A Heart To Study

Opener: Maxine story

Once upon a time me and a friend of mine named Joseph Murrey went to Ridgecrest in Toccoa Georgia to do a Bible Study with a man who happened to be a transexual or cross dresser. I am not really sure. We just saw a guy who clearly needed some brothers in his life. When we got there he was not there but the lady he lived with was. I am not sure if she was his older sister or mother or aunt. Some kind of close family relative. She was like “So and so isn’t here, but you can do the Bible study with me.” Okay. Sounds good. We usually would do a Bible study that centered around Jesus and would always work the Gospel in. We started talking about sin and repentance. And she wanted to share with us how she repents to the Lord. I am like, “Okay. Great. Let’s hear it.” She stated, “That when she is going to sin. She repents to the Lord and asks for forgiveness. and then she goes and does the thing she repented for because she knows God forgives her.” Now you may be wondering if you heard me correctly. I assure you, you did. She said:

First she repents

Then, because she is forgiven, she goes and sins. Like she has a blank check to sin.

It was such a foreign thought to me that it was hard to even comprehend. How could someone come to such a unbiblical notion. I mean it sounds crazier than some of the absurd objections that Paul raises in Romans: “Shall I sin more so grace may abound?”

I asked her, “Where are you getting that from in the Bible.”

She got a little passionate at this point and said, “I am learned this from my Aunt and have done this for however many years”.

We pressed into it from there but we never made much progress. Now that story may sound extreme. How does one come to such an unbiblical practice in their life. This lady had her own Bible. She wanted to do a Bible study. Yet she didn’t see the obvious conflict.

Why? It wasn’t just that she thought alot of her Aunt. I don’t think so. I think it was more so because she had spiritualized it (she was talking to God in prayer) and comforted by this almost Christian idea. We do confess our sins to God in prayer. Except we do it after we sin and we in all cases turn from it. That is biblical repentance.

I think we would all say she was decieved. But i want you to see she decieved by her own practicing spiritual life. She could have avoided this by yielding, submitting, coming under The Word of God.

The Word of God is TRUTH. It is the objective truth by which we can weigh every, thought, word, action, prophecy, spirit, or teacher by. The objective Word of God. We are going to look at a man today who did this particularly well and even when faced with difficult situations he yielded himself to The Word of God.

Ezra

Ezra 7:9–10 NASB95

9 For on the first of the first month he began to go up from Babylon; and on the first of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, because the good hand of his God was upon him. 10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.

Before we unpack this pivotal verse in the book of Ezra I need to tell you a little bit about the man himself.

The book fo Ezra starts with the fulfilling of Jeremiah’s prophecy that Israel would serve the King of Babylon for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11). The Spirit of the Lord stirs King Cyrus and he issues a decree for the exiles to return and rebuild the Temple.

It takes them about 20 years. The Samaritans appose them and get the construction stopped for a time by a new King. Haggai and Zechariah come on the scene and prophesy for the people to resume the building of the temple. The people do, the Samaritans report them, and King Darius allows them to continue finding Cyrus’ original decree. That all happens in the first 6 chapters of the book of Ezra. There are only 10 chapters.

Now, chapter 7, enters Ezra. He was a priest and the first one to hold the title as a “Scribe skilled in the Law of Moses”.

whose God’s good hand was upon. In fact the book of Ezra makes note of this 6 times! Friends do you want to the good hand of God on your life? You are going to learn how today!

Besides our passage, which is the key passage, one of those times is absolutely worth mention. I can relate to it all too well and find it quite funny. It says the King gave Ezra everything he had asked for because God’s hand was on him. Ezra embarks on a roughly 4 month trip with a caravan of families carying gold and silver with no protection. 900 Miles through dangerous territroy with no protection? Why did they have no protection:

Ezra 8:22–23 NASB9522 For I was ashamed to request from the king troops and horsemen to protect us from the enemy on the way, because we had said to the king, “The hand of our God is favorably disposed to all those who seek Him, but His power and His anger are against all those who forsake Him.” 23 So we fasted and sought our God concerning this matter, and He listened to our entreaty.

So here is Ezra the great teacher teaching on the goodness of God and now He has to walk the walk. And He does it! Ezra isn’t just a talker. He is a doer and He knows how God operates!

But when he arrives after the long journey he finds that many of the people including priest had married unbelieving wives. Something forbidden in the Old Testament and the New.

Not to go off on a tangent but David Pawson says, “If you marry a child of the devil you will have problems with your father in law.” Think about it.

Ezra because he had hidden God’s Law in his heart is heart broken over this sin. He begins to fast and pray with confession and weeping.

He eventually calls for all the people to gather in the open square in Jerusalem and anyone who does not is to be cut off from the people and in the pouring rain with the people trembling he declares this:

Ezra 10:10–11 NASB9510 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful and have married foreign wives adding to the guilt of Israel. 11 “Now therefore, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.”

Now it would take them sometime to practically resolve this issue but the book ends with essentially Ezra sparing the people of God from committing the same mistakes that lead them to the original exile.

In short Ezra established true biblical worship in Jerusalem. Listen to me carefully. He taught that true biblical worship requires obedience of the heart!

Ezra 7:9–10 NASB959 “the good hand of his God was upon him. 10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.”

Grace

I want to give a strong warning here. We are saved by Grace. You can’t devote yourself into the Kingdom of Heaven! You can’t study, do, and teach your way into being a child of God. And I want us to see that in the Ezra narrative. They needed God’s grace!

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 9

5 But at the evening offering I arose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the LORD my God;

6 and I said, “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.

Friends we need Jesus. Ezra was before Christ but his only hope wasn’t the restoration of the temple all though that was important in the redemptive history leading up to Jesus, but it was in the Lamb of God who would once and for all take away our sin. And despite Ezra and Nehemiah’s best efforts they are herding cats. They really are. We need more than a teacher. We need a Savior.

We need someone woh can:

Forgive

Cleanse

Restore

But having been saved Jesus expects obedience from His disciples.

He modeled obedience to the Father as an example for us to follow. Just like it says of Ezra here was no mere teacher He was alsop a doer!

John 4:34 NASB95

34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.

Jesus did and talked just as He was told by the Father it says in John. The absolute perfect example of obedience.

Phillipians 2 with the great hymn of His humiliation and exaltation emphasizes this point how he humlbed himself by becoming obedient. Obedient to the point of death!

But Jesus not only modeled this He taught that obedience was expected of true worshippers. Grace comes first but then the expectation to walk in Holiness:

Think of what Jesus says to the women caught in adultery after giving her Grace (not a cheap a grace but a costly one that would cost him his life)nHe says “Go and sin no more”.

Or think of the criple man he heals in John 5. After finding him again having restored his health he says, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” There are worse things than being crippled brother. Think about it!

Jesus does this to call us to true repentance (like Ezra modeled: “my sins have gone up over my head. I am at your mercy God.”) but also to call us into new life. To call us to walk in holiness.

Jesus says in Matthew 5:17, “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.” This is the truth!

Jesus says in John 14:21, “ He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me”

Friends this is so important to God. So we need Grace. A powerful Grace that transforms our hearts into ones that seek to do His will submitting and yielding to His Word.

Set HIS HEART!

Remember our key verses says,

For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Ezr 7:10). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

Do you want the GOOD HAND of GOD on YOUR LIFE! That is the question today. Do these things! Now Ezra isn’t interested in establishing his own Kingdom. So if you thought I just said do you want God to get onboard with your agenda do these things.... I did not say that. I said the Good hand of God was on His life because He had set His heart to God’s.

The idea of the words used here to set one’s heart meant to devote one’s entire inward being on these three things.

In other words, Ezra “had devoted himself” or “had committed himself” to the purpose of studying, interpreting and teaching the Law.

Noss, P. A., & Thomas, K. J. (2005). A Handbook on Ezra and Nehemiah. (P. Clarke, S. Brown, L. Dorn, & D. Slager, Eds.) (p. 160). New York: United Bible Societies.

To study, do, and teach.

Completely yielded and submitted to God’s Word. To be this type of person it costs you something! You are not going to only have to give up other things to put in the time with God and His Word, but it will change the way you live. It will challenge the way you live and it will put you at odds if nothing else with this present world. That is a spiritual reality.

You think of Ezra and the dangerous journey he took with no protection or how he stood against a cultural sin unwavering. He as a leader wasn’t going to let them pursue the same sins that lead to their exile and destruction. So He on God’s Word, in the Fear of God, stood against the title wave of the culture. Those things didnt make him popular. They weren’t his ideas of good time either. Did he want to take the dangerous 4 month journey with no protectin. Did he want to agonize over and confront the peoples sin. Not at all.

But THE GOOD HAND of HIS GOd was upon him and he saved a nation because of it.

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Athanasius, who lived in the 3rd and 4th century is famously known for refuting Arius the heritic who taught that the Son was not eternal, “If the Son was begot there was a time he was not”. Athansius powerfully refuted this stating”

“Those who maintain ‘There was a time when the Son was not’ rob God of his Word, like plunderers.” - Athanasius

Galli, M., & Olsen, T. (2000). Introduction. In 131 Christians everyone should know (p. 17). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

“The Son Fully Saves because the Son is Fully God”

He created alot of enemies in his day because this false teaching had become very popular. His enimies called him “Black Dwarf”. He was a short, dark-skinned Egyptian man. He won the theolgocial debate of his day and this important, Biblical doctrine is cemented in church history because of him. But he we exiled for 17 of his 45 years as Bishop of Alexandria. He was falsly accused of murder, illegal taxation, sorcery and treason. After his last exile, returnig at the age of 70 he would give us first full list of the New Testament letters:

“In these [27 writings] alone the teaching of godliness is proclaimed,” he wrote. “No one may add to them, and nothing may be taken away from them.”

Galli, M., & Olsen, T. (2000). Introduction. In 131 Christians everyone should know (p. 19). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

He was devoted to God’s word, but he stood against the masses and he paid a price for it. But because he had set His heart to study it, to do it, and to teach it he was useful to the Lord.

What is God calling you to? If God is really caling you to that it will require extreme allegience to His Word. IF you have set your heart on studying, doing God’s WOrd you will be in a place to help others and advance God’s agenda.

If you havenot set your heart! Where do you start. You ask God for help. Pray “stir me oh Lord. Stir me to study your Word. To come under your Word. To live by Your Word.”

STUDY

The Word “study” here doesn’t just mean to read and understand but to search God out. This takes time and effort. You know you are doing this when you begin to memorize verses, concepts, or trains of thoughts from Scripture just because of the time spent. You start to absorb it.

Not everyone is going to be an Ezra or in the New Testament a Timothy (Paul tells him to give himself to the teaching of the Word) or an Apollos but we all have a responsibility in this in important ways.

The first disciples after pentecost in Acts 2 DEVOTED themselves to the Apostels teachings!

In Matthew 28 tells us the job every disciple is to be taught EVERYTHING The Lord has commanded.

That is a large task. It is also a lifelong task. In our weakness we forget things. We just need reminding. We need the Word of God to stir us afresh sometimes.

But the Word of God should be changing us.

Changing our thinking

Changing our attitude

Changing our conduct

To study as to “Seek” God is to NOT put ourselves OVER text but under it. We put ourselves over the text when we:

project our worldview, our thoughts and opinion onto the Bible. We can do this just out of ignorance if no other reason. We can guard against this by doing a few things:

Reading whole books of the Bible

letting Scripture interpret Scripture

Humbly coming before God’s word. It is the only place you should be completely open minded.

Am I changing the Bible or is The Bible Changing me?

Proverbs 30:5-6 “Every word of God is tested;

He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

6 Do not add to His words

Or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.”

If I project my thoughts, feelings and opinions on to the text. If I read something into it. That is me changing the Bible not the Bible changing me.

If I say God has spoken to me and said this when The Scriptures say other wise. I am decieved because God doesnot speek out of both ends of His mouth.

Now I need revelaiton to understand God’s WOrd. But true revelation will agree with the objective meaning of the text or it is not TRUE revelation. When Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said not man but the Father has revealed this to you. But if Peter had said God told me your not the Christ… Jesus would not affirmed it. And look Muhamed, plenty of mormon’s I know. have had spiritual revalations. Supernatural experiences. But they did not line up with objective meaning of the text. So they are false. This is true whether it is big issue (who is the Christ) or a smaller issue (How do I pray). If my interpretation can change the objective meaning of the text then I become the author of Scripture. May it never be. The Bible changes me. I don’t change the Bible.

Now there is plenty of room for personal application when it comes to applying what we learn. So God may stir up or bring something to mind as you are reading the Bible that is only for you. That is totally fine, we just must, absolutely MUST make sure we are not saying this is what the BIBLE means.

The Bible Changes me. I don’t change the Bible.

DO

Now notice Ezra could actually say the SCriptures were changing Him. Wanna know how? He practiced them. And anyone who is a doer of the Word is being changed day by day more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

It is not enough to have right interpretation. In fact it is not even that you are stopping at step 2. You are not doing step one. Because step one is setting your heart (your entire inward being) on searching God’s Word. If you really are yielding your heart to God before His Word it will absolutely lead to you being a doer. So it is not just hat have stopped short it is that you have not even begun to start.

Because my actions are flowing from my heart. Ezra was a man who spent time with God alone whether that was private prayer or study of God’s Word and out of that flowed his conduct.

TEACH

Help others.

Everyone is at a different place.

But if you are putting the Word in

You are living the Word out then

you are in a place to help others!

19 My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back,

20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Jas 5:19–20). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

Do waht Ezra did. Be praying for them. Make sure your heart is in right place. You know when the Word of God has gripped you when sins of others breaks your heart. Most of the time it is our own we weep over. But are we really interceding for others.

Ezra saved a nation, but maybe God is calling you to turn just one brother or sister from the error of their way. To save their soul from death. To cover multitude of sins. If you are going to be up to that challenge you need be at stage 3. Which means you are doing stage 1 and stage 2 on the regular. Your putting God’s Word in. Searching Him out. Your doing the Word. Your obeying.

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Notice the words “statues and ordinances”.

Don’t dismiss the Old Testament. Ezra would have had available to him the Law of Moses including the first 5 books. Ezra very well could be the author of 1 and second Chronicles not to mention obviously Ezra and Nehmiah. He gets credit for alot of things. How big his impact we don’t know entirely.

Jesus said He didn’t come to abolish but to fill them to their full.

He said all of it spoke of Him

Paul, in Romans 15 and 1 Cor 10:11, said the old test was written for our instruction. to give us encouragement so we would have hope.