In his sermon 'Dealing With a Constitutional Crisis,' Jason Dohm discusses the events of Ezra 10:5-11, emphasizing the unique constitution of Israel as outlined in Deuteronomy, which serves as a covenant between the nation and God. This constitution is unamendable, setting Israel apart from other nations, including the United States, whose constitutions are human-made and flawed. The sermon explains that the mixed marriages in Ezra represent a significant betrayal of this divine constitution, akin to treason, and necessitate a decisive response. Dohm highlights Ezra's role as a civil magistrate, leading the people to an oath of separation from sin and worldliness and urging them to choose between their allegiance to God and their pagan practices. The sermon draws parallels to Jesus' teachings on radical separation from sin, urging believers to prioritize their relationship with God above all else. Ezra's actions are portrayed as a model of being 'hard' against worldly pressures while remaining 'soft' and tender-hearted towards God and others. Dohm challenges the congregation to examine their own lives for unresolved allegiances and to reaffirm their commitment to God's unchanging law.

Sermon text is from Ezra 10 verses 5 through 11. Then Ezra arose and made the leaders of 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 Jehoihanen, the son of Eliashib, 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 on the twentieth 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 the land and from the pagan wives.

Oh God Bless Jason as he comes to preach to us. And God bless us that we would worship you through hearing the preaching. You would be worshiped through the preaching. That God we would desire to know your will. That we desire to see your holiness, how righteous you are God, that you would sanctify us, that God you would be merciful to us in our hearing.

Oh bless this time, in Jesus name, Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is, Dealing with a Constitutional Crisis. Normally I try to lift a phrase out of the text, But I have sort of an agenda this morning. I really want to pound the drum to help us see that there's something different and unique about the nation of Israel that makes it different than the nation of America or any of the nations that were surrounding Israel at that time. And the difference is that they have a constitution and that constitution is the book of Deuteronomy.

And it can never be amended. And this is a people that have bound themselves in a covenant with God to be faithful to this Constitution. And so in a very real way, they're dealing with a constitutional crisis. It would be like the concerns that we have in our nation when we feel like the constitution is being trampled on. There's really nothing more concerning to a citizen of the United States than when we feel like the Constitution is being ignored.

May the same be true and a hundred times more so the nation of Israel because our Constitution has its weak points and errors but their Constitution doesn't have a weak point and it doesn't have an error because it was given by God. So, thus the title, Dealing with the Constitutional Crisis, because that's really what's happening in Ezra chapter 9 and 10. These mixed marriages deal with something that is so much more than just another sin. It's really treason against a constitution that's been given to a whole nation. The title of last week's sermon was, The Necessary Divorce.

And it wasn't about the divorce of these marriages. It was about something much more fundamental than that. It was about the need, how necessary it is that the Lord's people divorce sin. They divorce worldliness and sin and put it away. So before the Lord's people consider marriage and how it worked in the Old Covenant, how it works in the New Covenant, we should first consider something much more general.

That is, how should we deal with the world? Sin. Our own sin. And this thing that presses on us to cause us to love the world. And so, we ended the sermon last week with two things that Jesus says.

One in Matthew 5, and in Matthew 5 Jesus says, If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Cast it from you. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. Why? Because it's better than the alternative.

It's better to pluck out your eye or cut off your hand and cast these things from you than it is to be cast yourself into hell for eternity. So we can't have things that we love so much that we're not willing to pluck them out or cut them off. That is the point that Jesus is driving at in Matthew chapter 5. And it has a definite relationship to these marriages to pagan wives in Ezra 9. These marriages can't be so dear that if God puts His hand on them and says this is a cause of sin, you have to cast them from you, that we should say no.

The other saying of Jesus at the conclusion of last week's sermon was from Luke 14, where Jesus says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And I ask the question, In comfortable America, have we forgotten the radical nature of what Jesus calls us to? He says that you cannot come to Him and be His disciple unless your affection for your closest personal human relationships is like hatred in comparison to your affection for him. Jesus without apology calls upon our highest and best and dearest affections. He says, if I can't have the highest and the best and the dearest of your affections, then you cannot be my disciple.

So I said last week we're going to get to the specifics about these marriages and about these divorces but first let's start with the general. Let's deal with how the Lord's people should think about sin and the world and see what Jesus has said about sin and the world and use that to set a framework and a context with which to evaluate these marriages and these divorces in Ezra 9 and 10. As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. God, I pray that you would make us a people who are like King David and we can say, Oh how I love thy law. Oh how I love your law.

It is my meditation all the day. That your law would not be just something that hangs over our heads and condemns us, but it would be so far from that. We would know that we who have trusted in Christ are free from the condemnation of the law and now It serves to show us what pleases you, our Redeemer, the One who has come to lay down His life so that we can be free from sin. And now we want to serve you. We want to live to your glory.

And your law shows us how we can. Help us to love those things which you love. Cut off and put away the things that you say that you hate. In Jesus' name, Amen. So today I'm going to be dividing the text into three different sections.

The first one is verses 5 and 6. So let's look at Ezra 10 verses 5 and 6 again and then I'll speak of them in detail. Ezra 10 verse 5, then Ezra arose and made the leaders of 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 Jehohanan, the son of Eliashib.

When he came there, he ate no bread and drank no water, for he mourned because of the guilt of those from the captivity." Here in verses 5 and 6 we have the oath. If you're taking notes on the handout, oath fills in the blank. Ezra compels the leaders of the priests and the Levites and all Israel to swear an oath. So at this point it's Ezra and the leaders. It's not all of Israel yet.

We're getting to that later in the text. So it's the leaders of the priests and the leaders of the Levites and the leaders of all Israel. Right now in verses 5 and 6, Ezra is leading leaders. And then this is going to trickle down to all Israel towards the end of our text. Verse 5 says, then Ezra arose.

And these words are definitely And obviously in response to verse 4. So back up a verse and look at this. This is Shekiniah, this character who is bold in coming and declaring what he believes God would have and he's right. So this is the words of Shekiniah 2, Ezra in verse 4, backing up a verse. Arise for this matter is your responsibility.

We also are with you. Be of good courage and do it. So Shekiniah is a man who doesn't have positional authority. In other words, he can't command Ezra, but he has moral authority. Meaning he's standing on the Word of God and exhorting a brother in the Lord.

And he's doing it boldly and he looks at Ezra and he says, arise, we're with you, go do it. And then in verse 5, verse 5 begins, then Ezra arose in response to what Shek and I has just said. The second thing we notice is that Ezra made them. Ezra made them do something. This is not a voluntary situation in our text.

It's Ezra who has been entrusted by God through our exerxes with authority. So the authority is derived from God ultimately, but through our exerxes, the king of the empire. He's been entrusted with this authority, and here in this text we see that he uses it. He actually exercises with great boldness the authority that God has entrusted him with through our exerxes. In the weekly email, I said that Ezra is a godly man taking manly action.

That's what we see in the text. He's a godly man, so it's a godly use of authority, but it's definitely a use, a clear use of authority. And he's taking manly action, meaning not one in ten would have the courage to do what Ezra is doing in this text. To make the leaders of these people do something. Knowing that though some are with him, that many will not be.

Knowing that it will be misunderstood and he will be seen as lording it over them by many. But he does it anyway because it is right to do. In our day, no one wants to make anyone do anything, whether they've been entrusted with authority or not. No one wants to say no to this And yes to that. In our day, we lead by consensus.

In other words, we lead from behind now. When those under our authority wants to do something, then we lead them in what they want to do. Typically, not always, but I think it's fair to say that this categorizes the world that we're living in. No one wants to make anyone do anything. So I want to take this text as an opportunity to press this on all who have authority.

Are you listening? You who have authority. Yes, lead like Jesus led. Serve those who are under your authority and be gentle. But lead.

But command those under your authority to do right, to serve God. It should never be abusive authority. It should never be heavy handed authority. But if God has entrusted you with authority, it's so that you'll make those under your authority serve him to the best of your ability. You cannot make their hearts be turned towards God.

You've been given authority to make people stand at attention to the ways of God, to the things that God has said are good and to keep them from the things that he has said are evil. And sometimes, many times you cannot do that by consensus. Ezra cannot do what is in this text by consensus. Listen to Genesis 18 verse 19. I quote this a lot, but I'm quoting it again today.

In Genesis 18 verse 19, this is the words of God about Abraham. God says this about Abraham in Genesis 18-19, For I have known him, for I God have known him Abraham, in order that he may command his children and his household after him." God knew Abraham so he would command his children and his household after him. That they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. God put his hand on Abraham so that he would command his children and his family after him that they would obey God. Ezra is to Israel in our text in Ezra chapter 9 and 10.

Ezra is to Israel what Abraham was to his family. God raised up Abraham to command his children to follow God. God raised up Ezra to command the children of Israel to follow God. So it is with every jurisdiction. God raises up authorities, and it is their job.

That's the reason they were entrusted with the authority to say, yes, this is consistent with what God has said. We must do this. No, this is inconsistent with what God has said. We must not do this because we serve God here. God has given me authority to do this.

Ezra compels the leaders to enter into an oath that they would do according to this word. That's the words of the text. That's what the oath is about. They would do according to this word which points back to verse 3. What is this word?

It has to do with the putting away of the pagan wives and those who have been born to them. So that's what they're taking an oath regarding. We as leaders are going to see to it that the pagan wives are put away, whether they're ours or whether they're wives among the rest of the people of Israel and also we're going to put away those who have been born to them the products of these marriage now know this you cannot understand the text unless you get a firm grip on what I'm about to say this is really important Ezra is a priest but he's acting as a civil magistrate. Have you got that? He's not acting as a priest here.

He is acting as an official in Israel. He is a priest but he is acting as a civil magistrate. If we go back to chapter 7 and look at verses 25 and 26, Chapter 7 is the letter that Artaxerxes, the king of the empire, has handed to Ezra as his marching orders. Go back and look at that letter, Ezra Chapter 7, verses 25 and 26. We see that Artaxerxes tells Ezra to appoint judges and magistrates to teach and enforce the law of God.

So those are his marching orders. Ezra, you go back to Jerusalem and you appoint judges and magistrates who understand the law of God and you teach the law of God and you make sure the law of God is enforced in Israel. And that section concludes, chapter 7 verse 26, with our exerxes saying, make sure that there's speedy judgment on law breaking. Which law? The law of God.

Make sure that when the law of God is broken, that there is speedy judgment. And you put to death the people who need to be put to death. And you banish the people who need to be banished. And you confiscate the goods of the people who need to have their goods confiscated, and you imprison the people who need to be imprisoned. All those things are listed in chapter 7 verse 26.

So he's given a very free hand to teach and then enforce the law of God. This is what Ezra is doing. He is teaching and he is making preparations to enforce the law of God in Israel as a civil magistrate on behalf of the chief civil magistrate who was already Xerxes, the king of the empire. Now turn your Bibles to Romans 13. There are two go-to passages in the New Testament about how the Godly relate to civil magistrates, to government.

Government is one of the three spheres. The other two spheres are the church and the family. They each have a jurisdiction, but they each are fundamentally ministers of God. In other words, God has made these spheres to to bring blessing into the world by giving attention to the things that God has said is good and by restraining the things which God has said is evil. So Romans 13 is one of those go-to places and 1 Peter 2 is the second go-to place and we won't even go there today.

Romans 13 beginning in verse 1 reading through verse 4, Paul writes, Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. So Paul is writing this during the time of Nero. That's hard to reconcile, but that is true. Verse 2, Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God. And those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority, do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid. For he does not bear the sword in vain for he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

So some stunning things are taught by Paul in Romans 13. One is that all authorities, our president, Nero, all authorities are actually appointed by God for his own wise purposes. He's wiser than you. You thought that was unwise, but he thinks it's wise and he's right. And we're wrong.

We need to adjust our thinking. He doesn't need to adjust his at all. He's perfect in all his ways. Two times in Romans 13, which was written under the Emperor Nero, Paul writes that the civil magistrate is God's minister for good. And he is put there and a sword is put in his hand to restrain evil.

Now relating to the mixed marriages, okay so we have that. Ezra is acting as a civil magistrate. And Paul says that the civil magistrates, even Nero, are ministers of God. How much more, if Nero is a minister of God, if Barack Obama is a minister of God, how much more so Ezra, this man who had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach it. And a key function of this minister of God is to restrain evil.

Now relating it to the mixed marriages in Ezra chapters 9 and 10. I want to keep pointing back to three verses for context of these mixed marriages. I'm just going to keep pounding this drum. The first verse is Ezra chapter 6 verse 21. In Ezra chapter 6 verse 21, they're getting ready to take the first Passover, to celebrate the first Passover in the newly finished temple.

And 621 says that they celebrated this Passover with all who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations in order to seek the Lord God of Israel." In other words, it wasn't just the returned captives who were celebrating this Passover. Anyone who would separate themselves from the filth of the nations in order to seek the Lord could be grafted into the people of God and could celebrate the Passover, the most sacred observance in the calendar. I also want to pound away at Ezra chapter 9 verse 1. In Ezra chapter 9 verse 1 Ezra is being given the report of the mixed marriages. And this is part of the report.

The people have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with respect to the abominations of the Canaanites. So when the report is given to Ezra that the holy seed has been mixed with unholy seed, Right at the heart of that report is that the people have not separated themselves from the people of the lands with respect to something very specific, the abominations of the Canaanites. It's the people who had not separated themselves and were actively engaged in the abominable practices of their heritage. The Canaanites and Perizzites and Amorites and on and on had many abominable practices and these people are people who had not separated themselves from those abominable practices but were continuing them. Finally chapter 9 verse 14, Ezra is praying in chapter 9 verse 14 and he says, Should we again break your commandments and join in marriage with the people committing these abominations?

That's at the heart of these mixed marriages. They are marriages with people who are committing these abominations, present tense. They are continuing in the abominable practices of these pagan nations. It was evil to have engaged in these marriages with these God-haters. It was treason to their national charter, to their constitution, to Deuteronomy, to have engaged in these marriages with these God haters.

And Ezra as a civil magistrate is stepping in to restrain the evil. He is dealing with a constitutional crisis, and there is no going forward in serving God without going backward to address these treasonous marriages. And so, he comes to the leaders of the priests and the Levites and all Israel. He brings all these leaders together and he makes them swear an oath. So they call God as witness.

In Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 13 we read this, you shall fear the Lord your God and serve him and take oaths in His name. So this is a godly oath. Not about anything trivial, but about the most important things in life. It's when the most solemn commitments are being made, and it's only in the name of God, not in the name of the temple or the altar or the gold of the temple or any other thing, only in the name of God, only to make the most solemn commitments and you call God to witness it and to bring judgment if you don't fulfill your oath. So that's what Deuteronomy 6 verse 13 says, and it's repeated in Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 20.

You just want to look at some good places about taking oaths. So this, he's leading them in a godly oath about something that is the most serious of matters. They're calling God as witness. We're going to come upon more oaths when we get to Nehemiah. There will be one in Nehemiah chapter 5, there will be one in Nehemiah chapter 10.

So these men who are leading the Lord's people have a pattern here when they're addressing these serious matters. Now what does Ezra do? The leaders have done what he made them do. They've sworn an oath. Now what does he do?

Does Ezra declare victory? Does Ezra go and rejoice? No. Verse 6 says what he does. He goes into a chamber in the temple And he continues fasting and mourning over sin.

The work is not done. He has a commitment that the work is going to get done, but the work is not done yet. And Ezra's heart, until this has been dealt with, Ezra's heart is still broken over sin. I love this. Here's a godly man taking manly action.

And then he goes and continues his morning and his fasting. So, you get the picture. Not an action hero with guns blazing, cracking heads together to get what he wants. He is a decisive man. He is taking manly action.

But he is a godly man taking manly action. And even when he does it, he goes and continues his fasting and his praying and his mourning over sin. He's a tender hearted man towards God. He's a tender hearted man towards people. He knows where this sin is going to lead.

It's going to lead right back around to the captivity that God just gave them freedom from. Ezra is not a bully. He is a godly man taking manly action and his heart for God is driving all of this. This is what we should take away from Ezra going into this chamber in the temple. And he won't eat bread.

And he won't drink water. And he's praying And he's mourning over sin. This is what we should take away from it. That his heart for God is driving it all. What drives Ezra?

What makes a man like this tick? Who can bring together the leaders of the nation and say, You're taking an oath today. It's his heart for God. It's his sorrow over sin. This needs to be us in all that God gives us to do.

Brothers and sisters, This needs to be us in all that God gives us to do. Brothers and sisters, this needs to be us in everything God gives us to do. Hard but soft. This characterizes Ezra. This describes Ezra.

Hard but soft. He is hard as a rock against the pressures of the world. Against the thought that he'll be misunderstood and he'll be despised by many for taking this decisive action. He's hard as a rock. He is a brick wall.

He knows he can't afford to care. But he's soft, he's tender hearted towards God and towards people. Brothers and sisters, We need to learn to be hard towards the right things. And soft towards the right things. We need to be like Ezra.

Hard as a rock against the pressures of the world. The world is trying to force you into a mold, its own mold, so you'll look like it. It looks nothing like Jesus. We're supposed to be conformed. We're supposed to be pressed into another kind of mold.

A Jesus mold that makes you look like Jesus. So the Holy Spirit is putting pressure to press us into this mold. Do you feel that pressure from time to time? Yes you do and so do I. It's pressing us into this Jesus imaged mold.

Well the world's doing that too and You need to be as hard as a rock against those pressures. You need to be a granite wall against the pressures of the world that would force you into this mold that looks just like the world. Heaven forbid that the Lord's people should look like that. So we need to be granite walls against that pressure but we need to be so soft. We cannot let that and the ongoing war against the weaknesses in our own heart and the pressures of the world.

We cannot let that make us hard towards God and towards people. May it never be. Hey, when we come up against opposition at the abortion clinic or in the nursing homes or in our workplaces or in our neighborhood, we cannot afford to have that opposition make us hard against people. No, no, a thousand times no. That's not Ezra.

He's facing many pressures. And he's hard against them, but he's not being hardened against people or against his God. He is soft, he is tender towards his God, towards his brethren. May we be like that. Okay, that was verses 5 and 6.

Now, verses 7 and 8. Back to Ezra chapter 10, now reading verses seven and eight. And they, this is the leaders, and they issued a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the descendants of the captivity, that they must gather at Jerusalem, and 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 verses 5 and 6 were about the oath. Now in verses 7 and 8, this is about the proclamation.

If you're taking notes, proclamation fills in the blanks. The leaders begin to make good on the oath that they've sworn. And so they make this proclamation. Ezra made them swear the oath and now they make the people all gather. So now they are leading decisively.

Ezra has led them decisively and now they are leading decisively. They make a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the descendants of the captivity. This remnant that God has brought back out of captivity. Both the first wave, 85 years earlier, and their descendants, and the second wave. And the proclamation is this, if you don't come in three days from when the proclamation is made, if you fail the show, all your property is forfeit, It's confiscated.

And you're separated from the nation, from the people. You're excluded from the people. You're banished from the people. So you better come. Geographically, we're talking about the allotment of land given to Judah and Benjamin and It's from the furthest outreach as you're talking 40 to 50 miles.

It's not a hard three-day journey So it's very makeable even from the outer reaches of the geographical air area If you don't come all your properties forfeit and you're out. You're excluded. You're separated. Now, I believe this is the way we should understand this proclamation. One word, choose.

Choose. Choose right now what you want. You shouldn't have been able to have it both ways, but you've been able to have it both ways. You've been able to be part of Israel and have land and have the name that you're among the people of God, and at the same time have your pagan God-hating wives. You've been able to have your cake and eat it too.

But now the day has come when you must forsake something. Choose. What will you forsake? Will you forsake your pagan, God-hating wives? And cling to being part of the people of God?

The land is always tied to being part of the people of God. In the old covenant, the land was everything. So that if you sold off your land, it returned to you in the year of Jubilee. Every 50 years, it would come back to your family. There was no getting rid of it because being an Israelite meant having land.

Having a physical piece of the promise. If you don't want to serve the Lord, if you don't really in your life want to be part of the Lord's people, Give back the land. It's forfeit. It's confiscated. And if you want to be part of the people of God and to have this tangible symbol that you are part of the people of God, then give up those pagan God-hating wives.

Choose which will you forsake, but you must forsake something. If you do nothing and don't come, you are out. And your land is confiscated. This is a Joshua 24 moment. Chapter 24 is the last chapter in the book of Joshua.

It's at the very end of Joshua's life and he calls together the whole nation and he says, Serve the Lord. He exhorts them to serve the Lord. But then he says, If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, If that doesn't seem desirable, then serve another God. Pick another God. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

And then he makes a covenant with the people. When they say, no, we don't want other gods. We want the God of Israel. He makes a covenant with the people and he sets up a large stone as a witness that they have said this and entered into this covenant. This is so much like that.

The Ezra 10 moment, choose between being part of the people of God or your pagan God-hating wives is so much like the Joshua 24 moment. Friends, we take the name of Christ. We are Christians. But after a while, if we're not careful, we start to drift. Anyone who's been a Christian for a while knows this is true.

You identify with Christ. You take on yourself the name of Christian. And then, after a while, even sometimes very insensible to it, you found you've drifted a hundred yards off, and a hundred yards off becomes two hundred yards off, becomes a half a mile off. And you can drift back into the same old worldliness that we were supposed to have left. Jesus is so clear, you can't have both.

And if you've been drifting and your hundred yards has become two hundred yards and your two hundred yards has become a half mile, I want to look at you now and say you cannot have both. Don't forget what Jesus has said so clearly, you cannot have both. We were to have left that old worldliness. And if you won't leave it, you're not His. In Revelation chapter 3, this is the letters to the churches.

Jesus is writing letters to churches to exhort them. In the beginning of Revelation chapter 3 we have the letter to the church in Sardis and Jesus says to them, I know your works that you have a name that you are alive but you're dead. Imagine getting a letter from Jesus that says, I know, I know you've taken my name upon you. You let people call you Christian. You have a name that you are alive but you are dead.

You are not really alive. We must forsake something. You can have the world, you can have Jesus, but no one can have them both. We should live every day with that in mind so that we don't deceive ourselves that we're something when we're not. Now verses 9 through 11.

The last section, 9 through 11. So all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered at Jerusalem within three days. I'll bet they did. It was the ninth month on the twentieth 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 the land, and from the pagan wives. So five and six was the oath. Seven and eight was the proclamation. Nine through eleven is the confrontation.

If you're filling in blanks, confrontation. It's the ninth month and the twentieth day. So we know that Ezra and this second wave of captives brought back from Babylon arrived on the first day of the fifth month. So it's been four and a half months since Ezra originally arrived back in Jerusalem. And all the men of Judah and Benjamin, I believe this is speaking of the geographical territory.

This is really geographically the land allotted to these two tribes are the people that we're talking about. And they gather in the open square in the house of God. And it's late December or early January. So the ninth month straddles December and January. So you're talking towards the end of the ninth month.

And the weather in Israel is sort of like the weather here in that that's that's prime winter time there. And Jerusalem is at 2500 feet of elevation. Jerusalem is 2500 feet above sea level. Asheville, North Carolina is 2200 feet above sea level. So you're talking about significant elevation.

In Jerusalem, In late December or early January, you'd be talking about temperatures in the 40s and 50s. You're talking about a cold rain. It's the rainy season. It's winter, it's 40s and 50s temperature-wise. And it's the rainy season.

And it is raining. They have a heavy rain. And the people are trembling. And the text says, because of this matter and because of the heavy rain. So they're cold and wet, they're trembling because of that, and their hearts are heavy.

They're trembling because of this matter. There's a crisis of conscience that's happening among the people, and assuredly, especially among those who have taken pagan God-hating wives. Now Ezra stands up and he confronts the people particularly the men it says that the men of Judah and Benjamin have all come And he confronts the people in their sin. And then in verse 10, he lays out the charges against them. So Ezra acting as the civil magistrate presents the charges.

Here they are. You've transgressed. You've violated God's law. You've trampled our Constitution. You have trampled our constitution.

They've taken pagan wives, they've mixed the holy seed with unholy, and they've added to the guilt of Israel. In other words, you're doing what our fathers did and were sent into captivity for. You're just adding on to the guilt of our fathers. So those are the charges in verse 10 and then he gives them the remedy in verse 11. So in 10 he lays out the charges, in 11 he lays out the remedy.

He tells them how to fix this mess. Make confession to the Lord God of your fathers. Agree with God. Just agree. Acknowledge the sin of what has been happening here.

Make confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will. Those are the two things He says will fix the mess, will clean up the mess. Make confession, do God's will. You were doing your own will. You never would have engaged in this marriage.

Now it's time to turn around, go the other direction, and do God's will. Separate from the peoples and the pagans wives. So he's calling for a separation not just in the marriages but also from the peoples of the lands. They would be a holy and distinct people. He's saying hey not just you who have engaged in the mixed marriages, but all of us.

It is time for us to pull away and be a separate and distinct people who obey and honor the Lord and are different again. It's time for us to choose what we're going to forsake and we're forsaking that. We're not going to let the world and its pressures press us into that mold anymore. Turning your Bibles to Proverbs 28. Proverbs 28.

I think Proverbs 28, 13 is such a crucial verse. Helping us understand repentance. Proverbs chapter 28 verse 13 says this. Memorize it. Memorize this one.

You need it. I need it. Proverbs 28, 13. He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Now we're given by God a clear testimony of who receives mercy.

You don't if you hide your sins, but you do if you confess and forsake them. So repentance most assuredly begins with confession. With agreeing with God that you have transgressed, you have sinned. You have fallen short of His glory. You have defied Him.

But though repentance begins with confession, assuredly it does not end with confession. It is completed, your confession, the words of your mouth are completed and verified by forsaking sin. This is exactly what Ezra is saying in Ezra chapter 10, confess your sins to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will. Forsake those sins. You were doing your own will, now it's time to turn around and do God's will.

Next week when we come to the text, the people are going to say, yes, yes, what you say we must do. And they're going to put a mechanism in place to put away the pagan wives and the children of those marriages. So I keep teasing you. We're going to get to the specifics of that in future weeks. It's going to be a few weeks from now.

We'll get to it. Applications. I have three. Applications, I have three. Number one, Ezra sets a great pattern for godly people.

Here's the pattern. He mourns, he fasts, he prays, and then he acts decisively. It's so good that he goes to God first and most. It's so right. But then having gone to God, he comes away with a conviction of what's right to do and he is a godly man taking manly action.

After the morning over sin and the fasting and the praying, he acts decisively. He takes manly action. Ezra is a man hard but soft. He is like a granite wall against the pressures of the world, but he is so tender-hearted towards God and his brethren. So here's the application.

Is this you or vice versa? Are you a granite wall against the pressures of the world, but tender-hearted towards God and people? Are you the exact opposite of that? Soft towards the pressures of the world, being forced by these pressures into the mold of the world so you look like the world that you were supposed to have forsaken and come apart from, and are you hard towards God and towards people? This is a really searching question.

I hope it makes you as uncomfortable as it makes me. Number two, we must resolve this question, have I really made the choice? Or have I wanted the name and the world and never really been able to forsake one or the other even though everybody else is fooled. Let me tell you, you can do that. You can do that.

That's possible. Sins can be so internal, meaning I can't see them. They can be so internal that you can be in that condition, wanting to have your cake and eat it too, wanting to forsake nothing, wanting the blessings associated with taking His name, being among His people, but not ever forsaking the world. You can be in that condition. It's a miserable condition to be in.

But it's a mirage. It's a fantasy. Because not choosing is choosing. You have to understand that. Just like in the text, just like in Ezra chapter 10.

If you're just going to sit at home and not show up three days from now and say, I'm not choosing, we're going to say, you chose. We're going to take your property and move you on out of the people of God. Not choosing is choosing. If you say I just want to cling to both, have the name, enjoy the benefits of being among the Lord's people, have a reputation that I am alive when I am really dead, but I don't want to forsake the world, I want to have the world too. You're choosing.

Oh, you're choosing. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he will reap. Number three. Finally, heads of households.

The word of God is to be your family constitution. Did you know your family has a constitution? If you're the Lords, The word of God is your constitution. We're not at liberty just to make things up and do whatever we want to do in the families. That's not why God has entrusted authority to us.

No, no, a thousand times no. If we are Christ, our Constitution is the words of Christ and that's every word of the Bible. Maybe I can be your Shekiniah, heads of households, and come and say boldly, Arise and do it! We're with you! Reassert your constitution with those that God has entrusted authority into your hands for.

Let's pray. God, we continue to be confronted but helped and refreshed by coming to Your words that You've given to us through Ezra. God, may it continue to be so. Keep coming and putting Your finger upon our sin and helping us to be free. God help us to choose so decisively in our lives so that not just our neighbors think that we're Christians but that it's really evident in our hardness towards the pressures of the world and our softness towards you, towards our brethren.

Help us, help us Lord. In Jesus name, amen.