In his sermon 'Less Than Our Iniquities Deserve,' Jason Dohm explores Ezra 9:5-15, highlighting the depth of human sin and the overwhelming grace and mercy of God. Dohm emphasizes Ezra's reaction to the report of the Israelites' intermarriage with pagan peoples, which leads to his impassioned prayer and acknowledgment of collective guilt. The sermon underscores the importance of prayer before action, illustrating how Ezra's knee-jerk reaction is to seek God in prayer, unlike a typical reactionary response. Dohm stresses the interconnectedness of believers, comparing it to the body and bride of Christ, and points out that the real difference between believers and those who sin is one of degree, not fundamental state, given God's holiness. The sermon also addresses the contagion of uncleanness, warning against compromising with worldly practices and highlighting the necessity of living a holy life. Through this narrative, Dohm challenges the congregation to consider how they should live in light of God's mercy, urging them to be living sacrifices and to maintain purity by avoiding the 'filth of the nations.' The sermon concludes with an encouragement to flee to the cross, where Jesus' righteousness can be exchanged for our sinfulness, ensuring believers stand justified before God.

Sermon text this morning is from Ezra 9 verses 5 through 15 At the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting and having torn my garment and my robe I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God and I said oh my God I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to you my God for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been very guilty and for our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands to the sword to the captivity to plunder and to humiliation as it is this day. And now for a little while grace has been shown from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a peg in his holy place that our God may Enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage for we were slaves Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.

And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land, with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to another with their impurity. Now therefore do not give your daughters as wives for their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it as an inheritance to your children forever. After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since you our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such deliverance as this, Should we again break your commandments and join in marriage with the people committing these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you had consumed us so that there would be no remnant or survivor?

Oh Lord God of Israel, you are righteous. For we are left as a remnant as it is this day. Here we are before you in our guilt, Though no one can stand before you because of this. The title of the message this morning is less than our iniquities deserve. And it's a phrase that I'm lifting right out of verse 13 from today's text, where Ezra is praying about the depth of his own and his people's sin, but also the depth of God's grace and mercy even in the face of the depth of their sin.

So it really encapsulates the two parts of what are in view in the text. The depth of sin that is on display and the depth of grace and mercy in God, even in spite of the sin. Last week the sermon title was, Mixing the Holy Seed, and Ezra has come to Jerusalem. He's on a very specific mission to take the ways of God and to make the ways of his people match the ways of God. He's actually been given a letter by King Artaxerxes that tells him to do this.

Go to Jerusalem and Judah and hold up the Word of God and look at the way the people are living and then make those things match. And having come to Jerusalem safely by the good hand of his God, he gets a report. And it's not a good report. And it brings us to the central problem that's in view in this week's text also, and will be in view all the way through the end of Ezra. And the central problem is this, The holy seed, the Lord's people, have been mixed with the people who have not separated themselves from the filth of the nations.

From the abominations of the Gentile nations. So there has been a mixing of the holy with the unclean. Last week I was arguing for something, and it's important that I argue for it, because I don't think we understand the whole rest of Ezra rightly, if we don't get this, and it is that the interpretive keys to understanding marriages with pagans and then what happens subsequently in the rest of Ezra. The interpretive keys are chapter 6 verses 21. In chapter 6 verses 21, the temple has been completed.

They dedicate the temple and then they are observing the first Passover in the temple. Those who have separated themselves from the filth of the nations are welcome to join in. It says, all who separated themselves from the filth of the nations. So undoubtedly that was Israelites who were still in the land, didn't come back from captivity, and had remained separate, they are welcome. But it certainly includes also those who were not Jewish, but became part of the people of God, were grafted into the people of God by separating themselves from the filth of the nations.

Exodus 12 tells us exactly how people who are not nationally Israelites can be partakers, can be grafted into the people of God and become partakers of the Passover and it is through circumcision or also marrying into the people of God but forsaking all of your past history. So Ezra chapter 6 verse 21 is an interpretive key And then in our chapter, chapter 9, verse 1, we saw the phrase, with respect to the abominations of the nations. Meaning that the problem is not who your dad was, but the abominations, the practices that are raging against God of those nations. And we see that again in our text this week, chapter 9 verse 14, where it says, should we again marry those people who are still continuing in those abominations? So the big problem is a mixing of the holy seed with unclean seed, but it's a religious problem, not an ethnic problem.

If you get that wrong, you misunderstand the whole rest of the book of Ezra. Religious problem, Not an ethnic problem. The root of the problem isn't who your dad is. So, Ezra gets the report. It's not a good report.

It's a report about mixing of the holy seed with the abomination of the nations. And he has this amazing reaction. He tears his inner robe, his outer robe. He plucks hair out of his beard. He plucks hair out of his head, and he sits down astonished.

He's beside himself. We've not really seen Ezra this way. Ezra has seemed to know what he needs to do, but in this case He gets the report and he has this amazing reaction. He just sits down astonished. It's like he doesn't know what to do.

This week we have the continuation. He has sat down astonished until the evening sacrifice. Now we see what he does coming out of that time. And I'm going to lay five things out of this prayer that Ezra offers up to God that I think are essential that we note and We learn and then we figure out what to do with the things that we've learned regarding five things in Ezra's prayer. Let's go to the text praying.

God, I thank You for Your amazing grace and mercy that are on display in this text. I pray that you would use the display of your grace and mercy to make us a rejoicing people today. That we would see with great clarity the depth of our own sin, but also the depth of your grace and mercy even in the face of our many sins. And this would cause us to be a thankful people and a holy people, a people who leave this place rejoicing in our hearts in your goodness. May it be so in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. So if you've got your handout, there are five things on your handout and I've made it a fill in the blank which should make it easy to follow along. Here's the first thing I believe we should note and learn, and then figure out what to do about our text. Number one, what Ezra does, He prays. So if you're filling in the blanks, it's does and prays.

What Ezra does, he prays. It would be tempting to just skip right to the contents of the prayer. Just get on with it. Ezra is praying, let's analyze his prayer and break it down and learn from it. We are going to do that, but first I want to step back and just observe what he does coming out of this time where he has torn his outer and inner garments and plucked hair off his chin and plucked hair off of his head and he sat down astonished.

Now he is doing something. You can analyze the contents of the prayer as if it is a sermon, but that's wrong. It's not a sermon. It is a prayer to God. It is Ezra pouring out his heart to God and pleading with his God.

We know Ezra as a man of action, don't we so far? In chapter 7 verse 6 it says that the king granted all his requests. The king's letter is a response to what Ezra has initiated. The man of action initiated with the king of an empire and made a series of requests. And chapter 7 verse 6 says that all his requests were granted.

Ezra the man of action. Then they are assembling to go on this journey to return to Jerusalem and Judah. Ezra sees there are no Levites and this is unacceptable to Ezra. He doesn't just let things happen. He says, no, we are not leaving without Levites.

So he calls men by name. He takes action to call men by name to say, come here. You men go here and say this to him and bring back Levites, Ezra the man of action. And then he leads them on this hazardous journey, then he delivers the king's messages to all the satraps and the governors. Action, action, action.

So Ezra is a man of action but he's not a man of action first. So we should say, hooray, Ezra is a man of action. Thank God for godly men of action. I wish we had more men of action among us and I start by talking about myself. I wish I was more like what we see in Ezra here who sees things that are unacceptable and he takes action.

But that's not where Ezra starts. Ezra's action is action, not reaction. There is a massive difference between being a man of action who prays and seeks the Lord and comes out of that having received what you need and then going and doing, and being a man of reaction. And just circumstances come and the knee jerk is what you get. You know what I mean when I say knee jerk?

You go to the doctor and he's testing for your reflexes and he's got that little triangular hammer and he goes to tapping on your knee to see if there's a place he can hit at your knee that will make your knee go. Even without you doing anything, it just happens. You're as surprised as the doctor is when your leg shoots out because he hit the right place. That's the knee jerk. A circumstance just brings about an immediate movement and action.

When something disquieting happens to Ezra, When something that happens that makes him so obviously grieve the nature of what has happened and mourn over it to the extent that he would tear his clothes and pluck out hair, he stops and he prays. He stops and he prays. Ezra's knee jerk is prayer. This is beautiful. This is essential to understanding what God wants to teach us in this text.

It's not that Ezra doesn't have knee-jerk reactions, it's that his knee-jerk reaction is prayer. We've already seen this. It's time to go on a 900 mile journey. What do we do? We fast and pray.

He leads in that. He does it and he leads the people in it. So he is not a man of reaction who the hammer hits the knee and the leg flies out. When the hammer hits the knee, Ezra prays. He is a man of action and not of reaction.

And not just prayer, not a dispassionate prayer, okay something has happened, now it's time to pray, blah blah blah blah blah. But impassioned prayer. Ernest, fervent, heart-rending prayer. We have Ezra falling on his knees before God, and spreading out his hands before God to cry out to God. I think the prayer in Ezra chapter 9 is unlike our prayers often.

Where we're checking a box, doing our duty, saying the words, Ezra is dropping to his knees and spreading out his hands and pleading with God. Not just to say the right words to demonstrate that he's thinking biblically. That's not what Ezra chapter 9 is. It's not a recitation of good theology to prove that he's seeing through the Bible grid. Ezra has a relationship with his father, and so when something disquietes him, he goes and he pleads with his father.

He loves his father. He wants to go to his father to pour out his heart before his father, and then he can act. This is exactly like our Lord Jesus. Ezra is being like our Lord Jesus Christ. In Mark chapter 1, Jesus has been preaching and healing and the crowds are eating it up, the crowds are swelling, growing every day.

And in the morning they have to go look for Jesus, His disciples are ready to do. His disciples are ready for action. Let's have some more preaching. Let's have some more healing. That's what the crowds are here for.

Let's do. Jesus is praying. They have to go track him down. And Jesus is pouring out his heart to his father. What we see in Ezra is what we see in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ all throughout the Gospels.

This happens a lot where Jesus, the crowds are there, The opportunity to do has never been more or greater. Infinite opportunity for doing. Jesus goes away. Spends time pouring out his heart before his Father. In Jesus' life in the Gospels, we see this constant mix of prayer and action.

Jesus goes and he gets what he needs. He finds the grace and the strength and the wisdom that he needs for the action, and then he goes and does the action. This is a pattern for us. Brothers and sisters, we are not made to just do independently, as if God would save us and then send us off on his errands? No.

He's made us to be dependent upon him every day. You can't get a week's worth of God today. Then go do all week and then come back and try to get another week's worth of God for the next week. God has designed things, He's made things so that it just doesn't work that way. He's made it so we need to come and pour out our hearts before Him.

We need to be in relationship with Him. Circumstances, our knee-jerk reaction to the circumstances, need not to be an action. Act immediately, but Go pray. Go be with God to get the strength and the grace and the wisdom that you need to then go and act. We're made to have communion with Him and then do.

So this is no condemnation of action. No. Let's have action, but let's have prayer. And communion with God to get what we need so that the action will be the right action. And we'll have the strength to do what we need to do.

Number one, Ezra does what Ezra does, he prays. Number two, now we're getting to the contents of the prayer. We've stepped back, we've observed what he does and he prays. Number two, the confession of who they are and what they have done. So if you're filling in blanks, who they are have done.

Ezra comes and he confesses Ezra comes and he confesses before God who they really are and what they've done. Look at the language he uses. I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to you. I can't even look up to pray. There's too much shame and humiliation in my own heart to even cast my eyes towards heaven." This is verse 6.

Why is Ezra ashamed? He doesn't have a pagan wife. The report that has been brought to him is the holy seed has been mixed. And that means that the people of God have mixed with the people of the world, the people who have not forsaken the world. That's not Ezra.

He doesn't have the pagan wife. It's the leaders and the governors and the priests and the Levites and all the people have undertaken in this. So it is very widespread, but it's not Ezra. He's not guilty of what's in the report. But Ezra isn't a Lone Ranger, and he's not an individual worshiper.

So Ezra understands it's not just me and God, it's God and his people. He's not a Lone Ranger, he's not an individual worshiper, he's a member of a body. So Ezra is praying what Paul is teaching in Romans 12. 1 Corinthians 12. I wrote that down wrong.

Ezra is praying what Paul is teaching in 1 Corinthians 12 which is we are members of one another. We are not individual worshippers. We make up a body. We make up a bride. And so we are members of one another.

There are two things in view here, both very fundamental and of first importance. So I'm going to give you the two things that I think what Ezra is representing when he says I'm too ashamed and humiliated to lift my face, Why he's using personal pronouns here. I think there are two things in view. First, number one, Ezra knows Israel is God's bride. I'm using Israel in the broad sense.

All twelve tribes, all of the people of God. He knows Israel is God's bride. Did you know that from the Old Testament? We know from Ephesians 5 that the church is Jesus' bride. But did you know that that is said in multiple places in Isaiah?

It explicitly said Isaiah 54 and Isaiah 62. You can look these up later, they're beautiful texts. And in Jeremiah, Jeremiah 3 and Jeremiah 31, so here are your two places in Isaiah, Isaiah 54 and Isaiah 62. And then here are your two places in Jeremiah, Jeremiah 3 and Jeremiah 31. It is explicitly said that Israel and Judah are a bride to God.

So when Israel has apostatized, has fallen away, Ezra is intimately connected with that because he is a member of a body, of a bride. And he understands his connection, both with his contemporaries, meaning the people living in that generation who are actually engaging in the sin. Ezra says, I am part of you and you are part of me, and we make up God's bride because God said so through the mouth of Isaiah and Jeremiah. We can't not be connected. We're part of a body.

We're members of one another. Ezra is praying what Paul is teaching in 1 Corinthians 12. So he understands his connection both with his contemporaries, but not just with his contemporaries, also with their forefathers. He begins by talking about the sins of their fathers, and then he says, we've continued in these sins. He says, the sins of our forefathers to this day.

Our forefathers, my contemporaries, me. We form a unit. We are connected to each other. This teaching is furthered in the New Testament in Hebrews 12, surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. This is right after Hebrews 11, which is the great faith chapter which goes all the way back and just starts listing people who had faith.

The writer of Hebrews says, we are standing in that stream. We are members of one another. We are part of a great cloud of witnesses. We are surrounded by them. So this is a great part of what Ezra is praying here.

But secondly, number two, so number one was, Ezra knows Israel is God's bride, and he is part of that body. Number two is, Ezra knows the difference between him and the ones who have taken pagan brides is a small difference of degree, not a difference of fundamental state. So I'm going to say that again. Ezra knows that the difference between him and the ones who are actually guilty of taking the pagan wives is a small difference of degree. Not a difference of fundamental state.

You say, wait a minute. These people have married God haters. You're calling that a small difference of degree? Absolutely! It depends on the scale.

If we are just comparing among ourselves, it looks like a big difference of degree. But if we are comparing to the holiness of God, which is the standard, the standard is not comparing among ourselves. The standard is comparing against the holiness of God. Then our differences of sinfulness, the differences of degree in our sinfulness between the worst and the best is nothing on that scale. Because we are all way down over here on the line and the holy God is way over here.

So Ezra understands that. He doesn't think he is very different at all from the men who have married God haters. Because of the holiness of God, he sees the real scale. He understands the real standard. So he says, I'm in a desperate state just like they are.

All of us are in a desperate state. Friends, this is key to how we approach our brethren. This is key. When we lose the sense of the real scale, that it begins with a holy God and what He is like. And we are comparing to that, not comparing to each other.

When we lose sight of that, and we start to compare to each other, we think the gap between us and our brothers is a lot. And it just leads to pride and it leads to despising real, live Christians. As if we're a different category Because God has shown us some things, or God has brought us to a certain level of maturity. And it makes us despise other people. Other brothers and sisters.

And it's not right. Ezra is not just taking one for the team here. He's not just exaggerating his own sin to say, you know, I'm part of you. You could read it that way. Look at Ezra.

He's just taking one for the team. Isn't that guy great? That's not how Ezra is viewing this at all. Ezra is viewing himself as a sinner in desperate need of the grace and mercy of God. So he's happy to just put himself into that bucket with those who have married God haters because he knows he is not very different from them in the view, in light of the holiness of God.

Turn to Luke 18. Now that I've studied this out of Ezra, I cannot think that Luke 18, when Jesus says what he says, is not thinking of Ezra. The words are so remarkably alike that it seems to me when Jesus is teaching in Luke 18, he has Ezra chapter 9 at the forefront of his mind. Luke 18, I'd like to read 9-14. Also, he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and despised others.

Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other men. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

What is taught in this parable is that the sacrifices of God are a humble and contrite spirit, a broken spirit and a contrite heart. So it's pointing us to humility. The point of the parable isn't that you can live like a tax collector and get away with it if you'll just act humble. It's not commending the state of the tax collector, except in his humility. In other words, the Pharisee has an education and a carefulness of life, at least externally, that the tax collector doesn't have.

The parable doesn't despise the Pharisee's education or his carefulness of life. The problem with him is that he's not a humble man. He sees himself as something totally different than the tax collector when that's not true. He's in the same desperate condition, desperate sinful condition, as the tax collector. And the only way to deal with the desperate sinful condition is to go and plead for the mercy of God to beat your chest.

You should be so humiliated by your condition that you can't even lift your eyes to heaven, and you just acknowledge it. Knowledge it. With Ezra, he has the education and the careful life of the Pharisee, but the humility of the tax collector. All things being equal, that's the best. He's got the virtues of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

I don't mean saving virtues. It's good to have the education of a Pharisee to know the Word of God like a Pharisee would know the Word of God. It's good to have a carefulness of life, to watch and guard over your life like a Pharisee would. But if that education and if that carefulness of your external life just leads you to be proud and to despise people who are actually humble and know their desperate condition, then you are lost. Ezra is a man who has the education and the carefulness of life of the Pharisee and humility, the heart of the tax collector.

Making wrong things right always, always, always starts with an acknowledgement of who we are and what we've done. You want to make wrong things right? You must start there. An Acknowledgement of who you are, a sinner in desperate need of mercy and grace. And what you've done, the depth of your sin.

Till you get a grip on who you are and what you've done, the depth, you can't start to make the wrong things right. It will not do to simply turn over a new leaf and start doing right, because you haven't dealt with that. What's that? Who you were, what you've done. You can't just say, I'm not going to do that anymore and just start doing right, because, hey, hey, what about this?

What about all that sin and guilt against a holy God? Ezra deals with that. Ezra deals with what they've been, what they are, the reality of what they are. Sinners in desperate need of mercy and grace. And he deals with what they've done.

He names it. He gets really specific. He says we're drowning in sin. It's over our head. Our guilt reaches to the heavens.

And this led to our destruction and captivity and God was right to do that. You see Ezra saying that in this prayer? God was right. God was just in everything He did. In fact, he didn't do nearly as much as he would have been just to do.

If he had tripled our agony, he would have been righteous to do it. And more, and more. So that was number two. The confession of who they are and what they have done. Number three, the confession of who God is and what he has done.

So if you're filling in blanks, who God is, has done. And this centers around Grace in verse 8 and mercy in verse 9. God is full of grace and he is full of mercy so he has acted graciously and he has acted in mercy. He is that so He does that. That's what Ezra is praying.

In isolation, grace is magnificent. In isolation, Mercy is magnificent. But when you tie them together, you almost can't find the words to describe the beauty of it. Grace is this. Getting good you don't deserve, getting favor you don't deserve.

You didn't do it, you didn't earn it. You don't deserve it. You get it anyway. That's grace. But when God is involved and when our sin is involved, It's more than that.

It's not just getting good you don't deserve, it's getting good you couldn't deserve. Do you understand the distinction? If you give me a gift, Grace means a gift. If you give me a gift, that's great, I didn't deserve it, I didn't earn it, I didn't ask for it. But if you didn't give it to me and I could just go buy it for myself, it's still grace, I'm still happy to have the gift, but it's not the same as if you give me something that I could never pull together the resources to buy for myself.

That's what it is when we're talking about sin and God. It's not just that we get the good that we don't deserve, it's that we get the good that we couldn't deserve. We could never pull together the resources to give ourselves what God is giving us. Mercy is the opposite of that. It's not getting the bad you do deserve.

It's not getting the punishment you do deserve. In other words, you have worked for it, you have earned it, you do deserve it. The bad, the punishment for your sins, but for some inexplicable reason it's withheld. You got it coming to you, but it's withheld. That's mercy.

When God is the source and He combines them, He combines grace and mercy, this is what this is what you get in place of the eternal condemnation and torment that you've earned. You get treated like the Son He loves. Ephesians 1, accepted in the beloved, that's Jesus, that's the Son He loves. In place of the eternal condemnation, so unending condemnation, and eternal torment, unending torment. In place of that, you get treated like he treats Jesus, the Son that he loves.

A co-equal member of the Trinity. He treats you like that. James chapter 2 verses 10 and 11 speaks, James is making an argument that if you're guilty of one point of the law, you're in violation of all the laws. Guilty of one, broken all. Is James' argument in James chapter 2 verses 10 and 11.

But this is a hypothetical man. The person who has only broken one part of the law and stands condemned for that is just a hypothetical person. No one is that. When you understand the holiness of God and what He requires of man, you realize that every day, every hour, you're breaking commandments. Either because you've done what you shouldn't do, or because you've not done what you should do.

Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 9. So Ezra understands this. He understands that he's not the hypothetical man who has only broken one part of the law and so stands guilty of it all. That he is in desperate need. That his sins are over his head.

And his guilt is to the heavens. Now in Romans chapter 9, Paul explains the phrase in verse 13, you have punished us less than our iniquities deserve. So Ezra 9, 13, Ezra is praying, God, you've punished us so much less than we deserve. In Romans chapter 9, Paul is actually expanding that thought and explaining that thought. I'm going to begin in verse 22 and read through 29.

Romans chapter 9 beginning in verse 22 reading through 29. What if God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory. Even us whom he called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. As he says also in Hosea, I will call them my people who were not my people and her beloved who was not beloved.

And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said of them, You are not my people, There they shall be called, sons of the living God. Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. So You can see how this ties directly into our text in Ezra. In Ezra he's saying, we're a remnant. God, you've saved us as a remnant.

Now continuing in verse 28, For he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because The Lord will make a short work upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before, unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah. Unless the Lord of hosts, that's what the Lord of Sabaoth means, Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us a seed, unless he had left us a remnant, we would have become like Sodom. What happened to Sodom? Total annihilation.

We would have been made like Gomorrah. What happened to Gomorrah? Total annihilation. If God gives us what we deserve, It's Sodom and Gomorrah. It's total annihilation.

So Ezra looks at seventy years in captivity. He looks at Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, sweeping down on Judah and Jerusalem, destroying the city, utterly destroying the temple, and taking them into captivity for 70 years for three generations. And he says, wow, we deserve a lot more than that. Because if God gives us what we deserve, it's total annihilation. Because He is so holy and we are so sinful.

So Ezra in his prayer has identified the mercy of God. The people have been given lighter punishment than they deserve. And he has preserved a remnant. Instead of total annihilation, He has let some remain. And Ezra has identified the grace of God in his prayer.

That God has revived them. Do you see that? We're back in Ezra 9 now. In Ezra 9, In verses 8 and 9 he brings up revival twice. Both in verse 8 he talks about God reviving them, and in verse 9 he talks again about God reviving them.

Revival is God's. Revival isn't people figuring things out. Revival is God reaching into sin and giving grace and mercy. You understand that? You don't schedule revival.

It's good to have a week where there's more gospel preaching and invite your neighbors. Nothing wrong with that, but it's a little presumptuous to call it revival. Revival comes from God. In verses 8 and 9 in our text today, the entire credit for the reviving of the Lord's people is given to God. It's rightly ascribed to God.

Brothers and sisters, how is this not the gospel? How is Ezra chapter 9, what Ezra is praying, not the Gospel. It's about the depth of the sin of man, the desperate condition of man, and it's about the depth of the grace and mercy of God, even in the face of all that sinfulness. How is this not the path of sanctification? So this is true in the Gospel.

We acknowledge that about the Gospel. Depth of sinfulness In the face of a holy God who is merciful and full of grace, anyway, we got that. That's justification. No, it's not just justification, that's sanctification too. That's the rest of the road of your life.

You Continue to be in desperate need of grace and mercy after you've been saved, like before you were saved. You're going to continue to be a sinful person, desperately in need of the grace and mercy of God, and to need Him to reach beyond your sinfulness and pull you forward to the finish line. It is true of justification, but it's every bit as true of sanctification as well. God gets the glory for both. His grace and mercy is at the root of justification.

God pardoning you for your sins and His grace and mercy are at the root of you making any progress towards the finish line. Rejoice in God today. Rejoice in God today. Think about God's grace and His mercy and then think about them being joined together so that in the place of what you deserve, which is Sodom and Gomorrah, total annihilation, unending condemnation, unending torment, you deserve that. But now he treats you like his son who he loves.

Leave rejoicing in God today. That was number three. The confession of who God is and what he has done. Now number four. The contagion of uncleanness.

If you're filling in blanks, contagion, uncleanness. The contagion of uncleanness. We're back to the problem, the defiling nature of God haters. That's why you can't marry people who have not separated themselves from the filth of the nations, who have not renounced the abominations of the nations and what they practice, because it's contagious. Ezra chapter 6 verse 21 calls it the filth of the nations.

Talking about specific activities and actions that the people of these nations continually engage in. Primarily idolatry, Sexual immorality, child sacrifice, filth of the nations, actions. Here in chapter 9 it's been called abominations. In verse 1 and verse 14. And these are symptoms of the disease.

Okay, So there are actions, there are things that you can point to and say that is filth, that's abominable and God has. God has pointed to those things and said that's filth, that's abominable, But these are the symptoms of the disease. The disease is a rejection of God. The disease is a hatred of God and His ways. And then that just works itself out in things that are filthy and abominable.

And they are contagious. Hating God's ways fills a land with impurity from one end to the other. Ezra says that in his prayer. Hating God's ways. Let's set aside profession for a minute and just say it that way.

Many people profess many things, say a lot. The question is, do you hate his ways? Many people who profess Christ practice lawlessness. Are you with me? So there's profession and then there are your ways.

Do your ways say that you love God's ways because you're conformed, or you hate God's ways because you practice lawlessness? We quoted almost every week, Matthew chapter 7, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not, did we not, did we not do stuff? I'll say to you, depart from me, I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness. It's good to have a profession. We should have a profession.

But what do our ways say? That we love His ways or that we hate His ways? In antinomian Christianity, and against law Christianity, we practice lawlessness and we say we hate his ways. And it fills a land with impurity from one end to another. That's when sin explodes when you say that you hate his ways.

Sound familiar? Any of this sound familiar? So God commands us to come out and be separate. In James 1 verse 27 says, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. James says, pure and undefiled religion, colon, here it is.

Visit widows and orphans in their trouble, And keep yourself unspotted from the world. Keep yourself undefiled from the filth of the nations. Keep clear of the abominations of the nations. So The things we are to do are essential. And the things that we are to come out and be separate from are essential.

And this is what Paul is teaching in both Ephesians and Colossians when he says, Put on and gives a list. Put off and give a list. Because these things are interdependent. The things we are to do are dependent on coming out and being separate from these things. The things that we are to come out and be separate from are dependent on the things that God has actually called us to do.

You can undo your doing by not coming out and being separate. Meaning, you can give yourself to doing the things that God has called us to do, but ruin it all, undo your doing, by not separating from the filth of the nations. And you can undo your separation, Meaning you can come out and be separate from the list of bad things. You can undo that by not ever getting to the things that God has called us to do. They are interdependent.

They depend upon one another. Friends, beware of toying with the world. The world is not to be toyed with. You intend it to be a servant. It's your ticket to a cheap thrill.

But it becomes the master. You thought You could have the world as your servant. That it would serve you and you could manage it, but it becomes a master. And you end up a slave. You end up the servant.

And you end up in bondage. And getting unentangled isn't as easy as you thought it would be. Beware of toying with the world. James in James chapter 4 verse 4 says, adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

When you toy with the world, when you think it can be your servant, when you think you can manage it, Think of James 4.4. James calls you an adulterer or an adulteress. That's Old Testament language for idolater. You idolater. You've given something else the place that only God deserves, and you make yourself an enemy of God.

Friendship with the world is enmity with God. That's why in verse 12, back in Ezra chapter 9 verse 12, Ezra quotes the prophets as saying never seek their peace or prosperity. He's actually literally quoting Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 6. In Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 6, Moses is talking about the Moabites and the Ammonites, and he says, never seek their peace or prosperity till the end of time. Never, never, never seek their peace, never seek their prosperity.

Why? Because when God has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, you don't go back and seek the peace and prosperity of darkness. You're not in that kingdom anymore. This shouldn't of course not be interpreted to say we don't share the gospel with unbelievers or anything like that. We're talking about furthering the filth of the nations.

Participating in and furthering and advancing the abominations of the nations. People who have come out of a kingdom of darkness and been graciously, by the grace and mercy of God brought into a king of marvelous light, don't go back there and further that darkness. No way. So that was number four. The contagion of uncleanness.

It is contagious. It spreads so rapidly. It fills the land from one end to the other. Number five, the big question. Here it is, about starting halfway through verse 13 in our text.

Since you our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such deliverance as this, Should we again break your commandments and join in marriage with the people committing these abominations? God, since You haven't given us what we do deserve, and You have given us what we don't deserve, What now? How should we then live? So if you're filling in blanks, it's big question, live. The big question, how should we then live?

That's the title of a famous, very significant Francis Schaeffer book. Where he does the same as what Ezra is doing in this prayer. He says, this is the truth of God. Okay, How should we live? Since God's been so full of mercy, what now?

For the recipients of His mercy. Turn to Romans 12 verse 2. This is our last verses that we'll be looking at. Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Paul says, with the mercies of God in full view, by the mercies of God, in consideration of God's tender mercies towards you, be a living sacrifice. It's your reasonable service. We should be a holy people not to make a name for ourselves but in view of the mercies of God. Stretch out the mercies of God before you and then ask yourself, how should we then live?

If Jesus Christ has purchased pardon for our sins, the depth of our sins. Now what? Having received the grace and the mercy of God, now how should we live? We should live for Him. We were bought with a price.

We are not our own. We have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We should be living sacrifices. So I'm to live a thankful life with the mercy and grace of God in view. I'm to live a holy life.

I'm to be His and not to mingle with unholy seed, not to be polluted by the filth of the nations, by the abominations of the nations. Let me say this, this is very important. If God graciously disciplines us, that's what we have in Ezra 9, right? It was gracious of God to discipline them, not to let them continue down a path of idolatry. If God graciously disciplines us, and we keep falling into the same patterns over and over and over and over again, at some point we are proving that we are just dogs returning to our vomit.

I'm not saying that Christians don't have besetting sins and discouragement with sins that are hard to shake. But I am saying that if it's an endless loop of being disciplined and always coming back to the same old thing with no progress, At some point you have to say, I'm proving something about my state. I'm proving that I'm just a dog returning to my vomit. This is the proverb that Peter is quoting in 2 Peter 2, 22. 2 Peter 2, 22, he's quoting Proverbs 26, 12.

About the nature of dogs, and dogs in the Old Testament always means one thing, unregenerate. Okay, Not born again in the old corrupt state. Dogs and pigs in the Old Testament are the unregenerate, unclean animals. So Ezra is praying, he is interceding for his people. Oh God, let us be a son being trained.

Don't let us be a dog returning to its vomit. This is the heart of Ezra in his prayer. Oh God, let it be that we are a son, a true son. Not a dog anymore, returning to its vomit, but a son who is being trained, who actually learns from the discipline. Applications, I have four.

Application number one, let's be a people of prayer. Before action. Prayer before action. I continue to say and I continue to believe and I continue to be convicted by this statement. Our actions are unfruitful because we are not praying as we should.

We have an unparalleled level of activity in our local church. I thank God for the activity. It's not fruitful enough. So why is it not fruitful enough? We're not praying.

I want to assert that. I want to put a peg in the ground and say, we can be more fruitful in our actions if we pray more, more earnestly, more fervently, like Ezra prays. We can intend to pray, we can talk about praying, we can desire to pray, but until we change our lives, until we change our schedules, will not be what we should be in this category. How do I know? Because I've been talking about it, and I've been desiring it, And I've been intending it, but I haven't changed my life in the last year.

It's wrong. I need to repent. I need to change. I need to stop talking and intending and saying I desire. And I need to change my schedule to accommodate the importance of this And if I do and if you do with me will be more fruitful.

I know it's true number two let's be so clear about us and about God. We're so prone to think wrong thoughts about us. We're so prone to think wrong thoughts about us, and not realize on a daily, hourly basis that we are in desperate need of grace and mercy. It hasn't changed just because we've been saved. We still desperately need the grace and mercy of God.

Our sins are over our heads. Our guilt reaches to the heavens. God is merciful, He is compassionate, but we need to recognize what we are and what we've done. And we need to think, be so clear about God. So there's one thing, thinking wrongly about you, not recognizing that you're in desperate need of the grace and mercy of God.

But here's the other thing, thinking wrong thoughts about God. That he's stingy with mercy and grace. No! He's not stingy with mercy and grace. He's lavish.

When the humble come to him and they're humiliated by who they are and what they've done, and they can't even lift their eyes to heaven, and they beat their breaths and say, God have mercy on me a sinner. He hears them and He sends them home justified. Don't think wrong thoughts about yourself. But don't think wrong thoughts about God either as if He's stingy to those who come to Him in humility, desiring to be pardoned. He's so lavish with His grace and His mercy.

Number three, let's be a peculiar people. Weird. Strange. Let's be living sacrifices because the mercy of God is spread out before us. And now we'll be as weird as we need to be to live the way He says is good.

Lastly, flee to the cross for refuge. Flee to the cross. This is such an interesting ending to a prayer. Look at the end of it. Look at this last verse.

Last verse. Oh Lord God of Israel, you are righteous. For we are left as a remnant as it is this day. Here we are before you in our guilt. No one can stand before you because of this.

Amen. Who ends a prayer that way? Like without even a request for mercy, He is acknowledging their sinfulness and He knows God will do what's right. And He knows God is predisposed to be gracious and to be merciful to a humble people. But see where the text leaves us.

It leaves us with no one being able to stand before Him because He is righteous. That's right there in verse 15. You must know this. You must know that there is only one place to flee. That if you stand on that ground of your own deeds, that you cannot stand before Him.

You must flee the ground you're on, and you must flee to the cross, because that is where Jesus has lived the life that we should have lived and He will trade places with us. So that our sins are placed upon Him and His righteousness is placed upon us. This is the gospel. Let's pray. God, I thank you for this text.

The beauty of your mercy and grace, even though our sins are higher than our heads, we're drowning in them, but you've not let us drown. You've given us a great deliverance through the work of your Son Jesus Christ. We praise you for that. I pray that you would send us from here, a rejoicing people today, made happy by the great exchange. May it be so in Jesus' name, Amen.