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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you there then now Let's take our offering. Please open your Bibles to Ezra chapter 9. We are going to read the whole chapter. Ezra chapter 9. Please say Amen when you are there. Ezra 9. Now when we things were done, the princes came to me, 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 Morbites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 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. Here the hand of the princes and Zulas hath been sheathed in this trespass. And when I heard these things, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonished. Then were assembled unto me everyone that assembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away, and I sat astonished unto the evening sacrifice. And at the evening sacrifice I rose up from my heaviness, and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God, and said, O my God, I am ashamed and blushed to lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespasses grown up unto the heavens. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day, and for our iniquities have we, our kings and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the king of the lands, to the swords, to the captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of faith, as it is this day. And now for a little space, grace has been shrewd from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in this holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we are bondmen, yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but has extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken thy commandments, which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, 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 the abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. 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 they may be strong, that he may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great respire, seeing that though our God has punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and has given us such deliverance as this, should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? Wouldest not, though, be angry with us, till though hast consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, no escaping? O Lord God of Israel, though thou art righteous, for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day. Behold, we are before thee in our trespasses, for we cannot stand before thee because of this. Let us wait. I thank our Father for the Bible, thank you for the day, and for everyone is here. We ask you to bless that day, we ask you to bless the sermon, we also ask for concentration, and help us really to understand everything, and help us also to really apply all the things that we hear in our personal lives, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, we're here in Ezra chapter 9, and we've got two more chapters in Ezra. It is sort of like a two-part series, because chapters 9 and 10 kind of mesh together, and chapter 9 kind of leaves us with a cliffhanger, but the name of the sermon is Marrying the Unsaved. Marrying the Unsaved, that is the context here in Ezra chapter 9. Now, to fully understand what's going on here, remember that when they first went back to rebuild Jerusalem was in the days of King Cyrus. He makes a decree. Then you get through Bardia, Cambyses, then you've got Darius, then you've got the entire book of Esther where you've got Xerxes or Ahasuerus. Now you're in the days of Artaxerxes, and you have to realize that you are in basically time out for 70 years. You're in bondage under the judgment of God. You would think you would have enough sins to get right with God permanently, right? Because you're already thrown in basically temporary time out for 70 years, and yet they're going back to the same sorts of sins. Verse number 1, Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, 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. Now, when it mentions princes in verse 1, it's not like the country of England where you have a king and you have princes that are going to become the next king. A prince is someone who is basically a powerful political person. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to be in line to be the next king, though. And when it says the princes come to him, basically you have political leaders coming to Ezra and explaining the sin that is going on. Verse 2, So what you see is some of the princes want to do what's right, and some of them don't want to do what's right. Because in verse number 1, these are the princes that want to do what's right, but then you have princes and rulers that are chief in this trespass. I mean, if saved people are marrying unsaved people, obviously somebody has to do the wedding ceremony. Somebody has to do the legality of it. And if you're willingly marrying a saved person to an unsaved person, then you are involved in that sin. Now go to Genesis 6. Genesis chapter 6. I mean, you have many options of a person that you can get married to before you're married. It comes down to find somebody that's saved. It's not that complicated. Somebody saved of the opposite gender, which should go without saying, and it's like, you've got a lot of options. Now, of course, I do believe that you should try to marry someone that also wants to serve God if you're trying to serve God. But at least at the very basic level, marry somebody that's saved. Right? I mean, if you grow up and then you marry a Muslim, I mean, can you imagine if somebody grew up in our church, going soul-winning every week, and then they marry a Hindu, or they marry a Muslim, it's like, what are you doing? Right? I mean, marry somebody who's a saved person. Yet, this is a sin that saved people struggle with all the way back to the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 6, verse 1. And so in verse 1, it mentions men and it mentions women. Right? You've got men that are multiplying on the face of the earth, and daughters are born onto them. So in verse 2, the context, the sons of God, these are saved men marrying the daughters of men. The indication is the daughters of men are just unsaved people. They're not actually saved children of God. Now, of course, there's a lot of weird teachings on this. A lot of people say the sons of God here in verse 2 are fallen angels, and then basically they had children that were like a thousand feet tall. Look, women can give birth to big babies, but not like a 100 kilogram baby. Because if they grow to be like a thousand feet tall, then surely the baby's going to be pretty big. Right? I mean, it doesn't make any sense. I mean, sons of God are people that are saved. You say, well, Brother Stuckey, I thought the sons of God were fallen angels in the Old Testament. Look, even Jesus said to Nicodemus, before the resurrection, He said, art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things, not understanding the concept of being born again and becoming a child of God. The simple understanding is saved people marrying unsaved people. So you have saved men marrying women. Well, why would they do that if they're not saved? Because they're fair. Because they're attractive. Look, there's a lot of attractive saved people also that you can marry. I mean, you've got a lot of options on people. I mean, if you want to boil it down to that, they've got to be saved, and I've got to find them attractive. You still have a lot of options. Why would you go and then marry an unsaved person? Right? Verse number 3. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be in 120 years. There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in under the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which are of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Look, if you really want to get down to the root cause of the flood, maybe you can go back here to Genesis chapter 6. You've got saved people marrying unsaved. Because here's the thing. If you as a saved person are willing to marry somebody who's unsaved and just kind of give in on the fact of salvation, you're going to baptize your baby. I mean, if you as a Baptist marry a Catholic, your baby's going to be baptized in the Catholic church. Your child is going to go to Catholic school. Your child is going to go through all the catechism and everything like that. You say, why? Look, if you don't even care whether or not your spouse is saved, you're not really going to care what happens to your kids either. You better make sure that you marry. And look, if you marry someone who's unsaved, you're going to constantly have battles about this stuff. Once the children are born, it's like, well, what church do we go to? It's like, well, you should have figured that out before you got married. Go in your Bible to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Look, as a parent that wants to serve God and wants my kids to grow up and serve God, you know, we dream about the day where kids grow up and they get married and you have fellowship over Christmas and you've got all saved people that love God together and you're singing hymns. You're talking about the Bible. You're talking about church. You're talking about godly things. And you agree on things because you have the same beliefs. Look, it would break my heart as a father if my son came to me one day and said, Dad, I'm marrying an unsaved person. It's like, what? I mean, just imagine your kids grow up and then they choose to marry someone who's not a believer. It would break your heart. I mean, what are you going to talk about when the family comes over to dinner? It's like, well, we can't talk about this. It might offend them. We can't make any jokes about the Catholic church. It might offend them. Right? It's like you're not going to be able to have good fellowship because there's this big thing that you disagree on. Look, when you're choosing someone to get married to, make sure they're a saved person. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14. Now, I don't believe marriage is the only application here, but you think about being yoked together, and think about how the Bible says you leave father and mother and cleave onto your wife and you become one. You are yoked together as one in marriage forever. Well, you better make sure if you're a believer, you don't marry an unbeliever. Right? I mean, look, I know plenty of examples of people that I went to church with and they got older, and then they married unsaved people. I knew someone I went to church with some in college, and he married a Muslim woman. And he literally pretended to be Muslim to make her parents happy. It's just like, I mean, what are you doing? Right? What are you going to do when those kids grow up? I mean, are you going to have them repeat these prayers to Allah or Muhammad or whatever? Or are you going to have them in church? I mean, that's a big difference to disagree about. Look, obviously, husbands and wives, they're going to be things that you have to learn to get along with and disagreements you have. But if your disagreement is on what do you think it takes to get to heaven? Who's the true God? You're in for a disaster of a marriage. Verse number 15. And look, obviously, as a saved person, no matter what you do, you're still saved. But you know what? If you want God to really love you and you want to obey God, then you better do what He says. And He says don't have fellowship with an unbeliever. Now, of course, this would apply outside of marriage in terms of don't make your best friends ungodly people. Make your best friends people that you go to church with. But you know what? Marriage even more so because you're around them all the time. And the Bible says don't be yoked together with unbelievers. Go to Ezra chapter 9. Ezra 9. I mean, look, if you can't get them saved before you get married, you're probably not going to get them saved afterwards. Now, are there exceptions to this? Yes. You know what? There are exceptions. I would rather do things the smart way with a 90% success rate versus let's just go by chance. Let's just see what happens. I mean, people win the lottery, don't they? I might as well just give it a shot. That is very, very foolish to do. And in Genesis 6, this is before the flood. The flood starts basically right after the next chapter. And basically it starts because you've got saved people marrying unsaved, and then the entire world ends up being wicked. Point number 1, marrying the unsaved. Point 2, we see the mourning of the righteous. The mourning or great sadness of the righteous. Verse 3, and when I heard this thing, I rent my garment. So he rinsed his clothes. I rent my garment and my mantle and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard and sat down Astani. Now, I mean, this is literal. He literally just plucked out his hair. And look, when my son Ezra gets a hold of my hair, I mean, it hurts. And it's like I'm afraid I'm going to lose hair, so you have to try to loosen the grip. I mean, it's painful. Right? You grab somebody's hair. I mean, it's a very painful thing. And he plucks off his hair and of his beard. Right? Now, I'd imagine then, because we have a small beard. I usually don't grow out a beard, so it would be very hard to pluck out a piece. But if you get a longer one. Anybody who has a beard and hair, let's just test this out after the sermon. Let's see how it feels. Right? Any volunteers? Right? And it's like that would be probably a pretty painful thing. Right? I mean, but that's what Ezra does as a reaction. You know, he's mourning. He's very upset. And he's just so upset that he's like actually, you know, plucking off his hair. Verse 4, then were assembled unto me everyone that trembled at the words of the God of Israel because of the transgression of those that have been carried away. And I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice. So those that assemble with Ezra are those that tremble at the words of God. What does that mean? Those that fear God. Right? You're trembling. You're in fear. They're in fear about the judgment of God. So you've got people that don't love God. Maybe they're saved. Maybe they're not. But people that don't love God and they commit sins, they don't feel bad about it. And they're not worried about the judgment. You've got people that are not committing the sins. And they're like, what are we going to do about this? I mean, isn't that interesting? But you know what? It makes sense. Because in today's world, it's like we're, in general, people that are our soul winners are not trying to commit all these sins and mess up their lives. But we look at the sin that's going out there. We feel bad for people that are destroying their lives. But they often don't feel bad for themselves. It's like you look at their lives and you're thinking, man, your life's a mess. It's like, what are you doing? Right? I mean, we go out soul winning and we see people in the afternoon just drunk as a skunk. It's like, what are you doing? People that are really poor and they spend all their money on alcohol and cigarettes, it's like, what are you doing? And they don't feel bad about it. They just want to drown away the sorrows. Right? And then we look at it and we're thinking, man, what a foolish, foolish thing to do. That's basically what you're seeing here in Ezra 9. The people that are not guilty, they're like, man, judgment's going to come on us as a country. Verse 4, or verse 5 I should say, And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness. Heaviness, think of like having a heavy heart is an expression. Having great sadness. And basically Ezra feels so bad about the transgression, it's as if he can't even rise up. And this is not the exact same thing, but think about in your life if you're guilty of a sin and you have a guilty conscience. It's hard as a saved person to even go about your day. It's hard to just get up and go to work and read the Bible because you feel so bad. You feel so heavy as a result of your sin. That's the way that Ezra feels as a result of the sin of the people. And having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God, and said, O my God, I am ashamed and blushed to lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespass is grown up onto the heavens. Go to Jonah chapter 3 in your Bible. Jonah 3. And, you know, what you're going to see in this chapter is Ezra is aware of what could take place to them. Because, look, if God threw them in time out for 70 years because of their transgression, what's going to happen the next time? Right? I mean, if you have children and you tell your son something, you say, Zeph, don't do this, and then he disobeys you, the first time the punishment is probably small. Maybe it's just a warning. But what if he does the exact same thing that you just said two minutes earlier? Right? And, look, my son likes it when I mention his name in sermons, so even though I mention this as an example, he likes it when I mention his name. But if I had just told him, don't do this, and then he does it right afterwards, the punishment is going to be a lot bigger. And here's the thing. They were in time out for 70 years, and then they do the exact same things just like 100 years later. Right? Jonah chapter 3. And Jonah 3 is a great example of people getting right with God. And actually, you know, in Jonah 3, but you also have Jonah 2. Jonah 2 is a saved person who's inside of a whale's belly, and he gets right with God, and he gets a second chance. And that's what we see in Ezra 9. But notice as Jonah 3, Jonah chapter 3, verse 5. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them, even to the least of them. Now when it says they believed God in verse 5, the context, it's saying they believe God that they're going to be destroyed in 40 days. Whether or not they believe God in terms of salvation, well obviously salvation is an individual thing, but what the Bible is saying is the country as a whole believed the message of Jonah. Hey, within 40 days, Nineveh is going to be destroyed. And as a result of that, they put on sackcloth, they're mourning from the greatest to the least, because they're hoping that God's going to be merciful to them. Verse 6, For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything, let them not feed nor drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God, yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. So what takes place is that the king of Nineveh, which we don't know his name, I wish we did, you know, we don't know what king this is in secular history, he hears the message they're going to be destroyed, and he's like, wow, I believe it. And he causes it to be proclaimed everywhere. Because one man could not preach to this many people. But what takes place is the king believes the message, and he says send it everywhere, and then the message is going out to all of Nineveh. Now, wait one second, let me turn to Jonah 3 myself. This is obviously a very famous passage here. And Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, right? Okay. Jonah 3, verse 9. Then it says this, Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? Now, in verse 9, it talks about God repenting, and it actually kind of defines what repent is, because in that same verse it says turn and repent. And so what repenting is is to change or to turn. Now, look, is God a sinner? Obviously not. So when it's saying turn and repent, obviously God is not sinning. It's not saying repent of your sins. It's not saying that God is repenting of his sins. It's saying that he's going to change his mind, because what he said was in 40 days you're going to be destroyed, but if you get right with me, you're not going to be destroyed. And the people changed, and so God changed because of what the people did, right? Because they turned to God, and then God turned and repented from the judgment he was going to put on them. Now, he only turned for two books, because you get to Nahum in the Bible and they're destroyed. But he does turn away from the judgment for some time period. Now, verse number 10. And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. And it says here in verse 10, God saw their works. What were their works? Their works were turning from their sins. Repenting of their sins. These people did repent of their sins. But what the Bible says in that verse is God saw their works. And what that's saying is, turning from your sins, repenting from your sins, that actually takes work. That's not salvation. Salvation is not of works lest any man should boast. You know, you've got these pastors who will stand in the pulpit and say, Well, you know what? I repented of all my sin. I don't drink anymore. I don't fornicate anymore. I don't smoke anymore. Look, a lot of people never did those things. Why are you bragging about your sin? I'm sorry, my sins weren't so grievous that I had to turn from. Right? It's like, but literally, people brag about, Man, I used to be the worst sinner. Man, you wouldn't even believe the things that I used to do. It's like, why would you brag about that? You know, in this room are people that, you know what? All of us have made a lot of mistakes in the past, but why would you brag about it? Why would you talk about, Well, you know what? You think you did bad. Let me tell you what I did before I was saved. That's strange. That's weird. Look, I wish, and this is not the case for me, but I wish my testimony before I was saved was that I read the Bible every day. I wish that were the case. That was not the case for me, but I wish that were the case. And yet people brag about, Well, I was worse than you. It's like, how is that a competition? Why would you brag about that? What the Bible says here in verse 10 is that turning from your evil way is actually work. And look, when you talk to people out soul winning and you explain salvation, you explain salvation is the easiest thing in the world. It's like eating a slice of bread. Jesus said, I am that bread of life. He said, I'm the living water, drinking water. Pretty easy. He said, I'm the door, opening a door. Pretty easy. What about turning from all your vices? Look, people make New Year's resolutions every year. And you know what? Ninety five percent of New Year's resolutions are gone in like a week. You say why? It's hard. It's hard to make changes. It's hard for all of us. Right? I mean, and look, I've never smoked before, but people tell me, you know, smoking cigarettes is extremely addictive. Look, those people, they want to quit and they can't. And it's like you've got these churches that will say, well, until you're willing to quit, until you quit smoking, you can't be saved. It's like they've been trying to quit for decades. It's like don't make salvation complicated. And yes, here's the thing. In church, I preach against sins. I say what the Bible says, but out soul winning, it's as free and easy as possible. I tell people all the time, a person could be a drug addict until the day they die and go to heaven. You say, Brother Saki, you don't feel weird about saying that. No, because it's a fact. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you show people how easy salvation is, it's going to make them more likely to say, man, make sense. That's why Jesus died for me. A gift. It all makes sense. I mean, I knew it was not of works, but I still thought I had to live a good life. Right? It's like now it makes sense. Right? Go back to Ezra nine. Ezra chapter nine. But as a saved person, if you want to get mercy from God in your life, you better have a reaction like Ezra. When you mess up, you better come before God and say, God, I messed up. I'm sorry. Give me another chance. You say, why? Because he's going to show himself merciful to those that are actually willing to be humble. And if you're not willing to be humble, then be not deceived. God is not mocked. You won't lose your salvation, but you're going to reap what you've sown, according to the Bible. Ezra nine, verse seven. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day, and for our iniquities have we, our kings and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands. To the sword, to captivity, into a spoil, and a confusion of face as it is this day. And Ezra is willing to admit, you know what, we've been under judgment because it's our fault. Oftentimes when people get in trouble, they don't want to take responsibility. It's like, well, why did you do that? Well, I mean, because so and so did this. It's like that's not an excuse for hitting your brother. Right? It's like just because somebody did whatever, that's not an excuse for your sin. If you transgress the law, the question is, why did you do it? And here's the thing, if you're guilty of something, you better get right with God. Point number one, we see marrying the unsaved. Point two, we see the mourning of the righteous. And point three, we see mercy toward Jerusalem. Mercy toward Jerusalem, verse eight. And now for a little space, grace hath been showed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape. And to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage. Now go to Romans 9 in your Bible. Romans chapter 9 in your New Testament. Romans 9. Romans chapter 9. And notice what it says in Romans 9, verse 29. And as Isaiah said before, except the Lord of Savioth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodomah and been made like on to Gomorrah. Now what does he mean by been like Sodomah and Gomorrah? What he's saying is, Sodom and Gomorrah was completely destroyed. And if there was no remnant that was basically survived, they would have all been 100% destroyed. Verse number 30. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith? But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone, as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on it shall not be ashamed. Now in these verses, it says that salvation is by faith. Even before the time of Christ, they sought it by their works. Salvation is by faith. It's always been by faith. It's always been by the blood of Christ. Now go to Romans 11. Romans 11. Romans chapter 11. Romans 11, verse 1. I say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid. Now, why does Paul bring that question up as a hypothetical? Have God cast away his people? Because people could look at what happened to Israel and think that God cast away his people. I mean, they're scattered. I mean, the book of James says they're scattered. The 12 tribes are scattered abroad. And here's the reason why he says we haven't been cast away. He says, For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. He says God didn't cast away his people because look at me. I mean, I'm of that lineage. The difference is I'm saved. That's what he's saying. Right? He didn't cast away those that believed because, look, during the time of Christ, there were some Jews that believed on Christ and some that rejected. And see, those that believed on Christ, they're not cast away. They're God's people. They're the elect. They're on their way to heaven. You say, What about the other group of people? Well, they're cast away. They're done. That's why he brings up the hypothetical. I mean, it mentions in the book of Matthew that basically when they killed the son in the parable, that was it. What's he going to do to them? He's going to miserably destroy those wicked men. That's what the Bible says. They're done. And see, this is the reason why Paul brings this up as a hypothetical because people looked at the Jews and said, Man, it's like they've been rejected. But Paul's saying, No, wait a minute. I believe. I'm of the 12 tribes. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. Verse 2. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. What does it mean by he hath not cast away his people which he foreknew? It's not saying he foreknew their bloodline. He foreknew their ethnicity. It's saying he foreknew if they would believe on Christ. He had foreknowledge of what... Because, look, if two Jews had a child, of course. You don't need foreknowledge to know their child is going to have the same ethnicity. It's saying what he foreknew was they would believe. And Paul's saying that. He's saying, I'm not rejected. Why? Because I believe. God foreknew that I would believe. Right? But the others are cast away. Why ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto them? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so, then, at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. For by grace are ye saved through faith, those that believe on Christ. Saved by grace and God's foreknowledge if people would believe. And if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. But then Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Go back to Ezra 9. And look, you see the mercy toward Jerusalem in the fact that they got so wicked that God rejected them for 70 years. The mercy is the fact that he gave them another chance. Because people would say, well, wait a minute, if God's merciful, then why are you saying God eventually rejected the Jews? Look, if I give my children warning that they're going to get a spanking, that's called mercy. But then eventually that mercy can run out. It doesn't mean that you just have mercy forever no matter what. I mean, a person can be merciful. It doesn't mean that mercy is going to be forever, though. And God is very merciful toward Jerusalem for a time period. Ezra 9, verse 9. Go to Lamentations, chapter 3. Lamentations 3. Now, as individuals, the way this would apply is the fact that, you know what, God is actually very merciful toward us. And he has punished us less than our iniquities deserve. Right? I mean, God is very merciful to us. For one, we're saved forever no matter what we do, if you believe on Christ. But two, I mean, we screw up every day. And many times you go to bed at night saying, God, I'm sorry. I messed up. And you wake up the next day and you get right with God, and yet you end up committing the same sins. Right? I mean, we tend to commit the same sins over and over and over. And yet God is very merciful toward us. It says in Lamentations 3, verse 22. Great is thy faithfulness. And what this means is the fact that God's merciful every single day. If you wake up in the morning, regardless of what you've done in the past, and you get right with God, it is a brand new start. That does not mean that there's not a punishment for it. Right. I mean, if you do wrong, there's a punishment. But you can get right with God every single morning, get right with him, and start over. It's a brand new start. Go to Ezra 9, Ezra chapter 9. Point number 1, we saw marrying the unsaved. Point 2, we see the mourning of the righteous. Point 3, we see mercy toward Jerusalem. And point 4, let us see the message from the Lord. Ezra 9, verse 10. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken thy commandments. Now, when he says, what shall we say after this, what he's basically saying is, how can we defend ourselves? Right. Like, imagine somebody being in court, and there's a video of them committing murder. Their fingerprints are on the knife. Their DNA is there. I mean, every bit of evidence you could possibly put out there, and it's like, you know, and then they're like, okay, I did it. Okay. Or, you know, how are you going to defend yourself? It's like, what are you going to say? Right. Or, you know, you catch your kid with, you know, their hand in the cookie jar. Right. It's like, you know, you told them, don't eat a cookie. We don't have a cookie jar, but I'm giving an example. Right. And their hand's in the cookie jar. It's like, I see your hand there. It's like, no, it wasn't. Like, what are you going to say? Right. Right. It's kind of like in Romans 3, the Bible says that every mouth may be stopped. Right. And all the world may become guilty before God. And the analogy it's trying to bring forth is someone being guilty in court, and their mouth is stopped. Because how are people going to defend themselves at the day of judgment? Right. I mean, at the great white throne judgment, what are you going to say? It's like, a soul winner tried to give you the gospel five times, and you rejected it. I mean, you knew the message. You rejected it. You didn't want to hear it. You live for yourself. I mean, how can you defend yourself? You committed the sins. You're guilty. And what Ezra's saying is, what shall we say? I mean, we can't defend ourselves. I mean, you gave us commandments. You said, don't do this. We did it. I mean, how are you going to defend yourself? Right. There is no defense. And the best defense in a situation like this is beg for mercy. Not make excuses. You can't justify it. I mean, you did the crime. Just beg for mercy, which is what Ezra's doing. Verse 11. Which thou wast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land unto which ye go to possess 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. 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. Now look, when he's saying don't have your children marry their children, it's not because of ethnicity. It's because of religious beliefs. This is not saying, because there are people that say, well, interracial marriage is wrong. It's like, that's ridiculous. Read the story of Moses with Miriam and marrying the Ethiopian woman. Right? But God says don't marry them because of their wickedness, their filthiness, their false religion. And he's saying, you're going to enter this land, I'm making an everlasting covenant with you. Here's the thing people don't understand. You can make an agreement or a covenant that lasts forever as long as certain things are done. Right? You start renting an apartment and it's 10,000 pesos a month. But there are certain things that are requirements to stay there. Number one, pay the rent each month. You stop paying, you're kicked out on the street. It's like, but we signed the agreement. We got a contract. I mean, our names are there. I mean, did you read? It's not even a fine print. It's big print. Pay the rent. Right? Don't break anything at the house. Pay the electric bill, whatever. There are certain things in that agreement and covenant and if you break those, well, then the owner says, well, it's done. The owner of the property says it's done. Well, who owns the property of Jerusalem? God? And he said, you know what? You can leave this land for an inheritance to your children forever if there are certain requirements that you must do. And one of the things mentioned is don't marry the people of that land. Don't marry the unsaved. And look, God's people should be aware of Genesis chapter six. Right? I mean, especially because this is before the time of Christ. Their Bible's a lot smaller back then. You're probably going to be, I mean, because when you get somebody saved, you might tell them start in the book of John or start in the book of Romans. Right? But back then, it's probably start in the book of Genesis. You get to Genesis chapter six and the wickedness comes right after they marry unsaved people. Right? And so, look, the covenant God had was not an undying covenant no matter what they did. There was actually requirements. Verse number 13. And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass, seeing that thou, our God, has punished us less than our iniquities deserve and has given us such deliverance as this. And you know what Ezra's saying is a 70 year time out was too little of a punishment. He's saying he could have rejected us completely. And notice what it says in verse 14. Should we again break thy commandments and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? Wouldest not thou be angry with us? Notice this. Till thou hast consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping. You know what this shows you? Ezra was not a Zionist. Right? Ezra understood, look, the first time we had a 70 year punishment. The second time it's going to be bigger. Right? You commit a crime, drunk and driving. The first sentence is like, I don't know, 10,000 pesos, six months suspension on your license. Right? I don't have to take that license test anymore so I forgot all the rules. Okay? But you do it the second time, it's worse. Right? And eventually they just confiscate your license forever. Right? Because the second time is going to be more than the first. Right? And what Ezra's saying is, look, if the first time we had a 70 year punishment, you might just completely destroy us. Now look, this has already taken place. Nobody today can trace their lineage back over 2,000 years. They were completely destroyed. They were completely consumed. Look, Assyria was completely destroyed. Are there people that are, you know, children of children of children of children all the way back? Yes they are, but they were completely destroyed as a people and nobody can trace their lineage back that far. Edom also was completely destroyed as well. Look, Israel as a people were completely 100% rejected. And the people today that say they're Jews, they have no idea if they're Jews or not. They have no idea what their lineage is. They were completely rejected for their sin. So look, if you're saying that they were given the promised land 70, 80 years ago, I mean, did they turn back to God? I mean, did they get right with God? Did they all just believe on Jesus Christ? I mean, did they all just at least get rid of the sodomy and get rid of the drunkenness? I mean, no, I mean, we just saw in Esther recently in their holiday Purim, part of the requirement is getting drunk. And yet they're right with God in 2023? No, they were completely rejected. That land does not belong to them. And look, Ezra understood this. Verse 15. O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous, for we remain yet escaped as it is this day. Behold, we are before thee in our trespasses, for we cannot stand before thee because of this. Now next week we're going to see the end of the matter because I'm not really telling you my opinion on what's going to take place in Ezra 10 until next week. But you've got to deal with the aftermath. You've got this major problem. Major judgment is going to come. Major judgment is going to come. It's like, well, what are you going to do? And where does it come from? Because they're marrying unsaved people. And look, for those that are young in this room, right, before you're married, make sure you marry someone who's saved. I mean, people are interested in different types of people. People are attracted to different types of people. Make sure the person you marry to, though, is saved. Right? That's the number one thing. Make sure they're saved. And here's the reality. If a saved person chooses to marry an unsaved person, they are going to be more miserable being married than if they had just stayed single. You're better off just waiting and marrying someone who's saved. Much better than just, well, you know, they're attractive. I'll marry them. Well, good luck dealing with decades of pain as a result. You better hope they eventually get saved because otherwise your life is going to be miserable. And not only that, you're going to get the judgment of God. Why? Because you know what the Bible says. And you say, well, Brother Stuckey, I didn't know this. Well, let me just end with be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Let's close in with a prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see this topic, God. And I ask you to help all of the singles in our room to meet the right person, help these young children as well as they grow up, to have a desire to serve you and get saved and love you and want to go soul winning and marry someone who's saved but also wants to serve you, God. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen for our last song. Let's get this hymn book. And let's turn to hymn number five. Let's get this hymn book. And hymn number five, for page number five. Let's sing this song, please. My heart was distressed if the oil stepped down on the first. Everybody sing. My heart was distressed if the oil stepped down. And though in the winter my sin struck me down, I cried to the Lord from the deep I could play. The dead heard me call to you to come and play. He called me out of the mighty grave. He sent my feet on the rock to stay. He puts a song in my soul today, a song of praise hallelujah. He wants us to rock by his side. My sex first ambition here I'll find. To linger all the time here I will be. He sends my spaces to the ground I dare. He called me out of the mighty grave. He sent my feet on the rock to stay. He puts a song in my soul today, a song of praise hallelujah. He gave me a song for some new song of praise. But in the light it swivels like the rain. My heart said, Lord, when you've had me in fear, I'll face my believers and stress you now. He called me out of the mighty grave. He sent my feet on the rock to stay. He puts a song today, a song of praise hallelujah. I'll sing of his wonderful mercy to thee. I'll praise him till all in his goodness you'll see. I'll sing of salvation of old and of old. Till handings are learned to the trusted God. He looked me out of the mighty grave. He sent my feet on the rock to stay. He puts a song in my soul today, a song of praise hallelujah. Can you break for us? This is what it's all about. It's what it's all about. It's what it is. It's what it is. It's what it is. It's what it is. It's what it is. It's what it is. It's what it is. It's what it is. It's what it is. It's what it is.