Sermon Tone Analysis

Rapport:

Review

We looked last week at sin and we defined the term as something which is crooked, twisted or bent in our heart, mind, and body.

Sin stands in direct opposition to God because He has made all things good, but when sin entered the world, the corruption of sin makes God’s good creation-twisted and opposed to Him.

We can see this play out in all of history for humanity has always exhibited the reality that human beings are inherently evil and God is at work changing people’s hearts so they are restored back to loving Him and seeking to do all that He pleases in the world.

This is the theme of chapter 9 in Ezra as we see the Jews portray the portrait of a sin cursed world with our loving, always forgiving, always patient, and always just in punishing those who rebel against him.

God chose Israel as his people when He called Abraham to himself around 1500 years before the events in Ezra.

Those 1500 years of the life of Israel have represented the broader whole of all human existence in that all human beings fall continually in the struggle and bondage of sin.

But as God made a covenant with Israel to love them and redeem them by his grace, He continually proves to be faithful to his people regardless of their faithlessness.

These truths about God are confirmed in his interactions with humanity throughout the existence of this world.

God continually proves that He is the One true God who shows loving kindness and mercy to those undeserving of such love.

Ezra 9 and 10 makes this point very clear as we see God applying mercy and grace to the Jews once again in spite of their incessant rebellion against His word.

Some like to make the false claim that the God of the OT is full of wrath and anger, and the God of the NT is loving and forgiving.

This is an idiotic statement by those who only skim the Bible for straw-man arguments against it.

Clearly, we will see in these last two chapters of Ezra, like the rest of the OT and New Testaments, that God is ...

Ex. 34:6-7 “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty"

Because of that love, God has provided a way of salvation by those who put their faith in Him.

Historically, it has always been the faith in God and his promises that was pathway to salvation.

Before Christ, believers in God were those who trusted in the hope of a Messiah who would come.

For those after Christ, we know his name to be Jesus and he saves people from their sins.

Our faith must rest in Him alone and we can have relationship with Him again.

Ezra 9 and 10 tells the story of God’s people struggling in sin and revels the faithfulness of God to love wretched sinners in spite of their selves.

This is the love that God consistency reveals about himself through the ages.

Now last week, we looked at how Ezra’s ministry of preaching God’s word exposed sin in light of God’s commands.

God had told the people in Deut 7 that they were not to intermarry with the pagan nations so that they would not turn to worship the false gods of their new relationships.

This shows God’s omniscience about the human nature that He created.

He knows that when humans fall in love and marry, they graft their interests and beliefs in unity.

Think about how in your marriage, you now do things with your spouse that you would have never thought you would be interested in before.

But because of love…you are interested because your love for your spouse.

Amy didn't realize how big of a nerd I was well into our marriage.

My love for sports was easy to adapt to but even my love for Star Wars and lego has become something that she....ok well maybe not Star Wars and lego yet but we are getting there.

The point is that God knew that if His people fell in love with those who worshipped false gods, that would tempt His people to love them as well.

Ezra declared the word of God to the people and the resulting sin bubbled to the surface!

Ezra, as a spiritual leader of the people responded to the news of this sin with great remorse.

He was broken by the continually falling away from the Lord that He saw in the people whom he led.

This afternoon, we will look at the remaining verses and we will consider how the Ezra’s action teach us how to deal with sin as God’s people.

What is our reaction to sin? How do we deal with it in our own lives as God reveals it to us?

Adam and Eve, the prototypes of the sinful life, show us how some people respond to sin.

Adam and Eve were confronted by God re: their rebellion and they show us how NOT to repsond to sin.

Running and hiding from God/Denial: Gen 3:9 tells us that Adam and Eve ran from God after their rebellion.

Sin had exposed their nakedness and how did they respond?

They hid from God because they were afraid of his judgement against their sin.

A proper response to sin is not running from God; it is running to Him.

Blaming others instead of yourself: We see the blame shifting first from Adam for He actually blames God for his failure in obedience.

We can all do that can’t we?

We might blame God because its too difficult a task to obey.

Adam blames God’s sovereign plan of bringing Eve to be his wife.

He says, “the woman you gave me.”

Adam makes it seem as if God was the reason for the sin primarily, and Eve secondarily when he says, “she gave me the fruit and I ate.”

Notice God is mentioned first, then Eve, then finally himself.

That is backwards.

No one is to blame for your sin but you and you are only to blame for your sins, and not the sins of others.

We have been given choice in this world to act according to God’s word and we must obey what He commands.

Self-destruction: another example we see when we are confronted with sin is self-destruction.

We see this exemplified in Adam and Eve’s offspring, Cain and Abel.

As I have told you recently, Ken Sande, in his book the Peacemaker, states we often times deal with conflict with with flight(mentioned above) or fight which includes internal or external rage and hate.

Fighting comes when our sin is confronted, we deny that sin’s reality, and we respond with more sin-hate and anger.

God confronted Cain when his less than average sacrifice was not accepted by God the way his brother’s was.

Instead of Cain seeing the sin of holding back something from God, he blamed Abel and fell into a more sin- jealous envy.

God even warns Cain, “sin is crouching at the door.

its desire is contrary to you but you must rule over it.”

Cain ignored God’s wisdom, allowed is idolatry to lead to envy, envy to hate, hate to murder and murder to lying to God.

That is a self-destructive pattern when we respond in our sin by adding layer upon layer of sin like

a professional eater at a pancake breakfast.

So how should be respond to sin: humble ourselves and confess it to God.

Confession of sin is the lesson we can learn from Ezra in our passage today and I want to show you 6 elements of a proper prayer of confession to God.

*Disclaimer: This narrative we are about to read does not teach that Ezra has committed this sin.

This is not his personal sin and therefore he is not guilty of this sin and in need of personal confession.

His confession is a mediatorial confession.

Ezra is a priest and his confession is not serving as a substitute confession for those who have actually commited this sin against God.

He is a priest and mediator for the people.

As a leader, He is pleading to God on their behalf, much like Moses did when Israel sinned on Mt Sinai for God to forgo his wrath against Israel for their idol worship.

We will see him use personal pronouns like “we” and “us” and he is now admitting his own violations but he is admitting the guilt of His people under him and the consequences they all might face under God’s swift hand of judgment.

Let’s face it, the sin of some have always brought about consequences for the many.

I am sure we can all share stories in life of how that is true.

Like one sibling, ruining a fun trip or event for everybody because of their bad attitude.

So let’s look at these elements of confessing sin to God

I. Honoring God (v. 6)

Notice immediately in v 6, Ezra beings his prayer with” O my God.”

Its the proper OMG because it acknowledges humility in Ezra and honor towards God as the only source of help for his problem.

Ezra 9:5 and Ezra 10:1, both include the posture of humility that Ezra takes as he prays.

He mourns over the sin of the people, by tearing his cloak, and pulling his beard.

He is acknowledging the offense committed against God’s name and glory.

v 5 “he fell upon his knees and spread out his hands to God” while 10:1 includes Ezra was weeping and made confession.

These actions by Ezra paint the picture that his prayers are actually pleading with God’s power and purposes to act towards mercy.

Confession of sin must begin by acknowledging the glory of God that demands our worship, not our disobedience.

When that has been offended, the worshipper of God must be broken over their sin and humble under the weight of God’s glory.

It is an improper posture in prayer if you begin pointing at others and not yourself.

Honor God by being humble, stating your need for God’s intervention and help!

Secondly, it is worth noting that Ezra calls him, “My God.” Ezra knows that He belongs to God by faith and therefore, while he trembles in his presence, he can speak directly to him in prayer.

He has an understanding of belonging and therefore confession comes with a connection of love.

God loves His people regardless of their failures.

We know that God’s people, are those who belong to Him by faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the bridge that unites sinners back to God in fellowship so that we still tremble before his holiness and yet we belong to Him by His love for us.

Therefore, our confessions of sin begin with a proper humility and honor, knowing that He will not reject us.

If you have ever sold anything door to door, like cookies for your kids school fundraiser, you know that apprehension of going to someone’s door and asking for money.

You might assume rejection 10-60 sec in the conversation.

You are surprised by a agreement to purchase 2 lbs of snicker-doodles.

You don’t have to feel that apprehension with God.

He already knows the sin you have committed and he can relate to suffering in sin because His Son suffered the greatest way possible for sin.