Holy Lives for a Holy God

1:12Well, the prophet Isaiah found out exactly what it would be like to meet God face to face. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord. He was seated on a throne, high and lifted up. The train of his robes Filled the temple. Flying creatures called seraphim stood above him, crying out to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. The sound was such that the foundations of the temple shook and the whole temple was filled with smoke. And I want to remind you of Isaiah's response to this glorious vision. Look on the screen. He said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.

2:16When Isaiah saw the Lord, he was lost. He was undone by the holiness of God. He was terrified and immediately aware of his own unholiness before him. And that vision of God's holiness would shape the rest of Isaiah's life and ministry. What about our lives? We talked last week about 1 Peter chapter 1. We were preaching Ezra chapter 8. And we noted that this verse that's quoted in 1 Peter chapter 1 is one of the most repeated lines in all of Scripture. You must be. Holy because I am holy. You must be holy because I am holy. And so if our lives are marked by holiness, then it must be because we also, like the prophet Isaiah and like so many others around his time and before him and after him, we have been captured by a vision of the holiness of God.

3:25And if our lives are marked by unholiness, then maybe the reason is that we have not been captured by that vision of the holiness of God as Isaiah had been. And so as we look at Ezra chapter 9 today, we're going to learn that our own holiness reflects our view of God's holiness. So let's look now at the text in Ezra chapter 9. Right here at the beginning of this chapter, sometime after this second wave of exiles has returned with Ezra and they've settled down, these officials come to him and they bring him some distressing news. And what is that news?

4:10Some of the priests, some of the Levites, the spiritual leaders of the nation, along with some of the people, have intermarried with people from the lands around them. Now you might hear that or read that and say, okay, well, what's wrong with that? You might even go a step further, not Just saying, what's wrong with that, you might say that just sounds like racism. In fact, if you look at the text, the Hebrew word for offspring might even be translated race in your Bible.

4:44The holy race, it might say, has mixed itself with peoples of the lands, or the holy offspring has mixed itself with peoples of the lands. This might even be more confusing to you if you know a little bit about Old Testament history and you know some of the things that happened in Genesis and Exodus and in other old history books found in the Old Testament. Joseph, the son of Jacob, married an Egyptian woman. Moses, the greatest prophet of all time, married a Midianite.

5:20Rahab, who was a Canaanite woman, the woman who hid the spies in Joshua chapter 2, married an Israelite, and not only that, is found in the lineage of Jesus. Ruth, a Moabite widow, also married a Jewish man and is also found in the lineage of Jesus. So, what's the issue here? Why is there a problem with the people of Israel marrying people from the nations around them, especially when Joseph and Moses and two other godly Israelite men did the same thing?

5:56Well, friends, a careful reading of the text, along with an unspeakable, Understanding of God's commands reveals that this has actually nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with faithfulness to God. I want you to look on the screen at Deuteronomy chapter 7. Here's where we find this command that God issues: You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons. Why? For they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

6:35Now, this is very important because you notice that in God's command here in Deuteronomy chapter 7, it does not say, don't intermarry with these other people from foreign nations because your race is inherently superior to theirs. It doesn't say anything like that. It says, don't marry these people because they will inevitably lead you into idolatry. And you don't need any more help with that. The clearest example, of course, is King Solomon, who inherited the kingdom of Israel when it was at its zenith. I want you to look at this long passage from 1 Kings 11 on the screen. It says, Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtareth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.

8:35You see, God's word is true. The emphasis in that passage again and again is that these women led him away into idolatry. That was the problem. The problem was not that they were foreigners. The problem was that they did not worship the God of Israel. And therefore, they led Solomon again and again into idolatry. And friends, we have all of these commands. All of these examples in scripture, and yet time and again, as a pastor in a college town, as a college student myself here, I have heard so many times I cannot even remember, I have heard people say, Yeah, but I'm different.

9:15My situation is different. That's not going to happen to me. And time and again, I have seen young men who profess to follow Christ start dating and get engaged to and marry non-Christian women. I have seen young women do the same thing. And every time I hear the same thing, my situation is different. That's not going to happen to me. Friends, that expresses the pride of our hearts and minds. Do we really think that we know better than God? Are we strong enough? Are we faithful enough to withstand the kind of temptation that ruined Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived?

10:01See, in marriage, two people become one flesh. So it is inevitable that you will begin to value the things that your husband or wife values. And it is inevitable that you will begin to devalue whatever it is that your husband and wife does not value. That's why Paul later on in his letter to the Corinthians is going to say, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Do not Be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Well, what is a yoke? A yoke is a bar that held two animals together so that they could push a piece of equipment or so they could pull a load.

10:44And if you yoke a large animal to a small animal, or if you yoke a strong animal to a weak animal, what's going to happen is that the smaller, weaker animal is going to pull down the larger, stronger animal. It doesn't work. That's why you can't unequally yoke two animals together. And that's why God says, don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers. This consistent message all throughout the scripture. So you see, Rahab and Ruth, they were foreigners, but they were foreigners who came to believe and hope and trust in the God of Israel. So when they got married, they were equally yoked to their husbands. They had the same faith, the same worldview, the same aim in life to glorify the one true God.

11:37And we have even seen the same principle already in the book of Ezra. Let's go back to Ezra chapter 6, verse 21 on the screen. Who was permitted to eat the Passover feast? Look at what it says. It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and also by every one who had joined them, and separated himself from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land. To worship the Lord, the God of Israel.

12:06See, friends, the faith of Israel was inclusive. Christianity is inclusive. It is open to anyone, anyone, who will repent and believe. Anybody could eat the Passover who would join them and separate themselves from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land. And so the problem here in Ezra 9 was that these men married women who didn't share their faith in God, and so they were pulled into their idolatrous practices. And now look at verse 2. This is so concerning. The end of verse 2 says this, and in this faithlessness, the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.

12:53So the spiritual leaders of Israel, the priests and the Levites, the men who are supposed to be teaching and modeling obedience to God, did the opposite. They were less obedient than the general public. Their sin was foremost. And what a sobering picture that is for every leader, whether you're leading a home or a ministry or a team at your work. What a sobering picture that is. You see, when you see people who are doing something that you don't like, you have to ask them. The question as a leader: Did they learn this from watching me?

13:35Did I set them an example? Did I encourage this attitude, this action, this behavior through my own speech? It's like when you yell at your kids to stop yelling at each other. That's a favorite tactic of mine. I employed it yesterday. When we see people doing those things, we have to turn the light back on ourselves and say, Did I encourage this? Yes, the leaders here encourage this. And so, Ezra, this godly spiritual leader, look at his situation. He is beside himself. He cannot believe that the people, let alone the priests and the Levites, have disregarded God's clear commands so completely. He's so upset that he tears his garment, he tears his cloak, he pulls out his hair and some of his beard. I can only imagine how painful that must be.

14:32I stopped shaving last November. I'm winning. His reaction causes this larger group to gather around him. Look at verse 4. Who gathers around him? All who trembled at the words of the God of Israel. All who trembled at the words of the God of Israel. Why do we think that these people came and reported these things to Ezra? What was he coming back to do? You remember that when Ezra returned, what was he bringing with him? The law of the Lord. And we saw again and again that he was a man who was able to teach the word with authority because he studied it and he obeyed it. And it's likely that through his teaching and through his example, these folks became convicted of their sin. So those who gather around him and mourn about the state of their disobedience are those who trembled at the words of the God of Israel. God's word is powerful. God's word is powerful. And Ezra spoke and taught the word of God.

15:43Now, I think for a lot of us, we read this and we see his reaction and we say, that just seems so extreme. And if Ezra's reaction seems extreme to us, we need to think about why he's reacting the way that he is. Why is he so upset? Well, the first reason is that Ezra believed that God is holy, and so his people must live holy lives. Ezra believed that God is holy, so his people must live holy lives. Let me put 1 Peter back on the screen for you. Look again at this text. He says, As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall... Be holy, for I am holy.

16:35Why must we live holy lives? It is because God is holy. And friends, that word holy has been emptied of its meaning over the years. Look at what R. C. Sproll said about this in his excellent book, The Holiness of God. He says, when the Bible calls God holy, it means primarily that God is transcendentally separate. He is so far above and beyond us that He seems almost totally foreign to us. To be holy is to be other, to be different in a special way.

17:22God is transcendentally separate. He is other, far above and beyond us. And so, what is idolatry? The essence of idolatry is to remake God in our image. That's what idolatry is. It's remaking God in our image. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that we are making idols that look like us in the form of statues or anything like that, although that can be the case. And you see that in Greco-Roman history, the statues of the Greco-Roman gods and goddesses, they did look like us.

18:01But what we're doing when we commit idolatry is we are remaking God in our image. What we're doing is we're making God like us. We're putting limits on his attributes, limiting his holiness, limiting his power, limiting his transcendence. We're putting limits on him until he's nothing more than superhuman. So God may in fact be holier than we are, or more powerful, or anything else, but only by degree. That's the essence of idolatry: is that God is only those things by degree more than us. He's not infinitely holier than we are, not infinitely more just, infinitely more merciful and gracious. He's only different by degree. But friends, that's not true of God.

18:53According to Scripture, God is transcendentally separate. He is other. He is set apart. And the Israelites had lost sight of that, and so their lives no longer reflected that reality. That's the first reason that Ezra was so upset. They had lost sight of the holiness of God. But the second reason that Ezra is so upset is that Ezra knew disregard for God's law was the reason that they were exiled in the first place. That's the whole reason that they were conquered and taken away into Babylon.

19:31Was because of their disobedience. And that comes out in the rest of the chapter. Look with me now at verse 5. And at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God, saying, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.

20:10See, Ezra's prayer is a model of godly confession. He was not guilty of these sins. He didn't marry a woman who did not share his faith. He had not become an idolater. These were not Ezra's sins, and yet he was part of this community. And he wasn't just part of this community. He was a key leader in this community, which had sinned against God collectively. You see, no one sins in a vacuum. No one sins in a vacuum. Every time we sin, other people are affected. And if you go back in your mind, if you're familiar with the book of Joshua, they have this great victory at Jericho where. The walls fall down, and there's this great rout. Well, a very short time later, they have to go conquer this tiny little city of AI. It's nothing like Jericho. It doesn't have this huge fortified wall, it's not got this big military presence. Should be no problem. They are destroyed at this battle. The Israelites are routed. Why?

21:23Because one man named Achan took some of the plunder from Jericho, and instead of devoting it to the Lord who had given them the victory, kept it for himself. One man's sin had consequences and effects for everybody. And so, in this case, with Ezra and these people that he's leading, it wasn't just that these individuals broke God's law by marrying unbelievers, it's that their idolatry affected then everybody who was around them. Their families, their neighborhoods, the communities worship, everybody was affected. Look at Bob Files' observation on this.

22:02He says, The situation here could not have happened unless many had approved of it, or at least had turned a blind eye to it. So it is today, where often, as a result of our individualism and relativism, a low spiritual temperature is tolerated, and unbiblical practices become established. Isn't that a challenging word for us? I mean, how is it? That so many of these leaders were getting married to people who didn't share their faith. It couldn't have happened unless people at least tolerated it. No one confronted them. No one said, God directly commands us not to do this. What are you doing? Or at least tacitly approved of it. We said, well, you know, who am I to judge? We'll go to the wedding. It's not my place. This could not have happened unless the whole community together was lowering the standards after they lost sight of God's holiness. And so Ezra begins here with a humble acknowledgement and confession of their sins as a believing community. He says, Our iniquities and guilt have reached the heavens.

23:12And see, this is the first step of repentance. The first step of repentance is acknowledging, agreeing with God that you have sinned. Look at what David writes in Psalm 32. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. You see, you will never repent. We will never repent until we acknowledge that we have sinned and that we've dishonored God by disobeying his commands. And that might be the reason that we see so many professing Christians in the church walking in unrepentance and disobedience. It's because a lot of people are. Of people don't even agree with God to begin with that they've sinned against him.

24:05There's a fundamental disagreement at this first level. So the first step of repentance is acknowledging, it's agreeing with God that we have sinned. The second step in repentance then is admitting that we deserve justice and not mercy. And that's what Ezra does in verse 7. Look there. For from the days of our fathers to this day, we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities, we, our kings and our priests, have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today.

24:51Ezra says very clearly to the Lord, our sin is the reason that we were conquered. Our sin is the reason. It wasn't political missteps. It wasn't military incompetence. Our sin led to these consequences. And friends, I think that's very important because today we are being conditioned in our society to approach life with a victim mentality. That everything that happens to us is outside of our control. It's always someone else's fault. Now, listen, you may be a victim. Somebody else may have a Used their power or their position to victimize you. And if that's the case, I hurt with you. I think Jesus hurts with you. I'm not saying that no one is a victim. I'm saying that our default position as people in society today is becoming that it's always somebody else's fault. And what we have to recognize is that we are first and foremost victims of our own sin against God.

25:53We are first and foremost victims of our own sin, and what we deserve is not mercy, it's justice. The grace of God will never amaze you for as long as you think that you deserve it. You will never be amazed by the grace of God if you think that you deserve it, if you don't think that you deserve justice. See, Ezra knew that neither he nor the people deserved God's grace. Look at verse 8. But now, for a brief moment, favor has been shown by the Lord our God to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery. For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.

27:03See, here Ezra says, we are slaves and we deserve to be in slavery. But God, you have shown us favor. You've been gracious to us. You haven't forsaken us because of your steadfast love. He acknowledges that it is all of God's grace, but that they deserve to be enslaved. See, in the Old Testament, Israel's 400 years in slavery in Egypt, and then their most recent slavery at the hands of Babylon and then Persia. All of these physical pictures of slavery were a picture of their spiritual slavery to sin. That's how the New Testament always interprets these Old Testament examples, that these are physical pictures pointing to spiritual realities, our spiritual slavery to sin. So look what Paul writes in Romans chapter 6.

27:54He says, Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey? Either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? That's the truth. Slaves obey their masters. So if we are mastered by sin, we're obedient to sin. But for those who have trusted in Christ, we've been set free. Set free not just from sin's penalty, but set free also from sin's power. Look at what he writes in verses 17 and 18 of Romans 6. But thanks be to God that you, who were once slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

28:48Isn't that great news? That we have been set free from slavery to sin, that we are no longer captive to sin, our former master, because the grace of God in Christ is at work in our hearts and in our lives. So, why then would we continue to sin? Why then do we continue to sin? In fact, that's the very question that Paul begins that whole section of Romans with. Look at the screen. This is how this section begins. What then are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means.

29:24And what's amazing is that Ezra, in the end of chapter 9, asks the same question, and he arrives at the same conclusion. Look at verse 10 with me as we close this chapter. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, The land that you are entering to take possession of it is a land impure with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations that have filled it from. End to end with their uncleanness. Therefore, do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever. And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant as this, shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor any to escape? O Lord, the God of Israel, you are just, for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this.

31:02Ezra's prayer reflects his humility before the God of the universe. And especially in verses 13 and 14, his prayer follows the same reasoning, the same argument as Paul's in Romans chapter 6. He says, Lord, after all you have done for us, after you've preserved a remnant, after you haven't punished us as our sins have deserved, shall we break your commandments again? The obvious answer to that rhetorical question is no, of course not. After God has been so gracious, after he's treated us better than our sins deserve, after he's set us free, why would we do that which leads right back to slavery again?

31:46I want you to remember earlier we identified two reasons that Ezra is upset. He's upset because he believes that God is holy, and he's upset because he knows that their sin and disobedience was the reason that they were carried into exile in the first place. So, friends, with their actions, they are showing that they are presuming upon the grace of God. It's an attitude that says, of course, God will forgive us for our disobedience. Of course, he'll forgive us, so we might as well sin.

32:25But Paul rebukes that mindset in Romans chapter 2. And I promise I'm not trying to quote the whole book today, but this is an important verse. Look at what he says. Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? God's kindness is not weakness, and it does not reveal an indifference to sin. God is just, and he will justly judge everyone who disrespects. And disobeys his commands. And that's how Ezra ends this chapter, with an acknowledgement of God's justice in verse 15, with the understanding that they deserve justice, not grace, for their disobedience.

33:19That's where the chapter ends. And I find that important and instructive for you and me. Too often, I think we're quick to move from acknowledging our sin to confessing our sin to claiming the grace of God for our sin. We move very quickly through that process, and maybe that says more about how we view God's holiness than it says about how we view God's grace. I think oftentimes it reveals in our lives a view of grace that says grace is quick and cheap and easy, because after all, God's not that holy. He's not transcendentally separate. He's not other.

34:09But here in Ezra 9, we have a picture of repentance that doesn't gloss over sin. It does not quickly rush through these critical steps of repentance. No, Ezra takes the time to acknowledge their sin before the Lord and to meditate on God's Word, which explains why what they did was sinful, and then to soberly confess their sin. And by doing this, he's setting up himself and he's setting up the people that he leads to appreciate the wonder and the relief and the comfort of the grace of God.

34:45He's setting them up for that. Again, grace is no big deal if your sin is no big deal. Only when we understand the holiness and justice of God will grace become amazing to us. Grace is only a big deal if you understand that you deserve justice and not grace. And we see all of this perfectly captured in the cross of Jesus Christ. How seriously does God take sin? So seriously that it required the horrifying, gasping, bloody death of the perfect, sinless Son of God.

35:37How much does God love you? So much that as Romans 5 tells us, that he sent Christ to die for us while we were yet sinners. You see, in the cross of Christ, we have the holiness and the grace of God and the love of God coming. Coming together perfectly, where we see all of it displayed. The good news of the gospel is that an infinitely holy God sent His infinitely holy Son to live a perfect life, to die a substitutionary death in your place for your sin, and then to rise victorious over sin and death on the third day for you, for your justification.

36:24And as we saw from both Ezra and the book of Romans today, when we believe in Christ and when we receive His work on our behalf, we're set free not just from sin's penalty, but also from sin's power in our lives. We're set free to pursue holiness, even when we find ourselves in situations like Ezra 9, when no one else around us or few people around us are pursuing that same level of holiness. And so, I want you to ask yourself this question today: What does my life, what does my level of holiness, communicate about the holiness of God?

37:06Because our own holiness reflects our view of God's holiness. Let's pray. Father, there are times in Israel's history. And there are times in our own lives where the message that you have for us is a heavy one. And today is one of those times where we are confronted with your holiness in a fresh way. These are not sins that just the people of Israel committed a long time ago. These are sins that we commit now that all stem from a loss of the view of your holiness. Where we stop looking at you as transcendentally separate and instead begin to view you as like us.

38:25Not that different, not that set apart, not that holy. And so we pray today, God, give us a vision for your holiness. We may never have a vision directly like Isaiah the prophet had, but God, you give us many pictures in scripture to read and to meditate on and to think on, where we can clearly see that you are holy and that we are not. And so, God, I pray that we would meditate on your holiness, meditate on our own unholiness, meditate on the beauty of the cross of Christ, by which you reconciled the world to yourself and yourself to the world through your Son, and that we would acknowledge and celebrate the fact that you are perfectly merciful and gracious and also perfectly just and holy.

39:43You are far above us, God. We humble ourselves before you. In Christ's name, we pray all these things. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.