Turn with me tonight to the Book of Ezra. The Book of Ezra, right after 1 and 2 Chronicles. While you're turning, let me give just a little bit of background before we read our text here in Ezra 9. In the previous chapter, and in the beginning of this chapter, we find story of how the vessels of copper and silver and gold that were, they were returned to Jerusalem under the house of God from Babylon where they were taken by Nebuchadnezzar after he had destroyed Jerusalem and plundered the temple of God.

And Ezra and the company that was with him left the river Ahava and headed for Jerusalem. And God delivered them, we're told, from the hand of the enemy and those that lay in wait for them. And when they got to Jerusalem, we read that they offer burnt offerings to the Lord, their God. And in verse one of this ninth chapter of Ezra, we read of the priest coming to Ezra and reporting that the people of Israel had not done as they had been commanded, but rather joined with the people of the surrounding heathen nations in their abominations against the God of Israel. And Ezra responded to this news by rending his garments and plucking off, we're told, the hair of his head and his beard. And he was joined in this morning by those who feared God and still trembled at his word. And then we come to our text in Ezra chapter nine, beginning in verse five.

And 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 trespasses.

Our trespass is grown up into 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 spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. And now for a little space, grace hath been shown from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in this holy place, that our God might 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, 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, or the last 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 have filled it from one end to the other with their uncleanness. Now, therefore, give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek peace, 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 has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass, seeing that our God hath punished us less than our iniquities deserve and has given us such great deliverance as this.

I've taken my title for this message from these last words of this text. Such great deliverance. Now, there are a few types here that I'd like to look at and see how they apply to the people of God. Verse six describes how an awakened sinner feels when he begins to see his condition before a holy God. Oh, my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to the modern day. Easy-believism knows nothing about this. There's no shame in their condition. They don't see themselves as vile before a thrice-holy God. And they do not feel that they're all that bad. They're just not as good as they could be. But once you see the infinite holiness of God, even the smallest degree that we see in this life, And you see the utter depth of the filthiness of your sin.

You cry out with Isaiah, woe is me for I am undone. Isaiah said, I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. I am undone. There is no hope for me. I deserve to perish under the fierce wrath of a holy God. I feel I'm rightly condemned and have no hope whatsoever.

Why? Because I have seen the Lord of hosts in all his holiness, that strict unbending holiness by which all men will be measured. And I have found to be wanting. Woe is me, Isaiah said. I have offended the very God in whose breath or whose hand my breath is found.

And we feel that there's no remedy for our condition. We're truly undone, ruined, destroyed, doomed to destruction. You're made to see, as Henry Mahan used to say, it's not just because you stole a watermelon when you were a boy. We're made to see that we didn't just slip up a couple of times, mess up a little bit. But you feel in your soul what is expressed in the second half of this verse six, here in Ezra 9, for our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespass is grown up under the heavens. We have stacked up a mountain range of sins and trespasses against this holy God, so vast that they cannot possibly be forgiven. We find no remedy whatsoever for what ails us. We are truly without hope. God brings his people to that place where you are completely undone.

And let me say this. If you've never come to that place where you are sure of your damnation and you're sure that you deserve it, you need to seriously question whether or not you know the Lord. There's no such thing as Don used to say, walking down the aisle, popping your bubble gum and coming up to the altar. while they're singing, Me and Jesus have a good thing going. There's no such thing. When God shows you what you are, He also shows you that you deserve what's coming. And He also shows you that there's no hope. He leaves you in that condition for a while.

Then verse 7, as if this is not bad enough, verse 7 expands on our dilemma. It says, Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day. And for our iniquities have we, our kings and our priests, been delivered into the hands of the kings of this land, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil and to confusion of face as it is this day. Now, since the day that our father Adam disobeyed God in the garden and committed one trespass, that caused this entire race to fall into sin. The human race has been committing one trespass after another against the God of this world, this holy God that we will one day answer to.

And because of that, God has allowed men to be in bondage for their sin and iniquity, to have what is called in this text confusion of face, trying their best to appease whatever deity it is that they worship, trying their best to appease them by the works of their hand, going so far as to sacrifice their own children.

Think about that for a moment. Think about how much you love your children, how much you loved them when they were first born. And think about the fact that you are so terrified of this God that you supposedly worship, that you're willing to trade your child's life for your salvation that is unimaginable to civilized people and yet history proves it to be true.

But God doesn't leave us in that despair forever because in verse 8 we begin to see just a tiny ray of hope. Begin to think that perhaps not all is eternally lost because we read and now for a little space grace had been shown from the Lord our God, this little space that's spoken of here, it has many different meanings, but I believe one of them is this, that from the time of Adam's fall until now, this gracious God had been showing mercy and grace to undeserving sinners for thousands of years. Our God had been calling and saving his elect people. But compared to the endless ages of eternity, These are a few thousand years or but a little space. And the verse continues, verse 8 continues, to leave us a remnant to escape.

Now in Romans chapter 11, Paul is writing concerning the nation of Israel and God's dealings with them. And he mentions how that Elijah thought he was the only one of his time that believed God. But God let him know that that was definitely not the case. when he said, I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. 7,000 men that were reserved, that were preserved by the grace of God toward them.

And Paul compares that circumstance to the saints of his day when he wrote in verse five of Romans, even so at this present time, and this is true of our day as well, even so at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace, the remnant who were chosen in Christ to be his forever, to leave us a remnant to escape, as Ezra said, to leave us a remnant to escape, but to escape what?

Christ himself gave us the answer to that question. When he asked the Pharisees in Matthew 23, 33, he asked them this question. He said, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, How can you escape the damnation of hell? That is a question that men everywhere ought to be asking. How can we escape the inevitable condemnation that we so rightly deserve because of our disobedience to the commands of a holy God? There is only one way and it is not found in our works.

Paul told Titus this when he wrote in Titus Three, starting in verse five, that salvation is not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our savior, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

David knew how that rightly condemned sinners escape the wrath of a thrice holy guy. When he wrote in Psalm 71 to, he said, deliver me in thy righteousness and caused me to escape. Incline thine ear unto me and save me. His righteousness is the only righteousness whereby men escape the justice and the wrath of a holy God. The writer of Hebrews put it this way. He asked the question, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him?

And the reason this is so great a salvation is that it is flawless, and it was flawlessly executed by the Lord Jesus Christ, when he kept every jot and tittle of the law and then laid down his life as the perfect sacrificial lamb, making perfect atonement for the sins of his people. This is how Paul could write, and ye are complete in him, lacking nothing. Everything provided to the sinner to enable them to escape the just condemnation of God and to stand before the presence of an all-seeing God, and to be viewed, this is miraculous, to be viewed as holy and as righteous as the one whom Peter calls Jesus Christ the righteous. That is truly astounding.

A remnant that had been given grace and mercy through the election of them by God the Father to be preserved in God the Son. This is how God Almighty gives us reviving from our bondage is spoken of here in Isaiah and verse 9 starts with the words. We were bondman Hebrews 2 15 tells us that Christ Jesus has delivered them through who through the fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage. David wrote of this in Psalm 116 verse 16. He said this Oh Lord truly. I am thy servant. I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid. Thou has loosed my bonds. We're now free in the person of and because of the bloody sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on Golgotha's tree.

And verse nine here in Isaiah nine. He says, for we were bondmen, yet our God is 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 and 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. Here is our eternal hope that though we were in bondage, yet our God hath not forsaken us. The promise that we find that God gave Israel in Deuteronomy 31, if you want to turn over there, Deuteronomy 31. God gave this promise to Israel, but it certainly, most certainly can apply to his elect in every age. In Deuteronomy 31 verse six says this, Be strong and of a good courage.

Fear not, nor be afraid for them. For the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. And verse eight of that same chapter. And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee. He will be with thee. He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee. Fear not, Neither be dismayed. And we also find these promises from our God in Isaiah 41, starting in verse 10. He says this, this is our God promising this to his people.

Fear thou not for I am with thee. Be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all that are incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be as nothing, and they that strive with thee shall perish. For I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee.

And the promise that David made to his son Solomon that we find in 1 Chronicles chapter 28 and verse 20 is also ours to claim as well. This is what David said. He said to his son Solomon be strong and of good courage and do it. Fear not nor be dismayed for the Lord thy God even my God will be with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee until thou has finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.

He does not forsake his chosen people but rather As this verse 9 in Ezra 9 states, he hath extended mercy to his elect in Christ Jesus. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy is what God told Moses. It is 100% the prerogative of our God to save who he will and to leave who he will to perish. But thanks be to God, there is an untold number of men and women to whom he has chosen to bestow his mercy upon.

And then skipping to verse 13 of our text here, in Ezra, Ezra 9, 13, we read this. And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hath punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hath given us such deliverance as this.

Now, I don't know about you, but in my younger days, I brought much misery upon myself. My trespasses against the God of this universe were great. And sadly, at that time, I relished in those I hung around with people such as myself that we made a practice of who could see, who could be the most vile, using God's name as a byword, as a cuss word, and having no fear whatsoever of any judgment. But even though I did not know it at that time, there was mercy reserved for me from before the foundation of this world.

This verse says that our God hath punished us less than our iniquities deserve. That is probably the understatement of all time, because our iniquities call for eternal suffering in the pit of the dam, forever to be dying and never dead, begging for a death that never comes, suffering agonies that are beyond anything of a human imagination. But how is it that a God who is angry with the wicked every day, we're told, a God who promises that the soul that sinneth, it shall die, a God who will by no means clear the guilty, how is it that he has punished us less than our iniquities deserve? Only one way. Because another was punished much more than he deserved.

Because our iniquities were laid upon Him. Because by His stripes we are healed. Because of the wrath and the chastisement that was laid upon Him, we derive our peace. Because of what we read in Psalm 103.8, David wrote this, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, overflowing mercy, abundant mercy. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. He has not dealt with us after our sins because he dealt with another after our sins. Our gracious substitute stood in our place and received the terrible wrath that was due our trespass.

He became the eternal Passover lamb. He whose blood, when applied to the doorposts and the lintel of the elect, causes a wrath of God to pass over them, to whom the blood of Christ has been applied, the elect of God, the chosen from the foundation of the world.

Micah wrote this. Turn over here to Micah. It's near the end of the Old Testament, right after Elbediah and Jonah. As Don used to say, I want you to see this. This is one of my favorite passages in all of scripture. Talking about the mercy of our God, he has not dealt with us after our sins. Have you found it? Micah chapter seven. Micah chapter seven, starting in verse 18. I love this text.

Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever, and this is why, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again. He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities. and thou shalt cast all their sins into the depth of the sea. Thou will perform the truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which I have sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. Then the last words of this 13th verse in Ezra.

After telling us that our God has punished us less than our iniquities deserve, it says this and has given us Such deliverance is this, this word deliverance is the act of rescuing one from bondage or danger, the state of being saved from a dangerous or painful experience. And we know from the warnings in God's word that there is no more painful experience than that which is suffered by the damned in hell. Now, this is such a tremendous picture of the deliverance of God And we also find that deliverance pictured in the book of Genesis, the story of Joseph, how that they despised Joseph, his brothers, sold him into slavery, and how he rose to become the second most powerful man in Egypt, which enabled him to be the deliverer of his brethren. And Joseph declares this to his brethren in Genesis 45, 7.

And this is all true of our Lord Jesus Christ to us. And God sent me before you. to preserve you of posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. Our Lord Jesus Christ was ordained in the far ages of eternity past to be the great deliverer of his chosen people, to be that lamb slain from the foundation of the world as he is described in Revelation 13 8. The Lord Jesus said of himself in Luke 4 18. He said the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has appointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised.

This is a quote. from the book of Isaiah written long before our Lord ever came to this earth in a human body. David also wrote of this great deliverance of our God when he wrote in Psalm 86 13. He said this for great is our mercy toward me and now has delivered my soul from the lowest hell.

I thought about this a long time if we for even a couple of seconds could see into the pit of the damned, I expect two things would happen. One, you probably would have to be institutionalized. I would say the horror of that sight would be more than a human mind could comprehend or endure. But I also think that the other thing that would occur would be we would be probably unable to function the rest of our life because we would spend our lives with our face in the dust thanking God for his deliverance.

But our Lord didn't just preach deliverance. He actually provided that deliverance to his people. The lost man or woman cannot provide that deliverance for themselves. through the works of their hands. Only the Lamb of God can provide the atonement required to give that great deliverance to chosen sinners, to redeem them to our God. And may we ever rejoice in Him and His finished work, fully, fully accomplished on our behalf, which provides us, His people, with so great a deliverance. Let's look to the Lord in prayer.