It seems like every few months in the news, we hear about some new espionage investigation. One thing you can count on in this world. Somebody somewhere is spying on somebody else. As a matter of fact, the Defense Department spends millions of dollars per year developing new technologies to spy on our enemies. We have spy satellites that are so sensitive they can spot a single burning cigarette in the middle of the desert at noon. We have spy equipment on our aircraft that is so sensitive, it can tell you the brand name of that cigarette. Besides that, we have all kinds of electronic equipment that can eavesdrop on any electronic communication signal imaginable. You would think that with all of that technology, we’d have no problem knowing what our enemies are up to. But we do. Why is that? Because, even with the most sophisticated technology in the world, knowing what’s going on in the world boils down to one thing. It boils down to personal observation. Basically, it boils down to paying attention to what’s going on around us. For years, do you know what the most reliable indicator of American military action was? It wasn’t a surge in communications traffic. Those things can be masked and they can be faked. It wasn’t a surge in supply and hardware movement. Those things happen all the time for military exercises or mobility tests. So, if it wasn’t those things, what was it? For years, the most consistently reliable indicator of American military action was what was called the “Domino’s Meter.” Sounds high-tech, doesn’t it? Well, here’s the extent of the technology. Observers could reliably tell 24-48 hours before a major military operation was going to happen by the dramatic increase in the number of Domino’s Pizza deliveries to key government buildings in Washington DC. All of that technology. All of that counter intelligence equipment. All of the sophisticated plans and procedures. All of that, and the dead giveaway is a bunch of teen-age kids with pizza delivery signs stuck on the top of their beat up cars. Now, does that mean that all of that high-tech stuff isn’t necessary? No. What it does mean is that the first line of defense is always simple, personal observation. Being aware of what’s going on. Paying attention. As Christians, we have a common enemy. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We have a common enemy. It’s not each other. It’s not people in the world. It’s not even against bad people. Our common enemy is deeper than that. Our enemy is the same as our Lord’s enemy. And His enemy is sin. God hates sin. When you’ve trusted Jesus as our Savior, He becomes Lord of your life. And when Jesus is Lord of your life, you will hate the things He does. That means that as Christians, our enemy is sin. So if our enemy is sin, then one of our key defenses against sin is a version of the “Domino’s Meter.” We have to be personally observant. We have to start paying attention to what’s going on around us. We have no hope of defeating sin in our lives if we ignore it. We have no hope of defeating sin in our church if we ignore it. We have no hope of impacting this community and this world for Christ if we ignore the sin that is all around us. In our passage tonight, Ezra has arrived in Jerusalem with the second group of exiles. They spent three days hanging around Jerusalem—probably just looking around and getting their feet on the ground. Then, as we talked about last week, they worked on the preparations they needed to get started with the work God had called them to do. Ezra prepared the temple. He prepared the people’s hearts. And he prepared the outside world. All of that took a little bit less than five months. Now, the preparations had been made. So since the preparations had been made, it was time to get busy, wasn’t it? You would think so, wouldn’t you? But that’s where we go wrong so many times. Many times if we were on a rifle range, we’d be a messed up bunch. First, we’d have trouble figuring out the right target. And then, once we figured the target out, we’d have trouble loading our gun. But even in the best of circumstances, when we get our target and we’ve loaded our gun, this is how we do it. We go, “ready, fire, aim.” Sometimes it’s even worse than that. Sometimes it’s “fire, ready, aim.” But either way, once we have a target and a loaded weapon, we want to fire away. I think that’s where so many of our attempts to do ministry go astray. We see a need. We know what the Word tells us to do. So we jump right in to try to fix the need. Sometimes, by God’s grace, it works. But most of the time it fails. I think that’s why most new church plants fail within the first 3 years. They fail because we get in a rush. We don’t aim before we fire. Or we fail to follow Ezra’s lead. When Ezra followed God’s call to go to Jerusalem, what did he do? He gathered the people on the banks of the Ahava canal. That took time. They spent three days there in fasting and prayer. Then they had to make the trip from Babylon to Jerusalem. That took several months. Then they got to Jerusalem and jumped right in, right? Wrong. They spent three days doing nothing. Maybe resting. Maybe looking around. But basically nothing. Then they got started, right? Wrong. Then they spent at least 4 months in preparation. If you add all that up, that’s close to a year of no results! Of course, that’s how we look at it. But Ezra looked at it as being ready before firing. He looked at it as aiming before firing. And a key part of his aiming was observing. After the time of dedicated preparation, Ezra had led and taught the people in such a way that they began to observe some things. Throughout this whole process, they had begun to grow in the Word to the point that they began to see some things that were going to get in the way of doing the work that God called them to do. As they were aiming, they saw some things in the way. They saw some things that would keep them from hitting their target. Verse 1 says that when all the preparation was finished, the leaders in the community came to Ezra. Because of the preparation and the prayer and the fasting and the continual teaching of the Word, Ezra had equipped the people. He had equipped the people in such a way that they began to recognize the sin in their midst. They recognized the sin in their midst and began to hate it the same way that God hates it. And when they did, they came to Ezra. And when they came to Ezra, they reported four things about the sin that they observed in their midst. First, they observed the extent of sin in their midst. Look at the first part of verse 1:
EZRA 9:1a
Observation of the extent of sin. We’ll get into the nature of the sin in just a minute, but for right now, look at how pervasive the sin was. First, it affected the people of Israel. So it was something that was widespread among the general population of the remnant. The everyday people—the lay people. But it wasn’t just them. It affected the priests and the Levites too. The spiritual leadership was full of this sin. It’s no wonder the people were sinful when their spiritual leaders were doing the same thing. But then again, that’s the kind of spiritual leadership that sinful people like to listen to. Ergun Caner tells a story of how when he preached in tobacco country in North Carolina that the people told him he could preach against beer all he wanted to. Just don’t say anything about smoking. Then when he preached in cowboy country in Texas, they told him he could preach against smoking all he wanted to. Just don’t say anything against drinking beer. People have a sin nature. And having a sin nature, we all want to justify our sin. What better way to justify our sin than by surrounding ourselves with teachers and preachers who help us do that. Paul warned Timothy of that in 2 Timothy 4:2-4. “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” The sad thing is, in the effort to be liked, many preachers and teachers quit reproving, rebuking and exhorting with longsuffering and doctrine. They quit doing that and tickle ears. And that’s what happened with the remnant. But not only did they quit teaching the people about sin, they went right along with them in practicing it. And that takes us to the nature of the sin that was observed. Now, let’s look at all of verse 1.
EZRA 9:1
Observation of the nature of sin. Here was the problem. You remember all the way back before the Israelites crossed the Jordan into the promised land. All the way back in Deuteronomy 7:1-4, God told the people through Moses, “When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: 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: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.” From that point forward, God strictly forbid His people to intermarry with pagan people. Now, why did God do that? Was it a racial thing? No—He commanded that because He knew that if His people married pagans, they would adopt the religions of the pagans. And it still works that way today. How many times have I heard a Christian girl think that it’s OK to date a non-Christian boy because she’ll be a witness to him. And guess what. Then the Christian girl ends up marrying the non-Christian boy. She still thinks it’s OK because she’s going to change him. You tell me—how many times does that work? Do you think maybe God knew what He was talking about in Deuteronomy 7:1-4? Do you think maybe He knew what He was talking about in 2 Corinthians 6:14? “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” But just like that Christian boy or girl that dates a non-Christian, the remnant thought they knew better. They ignored God’s law and intermarried with the pagan nations around them. And when they did, it had the same effect that always happens when we ignore God’s Word. Anytime we ignore God’s Word, there are consequences. So when we see the nature of sin it always takes us to observing the consequences of sin. Look at the first part of verse 2.
EZRA 9:2a
Observation of the consequence of sin. It surely doesn’t take much to see the consequences of sin, does it? We can see them all around us. We see the consequences of sin in the drugs and the abuse and the poverty around us. We see it in shrinking churches and swelling government programs. We see it in the explosion of pornography and sexual immorality. We see it in senseless violence and crime. The consequences of sin are all around us. Just like the consequences of the remnant’s sin was all around them. Why do you think they were satisfied with the city lying in ruins? Why do you think they had become comfortable with empty temple worship? Why do you think they thought it was OK to have temple ceremonies where the Word of God was completely left out? It was a natural consequence of their sin. Did you know that sin never starts off as bad as it’s going to get? Sin is always a downward spiral. It starts out simple enough. Adultery starts off with a look. Murder starts with an unforgiving spirit. Stealing starts with covetousness. And the horrible shape that Israel had gotten themselves in started with pride. Pride led to telling God, “We can do anything you require of us to make us holy.” God gave them the Law. They couldn’t do it. So God allowed other nations to punish them. Instead of pleading for God’s grace, they begged for a king. God gave them one. Eventually He gave them one who multiplied wives to himself. And when he did, he took on their pagan religions. And it got worse and worse and worse. Until the point that Israelite women were sacrificing their babies to Molech, the pagan god of prosperity. Sin has consequences. The consequence of mixing God’s holy seed with paganism is self-destruction. Is there any wonder that suicide is the 4th leading cause of death in our nation? Is it any wonder that abortion is the first? Is it any wonder that cutting and self-mutilation is the number one problem in high schools today? When the princes came to Ezra with this report, they observed the extent of sin. They observed the nature of sin. And they observed the consequence of sin. They saw all of it and knew where it was going to lead. They knew the downward spiral they were on. They knew that they had no hope of accomplishing the work God had for them as long as they continued on the spiral. They knew that as they passed along their fourth observation. Look at the second part of verse 2:
EZRA 9:2b
Observation of the instigator of sin. Remember who these people were. These were people who had been under Ezra’s teaching of God’s Word. Ezra had been accomplishing his mission all along. He had been doing his mission that he talked about back in 7:10. He studied God’s Word. He did God’s will that he saw in God’s Word. And He taught it to the people. And these people had learned. And they did something with what they had learned. They coupled it with what they saw around them. And what they saw around them didn’t jibe with what they had been taught. The sinfulness they saw around them didn’t match up with what God required in His Word. So, when they saw that, what did it make them do? Did they set up a protest? Did they have a trial, so they could publicly point out those who were in sin? Did it make them angry and accusative and judgmental and hateful? No—when they saw it, it broke their heart. It broke their heart, because not only did they observe the sin around them. They began to see the sin within them. You see, that’s what God’s Word does. It is sharper than any two-edged sword. It cuts. It divides things that we see as indivisible. When we really begin to see sin the way that God shows us in His Word, we will be cut to the quick. It will cause a sharp division, even between us and our deepest held sins. It’s very easy to see sin all around us. We can see Goth kids that dress in all black and look like they lost a fight with a nail gun. We can see bars and sex-shops and drugs all around us. It’s easy to see sin. There’s another kind of sin that’s easy to see. It’s easy for me to see your sin. I can see your faults and your shortcomings. I can see the ways you don’t model Christ in your lives. Just like you can see those same things in me. That kind of sin is easy to see. But let me tell you what’s hard to see. When you’re a prince, it’s hard to see that the hand of the princes has been chief. It’s hard to see yourself as the chief of sinners. You might think, “Well, I’m not—so-and-so is worse than me.” Well, I guess the apostle Paul was worse than you too. Because in 1 Timothy 1:15, he said, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
How do you see your sin tonight? Are your eyes open? The fact is, we can do all the prayer and fasting and preparing for God’s work that we want to. If our hearts aren’t right before the Lord, He will never allow us to get started. We can flounder around and do some things on our own, but if our hearts aren’t right, God’s not going to be in it. And if God’s not in it, it’s not worth doing. You can know the extent and the nature and the consequence of sin all day long. But until you get to the point where you can stand before God and say, “Lord, I see the sin problem. I see it in this world and I see it in this church and I see it in my home. I see it, I know how far it reaches. I know how deep and how wide and how awful it is. I know I can’t rationalize it or justify it. And I know the consequences of it. Lord, I see it and I know it. And Lord I am chief in this trespass.” When you get to the point where you can stand before God and say that, the Lord will begin to do things in you and through you that you will never imagine. He will begin to do things in this church and through this church that you will never imagine. So what’s stopping you? Now’s the time to open your eyes.
