The reading is on the second
page of your hymn sheets. It is in Ezra chapter 10 and
the first 12 verses. Ezra chapter 10, the first 12
verses. And perhaps it might be a good
idea before we have the reading to actually give you the setting
here 538 BC Zerubbabel and Joshua they
led a small party back from Babylon back to Palestine and then two
years later the temple was started then after a delay 20 years later
it was finished Then after that, after the temple is finished,
about 38 years after that, we have the story of the book of
Esther. Then another 20 years after that,
Ezra comes and this is where we are here. So we're 20 years
after the events in Esther. Ezra comes and he finds that
Israel has gone back from the Lord. They've joined themselves
with the nations and idols of the land, but specifically they
have married then the wives of those of that land and joined
them together and he saw them so departed to the same sins
for which the Lord took them away in the first place and this
is the context here that Ezra is addressing this and so as
we read this portion this is the matter being addressed and
you will notice on the front of your sheets that it is in
the verse 2 the words yet now there is hope and in Israel concerning
this thing that we want to bring before you but this is the setting
where we are in the history of Israel and with Ezra then coming
before the people so we read from verse one Now when Ezra
had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down
before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel
a very great congregation of men and women and children, for
the people wept very sore. And Shekaniah the son of Jehiel,
one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed
against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of
the land, Yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now therefore let us make a covenant
with our God, to put away all the wives and such as are born
of them, according to the counsel of my Lord, and of those that
tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according
to the law. Arise, for this matter belongeth
unto thee, we also will be with thee, be of good courage, and
do it. Then arose Ezra, and made the
chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they
should do according to this word, and they swear. Then Ezra rose
up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of
Johanan the son of Eliashib. And when he came thither, he
did eat no bread nor drink water, for he mourned because of the
transgression of them that had been carried away. And they made
proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children
of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto
Jerusalem, and that whosoever would not come within three days,
according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his
substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the
congregation of those that had been carried away. Then all the
men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem
within three days. It was the ninth month on the
twentieth day of the month, and all the people sat in the street
of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for
the great rain. And Ezra the priest stood up
and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives,
to increase the trespass of Israel. Now therefore make confession
unto the Lord God of your fathers, and do his pleasure, and separate
yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange
winds.' Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud
voice, As thou hast said, so must we do." Thus far the reading
of God's holy word. And the word then that is before
us is in verse 2, and just the words on the front of your sheet
now yet now there is hope yet now there is hope Ezra and the
people that were with him really realized what they had done wrong,
how they had transgressed, and it would have been very easy
for them to just give up, just feel that they so failed, they'd
just done what their fathers had done, and say that there
was no hope. But they didn't. They said that
there was hope. and it's so vital for us while
there is life that there is hope and and i do really pray that
the word this morning might be a ray of hope and encouragement
to to some of you there Yet there is hope, and you know what thing
it is that is concerning you, what is burdening you. Now, how
this matter came to me, I often go for a walk in the woods near
our home, and many times I desire that as I walk I might meditate
upon the Word and have that subject and prophet to be able to bring
for the ministry. And the other day I went to the
woods in that way and had spent some three quarters of an hour
walking, probably only got another quarter of an hour, 20 minutes
and I would have been back home. And I suddenly realized that
my mind had been on all sorts of other things. I hadn't been
meditating upon the Lord. I hadn't thought on Him. And
I thought this time is wasted. I've had this time and it's just
gone. And now it is too late. And I
thought, no, there is yet hope. There is still, there is still
some time left. And then my mind went to you
dear friends at the pilgrim home. And I thought, how many of you
may have got right through many years of your life, right through
the eventide of your life. And it may be that some of you,
even as yet, do not really know the Lord. that you've gone all
this way, you might have had an outward form of religion,
you might have attended the house of God, but not truly known the
Lord, known your sins forgiven, known a real union with the Lord. And you might think, here is
all my life gone, it's wasted, it's too late, there is no hope,
Now, of course, we always exhort our congregation to seek the
Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. But you know, there's one case
in scripture, and one only, that none might presume, and that
none might despair. We have the dying thief, even
on a dying bed, as it were, or hanging upon the tree. And we
see the change. We read that both of them, both
of those thieves at one time, they cast the same mocking deriding
in the face of our Lord. But then we have one changed,
and one different. And how is that evidence? It's
reproving his fellow and then turning to the Lord. Lord remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And we see such a difference
right at the last. How easy it would be in a last
sickness on a deathbed and to look past all your life You know,
my dear mother was so blessed in the last week or two of her
life, dying of cancer, blind. She'd attended the place of worship
all her days. She brought us children up in
the fear of the Lord, but she knew she did not yet have the
secret of the Lord, the blessing of the Lord. And I used to creep
along the corridor in the night and hear her pleading with the
Lord, open the ark and take me in. And we saw when the Lord
blessed her, the peace and the love and that which she was given. But one of the things she said,
we've gone the wrong way. We've all gone the wrong way.
and I believe she viewed her life and she'd had those outward
things and many things stumbling in religion perhaps and never
really truly known the Lord there is a set time to favour Zion
there's a set time when the Lord blesses the time of our birth
naturally is set by God the time of our death is set by God but
the time when he passes by us when we're in our blood and bids
us live that is set by God as well and there may be those of
you there in the home like my dear mother all her days brought
up under the sound of the truth but realize as she faces death
as the end is near that it is not right with her soul that
things need to be put right and the cries to the lord And so
if there are any of you in that position, even tied of life,
yet now there is hope. You might say, but all my hope
is taken away. Well, think of the case of the
Apostle Paul, when they're in the ship, they're going to Rome,
and they'd had the storm and toss to and fro and up and down
in the Mediterranean and we read that then there was all hope
of being saved taken away and then the angel of the Lord stood
with Paul that night and assured him that they would all be saved
the ship would be lost but they would be saved but they got that
low that the apostle says all hope of being saved was taken
away and maybe with one of you that is the case all hope of
being saved is taken away and yet the word of our text says
yet now there is hope why is there because there is more hope
of a living dog. Better is a living dog than a
dead lion. Where there is life there is
hope, and the dying thief proved it, Paul proved it, may you prove
it, May we each prove it, that we not say of Israel that they
said at one time, there is now no hope. Now maybe some of you,
you do know the Lord, you know you do, but you've backslidden,
you've been like the children of Israel and gone back from
the Lord. being joined with the world and
with idols and it hasn't proffered you at all and you look back
over your life you know I find as I get older the memory those
memories childhood memories past offenses pain my eyes or you
join with the psalmist in Psalm 25 remember not against me the
sins of my youth how they would and they do pain one soul we
need that forgiveness and pardon we know all of those sins since
conversion since the Lord gave us light that the Lord bring
us to repentance and bring us to his dear feet and that we
have matters all are settled it's a blessed thing to come
to the close of our lives that all is settled and my soul approves
it well to clearly feel and see and know the Lord has blotted
out my many transgressions where that is so, he brings one in
confession, in repentance, in humility, and brings to his feet,
like the children of Israel here, it's a beautiful pattern, isn't
it? where they are not denying it they're not making out it's
better deceiving themselves or trying to deceive the Lord we
can't do that they wanted it to be right and we need it to
be right we must each stand before the judgment seat of Christ and
may it be like with dear Peter the Lord saying I prayed for
thee that thy faith fail not and may our faith be so clearly
seen The Lord has put away our sin. He has suffered in our place. His blood has been shed, not
by works and deeds of righteousness that we have done. If any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous. There is hope for sinners, and
any of you, under conviction of it, or bowed down under a
sense of your sinnership and By His departures from the Lord
there is hope, there is a way back, there is a way at His foot,
a footstool in humility and in pleading the precious blood of
Christ alone. Let no other plea be there but
Christ alone, Christ and Him crucified. a dear Saviour who
died to put away our sin, rose again for our justification,
and to stand before the throne in His righteousness, not our
own. Now there's another way of looking
at this that I'd like to bring before you, and again, applied
to you in the home, in the situation that you are in. It may be that
there's been a rift between you and a child or a grandchild,
or even between those of you in the home, and you might think
it's too late to put that right. Well, may this word be with you
yet there now there is hope and it works two ways now are there
were any of you in the home there and you have got a person a son
a daughter a granddaughter a grandson whoever it is that's trying to
bridge the gap, trying to reconcile with you, and you won't have
anything to do with it. You won't hear them, you won't
allow them to come and see you, you won't speak to them. Dear
friends, may the Lord soften your hearts, and you feel in
this yet now there is hope, and that there be a reconciliation
while there is life left, that before you come to the end, that
that matter is settled. May you do that. And it may be
that on the other side, instead of one trying to approach you
and you are refusing her, maybe you need to approach someone
else. Maybe you need to come to them and confess before them
and say, look, I feel I may have done wrong, or whatever I have
done wrong, please forgive me, but let us make up before I leave
this light, before it is too late. so i leave this thought
with you yet now there is hope and reading on in that verse
of course it says yet now there is hope in israel even in the
church of god even in people's god's people and it says concerning
this thing may that thought remain with you as well whatever your
thing is there is hope concerning this thing So may this word be
suitable and applied to you and a help and a blessing today. I really pray that it will be
so. I believe that Satan has tried
in many, many ways to stop the message going out this morning.
And I do pray that it might go forth and bring forth fruit to
his honor and glory.