Okay, now this evening we're
looking at what I think in the book of Ezra is the high point. This is a high point in the book
of Ezra. If you're looking at a mountain
range, and often When I travel out west, I look at a mountain
range, and oftentimes I see a high peak. I see a high place, and
I say, well, that's the chief mountain in that range. And as
you look at the Book of Ezra, you see many, many high peaks,
lows, and valleys, but this is the center, the high point. in this study in the book of
Ezra chapter 9 where we read this great prayer of this servant
of the Lord. So I'm simply entitling the message
the prayer of Ezra, the prayer of Ezra. That's what this chapter
gives us, the prayer of Ezra, how he laments the sin of the
people, and I love the way he includes himself. He doesn't
say, those rotten fellows, those old Benjamites and Judahites,
and he said, no, our sin. We have sinned. He identifies
with the people. Now, I love reading the prayer
of the Lord's people that's found in the Word of God. You remember
from 1 Samuel 2, all the way back when we started our study
in 1 Samuel. Hannah prayed, you remember in
her prayer, 1 Samuel 2, she said, I rejoice in thy salvation. And a lot of times when we read
these prayers of believers, they are not so much asking for things,
but praising the Lord. In 1 Kings 8, We find another prayer that we
studied. We find the prayer of Solomon.
Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple. Remember that
great prayer? And he said, there is no God
like thee in heaven above or earth beneath. Praising the sovereignty
of God, the majestic greatness of our God. And then you remember
from 1 Kings 18, the prayer of Elijah. Remember? when he faced
down those 450 prophets of Baal, remember Elijah prayed 63 words. Let it be known this day that
thou art God in Israel and the fire from heaven fell and consumed
the sacrifice, remember? Also, not only in Ezra 9, but
as I pointed out recently in Daniel chapter 9, verse 5, Daniel,
the prophet of God, prayed this, we have sinned and have committed
iniquities To the Lord our God belongeth mercy and forgiveness. There's a confession of sin,
and then the praising of God for his mercy and forgiveness.
And then, Lord willing, when we go through the book of Nehemiah,
in Nehemiah chapter nine, the priest there, the priest of God
prayed, and I love this statement, thou art a God ready to pardon. He's always been that way. Thou
art a God ready to pardon, based upon, not our goodness, not our
work, but based upon His mercy. Thou art a God ready to pardon,
based upon salvation that has been accomplished through the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, having said that, in Ezra
chapter 9, verse 1, down through verse 4, now when these things
were done, the princes came to me saying, This is these, when
Ezra came to Jerusalem with excitement and rejoicing in his heart, the
princes came and said to him, the people of Israel and the
priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from
the people of the land, and they're doing according to their abominations.
Now, what got them in trouble 70 years ago? The same thing. And now we find the people doing
the same thing again. The Hittites, Canaanites, the
Perizzites, the Jebusites, and all these others. They've taken
and they've intermarried with them, as it says in verse 2,
so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with these people,
those of the land, yea, the hand of the princes and the rulers
have been chief in this trespass. Ezra came to Jerusalem with excitement,
didn't he? He was anxious to get there.
All those many months, four months that he traveled, I can imagine
his anticipation of the joy and the excitement and all this. And then they came and they had
all those different sacrifices, praising the Lord and worshiping
the Lord. And then everything was going
along just fine and just smooth, and something happened. Somebody
came and gave him some bad news. But soon his joy was turned to
grief and great sorrow of heart. Ezra was told or informed that
the priest and the Levites and the people of Israel were right
back with the same pattern of rebellion against God, doing
the same thing that brought the wrath of God upon them 70 years
earlier. And he said, the rulers and the
princes, verse two, they were the chief in this offense against
God. We're all, all of us, we are
the chief offenders, are we not? Remember the apostle Paul included
himself as a chief offender. This is a faithful saying, worthy
of all acceptation, that the Lord Jesus Christ became sinners,
and he said, I'm the chief." When I read that there, the rulers
have been chief in this past, I thought of that verse when
the Apostle Paul called him the chief of sinners. And don't you consider yourself
the chief of sinners? I certainly consider myself.
I don't look at others and say, well, that man's got to be the
chief of sinners. I look right back here. There's no one as
rotten as me. And I think that's the opinion
all the Lord's people have of themselves. Apostle Paul said,
O wretched man that I am. The Lord our God had strictly
forbidden the children of Israel to marry with those pagans in
the land because he knew the end of that. They would get mixed
up with their idolatry and with their ways and exactly what God
told them not to do. That's exactly what they did. Now, notice how the effect of
this grabs hold of Ezra verse three. When I heard this thing,
he said, I can't believe what I'm hearing. When I heard this
thing, I rent my garment and my mantle and I plucked off The
hair of my head. Now, have you ever been so grieved
that you just grab your hair and start pulling it out? I don't
know anything about that kind of sorrow. And I plucked off
my beard. I mean, this man was in great
grief and great sorrow. I plucked off my hair, off my
head, and my beard, and I plucked off my beard, and I sat down
astonished, absolutely stunned. Done. Ezra's grief when he hears
of his terrible sin against God. Ezra demonstrates holy zeal and
holy sorrow over sin. Dreadful, dreadful distresses
over sin. Shouldn't we all be grieved when
we sin against God as Ezra was when we think about it? Sin,
what makes it so horrible, is that it is against God. I wish I had that kind of sorrow
over my sin against God that I would call upon Him in such
a way. Those to whom God had shown great
mercy, They showed in return great ingratitude, and in return
showed little, if any, regard for the command and word of the
Lord. And they were not ignorant in this thing. They couldn't
claim and say, well, you know, I just didn't know. They knew
and did it anyway. They were not ignorant in this
thing. They willfully rebelled and disobeyed God. after all that they had been
through, right back to the same problem. Now look at verse four. Then were assembled unto me every
one that trembled at the words of the Lord, the Lord God of
Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried
away, and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice. There were some with Ezra, who
did reverence the word of the Lord, who did tremble before
the Lord, and were with Ezra astonished, or stunned and astonished
at this transgression against God. Now, hold your place there. When I read that word, astonished,
did it bring any scripture to your mind? Turn to Isaiah 52.
Isaiah 52. We see this word used again in
regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 52, 13, Behold, My servant
shall deal prudently, or shall prosper. He shall be exalted,
and extolled, and be very high, as many as were astonished at
Thee. His visage so marred, more than
any man in his form, more than the sons of men, This one who
was so high became so low, so much so that he was made sin
for us. Isn't that something to be astonished
about, amazed about? The Lord Jesus Christ dying in
our room and in our stead. The very thing that brought the
wrath of God upon their fathers, they were doing the same thing
over again. And I thought about this. Their
fathers had sinned. What did their fathers produce?
More sinners. Sinners can only produce sinners. We had three children. We've
got two grandchildren. They're all sinners. Sinners
can only produce sinners. All the way down generations.
And sinners can do nothing Sinners can do nothing but sin. That's what sinners do. They
sin. To perform righteousness is impossible. And if we deny this, we call
God a liar. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. If we say we have
not sinned, we make God a liar. God a liar. Now, Is there any hope for sinners
like us? Thank God there is. In verse
5 down to verse 15, the end of the chapter, Ezra Ezra intercedes
for this people. It reminds me of this. Remember
now, Ezra is the priest of God. Ezra also is a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ as our mediator and our intercessor. Ezra now
intercedes for this people, much like our blessed Lord does intercede
for us, right? Do you need an intercessor right
now? Amen. The Lord would not hear one prayer
we ever prayed unless we had an intercessor, the Lord Jesus
Christ, an advocate. Who shall anything to the charge
of God's elect? Answer, who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also, who also maketh, maketh,
maketh right now intercession for us. Our worship unto God
is only acceptable unto Him, because we have a mediator, because
we have an intercessor. Our repentance is only acceptable
unto Him, Because we have a mediator, an advocate, an intercessor for
us. When we repent, we need to repent
of our repentance because it's so frail and so weak. But thank God the Lord Jesus
Christ ever lived to intercede for us. I jotted this verse down,
Hebrews 9, 24. For Christ had not entered into
the holy places made with hand, which are figures of the truth,
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God
for us. Now, right now, to appear in
the presence of God for us. Now, Let's take a look at this
prayer here in Ezra chapter 9 verse 5. I've got four or five points
here. We'll not look at every verse
individually, but the main points here will hit. Verse 5, and at
the evening sacrifice. Now here we see the time. The
time is involved when he rises up from his state of being totally
stunned and astonished And he rises from his grief at the time
of the evening sacrifice. Now that right there ought to
tell us something. What is the evening sacrifice about? It's
all about the sacrifice of a substitute, every lamb, bullock, goat that
we read of in the Old Testament that's offered by the priest
of God, all pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of
God that takes away our sins. At the time of the evening sacrifice,
or at the evening sacrifice, I rose up from my heaviness,
my affliction, and I rent my garment and my mantle, fell upon
my knees." Now, is it important the position of the body when
we pray? Sometimes we read in Scripture
of those who stood. Sometimes we read in Scripture
of those who were on their knees. Sometimes we read of those who
were laid out flat. It really doesn't matter the
position of the body, it's the attitude of the heart. It's the
state of the heart. I fell upon my knees and I spread
out my hands unto the Lord my God. Now, the time of Ezra's
prayer was at the evening sacrifice. Now, according to those who I
read, who I trust well informed, about the ninth hour, about the
ninth hour of the day. That would have been about 3
p.m. This is the exact time that the
Scripture said that the Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself
as a sacrifice for sin for us. Remember, according to the Scripture,
Christ died for us in Mark 15, 34. And at the ninth hour, same
hour. Now, is that a coincidence? Absolutely
not. The Lord is pointing out here
the fact that our prayers are only acceptable unto God through
the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the ninth hour,
the Lord Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Well, we know the answer to that,
don't we? Psalm 22 says God is holy. God is holy, and the Lord Jesus
was made sin. We only have forgiveness of sin. God can only be a God ready to
pardon, and we only have forgiveness of sin because of the sacrifice
of Christ. He is our Passover Lamb. He is our atonement for our sin. Every Old Testament blood sacrifice
pointed to the great atonement The Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, when He had by Himself purged our sin, when He had by
Himself purged our sin, well that's saying a lot, isn't it?
He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Our Lord
Jesus Christ appeared once in the end of the age to put away
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. All our prayers are prayed in
His name upon His sacrifice, upon the shedding of His blood,
and we are only blessed and forgiven because of the sacrifice the
Lord Jesus Christ made for us. he ever lived to intercede for
us. And, you know, one of the interesting
things that I read about when we study through the Revelation
is the revelation of Jesus Christ. And all through the book of Revelation,
I've said this to you before, you remember how many times the
Lord Jesus Christ is said, it's said of Him, or He is described
as a sacrificial lamb? He's set forth in that revelation
in the character of a lamb, the Lamb of God. 21 times, behold
the Lamb of God, and we are only blessed because of that evening
sacrifice. That was Ezra's hope and that
is our hope. Now here's the second thing I
see here in verse 6 and verse 7 is a confession of sin. A confession of sin. Look over
in chapter 10 verse 1. Now when Ezra had prayed and
when he had confessed, what did he confess? He confessed, we've
sinned against God. We have sinned against God. Our great trespass, he calls
it in verse 13. Now, look at verse 6. He said,
Oh my God, I am not proud, I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed and I'm blush even
to lift up my face to thee. You remember the man in the temple,
the publican, would not so much lift up his eyes to heaven, he
was ashamed and he blushed, didn't he? Smote upon his breast and
said, God, be merciful to me, thee sinner. Don't you feel that
way about your sin? I'm ashamed and blushed to lift
up my face to thee, my God. For our iniquities are increased
over our head. Our trespasses has grown up into
the heavens. Just keep growing, growing and
growing and growing. Now, a couple things here in
verse 6 and 7. First thing is this. Sin is a
shameful thing. Sin is a shameful thing. When Adam sinned against God,
what did he do? Boy, he wasn't proud, was he?
He was ashamed. He tried to hide himself. And
then he tried to cover himself. I'm ashamed and blushed to even
look upon the face of my God." That's a place where true repentance
takes us, down in the dust. Sin is a shameful thing because
it's against God. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned. David prayed this way, didn't he? Psalm 51. when he
said, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy love and kindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercy. But he said
this in Psalm 51 verse four or five, against thee and thee only
have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when you speak and clear when you judge. You know
what he's saying there? Lord, if you condemn me forever,
you'd be doing the right thing. That's when the Lord has given
you a true repentant heart, knowing in your heart if God damned you,
He'd be doing right. He'd be doing the right thing.
You see, we're not deserving of God's mercy. We'll never confess
our sins before the Lord until we are ashamed that we've sinned
against God. We'll never beg for mercy until
we know that we deserve none. Long as you think you deserve
mercy, you'll never cry for mercy. God be merciful to me, the sinner.
Jacob said this, Lord, I'm not worthy the least of thy mercies.
And the publican would not lift up his eyes, but he cried for
mercy, didn't he? Why? Why did he cry for mercy? Because he was ashamed. He knew
he was a sinner. The second thing, sin is an enormous,
enormous thing. For our iniquities are increased
over our head, our trespasses is grown up into the heavens.
We're in a great trespass for our iniquities. We're on great
trespass under this day, verse seven, for our iniquities are
against God. Sin is an enormous thing. It's
a large, big thing. Our iniquities have increased
and grown grown up to the heavens. What does that teach us? That
teaches us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. It teaches us that there's none
righteous, no not one. We read in Ecclesiastes 7.20,
there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth
not. Does that include you? Well,
if you're living upon the earth, it does. There's not a just man
upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. There's none
righteous, no, not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. No, not one. Sin is a shameful thing. Sin is an enormous thing. And
the third thing we see in verse seven, sin deserves Punishment, doesn't it? Since
the days of our fathers have we been in great trespass unto
this day, for our iniquities have we, our kings, our priests,
have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the land,
to the sword, to the captivity, to the spoil, and the confusion
of face, as it is this day. Sin brings confusion of face. Sin deserves Punishment. The wages of sin is death. Thank
God there is a second part to that verse. But the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ezekiel 18 says
the soul that sinneth is going to die. Shall surely die. Why does sin merit his wrath?
Because God is too holy to look upon sin with favor. It says
down in verse 15 of Ezra 9, O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous,
for we remain yet exhaped as it is this day. Behold, we are
before thee in our trespasses, and we cannot stand. before thee because of this. We read just a moment ago, Lord
if thou shouldest mark our iniquities, who shall stand? Not this sinner
and none will. We cannot stand before God Almighty
justified in ourselves or justified in our work because we are sinners. Our best deeds are vanity. Our
best righteousness God said is filthy rags away with it. The
ungodly shall not stand in his sight. If the Lord charges our
sin to us, we cannot stand. But thank God, it says over there
in Psalm 130. Let me just read it to you again. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If thy Lord
shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Ah, but there
is forgiveness with thee. that thou may be feared or worshiped."
We can only stand before God justified, made righteous in
Christ who redeemed us from all our sin. Blessed is that man
to whom the Lord, remember, will not impute sin. Now, here's the third thing,
verse 8 and 9. And now, for a little space,
grace. Boy, I love that word. Now, for
a little while, grace hath been showed from the Lord our God. Now, who is, or where is the
fountain of grace? from the Lord our God. You know,
He's called the God of all grace. The Father of all mercy. He's called the God of hope.
Now for a little space, grace hath been showed from the Lord
our God. Boy, isn't that a miracle? Here
we're wretched sinners and the Lord shows us grace, grace, giving
us what we do not deserve. To leave us a remnant to escape,
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. Now
there's four things that's mentioned there in verse 8. God's grace has been revealed. Grace hath been showed from the
Lord our God. He is a fountainhead of all grace. He's a God of all grace. Where
sin abounded, grace does much more abound. There's just one
reason the Lord would choose to show grace and mercy to any
sinner, and that one reason is found in Himself. That one reason
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Of His fullness have all we received
grace for grace. That's grace because of grace.
The only reason for grace is grace. And it's for His namesake. My little children, John writes,
your sins are forgiven for His namesake. I write unto you, little
children, because your sins are forgiven for His name's sake.
We are to love one another and to forgive one another, even
as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us. Thank God for His
grace. Through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, Paul declared, we shall be saved. Through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, Peter declared, we shall be saved.
And then our Lord says this to the Apostle, for you know the
grace of our God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through
His poverty might be made rich. Oh, the richness of His grace.
Grace hath been showed forth. Aren't you glad for that? Grace
hath been showed forth from the Lord our God. Here's the second
thing I want us to see. Notice carefully here the fruit
of this grace. To leave us a remnant to escape. Did you see that? A remnant,
a remnant. What does that remind you of?
Well, it reminds me of this scripture. Romans 11 verse 5 and 6. Even so at this time, there is
a remnant, a remnant according to the election of grace. God
has a remnant. that he's going to show grace
unto. God has a remnant unto which
he's going to be gracious and show himself gracious. And then
secondly, he says here, to give us a nail. To give us a nail. And I love the, in his holy place. But notice the marginal reference,
a pin. that it's constant and sure above,
a nail. He nailed it down, a constant
and sure above, a holy place. Now notice the marginal reference
on that is found in In Isaiah 22, you see that there? Isaiah
22. And you remember from our study
in Isaiah 22, let me read this verse to you. And the key of
the house of David will lay upon his shoulder, and he shall open
and none shall shut. He shall shut and none shall
open. Talking about the greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place. Now you can hang
everything on that nail. You can hang your whole soul
on that nail. You can hang all of your salvation
on that nail. That nail is Christ. That sure
place is Christ. I will fasten him as a nail in
a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his
Father's house. And we know this from reading
the scripture, the Lord Jesus Christ is the sure foundation
upon which we rest. Isaiah 55 talks about the sure
mercies of David, those covenant mercies we have in the Lord Jesus
Christ. They're certain and sure, aren't
they? Of the greater David, David said, God had made with me an
everlasting covenant ordered in all things and is sure. And
then he says, this grace has been showed us to give us a remnant
to give us a nail, a sure foundation in Christ our holy place, and
then that our God may enlighten our eyes. Now what do blind men
need? They need their eyes opened.
They need their eyes opened. And God commands our eyes to
be opened. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our heart to give us the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God that shines in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, salvation comes by the
revelation of God. And I know this, it takes God
to reveal God. He hid these things from the
wise and prudent and revealed them unto babe. It takes God
to reveal God. He enlightens our mind, our eyes. He enlightened our understanding
that we may see who he is. And then this, fourthly, he mentioned
to give us a little reviving. a little reviving in our bondage."
The bondage of our sin. The bondage of our sin to give
us reviving. For we were bondmen, verse 9,
yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended
mercy. There's grace and there's mercy. He's extended mercy. He's given
us a little reviving in our bondage. The Lord will not forsake His
people We read this many times in the Scripture, don't we? He
said, I will never leave thee, I'll never forsake you. You know
why He'll never forsake us? Because He forsook Christ. Now
think about that. Because He forsook Him, being
made sin for us, and because the Lord put away our sin, the
Lord will never, no never, He said, I will never leave you,
I'll never forsake you. That's good news, isn't it? Because
the Lord Jesus Christ paid our debt to God's law and justice,
therefore God has extended mercy. He's given us grace and he's
extended unto us mercy in the sight of these pagan kings of
Persia. To give us reviving, he's extended
us mercy. I love to think about mercy.
It's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us. And we can say with Jacob, I
quoted earlier, we're not worthy of the least of His mercies and
of His truth. But the Lord delights to show mercy. He said, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, but let us not forget
Sovereign mercy, yes, but he said, I will have mercy. I will have mercy on whom I will. He extends mercy unto us. Mercy is extended. We know it
is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, Jeremiah
writes. Now, here's the last thing I
want us to look at, verse 13. After all that come upon us for
our deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that our God
has punished us less." Now, He punished the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, He punished us less than our iniquities deserve and
has given us such deliverance, such deliverance as this. Now, we read in Psalm 103, David
writes this, He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded
us according to our iniquities. Thank God He hasn't. For as the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward
them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath He removed our transgression from us. He
removed our transgression from us. God has graciously dealt
with our sin in our substitute. He has shown mercy to us, but
the Lord Jesus Christ, the wrath of God was poured out upon Him
without any mixture of mercy. He had the full brunt, the full
wrath of God for our sin that was laid upon Him. And because
of that, what do we have? Deliverance. We have deliverance. He has given us such deliverance
as this. The Lord Jesus Christ has delivered
us from the wrath to come, because the Lord Jesus Christ took our
sin, took our guilt, and what goes with sin and guilt? Wrath! Judgment! He died for our sin
according to Scripture. He took all the wrath due to
our sin, and there is none left for us. There is therefore now
no condemnation to those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 11, 26 describes our Deliverer this way, And so all Israel shall
be saved, as it is written, There shall come out of Zion THE Deliverer,
that's capital D, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away
their sin. He is the Savior who really saves. He is the Redeemer who really
redeems. He is the Deliverer who delivers
us from all our sin. The Apostle Paul writes about
it this way, "...in whom we have redemption, that is, deliverance,
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of His grace." According. I love that word, according to
the riches of His grace. Christ is our Savior. Call His
name Jesus. who shall save us, he shall save
his people from their sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
deliverer who delivers for us. Oftentimes people advertise,
we deliver. We have delivery free for you.
We will deliver to you to entice you to buy. Where the Lord Jesus
Christ is the only Deliverer who delivers us from all our
sin and judgment and gives us salvation as a free gift of His
grace. Think about this. He delivered
us from The curse of the law being made a curse for us. He
delivered us from our sins being made sin for us. He delivered
us from darkness because Christ is our light. He said, I'm the
light of the world. He delivered us from death. He
is our resurrection and our life. He delivered us from the devil. He spoiled principalities and
powers by Himself. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. He is the
seed of woman that crushed the serpent's head. He delivered
us from sin, from darkness, from the law, from death, from the
devil, and from the wrath to come. 1 Thessalonians verse 10,
He delivered us from the wrath to come. The Apostle Paul writes this,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body
of sin, this body of death? Who is going to deliver me? Is
there a deliverer? The answer comes back, O I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with my mind I
serve the law of God, but with the flesh, I'm still a sinner. I'm still a sinner. I have a
new nature in Christ, but I have that old nature, too, as well.