WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:04.480 Well tonight I want to talk to you about one of those dirty preacher words. 00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:08.720 Starts with an R, ends with a Lent. 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:13.599 Tonight I'm gonna tell you to repent. 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:23.760 The reality is that repentance is perennially one of the unpopular tenets of the Christian faith, and yet it's the first word of Jesus' gospel. 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:30.160 Jesus appears on the scene in Mark chapter 1, and the first thing that we hear from his lips repent and believe in the gospel. 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:54.719 And a Christian is someone who has followed Jesus' injunction, has repented of his sins, come to faith in Jesus Christ, and has experienced the reality that repentance is nothing less than the pathway to genuine joy, deep and abiding peace with God, cleansing and washing from our sins, and a satisfaction in knowing the living God. 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:05.920 Really, repentance is it shouldn't surprise us that it is the pathway to joy because in Christ's economy all human tuitions are turned upside down. 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:11.120 In the kingdom of Christ, the way to riches is through poverty. 00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:13.599 The way to satisfaction is to hunger. 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:16.640 The way to comfort is to mourn. 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:19.599 And so the way to joy is through repentance. 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:22.000 In the kingdom of Christ, the way up is down. 00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:27.599 And Ezra chapter 9 is a picture of genuine repentance and the results that follow. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:30.799 Tonight I want to walk you through Ezra chapter 9. 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:32.239 Uh we'll walk through the text. 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:38.799 It unfolds in three stages, and then we'll apply some personal lessons to our own lives regarding genuine repentance and the fruits of it. 00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:41.040 So let's begin by walking through Ezra chapter 9. 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:43.760 We're going to see in this scene three stages. 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:49.200 First, we'll see a report, a response, and a request. 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:51.120 And I'll show you what I mean by that as we walk through the text. 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:52.959 So let's just begin by walking through the text together. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:54.319 Look down at your Bibles and follow. 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:57.519 We'll begin in Ezra 9 and verse 1. 00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:02.319 After these things had been done. 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:07.280 And doesn't that just beg for a preacherly interjection? 00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:09.039 After these things had been done. 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:13.360 Of course, is a continuation of the narrative that we've been studying for this last several months. 00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:22.960 And if you recall, Ezra chapter 8, where we left off, recounts Ezra, who appeared on the scene in chapter 7, finally has got into Babylon. 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:30.080 Chapter 7, he was commissioned by the king of Persia after the completion of the temple 60 years prior. 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:47.919 Ezra, who was born in Babylon, raised in Babylon, has been commissioned by the king to go back to Israel, taking a collection both from the treasuries of Persia and from free will offerings from Babylonian Israelites to establish and to solidify and to strengthen temple worship in Israel. 00:02:48.080 --> 00:03:04.800 And so in chapter 8, he then collects priests so that sacrifices can be offered in the temple, and then he collects a massive amount of treasure and spends four months traveling through the Fertile Crescent to arrive in Israel in order to strengthen and solidify temple worship in Jerusalem. 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:10.240 So four months have passed as he's traveled and he's finally arrived. 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:18.479 And we'll find that in Ezra chapter 10 and verse 16 that in fact between Ezra 8 and Ezra 9, four more months have passed. 00:03:18.560 --> 00:03:20.240 So Ezra's been on the road for eight months now. 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:31.360 Four months traveling through the Fertile Crescent, four months traveling through the provinces of Israel and establishing the king's orders pertaining to uh establishment of new laws and decrees in the land. 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:39.599 And finally, chapter 9 picks up, eight months later, after these things, and a report is going to come to Ezra. 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:41.520 Maybe just one more thing should be said. 00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:48.800 I've said that there's four months have passed since Ezra arrived in the land at the end of chapter eight, and now the action of chapter nine commences. 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:51.199 What was he doing in those interluding four months? 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:55.759 Well, probably he was doing what the king had told him to do in chapter seven and verse twenty-five. 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:59.759 If you just look down, uh it's one page over in my Bible, chapter seven, verse twenty five. 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:16.160 The king told Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, when you get to the land, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the provinces beyond the river, all such as know the laws of your God, and those who know them not, you shall teach them. 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:25.839 And so for probably for the last four months, since Ezra arrived in Israel, he has brought treasure to the temple, and then he's traveled around and been appointing judges in all the different locales in Israel. 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:34.160 Judges who will enforce the Torah, who will call the people to covenant fidelity, to obey the law of God. 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:42.720 And after the law of God has been percolating through the people, well, it shouldn't surprise us what happens next is that the law of God does its work. 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:48.480 And a report about unfaithfulness to this Torah comes to Ezra. 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:50.639 And that's where we pick up in chapter 9 and verse 1. 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:53.040 So let's get back to after these things in verse 1. 00:04:53.199 --> 00:05:08.959 After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the land with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:22.160 For they have taken some of their daughters to be wise for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the land, and in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chiefmen has been foremost. 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:26.959 Just notice the first thing that comes from the lips of these who who are reporting to Ezra what's been going on. 00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:39.360 They say, The people, the priests and the Levites, who even the leaders who are responsible, who should be leading the people in covenant fidelity, have actually been leading the people into covenant faithlessness. 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:43.360 In what way, in particular, have the people been faithless to the law of God? 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:47.839 Well, they have not separated themselves from the people of the land. 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:52.480 That's a theme that is a refrain found all through the Torah. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:59.199 Over and over, God had told the people of Israel, I've called you to be a special peculiar people for my own possession. 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:15.279 And as he equipped them and taught them of holiness and taught them of this covenant, and called them to enter the land and to walk in covenant obedience, one of the first things he told them was, You will be separated from all the peoples, you shall be holy to the Lord. 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:19.199 This is everywhere in number Leviticus chapter 24 instance. 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:28.000 But the Torah also called specifically and particularly for the Levites, in addition to be set apart, even within the nation of Israel, to be holy to the Lord. 00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:35.439 Numbers chapter 8, verse 14, calls the Levites to be further separated from the people, holy to the Lord, to function as his priests. 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:38.240 And this is exactly what they're not doing. 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:41.360 In particular, look at verse 1, it says, In what way? 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:43.040 Are you not separating yourselves from the peoples? 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:51.920 Well, verse 2, they've taken some of the daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. 00:06:52.079 --> 00:06:55.439 They're entering into marriages with pagan peoples. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:58.720 And this is the first thing that God told them not to do when they entered the land. 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:02.240 Deuteronomy chapter 6, God tells the people, here's the number one commandment. 00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:10.720 Here's the Shema, the the overarching command, even to today in modern uh in modern Judaism, Yahweh your God is one. 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:14.399 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:24.800 The very first command he gives them after that is in Deuteronomy chapter 7, he tells them, Deuteronomy 7, verse 3, do not intermarry with the people that you're going to encounter in the land. 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:28.800 There's a list that's almost identical to the list of peoples here in Ezra 9. 00:07:28.959 --> 00:07:35.120 And then he continues, 4 in verse 4, they would turn your sons from following me to serve other gods. 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:38.160 Verse 6, you are a holy people to the Lord your God. 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:39.439 Here's the first command. 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:43.759 You want to be preserved in covenant fidelity to Yahweh generation after generation. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:48.240 Do not intermarry with people of the land of Canaan. 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:56.160 But notice particularly that even in Deuteronomy 7, when God gave this marriage stipulation to the people of Israel, that it wasn't based on race. 00:07:56.639 --> 00:07:58.079 It was based on religion. 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:00.000 Deuteronomy 7, 4. 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:03.040 Because this is why you should not intermarry them. 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:08.480 For they would turn you away from following me to serve other gods. 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:12.079 This was always the issue when it came to marriage in the Torah. 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:18.399 The issue was fidelity to the covenant, preservation of loyalty to Yahweh generation after generation. 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:19.839 It was never racial. 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:44.080 We have even in Isaiah 56 and verse 3 this promise that Yahweh makes through the prophet Isaiah that every foreigner who attaches himself to me to serve the Lord God, to love his name, and to be his servant, to keep his covenant, I will bring into my holy hill, and I will cause his heart to rejoice, because my temple will be a place for the prayer of all nations. 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:48.720 What is the the the quote that Jesus makes in Mark chapter 1? 00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:56.399 Yahweh always planned that his house would be a house of prayer for all nations. 00:08:56.639 --> 00:09:01.360 The issue was not race, the issue was religion, it was covenant loyalty. 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:14.960 This is why, for instance, in the Old Testament, we have a book named after a Moabite, one of the peoples in Ezra chapter 9, verse 1, that the Israelites were not to marry. 00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:16.879 They were not to marry Moabites. 00:09:17.039 --> 00:09:25.120 And yet we have a book in the Bible about a Moabite who an Israelite married, who's the great grandmommy of David. 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:26.879 It's the book of Ruth. 00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:31.039 Because the issue wasn't race, it was religion. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:33.200 It was covenant loyalty to Yahweh. 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:49.840 Ruth, just as Isaiah 56 stipulated, attached herself to the true God to worship him, to be his servant, to keep his covenant, and God incorporated her into his covenant people, and she's even in the line of Jesus, the ultimate holy seed of Israel. 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:54.559 So it wasn't race. 00:09:54.720 --> 00:10:01.440 Even as Isaiah continues in this prophecy, he ends in Isaiah 59 saying that it's not race that has separated you from Yahweh. 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:03.120 Isaiah 59, 2. 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:06.240 Your sins have made a separation between you and God. 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:07.039 That's the problem. 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:08.480 That's the issue. 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:11.679 And you see that in verse 1 of Ezra chapter 9. 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:15.840 If you look at the text closely, you see the problem isn't a race issue. 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:21.360 Verse 1, the people have not separated themselves from the people of the lands with their abominations. 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:24.960 These are pagan, practicing peoples, worshiping alternate gods. 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:28.559 That word abominations would include their worship and their entire lifestyle. 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:36.720 Abominations is a big picture word in the Old Testament that applies to sp particularly, primarily the worship of false gods other than Yahweh. 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:42.559 But then it incorporates all of the lifestyle and practices that come with worship of other gods. 00:10:42.799 --> 00:10:55.279 Their idol worship, their sexual perversion, sacrifice of children, dishonest business practices, lying lips, wicked thoughts, vices of all variety are entailed in that term as you trace it through the Old Testament. 00:10:55.519 --> 00:11:17.519 That's the problem, is that the people in the land who were supposed to be separate, worshiping Yahweh, loyally practicing the Torah and practicing temple worship, waiting for Messiah to come in this newly established second temple, instead, were becoming just like all the nations around them. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:19.039 That was the problem. 00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:21.360 That was the problem that Ezra encountered. 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:23.200 And by the way, this wasn't how it started. 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:34.320 You remember in chapter 6, when the second temple was first built, the first thing that the people did was they celebrated Passover, the primary sacrifice in the temple in Jerusalem. 00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:52.559 And in order to participate in the Passover, Ezra 6, verse 21 says that the Passover was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile and also by everyone who had joined them, and separated himself from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship Yahweh, the God of Israel. 00:11:52.799 --> 00:11:54.159 That was how everything started. 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:54.879 That's the premise. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:56.159 Is it to worship Yahweh? 00:11:56.240 --> 00:12:02.240 You separate yourself from the world and devote yourself to serve and honor and follow Him. 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:06.480 But of course, sixty years have passed since the establishment of that temple. 00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:21.360 Sixty years have gone by since Ezra chapter six, and in the intervening generation has fallen away from covenant fidelity and are now learning to practice and to perform the same kinds of things that all the peoples around them are doing. 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:30.080 And you wonder, and I don't want to get too far afield here, but you wonder what would draw them to intermarry with these people who aren't following Yahweh. 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:37.360 And there's a little phrase here in Ezra chapter 1, or Ezra chapter 9, rather, that I think maybe gets at the issue. 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:44.080 Over a couple times throughout this chapter, you see this little phrase, they gave themselves to the peoples of the lands. 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:45.200 Peoples of the lands. 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:46.480 That gets used over and over. 00:12:46.559 --> 00:12:47.600 And we're talking about Israel. 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:52.559 You would think maybe that the land here is talking about Israelites because it is the land of Israel. 00:12:53.440 --> 00:13:19.840 But the way that that little phrase, peoples of the lands, gets used in Ezra is talking about all of the people who, when the Israelites were taken into exile in Babylon, and then these decades passed, there were other peoples, Hittites or Perizzites, Jebusites, etc., who came to inhabit the land of Israel and became the property owners, and they were the affluent, well-off, financially established, independently working peoples. 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:47.440 And so when Israel came back into the land, many of them were not financially affluent, were struggling, didn't possess property, and there would have been great temptation, at least from a financial standpoint, from a social welfare standpoint, there would have been great temptation to marry into these other families, perhaps maybe with sincere motives that we'll one day convert them to worshiping Yahweh, and yet in the wisdom of God, he's called his people to be separate. 00:13:49.679 --> 00:14:00.240 Not to make decisions merely on the whim of what seems productive in the moment, but to make decisions based on the written commandments of God. 00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:09.120 The first thing that Ezra encounters as he comes into the land is that as the word of God percolates among the people, they realize we haven't been doing that. 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:10.399 We haven't been doing that. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:11.200 We've fallen away. 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:14.720 Sixty years later, we are not following the covenant anymore. 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:17.120 This is Ezra's concern. 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:20.480 And you notice specifically, there's one more thing to say about this concern in verse 2. 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:21.840 Notice verse 2. 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:35.200 It says, For they have taken some of their daughters to be wise for themselves and for the sons, so that the people to be wise for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:37.600 And there's something that I've got to say here about this little phrase. 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:38.559 The holy race. 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:43.600 Perhaps you have another English translation that you're working with that translate this better than mine. 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:44.559 Holy race. 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:49.600 It's one of those translations that just makes me slap my forehead, like, what were they thinking? 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:53.759 Because it lends itself to a false impression, doesn't it? 00:14:54.080 --> 00:15:09.360 It sounds like the issue is though the Israelites were somehow a superior race, and the problem was that the superior bloodline of the Israelites would be somehow mingled with these inferior Canaanite peoples, and the superior Israelites would be diluted over time. 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:11.360 And that's not at all what's happening here. 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:20.240 The issue is not race, the issue is religion, and a better translation that would capture the way that Ezra is linking this text to preceding texts in the Old Testament. 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:27.279 And your Bible might even have a footnote that says, or offspring, or seed. 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:29.279 It's Zerakodosh. 00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:31.200 It's holy seed. 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:47.360 What's happening here is that Ezra is capturing this big idea in the Old Testament, that God has a holy seed that's running from Adam and Eve through Abraham, through David, to a Messiah, and all the peoples of the earth will be blessed with this holy seed, and it must be preserved. 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:49.919 Let me just back up for a second and you remember this. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:16:11.360 That, you know, we understand that the very first gospel promise comes in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, where upon the entrance of sin into the world, God gives a promise to Adam and Eve that the offspring of the woman, the seed of the woman, so an individual human being, Satan will bite his heel, but the seed will crush the head of the serpent. 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:17.679 And so redemption and everything that was undone in Adam will be restored through this seed of the woman, through this human offspring. 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:21.519 And you read through the rest of the book of Genesis and you're looking for this offspring. 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:22.639 Where's this redeemer? 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:24.159 Where's the restorer going to come? 00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:38.399 And you come to the big pillar chapters like Genesis chapter 12 and 15 and 17, where Yahweh makes and then fleshes out this covenant with an individual named Abraham, to whom he promises, through your offspring, will all the nations of the earth be blessed. 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:59.200 And so this human offspring, this human seed is going to come through Abraham, and then Abraham's family begins to expand supernaturally against anything naturally that was possible because he's having kids when he's a hundred, and his children are having children, and then at the end of the book of Genesis, in the beginning of the book of Exodus, the offspring of Abraham, the seed of Abraham has expanded. 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:00.240 There are millions of people strong. 00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:17.440 And so the book of Exodus recounts the story of God making them into a nation, giving them a covenant through Moses, calling them to sacrifices, to a priesthood, to worship to Yahweh, and this is going to be the bed where this human offspring is going to come, through the seed of Israel. 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:29.680 And you read through the rest of the histories of the people of Israel, and you come to another big text like 2 Samuel chapter 7 that promises that this David figure, this king of Israel, is going to have a seed. 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:34.000 A seed who will be a king, who will establish a kingdom that will last forever. 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:40.960 And then the people, as you read the end of that book, don't obey the covenant God gave them. 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:44.720 They don't walk in God's ways. 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:47.279 They don't remain faithful to Yahweh. 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:53.119 And so Yahweh, out of faithfulness to his character and to his word, drags them into exile. 00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:56.240 And that's how 2 Kings chapter 24 and 2 Kings 17 in. 00:17:56.400 --> 00:17:59.200 Northern kingdom, southern kingdom, dragged off into exile. 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:03.039 And yet the seed is preserved in another nation. 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:07.440 And so the Israelites are in Babylon and yet they still manage to remain distinct. 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:09.119 The Torah is still being taught. 00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:27.119 The Hebrew language is still being spoken, and generation after generation, they are remaining a distinct people, understanding the Torah and disseminating that knowledge generation to generation so that Ezra can be born in Babylon, decades after the dispersion, and he is a scribe skilled in the law of Yahweh. 00:18:27.359 --> 00:18:40.559 And then God can raise him up and raise up a group of people and fulfill his word to bring the people back into Israel to establish a temple where there will be a priesthood, where there will be a covenant with sacrifices where the Messiah can finally come. 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:44.240 And Ezra is aware of all of these realities. 00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:47.039 He's aware of all preceding scripture. 00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:55.519 And he's led this people back to the land to establish and to solidify permanent, ongoing sacrifice in the temple. 00:18:55.759 --> 00:19:00.160 And I gotta think in the back of his mind, he's thinking soon Messiah will come. 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:02.160 Soon he's going to come. 00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:12.799 And then the first thing he encounters as he gets into the land is that the people is just mingled up with all the other nations. 00:19:13.119 --> 00:19:17.119 Yeah, there's a temple, but there's no covenant people. 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:19.680 There's no practice of the sacrifices. 00:19:19.839 --> 00:19:21.200 There's no adherence to the Torah. 00:19:21.279 --> 00:19:25.440 There's no disseminating generation to generation the knowledge of Yahweh. 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:30.880 And it feels like all of God's purposes are teetering on the brink. 00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:36.880 That's what he means when he says the holy seed is mixed up. 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:49.200 That word being mixed up is used in Psalm 106, verse 35, when the people of Israel mix with the nations to learn to do as they do, so that they would be blended in as though they'd never even existed. 00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:59.119 See what's at stake is that there, if there is no covenant people, then there can be no temple, there can be no sacrifices, and there won't be a Messiah. 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:00.880 Just think about this for a second. 00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:05.359 Think about this reality, where we are in the history of God's story in the Bible. 00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:08.160 Think of this maybe through the lens of the New Testament. 00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:10.960 Where is Jesus crucified? 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:12.960 Jesus is the Lamb of God. 00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:14.240 He's the Savior of the world. 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:15.599 He's the Messiah of the Old Testament. 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:16.880 Where is he crucified? 00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:22.240 Crucified on Passover in Jerusalem, just outside the temple. 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:34.000 There had to be a covenant people practicing Passovers who could reject the Messiah so he could be the real Passover Lamb, so that forgiveness could go to God's people. 00:20:34.400 --> 00:20:37.039 That wouldn't happen in, say, Samaria. 00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:39.680 You think of this. 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:43.519 Jesus visits Samaria, John chapter 4, and what's happening in Samaria? 00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:46.720 The Samaritans aren't practicing Torah. 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:52.000 They have a Torah, but it's modified, and at best there's some kind of medial adherence to it. 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:55.839 They've rejected the prophets, they don't have a temple, there are no sacrifices. 00:20:55.920 --> 00:20:58.240 There's no real covenant observant in Samaria. 00:20:58.480 --> 00:21:00.480 There's no concept of what is a Messiah. 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:01.440 What does that even mean? 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:03.119 A sacrifice to take away sin? 00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:04.400 A Passover lamb. 00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:07.519 Those concepts have been evacuated from the society. 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:16.319 What would it even mean for Jesus to show up in Samaria and say that I am the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world? 00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:17.759 Is that concept even? 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:21.119 There's no fertile ground on which that concept can land. 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:32.240 But in Jerusalem, where the covenant people have been observing Torah, the Messiah can come, the Messiah can fulfill the Torah, be the sacrifice to take away the sins of his people. 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:41.759 And there are ready adherents to Torah who God converts and they become the first messengers to take the word of Messiah to the ends of the earth. 00:21:42.079 --> 00:21:47.680 There has to be a covenant people, there has to be a temple so that Messiah can come. 00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:49.200 That's what's at stake here. 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:56.160 That's why this morning Jesse mentioned that Ezra 9 is a pivotal chapter in the story of the Bible. 00:21:56.240 --> 00:21:56.880 And this is why. 00:21:57.039 --> 00:22:04.240 Because in Ezra's mind, he's looking at this saying, the Covenant promises of God are teetering on the brink. 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:12.240 Are God's covenant people going to be just obliterated, not by external pressures, but by internal compromise? 00:22:15.039 --> 00:22:19.759 Now you could, of course, say that, well, God is sovereign and God is going to fulfill his promises. 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:23.119 Of course, his promises won't be eclipsed in the trash bin of history. 00:22:23.279 --> 00:22:24.319 And yes, that's true. 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:26.000 And yet God works through means. 00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:40.160 And what we're going to see in the remainder of this chapter is that the means by which God is going to preserve these great promises and preserve a covenant people to whom he can send his Messiah is He's going to act through a humble and repentant priest. 00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:44.960 And so I want to move on, and we'll go through the rest of this chapter much more quickly. 00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:48.480 But we want to move on to Ezra's response to this news. 00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:53.759 And maybe just for a moment before we jump to his response, just imagine in the background of his mind. 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:59.200 I mean, we know that he's been traveling four months through the Fertile Crescent with this massive caravan of people. 00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:01.039 He's finally arrived in the promised land. 00:23:01.200 --> 00:23:03.039 He's got these great expectations. 00:23:03.759 --> 00:23:10.559 He's for four months been establishing judges who will implement Torah and make Torah the law of the land and bring people to covenant fidelity. 00:23:10.720 --> 00:23:18.480 And then all of a sudden he gets this just dramatic news that the whole people has walked away from Yahweh. 00:23:18.640 --> 00:23:21.920 There's massive defection in the covenant people. 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:24.640 How would you respond? 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:43.359 How do you respond when the people you love and care for most deeply do the very thing that you thought most outrageous, most unthinkable, the deepest form of betrayal? 00:23:43.599 --> 00:23:45.279 What's your response? 00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:47.920 And I could think of a lot of ways that I would respond. 00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:55.599 And part of me, even reading Ezra up to this point, there'd be a tendency to wonder if maybe Ezra would just utilize his power. 00:23:55.680 --> 00:24:04.079 I mean, the king of Persia, the king of the world, in Ezra 7, verse 26, had given him authority to execute people who didn't adhere to Torah. 00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:06.480 I mean, he could just say, get the swords. 00:24:08.880 --> 00:24:17.119 What we get in the following verses, I want us to see, is a window into the heart of the kind of man that God is going to use to move his covenant purposes forward. 00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:19.680 This is the kind of person that God delights to use. 00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:25.839 Like God used David, and of course, the key passage when we understand David's story is God looks on the heart. 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:30.079 And what we're getting in Ezra chapter 9 is a window into Ezra's heart. 00:24:30.319 --> 00:24:31.519 This is a man of God. 00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:34.400 Look at his response in Ezra chapter 9, verse 3. 00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:43.359 As soon as I heard this, Ezra says, I tore my garment and my cloak, and pulled hair from my head and beard, and sat appalled. 00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:52.960 Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice. 00:24:53.119 --> 00:25:02.480 And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God, saying. 00:25:04.880 --> 00:25:07.920 I mean, that is a dramatic a response as you can imagine, isn't it? 00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:10.480 There's no other character in the Bible who does this. 00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:13.039 He rips out his hair. 00:25:13.599 --> 00:25:16.000 He rips out his beard. 00:25:17.039 --> 00:25:26.240 In Job chapter 1, when Job experiences the terrible catastrophe of his whole family dying, he shaves his head, but he doesn't rip out his hair and rip out his beard. 00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:29.279 He's absolutely in shock. 00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:32.160 He's appalled, he's broken, he's crushed. 00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:36.160 Notice something about the language here twice in verse 3 to 5. 00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:38.720 It says that he sits down, and how does he sit down? 00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:41.759 He sits down, and this summarizes his whole response. 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:43.440 He's appalled. 00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:49.920 Maybe you remember last Sunday morning Jesse preached Jeremiah 2, verses 12 and 13. 00:25:50.400 --> 00:25:55.039 Be appalled, O heavens, be utterly dismayed, for my people have committed two evils. 00:25:55.119 --> 00:26:02.160 They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewn out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that hold no water. 00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:11.759 In that courtroom scene, God calls heaven and earth to witness, and what he calls them to do is be appalled at the sin of my people. 00:26:11.920 --> 00:26:13.279 It's the same word here. 00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:14.880 That is his response. 00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:19.519 Ezra is appalled at the sins of his people. 00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:35.839 It's a rare soul who responds not in indignation, not in gleeful slander, not in smug condescension, but in broken contrition over the sins of others. 00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:38.400 That's a godly response. 00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:43.119 But I think we really get an even deeper window into it if we continue to look through the through the text. 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:46.960 And the rest of chapter 9 is Ezra's prayer to Yahweh. 00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:50.640 And this is the part where we begin to see elements of repentance. 00:26:50.720 --> 00:26:54.799 And so let's begin walking through his request in verses 6 through 15. 00:26:54.960 --> 00:26:56.400 Ezra begins to pray to God. 00:26:56.480 --> 00:26:57.359 That's part of his response. 00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:02.960 In verse 6, he says, Oh my God, I'm ashamed and blushed to lift my face to you. 00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:08.400 My God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. 00:27:08.640 --> 00:27:12.319 From the days of our fathers to this day, we have been in great guilt. 00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:22.720 For our iniquities, we, our kings, our priests, have been given into the hands of the kings of the land, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today. 00:27:25.039 --> 00:27:26.880 That is a wild verse. 00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:36.720 He's talking about the sins of others, but he says, verse 6, I am ashamed, and I blush. 00:27:36.960 --> 00:27:44.319 Or other translations, I think the King James captures the idea really well when it says, I'm too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my eyes. 00:27:44.559 --> 00:27:45.759 That's the idea. 00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:50.799 What Ezra's doing is he's owning the sins of his people. 00:27:51.599 --> 00:27:56.559 Particularly as a leader, responsible to lead the people in covenant faithfulness. 00:27:56.720 --> 00:28:04.000 When the people depart from faithlessness and forsake Yahweh, Ezra takes ownership of it, personal ownership of it. 00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:08.079 He includes himself in the rest of it, these aren't his sins. 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:10.799 But he includes himself in the sin in the rest of the text. 00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:12.799 He uses the first person. 00:28:13.279 --> 00:28:16.720 I am ashamed because we have sinned. 00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:37.839 You know, Jeremiah, years prior, told the people of Israel before their exile that they were going to be exiled because of their sin, but on multiple occasions in chapter 6 and chapter 8, he told them specifically, you're going to be exiled because you don't know how to be ashamed and humiliated when you do sin. 00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:41.440 Now, Ezra has the polar opposite response. 00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:42.799 He hasn't even sinned. 00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:47.200 But he loves God's glory. 00:28:47.839 --> 00:28:49.759 His heart is so knitted to God's covenant. 00:28:49.839 --> 00:29:03.279 He so desires God's people to be faithful to him that even when he's not personally culpable for the sin, he himself is humiliated and ashamed that his people would depart from Yahweh. 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:08.079 Look at verse eight. 00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:20.480 But now for a brief moment, favor has been shown by the Lord our God to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God might brighten our eyes and grant a little reviving in our slavery. 00:29:20.799 --> 00:29:22.720 For we are slaves. 00:29:22.880 --> 00:29:36.880 Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving, and to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem. 00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:48.079 What he's saying is, in spite of the reality that we have sinned and we have brought the first the exile upon ourselves, God was faithful to his covenant and brought us back, and in spite of that kindness. 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:51.839 Now we're going to verse ten. 00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:54.720 Now, O our God, what shall we say after this? 00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:57.119 For we have forsaken your commandments. 00:29:57.279 --> 00:29:59.839 Notice verse 9 said, You have not forsaken us. 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:08.799 But verse 10, even though you preserved us in Babylon and brought us back and gave us so much more than we deserved, now we've forsaken you. 00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:18.480 Verse 11, for which you commanded your servants and the prophets, saying, and what follows in verse 11 is a smattering of biblical texts. 00:30:18.799 --> 00:30:22.559 I think this is an interesting insight just to pause on for a moment. 00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:43.119 Ezra hasn't taken any kind of authorial privileges to say, oh, before I begin to pray, I would like to have a moment to compose a literary masterpiece that we preserve for all of God's people in the ages to come. 00:30:43.519 --> 00:30:59.119 Instead, what was recounted to us in this text is that Ezra hears of the sins of the people, is broken over, and spontaneously prays, and when he spontaneously prays out of the overflow of his heart comes a gush of scripture. 00:30:59.359 --> 00:31:03.200 He's the kind of person that if you prick him, what flows out of him is scripture. 00:31:04.319 --> 00:31:06.880 That's the kind of person that we're getting a win to into here. 00:31:07.039 --> 00:31:11.759 You know, um, this is just a if you'll indulge me in a side a side story. 00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:21.440 My advisor uh in my uh degree program did one of his degrees at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and he told me that he had an experience there that he didn't expect. 00:31:21.519 --> 00:31:28.559 He said, When I first went to Jerusalem, my concept of intelligence was stretched by some of the people I got to interact with. 00:31:28.720 --> 00:31:37.839 He said, When I went there, I had heard the legend, and this is a well-known legend, that Ezra had the entirety of scripture that had been written up to this point cold memorized. 00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:39.920 Sounds kind of outlandish, doesn't it? 00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:50.799 And he said, Well, I thought that was just a legend, it sounded kind of cool, but when I got to Israel, I met people right now, walking around Jerusalem, who have the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, cold memorized. 00:31:50.960 --> 00:32:00.240 And you can walk up to them and begin to read to them from the chronologies, in the genealogies, in chronicles, and read them a few names, and they'll pick it up and read you the rest of the chapter. 00:32:00.480 --> 00:32:02.720 Not read, but recite from their memory. 00:32:04.480 --> 00:32:12.000 So, I take that as good evidence that Ezra was a Bible man to the point that the whole thing is in his head. 00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:14.160 The whole thing has now got down to his heart. 00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:16.960 And when you shake him up, what comes out is scripture. 00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:27.440 What comes out is desires in line with God, because God's word has so worked through his mind, into his heart, that it's trickled into his affections and his emotions, and it's controlling his response. 00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:34.960 And right now the way he's responding is in shock and contrition that Yahweh has been forsaken. 00:32:35.599 --> 00:32:37.440 Notice, we'll just read through the rest of verse 11. 00:32:37.599 --> 00:32:44.000 Verse 11, which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, This is what the prophets told the people the first time they came into the land. 00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:54.960 The land that you are entering to take possession of is a land impure, from the impurity of the peoples of the land, with their abominations that have filled it from the end to end with their uncleanness. 00:32:55.119 --> 00:33:06.799 Therefore, do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever. 00:33:07.039 --> 00:33:11.279 And after all this has come upon us for our evil deeds, that's talking about. 00:33:11.440 --> 00:33:16.720 Now we caught into the land, we broke the commandments, we went into exile, God's been merciful and brought us back. 00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:26.240 After all this, verse 13, you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved, and had given us such a remnant as this. 00:33:26.480 --> 00:33:29.599 Shall we now break your commandments again? 00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:33.440 We're doing the very thing that God has thrown out the first time. 00:33:33.680 --> 00:33:40.960 Shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? 00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:47.359 Would you not be angry with us until you consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor any to escape? 00:33:47.599 --> 00:33:56.000 O Lord the God of Israel, you are just, for we are left a remnant that has escaped as it is today. 00:33:56.240 --> 00:33:58.720 Behold, we are before you in our guilt. 00:33:59.200 --> 00:34:02.720 No one can stand before you because of this. 00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:12.159 Just as he said at the beginning of the prayer, I'm too ashamed and humiliated to even lift up my eyes. 00:34:12.239 --> 00:34:14.639 There's really not even a resolution to this. 00:34:16.400 --> 00:34:21.360 There's just empty-handed contrition and appealing to the mercy of God. 00:34:23.519 --> 00:34:30.000 That you know, Psalm 107, verse 9 says, the empty soul God fills. 00:34:32.079 --> 00:34:38.960 Before we move on to some personal reflections, I think maybe so we could get some closure on how this fits in the whole of the Bible. 00:34:39.119 --> 00:34:49.360 Because I've mentioned that what Ezra was looking for was Messiah to come, and for all of the promises of Israel being restored in this glorious way. 00:34:49.599 --> 00:35:04.639 You know, there's a little phrase here in verse 9 that says that God has given them a tent peg, just one little tent peg, to be able to establish something in Israel, in Jerusalem. 00:35:04.960 --> 00:35:19.119 That's a phrase that comes from a prophecy in Isaiah, where Isaiah looks forward to this glorious day when they'll strengthen their tent pegs, they'll spread out their tents, and it describes in lavish detail how Israel will be prosperous beyond anything that anyone had ever imagined. 00:35:19.360 --> 00:35:25.280 And as we're saying, we've got just like a little foothold on that future kingdom that God has promised. 00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:30.000 Messiah is going to come, and then he's going to bring that kingdom, and he's waiting for it, and he's wanting it. 00:35:30.159 --> 00:35:33.199 But he's broken over the sin that is stopping it. 00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:38.880 So is that the end of the story? 00:35:42.639 --> 00:35:43.760 Well, absolutely not. 00:35:43.840 --> 00:35:45.519 It's not the end of the story. 00:35:45.840 --> 00:36:01.360 This is the instrument by which God is going to restore temple worship, preserve the covenant people, so he can send the Messiah, so the Messiah can forgive sins, so the message of repentance and forgiveness can go around the world. 00:36:01.519 --> 00:36:15.360 So, as Paul says in Romans 11, the full number of Gentiles can be grafted into the olive tree, and then repentance will come to Israel, and then the kingdom that was promised in Isaiah will be established and Messiah will come. 00:36:15.599 --> 00:36:27.840 In fact, the very heart attitudes that Ezra has in this chapter are described elsewhere in the Old Testament as the heart attitudes that the people of Israel will exhibit in the future when Messiah comes to establish the temple. 00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:35.920 Ezra is like one remnant, one instrument that's preserving the people until that full repentance comes to Israel. 00:36:36.400 --> 00:36:37.360 Just give you a couple of these. 00:36:37.519 --> 00:36:41.840 Ezekiel 36, verse 32 describes that the people will receive new hearts. 00:36:41.920 --> 00:36:45.760 That's the I will take out your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh passage. 00:36:46.159 --> 00:36:51.199 That text says that Israel in that day will be ashamed and humiliated over their sin. 00:36:51.360 --> 00:36:54.400 The same words that describe Ezra's response to sin. 00:36:54.960 --> 00:37:03.280 In Zechariah chapter 12, it says that a king will come from Zion, and all Israel look on him whom they have pierced, and they will weep as one weeps over a newborn son. 00:37:03.679 --> 00:37:10.480 Isaiah 52, verse 13 says that when Israel recognizes their Messiah, they will be appalled. 00:37:11.440 --> 00:37:15.119 In the same way that Ezra is appalled over sin in this text. 00:37:15.360 --> 00:37:21.119 And in this way, Paul says in Romans 11, 26, all Israel will be saved. 00:37:21.679 --> 00:37:33.599 Ezra is the instrument to preserve the covenant people, so Messiah will come, and there is coming a day when that king will come to Israel, and all them, all of Israel will be saved. 00:37:33.920 --> 00:37:44.480 But in the meantime, we are among those given grace to be included in this people through the Messiah Jesus. 00:37:44.639 --> 00:37:49.840 Through repentance and faith, we come into the olive tree as Paul says. 00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:57.440 And what we get in Ezra is we get a window into what repentance looks like in the Messiah's kingdom. 00:37:57.679 --> 00:38:12.320 And so maybe just to conclude tonight, I want to just go back through a backtrack, go right back through the text, and draw out a few lessons for our own lives on what repentance looks like for a Gentile who's been grafted into the Messiah's kingdom. 00:38:12.480 --> 00:38:18.079 So let me walk through real quick five marks of genuine repentance in Ezra chapter 9. 00:38:18.159 --> 00:38:22.159 And I'll go through these pretty rapid fire, but if you're taking notes, I'm going to spit them out at you. 00:38:22.239 --> 00:38:26.159 So Ezra chapter 9 gives us five marks of genuine repentance. 00:38:26.320 --> 00:38:26.960 Here's number one. 00:38:27.119 --> 00:38:29.519 Genuine repentance responds to the word of God. 00:38:29.679 --> 00:38:32.480 Genuine repentance is a response to the word of God. 00:38:32.639 --> 00:38:33.920 We see this everywhere in the text. 00:38:34.159 --> 00:38:46.559 It's premised from Ezra chapter 7 that says what Ezra was doing in the meantime, between chapter 7 and 8 and chapter 9, is he was going around Israel and he was establishing judges who would implement the Torah. 00:38:46.719 --> 00:38:52.000 And so for four months the Torah has been being taught to the people, and what's happened is just what we would expect. 00:38:53.280 --> 00:38:58.800 The law of God, the word of God, is working conviction and bringing about repentance in God's people. 00:39:25.679 --> 00:39:31.039 Without the word of God in your life, sin lies hidden. 00:39:31.280 --> 00:39:32.559 We don't notice it. 00:39:32.719 --> 00:39:33.840 We justify it. 00:39:33.920 --> 00:39:34.960 We get used to it. 00:39:35.119 --> 00:39:36.320 We're comfortable with it. 00:39:36.480 --> 00:39:39.440 But when the word of God comes, it's like light in a dark place. 00:39:39.679 --> 00:39:53.039 It exposes our sin, and the work of the Spirit is to awaken our consciences and to elicit this sense that Ezra had of being appalled at our sin, being shocked at our sin, being ashamed and humiliated at our sin. 00:39:53.920 --> 00:40:01.360 If we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, then we have to be constantly exposed to the word of God. 00:40:01.840 --> 00:40:04.400 Maybe here's a paradigm to think through this text. 00:40:04.800 --> 00:40:11.920 The sin of Israel in Ezra chapter 9 is that Israel, the bride of Yahweh, unfaithful to her husband. 00:40:12.159 --> 00:40:13.920 They're marrying pagans. 00:40:15.039 --> 00:40:17.440 There's an analogy in the New Testament. 00:40:17.519 --> 00:40:20.000 The New Covenant people of Christ is the church. 00:40:20.239 --> 00:40:21.679 We're the bride of Christ. 00:40:21.920 --> 00:40:26.480 2 Corinthians chapter 6 says, Don't get married to pagans. 00:40:27.119 --> 00:40:30.000 And of course, 2 Corinthians chapter 6 isn't just about marriage. 00:40:30.079 --> 00:40:31.519