So it is with us. Our service for the Lord, our time, is a journey, and at the end of the journey we give account. We have got a commission; it is a gospel commission, and a body of doctrines to preserve, to keep, and to teach. When you read John 17, you see Christ himself on earth. He lived a perfect life to secure heaven for us, and to set an example to his people. He gave an account to the Father before his death and resurrection. ‘While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled’ (John 17:12). And verse 4 reflects this: ‘I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.’ Christ himself, who was equal with the Father, the Lord of glory, when he was our representative on earth, gave account of how he had discharged his responsibility: the keeping of his disciples, the keeping of his mission. If he kept account, doesn't it tell us that we will all give account, each one who believes in Christ?
It is the same with the apostle Paul. You see it in Acts 20: his sense of accountability and responsibility. ‘Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. 27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. 28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood’ (Acts 20:26-28). You see the element of account coming in: ‘For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. 31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears’ (Acts 20:29-31). The apostle Paul is so conscientious. He looks back across his three years and all through them he's made sure that everyone in his flock, every one of his elders people were taught, protected, prayed over, wept over. The very word used for eldership in the New Testament – ‘overseers’, ‘over watchers’; ‘for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account’ – reminds you of those priests, with all that treasure and an account lay ahead, and their commission was to keep it and to guard it.
So we have a commission. You have a commission with your family: to keep the little ones, to keep your behaviour pure and warm and right before them. We have responsibility in the church to watch over each other. The preachers have got a tremendously heavy responsibility. Have you kept the doctrine? Not kept it locked away in a box. Have you taught every point of it? Have you reviewed your syllabus constantly? Have you asked yourself, am I my leaving things out? Have you taught in right proportions gospel and teaching? Have you considered all the different states and conditions of your hearers: the proud, the broken, the intellectual, the simple? Have you fashioned and shaped your words, so that there was something to challenge, to help, and to lift up everyone? Have you had a post-mortem on every sermon? Are you watching for souls, noticing problems, people missing, and people in need of help? You will give an account. Too soon, you will forget last year; you will forget the year before, but those years won't be forgotten in the great day. So we all of us want to be conscientious and realise we have a commission and a responsibility.
In our times of public and private prayer, do we not only ask the Lord for our urgent needs, but thank him for the answers we have received. Is our Prayer Meeting, as well as being an asking meeting, a commemoration of answered prayer? When the journey was finished, what Ezra led them straight into was sacrifices and praise and worship. Is there enough looking back: in our lives, in our church Prayer Meeting, thankfulness for blessings received?
Do we have a proper warrant to exercise faith concerning a particular matter? What Ezra calls for faith in, they had a clear warrant from God to believe. Faith is the great distinguishing feature between nominal and real religion. You can believe all the doctrines, but do you believe in the Lord? There are also difference between the backslider and the living Christian. The backslider gets in a flurry over everything. There are differences between those who pray and those who do not. Is he interested in the Lord, or in his own comforts? Straightaway they have to prove God. There was a clear warrant for Ezra to believe that God would protect them, and that they could rely on him for this. His cause was at stake; prophecy had foretold the rebuilding and occupation of Jerusalem; the testimony and honour of the Lord was involved. Ezra might have said, ‘If you knew what I had told the king. We cannot depend on him for help. We have a warrant from God, commission from God. Their faith was vindicated.