the beginning is. It all starts with the Word of God. That is the foundation. So he first wants to understand, what did God say? Because I'll change my life to fit that. I'm not going to go to the Word saying, how can I find some way to make what I'm doing seem acceptable? He says, what does the Word say? And then let me do that in my life. But also note, he doesn't go and teach other people and say, do as I say, but not as I do, as all poor teachers do. As he teaches, he teaches not as a hypocrite, but one who, one, is devoted to understanding it, but also to living out what the Word of God says, to doing the Word of God. And he says, as a later teacher said, follow me as I follow Christ. He is living out what he finds in the word, and it is after he does this that this is not just his thing. He wants to share these riches of God revealing himself in his word, which are a blessing when they are lived out. He wants to share them with others and teach them to do these things as well. So we see that he is qualified to lead the people and teach them because he has set his heart to be an expert. He knows the truth, he practices the truth, and he has a desire to see God's people know and do it as well. This indeed is the man that is sent to be the second Moses. This is the one who can bring God's law to his people after they are restored, after they have rebuilt their temple, as they are returning from the exile. And yet we might ask, In himself is Ezra enough. As much as he knows, and as sincere as he is in his practice, and as great as his desire is to teach the people, we might ask, what happened with the first Moses? Inspired by God to give the law to his people, what did they do? They knew it, and they broke it. As Ezra comes back to teach and to reform and to build up the community to follow God's law, will his teaching be enough to prevent a second exile after a second exodus? We might ask, is the problem that God's people have only that they don't know what it says? Is it an intellectual problem, a knowledge gap? Or do they need something more? If our problem as sinful people, even as redeemed sinful people, is just a lack of knowledge, you think the internet would have solved all of our problems. We have access to all kinds of information and yet it seems the internet just multiplies our problems sometimes. The people need something more than this. And that is what Ezra points to. He points beyond himself as much as he was used by God. As much as he shows us positive things, he points to someone greater. He points to Jesus Christ, the ultimate fulfillment. You might say the second and final Moses. Because we indeed need more than intellectual teaching. No mere man can give us information on how we can find our way back to God because our problem is not just an intellectual one. We need a savior to come and lead us. We need him to teach us not from the outside, but to renew us in our hearts and our minds by his spirit. Our hearts and our minds are darkened by sin so that they are misdirected against the truth. And yet, what we need, God has provided for us in the greatest teacher, Jesus Christ, the greater Moses, the greater Ezra. This is a pattern we see so often in scripture. There is a promise. There is an initial fulfillment. And yet, the final fulfillment comes in none other than Christ himself. We have this idea of the son of David that is so prominent in scripture, and in some ways that's Solomon that is given to David, but Solomon falls short because the ultimate son of David to come is his descendant, Jesus Christ. We have this second exodus that is promised, and in some way that is fulfilled as God in his providence brings the people out of Babylon and returns them to the land. But is that enough? No, there is a greater exodus when God frees his people from the power of sin to which they are enslaved in Jesus Christ. And Jesus, in the same way, is the greater second Moses than Ezra was. This is promised back in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 18, 18, God says there, he's speaking to Moses so that he can tell the people, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. That's the prophecy of a second Moses. Ezra gives us a picture of that. Maybe filling in a little bit of the details, but in Christ, we see it in 4K high definition. Think of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus goes up on the mountain just as Moses went up on the mountain to receive the law of God. And there he teaches the people. Think about what he says over and over in John's Gospel. I do not speak on my own authority, but I'm telling you what my father gave me. That's what God said he would do through the second Moses. And yet, like Ezra, Christ is one who knows the will of God, who does the law of God, and who teaches his people to do likewise. He knows the will of God because on the one hand, as God, he wrote it. It's His. He is the source in a way that no other man is. He is the God who gave the law on Mount Sinai by His finger. It is His Spirit that inspired Moses and every other Old Testament prophet. It is the Spirit of Christ who did that, even in the Old Testament. And yet not only as God, but as man, he set his heart to learn his father's will, just as Ezra did. Remember what he did? We don't have hardly any knowledge of Jesus' childhood, but there's one important story we get after his birth. What was that? He went to the temple because he had a desire to be in his father's house and to speak with the experts about his father's word. As a man, he set his heart to know the will of God. And yet, more than Ezra, more than anyone, in fact, as the only one, Christ perfectly obeyed the law of God and did the will of his Father. We see that heart in Ezra, but we know that all men have sinned and fall short of God's glory. But in Jesus Christ, we have the true man who fell short in nothing. who did not have a single glance of his eyes, it wasn't perfectly righteous. That man who did not have a hidden desire in his heart that was in opposition to the law of God. That is why Hebrews says, he was made like us in every way and yet without sin. Think about how he resisted He would not fall to temptation. He used his knowledge of the scriptures there to refute the devil's twisting of them, as even the devil tried to use scripture to tempt him. And again, that's Exodus imagery. He was tempted in the wilderness as the people of God were, and he quotes from their temptation in the wilderness. Like Ezra, he knew the law. He did the law so that he could earn God's blessings for us. And finally, he is the great teacher who teaches us. We see this in his earthly ministry. They were astonished at his teaching, Mark 1 says, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. Phaesra is the best of their scribes. Jesus is better. John 7, 46. And I could multiply examples. The chief priest sent officers to arrest Jesus, and they come back empty-handed, and they're like, why didn't you do what we sent you to do? And they said, no one has ever spoken like this man. He's the greatest teacher of God's people. And yet I'll highlight for us, larger catechism, question 43. That's not the one we have today, is it? That would be providential. No. Larger Catechism 43, and this is where we need to remember what we said about how some of the priestly role overlaps with that of prophet. Because here we ask, how does Christ execute the office of a prophet? How is he the perfect prophet to God's people? And the answer is Christ does this by revealing to the church in all ages, by his spirit and his word, in all different ways of administering his covenant, the whole will of God. in all things concerning their building up and their salvation. Christ does the office, he does the job of a prophet by revealing to his church in all ages. That means in the Old Testament. That means through Ezra. That means it is Christ's prophetic office that is the foundation of what Moses did. And he does this by his word and his spirit. As we have said, his spirit who inspired the prophets, who inspired Moses. In all the different ways of administration. Look, the Old Testament was different. We get to eat bacon and that's great. But in all of those ways, it was Christ who was the foundation working among the people of God. Teaching them. Not just by his word, but by his spirit. which is necessary to bring light into our darkened minds and hearts. As we seek to do the opposite of that pattern in Ezra, right? We seek to twist what our minds know, because our hearts are wicked. We seek to twist the scriptures to fit with what we want, rather than going to God first. And yet it is the Spirit of God who changes our hearts and teaches our minds, and it is the Spirit who was sent by Christ. the ultimate prophet, the ultimate teaching priest. All things needed to build them up and to save them. It is Christ who does this for us. Without Christ, our minds would not be enlightened, our hearts would not be changed so that we might accept his gospel. That he indeed has fulfilled all of the law for us. Without him, we would be lost. Let me say a few words of application. Don't look to Ezra only as an example to follow. If I just try hard enough and study hard enough and do hard enough, I can save myself by becoming an expert and obedient to the will of God. We cannot do that. Ezra is not put there for this purpose. He's put there to point us to the grace of God in Christ, as all God's promises are fulfilled in him. Look to the Christ to whom Ezra points. Look to the Christ to whom all of the word of God in the Old Testament points, as Jesus said, because that's what Ezra was teaching the people. He was teaching them Christ in the types and shadows of that age. Look to him in faith. Trust in His work. Rely on His Spirit as you study the Word. As you read the Word, as you hear the Word, be prayerful. Ask for the Spirit to help you to understand and apply it and bring to your heart and to your mind those ways in which you fall short. Those sins of which you need to repent. Those duties at which you might obey. Ask Him to show you Jesus Christ, to encourage you in your darkness. As you struggle, as you maybe even struggle with doubt, rely on the Spirit. But as you do that, seek the Word like Ezra did. He is a good example for us to follow if we do so in the right way. If we do so looking to Christ, as we do so in gratitude, seeking to honor God with our lives. Like Ezra, and like Christ, be doers of the Word and not hearers only. Don't get puffed up with prideful knowledge. You can be an expert in the Bible up here. Be an expert with your hands and with your feet. Be an expert in doing the Word of God. Speak to others as well. Ezra's desire was to speak to others and teach them. Be looking for ways you can encourage one another, building one another up, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with the word of Christ dwelling in you richly and encouraging one another. Every office in the church, every office of Christ, and the special office in the church has its own analog, its own application in your life. You may not be a pastor or an elder, or a deacon, but you still serve one another in mercy. You should still encourage one another with the word. That is part of what it means to be a Christian. What we sometimes call the general office of believer, we all have our part to play. Encourage others in the word. Listen to your teachers in the church. Listen to your pastor as he preaches. God has given you, in the risen Christ, teachers to guide you in the Word. That's part of his plan. And pray for those pastors and teachers, not just for their own blessing that they might get rich and be healthy. Pray for them that they would accurately know the Word of God and accurately teach you the Word of God. Pray that God would be using them because they do not have the power of themselves to do anything for you. It is only Christ working through them who can do this. It is Christ indeed who ministers through them. We see this in Ephesians 2. Paul says, in speaking about the fullness of God in Christ, and he came and preached peace to those who were far off and to those who were near. He's speaking to you who were far off in Ephesus and Jesus in his earthly body on earth did not go to Ephesus. But he does as he preaches through his apostles, his prophets, his pastors and teachers that preach his word. Pray for them. Listen to them. Hear God speaking to you from this pulpit. So long as who is standing here teaches you the word of God and not their own opinions, receive it as the word of God. Because in it, Jesus Christ is teaching you. In it, Jesus Christ is building you up. In it, Jesus Christ, by his gospel, is saving you. Let's bow in prayer. Father, we thank you for Ezra. And we thank you most of all for Christ, to whom he points. Christ, who enlightens us in the darkness of sin. Christ, who teaches us the truth about who you are. Christ who teaches us the gospel that we must believe. And Christ who teaches us to honor you in gratitude with our lives. Give us ears to listen to him, always. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you for joining us. If you were blessed by this sermon, we invite you to visit us at abcreformed.org, where you'll find more information about our ministry. We look forward to you joining us again, online or in person. Until then, may peace, comfort, and grace be given to you through our Lord Jesus Christ.