Revive Thy Work O Lord Ezra 9:4-14
Introduction: Israel had been called to be a light to the world for God. Through continued disobedience the nation brought God’s judgment upon itself. Today the church has been given that task as God’s instrument to reflect His truth. But like Israel many congregations within the Body of Christ have failed to live in obedience and like Israel have had to undergo the effects of their failure and are in desperate need of revival. There are great lessons to learn from the experience of Israel.
I. The Result of Israel’s Sin
A. The Shekinah Presence of God was withdrawn
1. Shekinah Glory - the visible manifestation of God's presence and glory.
2. Ezekiel 10:18 “Then the glory of the LORD departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim.”
3. Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden [His] face from you, So that He will not hear.”
4. 2 Corinthians 4:6 “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
5. A lighthouse is not useful if the glass surrounding the light is dirty. The dirt blocks the light from giving off the pure stream the ships need to guide them. D.L. Moody once said, “A holy life will make the deepest impression.” Even so, God desires that the life of every Christian be a lighthouse, giving off the pure light of His Word to a lost world.
B. The House of God was devastated.
1. Isaiah 64:10-11 “Your holy cities have become a desert. Zion has become a desert. Jerusalem is a wasteland. Our holy and beautiful temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned to the ground. All that we valued has been ruined."
2. In 586 BC, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem destroying the city and burning the temple to the ground.
3. The temple was called beth Yahweh or beth Elohim, meaning “house of Jehovah” or “house of God”. It was the place where the people of Israel corporate met with God in worship. But sin brought judgment and devastation on Israel and devastated the house of God.
4. Sin, is not only personal but collective also and it not only affects the individual Christian but it devastates the church.
5. Sin in the church saps it of its spiritual power and holy influence in the community.
C. The People of God were dispersed.
1. Ezra 9:7 "Since the days of our fathers to this day we [have been] very guilty, and for our iniquities we, our kings, [and] our priests have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to humiliation, as [it is] this day.”
2. The dispersion and captivity of Judah began around 705 BC with Sennacherib of Assyria and was complete with the capture of King Zedekiah in 586 BC. They killed his sons and then put out his eyes and was led off in captivity to Babylon. Jerusalem was sieged, the Temple razed along with the walls of the city and all the houses. Everything thatl mattered to the Jews was destroyed or plundered. Judah became enslaved to the nations of the world around them.
3. Christians ensnared in sin are unproductive and do not bear fruit or glorify God.
4. The disunity wrought in the world by sin has been allowed to creep into the Church and leave its mark there. When the Church divides at any place, it is the result of sin, either on the part of those who leave it or those who thrust them out, or both. Christ cannot be divided, nor can His Body, the Church, remain divided save at the cost of weakness and failure. - copied
II. The Road to Revival
A. Isaiah 57:14-16 “And it will be said, "Build up, build up, prepare the way, Remove every obstacle out of the way of My people. For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry; For the spirit would grow faint before Me, and the breath of those whom I have made.”
B. Repentance – We need to get rid of the obstacles in our lives as God’s people that are hindering us from truly having God’s blessing on our lives.
C. Humility – lowliness – We must recognize His holiness and majesty and become lowly in our own estimation of ourselves, and humble ourselves before the Lord.
• To grow tall spiritually, we must first learn to kneel. - Gary Heard, Melbourne
D. Contrition - to be bowed down with the awareness of our spiritual bankruptcy. Not rationalizing our actions, not seeking to justify or hide our sinfulness, not seeking to blame others or our circumstances. Someone has said, “Contrition is a pain of the soul and a hatred for sins committed.”
E. A true revival means nothing less than a revolution, casting out the spirit of worldliness, making God's love triumph in the heart. - Andrew Murray
F. We are the human agents through which revival is possible. Let me ask this question, "Are you in the place where God can trust you with revival?" He is sovereign. He is supernatural. But He comes down! And in His sovereign purpose and wise economy, He has placed this treasure in earthen vessels. Duncan Campbell
III. The Results of Revival
A. Release from Bondage
1. Ezra 9:8-9a “...now for a little while grace has been [shown] from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place. “For we were slaves. Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia...”
2. John 8:36 "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
3. Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
B. Restoration of the Life that once was
1. Verse 9 - “He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us”
2. Revival, primarily, is the renewal of life in something that has already possessed life. It is impossible to revive something that has never been alive.- copied
3. Psalm 51:12 “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.”
4. A man who had known Christ fell into sin and was convicted of a crime that placed him in prison for seven years. While there a godly personal worker led him to know the restoration power of the blood of Christ. Rejoicing on the fly leaf of his Bible he wrote, “The soul that comes to Jesus through failure, shame, or pain, by His wondrous love and mercy may soar as high again." - copied
C. Rebuilding of the House of God
1. Verse 9 - “to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins”
2. Only a few days before these verses, Ezra had seen the temple for the first time in his life. He was impressed that God had given His people a peg in His holy place once again. Israel once again had a safe position, a standing in God’s favor and in His temple - copied
3. Revival restores the church to a standing of blessing, to re-commissioning the Great Commission, and to fellowship.
D. Re-establishment of Israel.
1. Verse 9 - “give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem”
2. The walls were built. They now was secure and stable. They were under the protective care of the Lord. That which had been scattered was now restored.
3. Proverbs 12:3 “A man is not established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous cannot be moved.”
IV. The Responsibility of the Revived
A. Verses 3-6 “So when I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and plucked out some of the hair of my head and beard, and sat down astonished. Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel assembled to me, because of the transgression of those who had been carried away captive, and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice. At the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God. And I said: "O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens.”
B. How must Ezra have felt about the news that Israel had been revived but now were falling back into old patterns of sin. He was s devastated. He rends his garments, plucks out his hair and sits down 'overwhelmed'. What disturbed him most was this: the people who had sinned in this way were people who had experienced God's grace in a special way. God had led them back to Jerusalem, granted them help, given them a temple, an altar and sacrifices. But despite of God's grace and mercy with them, they insulted Him in this way (v.8-11). -copied
C. God's people cannot expect the blessing of God when they mix with the world.
D. Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”
E. Our Responsibility is to live lives that demonstrate the power of God to change lives, to live as those who have been revived, to always remember His grace and mercy.
F. Revival is nothing less than a new beginning of obedience to God. – unknown
G. Revival is the people of God living in the power of an ungrieved, unquenched Spirit. - James A. Stewart.
