In the sermon 'How Hope Is Secured' by Scott Brown, the narrative from Ezra chapter 10 is explored, focusing on the themes of repentance and hope amidst sin. Ezra leads the Israelites in acknowledging their transgressions, particularly the taking of pagan wives, which was against God's law. The sermon emphasizes the necessity of confessing specific sins and taking decisive action toward repentance. Ezra's strong leadership is highlighted as he makes the people swear an oath to uphold God's commandments and separate from their pagan influences. The text underscores the urgency of repentance, the dangers of lingering in sin, and the importance of a deliberate, thoughtful process in making meaningful changes. The sermon also draws parallels to modern-day sins, encouraging the congregation to fill in their own transgressions in the narrative and seek God's mercy. Throughout, the idea that true repentance involves both confession and active steps toward change is reinforced, offering hope and mercy as the ultimate outcomes of sincere repentance.

God is truly merciful in giving us his words, words of life, words of truth. And the text for today is Ezra chapter 10 from 1 to 17. Now while Ezra was praying and while he was confessing, weeping, and bowing down before the house of God, a very large assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him from Israel. For the people went very, very early, and Shehanah, the son of Jeheel, one of the sons of Elam, spoke up and said to Ezra, we have transpassed against our God and have taken pagan wives from the peoples of the land, yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this. Now therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and those who have been born to them according to the advice of my Master and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God.

And let it be done according to the law. Arise for this matter is your responsibility. We also are with you. Be of good courage and do it. Then Ezra arose and made the leaders of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel's, swear and oath that they will do according to this word.

So they swore an oath. Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehoihanan, the son of Iliash and when he came there he ate no bread and drank no water, For he mourned because of the guilt of those from that captivity. And they issue a proclamation to Judah and Jerusalem to all the descendants of the captivity that they must gather at Jerusalem and that whoever will not come within three days according to the instructions of the leaders and elders all his property will be confiscated and he himself will be separated from the assemble of those from the captivity. So all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered at Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month on the 20th of the month and all the people sat in the open square of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of heavy rain.

Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, You have transgressed and have taken pagan wives, adding to the guilt of Israel. Now, therefore, make confession to the Lord of your fathers and do His will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the pagan wives. Let all assembly answer and say with a loud voice, Yes, as you have said, so we must do. But There are many people.

It is the season for heavy rain, and we are not able to stand outside. Nor is this the work of one or two days, for there are many of us who have transgressed in this matter. Please, let the leaders of our entire assembly stand and let all those in our cities who have taken pagan wives come and appoint times together with the elders and judges of other cities until the first wrath of our God is torn away from us in this matter. Only Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jehoshaphat, the son of Tikba, opposed this. Amesh-hulam and Shavitai the Levi gave them support.

Then the descendants of the captivity, Didzal and Ezra the priest, with certain heads of the fathers' households, were set apart by the fathers' households, each of them by name, And they sat down on the first day of the 10th month to examine the matter. By the first day of the first month, They finished questioning all the men who have taken pain and wise Let's pray Look how we thank you Lord that that you're merciful and giving us your war. I do pray Lord that you give us the gift of repentance through the hero you were. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, as we find ourselves here near the end of Ezra, I just want us to affirm again that the whole book of Ezra teaches us that there can be hope in the midst of ruin, even terrible ruin.

And so when we arrive here in this portion of chapter 10 in Ezra 10, verses 5 through 44, it continues the story of hope in spite of the sins that have been committed. You know, as Shekiniah declares, yet now there is hope in Israel because of this. And I pray that somehow we this morning can kind of fill in the blank of verse 2 of Ezra 2, chapter 10, verse 2, where Shek and I says, we have trespassed against our God and have taken pagan wives from the peoples of the land. If we could somehow insert our own sins, maybe you haven't taken pagan wives from the peoples of the land, maybe that's not what you've done. But as we read this chapter, I pray that we can sort of fill in the blank as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit on our lives revealing our own sin.

We have trespassed against our God and have blank. Yet now, there is hope in Israel in spite of this. So as we walk through this text, I pray that somehow as you hear the words and walk through the various contours and instructions that are here, that you'll be filling in the blank, constantly crying out to God, filling in the blank, even though you haven't taken pagan wives from the peoples of the land, yet now there's hope if you acknowledge your sin and say, I've trespassed against my God. So I pray we will approach it that way. Proverbs 28, 13 looms large, I think, in this passage of scripture.

There Solomon says, he who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will find mercy. That's really a summary of what we see here in this passage of Scripture. And there's hope that's revealed to these people who've taken pagan wives. They did something that was explicitly forbidden in the law of God, But they lingered in their sin. They tolerated it.

And it's a passage of scripture that helps us understand what we should do when we're found at a time in our lives when we realize we've lingered in a sin for very long. We've allowed it to continue. We've made friends with it. We thought that perhaps it would just be too hard to repent. It would be too disruptive.

It would affect too many relationships. If we finally confessed and admitted our sin, it would just be too hard. Well that's the case of these people here. These sins have been going on for a long time. You who have been tracking with us know the timeline of the book of Ezra.

The temple has been completed now. It's 60 years later and Ezra comes back to the land from Babylon and he discovers to his terror that the priests and many, many people had taken pagan wives and they really had adopted pagan practices in their homes. They were bringing paganism into their homes. And Ezra cries out because it's just so disturbing that this paganism has gripped the land. But it's been going on for a long time.

It's been 60 years since the temple was built. If you were 25 years old when the temple was built, you know, now you're 75 or 80 years old, and you're a grandma. You might be a great grandfather, and there's a lot of baggage associated with this sin of marrying a pagan wife, and it's affected your whole family. What do you do? What do you do?

And it's been a long time, and it just seems too hard, too disruptive to confess your sin and to repent. That's the problem that we encounter here. But now they actually go through this process of repentance, and they actually work through the hard work of the details of how they're going to proceed, how they're going to make their repentance true. Because it's one thing to acknowledge your sin, but isn't it an entirely different thing to actually repent of your sin and change. Every husband and every wife understands this very, very clearly.

You see your failures as a husband and you wonder why you just can't change as deeply as you said you would and you're returning to the same thing because of your imperfections. But Ezra in this passage, he calls for the people to take an oath that they will bind themselves to a commitment to make this change. And you'll notice as we go through it the sense of urgency that Ezra and the people really sense. And you'll also notice this careful process. There's urgency, but there's also a really careful and wise way of thinking through how you secure that repentance.

What are you going to do? I think that that should happen to us in our church now. We just have received wonderful instruction about evangelism. Everybody was convicted of their lack, of their unfaithfulness in evangelism. What are we going to do now?

There should be a careful process. We should deliberate. I think we should deliberate together. Deborah and I started deliberating last night. But repentance requires a deliberate and careful process in order to actually make changes in your life.

Because it's one thing to say you're sorry, but it's an entirely different thing to actually take steps to make changes in your lives. And that's what we see here in this passage. And the question that I'd like for us to be thinking about is where are we in this process of repentance and whatever it is? You know, when We come to the place where we say, we have trespassed against our God and blank. Is there hope?

Well if there is repentance, there is hope. And so I want us to be filling in those blanks. And you know this passage ends with this list of people who repented. I love this part. We didn't read it because it's hard to pronounce all those words and things like that.

Maybe we should have read it. But what I love about the very last section, which is nothing but a list of names, is that it's a list of people who repented. They did it. They went through the process. They put away their pagan wives.

They put together the plan. They did it. And it's such a blessing. I was thinking about that last night and you know that song when the Saints ago marching in oh Lord I want to be in that number I want to be in that number that number at the end of Ezra chapter 10 of the people who really repented and they took steps and they actually changed. And so this passage is a passage about hope and it's about people whose names are written in the book of life.

OK, let's dive into the text. So first of all, I want to just remind us where we were in the last time, last week, in verses 1 through 4, where this very large assembly had gathered after Ezra had discovered that the people had taken pagan wives and how they had lingered over their sin and what was going to happen now. This paganism had actually seeped into the priesthood and their homes were affecting the people of God. When you have paganism in your home, you're going to affect the church. If you're a leader, if you're a pastor, and you have paganism in your home, it's going to affect everybody in the church.

That's exactly what happened in the days of Ezra, but it wasn't just there. It went through every strata of society. And it works both ways though, doesn't it? When there's paganism in the homes, it also rises up into the church. And it affects everyone.

And it even affects the leaders of the church, and they might be tempted to compromise just like you. So there's all this danger, you know, of sin among the people of God, and the dangers run from top down and from bottom up. And that's what we see here. So Ezra here is crying out to God in sorrow and this crowd gathers and they begin to sense their sin and they join Ezra in their grief over the sin. That's verses one through four.

And then, so in one through four is really a declaration of hope. There is hope if you recognize that you have transgressed against your God. There is hope yet in spite of this because of repentance. So that's verses 1-4. Then when we begin in verse 5 and following we first of all recognize that Ezra makes them swear an oath in verse 5.

If you've got an outline in front of you, you can track the logic of this last part of the testimony of Ezra. But the first thing that we notice is that Ezra actually makes them swear to take an oath. Then Ezra arose, verse five, and made the leaders of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear an oath that they would do according to his word. And so they swore an oath. Now Ezra is leading, he's leading the priests, the Levites, he's leading the people all at the same time.

And he takes action and he actually makes them enter into an oath. Does that sound abusive to you? He made them enter into an oath. This was strong leadership and he led them to do something that they probably found extremely difficult. He had the resolve from heaven, and he was leading them in a direction that would help them.

And perhaps they knew that they should do it, but they just had a weak stomach to do it. Maybe it was just too hard and they needed somebody to say, devote yourself to this, do this, make this happen. Has that ever happened to you? Or someone has come to you and you knew it was from the Lord and they said, you must do this. You must commit to do this, to make this change in your life or you're a dead man.

And it's appropriate to do that from time to time. And Ezra does this. And he forces them to take an oath. Now I'd just like to encourage you to go and read chapter 23 in the Baptist confession about oaths and vows, about lawful oaths particularly. And what our confession says is that a lawful oath is part of religious worship.

In other words, it's part of your interaction with God. It's a normal part of the Christian life. It's to take oaths. And it is where a person swears in truth, righteousness, and judgment and solemnly calls upon God to witness what he swears and to judge him according to the truth or the falseness of that. And this chapter makes it clear that oaths are to be made to God alone and not to man, and that they are not to be made rashly or taken lightly.

You don't just enter into an oath quickly. You deliberate, you carefully consider the issues and you enter into an oath. You know, there's a passage in Ecclesiastes chapter five, which really pictures people of God coming together for worship, and they enter into vows, they take a vow. When we gather together, it should be a time of taking action. It should be a time of taking action.

It should be a time of doing something about it. Here you have a picture of the use of godly authority where there's this call to enter into this oath. And this is very difficult in our society because in our current society, authority is so despised, it has so been replaced by personal preference. You know, in cultures throughout the world, there has been sort of this foundation of authority that people acknowledged, but that thought has nearly disappeared in our own society. And Now instead of authority, we pay attention to what David Wells calls private moments, personal stories, where there are quote, are no ultimate rights or wrongs.

They are just things with which we are comfortable or uncomfortable. This is the spirit of our times. We think, am I comfortable with this? Is this part of my personal story? Does this fit in with sort of the narrative of my life?

And people do not want their narrative interrupted by the commands of God. They do not want them to be interrupted by the authority of God when he comes and he says, repent and believe in the gospel, and that times of refreshing might come in. But there is a time to call for repentance. And Ezra does that. David Wells writes, we live in a psychological world, not a moral world.

And he talks about the fact that the Oxford Dictionary designated the word post-truth as the word of the year for 2016 in the Oxford Dictionary. That's the world that we live in, okay? And I just wanted to bring that out. We live in a world where this kind of thing is so despised. Don't grow to despise it.

Don't grow to despise the authority of godly leaders who rise up and say, Repent and turn. Make an oath. Make your repentance sure by actually making changes and making commitments to it. Because, I mean, obedience to authority is the central matter of Christianity. You take up your cross and you follow Him.

You deny yourself. You lose your life for His sake. That is Christianity. You bow yourself in obedience to Him. You become His servant.

And He becomes your leader. You are no longer your leader. Your personal narrative doesn't mean anything anymore. Your personal preferences don't mean anything. Those will always lead you astray.

And so a voice of authority must be maintained in this society. And the Church has really been designed to do that. A repenting people who repent before God. The fundamental characteristic of Christianity is people who repent to an authority greater than their own. That is what Christianity is and the church must uphold that because we live in a world where people care more about their personal narrative than they do truth.

And so this is a great example of this. And Ezra is a rock. He knows where the people need to be led and he does such a thing. Ezra understands Proverbs chapter 28 verse 13 that he who covers his sin will not prosper but he who confesses and forsakes them will find mercy. He understands that.

He's really crying out for mercy and refreshment and goodness and happiness for the people of God that can only be secured when you put yourself under his authority. There is only happiness under his authority. Your own authority will always lead you to greater and greater levels of unhappiness and dissatisfaction and finally destruction. So Ezra does this and you know God's design here is that people would actually change. There should always be a call to action when we read the Holy Scriptures.

When you read it in your family, there should be this call to action to change. Often we just read the Bible and we set it down, but there should always be a call to action in all of our preaching. There should be a call to action to change, to making a step in the right direction. And repentance is moving toward God. It's turning around and going the other direction.

And so there are things that need to be done. Now notice that this was taking place in the midst of a gathering of the people of God. They were gathering in the temple and outside the temple. And what I think we should learn from this is that when the people of God gather together, they do not gather solely to soak it in, but to get up and take it to the real world. When we gather, it is not only to enjoy, but also to employ what we have already enjoyed in the Lord.

And God's design for the gathering of His people is revealed here in this passage. God's people gather not just to be entertained. In fact, it's so unprofitable to gather to be entertained, but to gather for a purpose. We gather not to just go through the motions, but actually to snap into motion. That's the opposite of entertainment.

This is one of the problems with the way that modern churches have mirrored Hollywood and the whole entertainment industry. Coming to be entertained leaves you worse than you are because it was all about your pleasure, getting your ears tickled, getting it the way you wanted it. And you go away with some sense of pleasure, but actually no enduring change and no glory toward God. God doesn't bring us together just for devotion, but also for reformation. We don't just gather for fellowship but to take up the cross and follow Jesus Christ.

And I think that we should be very, very clear as we consider about what we do in our gatherings. We come together on Sunday morning, we come together on Sunday night, We gather men together on Tuesday morning. We gather women together on Wednesday mornings. And we gather together for prayer. When we gather together, we need to recognize that if we don't gather for change and for transformation, we gather for nothing.

We gather for nothing. And it's difficult, isn't it? Prayer night comes up and you're tired, you've fought all kinds of dragons all day long, and you wonder how you're going to make the transition to pray. But when we come together, we ought to gather for transformation and reformation and even repentance. And the truth is this, a dead religion does nothing to change you.

A dead religion does nothing to change you. And so we should come for change. That's exactly what we see here. We should see our face in a mirror and go our way, but yet unchanged. And that is such a tragic thing when it happens, to be just a hearer of the word and not a doer of the word.

Matthew Henry, in his commentary, says this, while we are in a good mind. Let us bind ourselves so So the first thing that we see here is that Ezra makes them he actually makes them swear and oath and I Again, I want to bring us back to this this way of thinking about our time together this morning, fill in the blank, we have transgressed against our God and have blank. Yet, now there is hope for those in Israel. There's hope for those who repent. And then in verse 6, in the next verse, Ezra enters into a room for mourning.

He leaves the crowd, if you can kind of picture this, You know, multitudes of people have gathered. Now he steals away into a room, and he went into the chamber of Jehohanan, the son of Eliashib. And when he came there, he ate no bread, drank no water, for he mourned because of the guilt of those from the captivity." And so Ezra departs from where he was and he went into a room. Presumably in the temple area there seem to be rooms in the temple area occupied by different people but what did he do there well he he fasted and you know he he saw the complexity of the difficulties that the people were experiencing and he and he brought those things before the Lord. He realized some of these were really complex and difficult problems.

He had lots of children, all kinds of relationships, all kinds of things were tangled up in this delay of repentance that had gone on. And sin so complicates things that sometimes it's very, very difficult to untangle the problems. Once sin enters in, there are no easy answers. You know, people sometimes come to pastors with a multitude of problems and sins. And When you have that situation, there are no easy answers.

There are no perfect solutions. All of them have their problems, because sin so complicates things. And so this required prayer and fasting and mourning. And, you know, In the same way that the Lord Jesus Christ said of that boy who the disciples could not cast out the demon, this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting. There are certain situations that are so difficult.

This was one of those situations and Ezra brings the matter before God. You know we often want to bring matters before man and deal with it in our meetings rather than bringing it before God first and that's what Ezra does. He takes the time to bring it before God. His devotion to God is real and it is private. He goes privately before the Lord, not publicly, but personally and privately out of the public eye.

When I was reading this, I was thinking about him going away like this. And who are we outside of the public eye? Who are we? When we're outside of the public eye, is this the kind of thing that we do? Or are we doing other things?

That Ezra is crying out to God for this thing. Now the New King James says it one way, The ESV says that he spent the night and that there probably was an extended time. It was probably an all-night time of crying out to God, very much like the watchings in the night that you see in the schedule of Jesus Christ of Daniel and the Apostle Paul, these watchings and sleeplessness often. And so he went out of the public eye. Go into your room and when you shut your door, cry out to God.

We often want to just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk about problems when we really need to bring them into the secret place and cry out to God. And so Ezra does that so beautifully. Now if you'll notice in your outline there's a statement that is attempting to describe the section that we're in and then there is an element of true repentance. So in verse 5, the element of true repentance, there must be a clearly defined direction to take an oath. That's the first thing we learn about repentance.

There must be a direction. You must take a direction. The second is found in verse 6. There must be help from heaven. You think about problems with your children or problems in your work or whatever it might be, there must be help from heaven.

Seeking the Lord urgently and ardently, maybe all night long like Ezra did, to be for the Lord and tangle the problem that's before you. And then in this third scene here in verses seven and eight, they issue a proclamation and the principle of repentance is this, for hope to be secured there must be urgency of action. These are all principles of repentance. The Lord is teaching us something about repentance in this whole thing. Repentance is something that isn't all that popular in the modern church and as a result I think most of us are probably fairly well brain dead on the whole doctrine of repentance.

And so this passage helps us to understand more clearly what repentance looks like and how you secure it. And so I want you to notice the urgency that is here. This is the same urgency that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke about in Matthew chapter 5 verse 21 where he speaks about where someone is angry with his brother and who is saying to his brother in his heart or maybe publicly, you good for nothing, you rocka. And then Jesus says, therefore when you bring your gift to the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.

Agree with your adversary quickly. There's an urgency in repentance even when you're getting ready to gather with the people of God and you realize You realize that there's something out of order that you need to make it right. There's urgency and speed in repentance Now, you know as so many of us or many of you are raising children, helping your children repent is a really, really critical matter. It might be one of the most important matters that you address in your child raising. And one of the most important matters in dealing with children is to help them to repent quickly, to be quick repenters.

Now, what was happening here in these verses 7 and 8 is that they were drawing a line and they were making a distinction between the true followers of God who were marked by their obedience toward God and the hypocrites who were taking advantage of the privileges of the people of God, hanging around the people of God, going to the worship of people of God, blending in. He was making a distinction between those two people. He was saying, you're either of Israel or you're not of Israel. And that's why they issued this proclamation that they would gather. And they had to gather within three days, come within three days according to the instructions of the leaders and the elders, all his property will be confiscated and he himself will be separated from the assembly of those of the captivity.

So it had to be within three days. There was speed, there was urgency that was required you know in this repentance and They wanted to draw a clear line without delay. And they wanted to make a distinction between those who had no intentions of repenting and changing and those who did. They were gathering the repenters. And it seems to me that they left the unrepentant out in the community, because 20 years later Nehemiah has to deal with them.

But he's gathering now, he's reaping a harvest of repentance here in this passage. And so they're drawing a clear line. And they want to find those who will renounce their paganism. And notice here it says that all his property would be confiscated and he himself would be separated from the assembly. Now the word confiscated I think in our minds brings up wrong ideas that are contrary to the actual word, the Hebrew word that Ezra uses here.

It's the word sharam, and it means literally to destroy, to exterminate, to ban. And this was the same kind of activity that was commanded when the children of Israel entered in the promised land. They were to tear down their altars and to exterminate, to ban, to eliminate the paganism of the land. Not to do what the Roman Catholics did, they go into the pagan temples and kind of do their thing in the pagan temples. The people of God were commanded to destroy the pagan temples.

And so they were given a choice here either to do what God commanded in the first place when they entered the promised land or and to destroy it. The ESV translates it this way, if anyone did not come within three days by order of the officials, all his property should be forfeited and he himself was banned from the congregation of the exiles. And so I think that rather than confiscated, it's really more destroyed in the same way that the pagan altars were to be destroyed when the children of Israel came into the land. In many ways, this is a call. Choose you this day.

Choose today. You have three days to get here. You cannot delay. You've had the land. You've had your cake and eat it too.

Now you must forsake the world. You must cast it off and you must forsake your pagan gods and your pagan wife that you are following in paganism. And I think this is very much like Joshua 24 where Joshua cries out to the people before they enter the promised land. He says, now therefore fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord.

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your fathers, which you served on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." It's the very same idea that Ezra is communicating. Choose this day. And in that time, in Joshua 24, the people answered and said, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve the other gods. And they followed the Lord.

So here is a call to choose this day whom you will serve. This is a time of decision. Choose or be separated from the flock. You have three days. There's no time to mull this over.

You've got to decide who you are and who you want to live for. And God desires to separate his people from the worldliness of this world. And he wants his people to know to whom they belong and to act like it and to declare their allegiance. And so That's what Ezra is doing here. And so, you know, Ezra, I think at the bottom of all this is this understanding, you know, that he who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

It's really crying out that they would seek the mercies of God in a time of apostasy. And then there's in this fourth scene here, there's trembling and there is confrontation in verses nine through 11. So the people come, three days has transpired, and now the people have gathered together. So all the men of Judah, verse nine, and Benjamin gathered at Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month on the 20th of the month, and all the people sat in the open square of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain.

So you get this scene, they're in this downpour, and they're in the court outside of the temple and many, many people are gathered together. And then Ezra stands up and he says to them, verse 10, you have transgressed and have taken pagan wives, adding to the guilt of Israel. Now therefore make confession to the Lord God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the pagan wives." And so here again, just recognize, Ezra is securing the hope that there is in repentance, and he is naming the sin. If you want to enter into real repentance, you must name the sin.

Not vaguely, but specifically, like our confession says, particular sins particularly. And that's what is dealt with here. Now, you know, it's in December or January. It's cold. Jerusalem is at 2500 feet elevation.

Asheville nearby is 2200 feet. So Imagine Asheville in the pouring rain in December or January. Well, the people are shivering. They're freezing. But here the text says they're shivering for two reasons.

They're shivering because of their sins, and they're also shivering because of the rain that's falling. They're convicted before the Lord, and they're trembling because it's cold. And so in verse 10, Ezra presents the charges, and then in verse 11, he presents the remedy. And the remedy is to acknowledge the sin and to turn. And so Ezra is addressing this crowd and he's calling for repentance.

I think Verse 11 is the doctrine of repentance in shorthand. Make confession and do His will. That's the doctrine of repentance. Make confession, name the sin, and do His will. In other words do something about it make the change fill in the blank Fill in the blank we have transgressed against our God and have what?

What's in that blank? Fill in the blank and make confession and do his will. And he's, I think he's adhering to the law of God that was communicated in Deuteronomy chapter 7 and Exodus 34, not to take pagan wives. The Apostle Paul picks this up in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14 where he says, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness, and what communion has light with darkness, and what accord has Christ with Belial, or what part has a believer with an unbeliever, and what agreement has the temple of God with idols. For you are the temple of the living God.

As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord God Almighty." And so there is this confession and there is this separation.

Confession without separation will always be regression. Confession with separation will always mean progression forward toward the glory of God. And so Ezra is setting this godly pattern. And I think what Ezra is saying is this, not choosing is choosing. And so there's this urgency to it.

And the principle for repentance is that sins must be named. First of all, there must be a clearly defined direction. Second, there must be help from heaven. Third, there must be an urgency of action. And fourth, the sins must be named.

Now in the next scene in verses 12 through 17 there's a careful inspection, an action that is called for and is required. And so the crowd actually responds. They're freezing in the rain and the crowd says the crowd makes a suggestion to the leaders. I love this part because it's the way that leaders and people work together to find wisdom. And that's what happens here.

Then the assembly answered and said with a loud voice, yes, as you have said, so we must do. They said yes. That's the sweetest word you can hear from a center and from a congregation. Yes. But, and then they say, but there are many people, it's the season for heavy rain and we're not able to stand outside.

Nor is this the work of one or two days for there are many of us who have transgressed in this matter. People are saying you know we have so many problems it's they're not going to be solved while we're standing in this rain. We need help. We need you to help us. Help us figure this out.

We just we can't do it right now. It's too big for us, but we want to do it. Yes. And then in verse 14, please let the leaders of our entire assembly stand and let all those in our cities who have taken pagan wives come at appointed times together with the elders and judges of their cities until the fierce wrath of our God is turned away from us in this matter. So for hope of repentance to be secured, there are really two things.

Yes, with wisdom. Wisdom must be applied with a heart that says yes. Yes Lord, deliver me. Yes Lord, reveal it to me. Help me how to figure out how to do this.

How do I turn around? I've been doing this a long time. The patterns are deeply ingrained. A lot of people are involved. What am I going to do?

And so wisdom is necessary. And they actually come under God's authority. And they determine that God's word has authority. And they're not following the will of man but they're really following the law of God and they're embracing what was suggested in verse 11 and they are repenting. They say, let it be done according to the law.

They understand this is God's word. The leaders have declared it, but it is consistent with God's word. And that's really important. Leaders just can't say whatever they want. They can't do whatever they want.

It must be according to the word of God. And they say, yes, Lord. You know what they don't say? They don't say not yes now. They say yes now.

You know it's just a lot easier to delay isn't it? To say I see what you're saying, but not yes now. Not yes now. You know, mulling it over when you know the truth is the death of blessing, it's the death of joy, it's the death of obedience. You know when when Deborah and I were raising our children we tried in different ways to help our children obey quickly and the first time.

And I remember we used to use an acronym to help us remember sort of this methodology of repentance and it was the acronym was CED, CED obedience without complaint without excuse and without delay, CED without complaint without excuse and without delay That's the kind of repentance that's pictured here in Ezra chapter 10. And mulleting it over is just the thief of joy. It's the destroyer of freedom. You know, Matthew Henry says, we must part with our sins lest we be undone. That's what's on the table.

But they said, yes, Lord. They said, yes, Lord. And it really brings us back to Proverbs 28-13. He who covers his sins will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will have mercy, as was holding out mercy to the people. And they say yes.

So they propose this representation. Notice what they propose. Representation, examination, and setting appointed times. So do you notice sort of the orderliness of this? God helps them to enter into an orderly, careful process of representation.

Leaders are chosen to handle the matter. God works through representatives. He appoints representatives who have qualifications. You know, our American government is that way. We don't live in a democracy.

We live in a representative government. The church is that way too. It's a representative government where you have you have elders who are appointed and they have authority. They exercise that authority. But they, representation is appointed, examination is engaged, and setting appointed times is set.

Those are the three things that happen. And they make an appeal to authorities. When you're under authority you can appeal, not rebelliously, but acknowledging the authority and suggesting a godly solution. How many times have leaders been helped and improved by the suggestions of godly people with good hearts? And we as elders welcome it.

We've been helped many, many times by the suggestions of people who've seen something that maybe we didn't see. And we're very, very blessed by it. And so they create this process, and it's a righteous appeal, and it's a righteous process. And not only do they propose representation and set appointed times, but they also acknowledge the danger. They feel the urgency, and they say, until the fierce wrath of our God is turned away from us in this matter, They know that God will judge them.

They fear that God's going to send them back into captivity for this. They recognize the danger they're in and they understand how important the urgency is. Hey, they came. They showed up within three days. They're there.

They're standing in the rain. They're shivering, they're going to do this, and they don't want to short-circuit the process. Now often we short-circuit the process and we don't deliberate, we don't carefully examine what we need to do. And I think this is one of the things that's before us right now as a congregation. We've heard many urgent appeals to seek and save the lost, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to proclaim Christ crucified and the power of the resurrection and to make that the central function of our lives.

And I'll tell you, in my family, I have failed in so many ways, it's not even funny. And it's going to take some time for Deborah and I to actually lay the railroad tracks for this. Because we've had long-standing patterns in our lives where we really just haven't been engaging the loss in our house. And it's sinful. How are we going to break those patterns?

We need to do what these are doing here. We need to take time and establish different patterns. We need to actually change. If God convicts us of sin and we delay, we need to recognize that judgment is coming. Now in verse 15 there's something interesting.

There are four people involved in verse 15. And Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jehaziah, the son of Tikva, opposed this. You see those words in verse 15? They opposed it. Now, the New King James translates it opposed, but I think that the language here, I think that New King James has mistranslated this.

It may not mean opposed. The new King James translates this word opposed. The King James translates it, they employed them. And indicating that they actually supported it. So it seems to be a reference that these proposals were being supported.

Now, so these four names were possibly opposed to the action And you could say, hey, it was a very painful direction. It would be unpopular with some. And some might say, you've gone too far to separate, to call these people to separate from foreign wives. On the other hand, some may say, you've not gone far enough. You should have chopped their heads off right away.

So you can see how people would oppose this. You know, it should be obvious to us. This was a pretty radical action. But the Hebrew word that's translated in verse 15 also appears in verse 13 and 14. And it's translated differently.

It's rendered to stand like for standing in the rain. And it's also translated to stand for people representing, the representatives, that's a word for stand as well. And so I think because of the way it's translated in its context, that these four actually were standing with the representatives. They were standing with the motions that were proposed. That's my view.

It's just strangely inserted there. Why is that here? I don't know. Take it either way. I'm sure people opposed it.

But what these four in verse 15 were doing. I don't know exactly. But there is this careful inspection and examination that you see in verses 16 and 17. So the examination team goes to work, And they go to work for three months. And so there's this follow through.

The examination ends two weeks before Passover. Now, in these three months, there are 88 days in the lunar calendar, just so you can get the idea how this might have worked. If you take out the Sabbath, because they wouldn't be doing this on the Sabbath, there are 75 working days, 113 marriages, that were guilty of paganism. It works out to 1.5 situations a day, okay? So only to say they took time to deliberate on these matters.

There were details that needed to be defined and worked out. And it was a careful three and a half month process. And most likely the investigation time was to determine whether these women could be grafted in. Like Rahab, the harlot, the Canaanite, like Ruth, the Moabite, who is grafted in. And maybe they would say, your God will be my God, and your people will be my people because there's a rich history of pagans being grafted into Israel.

So this time of repentance could have been to verify the repentance that these wives actually could be brought in, or perhaps they actually should be put away. But there's this quick repentance but a deliberate process. You remember John Calvin's motto which is quoted this week, my heart I give to you Lord promptly and sincerely. I think that characterized what these people were experiencing. A heart given promptly and sincerely to the Lord.

And there's hope. Where much is forgiven there's much hope. And You know this should just teach us to cultivate a yes heart before God all you children. They're listening to hear here cultivate a yes heart to your parents. A heart that responds, yes, yes I've sinned.

Yes, I will do your will. A heart that says yes, that's such a blessing. I remember when Deborah said yes to me when I asked her to marry me. Oh, that was such a sweet sound. But a yes heart before God is so critical.

And then the repenters were identified in verses 18 through 24. Again, this is a remarkable scene here. The people who came to repent and stand with the representatives to work out their problems, their names are listed here. Now there are two ways that you can think about that. Oh, how embarrassing.

Or you can think about it, oh, what a blessing it is to be counted in that number. Oh, Lord, I want to be in that number. I want to be in that number of people who repent. I want to be in that number who turn toward you, who are set free, who find relief, who find grace to help in time of need, who has a high priest who is compassionate and forgives sin. That's the number I want to be in.

And I want to quit hiding my sin, and I want to recognize that he who hides his sin will not prosper. But he who confesses it will have mercy. Now those who participated in marrying the pagan wives and came forward, They're from every level of church life. There are 16 Levites. There's one singer.

There are three gatekeepers. There are 83 or 84 laity in this picture here. The priests are mentioned first. They're held to a higher standard. And they led the people in disobedience, and now they're going to lead the people in repentance, and they bring a trespass offering.

I think the heart of this section is verse 19. Look at it with me. Look at verse 19. They presented a ram of the flock as their trespass offering. They recognized the power of the blood and for us they recognized the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

They recognized that their righteousness was not worth anything but there was a sacrifice. There was a righteousness not their own. There was a lamb that was not of their own that was sacrificed. They presented the ram for a trespass offering. There was blood to pay for their sin.

And it is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses from all unrighteousness. I heard someone say, whose blood will pay for your sin? Blood will pay for your sin. It'll either be your blood or it'll be the blood of Jesus Christ, which he shed on the cross as a substitute for your punishment. As God the Father lays all of the punishment that we deserved upon him, Whose blood will pay for your sin?

Here it is, the blood of a ram of the flock for a trespass offering. And so they're listed here, all these names, all these wonderful names, the people who took action, the people who were listed, the people who were set free. And then Ezra just ends abruptly. It's a cliffhanger. It just ends.

And it's almost as if there's more to come. There's more sanctification in the people of God. There's more repentance that's necessary, but God has taken another step to purify His people. I think this just bears witness to the doctrine of progressive sanctification among the people of God, because some of these same problems are gonna have to be dealt with later on God's God's never finished with his people This whole testimony of Ezra is really about God's faithfulness how he preserves his people Even when they sin he rescues them he cares for them. He picks them up He washes them and he puts them back on the road.

That's the theme of Ezra. We'll sum up the book next week to give a clearer picture of that. The hero of Ezra is the God who picks people up and he washes them and he keeps on. You know this has been a 117 year journey that we've been covering over these last months and God's not finished. And we saw how they fell into various traps along the way.

But you see the faithfulness of God, the kindness of God in all of it. I'm going to give you, I'm just going to give you sort of a machine gun approach to some applications. And you won't be able to write them all down. Try to write some of them down if you think. Write down the ones that you think really hit you.

First of all, one generation is always vulnerable to drift away from the unfaithfulness of the, from the faithfulness of their parents. The rising generation did not attain to the holiness of that first generation. And your parents' faith doesn't save you. And are you part of a younger generation that needs to turn because you've departed from the faithfulness of your parents. Number two, be a quick repenter because impenitence destroys hope.

Here's what you lose in impenitence. You lose peace, you lose relief, you lose relationship, you lose progress, you lose sanctification, you lose humility, you lose heaven if you don't repent. Number three, When mourning over sin is real, it'll be private just like Ezra, not just public. Number four, mourning over sin is not real unless there's action. Number five, children will pay the price for their parents' sin.

Can you imagine the tangled webs of trouble in these families that had gone on for so long? Number six, I think we see the importance of marriage. Marriage is a picture of Christ and His Church, And it really bears witness to how carefully we enter into marriage. There's actually a couple here today who are entering into marriage this coming week. And it's so critical that we enter into marriage with a picture of Jesus Christ and His Church.

7. The community had lost its sense of holiness and its distinctiveness. Is that true about your house? 8. Reformation is often painful, cherished patterns and relationships interrupted.

But I can't get over the fact that Jesus does redeem sinners and there is a sacrifice for sin. They presented a ram of the flock as their trespass offering. It's just like saying, but God demonstrated His love for us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. And He gives strong consolation to those who repent. The writer of Hebrews said that we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which enters the presence behind the veil. There is a sacrifice for the sins of sinners. There's the kindness of God as he takes his people through processes of repentance so that repentance is real. It's not just intellectual and it's not just verbal. It's not just honoring him with your lips and your heart being far from him.

But it's turning to him and changing. And so Ezra ends with this. It's actually a victory where people's names are listed, who came and they repented. And they said, oh, Lord, I want to be in that number. Do you want to be in that number?

Let's pray. Oh, Lord, we thank you for this dramatic and remarkable testimony of repentance. Lord, help us to learn how to repent. Help us to learn how to fill in this blank. We've trespassed against our God and have, oh Lord, what have we done?

Come and reveal it to us and give us the fruit of repentance in our obedience. Amen.