Ezra chapter 9 is pretty much, you know, to understand Ezra 10, you really need to understand what's happening in Ezra 9.
Ezra 9 and Ezra 10 really go hand in hand together.
And as we've seen, as we go through the book of Ezra, we've seen how the Jews have come out of Babylon.
And, you know, they've come to rebuild the house of God, rebuild the temple.
And then there's been a delay, a great delay, 14 years.
You know, it's sort of this book where you've got these, you have these spiritual highs.
And then you have these spiritual lows.
And they're in that spiritual low for a long time.
And then God revives the hearts and God sends prophets to encourage the brethren to continue building the house of God.
And you've got the spiritual high, they finish building the house of God and it continues on this high.
You've got Ezra coming with a new multitude of people out of Persia, you know, to come and establish themselves,
bring governors, teach them laws of Moses so they can judge properly in the land of Judea.
And then we get to Ezra chapter 9, we get on this spiritual low once again.
You've got these highs, you've got these lows, you've got these highs, you've got these lows.
And Ezra chapter 9 and 10 ends on this spiritual low.
Alright, so let's pick it up here in verse, actually let's look at verse number 15 just so I can give you the title for the sermon.
Ezra chapter 9 verse number 15, it ends with this, it says,
O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous.
Okay, thou art righteous is the title for the sermon tonight.
Thou art righteous.
I like how it ends because we obviously are acknowledging that God is a righteous,
He's a holy God, He's a God without sin, He's a faithful God, He's a merciful God, He's a righteous God.
And we often see in the book of Ezra, books similar to this, the failings of man,
how man is unfaithful, how man makes mistake time and time again.
And you know what, brethren, we can be on a spiritual high and the next day we can be on a spiritual low.
And that's what we see in this journey here through the book of Ezra.
Let's start there in verse number 1.
It says, now when these things were done, well what things were done?
Let me just bring you up to speed.
Ezra chapter 8, they made that long journey.
Ezra and all those names that were brought, all those families, right?
And the Levites, they were coming to the house of God, to serve in the house of God.
And they've got this long journey.
It took them four months to get from Babylon into Jerusalem.
And they come bringing all the gold and the silver and the precious things that would make up the house of God
that the people of God will be living on.
And so you've got this spiritual high.
They're excited, they make it to Jerusalem.
And God prospered their ways.
But then it says, now when these things were done, so once they get to Jerusalem,
the princes came to me, that's to Ezra, saying,
the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands,
doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites,
the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites.
So straight away, Ezra comes, he's excited, we're going to serve in the house of God,
and then he gets this poor report that the Jews that have come back to the land,
they're already committing abominations.
How?
I mean, they're so excited, they're building the house of God, right?
God has delivered them out of that 17 year of captivity from Babylon.
And now they're back to abominations and doing abominations with these other people, these Canaanites,
these other people of the land who obviously do not have the God of Israel as their God.
You say, what abominations did they do?
Look at verse number two.
For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons,
so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands,
yea, the hand of the princes and rulers have been chief in this trespass.
The leadership have been chief.
The leadership are the ones that are intermingling themselves, they're marrying non-believers.
They're marrying people of other lands, of other nations who do not worship the God of Israel.
They're marrying unbelievers.
These are the abominations that they're doing.
Now keep your finger there, please turn to the book of Deuteronomy.
Turn to Deuteronomy chapter seven.
Deuteronomy chapter seven please.
Deuteronomy chapter number seven.
Deuteronomy chapter seven.
It blows my mind that they've been delivered out of Babylon.
They're excited, they've been in the house of God, they've been there for a while,
Ezra's excited, Ezra's excited, right?
To get in there, to serve in the house of God,
and he finds out the people of the land, they're all intermingling.
They're marrying the non-believers, they're committing abominations,
probably fornication, probably all kinds of wicked things,
and God has just delivered them out of his judgment.
The captivity of Babylon was God's judgment upon a wicked nation.
And what are they doing? They're doing it again.
Now brethren, it's easy to point our fingers at the Jews,
but we need to point our fingers at ourselves.
These stories are here to bring to remembrance that we are like this as well.
How many times have you had a spiritual high, excited?
Maybe on a Sunday, excited for the house of God, singing praises,
then on Monday you find yourself committing some wicked sin,
finding yourself far from the Lord,
surprised that maybe you even got this far
when you were just in the house of God yesterday, worshipping Him.
I've often heard it said that for pastors, Mondays are like the worst day of the week.
I've heard it said from one of my first IFB pastors.
He says, you're at church, you're serving God, you're in the Spirit, you're preaching sermons,
and then on Monday it's like everything falls apart.
All the problems come to fruition on Monday.
I've not really experienced that.
I've not experienced that same consistency.
But I understand what he's saying, that you can be so on high,
you can be on the mount of God, in fellowship with God,
and then the next day it just seems like it all falls apart.
Why does that happen?
Look at Deuteronomy 7, verse number 1.
We're going back in time here, in the time of Israel,
and this was of course after Israel had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.
Now they're getting ready, this new generation is getting ready to go into the Promised Land,
they're getting ready to go into the land of Canaan,
and this is the instruction that God gives to the nation of Israel, verse number 1.
It says, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it,
and have cast out many nations before thee,
and notice the nations that are mentioned.
The Hittites, the Hittites were mentioned before, in the book of Ezra,
and the Gergeshites, they were mentioned as well,
and the Amorites, they were mentioned as well,
and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
seven nations greater and mightier than thou.
Many of those nations are mentioned, the same nations, in Ezra chapter 9.
Now, why is God mentioning these nations?
Because it says in verse number 2,
and when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee,
thou shalt smite them, look at this,
and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them,
nor shall mercy unto them.
Now, brethren, getting married is a covenant.
You're making a marriage covenant between husband and wife, okay?
That is a covenant in some level of, you know, expression.
But a covenant also can be like a peace agreement between nations.
We won't hurt you, you won't hurt us, you can live on the land,
we're mightier than you, you just pay us taxes as you go and work.
What's the instruction that God gives to the Israelites?
Destroy them. Don't leave any of them alive.
So when we get to Ezra chapter 9, they're all there.
All these people are these nations.
They're still there, why? Because the Israelites,
they disobeyed the Lord several times, of course, through their history.
But look at verse number 3, Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse number 3.
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them,
thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son,
nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son,
for they will turn away thy son from following me,
that they may serve other gods.
Look at this.
So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you,
and destroy thee suddenly.
That is the promise in the book of Deuteronomy.
Ezra is a scribe. He's a scribe of the book of Moses.
He knows what the book of Deuteronomy says, okay?
He knows. He knows that God instructed the Israelites,
don't mingle with these wicked people, these godless people,
because if you do, they're going to turn your hearts against the Lord.
Now you better be aware of this,
because I'm sure all of us have Christian family,
you know, sorry, unsaved family, unsaved friends.
Hey, I hope you have Christian family, Christian friends as well.
And sometimes, and look, I'm not trying to say to you,
you know, break away from every unsaved person that you know,
because that's an opportunity for you to give them the gospel,
for them to be saved and come into the kingdom of God.
But you need to be aware, you know, be vigilant,
because sometimes those godless friends, those unsaved friends,
can lead you away from God.
And brethren, if you marry a non-believer,
it is very easy for you to have your heart turned away from the Lord.
You know, if you're single today, you know, if you're desiring to get married,
please let me encourage you, you know, marry a believer.
You know, marry someone who is saved. You know, marry someone who is saved.
And you know, I'm careful when I say those,
because you know, when I first met my wife, she was a Roman Catholic, okay?
And I dated my wife, and that was wrong. I should not have done that.
You know, sometimes I tell this story, that I dated my unbeliever,
my unsaved, you know, girlfriend at the time,
and some people think, well, maybe I'll do that.
No, don't do that. Don't do that, okay? Don't do that.
Now, thankfully, thankfully, God opened the doors,
I was able to give her the gospel, she got saved, and then it was a-okay.
Okay, thankfully, that happened, all right?
But that's not always going to be the case.
You know, many times, most cases,
they're going to turn your hearts away from your Lord God, okay?
And be aware of this. Be aware. God warned them.
If you do this, I will utterly destroy you, to the nation of Israel.
Then we get to Ezra chapter 9. Excited, to the house of God.
Ezra comes, and he gets the report.
They're doing the exact opposite thing that God said to do.
And he knows God said he's going to destroy us.
So think about Ezra's heart right now.
When you start reading this chapter, now you understand where Ezra's coming from.
You know, man, God's allowed us to come back.
He's opened the doors. God's temple is rebuilt.
And here we are, intermingling with these other nations,
and now God's going to destroy us.
We've just come out of Babylon. God's going to destroy us now.
Now you can see why Ezra is so downcast as we keep going through this chapter.
Let's go back there to Ezra chapter 9, verse number 3.
Ezra chapter 9, verse number 3.
He says,
And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment.
He tears his clothes and my mantle,
and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard,
and sat down, astonished.
He just shaves his head. He shaves his beard.
He's in a period of mourning. This is a picture of mourning.
It's like you're mourning someone that you loved.
It's like he's mourning his wife that has passed away or something.
You know, he knows, man, we've messed up again.
And he's astonished. It's like the word astonished.
You know, he's shocked. He can't believe it.
We failed again as a nation.
And sometimes, brethren, we can't believe it, can we?
We know that Christ has forgiven us.
We go sowing him. We go to church. We read the Bible.
And there we are committing some grave sin.
And we can't, I cannot believe I did this again.
And you can be astonished.
Verse number 4.
Then were assembled unto me everyone that trembled at the words of the God of Israel
because of the transgression of those that had been carried away,
and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice.
All right, so all those that have a fear of God, they come together,
and they're all kind of together with Ezra there,
mourning that this has happened in their nation.
Now, keep your finger there. Please go to 2 Corinthians 6 for me.
We are going to be jumping around a little bit in the Bible.
2 Corinthians 6, please, and verse number 14.
2 Corinthians 6 and verse number 14.
Let me just remind you what the Lord teaches us here in the New Testament.
In 2 Corinthians 6 and verse number 14, the Bible reads,
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
Now, brethren, this can apply to many aspects of our life.
You know, I wouldn't encourage you to get in, like, some major business with an unbeliever.
Now, look, obviously, if you go and work for somebody,
most of the time if you go work, you know, you're going to be mingling with unbelievers, obviously.
I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about, you know, getting into great debt with an unbeliever.
You know, putting your head together.
You know, the greatest yoking that you can have, of course, is marriage.
You know, and if you yoke yourself up in marriage with an unbeliever,
brethren, you are unequally yoked.
You're going to have problems in your marriage that, you know, I wish you wouldn't have.
Listen, brethren, everyone has problems in marriage. Let me say that.
Even if there are two saved people who have been saved as children
and they grow up in Christian homes and they grow up in church
and they know everything the Bible says about marriage, they're still going to have problems.
Okay? Everyone has problems in marriage.
But when you yoke yourself up with an unbeliever, you're going to have even greater problems,
greater issues, greater challenges.
All right?
It keeps going there in 2 Corinthians 6.14.
For what fellowship have righteousness with unrighteousness?
And what communion have light with darkness?
Just as different as light is from the darkness,
that's how different your relationship will be if you marry an unbeliever.
Verse number 15.
And what concord have Christ with Belial?
The name Belial is another name for the devil.
What concord?
Concord is a word of, like, the word cord.
Like, what connection, you know, does Christ have with Belial?
Or what part have he that believeth with an infidel?
An infidel is an unbeliever.
Verse number 16.
And what agreement have the temple of God with idols?
Brethren, your body is the temple of God.
Okay?
For ye are the temple of the living God,
as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them,
and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Now, brethren, your body is the temple of the living God.
Okay?
If you yoke yourself up with an unbeliever, what are you doing?
You're defiling the temple.
Okay?
What did we see in the Book of Ezra?
The actual physical temple of the Old Testament.
They had defiled themselves.
The priests, the Levites, have taken for themselves ungodly spouses.
They're defiling the temple.
You know?
Let's make sure we don't defile our temple, brethren.
Okay?
You know, and look, even if you, you know, are with a believing partner,
you know, maybe you're not married, don't defile your body in fornication.
You know, keep that temple clean, keep that temple pure until your wedding day.
Okay?
Verse number 17.
It says, Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, sayeth the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.
And so, you know, you need to remember, brethren, that yes, we're saved.
We are children of God no matter what happens.
Even if you marry an unbeliever, you're still saved.
You're still a child of God.
God is still your Father.
We cannot lose our salvation.
You know what?
Even if you destroy your life with wicked sin and you live a life that is ungodly,
you know, as long as you've trusted Christ as Savior, you're still a child of God.
Okay?
But as He said to you, as He said there in verse number 17,
Touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.
What you hurt in your life is the fellowship, is the walk,
is the closeness that you can have with God as your Father
when you yoke yourself up with unbelievers,
when you defile this body, this temple that God has given you.
Can you please go to 1 Corinthians chapter 9.
1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse number 5.
Who should you marry?
Well, in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 5,
you know, of course, when we think about the Corinthians
or the epistles of the churches,
we know that the Apostle Paul wrote the epistles, okay?
And was the Apostle Paul married?
No, he was a single man, okay?
I believe he basically acted like a eunuch, you know,
as what Jesus Christ speaks about.
But he says this in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 5.
He says,
Now, I won't go into the context of this,
but I want you to notice when Paul speaks
that he has the power, he has the authority,
he has the right to have a wife,
he says that my wife will be a sister,
a sister in the Lord, okay?
Someone that is saved.
And brethren, and I'm talking, you know, to my children,
to, you know, as our children become teenagers
and if you're single,
we have this desire to be married, I understand that,
I had a desire to get married,
but you need to make sure that you find yourself
a saved partner, okay?
Oh, but this person's Christian, okay.
They call themselves a Christian, but are they saved?
Well, how do I know if they're saved?
Are they trusting Christ alone?
His death, burial, and resurrection for salvation?
Or are they trusting other things?
Brethren, if they're trusting other things, they're not saved.
Salvation is Jesus Christ plus nothing minus nothing.
Christ has done all the work necessary to be saved.
Back to Ezra chapter 9, please, verse number 5.
Ezra chapter 9, verse number 5.
The Bible reads,
For our iniquities are increased over our head,
and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.
Ezra's ashamed.
You know, he can barely come to God.
He says, I'm ashamed.
I blush, I can't even lift my face to look up at you.
He's so ashamed.
You know, I love it when we see the true character come out of people.
You know, and I look at Ezra and I think,
how many times have I felt this way?
How many times have I been ashamed to lift my face
or to even go to God in prayer because of my sins?
And you say, hey, well, I'm not the only one.
Ezra was like this.
You know, godly men were like this, you know,
where they realized, man, these sins, I just can't.
Again, God, we failed you again.
You've led us to come back to Judea and build the temple,
and we've done it again.
You know, we failed you again.
The shame of the flesh.
And, brethren, don't forget, as a Christian, as a saved person,
you have a dual nature, the spirit and the flesh.
The spirit is ashamed at what the flesh has done.
There is no good thing in this flesh.
Actually, let's turn there.
Please turn to Romans chapter 7, verse number 18.
Romans chapter 7, verse number 18, please.
You know, a lot of people that are Christians,
they forget this simple truth.
They forget that we have a dual nature, the spirit and the flesh.
And, brethren, if you're saved and been born again,
you've been born of the spirit.
Listen, that spiritual man never sins,
but that flesh sins.
That flesh hates the Lord.
That flesh just wants to serve itself, okay?
The spirit and the flesh, we have this constant battle within us.
It says in Romans 7, 18.
Romans 7, 18.
This is the Apostle Paul, okay?
When you think about who is the best Christian,
you know, that we read about in the New Testament,
you say, well, it's the Apostle Paul, probably.
Okay, verse number 18.
He says,
And I know that in me, that is, in my flesh,
dwelleth no good thing.
No good thing.
For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not.
He says, even if I try to do good in my flesh,
I can't do it, okay?
So verse number 19.
For the good that I would, I do not,
but the evil which I would not, that I do.
He says, I want to do that which is good,
but I don't do it.
Do you see that dual nature?
The spiritual man, the new man, okay?
The new creature wants to do that which is good,
but his flesh goes, no, we're going to sin.
All right?
And when he says, what does he say there?
But the evil which I, and the spirit says,
no, we're not going to sin.
And he goes, but then I do.
My flesh does it.
Please remind yourself of this dual nature.
If you miss such a basic concept in the Bible,
you're going to start thinking that you're not saved
because I still sin.
Brethren, you're going to sin till the day you die.
Maybe not even in the body,
maybe just up here in the mind.
The weakness of the mind,
the weakness of the heart, okay?
But remember that the spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak.
These are the words of Christ.
Let's keep going there.
Drop down to verse number 24.
Romans 7, 24.
So after the apostle Paul sins against the Lord,
he says this in verse number 24.
O wretched man that I am,
because I am wretched,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
But then he says this in verse number 25.
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,
so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God,
but with the flesh the law of sin.
All right?
So he realizes, man,
I want to serve the Lord in my mind
as I walk in the new man.
I want to do that by my body.
It just serves the law of sin.
Now please remember this.
Please remember this, okay?
You are not going to have any spiritual victory over sin
if you just operate out of the flesh.
Even if I'm going to do it which is good,
your flesh says, no, I'm going to do that which is evil.
Okay?
You need to be walking in the spirit.
You need to be walking in the new man.
You have to crucify that old flesh daily, every day.
Take down that old man and say,
no, I'm going to be living for Christ.
Otherwise, you're going to find yourself on a spiritual high,
came to the house of God,
and then tomorrow you're committing some grave wickedness.
Okay?
And then the new man's going to be ashamed
for the iniquity of the wickedness that your flesh has done.
But just remember yourself.
You don't have to beat yourself up so badly.
This is the reality.
This is what we all struggle with.
Okay?
Some of us struggle with different sins.
Some of us struggle more than others.
All right?
But the journey that God has us on is to clean this temple,
to clean this body up.
Okay?
To live a life that is holy.
We ought to be striving to live a life that pleases the Lord,
but you're not going to please Him in the flesh.
You'll please Him in the new man, the Spirit.
I think we're going to come back to Romans 7 later from memory.
I can't see it in my notes.
But let's go back to Ezra 9, please, verse number 7.
Ezra chapter 9, verse number 7, please.
Ezra says,
Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day.
He goes, we just keep sinning against God.
You know, we sin to the day we die, basically.
And our iniquities have we.
Our kings and our priests,
even the people that ought to be leading this nation,
not just leading the nation in a, you know, political sense,
but also in a spiritual sense,
it has been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands,
to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil,
and to confusion of face as it is this day.
And now, so it's talking about the captivity, okay?
That we've all been taken as captives into Babylon.
And now, for a little space,
grace have been showed from the Lord our God,
to leave us a remnant to escape.
He says, God's given us some grace.
He's allowed us to escape out of captivity,
and to give us a nail in this holy place.
He's established us here in this holy place back in Jerusalem,
that our God may lighten our eyes,
and give us a little reviving in our bondage.
A little reviving in our bondage.
But I want you to notice there,
that when God allowed him to come out of captivity,
it says to leave us a remnant to escape.
Now, I want to bring you back to New Testament here.
Please go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse number 11.
Of course, the context of Ezra,
the escape is coming out of Babylon,
and coming back into Jerusalem.
Alright?
Now, let's apply that to our lives.
Okay?
Let's apply it to this flesh that loves to sin.
This flesh that gives into temptations so easily.
It says in 1 Corinthians 10, 11.
1 Corinthians 10, 11.
Now, you know, what this is teaching,
the stories of the Old Testament are there for our admonition.
So, we as New Testament Christians can learn from them.
What are we learning?
Verse number 12.
Reverend, when do you fall when you think you're standing?
When you're so confident, so sure in your flesh,
that's when you fall.
And I talk to Christians many times,
and, you know, if this is you and you said this to me,
I'm not having a go at you, okay?
Please understand I love you, okay?
And I was like this as well.
You know, when I was just, you know,
a babe in Christ and excited for the things of God.
Sometimes you get to this point in life, right?
And you get, you know, I'm never, you know,
you make a decision.
From this day forward, I'm never going to fail the Lord.
From this day forward, I'm going to be church every week.
From this day forward, I'm going to be sowing in every week.
Whatever it is that you think, I'm just, that's it.
I'm so sowed out for God.
I love Him, and no doubt at that moment you love Him.
Know that at that moment you think you're going to do this,
you know, every step of your day, you know, every day
for the rest of your life, no doubt.
And sometimes I hear people say to me,
I'm just going to serve the Lord.
You know, I'm going to put God first, the church first,
God's people first.
And I know, it just breaks my heart.
Look, I don't want to discourage them
because they're full of zeal.
They're full of excitement.
And that's wonderful.
That'll get them going, moving forward.
So I don't want to zap the zeal.
But the first thing I do in my heart is I just pray,
Lord, when He falls, can you please get back up?
Because He will fall.
He will fall.
When you think you're so sure about yourself,
when you think you're not going to let down God, you will fall.
That's why you have to take heed.
Listen, pay attention to your life.
You will fall.
And I've fallen.
We've all fallen.
We all sinned.
We've all done wrong.
Now, brethren, when you fall, remind yourself it's the flesh.
You know, the spiritual man hated those things.
The spiritual man did not want to do those things.
And so we need to be like Ezra.
Pull down our heads in shame.
Lower ourselves and ask God for forgiveness.
Ask God and say, God, we've messed up again.
We've messed up again.
And we do.
We mess up every single day.
We mess up all the time.
Brethren, what am I up to?
Oh, yeah, sorry, you're there in 1 Corinthians 10.
Let's keep going there.
Okay, verse number 13.
1 Corinthians 10, verse number 13.
It says...
Now, I want you to...
Now, this is really important, okay?
Because I don't want to leave you with this idea that,
well, we're going to sin every day and that's it.
No.
Because verse number 13 says this.
There have no temptation taken you,
but such as is common to man.
Brethren, whatever temptation, whatever trials,
whatever problems you're going through,
we've all had them.
We all go through it, okay?
You're not some unique case.
Well, God understands my situation.
No, we're all the same.
We all go through the same issues, okay?
They have no temptation taken you,
but such as is common to man,
but God is faithful who will not suffer you
to be tempted above that ye are able.
Brethren, God's not going to allow you
to be more tempted than what you can fight.
You can overcome every temptation
that comes to your life before you commit that sin.
It's true.
That's what the Bible says, okay?
Look at this.
But will with the temptation
also make a way to escape
that ye may be able to bear it?
Please don't come to me and say,
Pastor, I can't do it.
I can't handle this situation.
I can't deal with this.
No, God has opened a way of escape for you.
God has given you an opportunity
to not fall to that temptation.
You've got to find that way of escape.
I don't always have the answer,
but you've got to figure out what that is, okay?
Just like what we saw.
You know, God gave an escape
to the Jews to come out of captivity,
to come back into the land and to worship Him.
Well, God, when we're tempted to sin,
God will give us an opening to escape.
It's just whether you want to escape or not.
Many times you don't want to escape
and you just give in to that temptation.
You know, if you're tempted to commit fornication,
just get out of there.
Just physically get out of there.
Just like we see from Joseph, okay,
when he was being tempted by Potiphar's wife.
He got out of there.
He physically ran and he didn't look back.
And brethren, sometimes that is the way of escape.
Just to physically get yourself out of that tough situation,
out of that temptation.
Back to Ezra 9, please.
Ezra 9 and verse number 9.
Ezra continues in his prayer.
He says,
Yet our God have not forsaken us in our bondage,
but have extended mercy unto us
in the sight of the kings of Persia,
to give us a reviving.
This is the second time the word reviving
has come up in this chapter.
To set up the house of our God
and to repair the desolations thereof
and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
And so I'm now going to get you to turn to Psalm 85, please.
Turn to Psalm 85.
I believe very strongly that Psalm 85
was written around the time of the exile out of Babylon.
Because a lot of it just seems to go hand in hand
with coming out of Babylon and returning back into Jerusalem.
But to give us a reviving,
what does it mean to be revived?
Sometimes you hear pastors preach about revival.
You know, we need to have revival.
And yes, sometimes we do need to have revival.
Sometimes we definitely do.
But Psalm 85, verse number 5, please.
Psalm 85, verse number 5.
Psalm 85, verse 5 reads,
Will thou be angry with us forever?
Does God get angry at His people?
Absolutely.
Okay.
The question gets asked,
are you going to be forever angry with us, Lord?
Will thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
You know, the mistakes that I made, Lord,
are you going to just allow the next generations
to go through those things?
Look at verse number 6 continues.
Will thou not revive us again
that thy people may rejoice in thee?
Show us thy mercy, O Lord,
and grant us thy salvation.
Notice why is the psalmist
asking that God would revive him,
that thy people may rejoice in thee?
You know, this idea of revival,
to revive is to pretty much to resuscitate.
You know, it's like someone's drowning.
You know, they're near the point of death.
You're trying to bring back that resuscitation.
You're trying to get their heart pumping again.
You're trying to get them breathing again.
You're trying to pull them out of that point of death.
And, you know, as I said to you,
the Christian life can be like this many times.
You can be on that high and then you can,
next day, you're on that low.
You know, you can go days without picking up your Bible.
You can go weeks without being in church.
You can go months without even thinking about God,
not even considering a soul that is going to hell.
You know, and if, you know, when that happens, brethren,
you're basically, you're losing life in a sense.
You're losing that spiritual life.
And that's when you need the Lord to step in
and do a revival in your heart.
A revival in your heart.
You know, I've had these things.
I've had these, I've been saved since I've been four years old.
I've been going through church.
And there are times I just not cared.
You know, I'm not talking about recent times
because I guess as a pastor things are a little bit different.
I have to be close to the Lord pretty much every day, every week.
Okay, there's a big difference when you actually have church
and servitude as a full-time job.
But yeah, you know, if I'm honest, during my times as a child,
as a teenager, even in my 20s, many times,
you know, I would just not pick up my Bible.
Many times I would not think about eternity.
You know, I would not be praying.
And I'd feel spiritually dead almost.
Not that I thought that I'd lose my salvation
because I know that Christ has done everything to save me,
but just the Lord is so far.
You know, where is my heart?
You know, what do I care about?
Why am I so far from the Lord?
And you need just that resuscitation.
You need a bit of CPR, right?
You need the Lord to just be on your chest
to bring life back into you
so you can be back serving the Lord.
Spiritual revival, we need that from time to time.
I don't know where you're at in your spiritual life,
but you know, you might be on a low right now.
You might be downcast.
You know, you may have lost the excitement of the Lord,
the excitement of church,
and let me encourage you to be revived once again,
to ask the Lord, go to the Lord,
and ask God, can you revive my heart?
Can you bring back the love, the excitement, the zeal
to serve you, the spiritual high that I once had?
Let's go back to Ezra chapter 9, verse number 10.
Ezra chapter 9, verse number 10.
And now, O our God, what shall we say after this?
For we have forsaken thy commandments.
He goes, what can we say?
We have nothing to our defense, God, right?
Which thou has commanded by thy servants the prophet, saying,
the land unto which ye go to possess it,
it is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands,
with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another
with their uncleanness.
And now, Ezra, he's just basically quoting scripture here.
In verse number 12, he says,
Now therefore, give not your daughters unto their sons.
This is the Lord God speaking to Israel,
and Ezra's quoting the scripture back to the Lord.
Now therefore, give not your daughters unto their sons,
neither take their daughters unto your sons,
nor seek their peace or their wealth forever,
that ye may be strong and eat the good of the land
and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.
Brethren, when we think about this, why did they intermingle?
Why did they marry non-believers?
Why did they forsake and not follow through?
And why were they disobedient to the laws of God?
We get the answer right there in verse number 12.
Let's have a look at it once again.
Now therefore, give not your daughters unto your sons,
neither take their daughters unto your sons.
Look at this.
Nor seek their peace or their wealth.
Why do God's people openly forsake God's laws?
For peace and for wealth.
That's why.
Two things right there, okay, for peace.
Well, if we just intermingle with these people,
then, you know, we're like family, right?
We'll get along, we won't go to war, we won't fight.
We're doing it for peaceful reasons.
You know, God's given us his laws.
You know, if you want to live a life that pleases God,
brethren, just do what God says.
You know, we've got so much Bible, just do what God says.
But sometimes we think we're smarter than God.
Oh, but God knows my situation.
God knows I'm different.
Oh, but, you know, I have this scenario.
You know, and maybe if I just do what I think is right,
then, you know, if I seek peace this way,
then maybe God will bless me.
No, he's not.
You know, disobedience.
God hates disobedience.
God will chastise you.
God will bring judgment upon you, brethren.
Sometimes, yeah, you seek peace.
You seek peace with this world.
Well, I won't stand for Jesus in case I offend my unsaved family.
I won't let anybody know that I serve Christ and I love his Bible
because I don't want to offend anybody.
I just want peace.
You know, Pastor Kevin, can you tone down the preaching a little bit?
Because we have visitors come to church and they get offended by the preaching.
We just want peace.
We just want to grow the church.
Just preach your shallow, sugar-filled sermons that makes everybody happy.
No, brethren, that's not the way to do things.
Jesus Christ says in Matthew 10-34,
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth.
I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Christ came bringing a sword, not peace.
Now, yes, there's peace between God and man through Jesus Christ.
But Jesus Christ did not come to this earth to bring peace on this earth.
Now, at his second coming, when he comes and he takes out the antichrist and his beast
and he brings his kingdom upon this earth, then we'll have peace on the earth.
But his first coming was not for peace.
He did not come to try to bring all the nations and let's hold hands together and have peace.
God knows we're not going to have peace until he reigns on this earth.
His word, the truth of God's word, brings a sword.
It brings division.
But, brethren, we can have peace.
As Christians, we don't have to be constantly battling, constantly frustrating.
The Bible says in Philippians 4-6,
Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
The peace of God, which passeth all understanding.
You know what? This world can be going to war.
You know, this world can be going down the toilet
and you can have a great peace about you,
a peace that nobody can understand,
but you understand it because you've gone to God with your problems
and he's given you a calm heart.
He's given you peace. He's given you love. He's given you comfort.
And you know, I'm going to be just fine because I'm a child of God,
no matter what happens in this world.
Brethren, we just need to follow God.
We need to do what God says and we get the peace of God
when we bring our prayers, our problems before him.
What's the other reason why they intermingle?
Why is the other reason they disobey the Lord?
For their wealth.
If we just do it this way, if we're just dishonest this way,
then we're just going to have more.
If I just yoke myself with these unbelievers,
they're going to bring this great investment as an opportunity for me.
Yet you're yoking yourself up with unbelievers for wealth.
It's not going to go well for you.
Your heart will be turned against the Lord.
Please be careful.
Jesus Christ says in Matthew 6-19,
Lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth,
where moth and rust are corrupt,
and where thieves break through and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust are corrupt,
and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Brethren, where's your heart?
Is your heart upon the Lord?
I hope so.
Then lay up your treasures in heaven.
Lay up your treasures in heaven.
You say, Pastor Kevin, is it wrong to work a job?
No, because God says work a job.
God says men, go and provide for your family.
That's what God says.
You're trying to think some other way, then you go,
I'm smarter than God.
You're not smarter than God.
You're just going to hurt yourself.
You're going to hurt your family.
You're going to hurt your loved ones.
If you don't do the things that God says,
go and work in a full-time job.
That's what God commands from a man,
to provide for his family.
That's what God says.
Don't worry about your situation.
God knows.
God's given us his word.
God's given us direction.
He's given us his way.
Do things God's way, and your life will be fine.
But yeah, when we disobey it, we do it for peace,
we do it for wealth, we just think,
I can do it better than God says.
It's not going to go well for you.
Your heart will be turned away from God's ways.
Ezra 9 please, verse number 13.
Ezra 9, verse number 13.
Ezra says God's been so merciful to us.
And yet we're taking this captivity.
Yet we're pulled away from our families.
Our city was burnt down.
The old temple was burnt down.
We were there for 70 years.
But then he said, but God has punished us less
than our iniquities deserve.
Ezra said if God truly wanted to punish us,
he just should have wiped us out.
But he said, but God's been merciful.
God's been loving.
And even in that mercy, we took advantage of his mercy
and we've still disobeyed the Lord.
So you can see why Ezra's so cut up about this.
So ashamed for his nation.
God has been merciful and they just threw that mercy in God's face.
Oh, we'll do it our way God.
We'll marry the unbelievers for peace and prosperity and wealth.
Verse number 14.
He says God, you just, I mean surely we've done enough
for you to consume us.
For you to just wipe out this entire nation.
Surely we've been that wicked.
And then we get the title for the sermon tonight.
O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous.
Yeah, that's right.
Ezra goes, man, you know, these people of God, these Jews,
man, they've messed up again.
We thought we were good, but not.
Ezra goes, the priests, the kings, you know, the Levites,
those that are supposed to love God
and serve him in his house every day, they failed.
In fact, they're the ones leading this, you know,
to take wives to our sons and sons, husbands to our daughters,
sorry, if I'm getting mixed up, whatever, you know.
They're the ones leading this.
They're the authorities of the land.
He says, man, there's no righteously on this earth.
He says, O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous.
That's all he can say.
He can't even say, I'm righteous God.
Hey, Lord, I'm Ezra, but I've done which is right, Lord.
I'm right, no.
He says, look, Lord, thou art righteous.
For we remain yet escaped as it is this day.
Behold, we are before thee in our trespass,
for we cannot stand before thee because of this.
All right, so this will lead us to Ezra chapter 10.
Now, Ezra definitely loves the Lord.
Ezra definitely loves the laws of God.
But when we get to Ezra chapter 10, he makes a big mistake.
Okay, he makes a big mistake.
And we'll get to that on Sunday.
But let's end with this thought, thou art righteous.
God is righteous.
Can you please turn to Romans chapter 3.
Turn to Romans chapter 3 and verse number 10.
Romans chapter 3 and verse number 10.
And if there's anyone listening, whether you're here at church or whether you're online,
and you think you being righteous is going to please the Lord
or you being righteous is going to get you to heaven,
let me tell you right now, you're on your way to hell.
You know, you're going to die in your sins
and you're going to open your eyes the day you pass away
and you're going to be in hell.
You're going to be tormented in the fires of hell.
You're going to be thirsty, okay.
Because our righteousness cannot give us salvation, okay.
Thou art righteous.
That's basically what salvation is.
God, you are righteous.
Romans 3, 10.
As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.
Brethren, that includes me.
Okay.
Sometimes people say,
Oh man, Pastor Kevin, you know, you're such a great guy,
a good guy, you're a godly guy.
And I just think, man, if you just knew my heart,
if you just knew what goes through my mind sometimes,
you probably wouldn't want me to be your pastor.
All right.
If I knew what's in your mind,
I probably wouldn't even want you to be my church members.
All right.
You know, we're in the same boat.
There is none righteous, no, not one.
Verse number 11.
There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way.
They are together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good, no, not one.
You've got some of them.
No, not one.
You've got someone's door.
What do you think someone has to do to go to heaven?
Just be a good person.
There is none that doeth good, no, not one, the Bible says.
How's that going to get to heaven?
Your righteousness, there is no righteousness in your flesh.
We already saw that your flesh wants to do its own things.
The flesh just follows after the law of sin.
You cannot go to heaven by trying to make your flesh righteous.
Drop down to verse number 21, please.
Romans 3, 21.
But now the righteousness of God.
Yes, thou art righteous.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
Just in case you think the Old Testament saints got saved some other way, no.
It says here that the law, hey, that's the books of Moses,
the first five books and the prophets,
all the other writings of the Old Testament testify about the righteousness of God.
They didn't get saved by works in the Old Testament
and we get saved by faith in the New Testament, no.
Even the Old Testament saints knew that salvation was by the righteousness of God,
not by the righteousness of man that comes by the law, okay?
Verse number 22.
Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference.
Brethren, there's no difference.
Old Testament saints, New Testament saints, there's no difference.
Jew, Gentile, whatever your background is, brethren.
There is no difference.
The way we access the righteousness of God is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why it says in verse number 23,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified.
Look at this, freely, salvation is free, brethren.
It's a free gift, freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood.
That word propitiation basically means it satisfies all things.
Faith in His blood, faith in His sacrifice, brethren, to declare His righteousness,
not our own righteousness.
Oh, God, let me go to heaven because I'm such a great person.
Oh, Lord, you know, and some people say this.
They say, well, I know it's not my righteousness,
but putting righteousness by God working in my life
and bringing forth my righteousness, that's what gets me to heaven.
No, it's not your righteousness.
It's the righteousness of God that gets us to heaven, the righteousness of Christ.
What am I up to?
25, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God.
Hey, what gives us remission of sins?
Our righteousness, His righteousness, God's righteousness, thou art righteous.
Verse number 26.
To declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness, in case you forgot it,
that He might be just and the justifier of Him which believeth in Jesus.
Isn't that amazing?
All you have to do is believe in Jesus.
Jesus would have died for me.
Faith in His blood, faith that He took my sins on the cross,
that He was buried and three days later He rose again from the dead.
You had victory over sin, victory over hell, victory over death.
You believe that, you trust that to go to heaven
and God saves you by faith through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
You see, when we stand before God, in fact, not even when you die,
right now before our Lord God, when God the Father looks down upon us
and we know what's in His flesh, we know the weakness that goes in His mind,
we know the weakness in His heart
and right now I'm sure there's some weakness in you right now, brethren,
but He sees us through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
To think that maybe you can lose your salvation,
then you're saying the righteousness of Christ is not enough
and you're not saved because your faith is not in the righteousness of Christ.
Your faith is not in the blood of Christ.
But my works, it's not good enough, brethren.
Your efforts are not good enough.
They're not going to get you anywhere but hell.
Salvation is by Jesus Christ and I know this church know this really well.
But let's look at verse number 27.
It says, Where is boasting then?
It is excluded.
So, brethren, you can't boast,
I'm going to heaven because I went to church all my life.
I went to heaven because I sang in the church choir.
I went to heaven because I'm the church pastor.
I went to heaven because my dad was the church pastor.
I went to heaven because I went to the best church in Sydney.
I went to heaven because I went soul winning.
Brethren, no, there's no boasting.
It's excluded by what law of works?
Nay, but by the law of faith.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law.
Without the law.
Keeping the law is not a measure, it's not a way of salvation.
Salvation is only by faith on Jesus Christ.
And I'm afraid, one thing that gives me greatest fear as a pastor,
that we can have people in our church,
and I don't know, you know, because I don't know everyone's heart,
but we can have people in our church that say,
well, I'm saved, I'm a Christian, and when I ask them,
hey, how do you know you're saved?
They say everything but because I trust Jesus Christ as my Savior.
They'll say, oh, because I grew up in a Christian home.
There's a major problem there.
If you think you're saved because you grew up in a Christian home,
there's a major problem.
Say, well, I'm a good person, I try to live a righteous life.
You're not saved.
I tell you now, you're not saved.
And I'm not saying that to offend you.
I'm not saying that to hurt your feelings.
I want you to be able to put your faith and trust on Jesus Christ alone.
It's the only thing that saves.
If you think it's anything else, brethren, you're on your way to hell.
And what would break my heart the most?
If I get to heaven, right, the day I pass on,
the day Christ takes us in the clouds, and we're with the Lord God forever,
and I say, hey, where's church member X, Y, and Z?
You know, where's brother so-and-so?
Well, he wasn't a brother.
Where's sister so-and-so?
Well, she wasn't a sister.
Hey, where's my son?
Well, he wasn't saved.
Where's my daughter?
She wasn't saved.
It broke my heart.
But this is why we need to preach this,
because salvation is not by our righteousness.
Thou art righteous is the title for the sermon.
So remind yourself, brethren, as we see Ezra struggle with sin,
struggle with the weakness of man.
All he can do is say, God, you're righteous.
Thank you, Lord, for your righteousness.
And that's what salvation is.
Thank you, Lord, for your righteousness.
The only reason I can be saved and go to heaven
is because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
All right, brethren, let's pray.