The sermon, titled 'There Is Hope in Israel in Spite of This' by Scott Brown, focuses on Ezra chapter 10, emphasizing the theme of repentance and hope. The passage illustrates the Israelites' sin of taking pagan wives and the consequential threat to their nation's spiritual integrity and existence. Ezra's leadership in facilitating a collective repentance is highlighted, as well as the importance of taking sin seriously and acting immediately upon realizing wrongdoing. The sermon draws parallels between the Old Testament narrative and modern Christian life, particularly regarding the dangers of syncretism and the need for holiness. It stresses the necessity of repentance for restoration and the hope that comes from turning away from sin. The role of leaders in guiding communities towards righteousness and the importance of teaching children about the gravity of sin and the mercy of God are also underscored. The sermon concludes with a call for personal reflection and action in separating from worldly influences to maintain a holy life devoted to God.

Good morning. I'll be reading from Ezra chapter 10 verses 1 through 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. And the people wept very bitterly. And Shekiniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, spoke up and said, Ezra, we have trespassed 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 and the priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear an oath that they would 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 Jehohan, the son of Elisha. And when he came there, he ate no bread and drank no water, for he mourned because of the guilt of those from the captivity. And they issued a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the descendants of the captivity, that they must gather at Jerusalem, and that whoever would not come within three days, according to the instructions of the leaders and elders, all his property would be confiscated, and he himself would be separated from the assembly of those from the captivity.

So all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered at Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month of the twelfth, it was the ninth month of the twelfth 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 God of your fathers and do his will, separate yourselves from the peoples of this land, of the land, and from the pagan wives.' Then all the assembly answered and said with a loud voice, Yes, as you have said, so we must do. But there were many people, 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 day 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 at appointed times together with the elders and judges of their cities until the fierce wrath of God is turned away from us in this matter. Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jehaziah the son of Tikvah opposed this and Mishulim and Shabbathiah the Levite gave them support. Then the descendants of the captivity did so, and Ezra, the priest, with certain heads of the father's households, were set apart by the father's households, each of them by name. And they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter. By the first day of the first month, they finished questioning all the men who had taken pagan wives.

Let's pray. Lord, we're thankful for the book of Ezra. We pray that we would be instructed by your holy scriptures. Lord, I pray as the preacher comes forth that you'd fill him with your holy spirit, allow him to exposit these scriptures powerfully, that we would extract from these the truths required, Lord, that we interpret properly, that we learn, and that you would use these scriptures to sanctify us a little further toward your Son Jesus Christ. I pray now for Scott Brown as he comes forward to preach.

As a blessing upon him and upon our service today in the name of Jesus, Amen. Our focus this morning is going to be on Ezra chapter 10 one through four. We read in an extended section of this but I will keep most of our focus on the first four verses because they really set the stage for what comes ahead and what we'll be dealing with next week. But this passage is about the hope that there is in repentance. And verse two, I think, is critical to the entire chapter.

Yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this. In spite of what? In spite of a great sin that the people have engaged in. And so the focus here is really about repentance. And you might ask yourself the question about your own life.

Is it your strong suit? Or would you say that modern evangelicalism's strong suit is repentance? Is it? Or are we more self-satisfied? Are we more self-righteous?

Do we say, well I've got that one wired, let's move on to the more meaty stuff well here in this chapter is a declaration of what repentance looks like in the people of God so we'll be lingering on it and as as you know as you've been here with us Ezra is all about people who are rebuilding their lives. And in Ezra 9 and 10, you have this story of a people who are rebuilding their lives through repentance, and They're really embracing the whole idea that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. They're living by what Jesus said when he said, sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth, because it's the people who are returning to the word of God. It's a picture of mortification of sin.

They had compromised, they had accommodated, they had winked at their sin, they had given themselves a pass for many years and for some of them for probably two or even three generations. And so we find that this fundamental reality exists that you find seasons in people's lives where they will not repent even for years on end. There's this ongoing sin and in Ezra chapter 10 there's this very carefully constructed plan for the relief of that sin And I can't hardly read this chapter without thinking of the words of John Owen when he said, Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.

And that's exactly what we find here in this chapter. And I think it should help us to ask a lot of questions about our lives, what compromises have we been making? Are there longstanding patterns of sin that you've not reconciled? Is there restitution that needs to be made? Is there a change in your life that's necessary?

And are you holding back your repentance? Because the changes seem so disruptive, they seem so painful, they seem so public, and they just seem so harmful if they're actually faced. Well this is exactly the situation that these people were in. They had they had adopted very harmful patterns. They actually did something very tangible.

They went and they married pagan wives. And they've allowed the trouble from that to continue on and on, year after year. And I think this also should help us think about this figuratively. Have we married pagan things? We've made them our companions.

We've carried them along with us for a long time We're often often entering into alliances with and sort of we make these private little covenants make peace with Quote unquote pagan wives parts of paganism that really should not be part of our lives at all. So here's the scene. The location is the temple. Ezra is in the temple. Most likely during the evening sacrifice.

He's weeping because of the compromises that have been made in Israel. And as a result of that, it's quite a scene because a big crowd starts to gather as a result of Ezra, they're weeping. And also it's midwinter and there's a cold rain coming down and the people are trembling from the rain and they're also trembling because of their sin so there's sort of this double trouble that's that they're in in the midst of and but they actually are in a time of heartwarming renewal at the very same time and they're actually experiencing a release from the bondage that they have experienced for so many years And they're backtracking and they're going back to a devastating departure that they made. Some of them had entered into unlawful marriages, marriages that were explicitly forbidden by God. And what a passage like this should help us to do is to backtrack.

Did I enter into some alliance with some form of paganism that I need to finally get rid of? I've been patting my little idol on the back for too long. I have made it my friend, but it needs to become an enemy. And so that's the scene. Now what's at stake?

It's very clear from Ezra 9 and 10 that it's a very grave situation because it was a specific sin that actually threatened their existence. It was like a growing and cancerous tumor that was overtaking the nation of Israel and it had to be removed. And the threat of it not being removed was another time in captivity. Ezra's very well aware of the fact that this sin could be the same kind of thing that could land them in captivity again. They had just spent 70 years in Babylon and were now recovering from that whole experience.

And Ezra, Ezra's very concerned that this could be the type of thing that could send them back into captivity in order to chastise them, to bring them to their senses, so that they have a heart for the worship of God, so that they'll rebuild the temple of God, they'll rebuild the altar of God, and they'll begin to recreate their lives according to the Word of God. Because that's what happened after the captivity. They were convicted of their sin and they returned to Jerusalem. Now they're here and we find that they're threatened again. The very existence of the nation of Israel is being threatened here And so they're being called upon in a moment of time to put away their idols.

And now as we read this, there are a number of difficulties in this passage, and I've struggled to a degree to try to figure out what to focus on and what not to focus on this morning. And so, but just to give you some warning, there are a number of hermeneutical principles that have to be applied in understanding a lot of the things that are here, the Old Covenant, the New Covenant, particular words, the context, the genre of literature. There are all kinds of things that need to be considered to try to understand this. We won't unpack all of that today, but you'll get an introduction to it and it'll give us a framework so we can move ahead next week with it. So there are, there's this large assembly that has been gathered in verses one through four.

Now while Ezra was praying, verse one, 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 they wept very bitterly so Notice notice the verbs that are here in verse 1. Confessing, weeping, bowing down. This is Ezra and he's crying out to God and people are gathering together. Now in these first four verses I want to identify five really significant issues that are just in these first four verses and they really form the basis of everything else that comes after it. And so the first is this, this is taking sin seriously.

This is what this is. Ezra is an example of a leader who is taking sin seriously and the effect of that on those who are around him. It's always helpful to have holy leaders around who are sensitive to sin. You know, you who are fathers and mothers, are you sensitive to sin or are you insensitive to sin? It's always most helpful when those who are placed in authority have a sensitivity to sin because sin is always our greatest danger and you know one of the worst things that can happen to your family is when you have a husband and a wife who are not very sensitive to sin.

And so, and so he is here praying and he is also repenting. Now also notice that the children were there to witness this whole event. Did you notice that? The leaders were there, everybody was there including the children. They're right there in the middle of this repentance that was taking place regarding the taking of these pagan wives and this is an example of sort of a family integrated repentance prayers time that's what it is and there's a brokenheartedness for the sin of entering into unlawful relationships and and of course Ezra makes it very clear that these relationships had had a disfiguring effect on them.

It had brought them into paganism. It had brought them into the ways of the Gentiles. These marriages were actually defiling everyone in the house and it's It's it has always been that way and always will be that way a marriage that's out of order Always puts everything else out of order and we particularly if you have husbands and wives and they're still married to pagan things it's gonna have an effect on children maybe for generations and we should just be put on notice you know we should we should we should do a scan of everything in our thinking our our lives or entertainment everything to we know What kind of paganism have we become married to? And do we need to have a divorce from that paganism? And The second issue that's here is really the blessing of Shekiniah.

We see this in verse two. And Shekiniah, the son of Jehael, one of the sons of Elam, spoke up and said to Ezra, we have, and look at the words, trespassed, that's a critical word in this narrative against our God and have taken pagan wives that's another critical phrase in the narrative from the peoples of the land And then this phrase that I love the most in this whole text, yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this. So we bump into Shekinai right here, right at the beginning of verse 2. He's a courageous man, he's a principled man, he was obviously mentored by Ezra, we'll learn that later on. He stands by Ezra and he says, yes, this is the right thing to do.

Ezra is weeping, he's crying out to God, and Shekiniah stands up and says, this is a good thing. And he actually becomes a catalyst for other leaders to come and to do the same. And Shekhaniah reminds me of so many men in my life for many many years Who have brought insights maybe admonitions? Maybe perspectives over the years and they they come to me as a leader and they make suggestions and the suggestions really seem like they're from the Lord and it's a blessing it really is I'm so grateful for the the body of Christ the collaborative atmosphere that the Church of Jesus Christ brings and those kinds of men like this tend to soften the weaknesses of leaders and they help clarify leaders thinking and things like that. But here you have a godly man who loves the Word of God who actually has been mentored by Ezra himself, and he's standing up and say, let's go for it.

That's basically what he's saying. Let's do this. This is absolutely what we should do. And he makes a godly suggestion based on the things that he's been taught, and based on the things that he understands from the law of God, and based on the things that he understands from the law of God and based on the things that are really appropriate to do in order to correct this problem, you know, there's there's a there's a beautiful reference to this in the song of Deborah And in Judges chapter 5 verse 2 where she says in her song, when the leaders lead in Israel, when people willingly offer themselves, bless the Lord. Well that's what's happening right here.

Bless the Lord for men like Shek and I who say, let's go for it. Let's don't have Christianity light around here let's really follow Jesus Christ and let's follow him with all of our hearts so I think it's it's it seems you know he wasn't a participant in this particular sin but from verse 26 which we're not going to really cover this week it's possible to conclude that his father did commit this sin because he is the son of Jehael and he's mentioned Jehael is mentioned in verse 26 as one of the ones who took a who took a pagan wife now Again, we have to be very careful of that because there were common names and people He may have may not have had Jehael's as this Jehael as a father, but it's quite possible that he did. So what you find here is you have this man that rises up and and he's really emphasizing this hope that there is in repentance. That in spite of the harmfulness of that sin there's still hope in Israel and so the third significant issue is the exact nature of the sin that is being spoken of here Ezra identified the sin is identified he said to Ezra we have trespassed against our God and have taken pagan wives from the peoples of the land.

That was the particular sin. I think we have to be very careful to understand, pinpoint what this sin was. And we should also think what implications are there of this classification of sin. But it's very important that we understand the situation here. And it was a situation where there was an unlawful marriage.

And the problem of pagan marriages is that they were explicitly unlawful they were entered into as a result of an act of rebellion against God and the laws that relate to this issue appear in several places I'm gonna take us to those places but you might you might correlate it with the laws of our own land about marriage in America and in almost every society there there there are certain kinds of marriages that are actually prohibited by law they are forbidden and there are there are marriages in America that are just illegal It's illegal to enter in to this marriage and I believe that this is the very same kind of thing that was happening there. Like for example, if a brother and a sister say, we're married and try to report that to the Internal Revenue Service, the IRS is going to say you're not married because in America it's illegal for a brother and a sister to get married. And you can say you're married but the state does not recognize it. It is an unlawful marriage. You know, if two women declare we're married, then the state will say until only recently after Obergefell, you're not married.

The civil government steps in. You know, right now, there are 15 states that recognize same-sex relationships as quote-unquote marriages. There's no state in the United States of America that allows for marriages between siblings. There are 35 states that define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Now they don't always, they don't upkeep that law, but in places like Alabama, they're not issuing marriage licenses to two males or two females wanting to get married.

So there are certain kinds of laws about marriage that societies have. Well in Israel they had a law. I would like you to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 7 and we'll look at verses 1 through 6 and we'll see this law That prohibited this kind of marriage. It was an unlawful marriage. It was entered into Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 1 when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you the Hittites the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites seven nations greater and mightier than you.

And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. There's the law right there. Nor shall you make marriages with them, you shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly so not only is it unlawful there's a promise of destruction When you enter into an unlawful marriage like this, God is going to destroy you. It's pretty serious, isn't it?

And so this is the category that we have here. Verse 5 continuing on, But thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images and burn their carved images with fire. This was all about holiness, this was all about separation from paganism. When you go into the land you separate yourself from all paganism.

Every Christian lives in a pagan land and and they have an obligation before God to separate themselves from the paganism of the land unless God would destroy them. And verse 6, for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people for you are the least of all peoples so here is a declaration a law do not enter in to marriages with the pagans and when you go into that land you destroy their altars you tear down paganism everywhere you go you tear it down this is what Christians are supposed to do and this pattern is the pattern for the church the Apostle Peter takes this takes the takes this very language and he says this is what the Church of Jesus Christ should do as well. And so also look at Exodus chapter 34.

Again we're trying to define what was this sin, what was the issue. It was the taking of a pagan wife and then refusing to live like a child of God in a pagan land. Exodus chapter 34 beginning in verse 11. Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you're going lest it be a snare in your midst but you shall destroy their altars break their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images for you shall worship no other God for the Lord for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they shall play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods and one of them invites you to eat of his sacrifice, and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with the gods, and make your sons play the harlot with their gods. You shall make no molded gods for yourself. This is all about you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and serve him only this is this is about participation in paganism and the the port the porthole for the paganism is a marriage with a pagan with a pagan wife and I think the the New Testament equivalent of this is do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

What does Christ have to do with Belial? Nothing at all. And so, you know, this has to do with the kind of people that Christians marry. Now, young people in our church need to recognize that it is unlawful before God to be unequally yoked, to be married, for a Christian to marry a non-Christian. If a young woman in this church wanted to marry a non-Christian, a person who is clearly, avowedly a non-Christian, who's living a non-Christian life, and the other was a member of this church we would discipline that person we really would because Christians are not supposed to marry non-christians and we would bring some form of rebuke or discipline upon that upon that person who wants to get married to an unbeliever if they're a member of our church.

Why? Because of this. This is why. There's a principle that's recognized in the New Testament, Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. So, Shekiniah makes requests that a covenant be made to put away these wives in verse 3.

Now therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and those who have been born to them. Now, what's the basis of the authority here? He says it, it's very clear. It's really, it is according to the law in verse 3. According to the advice of my master that would be Ezra.

Ezra gave this advice. Remember who Ezra was? We talked about Ezra back in chapter 7. Ezra set his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach Israel that's Ezra and this was his entire existence was devoted to this pursuit Ezra you know we have to it was Ezra applying the law of God correctly? Yes he was.

There's no indication that he was not. And so according to the advice of my master and those who tremble at the commandment of God, in other words there were people who had studied the law of God, they understood Exodus 34, they understood Deuteronomy 7, they understood the doctrine of marriage that the Pentateuch speaks of and the people the people were operating according to sound doctrine They knew the word of God and they knew what they should do. And so he makes this recommendation on the basis of the advice of Ezra and those who tremble at the commandment of our God, the specific commandment of God, and he says let it be done according to the law. So Shekiniah is saying let's do this according to the law of God. And he's returning to the law of God that is given through Moses that had been set aside.

And this is kind of a reset. Notice the word that's used to describe this sin, transgress. And it's a very serious thing to transgress the law of God. Now this is this is not a rash overreaction, it's not a quick fix, it's not a knee-jerk response to a problem. It is something that has arisen out of a careful study of the law of God with Ezra with Shekiniah and with the rest of the people and And you know, why would they do such a thing?

Well because there is such hope in repentance yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this and so they're they're commanded to to put away their wives and there there are many things to deal with here that I don't think we'll try to take on in our time here. I wanna bring us the fourth issue here. The fourth significant issue is the issue of hope. And where there's repentance, there's hope. And all is not lost with repentance.

Sin is so damaging, but with God there's always a hope of restoration. There's no hope in hiding sin. There's no hope in ignoring sin. There is no hope in denying sin, but there is hope in repenting of sin. And I think that the heart of this text is a vision of hope as a result of repentance.

And by the way, I don't know if you noticed, the name of our church is Hope. And there's a reason for that. And you know, there's so much about hope that really is centered on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we named our church Hope Baptist because we want to have a church culture that nourishes itself in the living hope, in the living hope of Jesus Christ. The only hope for sinners, the only hope for an abundant life here on earth, the only hope for a life in heaven.

And so, you know, we pray that Our church has all these characteristics of hope and one of those characteristics of hope is repentance We want we want to have a church where people hope in Jesus Christ alone. Like it says in Isaiah, there should be a root of Jesse and he who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles in him the Gentiles shall hope. A people who place their hope in the sufficiency of the scriptures as it says in Romans 15, for whatever things were written were written for our learning that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. That we're people that hope in the scriptures. We hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We also have a hope that comes from the Holy Spirit as it says in Romans chapter 15. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. So this passage is all about hope and those who hope in the Lord Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice for sin and how helpful and how appropriate it is for us to consider our ways to put aside our sins and To continue to put aside our sins until he takes us to heaven Now I want us to I want us to think about something about this passage the children are present and at this gathering I They're repenting of some really heavy-duty stuff here. Did you get that? And the children are there.

You would think that the parents would have said, we don't think the children should come but they didn't they brought their children with them to witness and to participate in this time of repentance as if it was as if Everyone had to participate in this kind of thing. And you know, children need to understand two things. They need to understand how devastating sin is. And they need to have honest parents. And they need to understand the greatness of the mercies of Jesus Christ.

And that's what you find here in this passage. All of these things are loaded up in here. And children were exposed to real sin, real repentance, and real forgiveness and restoration. And I can't think of anything better for children to know as those three things. And they need to know that their parents can be forgiven.

And they need to know that they can be forgiven and if you have parents who are repenting then you have children who understand how devastating sin is and how good it is to be refreshed by the grace of Jesus Christ. So here's the fifth significant issue after this one is that they that they request immediate action. Look at verse 4. Arise for this matter is your responsibility. We also are with you.

Be of good courage and do it. So there was immediate action that was called for and immediate action that was taken. Now what do we learn from this? There are real dangers in delaying repentance. There are real dangers in delaying repentance.

Now my guess is with a with a crowd this size there are people right now who are thinking I really want to keep delaying this. I want to keep delaying it because it's just too hard. It's going to cause too much upheaval. I'm going to have to give up something if I repent. But just remember, delaying is dangerous.

You think about Pharaoh who hardened his heart. He was finally destroyed. Hebrews 3, chapter 3, verse 7 says, Do not harden your hearts as the Holy Spirit says today. If you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the day of rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness now Do it today. That's that's that's the spirit of this text on repentance psalm chapter 32 says that you should repent in a time when you may be found there there actually is a time when the hourglass is empty and there's no more time you really I mean the Bible speaks of this in several places There's a time when there's no more hope for repentance.

Yes, you can go too far. I don't know when that is. Only God does. But the Bible says there is a time where you can go too far and it's too late. And in Psalms chapter 69, in verse 13, the psalmist says, but as for me, my prayer to you, O Lord, in the acceptable time, O God, in the multitude of your mercy, Hear me in the truth of your salvation.

Deliver me out of the mire. Let me not sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me and out of the deep waters." Well, there's an acceptable time. And I think what we're saying is today is the acceptable time don't delay there true there's tremendous danger in delay and We could speak of many many examples in scripture where where the people of God are appealed to to repent quickly right now get it done you know run quickly and don't delay any longer because there's hope in repentance yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this." Okay, so that takes us to the end of verse four. Now, I'm going to spend the rest of time just talking about applications to what we just read.

So it's going to take a while. Now, first of all, in this passage, as we get deeper and deeper into it, there's much to learn about interpreting the Bible, about hermeneutics. There's much to learn about the meanings of words and how you engage a word study when you're studying your Bible. Like for example, the phrase, taken pagan wives. It's a very interesting phrase.

And it's a phrase, it's a word that's used 1, 088 times. And it really has to do with dwelling with or living together or remaining with it it doesn't seem to have that much to do with actually being married the way that you and I think about it you have to grapple with that it's a it's a word study problem secondly the genre of the literature As you're trying to interpret this and trying to understand what the application is for today, you have to recognize this is Old Testament narrative, and narrative is not imperative. This is a description not a prescription. I believe it's something that happened in a point of time in the history of Israel to preserve it from being destroyed. I don't believe this is the same thing as what Jesus talks about in Matthew 19 about divorce or what you read in First Corinthians 6 and 7 about these matters.

I don't think it's... It may be connect. I think there are ways that you can connect it. I really do, but I'm not confident this thing is exactly a one-to-one parallel. You have to recognize this is Old Testament narrative, and narrative is not imperative.

The third principle is that the clear passages interpret the unclear passages. If you want to learn about divorce, go to Matthew 19. Go to the place where it's absolutely clear. Don't go to a narrative. A narrative can inform you, give you principles and things like that, But you don't want to hang your life on the narrative hang it on the imperative.

That's a hermeneutical principle and And the clear passages interpret The unclear passages and particularly narratives So whenever you have a narrative and you say, well we should go out and do the same thing, you should also ask, are there clear didactic statements in scripture that actually support this? And you know, what should I do? And then there's there then there's the matter of progressive revelation God reveals himself and his truth over time In the new covenant we have we have better promises and a better covenant. There's an upgrade. There's a shift.

It's not a seat change in the sense that all the principles change. It's not like that at all. But There is the matter of progressive revelation. In the New Testament, we learn more, it's clearer. It gets clearer and clearer and clearer.

And so if you want to learn about divorce and remarriage and things like that, you know, you can be informed by the Old Testament, but hang your life on the explicit statements of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. That's an interpretive issue. Then there's the matter of the context. You always have to pay attention to the context. The context is the nation of Israel.

The nation of Israel was a specific land with a specific group of laws and I would just encourage you to turn to our Baptist confession of 1689 in the section on the law and what you'll and and there's a very clear description that we should all memorize to be clear about how you interpret the law. And what the Baptist Confession says is that Israel had laws specifically for that nation for particular purposes which have expired in the New Covenant era. But that there is a general equity of the law. There are principles of that law that do apply today. In other words, you can't throw out the Old Testament law and say it doesn't apply to me, I don't need to read it, I don't need to do anything about it.

You can't say that. You take the general principle and equity and you connect it with what is clear in the New Testament. So the context is this is the nation of Israel a land with specific laws and then I think you have to another you know principle has to do with what is the meaning of the author. Now this is a difficult one because our hearts aren't perfect, our minds aren't perfect, we don't have perfect understanding of scripture, but it's right to try to discern the heart of the meaning of a passage. What is the intent of this?

The intent of this passage is to deliver the people of Israel from paganism. That's it. They had entered into covenants and relationships with pagans and it was defiling the nation. This is about this is about syncretism, this is about taking on the ways of the Gentiles, it's about people who don't want to be a holy people, they don't want to be set apart. And so those are some of the hermeneutical principles.

Okay, we'll tease some of these out in greater detail as we move deeper into the passage later on. Okay, what do we learn about sin? So first application, hermeneutical principles. Second, what do we learn about sin? Now, if you read scripture, it's very clear there are different categories of sin.

First of all, there are sins of commission, sins committed directly and willfully against God. This is the category that is being dealt with in Ezra. Verse 2 says it, we have trespassed or as the ESV says we have broken faith with our God. Sins of commission. Then there are sins of omission.

Things that we should have done we didn't do. And then there are secret sins, inward sins that no one knows about. You know you might be smiling at your friend but hating them in your heart. That's a secret sin, okay? You might be able to be just so polite and ere you died and magnanimous on the outside, but you really don't, you really, you have ought in your heart.

Well, That's a secret sin. And then there are unintentional sins. The Old Testament law speaks of this very explicitly. There are ways that you sin that you're not aware of because of immaturity, because of your lack of knowledge, or because of your untrained conscience. So there are actually unintentional sins.

Don't you wish you could grow out of all those right now? But unfortunately, you know, we are sinners. And we have so many flaws, and so there are sins that we commit even though we're not, we don't even know it. Our sins are far deeper, greater than we think. And our need for a Savior is far greater than we think.

Because many of our sins are just part of our sin nature and part of just the way we are. Okay now, but here's what we have here that I think is really critical to grasp And here's where I want you to really slow down with me for a second. These are sins that have stuck with people for many years. Now, You know, you can be involved in sinning against the Lord and just keep running with it for years and then at some point God stops you up and you say, oh Lord, I'm ready to stop. I'm ready to turn away from that sin and I'm ready to repent.

To repent is to go in another direction. Every child needs to understand what repentance is. Are you ready? Are you with me children? Repentance is really a word picture.

You're going in one direction, you're walking in one direction, and you stop and you turn around. You have a change of mind. You change your mind in your direction and you start walking back toward the Lord. You were walking away, now you're walking toward it. That's repentance.

And so this is a picture of repentance. It's a picture of people who cultivated sin for a long time and then they get set free and they start walking back you know toward the Lord and their burden is lifted that dull you know kind of subterranean uncomfortability with yourself and your life. You're free from it because you repented. You know when you keep persisting in your sin There's always this dull thing or ache going on It's hurting you you might not even be in that aware of it all that aware of it But you might suppress it you suppress it with entertainment you suppress it with alcohol You suppress it with friends you you suppress it with your with your phone There's so many ways you can just suppress your guilt by being involved in all kinds of other things. You know, why are antidepressant drugs the highest selling drugs in the world today because of guilt of sin people want to suppress it and they have all kinds of physical problems and emotional problems you can trace it most of the time right back down to some sin.

You know I've had so many doctors over the years tell me you know 80 percent of the people that come into my office you know I'm I'm giving them a pill but the real problem is their sin. 80 percent. That's the number I've heard from several doctors. So sin is really hard on you and you know what should we do about long-standing sin? That's the issue here.

You know are there things in my life that I haven't abandoned, that I should have abandoned a long time ago. But it's just too hard, I'm just too embarrassed, and it'll require too much change, and it'll affect too many people, and it'll require too much backtracking, and I'm afraid of doing it. So is that you? Is that any of us here today? Is there something that we have known about and now is the day, today is the day to turn away from it.

I'm praying that there's some of that in all of us. In every one of us there's some vestige of something that we've been nourishing and cultivating our whole life long and today's the day we're going to really come clean before God and we're going to abandon it no matter the cost. Okay, so what do you learn about sin? It can go on a long time, but it doesn't have to. What do you learn about repentance?

I think first of all what we learn about repentance is the hope. What hope looks like. What hope looks like in a church by the name of hope. It looks like repentance. The repentance was costly.

Do you see how costly it was? You know, and there are many examples of how inconvenient and costly repentance can be, but how liberating it can be. Remember the Ephesians? They heard the preaching and they brought all their magic books and their amulets and they took about, you know, 50, 000 pieces of silver, all the stuff worth, you know, millions of dollars, and they burned it. You think about Zacchaeus.

He repented, and he gave back generously. It hurt him to repent, but boy was he a happy guy. So there's the cost of repentance. And then there's the action of repentance. Repentance includes action, and that's exactly what you see here.

And there's kind of an unraveling process that takes place in in the in the next verses you'll see how some of the most difficult cases had to be unraveled a lot of times your sin when it's grabbed around you for so many years it takes wisdom to how to unravel it. And so there was counsel that was brought to help people get free of some of this stuff. And it took three and a half months to unravel some of the problems that were there. But unraveling, you know, bad patterns in any area of life can be difficult unraveling bad patterns in your marriage unraveling bad patterns in your child raising Unraveling bad bad patterns in in the way that you spend your time these things require wisdom and persistence and discipline and sometimes counsel from other people to get free of that. And that's what you see in this passage in the verses that come ahead.

You know I think we should be really aware right now in our church of the dangers of peaceful coexistence with our sin. We maintain peaceful coexistence with our sin for a lot of different reasons. For the maintenance of our position in the community. For the preservation of our reputation in the church. For the keeping of peace in our family.

But to these, it didn't matter what it cost. And I think they really understood at this point what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his own soul. I think That's a parallel passage of this text that we have here. It's not enough to say I was raised that way. I'm this way because of my dad.

I'm this way because of the circumstance that came upon me. Set that all aside and turn, repent. If something has been going on for a long, long time, then it's time to separate, separate from that, from that thing. This, this passage is, is applied in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 11. O Corinthians, we have spoken openly to you.

Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections now in return for the same do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness and what communion has light with darkness and what accord has Christ with Baaliel 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 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. I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. This is a call to holiness. You know, it's a call for us all to ask, have I married any pagan wives?

You know, have I made friends with the world in some way? You know, James said, if you're a friend of the world, you're an enemy of God. And so the seriousness of syncretistic paganism is played out here so clearly. God has designed his people to be a holy people, a different people. And you know what that means?

It means you're a weird people. If you follow Jesus Christ, you're going to be weird. It's going to happen. You're not going to accept what everybody else accepts. And you're not going to be accepted by everyone Matthew chapter 10 verse 37 I think is another New Testament parallel passage Do not think that I became to bring peace on earth I did not come to bring peace but a sword, for I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against his mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

And a man's enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. I think that's exactly what was happening in Ezra chapter 10. He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

He who finds his life will lose it and he who loses his life for my sake shall find it." You know there were a lot of people in the days of Ezra that didn't want to lose their life and what we what we find is that many of them did. They did turn. They did put away their pagan wives. They did it. And there's a list of the ones who did.

We'll get to that next time. But they did not want to lose eternity for the sake of a few years of pleasure on this earth. And then what do we learn about marriage? This is another application. Marriage is a picture of the gospel.

When you're dealing with the passage of scripture on marriage, you're dealing with a picture of the gospel. And this is why we should be very careful with this text. It is about paganism It is about paganism and a marriage. And God has designed marriage to display the glory and the beauty of a husband's love for his wife and a wife's respectful obedience toward her husband. That's why God created marriage.

The two shall become one flesh, not for the personal pleasure of the couple, but in order to display the pleasure it is to be one with God. And the two do become one flesh, and there's an exclusive relationship. That relationship is a purifying relationship. It's an ever purifying relationship. And the question that husbands and wives should be asking right now is, am I having a purifying influence on my family?

Am I a wife that is bringing purity into this home? Am I a husband that is bringing purity into this home? Or is my mind distracted by impurity? Am I bringing impurity into my family through my mind, through what I see, through my entertainments? Am I channeling impurity into my family?

Because marriage is designed to be a picture of ever purifying beauty of the love of Jesus Christ. And you see how compromised that was in Israel. They had married pagan wives and they were doing the things that the pagan wives were doing. And you know what the pagans were doing? They were involved in all kinds of immorality in the high places.

They were involved in even sacrificing their children. And they were doing it all for social acceptability. There's an enormous evidence that was what was happening in the high places where it was like trade guilds. If you didn't participate in the immoral things that were going on in the high places, you didn't get business. The whole economy was structured around tipping your hat to the immorality of Baal.

If you didn't tip your hat to the immorality of Baal, you didn't get to play the game in business. By the way that's happening in our country more and more. But we learn about marriage is that God has a zeal for a holy marriage separate from the world ever purifying and every husband and wife needs to ask, is that who I am? And is there any way that I'm channeling any form of impurity into this marriage and into this family? You know, there are a lot of guys out there, you know, that are actually married to pagan wives on the internet.

They don't have names, They just have images. And they're involved in pagan wives. Maybe some of you last night were looking at pagan wives last night. I don't know. But there are a lot of ways that we get married to pagan wives in this world.

What do we learn about separation? This is another application. If you're not separate from the world, there's no reason to call yourself a member of the people of God. Because here's what happened here. If you did not separate from your pagan wives, you were excluded.

You were excommunicated from the people of God. That's what happened. And There were specific punishments for their refusal to separate from paganism. Because God during this time in history wanted to purify his people in a particular way. And God used Ezra and Shekiniah and all the people to engage in this time of cleansing.

Now we know that it didn't go completely away because Nehemiah deals with the same problem and guess what he deals with it in a little bit different way. That's why I don't think you can take this as a paradigm in every element of its practice. But it was something that God desired to do with his people to purify them. And you should ask yourself, and I should ask myself, what does God want me to do right now? You know, I'm in a season like this.

What does God want me to do right now you know you know I'm in a season like this I what do what does God want me to do in separating from the world because the issue was not primarily marriage it was love for the world that's what it was That was what it was at the bottom Fitting in with the pagans and marriage wasn't it's just an expression of their refusal to depart from the world It was just one thing but it was a devastating thing and it became it became the conduit it became the way that worldliness was funneled into the families that defiled the nation and I would just like to ask you know what areas in your marriage have you refused to separate from the world your entertainments your time allocations your conversation your use of the internet anything be done with it maybe it's gone on for a long time let this be the last day repent turn to the Lord I got a note from somebody this week about this passage in the issue of separation. I'm going to paraphrase what he wrote. If there's no separation, there is no salvation from the degradation of this world.

If there's no separation from the world, there's no Savior. If there's no Savior, there's no heaven. If there's no heaven, there's no marriage, supper of the Lamb, the fulfillment of the meaning of all marriage. If you say you don't need to be separate, you're saying that you don't have a Savior. That was the issue in Israel in the days of Ezra.

It was a problem of cataclysmic proportions and it was time to stop. And they put a stop to it. At least for a while. Because God is always sanctifying his people. Now the last thing of application I want to bring to us is that we should remember the setting.

Don't forget the setting. Do you remember the setting? This is all happening in the context of the temple. There are sacrifices being brought for sin a spotless lamb is being slain for sin This is the setting the setting is atonement the setting is Reconciliation Ezra's prayer is in the temple, you know, and it's the same situation that that the apostles encountered in Acts chapter 3. You know this story very well.

Peter and John went to pray when? At the ninth hour, they went to the temple and They met a blind man on the way. And they said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. And he went walking and leaping and praising God because he had repented.

He had turned to Jesus Christ. This is the context. The context is the ninth hour in the temple. It's the time of atonement. It's the time of the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing repenters from sin.

It's the very same situation that we read about in 2 Chronicles chapter 7 when the temple was dedicated And God's people are in the temple. What you learn from 2 Chronicles chapter 7 is that when God's people come to worship and repent, He favors them. He blesses them. He hears them. He helps them.

Let me read it to you. And we're closed with this text. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place For myself as a house of sacrifice Solomon is in the very same context. He is in the temple. He is praying and the Lord says This is my house of sacrifice And he says if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and Seek my face and turn from their wicked ways Then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land And that's what was happening here They went to the temple and they laid bare their sins before God and the sacrifice was sufficient and their sins were relieved.

And that's why verse 2 makes it so clear, yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this. Now What's the in spite of in your life? What is it? What is the in spite of that needs to be brought before the Lord? And just recognize there's hope in spite of it.

But only if there's repentance. Only if there's the blood of Jesus Christ, only if there is a perfect and pure sacrifice, and then there's hope. And I pray that we as a church, called Hope, would be a living picture of that same kind of hope. Let's pray. Lord we so desire that you would give us this same kind of repentance and urgency and speed and repenting that you would help us with all of these things and the things that we have done the things that we have not done the things that we've been insensible to Oh Lord that you would come and pour out your mercy upon us.

I pray that you would use our time today to destroy all self-righteousness That we would not think too highly of ourselves but that we would be a humble people, a repenting people, a merciful people, people who receive mercy and give mercy. Lord, that that would be the quality of our time as we live out the day today, this day of delight, delighting in your mercies. And now, Lord, as we turn toward your supper, That you would continue to give us a vision of your grace Amen