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open it up to the book of Ezra, chapter 9. Ezra, chapter 9. Well, tonight we will finish up the book of Ezra, and I've entitled this evening's message, Restoring the Heart of the Nation. I know that's been the overall theme of the book of Ezra, but tonight we really see Ezra's work within the nation. Just to recap, the children of Israel had been sent back by Cyrus to rebuild

the temple, and so they go back with a small party of people, and they rebuild the temple. They build the foundation, build the temple, and in that process, they are tempted to compromise because there's a group of people that are living in the land that are not truly of Jewish descent and honestly worshiped God in a very different way. They said, we would like to join in because, sure, we do. We do things a little bit differently, but aren't we all actually worshiping the same God? And they

said, no. They would not give in to the compromise, and so after that, there was great discouragement that came on them. They tried to say, well, you can't build the temple, and they sent letters to a new king, and the new king said, no, they need to stop building the temple. God sent along a couple of preachers, and those preachers reinvigorated the motivation within the people, and they got back to building the temple. Well, the temple was built. They've got everything that

they need, and then comes Ezra, and he returns with another group of people, and he returns for a couple of purposes. Number one, to bring more wealth to the kingdom or to the children of Israel so that they can continue to support the work of the temple, but also to teach. He wanted to teach the people the law, and honestly, that's what he was sent out to do by the king, and so he has returned to the land, and now he's been there a few months, but he's going to run into some trouble. And so we pick up in chapter 9, verse 1, as we begin to look at some sin within the land.

It says this, now when these things had been completed, the princes approached me saying, the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the land according to their abominations, those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their wealth and given it to the people of Israel, and they have taken some of their wealth and given it to the people of Israel. For they have taken some of their wealth and given it to the people of Israel, and they have taken their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has intermingled

with the peoples of the land. Indeed, the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness. Starts off by saying, after these things. Now, this is after he has returned to the land, and most agree that he's probably been back in the nation of Israel, back in the land of Judah, for probably about four months. And we don't really know what took

place in those four months, although remember, Ezra had set his heart to study the law, to obey the law, and to teach the law. It was a determination or a commitment that he'd made, and he had honestly been summoned by the king to do that, to teach the law. So I think in these four months that he is in the land, before all of this takes place, I think he is beginning to go around the land of Judah, and he is beginning to teach what the law has to say. And the reason why I think that he's going around teaching what the law has to say is because it doesn't take very long. It doesn't take very long to teach what the law has to say.

It doesn't take very long before people start reporting to him the issues in the land where people are not keeping the law. Here's the thing. Everything is right within our own eyes until we begin to understand what the word of God has to say about it. That's why it's wonderful to have events where people get emotional, and they come forward, and they make a proclamation of faith.

But after that, there's got to be the teaching of the word, because the teaching of the word is what begins to show us what is right and what is wrong. What God desires of us to do, and what God requires of us to do, and what God requires of us not to do. And so this teaching is taking place, and there's some form of revival happening, but the revival begins with the understanding of sin. Notice what it says in the middle of verse one.

The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the land. According to their abominations, those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. The first thing it says is they've not separated themselves from the evil of the land, and it lists all of those that would dwell within the land at that point in time. In other words, the nation of Israel, those that had returned, this remnant that had returned, instead of coming back and being a light to the nations around them, are starting to look like the nations around them. Instead of being separated

from the world that is around them, and their actions are starting to act just like the world. And this is how it takes place. They begin to act like the world. Why? Because in verse two it says, for they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons so that the holy race has intermingled with the peoples of the lands. And indeed, the hands of the princes

and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness. And when I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe, and I pulled some hair from my head and my beard, and I sat down appalled. And then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me. And I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice. What had they done to intermingle with the people of the land? Well,

they had begun to take their daughters as wives. Now, why is this a problem? Well, he'll go on in his prayer in a few minutes to explain to us why it's an issue. But God was very specific when the nation of Israel came into the land. They said, you should not intermarry with the people of the land because they will lead you. Now, she said to them, if they didn't work to serve God, then what would you even be taking away?

And so with her on account of their traveling, she mixture her 먼저 sylls e three times. And she said, you slip out of this place, take this crotch, devour him till he dies ensnaring the nation under God. She said to the progressions none could see her consultants she intermingled with the people of the land, but they If only they had captured the country, and had 혹시 made a living with leaves, they would ready to engage in the worship of a foreign god," sheубd. As a matter of fact, one of Israel's greatest kings, as far as wealth is concerned, was a guy named Solomon. And we remember everything was going really well in Solomon's life until one thing

happened. One detrimental verse to the life of Solomon. It said but Solomon loved many foreign women take God's word seriously. And I want you to take notice of who all was involved in this. It says, indeed, in verse 2, the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness. And we'll find out at the end of chapter 10 that not only was it the princes and the

rulers, but it was also the priests and the Levites. In other words, no one was exempt from this. And we need to understand something. When leaders don't take sin seriously, how can we expect the people to? When leadership, whether it's the leadership within a nation, whether it's the leadership within a church, whether it's the leadership within a home, when leadership does

not take sin seriously, how can you expect those that are following to do the same thing? It's the classic, don't do what I do, do what I say. The problem is your actions speak much louder than your words. And in this instance, their actions spoke volumes about what was going on in their lives. But we are reminded of something in the Bible. There are several things that I want to point out from this verse 2. Number one is

Scripture is very clear that we are not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And I think that this goes in a wide scheme of things. First of all, it goes in relationships like a dating or a marriage relationship. If an unbeliever and a believer come together, I really don't even know how you can make that relationship work because your lives are going two opposite directions. It's very hard to be melded together

when you're both pursuing different things. That's why when you find a marriage where one spouse gets saved and the other is still not, if they can make it work, it's beautiful. But I'm here to tell you right now that's a difficult marriage at that point in time. That's why you have to make decisions early in life about saying, this is my standard that I'm going to follow.

Because once you stop following that standard, it becomes really difficult. But you know, that does not just end with the teenagers that we talk to. This idea of being unequally yoked. Who do you spend the most of your time with? I would tell you, no matter how many times you've been in a relationship, you've got to be unequally yoked. You've got to be unequally yoked. You've got to be unequally yoked. You've got to be unequally yoked.

I would tell you, no matter how old you are, if the people that you spend the most of your time with are not pursuing the Lord, you will be drug into their life with them. Whether you're 15 years old or 85 years old, the people that you spend your time with are going to end up dragging you along with them. The same is true in business partnerships. Whatever it is, the people that you're around the most are going to end up dragging you down or building you up. That's why we cannot be unequally yoked

together with unbelievers. We are to be in the world. We are not to be of the world. But the last thing that I want to point out about verse 2 is this. Isn't it interesting that you can be free from doctrinal compromise and at the same time give in to moral compromise? You see, the children of Israel had made a really strong stand. They said, we will not let you build

with us because you worship God differently than we do. We will stand strong on the doctrine of the fact that only the children of Israel are going to rebuild the temple. But gosh, you're awful cute. Right? And we can end up giving in to moral compromise even though doctrinally we've stood really strong. And we have to be careful as believers in Jesus Christ who can know what God's

word has to say that if we don't put it into practice in our lives, not just in our knowledge, not just in the stands that we take, but listen, the private lives that we live, it will end up showing in every other part of our life. Because we can be strong in our doctrine and still fail in our morality. Because the two cannot be torn apart. What you believe will affect how you live your life. And so

Ezra responds in a fascinating way. Look at verse 3 again. It says, when I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe and I pulled some hair out of my head and my beard and I sat down appalled. And everyone who trembled at the words of God, of the God of Israel, on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles, gathered to me and I said, I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice. I want to

point out the brokenness that Ezra is experiencing right now as he sees the sin going on within the nation. Remember, he's been the one going around proclaiming the law to the people. He came here to help restore the heart of the nation. And he's probably been pouring energy into it. He's probably been pouring work into it. He's probably been trying as hard as he can

to teach the people the law. And his great desire is to see them worship the Lord. His great desire is to see them follow God. After all, he'd already determined in his own heart to study the law, to obey the law, and to teach the law. And it's his great joy. I bet a lot of people are showing up to his Bible studies. And I bet there's a lot of people excited about what he's saying. And he's probably going,

man, this is pretty cool. And then somebody comes and brings in this word. Listen, I know a lot of people are showing up to your Bible studies, but we have a problem. The problem is that they're still moral compromised, even though they're showing up to your studies. And Ezra has a choice. He can react in anger at this point in time and begin hurling insults,

and all manner of evil against these people, or he could be broken over their sin. Ezra chooses option B. First thing it says that he does is he tears his robe and he tears his garment. The reason why he does that is because that's one of the greatest signs at that point in time to show the rending of the heart. They show the rending of the heart by the tearing of

the garment. The second thing that he does is he starts to pull the hair out of his head. And I know what you're thinking right now. You must really be appalled about sin. I am. Okay? And then it says that he sat simply appalled until evening. That word is what I want to point out to you because I think it's a really important word. That word means to be astonished,

to be devastated, or to be horrified. And I find this to be so true that if we're going to deal properly with sin, we have to first be horrified by sin. If we're going to deal properly with sin, we must first understand, that we've been devastated by sin. And if we don't allow the pain of the sin around us to begin to affect our heart, then we will never be able to minister properly to the people that are around us because I will always be hardened to the sin that's around me unless it first of all devastates me. You see, this was Jesus. I'm reading in the Gospels right now. I'm reading in Matthew.

And as I'm reading in Matthew, Jesus, at the end of, I think it's Matthew, 24, it might be 25, after he declares the woes over Jerusalem, he stands up, looks over Jerusalem, and he says, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who slay the prophets, how often I have wanted to gather you as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would have no part in me. You see, that's a broken heart. That's a devastated heart. That's a horrified heart over the sin that is dominating the nation.

of Israel as Jesus looks over that land. And that heart is what God is looking for in those that he would use. You see, the problem that we have is we've become so hardened to sin that when we hear about it in the lives of people, we're like, yep, that's just what people do in this day and age. Doesn't it break your heart? Doesn't it hurt to see people give in to sin?

We're told in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Now, in that context, that mourning that it's referring to, it's not just the mourning over the effect of sin, which is death. It's mourning over the fact that sin is destroying a culture. That's why Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Do you mourn over the sin that we see around us today? Do you mourn over the sin that

you see take place sometimes within the church, but definitely outside of the church? This is what he does. And I just think the news hit him so heavy in his heart that all he could do was sit with his balding head and his patchy beard and his clothes torn and just be devastated by the sin that he saw. I can't tell you the messages and the phone calls that I get, partly because I can't,

of news of people that have once again given in to sin. I received one of those messages right before we got here, and I can't go into details because I'm not allowed, but sin hurts. Sin hurts deep. We've got to quit being so angry with people and start being so broken. Over sin. So he sits appalled at what's going on. It says this, verse five, but at the evening

offering, I arose from my humiliation, even with my garments and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and I stretched out my hands to the Lord, my God. We'll read through this, but I just want you to know the rest of this is his prayer. The entire rest of chapter nine is the prayer of Ezra as he pours out. His heart to the Lord says this, since the days, excuse me, verse six, and I said, oh my God, I'm ashamed and I'm embarrassed to lift up my face to you for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even into the heavens. Since the days of our fathers to this

day, we have been in great guilt and on account of our iniquities, we, our kings, and our priests have given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, to open shame as it is this day. I want you to notice the personal pronouns or the personal nature that he's given to this at this point in time. He doesn't say, oh Lord, they are guilty. Oh Lord, they have committed sin. Oh Lord, the people in the land have given into sin. No,

what does he say? I'm ashamed because of our sin. I'm ashamed because we, we are guilty. Now, I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but I don't see anything about Ezra having married a woman from the land. And yet, what is he doing? He is owning the people's sin as his own. Why? Because it's really hard. It's really hard to minister to people when you're

looking down on them. It's really hard to minister to people when you think you're better than they are. It's really hard to minister to broken people when you look at them and say, you're broken and I'm not. Instead, what if, what if we begin to own the sins of our nation? What if we begin to own the nation as our own? What if we own the sins of our family as our own? Instead of saying, Lord,

thank you that I'm not like these other people. I'm not like all these other ones, Lord, a sinner like this tax collector. Sorry, I got into quoting scripture there for just a second. Now, I'm not a sinner like this tax collector over here. No, what if we stood there like the tax collector as if we were him too and beat our breast and said, oh Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. You see, if we want

to have the right heart to minister, then we have to be appalled by not only the sin of the people, but we have to own it for ourselves and understand that we're a part of the culture that's allowed all of this to go on. For far too long now, the church has looked down on sinners instead of welcoming them and saying, now let me tell you about the gospel. Now, let me tell you how Jesus can change you. I'm not going to excuse your sin, but I am going to love you enough to tell you when you're wrong.

What he does here, that's the right heart when being appalled by sin. Too many of us, you see the things going on in culture and you're just angry about it, right? Anybody here? It's okay. We can own this right now. Sometimes we get really angry about it. I can't believe that song would say that. I can't believe they would do that. I can't believe they would act out. What do you mean

there's an entire pride month? It's the world. They're lost. What do you expect them to do? What? Instead of being appalled that people would act that way, we're appalled that sin is destroying our culture. And this is what Ezra does in this moment. He says, Lord, this is our sin. He says in verse eight, but now for a brief moment, grace has been shown from the Lord,

our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in his holy place that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage. That peg speaks of a tent peg, but the idea is that we're not going to be a tent peg. We're going to be a tent peg. The idea is that we've got a little bit of hope in the faith that comes from the fact that God has not left us alone. We've got a little bit of a peg to hold on to. And God is enlightening our

eyes for we, verse nine, are slaves. Yet in our bondage, our God has not forsaken us, but has extended loving kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia to give us reviving, to raise up the house of our God, to restore its ruins and to give us a wall in Judah in Jerusalem. And now our God, what shall we say? For we have forsaken your commandments. If you're an underliner, that's a good one to

underline because I think that's something that we need to remember about all sin, right? How many of us like to soft pedal sin? Oh, I had a little stumbling in my life. Oh, I had a little shortcoming. You know, it's like when politicians lie and they call it a, I just struggled with the truth. No, you lied, right? And that's kind of what we do. But I love this because it says,

he doesn't soft pedal anything. He says, we have forsaken your commandments because that's the depth of what sin is. That's forsaking what God has called for us to do. Verse 11, it says, which you have commanded by your servants, the prophets saying the land, which you are entering to possess is an unclean land with the uncleanness of the peoples of the land, with their abominations, which have filled it from end to end with their impurity. So now do not give your daughters to

their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons and never, seek their peace or their prosperity that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as an inheritance to your sons forever. He goes back and reminds them of what God's command was that they forsaken. He goes back and quotes once again for them, the books of Deuteronomy and Exodus. How is he able to do that? Well, because he'd set his heart to study the law. And so now

he goes back and says, you got to understand this is where we're disobeying God's law. This is where God, we are disobeying what your word has to say. He says, verse 13, and after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, since you, our God, have required us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us an escaped remnant as this, shall we again break your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would you not be angry with us to the point of destruction until there's no remnant nor any who escape? The Lord God of Israel, you are righteous.

For we have been left an escaped remnant. And as it is this day, behold, we are before you in our guilt for no one can stand before you because of this. What a powerful prayer from a powerful man of God who is being used in this moment. Well, after we see this brokenness and confession come from Ezra, now it's time to take action. Look at verse one of chapter 10. It says,

while Ezra was praying and making confession, and weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women, and children gathered to him from Israel for the people wept bitterly. I find this to be interesting because the people have now followed suit. Here is Ezra, the man that was sent by the king to come back and teach the people, to come back and train the people what it looks like. This man has been summoned by the king. He's been summoned by the king. He's been summoned by the

king to do this. And there he is, this great leader who's led this coalition of people back to the land. And there he stands in front of them weeping. He's got tears running down his face. He's got snot running down his face. And he's prostrated before the Lord. And he is completely humiliated in the way that he looks. And the people don't go, gosh, why is he making such

a big deal out of this? I don't understand what the problem is. No, because once you see somebody broken over sin, you begin to start to look inside yourself. You begin to look inside yourself. You begin to look inside yourself. Leaders lead in this way. Leaders lead in brokenness over sin. And as leaders lead in authentic ways in brokenness over sin, people tend to follow suit.

People tend to follow those kinds of things. And as Ezra does this, the people are weeping as well, and they gather together to him. And I want you to notice there's going to be a plan that's brought out. Verse 2, Shechaniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, we have been unfaithful to you. We have been unfaithful to you. We have been unfaithful to you. We have been

unfaithful to our God, and we have married foreign women from the peoples of the land. Yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. Listen, again, if you're an underliner, just you might bracket or underline that phrase. There is hope. There is hope. I love this because is the sin great? Yes. Is the brokenness great? Absolutely. Is there still hope? You bet there is.

You bet there is. And listen, I don't care who you are. I don't care how far you've fallen. I don't care where you struggle. I don't care where you're going. I don't care where you're going. I don't care where you struggle with sin. There is always hope to come back to the Lord. There is always hope to come back to Jesus. There is never a point, as long as you are on top side of this world, there is

never a point where if the Holy Spirit is bringing conviction into your heart that you have to think there's no going back now. Because as long as you have breath in your lungs, there is grace in God's heart, and there is hope. And I love this because everybody's broken. Everybody's crying. It's just a great big Kleenex fest. And in the middle of it, this guy goes,

you're right, we've sinned. We've messed up about as big as you can possibly mess up. But there is hope. Why is there hope? Because there's always repentance. Notice what he says. Verse three. So now let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and their children, according to the counsel of my Lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it be done according to the law. Arise for this

matter is your responsibility, but we will be with you. Be courageous and act. And Ezra rose and made the leading priest, the Levites, and all Israel take oath that they would do according to this proposal. So they took the oath. And Ezra rose from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib. Although he went there, he did not eat bread

nor drink water, for he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles. And they made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the exiles that they should assemble at Jerusalem. And whoever would not come in three days, according to the counsel of the leaders and the elders, all his possessions should be forfeited. He should be excluded from the assembly of the exiles. So they come up with this plan. We're going to make a covenant with God. And we

are going to repent of this sin. We're going to deal with this sin. And listen, only you can make this proclamation, but we're behind you. We're with you 100%. And so Ezra goes, all right, let's do it. It's gathering all the people together. You've got three days to get here, all of you men, because I've got a word for you and you need to hear it. There's a covenant that needs to be made.

There's a covenant that needs to be kept. And so it says, all the men of Judah, verse 9, and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month on the 20th day of the month. And all the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and the heavy rain. And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, you have been unfaithful. You've married foreign

wives, adding to the guilt of Israel. Now, therefore, make confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers, and do his will. And separate yourself from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives. And all the assembly replied with a loud voice, that's right, as you have said, so it is our duty to do. He says, listen, you guys need to make this proclamation. You have married foreign wives, adding to the guilt of Israel. Now, therefore, make

this right. And the way that you're going to make it right is by putting away these foreign wives. So we need to understand something. Repentance requires action. Repentance requires action. It's one thing to say you're sorry. It's a whole other thing to live like you're sorry. My old U.S. history teacher, Mrs. Jones, who taught me how to speak Southern, always said,

if you're sorry, you'll change. That's the proof in the pudding. Because that's the way that it is, right? Like, it requires an action in our life. You can say, I repent, and then go right back to it. That's not called repentance. That's called being sorry. Only it's the sorrow that leads to death. You see, godly sorrow leads to repentance. Worldly sorrow leads to death. I just read about the difference between Peter and Judas

this morning. Peter, when he realized what he had done wrong, went and he wept bitterly, but he came back to Jesus. Judas, when he found out what he had done wrong, went and ran from Jesus and hung himself. Godly sorrow, worldly sorrow. And so they go and they say, you're right. This is what we need to do. This is our duty to do. Says, but there are many people. And it's the rainy season, and we're not able to stand in the

open. Nor can the task be done in one or two days, for we have transgressed greatly in this matter. Let our leaders represent the whole assembly, and let all those in our cities who have married foreign wives come at a point of times, together with the elders and judges of each city until the anger of our God on account of the matter is turned away from us. Only Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and that guy, the son of that guy, opposed this with Meshulam and, yeah, that guy, the Levites supporting them. But all the exiles did so, and Ezra the priest selected men who were heads of

the households for each of their father's households, all of them by name. So they convened on the first day of the 10th month to investigate the matter. I find this to be interesting, and I want to make a really good point out of this. At least, I think, it's a really good point. They say, we absolutely think that we should do this, but this is going to take some time, because there's a lot of people who have fallen into this

sin. And I want to remind us all of something, especially those of us that are maybe trying to work through a process of restoration in our lives. Those of us that are trying to work through a process of repentance in our lives, you didn't fall into that sin overnight. You won't get out of that overnight. And I think that, I don't know who that's a word for tonight, but

you have to understand that sometimes when an area of sin, when an area of rebellion is so entrenched in our hearts, we think, oh, I repented, and everything's going to be great. I'm never going to struggle with this again. No, you didn't land in that overnight, and you're not going to get out of it overnight. It's now going to take time to root out the sin that you have in your heart.

It's now going to take time to root out the struggles that you have. Listen, God is faithful, and God is patient, but it is going to take some time. Because when you land in those deep places it takes time for God to work that out of you. It takes time to cleanse that out of you, right? And so he says, listen, it's going to take some time because the weather's bad. We can't get

everybody here to make all of this happen, not to mention the fact that there's a lot of people out there. And so it's going to take some time to work our way through this. And I'll just remind us all again, if your heart is repentant and you are making the changes that God is calling for you to make, be patient with yourself. Be patient with the process because God is working in you.

And so that's what they do here. So it says, end of verse 16, so they convened on the first day of the 10th month to investigate the matter. And they finished investigating all the men who had married wives on the first day of the first month. And among the sons of the priests who had married foreign wives were found the sons of Jeshua. Well, I'm not going to go through all those.

It lists all of the priests, the Levites, the leaders. Listen, this sin was entrenched deeply within the nation. It says in verse 44, and all these married foreign wives, and some of them had wives by whom they had children. Now, as we wrap up this, can we all agree that this is a little bit of a difficult section? You're like, now, wait a second. So God is okay with the fact that they're going to divorce all of these foreign women, that all of a sudden

now all these wives and all these, anybody else struggling with that just a little bit? Okay, so let's work our way through this a little bit. As we kind of close this, up, there's four things that I want to kind of take away from these two chapters that I think are important. One is sort of educational in nature, the other very personal or applicable in nature. So the first thing that we have to understand is this. There's two different ways

that we look at Scripture. There's two different types of texts within Scripture. There is descriptive text, and there is prescriptive text, right? So let me explain what I mean by that. Texts within Scripture are descriptive. For instance, the story in 2 Samuel about David's sin with Bathsheba, that is descriptive, right? It is describing an event that takes place,

and we pull some moral teachings from the failure that took place. It's not prescriptive. It's not telling us, now you go and have an affair with someone, right? There's some lessons we learn, but it's descriptive in nature. Some texts within Scripture are prescriptive, descriptive in nature. In other words, they are teaching you, this is what you're supposed to do.

These are the commands that you need to follow. Everybody following me on this? And so as we look at this particular text, this is descriptive in nature. And so what we need to do is look at what took place and pull out the lessons that we need to learn to apply to our own lives. The first thing that we have to understand about this is that God hates divorce. Divorce, especially as New Testament

believers in Jesus Christ, we are told that if a, a believer and an unbeliever are living together in a relationship, in a marriage relationship, and the unbeliever is willing to continue in that, that that relationship should continue. We're told that within Scripture. That is prescriptive in Scripture. However, if the unbelieving spouse says, dude, you've gotten way too crazy for me, and I don't want to deal with this anymore, then there is a freedom to divorce at that point in time. Why did they make this

choice at this point in time? Well, I think it was a specific move, at a specific time for a specific purpose. They had come back into the land, and they had not just chosen their first wife. They had added to the wives that they already had a foreign woman who is now going to lead them into idolatry. And so sometimes in instances like that, you have to make

very hard decisions. And in this particular instance, this was the decision that was made, and God honored it because they were honoring God and the things that they were doing. And so we now don't take this and go, therefore, if something's wrong, we just go divorce that person. That's not what God wants. So what do we need to take away from this? Well, I think there's three really important

things that we need to take away from these chapters in chapters 9 and 10 of the book of Ezra. Number one, we need to take sin seriously. We need to take sin seriously. It feels like the message of most of the Old Testament, but I think it's really important for the culture that we live in today that does not take sin seriously. Even the culture within the church today that does not

take sin seriously. We need to take sin seriously. We need to take sin seriously. We need to take sin seriously. I am amazed at sometimes what even I will think, oh, well, it's probably not as big of a deal as I think it is. And God's like, what are you talking about? I'm like, you're right. That is a big deal. Why are we excusing this? Why are we saying, well, everybody does it.

We've got to take sin seriously in our lives because we've got to be reminded that there are no benign sins. There are no sins that it's like, well, that's just sort of a, that's just a little bit of a problem. No, no. Sin leads to death. All sin leads to death. And we must take sin seriously. We must take sin seriously in our lives. We must take sin seriously in our culture. We can't start

excusing things and saying, well, listen, we live in a different culture than they did in biblical times. Really? It doesn't seem like it. It feels like we live in the exact same culture that they lived in in biblical times with a lot better technology. And so we have to realize that sin needs to be taken seriously in our lives. Because after all, if God has called us to

holiness, and he has, then holiness is something that we should take very seriously. Number two, we need to allow ourselves to be broken over sin. We need to allow ourselves to be broken over sin. Do you have people that are unsaved that you're praying for right now? Do you have people that are living in the world that you're, that you're praying for right now? I remember asking

a group of kids at Ark City Christian Academy who they were around that wasn't believers, and none of them could name anybody. And I was like, okay, listen, I get that we need to be separate from the world. But there comes a point in time where if you don't have, if you're never around anybody that's of the world, how do you, how are you ever going to develop a heart for people of the world? How are you ever going to understand that there's people lost in their sin?

And so you should have people that you're praying for. And every now and then you should allow your heart to be broken by it. Listen, it's, it's hard to take in and carry the heaviness of the world. But you should have people that you're praying for. You are never nearer to the heart of God than when you are broken over sin. I'll remind you again of Jesus standing over Jerusalem, the people that are about to crucify him, and him saying,

oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets. How many times I wanted to gather you, but you won't want anything to do with me. We got to allow ourselves to, to let that brokenness take hold of us. Why? Not only because it makes us near, to the heart of God, but it makes us sensitive to the people that are around us. Listen, it's really easy to be angry with people that live in sin until you understand why they're

living in that sin. It's easy to be angry with people that keep giving into the sins of the world until you can begin to understand their world just a little bit. And when we start to do that, it's a whole lot easier to be patient with people. And instead of hoping for their destruction, praying for their salvation, allow yourself to be broken. Over sin. But then number three, we have to cut off what keeps us from God.

We have to cut off what keeps us from God. And this is the step that I think most of us as Christians are not willing to take, especially in the creature comfort world that we live in, is we are not willing to cut off the things that keep us from God. We can identify them in our lives. We can hate them in our lives. And yet we can still tolerate them in our lives and say,

I know that leads me to sin, but I just am having a hard time giving that up. I know that having those apps on my phone is going to lead me into sin, but man, there's still some good in them. I know that person is going to lead me towards sin, but gosh, we get along so well. I know that those activities are going to lead me into sin, but it's all I've ever known. And we can identify it. We can know that it's wrong.

And yet still be unwilling to cut it off in our lives. We have to be willing to cut those things off. Jesus was very, very serious about this when he said, if your right eye causes you to sin, you should cut that thing out. Now, listen, most of us have heard that statement so many times that we fail to grasp the nature of the shock that that would have brought to the people that were around him. They've never heard statements like that. He says, if your right hand causes you to

sin, you should cut it off. And yet still be unwilling to cut it off in our lives. We have to that thing off because it's better to enter into heaven maimed than it is to go into hell with your whole body. It seems as though Jesus took those things very, very seriously. And perhaps we should do the same because God is calling us to a place of holiness, because if we want to be used by God,

we must be fit to be used by God. And that means holiness, not to mention the fact that holiness was always God's purpose for us. And so difficult sections, but it's all a part of the restoring of the heart of the nation. Because if you're going to restore the heart of the nation, it begins with restoring the heart of the individual, which begins with dealing with the sin in our hearts. Amen. Father, we come before you and I know that these are

difficult things, hard stuff to learn about. But Lord, I know that you are calling each person in this room and each person watching online to a deeper, a deeper understanding of you and a deeper walk with you. And Lord, if we are to tread into the deeper waters, we have to shed the weights that would pull us down. And so, Father, draw us near to you. Give us the grace to make

the hard decisions that we need to in our lives and move as you see fit. In Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.