Light in the Darkness: Repenting from Sin!

Have you ever wanted to swim with Sharks for fun? I could imagine that if you found your children in shallow water surrounded by sharks, you would do what was necessary to run into danger to go fight for your child’s safety. Last June, in NC, Tim Arthur was swimming with his kids and a shark attacked his son, clamping down on this thigh. Tim rushed to his son’s aid, and began punching the shark in the snout until it released its grip on his son’s leg and swam away. Tim’s son survived after receiving 17 stitches in his leg.

My good friend in college married the daughter of a seasoned diver and owner of a dive shop here in Memphis. They train and certify divers to go and explore the ocean depths. For their honeymoon, I remember seeing his pictures of them diving with sharks. That is insane to me since these animals are predatory and they attack humans yearly across the globe. It is foolish to seek out sharks dive down and let them swim all around you without any protection but a rubber suit. I know it is an adrenaline rush, but its nuts.

Review:

These last two weeks, we have looked at the theme of sin as we conclude the book of Ezra. We have studied the doctrine of sin and how all have fallen short of the glory of God. We learned how the word of God exposes sin like light shining in the darkness. Last week, we looked at our first response to sin and that is acknowledging the offense against God that sin is a confessing to God how wrong we are for engaging in it. Today, we are going to look at the final chapter of Ezra and we are going to learn that once sin is exposed, and once we seek to confess that offense to God the final step is to separate our selves from it.

I want us to paint this picture in our minds that engaging in sin and remaining in sin, especially after we realize that sin is dangerous and it seeks to destroy us, is like free swimming with sharks. I am not talking about swimming with them in a cage, I am talking about diving in the big blue ocean and being surrounded by these hungry predatory creatures .

See, since the curse of sin has corrupted this entire world, sharks want to eat when and wherever they choose, as long as its in the ocean. We are safe on land, no shark has ever been reported to crawl up on land and start devouring people on the beach. But for us to see the deadly nature of sharks and then to choose to dive into the ocean where they feed and swim with them, is foolish.

Equally, sin destroys everything. At first we believe the lie like Eve, that rebelling against God will make us wise like him, that our dreams will come true without God’s leadership, but the opposite is true. Our welfare as humans is only under the leadership and authority of God alone. When we run from that back into sin, after we understand its effects on us, then we are swimming with hungry man-eating sharks and it will be our end.

As a youth pastor, I used to share this passage with many young people:

Proverbs 5:1-11 “1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, 2 that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge. 3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;

6 she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it. 7 And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. 8 Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, 9 lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, 10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, 11 and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,”

This is what sin does to all people, it kills! Let me be real quick this morning to point out, that we are not just talking about “big sins” as some like to categorize them. Yes, sexual immorality kills. So does discontentment. Every theft begins with discontentment and greed in the heart and sometimes theft leads to death. Gluttony can stop your heart. Gossip and dishonesty can ensure a retaliation that will lead to death. All of these are just examples of how sin leads to our physical destructions, but the chief concern should be our spiritual destruction.

Isaiah 59:2 (ESV)

2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

I want you to pay close attention to this verse because the the HEB word for separation BADAL means to “divide, to sever something from something else.” As we have learned these past few weeks, our good and beautiful relationship with God has been severed because of sin. We are divided from him because He is holy and we are sinful. We cannot dwell with God in our sin because as God’s holiness is to pure to look on evil, God cannot dwell with wickedness (Hab 1:13, Ps 5:4)

Therefore sin separates us from God but the loving kindness of God leads to Him making a covenant with certain persons by his power and love. Therefore, God can make clean what is unclean and He can call us into his presence again. What is interesting is that as Israel was called by God to himself, and with him declaring them as holy, he then commanded them to SEPARATE themselves from the unholiness of sin.

Lev 20:24 “24 But I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples.”

Israel was then called to leave sin behind and live in righteousness. Similarly, the call to the church, who has be purified by the work of Christ on the cross, is also to separate from sin. Peter writes to the church,

1 peter 1:14-16 “14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.””

What we will see from our final chapter in Ezra today is that the returning exiles respond to the preaching God’s word by Ezra, God answers the pleadings of Ezra, and the Jews separate themselves from sin. This is called repentance! Repentance is turning away from sin and turning back to God and his word. Let’s look at how the Jews demonstrate this today.

I. A verbal commitment to faith in God vs.1-5:

Confession of sin vs.1-4

First, as the prayers of confession from Ezra are being lifted to God, God responds by bringing conviction upon the people. A group or crowd of men, women and children, gather outside the temple. It describes them as a great assembly so it was no small few. Instead, a large crowd gathered weeping bitterly. Their emotion based in the context of the remaining narrative shows that they were convicted over sin and saddened by its effect upon them.

God answered the prayer of the leader Ezra as God exposed this sin and the people responded. Praise be to God as his Spirit works in such a way to convict concerning, sin, righteousness and the judgment to come.

This group was led under conviction by a man named Shecaniah, different from the one mentioned in the genealogy listed who returned from Exile with Ezra, but who God led to see that they had committed great sin against God. These people confessed their sins to God before their priest, acknowledging in detail what had occured. They speak in no generalities but with specifics about the sin of intermarrying foreign wives. He uses the word “unfaithful with our God.”

But God gives Shecaniah hope in restoration that can only be found in God so he calls Ezra to action. To asks the priest to lead the exiles in a renewed covenant with God according to the Law of God. They are seeking leadership from their spiritual leader as to what they must do to be restored back to God. They say to Ezra,

Ezra 10:4 ESV

4 Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it.”

They challenge Ezra to the great task of leading the people away from sin and the task was great. In this task, he would not only declare the law of God to them, but the task of repentance that laid before them was heavy as well. They were committed to do whatever was necessary but they needed their spiritual leader to be the one to help them see it through.

Commitment to action v.5

Verse 5 states that Ezra started with the leaders of the people and that he lead them to take an oath before God. Oaths were promises made to God and made to others. In our story, the oath made in v 5 and the covenant in v 3 was a divine sanction before God to fulfill the promises of the covenant or face the consequences of the covenant. Normally, animals were slaughters and blood was used in covenant making to symbolize the judgment that would be rendered if the covenant was broken.

These oaths and covenants were based on the truthfulness and faithfulness of the people making them. It is important to point out that Israel is known for its covenant breaking with YHWH. They were unfaithful continually and this reveals the importance of the truthfulness of our commitments to God and others.

Making oaths had gotten so ridiculous in Jesus day that oaths had to be made with some promissory attachment to it. Look at

Matthew 5:33–37 (ESV)

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

The Jews had become so untruthful in their words that when making oaths, they had to swear by heaven, or earth, or by God’s throne. Just to promise anything to anyone in Jesus day was not good enough because words had ceased from being truthful. Jesus point is that when we make a commitment to God or to man, let our Yes simply be a truthful Yes or our No, be a simple No. This is a truthful heart that comes from one who has been transformed by the God of truth.

Similarly, when the Jews were taking steps of repentance, confessing their sin to God, it was equally important they their words of confession were actually truthful, sorrowful words. Throughout history of human existence, words have been spoken with truthfulness and with deceit. They have have been ejected from lying lips and lips of honor.

Confessing our sin to God are words but are your words of confession truthful or theatrical? The words hypocrite in the bible means person with two faces because we can say words and not really mean them. If our words are true, then actions related to our confession will sprout forth. If we are lying, we will be discovered.

Are you words of confession truthful words to God or to those whom you have offended? Are you truly broken over sin and confessing with honest lips that which you have done wrong? Some confessions of sin can be words of diversion instead of honest confession. “May the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our rock and redeemer.”

Ecc 5:2 “2 Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.”

II. The physical and painful act of separation from sin vs.6-44

Instruction to the Community vs7-11

Now the Jews did not just settle for a confession of their sin, only words, but they followed up a verbal commitment with action. After a time of reflection and fasting by the priest Ezra, a proclamation of all the Jews in the region was made to assemble at Jerusalem. This call was for the men to gather to be held accountable for their actions. Not all were guilty of intermarriage, but an investigation would result in proper consequences.

In the 9th month of their calendar would have made this gathering mid-winter and during the month with the most rainfall throughout the year. But the gathering was necessary for the purity of the community. Any Jewish man who did not return for the gathering would face being expelled from the community and his possessions forfeited. This shows the seriousness of the offense and the commitment of the leadership to confront it without apology.

Once the men gathered, Ezra hit them with a bold rebuke as they stood outside shivering in the cold and shivering from their impending judgment. He said,

Ezra 10:10–11 (ESV)

10 And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have broken faith and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel. 11 Now then make confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.”

Notice the rebuke of being unfaithful to God. They had broken faith with him in their disobedience by rejecting his commands and pursuing their fleshly desires to marry whom they please. After the rebuke, the instruction was simple: Separate yourselves!

Here again we see this word, the same HB word BADAL mentioned earlier in regards how our sin separates us from God. Now, because of their sin, the command of God through Ezra was for these Jewish men to divorce their wives and send them away.

This is such a problematic passage in comparison to what the rest of Scripture teaches about marriage and divorce. Are we to interpret this passage as God is teaching divorce is OK for his people to engage in?

The OT paints a beautiful picture of marriage as established by God and part of his gift to the world. When we see issue of divorce rise up in OT, like in Deut 24: 1-4, the major reason for the divorce to occur was infidelity or indecency as the Scriptures say. There was a violation in the marriage covenant that was made before God and therefore divorce was permissible but not desirable for God’s people. In Deut 24, the unfaithful wife who had committed the offense was given the divorce as a punishment for her infidelity, thus losing her economic and social acceptance. Divorce was NOT a celebrated practice among God’s people.

The prophet Jeremiah even used divorce as a metaphor to describe the judgment against Israel for unfaithfulness,

Jeremiah 3:6–8 (ESV)

6 The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? 7 And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.

When Jesus came on the scene as a teacher, he saw the unlawful practice of divorce whereby men were divorcing their wives for whatever reason they saw fit. This interpretation and liberal practice of divorce came from the teaching of a Rabbi named Hillel. Their definition of “indecency” was very fluid which justified their sinful cravings for new wives and fulfilling lustful desires.

Jesus taught again the proper view of marriage,

Matthew 5:27–32 ESV

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. 31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

I believe the section on lust precedes the teaching on divorce by our Lord because lust was the real issue for the divorces to take place. Jesus has and always be for the marriage covenant between man and woman, a marriage based on faithfulness and purity between man and woman under the leadership of God.

For Ezra and the community, they had a difficult choice to make and they chose separation in order to spare the future of the Jews’ worship of YHWH. As one author put it, they “chose the lesser of two evils” for marriages and children raised by pagan wives would surely lead to turning from God into idolatry and not turning to Him in proper worship.

Therefore, this case in Ezra becomes a story from Scripture about God dealing with disobedience and the call of God’s people to separate from sin. This story is not about divorce, its about holiness of God and his desire for God’s people to radically and painfully separate from it, no matter the cost.

Look at Matthew 5 again when Jesus initially deals with it in his ministry on the sermon on the mount and remember the connection of lust as a form of adultery and how Jesus tells them to deal with it. Radically separate yourself from sin. Do whatever it takes to remove this unrighteousness from you for human nature is to swim with the sharks without wisely weighing the risks.

Ezra leads them and they follow his leadership by responding with haste in obedience. V 12 records their reply to Ezra’s command to separate from them, “it is so, we MUST do as you have said.”

This is a radical demonstration of a proper response to sin, not just confessing it but removing it from your midst with haste.

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Friend, we need more of this radical repentance in the church with our sin instead of soft flirting with sin or the gentle slinking away from the sin that will destroy us.

“Dillydallying is deadly. Halfway measures wreak havoc. The surgery must be radical. Right at this very moment and without any vacillation the obscene book should be burned, the scandalous picture destroyed, the soul-destroying film condemned, the sinister yet ver intimate social tie broken, and the baneful habit discarded. In the struggle against sin, the believer must fight hard. Shadow boxing will never do!”- William Hendrickson

For the rest of the chapter, the Jews enter into a period of judgement before their leadership so that each family is examined. This was not something that could happen in one day. I love the end of this chapter because the leadership of God’s people carefully examined each family to identify the violators so that God would be satisfied with them again.

Ezra 10:14-17

Ezra 10:14–17 ESV

14 Let our officials stand for the whole assembly. Let all in our cities who have taken foreign wives come at appointed times, and with them the elders and judges of every city, until the fierce wrath of our God over this matter is turned away from us.” 15 Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah opposed this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supported them. 16 Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men, heads of fathers’ houses, according to their fathers’ houses, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter; 17 and by the first day of the first month they had come to the end of all the men who had married foreign women.

This is such a beautiful picture for the 21st century church to see in our day and time. We have a group of people who have recognized their sin, confessing it before God, and committing to face judgment before leadership in order to be faithful to God’s word again. And the leadership is faithful to hold them accountable to holiness, without apology and without fear of offending. They knew and desired that God’s word would offend and bring change in human hearts.

The application of this passage for the church is not to give biblical reason for divorce. That is not what this passage is teaching. The NT is the final word on how we should look at marriage in the way that God sees it.

Jesus said,

matthew 19:4-6 “4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.””

Instead, let us see how the church should handle sin. It should radically deal it as believers of Jesus Christ. It should, like Ezra, weep over the great destruction it brings. It should like Ezra, call people to repentance, and it should like Ezra, hold people to accountability to pursue holiness as they have committed to do.

We have our membership covenant together in order to specify very clearly how God desires for us to live and to live under the accountability of the elders so that we might keep each other accountable to the commitment of faith and holiness. If there is sin, out of love, we should call people to repentance because a repenting church is a God-glorifying church.

As believers, we are called to examine our lives to see if sin dwells in us. Paul writes to the believers in Corinth,

2 cor 13:1-5

2 Corinthians 13:1–5 ESV

1 This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 2 I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them— 3 since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. 4 For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God. 5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Notice his clear tone regarding their sin. He said he will not spare them or ignore their sinful dealings in the church. Then he urges the rest to “examine themselves.” Are they living with habitual sin in their lives which is evidence that their faith is not genuine? The examination will reveal the truth in them and in all of us. As we examine our lives, if we discover sin, let us turn away, ripping the sinful landscape from our lives, no matter the cost for Jesus is worthy to praised is confessing and repenting lips!

If you refuse to repent, then understand clearly friend that the Holy Spirit cannot dwell in such a person. A person who refuses turning from sin only condemns themselves to the reality that Jesus Christ has never truly saved them.

2 Cor 7:8-10

2 Corinthians 7:8–10 ESV

8 For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Godly repentance is faith in God’s grace as your turn from sin and trust alone in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin.

Worldy grief is a temporary sadness one might feel over sin because of a sermon like this only to forget that sadness moments or hours later only to go about their lives as if they had not offended a holy God. Friend, I pray for godly grief in all our lives as we live under the sovereign rule of God.

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