Alright, go with me if you would
back to Ezra chapter 9. Ezra chapter 9, we have two more
chapters to look at in the book of Ezra. And so far we have clearly seen
God's goodness to His people. very clearly seeing God's goodness
to His people, His continual goodness to His people. His people sinned against Him. They ruined themselves before
Him. They ended up bound in captivity
to the enemies of Him. And He delivered them out. He saved them. That's what He
did. He saved them. He restored them. He rebuilt them. He enriched
them. And in the end, He notified them
of everything He'd done for them. And what did they do in return?
After He saved them, He pulled them out. and rebuilt them and enriched
them and revived them. What did they do in return? Verse
1 says, Now when these things were done, the princes came to
me, Ezra is speaking, saying, The people of Israel and the
priest and the Levites have not separated themselves from the
people of the lands. doing according to their abominations,
even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites,
the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and
for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves
with the people of those lands. Yea, the hand of the princes
and rulers hath been chief in this trespass." After all of
God's goodness to His people, and I want to stress the fact
that we're talking about His people. You know, bring this up in today's
world. We're talking about His people.
His chosen people. After all of God's goodness to
His people, what did His people do in return? They sinned against
Him. They took daughters for their
sons and sons for their daughters from the heathen nations that
were the enemies of the true and living God. This is what
He said. This was His commandment and
His warning. It's a commandment of warning
for spiritual reasons. And we would be wise to heed
this warning in reality. We would be very wise to literally
heed this warning. We would be wise to teach our
children to heed this warning. The Lord has blessed us with
many children in this congregation. And we would be wise to teach
our children to heed this. Physically speaking, the Lord
gave it for spiritual reasons. But physically speaking, this
is a great commandment, a great warning. Now, He commanded this
in many places. We read it at the end of the
chapter. The end of this chapter said, this is what He commanded. Alright, let's read it in Exodus
34. Turn with me over there to Exodus
34. Exodus 34 verse 10, and he said, Behold, I make a
covenant before all thy people. I will do marvels such as have
not been done in all the earth nor in any nation and all the
people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord. For
it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. Observe thou that
which I command thee this day. Behold, I drive out before thee
the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite,
and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, whither thou goest,
lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. He said, this
is the warning, lest you make a covenant with the enemies of
the true and living God, and it becomes a snare to you. He
said in verse 13, but when you get there, you shall destroy
their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves. For
thou shalt worship no other God. For the Lord, whose name is jealous,
is a jealous God. lest thou make a covenant with
the inhabitants of the land, and they go a-whoring after their
gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods. And one call thee, and
thou eat of his sacrifice. And thou take of their daughters
unto thy sons, and their daughters go a-whoring after the gods,
and make thy sons go a-whoring after their gods." Spiritually
speaking, this represents works and grace. And he said, don't
mix the two. When you get there, do not mix
the two. When it comes to salvation, God
said, it's my work alone. It's my blood alone. It's my
sacrifice alone. It's grace alone. My worship
alone. The worship of the work of man's
hands, man's idolatry and man's glory, God said He has no part
with me. You cannot serve God and mammon,
so don't even try to do it. Don't do it. That's the spiritual
reason. Physically speaking, God warned,
do not be unequally yoked. Because their sons will end up
influencing your daughters. And their daughters will end
up influencing your sons. They will end up following after
and worshiping their idols. That was the warning of the Lord. Marry a believer. When you get
old enough to get married, marry a believer. Marry someone who
bows and worships the true and living God. So important, that's
just so important. Well, in kindness, in grace,
in mercy, God delivered His people from their bondage. And what
did they do? This is what He told them, but what did they
do? Go back to our text. Verse 1, it says, Now when these
things were done, The princes came to me saying, the people
of Israel and the priest and the Levites have not separated
themselves from the people of the lands. doing according to
their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the
Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the
Egyptians, the Amorites. For they have taken up their
daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy
seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands.
Yea, the hand of the princes and rulers have been chief in
this trespass." They all did it. And he said, the princes
and the rulers were the chief ones in the trespass. Verse three, Ezra said, and when
I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle and plucked
off the hair of my head and of my beard and sat down astonished. Then were assembled unto me every
one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because
of the transgression of those that had been carried away. And
I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice." Now, let's listen
to Ezra. Ezra is about to say some things
and pray some things. And let's listen to Ezra as a
type of Christ. Alright, what have we done? The
Lord has saved us. Those of us that He's called
to Himself. He's called us out of darkness. He's called us out
of religion and called us out of idolatry and called us out
of these things. He's revealed the truth to us
and revealed what He's done for us. What have we done in return? Sin against Him. That's what
we've done. Alright, so let's listen to Ezra.
as the one who rent himself for his people, the one whose head bore the thorns
and whose beard was ripped out. Listen to the one who made intercession
for his people at the evening sacrifice, as the evening sacrifice. Let's read these words as the
words of our Savior, Christ Himself advocating for us, pleading for
us before the throne of judgment. All right, verse 5. And at the
evening sacrifice, I arose from my heaviness. All right, they
did it. He said, I arose from my heaviness
in the garden of Gethsemane. Our Lord took upon himself the
weight. This is so freeing to God's people. Do you carry the weight? Do you
carry the burden? Do you carry the. Yes. All right. In the garden of Gethsemane,
the Lord took upon himself the weight He took the burden. He took the heaviness. He took
the guilt. He took all of it. Just like that illustration of
that woman who got on that trolley car holding that heavy suitcase,
standing there. There was no seats left. She's
holding on to this pole and this heavy suitcase is just all over
the place. And finally a man said, Ma'am,
if you'll set that down, it'll make it to the same place you're
going. Well, God's people can cast it all on Him. He carried
the weight. He carried the heaviness, that
bondage, that burden, that heaviness of all the sin of all His people. He told His disciples, it's so
heavy and it's so sorrowful, I could almost die from it right
now. He said, I sorrow even unto death. He bore the weight and
the burden and the sorrow of that sin all the way to the cross
of His own sacrifice. He willingly laid the garment
of His righteousness and His holiness aside. He rent it from Himself as a
picture of the fact that His righteousness, which we got, As a picture of the fact that
his righteousness remained perfectly intact, his actual garment was
not ripped. It was remained intact, but he
rent it from himself to take upon him the garment
of sin for his people. He slipped on that garment of
all their sin. And he said in verse 5, at the
evening sacrifice, I arose up from my heaviness and having
rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees. He said,
I arose from my heaviness, I rent my garment and my mantle, I fell
upon my knees. Our Lord said in John 10, I lay
down my life. No man takes my life from me.
I lay it down of myself. Our Lord pictured that at His
Lord's Supper when He was handing out that bread. It says, He took
bread and He break it. No one else broke it, He break
it. Verse five, at the evening sacrifice,
I rose up from my heaviness and having rent my garment and my
mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto
the Lord my God and said, oh my God, I am ashamed and blush
to lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities. are increased over our head,
and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens." There is not
a more glorious thought than the thought of this right here.
He took our sins and our sorrows and He made them His very own. He didn't say, Their iniquities
are increased over my head. He said our, our. What's mine is theirs because
what's theirs is mine. Turn with me if you would to
Psalm 40. Psalm 40, these are the words
of our Lord Jesus Christ speaking to His Father. And if we would
read the Psalms as the words of Christ, the Psalms would open
up to us. But He's speaking to His Father.
Psalm 40, verse 6, He said, Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. Man kept sacrificing and trying
to make sacrifices to God and people are still trying to do
it. And the father told the son, that's not good enough. I don't
desire that, that's not satisfying me. Sacrifice and offering thou
didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin offering
hast thou not required. None of it was good enough. Verse
seven. Then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book it's
written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, Thou knowest. I have not hid Thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared Thy faithfulness
and Thy salvation. I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness
and Thy truth from the great congregation. No man knows the
Father but the Son, and no man knows the Son but the Father
and whoever they reveal of the other one. And Christ said, I've
revealed it all. Verse 11, He said, withhold not
thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness
and thy truth continually preserve me. Why is He saying that? It's
because He said in verse 12, innumerable evils have compassed
me about. Mine iniquities. have taken hold
upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me." He said,
it's my iniquity. I have taken it to myself. I've
taken ownership of it. And it's going to bring me down
into the grave. Look with me at Acts chapter 8. Acts 8, verse 30. And Philip ran thither to him,
and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understandest
thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except
some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him. The place of the Scripture which
he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter,
and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his
mouth in his humiliation. His judgment was taken away.
And who shall declare his generation, for his life is taken from the
earth? And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee of whom speak at the prophet, this of
himself or of some other man. Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, this is all concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Every bit of that. It's all concerning
Christ and what He did for His people. It's all concerning the
substitution. It's all concerning the intercession. It's all concerning the sacrifice
He made to cover the sin of His people. All of it. It points
to, it pictures Christ. All of it. So go back to Ezra
9. Verse five says, at the evening
sacrifice, I rose up from my heaviness, and having rent my
garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out
my hands unto the Lord my God, and said, oh my God, I'm ashamed
and blushed to lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities
are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up
unto the heavens. Since the days of our fathers
have we been in great trespass unto this day. And for our iniquities
have we, our kings and our priests been delivered into the hand
of the kings of the lands to the sword, to captivity and to
a spoil and to confusion of face as it is this day. And now for
a little space, grace hath been showed from the Lord our God
to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a nail in his
holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes and give us
a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen, Yet our
God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy
unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving,
to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations
thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. And
now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken
thy commandments, which thou hast commanded by the servants
the prophets saying, The land unto which you go to possess
it is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the
lands, with their abominations, which you have filled it from
one end to another with their uncleanness. Now therefore give
not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters
unto your sons. nor seek their peace or their
wealth forever, that you may be strong and eat the good of
the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children
forever. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds
and for our great trespass, seeing that Thou our God has punished
us less than our iniquities deserve, and has given us such deliverance
as this, should we again break Thy commandments, and join in
affinity with the people of these abominations, Wouldest not Thou
be angry with us till Thou hast consumed us, so that there should
be no remnant nor escaping? O Lord God of Israel, Thou art
righteous, for we remain yet escaped as it is this day. Behold,
we are before Thee in our trespass, for we cannot stand before Thee
because of this." Now again, to see the intercession of our
Lord in this, look with me at Psalm 22. This is Christ speaking. Psalm 22 verse 1 says, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from
helping me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry
in the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in the night season,
and am not silent, but thou art holy. But you're holy. Ezra cried out
to God for mercy and forgiveness, but he ended it by saying, oh
Lord God of Israel, you're righteous. Whatever you do, you're righteous.
That's what David said. I acknowledge my sin, my transgressions
ever before me. and whatever your judgment is
against me is right." Whatever you do, it's right. He said, we cannot stand before
you in our sin. You're righteous, you're too
holy. David said in Psalm 130, if you should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who shall stand? But, he said, there is forgiveness
with thee. There's forgiveness. John said,
my little children, These things write I unto you, that you sin
not. This is the encouragement, the
exhortation to all of us. Sin not. Shall we continue in
sin? God forbid. These things write
I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. That's
wonderful news. That is wonderful news. Now go
back to Ezra just for a moment. Let's see what he said in verse
8. Verse 8 says, Now for a little
space grace hath been showed from the Lord our God to leave
us a remnant to escape. and to give us a nail in his
holy place that our God may lighten our eyes and give us a little
reviving in our bondage. That sounds so wonderful to me.
Here we are in our bondage. We're going to remain in the
bondage of this flesh and the bondage of sin until he finally
delivers us. And that sounds so refreshing
to me. It sounds so amazing to me. A little reviving in the midst
of our bondage. God's grace is amazing. It really is amazing that He
would be so gracious to repeat offenders like us. It's one thing
if we did it, And He delivered us and said don't do it again
and we didn't do it again. But we are repeat offenders. That's all we are. Repeat offenders. And His grace is so amazing. It is continually amazing. All news concerning us is bad
news. It's all disappointing news.
All news concerning Christ is the gospel. It's all good news,
every bit of it. In spite of us, in spite of what
we continually are, grace, God's favor, God's kindness, God's
free gift has been shown to leave us a remnant to escape. God has
a people that he calls a remnant. And that is music to his people's
ears. And the reason is because a remnant
is the part that you can't use. That's the part that is not good
for anything. It's not worth anything. That's
the leftover scrap that you just throw away. God's people know that that's
what they are and that's all they're good for. But Christ
said, that's who I came to save. I came to save the remnant. That's who He makes intercession
for. Verse 8 says, Now for a little space grace hath been showed
from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape and to
give us a nail in His holy place. What is that nail? It's Christ
Himself. That means salvation The salvation of His people is
an ordered and sure thing, a nail in His holy place. Zechariah
10 says, Out of Him came forth the corner. He's the chief cornerstone. Out of Him, the nail. He is that
nail. Verse 8 says that our God may
lighten our eyes, that He may quicken us, that He may reveal
Christ to us. Open our eyes to see the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
In seeing Him, verse 8 says, that He may give us a little
reviving in our bondage. When we see Him, we get a little
reviving in our bondage. When we truly do see Him, last
Sunday morning we read in 2 Corinthians 4, where it says we're troubled
on every side, yet not distressed. Why is that? It's because we get to see Christ
every now and then. That's why. It says we're perplexed, but we're not in despair. Why
is that? It's because we get to see Christ
every now and then. We are persecuted but not forsaken. We're cast down but we're not
destroyed. And the reason is because we
are always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. Verse 9 right here says, We were
bondmen, yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage. but
hath extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia
to give us a reviving." That means a preservation of life. It means sustenance. To set up
the house of our God and to repair the desolations thereof and to
give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. Isaiah said, salvation
will he appoint for walls. Our Lord has given us reviving in our bondage. He has
given us this quickening, this bondage that we're still
carrying around with us. He's given us life in that bondage. And this is what my prayer is. If God did this for us, I did
not do this for myself and I did not do this for you. I never
have and I never will. I will never be able to give
you a reviving in the midst of your bondage. God has to do it. If God will do it by His Spirit,
then my prayer is that He will do it more. My prayer, my sincere
prayer, I beg Him with everything that's going on here. as we make
this move into this next place. My urgent prayer to Him is that
as He has sent a reviving to these cold, dead bodies of sin,
may He send more reviving. May He revive us again, and may
He send a reviving into this place. May He send a revival. I sincerely pray that may He
give this quickening to many, many people. I pray for men and
women's souls. I am deeply concerned for the
souls in this city. I really am. I want the people
of Kingsport to be saved. Just like Paul said, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. My prayer is that God chose them
from the foundation of the world and that He will call them by
the declaration of His Word through His Spirit, quicken their eyes,
lighten their eyes, and give this reviving in the midst of
their bondage. I pray for this city that they
may come to know this truth. I am so grateful and I know you
are so grateful for the reviving that he's given to us. Let's
pray that same quickening for those that we love, those that
we're close to. Let's beg God. Ezra interceded
to God. That means he prayed to God on
behalf of the people of Israel. Let's pray to God on behalf of
the people here. Let's beg God for them. Let's
make intercession to God on behalf of our souls, our children's
souls, our family souls, our friends' souls, our co-workers'
souls. And here's the reason why, all
right? I'm done, but here's the reason why. Chapter 10 verse
1 says, 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 Shechaniah 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. This is why we should beg our
God to quicken the souls of this city. It's because there's hope. As long as the Gospel is being
preached, as long as the Word is being preached, as long as
Christ is being preached, there's hope. There is hope. Now I want to read, I'll just
read these two scriptures to you, they're too hard to find,
and I want to close. But Hosea 6 says, this is Hosea
6 verses 1 and 2, It says, come, let us return unto the Lord for
he hath torn and he will heal us. Let's remember that the next
time we're torn. Remember he hath torn and he
will heal us. He hath smitten and he will bind
us up. After two days will He revive
us, and the third day He will raise us up. What do you think
that's referencing? He is going to revive us. He's
going to raise us up and we shall live in His sight. He is going
to. He will revive His people. He
is going to revive all of His people. So, because He promised
to do it, Let's sincerely pray what Habakkuk prayed. This is
Habakkuk 3, verses 1 and 2. It says, A prayer of Habakkuk,
the prophet of Shigionoth, O LORD, I have heard Thy speech and was
afraid, Oh Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years. In
the midst of the years, make known. In wrath, remember mercy. Lord, send a revival to us. You've
done it before. You can do it again. He can do
it again. Send a revival. Revive us again. Fill each heart
with our love. May each soul be rekindled with
fire from above. Hallelujah. Thine the glory.
Hallelujah. Amen. We just sung that Sunday,
but we have to sing it again. Let's all stand together.