Let us turn in our Bibles tonight
to the book of Ezra one more time. Ezra chapter 9. And I believe next Wednesday
maybe will be the last time that I bring a message from Ezra.
We'll look in chapter 10. But tonight, chapter 9. And the title of the message
is Ezra's Astonishment and Prayer. Ezra's astonishment and prayer. The chapter begins with these
words, now when these things were done. That, of course, has
reference to what we saw at the end of chapter eight, when Ezra,
along with those who came with him from Babylon to Jerusalem,
gave the silver and the gold vessels and the gold and silver
that they had brought, one writer said, a king's ransom. A king's
ransom they had brought from Babylon, and they waited out
in the temple, showing that all things were done decently and
in order. And then Ezra received some very
sad news. Not only sad news, but very alarming
news. We saw back in chapter seven,
if you want to turn back there to verse six, just a moment. The scripture says this about
Ezra. Chapter seven and verse six.
This Ezra went up from Babylon. He was a ready scribe in the
law of Moses. That means that he was well,
very well instructed in the Law of Moses and able to teach others
the Law of Moses. Not only was he an able scribe,
but we know that he was considered somewhat as an envoy of the King
of Persia. That is, Darius had given him
his command to go back and to rebuild or to build the house
of the Lord and also to worship God there. But now, when he comes
back this second time, the house of the Lord had been built, he
received some very alarming, very sad news. And it came to
him from the princes, that is from some of the leaders of the
nation of Israel. Notice as we read on here in
verse one, The princess came to me saying, the people of Israel
and the priests 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. Some very alarming Some very
sad news was given unto him, we are told here, by the princes. Obviously, they had tried to
right this wrong, but were not able. They thought that Ezra,
being a ready scribe and also somewhat of an envoy of the king
of Persia that he would be able to take care of this awful matter. The people have not separated
themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to
their abominations. The Israelites had intermarried
with those of the pagan idolatrous nations that are listed here.
Now, four of these six nations that we just read here in chapter
nine and verse one, were part of those seven nations that God
cast out of the land of Canaan. I want you to look back, keep
your places here, but turn back to Deuteronomy. And you know
this book was written just before they entered into the land of
Canaan. But let's look back to Deuteronomy
chapter seven. Deuteronomy chapter 7, When the Lord thy God shall bring
thee into the land, whither thou goest to possess it, and hath
cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, the Girgashites,
and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, the Perizzites, and the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall
deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly
destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with
them nor show mercy unto them. Neither shalt thou make marriages
with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give
unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
And notice this, for they will turn away thy son from following
me, that they may serve other gods. So will the anger of the
Lord be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly. But thus
shall you deal with them. You shall destroy their altars
and break down their images and cut down their groves and burn
their graven images with fire. For thou, now notice this, for
thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy
God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself. above all
people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not
set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in
number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people.
But because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the
oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand, that is, out of Egypt, and redeemed
you out of the house of bondmen. from the hand of Pharaoh, king
of Egypt. Now, what God said would happen,
happened. They did not destroy the nations
that they were commanded to destroy. And before long, they were intermarrying
with these pagan nations. And before long, they were worshiping
their gods. They were burning incense and
offering sacrifices to these false and pagan gods. In other words, what God said
would happen, happened. That always is true, isn't it?
When God tells us something's going to happen, it's going to
happen. And God told the nation of Israel there before they went
into the land of Canaan, though they were special people, a chosen
people, God said, don't take the daughters of those nations
to marry your sons or give your daughters to their sons in marriage,
because when you do, it's going to turn their hearts away from
me. And that happened. And we see
that all through the history of the Old Testament until God
caused Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to come and take them
away. First, the king of Assyria took
the 10 tribes away because of their idolatry, and then the
king of Babylon came and took the nation of Judah into captivity
for 70 years. They were now returning. They
had just returned a few years before this. They had just returned
and rebuilt the temple of the Lord. And now, Ezra's told, they're
doing the same thing again. They're doing the same thing.
And notice it wasn't just one class or one group of the people,
but notice what he was told there in verse one, the people of Israel,
that is a nation, the common people, if I might use that term,
the people of Israel, and the priests and the kings, the rulers. And notice it was not only widespread,
but the princes and the rulers, they were chief in doing this.
Verse two. 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.
Yay. Now notice the hand of the princes and rulers have been
chief in this trespass. In other words, those who should
have been a good example, set a good example, the leaders, And I think about the leader
of our nation, setting a good example. And I told my wife just
the other day, I've never known a president to take God's name
like this president does. Have you? That's just a minor
thing, of course, but it was not minor either. But of all
the things, set an example to the people. No. We see in this case, the princes,
the rulers, they've been chief in this sin. Those who should
have been a good example, parents should set a good example before
their children. We know that. Those who should
have been good examples in their obedience were bad examples by
their disobedience. What's sad and what alarming
news did Ezra receive? Two things were told. First,
his astonishment, verses three and four. And when I heard this
saying, I rent my garment and my mantle and plucked off the
hair of my head and of my beard and sat down astonished, astoned,
but that's 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." The astonishment
of Ezra upon hearing this news. We're told of three things that
he did, and all of these things, they show his inward His inward
remorse, these are outward things, of course, but they show his
inward pain over the news that he had heard. We're told that
he ran his garments, he tore his garments, which was a sign
of repentance. And of course, God tells in the
book of Job, rend your hearts. It's easy to rend your garment.
But what God looks upon is the heart. But these are outward
tokens of his inward remorse and turmoil. He rend his garments,
he took off his hair, plucking off his hair, and he
sat down. He sat down, all outward signs
of repentance, which we know has to be a work of the heart.
And it appears that he sat down in a very public place. I would
imagine, though we're not told this exactly, but I would imagine
he sat down in front of the house of the Lord, in the street, in
the dirt. He sat down, astonished. Astonished that this
was going on. After all they had experienced,
their captivity, their plunder, their spoil, their war, their
famines, everything that they had experienced because of the
sin of idolatry. And here we go again. Here we
go again. But notice who was gathered to
him. everyone that trembled. Notice this in verse four. Then
were assembled unto him everyone that trembled at the words of
the God of Israel. Here he is, his mantle is rent,
his clothes are rent, his hair's taken off, whatever that man,
I'm not sure. I know he didn't shave his head
because he was a ready scribe in the law of God and the law
forbid them shaving their beards and shaving their heads. I don't
know if he pulled his hair out or not, but I know he was in
great turmoil, great astonishment. And he was a spectacle. That's
all you can say. I mean, think about it. What
else could you say? He's a spectacle. Before all
the people there in Jerusalem, there he is. But then everyone, the scripture
says, everyone that trembled at the words of the God of Israel,
they gathered, they assembled unto him. This word trembled,
as I looked at this passage over the last several days, reminded
me of another man that we're told trembled. He was a priest,
his name was Eli, back in 1 Samuel, I think it's chapter four. But
that's when the Ark of the Covenant, his two sons, his two sons had carried the
Ark of the Covenant out into the battle and they were killed,
his two sons were killed. And the Ark of the Covenant was
stolen. And the scripture says that this priest, Eli, was an
old man and he was a very heavy man and he was sat in on a log
And this is what gets your attention or does mine. He trembled for
the ark of God. And when they, the messenger
gave him the news, your sons were killed. He accepted that. But when he heard that the ark
of God had been taken, that's when he fell over backwards and
broke his deck. His daughter-in-law, the wife
of, I believe it was Hophni, remember she was giving birth
to a child and she named him Ichabod. The glory of the Lord
has departed from Israel. His heart trembled. But here
we're told that everyone among the Jews there in Jerusalem who
who believe the word of God, they trembled at the words of
the God of Israel. You know, God's people tremble.
God's people reverence the word of God. We don't argue with the
scriptures, do we? If God says it, that's so. There's no argument. There's
no debate. If God says it, We know that's
true. We tremble. We reverence the
Word of God, the written Word of God. God's people do. So-called professing Christians
who have no real relationship with God, they just pick and
choose out of this book what they will believe and what they
will not believe. You know? Well, I believe that's
inspired, but I don't believe this over here is inspired. And
so we, people like that, they make themselves an arbiter, don't
they, of the word of God. They are the judge. But God's
people, I say again, God's people tremble at the word of the Lord.
We respect, we reverence God's words. Now here's the second
part of the message and The second thing that we see, and that is
the prayer of Ezra begins in verse five and runs through verse
15. And we'll just go through this
prayer. And I want to make mention of several, several things. First of all, I want us to say
that Ezra confessed the way to God in verse five. We read, now he didn't say this,
when I say he confessed it, he confessed the way to God by his
actions, is what I mean. At the end of verse four said,
he sat there astonished until the evening sacrifice. 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." Ezra, you say, well, preacher, what do you mean
he confessed the way to God? The evening sacrifice. The evening sacrifice. Just like Elijah when he prayed
on Mount Carmel. You know, the law of God required
two lambs every day to be sacrificed, one in the morning, one in the
evening. And the Lord Jesus Christ was pictured by those lambs and
he died in the evening at three o'clock in the afternoon. So that's the time here. And
so I say, Ezra confessed the way to God. He prayed at the
time of the evening sacrifice. He sat there in the dirt until
the time of the evening sacrifice. Now the Bible, The Bible doesn't
teach that we ought to have set times of prayer. I know some
religions do that, you know. At a certain time, they pull
out their prayer mat and kneel down no matter where they are
and face a certain direction. And our God is everywhere. We don't have to face the east,
the west, the north, the south. He's all around us. In Him, we
live, we move, we have our being. But the Bible doesn't teach that
we ought to have set times of prayer, but it does teach this,
that no matter when we pray, there's only one way to the Father. Doesn't matter if we pray at
three o'clock in the afternoon, 10 o'clock at night, or six in
the morning, there's only one way to approach unto God, make
our requests known unto God, in the name of Christ. Whatsoever
you shall ask the Father in my name. In other words, we trust
in him. He's the mediator between us
and God. And for our prayer to ascend
up to the Father, it must go through him. He must take our
prayers, as we see in the book of Revelation. He must take our
prayers and probably skim off a bunch of trash. And then with
His incense, that is His holiness, our prayer ascends unto the Father. And we have this assurance that
if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. The second thing I see is Ezra
confessed his relationship to the Lord. Notice that again in
verse five. It says, I fell upon my knees
and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God. The Lord my God. He confessed his relationship
to the Lord by calling the Lord his God, my God. Yes, he is the God of all the
earth. Yes, he is the true and living
God. Yes, he is the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the only way that
he is my God, that he is your God. He told Thomas, I send unto
my father and to your father and unto my God and your God. It is through faith in his only
begotten son in whom he's well pleased that we are accepted. You know, there are a few examples
in the Old Testament where believers called God their father. There
are a few examples, not many. God reserved that, didn't he?
Until after the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, gave himself
as a sacrifice for the sins of his people, ascended back to
the Father's right hand, poured out the Holy Spirit on the day
of Pentecost, and God has sent forth his Spirit into our hearts,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father, the Holy Spirit." That term,
Father, you know, my Father, my God, that was reserved for
us who live after Pentecost, mainly. There are a few examples,
but mainly those saints in the Old Testament when they address
the Lord. didn't call him father. They
said, my God, or the Lord. Notice this third thing Ezra
confessed the nation sins in verses six and seven, and said,
Oh, my God, I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed. And blush to lift
up my face to the my God. For our iniquities are increased
over our head, and our trespasses grown up unto the heavens. 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 the lands, to the sword, to the captivity, and to a spoil,
and to confusion of face, as it is this day." Did you notice
how Ezra identified himself with the nation? He said, our sins. He wasn't guilty of this sin,
was he? But he was a part of that nation. And two times he
refers as he confesses the sin, the iniquities, our sins, our
iniquities. They were all complicit in this,
the kings, the priests, the common people, and they had all suffered. They'd all suffered through war
and captivity. They'd gone into foreign country. The fourth thing, Ezra confessed
God's grace. verses 8 and 9, and now for a
little space, just for a short time, just recently, in other
words, 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,
and that refers to their own houses. because the wall of Jerusalem
had not yet been built. That will be Nehemiah who follows,
his book follows. And now, oh Lord, what shall
we say after this? For we have forsaken thy commandments. You notice he confesses God's
grace. We didn't deserve this. That's
what grace is, isn't it? It is unmerited favor. For by grace are you saved through
faith. Someone said, I just don't believe
I deserve it. Of course you don't. And if you
keep thinking that you have to deserve or merit salvation, you
will never find peace. Until by the grace of God, you're
brought to see that salvation is 100% by grace. God's grace. God's goodness. We've received
grace from the God of all grace. God had allowed them to return
from captivity, to build the house of the Lord, and to have
their own governor, Zerubbabel. That's that nail in a sure place.
Number five, Ezra confessed This may sound strange, but I believe
Ezra confessed, our mouth is shut. Our mouth is shut. Verses 10 through 14. And now,
O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken
thy commandments. which thou hast commanded by
thy servants the prophets saying the land under 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 another with their uncleanness. That uncleanness there has to
do with sexual immorality, sexual sins, adultery, fornication,
homosexuality, and incest. God, as I said, these nations
that God deep possessed of the land that God commanded Israel
to destroy, they had filled the land from one end to the other
with their uncleanness, with their wickedness. 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 has
come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass, seeing
that thou, our God, has punished us less, thou has punished us
less, that our iniquities deserve and have 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? I say, in those
words what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter 3 when he said,
Now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty before God. That's what it is. We're guilty. Our mouths are
shut after your goodness and your mercy to us, and here we
are again, following in the same sin. But notice the last thing. Ezra
confessed the nation was in God's hand. Verse 15, 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 trespasses, for we cannot stand before thee because of
this. In other words, Lord God, thou
art righteous, thou art holy, and we are guilty, and we can
only cast ourselves upon thy mercy. Mercy for the undeserving,
thy mercy for the ill-deserving, Oh Lord, and don't you love this
verse of scripture? Let Israel hope in the Lord.
We sang that hymn just a few minutes ago. Take the name of
Jesus with you. Hope of earth, hope of earth,
and joy of heaven. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. May the Lord bless this word
to all of us here tonight. What a prayer. What a prayer
that we have here, Ezra's prayer. All right, Bill, if you will,
lead us in a hymn.