Doing Hard Things (Ezra 10)

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] your Bibles turn with me to Ezra chapter 10 or page 381 in the Bibles in the rows Azra 10 life is filled with hard things we all get that things go wrong for many reasons today we're talking about a special class of hard things however these are not hard things that happen to us these are hard things that we choose to do that are right because previously we have chosen to do some things that were wrong we know as believers in Christ that God in heaven forgives us completely of our sin by His grace but here on earth there are hard things we must choose to do in an effort to make things right the Bible has a lot of things that we don't necessarily like to hear but the one we look at today is especially hard here's the short version just to get us used to it Ezra the godly priest returns with a large group of Israelites Jews from exile in Babylon and makes the journey to Israel to go and encourage those who had returned decades previously to rebuild the temple as was going to teach and encourage them spiritually what he finds is that many of those exhales many of the Israelite men had married the neighboring foreign wives as a result of those marriages they had begun to practice alongside their wives some of the pagan practices this was all in direct violation to what God had commanded don't marry those women and so Azra asks them to divorce those wives and send the wives and their children away and that's the end of the book of Ezra right when I knew I was going out of town this last weekend I jokingly told Seth while I'm gone go ahead and finish up the book of Ezra somehow it didn't seem right to pass off a message called doing hard things important things are never easy school work exercise spiritual growth is not easy and really I think the question before us today is are we willing to do hard things so that we and our family and our descendants will be better off spiritually are we willing to do hard things so that we our family and descendants will be better off spiritually so let's jump into this final chapter of the book of Ezra and the first principle I think we will see is that true repentance means making hard choices to be holy verses 1 through 5 when as while Ezra was praying and confessing weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God the temple a large crowd of Israelites men women and children gathered around him they too wept bitterly then the second ayah son of jahaly one of the descendants of Elam said to Ezra we have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us but in spite of this there is still hope for Israel now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children in accordance with the counsel of my lord referring to Ezra and to those and of those who fear the commands of our God let it be done according to the law rise up this matters in your hand telling Ezra we will support you so take courage and do it so Ezra rose up and put the leading priests and levites and all Israel under oath to do what had been suggested and they took the oath Wow let's um let's address our biggest concern the elephant in the room right away and that is is this telling us we should go and do likewise I think actually the Bible tells us the opposite because in the New Testament we are actually told don't divorce when your spouse is an unbeliever in first Peter Peter writes wives in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that if any of them do not believe the word they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives so in the New Testament era very simp simply and very clearly a Peter says if you are spiritually mismatched don't divorce speaking to ladies in this case because you're godly example can be part of what God uses to win them to faith in Christ okay likewise 1st Corinthians Paul writes if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him he should not divorce her if any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her she should not divorce him for the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife and the unbelieving wife has made holy because of her husband otherwise your children would be unclean but as it is they are holy I don't think this is any guarantee of holiness but it seems that it is saying that both for husbands and wives and children who are part of a spiritually mixed what marriage there is a holy opportunity by preserving the marriage by which like Peter said one might be drawn to and one to faith in Christ no guarantee but I know of some great examples of where that exact thing has happened Soph is not telling us that the question we would have of the text is why was it like that then and not now let's think about that Israel lived under a different covenant covenant meaning a different arrangement that God had with them for how things were done for example none of you brought sacrifices to church today none of you are trying to obey the 600 or so ceremonial laws of the Old Testament there are many different things about the Old Covenant and the New Covenant this seems to be part of that and that also leads us to understand how then God worked with Israel as a nation God's blessing on Israel depended on their spiritual condition as a nation God in those in the Old Testament era was involved with and revealing his will through a single nation not a church of many nations so it's as if all of his eggs were in one basket and he was protecting that nation from spiritual influence and so there was some very strict and important rules that went along with that and then we can look at the example of history in the Old Testament that tolerating intermarriage with pagans results and you could really say always resulted in widespread idolatry and God's judgment Samson and Delilah Solomon and 700 wives almost all pagan a having Jezebel are examples of where leaders married pagan wives with the resulting spiral that in his sense really is what led to generations centuries of downward spiritual journey ending in the Babylonian destruction of the temple and the exile that brought us to the place at the beginning of the book of Ezra so would this step that we read about in Ezra 10 bring about unimaginable personal family pain and loss to every offending family absolutely and yet somehow in the wisdom of God it would hold off spiritual disaster and avoid more serious judgment by God so while we are not called to do this hard thing the principle is we are called to do hard things to break free from sin or to prevent and avoid future sin problems so let's kind of walk through the passage have and see how this unfolds the first issue we see worth following is Ezra genuine remorse for sin realizing he was not even guilty personally this is on behalf of his people as it priest confessing verse 1 weeping throwing himself down praying the four verbs here following up 3 we saw two weeks ago in our study in Chapter 9 verses 3 & 4 he tore his garments pulled out some of his hair sat appalled why such a public display he is showing that the spiritual stakes are incredibly high with what he has come and discovered grieving for sin do you grieve over your sin it's not quite the same as guilt as believers we probably all experience guilt about sin that's the Holy Spirit and does that it's grieving is not quite the same as regret often our regret is based on how this sin has made us feel or the consequences there the trouble that got us in true repentance is not about my feelings of guilt and regret about me but godly grief is Godward grief it's when we experience the violation of the holiness of God it was contagious large crowd men women children weeping that contagious in a good way God used his sincerity and remorse for sin and it spread by the Spirit of God around Jerusalem I remember at the Christian high school were for Seoul and I attended and met there was an on a particular day in a chapel service I remember a special movement of God I think there'd been a special speaker or something and so there was a chapel devoted to giving testimonies and I think it was started by a student who stood up and publicly confessed sin and asked for prayer and it began a series of contagious open confessions and tears of repentance and a work of God that day there's a reason why we are called to meet together in settings other than public Proclamation but places where we can be sincere and open and transparent about sin James 5:16 says to confess your sins to one another there's a special power that is contagious in that first step was genuine remorse of repentance secondly in verses 2 through 5 we see how they sought God and His Word second ayah not known otherwise really rises to the occasion it says he's the son of Joh in verse 26 we find J Hale was one his dad was one of those who was offending by marrying a pagan wife and sent her away so he knew this situation in a very personal way in fact there are the possibility been raised that these were actually additional wives this was polygamy as well as spiritually mixed marriages but I loved his final statement I love him because he says in spite of this there are still hope for Israel when when addressing sins seriously you need someone to speak about the Grace and the whole that we have in Jesus Christ so this man is a guy who understands alongside Ezra God's holy standards and yet he fully understands God's grace he knows how God thinks he knows how God's work works he knows that if the nation did nothing they were in deep trouble with the holiness of God but that if they did respond they would be the great recipients of God's grace and he understand stood the tension in the blending of those important traits the holiness and the grace of God so there is hope the study this this point is is hard as we think about how to cut sin off by the throat but we have to understand that God's grace there is still hope in all of this notice as he supports Ezra his focus is earth-three now let us make a covenant before God it's not just what you and I think it's a covenant that is vertical sin is always a vertical issue first when David sinned with Bathsheba he wrote in his confession Psalm 51 for against you praying against you you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment so the first primary issue is what does God call sin in our lives how will we discover that John first on 1:8 says if you say you have no sin you lie and the truth is not in you so what is it's not what the culture thinks is sin it's not even what a Christian friend at church thinks is sin it's not what I think is sin not what some good Christian book or blog or something you read on the internet because you'll always find someone to agree with you but you with the Spirit of God to ask the question what sin are you addressing in my and then what to do about it second ayah says we go to God's Word and God's people in accordance with the counsel of my Lord he says recognizing Ezra's role as a priest and a spiritual leader and those who fear the commands of our God so there's Azra and second ayah leaders there are others who submit themselves to the commands the Word of God so let it be done according to the law this is a beautiful example of how God works in concert with others God could have sent a prophetic voice like he had done some decades before with Haggai and says this is the problem this is what you got to do he said Haggai he said Zakaria we've seen that but this time he sent spiritual leaders working in concert with the whole group it's amazing the power when God works like that together corporately we're used to individual pastor staff mentioned in the message last week I watched it early in the morning from st. Louis he mentioned that the church board is developing a document of core values in itself this this is a valuable rich experience as now 10 of us are are working through what are the important things that God has impressed on us for church life here one of the core values we've been discussing is our philosophy that we desire to have ministries led by a team of leaders as opposed to just a single individual there seems to be such good biblical examples and wisdom there's got to be key point people who initiate things but a team of leaders sharing responsibilities as you address hard things or pursue good things that God is leading Azra seems to get this he knows when to back away he seems to know when to share his leadership there was genuine remorse there's a seeking of God and His Word and now as we go to verse 6 we find there is a spiritual preparation before action steps then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the room of Johan and son of Elias cheb while he was there he ate no food and drank no water because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the Exile he goes to a room to pray fast grieve the nation's sinned a bit longer there are times you just don't know what to do or if you do know what to do you hesitate to do it it's a hard thing and you aren't sure what to do it might be about your own sin it might be as a parent how to handle sin in the children that you you oversee what kind of discipline maybe how many have ever regretted the first thing that came out of your mouth when you said stated some discipline do you take it back do you stick to it things as simple principle as remodels here as you're faced with those tough decisions about hard things wait a bit and pray a lot wait a bit and pray a lot it's possible Azria isn't even praying about their decision because it seems they've already decided the leaders have agreed this is what we got to do they've even taken the oath verse 5 so what could it be praying about I could he's praying about how will the people respond this is a huge ask if we think is ridiculously hard 2500 years later how hard was it when these are women you knew these are these are children you joked around with in the marketplace so he fasted and mourned and then he sent out this Proclamation verse 7 a proclamation was then issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem due to the area Jerusalem the city for all the Exile to assemble in Jerusalem anyone who failed to appear within three days would forfeit all his property in accordance with the decision of the officials and the elders and would himself be expelled from the of the XX Isles this was the most serious discipline that a Jew could experience outside of capital punishment I guess to be expelled from the community of Israel and so knowing this is a critical crisis moment Ezra is prepared and then he gives the pregnant proclamation that he and the other leaders I take these to be leaders of the Exile community that was already in place who had a spiritual mindset gave the proclamation how will they respond there's a couple things I think we've learned along the way I'll just put this up here of how to address our wrongs there's a number of things that we see happening that is setting the stage for what God is doing they clearly admitted their sin before God you thought the wisdom of spiritual leaders the principle of wait a bit and pray a lot and then be willing to do what is hard which is the sticking point for you the admitting the seeking wisdom the waiting than praying or the willingness to do so how did the people respond to verses 9 through 15 within the three days all the men of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem now instead of labeling it geographically he goes by tribe that's look this southern area called Judah was actually two tribes Judah and Benjamin and on the 20th day of the ninth month all the people were sitting in the square before the house of God greatly distressed because of the occasion and because of the rain then as where the priests stood up and said to them you have been unfaithful you have married foreign women adding to Israel's guilt now make confession to the Lord the God of your father's and do his will separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from the foreign wives I take it this is a immense meeting the whole Assembly responded with a loud noise you are right we must do as you say but there are many people here and it's the rainy season so we cannot stand outside besides the matter cannot be taken care of in a day or two because we have sinned greatly in this thing it's not just a couple of people let our officials act for the whole Assembly then let everyone in our towns who has married a foreign woman come at a set time along with the elders and the judges of each town until the fierce anger of our God in this matter is turned away from us only Johnathan's son of essa he'll and jay-z aya son of Tiffa supported by mouth shulam and shabath eye the Levite opposed this there will always be those who oppose what the work of God and very likely we we would suppose that these are men who were offenders in this case making hard choices requires spiritual courage and wisdom so repentance means making hard choices but making hard choices requires courage and wisdom and we see that here first the courage issue where do you get courage from to do to get over the hump whatever emotional spiritual family cultural hump it is to do that hard thing how do you find that courage the core trait that empowers courage is humility you see humility running through here they received the confrontation they embraced the sin and guilt nothing changes in our lives without humility nothing changes without humility could we say it together like twice nothing changes without humility nothing changes without humility they came trembling the word in the Hebrew language can mean both trembling and shivering the date is December not 8 it's winter their December 8th so it's already cold now add wet and no cover and yet they came so not only was it cold and wet but they were feeling the weight of their guilt and the fear of what might happen notice at the end of verse 14 about this set time coming with the elders and judges until the fierce anger of our God in this matter is turned away from us how much trouble are we in there wondering so Ezra with the supporters check and I and the leading priests of Ezra and having spent time praying and fasting and preparing makes this declaration and says in verse 10 you have been unfaithful he calls it what it is and says now make verse 11 make confession to the Lord the God of your father's and do his will separate yourselves to the peoples around you and from your foreign wives it's a holy moment Ezra is speaking verbally but God is speaking internally it's called conviction when we submit ourselves to the Word of God God Himself speaks to us because he is holy and because he is good and he knows what to do to cleanse to heal and to help us do whatever hard thing it is he wants us to do conviction itself is useless because you can grow to ignore and tolerate it but it's when we decide to respond with humility and they did they said yes to God notice the way they said it you are right verse 12 we must do as you say in to verse 14 because we have sinned greatly this is the language of humility before God you are right we must do as you say we ascend greatly is this your posture towards God you are right we must do as you say I recognize my sin is this is this your posture to spiritual people who might speak into your life friends or leadership is this your posture when you make an apology or our apologies edged with but as we defend ourselves you are right you must do as you say we've sinned greatly I've been impressed in recent studies of books of Samuel at the key contrast between King Saul and King David the first two kings of Israel that's in in so many ways the the main issue of the book to see those two men in the contrast because King Saul is rejected by God and replaced by David who has then called a man after God's own heart and so Saul ends up in disgrace and committing suicide and we all celebrate the King day and yet if you look at the actual events and the narratives of their life you would probably conclude just from our outsider's perspective that the sins of David were greater than the census all sins of David were this adultery with Bathsheba when he had all these other wives and then to cover up his adultery with Bathsheba he sends out a hit man or a hit squad to make sure that her husband dies and what Saul did that key pivotal point was he made a sacrifice because he was impatient and he wasn't supposed to make now from our perspective a murder and adultery so why is David called a man after God's own heart boiled down to one issue humility humility and humility Saul defended his sense all lied about his sin David confessed his sin and repented Saul was angry about the consequences of his sin to himself David was grieved about the effect of his sin on the holiness of God and the language of humility is you are right we must do as you say I've sinned greatly these suggestions came from the heart of these men in the crowd they were practical and and wise I don't I don't think they were defensive when they said you know we just can't make these decisions standing out here in the rain we get that and so evidently as they talked among themselves and and had this discussion and and and and they came up with suggestions coming from those hearts of those men who were gathered and said why don't we do this let our officials act for the whole assembly that's a that's a that's an attitude of trust and humility to put themselves under the officials who had been gathered by godly priest Ezra and then will come at a set time along with the elders and judges of each of these towns so they're setting the stage for a fair investigation the area of Judah is not all that big you can see on the scale there it's 20 maybe 30 miles to Jerusalem from any of the areas where these exile had probably resettled just as three days was sufficient for them to have the first Proclamation made and so now we're gonna make appointments and we're gonna we're gonna meet letter officials verse 14 act for the whole Assembly then let everyone in our towns who has married a foreign woman come at a set time along with the elders and judges of each town until the fierce anger of our God and this matter has turned away from us so they set a appointments elders and judges from the local areas that came along would essentially serve as lawyers and/or witnesses before the judge and jury of those officials because the local elders and judges would know the real story as they went case by case they would know whether this was really a pagan wife or perhaps was this a proselyte who had converted to the worship of the God of Israel like Rahab from Jericho or like Ruth from Moab because you see Gentiles could be accepted in Israel if they were truly converted but in this case who would decide if this was a true conversion or if someone suddenly claimed I follow the God of Israel kind of like sometimes people get into marriages believers and unbelievers because okay I love Jesus and we can just kind of say what we want to say so we can marry who we want to marry but the wisdom to do hard things here came from some careful deliberation then verses 16 so the x-files did as was proposed as are the pre-selected men who were family heads one from each family division and all of them did is a designated by name they set a schedule on the first day of the tenth month they sat down to investigate cases and by the first day of the first month they finished dealing with all the men who had married foreign women and then comes the list and so in 60 days they decide all of these cases and if we were to read through the names which we won't there are some 113 men's names who are found to be offending in this spiritual mixed marriages and who then send away their wives verse 44 with their children all these had married foreign women and some of them had children by these wives excruciating so they worked on it for some 60 days so about a case or two a day maybe there were many more cases but there were found to be some of these spiritual exceptions or other circumstances but they were careful verses 8 18 to 22 lists the priests first of all who were guilty there were quite a few that were to be spiritual leaders who were guilty this is how this is how things work is when the leaders are guilty it is really worse than Levites and temple singers verse 23 and 4 and then many others the rest of the list so they send them away that's how the book ends is the conclusion of Ezra a let down or a spiritual high point if we think about the book of Ezra that we've been studying it has been a story of the goodness of God it's been the story of how God has been at work first of all in the political rulers of the day Cyrus and then artaxerxes who not only agreed but commission and the go and to rebuild their temple and restart worship in the homeland it had been the work of God in key leaders like zerubabbel and Ezra who were able to shoulder the responsibility of taking tens of thousands of people's back to the homeland to worship it had been the movement of God in those tens of thousands to pick up their families and move to go and restart worship it had been the story of the grace of God when they went there started the temple and then would not complete the job but they responded twenty years later and finished today it had been a story of the goodness of God from beginning so is this still good maybe it's the best thing of all because God cared so much about the turning points of all these people and all the work he had done that he was going to do everything possible to preserve the spiritual gains he has made and if and if God has been at work in your life in some special way and just maybe the past months prompting new commitments and just realized that God will do everything he can to preserve the spiritual gains and it may include some hard things if he would have for you to do and that's why we can't just talk about God's grace we have to talk about addressing sin like to share seven hard things that we might need to do these are not so much steps in sequence but these are a a series of things there are some these are printed at the back table you can pick up a copy if you don't want to write them down if you're interested number one prioritize holiness aligning with God requires hard choices to anticipate and prevent sin prioritizing holiness as long as the necessary issues of financial gain success of ourselves success of our kids and and having as much fun as possible continues to be our priority we will not address hard things in our lives it has to become holiness must become priority we must identify spiritual weaknesses i've got to recognize my own sinful patterns if you think you have a hard time discovering what those are dare to ask the people who know and love you best I thought you'd rather try to find it out yourself right but know if you've been responsive to the Word of God and the Spirit of God in prayer you you probably know what these tendencies are accountability spiritual health requires connection and accountability to a church family what we see happening in Ezra 10 the fact that there was a willingness a United willingness to do hard things is because they were so connected to each other today not in a nation but in the church family we have a natural accountability if we are willing to connect and in that natural accountability it's not only about addressing our failures accountability is about encouragement it's about learning from others so we don't have to make all the mistakes ourselves because someone in the group that you insure with has already made some of those mistakes and and you've made some for them and and we can encourage and help avoid things for one another and before sacrifice we gave up something to experience true change every doctor will tell you that you need to give up certain foods and give up time to keep active right there will be sacrifice and if spiritual health is our true goal in holiness before God's our true goal there's gonna have to be something that we will give up there will be some activity some attitude it might be places we cannot go maybe some shows that have to be deleted from our streaming list even though we never know how the story is going to turn out now there'll be some hard choices it's worth it because of the family impact dealing decisively with sin begins to address the generational power of sin we all know that we need to have observed in others certain sins seem to follow generations by simple modeling I guess and so we know where we have perhaps picked up some of our parents worst traits and not only their best and so how will we address that someone has to put on the spiritual brakes and start over and dealing decisively with hard choices becomes that first step King David's immorality had contagious consequences in the generations and what we addressed decisively can have profound impact to spare our children and precious grandchildren sin requires some follow up confession is God word and he cleanses and forgiveness but apology restitution etc can address others hurt by my sin there are consequences of sin that we cannot stop even as David could not stop all of them but clear honest humble apologies restitution for losses where possible making other sacrifices can be part of healing the wounds may be that even we have caused God forgives instantly in heaven on earth healings a process you're building trust takes time and then finally hope choosing hope hope is found in God's grace do you forgive and the spirits power to transform I love second ayah there is still hope for Israel God's nature is about grace to forgive he is eager to forgive the cross was all about God redeeming his relationship with sinful men women and children as we addressed that and embrace His grace we then are desperately in need of help that we with power we cannot provide like just share two walking principles that kind of launch into the the rest of the story of where we go from here you could say first John 1:7 says if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light we have fellowship with one another that's us in God and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin this is a continual need we have to walk in the light the story of Ezra 10 we'll have to be refreshed over and over and over in our lives that's walking that that's that's walking on a sinful earth and we know the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us here's the other kind of walk in Galatians 5:16 but I say walk in the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh we need power we do not have that only God can supply and because God has given us His Holy Spirit he lives within us we are the temple of the Holy Spirit he will enable us to make any change he prompts in our heart do any hard thing that is necessary because his spirit God himself works through us if we yield to him but there is no change without humility and yielding to that spirit but there is hope because of the forgiveness of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit let's pray our Heavenly Father we are deeply in need of your grace and your power continue to show us your self so that we can see ourselves honestly as we see ourselves more honestly protect us from a spiritual depression in which we are simply down in ourselves but instead we are amazingly encouraged it's your grace for us and if the deeper we go to acknowledge our sin that bigger the ocean of your grace appears thank you that there is always hope and that your your spirit empowers us to live a transformed life in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Open Door Bible Church

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Length: 45min 25sec (2725 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 27 2019