Let’s pray.
Father, we are so thankful to be gathered in the name of Your Son. We are so thankful for Your Spirit, Who gives us release to worship Him, to praise Him.
Lord, we are thankful that we have been called together in the name of Your dear Son; that Your Spirit is here to teach us. So we ask You, Lord, fill each of us with Your Spirit. Fill our time with Your presence, with Your speaking.
Lord, our hearts are open to You. Lord, anywhere that they are not open to You, we ask You to keep knocking and keep wooing and drawing. And, Lord, do not allow us to leave tonight until we have completely opened ourselves to You, allowed You to speak, and responded properly to You.
We love You, Lord Jesus. Amen.
As we began asking the Lord months ago about the conference, and then asking Him about a theme for the conference, the things that came to us were largely from the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy.
As Chip mentioned today, we have not spent much time in those books. But I feel like the Lord is speaking a clear and consistent message to us, and He will continue to do so over the next thirty-six hours, or however long.
Tonight, as I began to seek the Lord specifically about my part for the time, I found myself somewhat surprised that I felt the first thing I needed to speak about was not our corporate life together—building the Lord’s house—but actually our individual walk with the Lord.
As I read in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, both of those books, toward the end, have these men of God dealing with things in the lives of God’s people that are more individual in nature, and yet had an absolute relationship with their ability to be building the Lord’s house and the Lord’s city.
So I felt like that is where I needed to start tonight: talking about our secret life with the Lord, our individual walk with the Lord, and how that affects our ability to be involved, in reality and in actuality, in the building work of His house, His city, and the preparation of His bride.
As I meditated on that, the Lord gave me basically four things that I want to talk about tonight: characteristics, deceptions, and philosophies of the age in which we live that will keep us from being who the Lord has called us to be.
These are things that I feel like we know in our heads, and yet we have no idea, really, how ingrained these things are in us and how much they affect the way we think, the way we approach the Lord, and the way we approach each other.
I will speak one at a time about these four characteristics of this age in which we live. I started out thinking in terms of our society, thinking of American culture, but I think it is really the whole modern half of the world. It is everywhere that everyone in this room is from, whether you are from Asia, Europe, North America, or South America. It is all of the developed world, all of the so-called modern world. It is this age that has these characteristics.
The first thing is kind of the most overarching. People call it a philosophy; I consider it a religion. That is humanism.
Humanism means different things to different ones of us, and I am not going to attempt to give any kind of technical definition or discussion of humanism. But let me give you my paraphrase, my practical definition.
For each of these four words, I will give a parenthetical subtitle, or a different word. Humanism is man-centeredness, or self-centeredness.
Humanism is the philosophy—really, a religion—that says it is all about mankind. Everything is about the human race. Everything is about man. Man is God. Man is the one seated on the throne. Man is the one for whom everything exists.
Of course, a true humanist says there is no God. Religion is just a crutch. But for some weak ones, religion can be a good thing. If you need religion, if you need to think there is a God in order to feel more secure or comfortable, well, that is okay—as long as you realize it is just a crutch. It is not real.
Everything exists for man. Government is by the people and for the people—or, to paraphrase a bit, government is from us and through us and to us. Government exists for the people. Families, relationships—everything really exists for the greater good of the human race.
That is humanism in broad brush. But I think most of us would tend to think of ourselves as Christians who maybe huddle together and watch over our shoulders for those bad humanists. “That is why I went to a Christian school, so I would stay away from them. That is why I was homeschooled, so I would stay away from those humanists. That is why I was on my guard when I went to public school, because I knew there were humanists there.”
What I want to tell you is: you are a humanist. You are a humanist.
Except to whatever degree the Lord has delivered you from that mindset of this age by the renewing of your mind, by His Holy Spirit; except to whatever degree, in specific areas of your life, He has let you see that wicked, godless, diabolical false religion and caused you to see where you had embraced it and how you were living according to it—in those areas, you have been set free.
But this is, humanly speaking, the air we breathe.
Several people have mentioned that we are sophisticated. We know the lingo. We know what we are supposed to say, how we are supposed to discuss things, and how we are supposed to think of things. So we cannot even let ourselves be caught really thinking what we really think.
But if you laid my heart bare, took away all the veneer, and took away all the right words, what you would find is that I really think that God exists for me.
I am so glad that I belong to the Lord. He has washed me from sin. He has taken away my guilt. He blesses me. He gives me peace. He gives me joy. He gives me meaningful relationships. He leads me when I do not know which way to go. He gives me wisdom when I am faltering.
On and on—and of course, the tricky thing is, everything I just said is absolutely true. We ought to absolutely be thankful for that.
But if you could really see my heart, the emphasis would be: He gives me. He does for me. He brings me. He exists for me. I am so thankful I have a God Who loves me and takes care of me.
The church, the assembly that you belong to—aren’t you glad for what a good place it is for you? Aren’t you glad for the programs it offers, the ways it gives you to use your time in enjoyable ways, the relationships it allows you to build, the good young adult group it has so that you can be with like-minded people doing the things you enjoy doing?
Aren’t you glad it gives you a place for your ministry so that you can feel fulfilled, so that you can do what God has called you to do?
Aren’t you glad for those leaders who can give you a good worship experience by keeping an eye on that unruly brother or sister who always overfunctions or misfunctions? Aren’t you glad that those brothers are there to take counsel with the hard cases so that you can kind of go on about your life?
My family—I am so glad for my family. It gives me a throne to sit on. It gives me a little kingdom to rule. It gives me a place where I am obeyed and appreciated.
Really, all my relationships, if I am honest with myself—except to the degree that the Lord has delivered me from this—are all about me. Whether I am the giver in the relationship: “Yes, I had some time of fellowship and ministry with our needy brother today.” Or whether I am the receiver: “I am so glad there is someone whose shoulder I can cry on, or someone I can go to when I am lonely.”
My job: I expect my boss to treat me with respect, provide a nice working environment for me, give me a little bit of career satisfaction, and pay me so that I can live at the standard of living to which I have become accustomed. It is all about me.
It is all about you. We are humanists. We are born into this air, this age, this deception of the age. A preacher two or three decades ago called it The Deception of the Ages. What a deception it is.
It is so utterly contrary to the Word of God, so utterly contrary to reality, and yet it makes such sense to our minds and feels so comfortable to our hearts.
“Yes, it is all about me, isn’t it? I am supposed to have a comfortable life, a good life, a happy life, an enjoyable life.” That is why marriages end: “I am not happy anymore.” That is why people go from one assembly to the next: “They are just not going on with the Lord anymore. Things just are not—we are not growing anymore like we used to be. The elders just are not leading the way they…” Whatever it is, it is not meeting my needs anymore. It is not satisfying me anymore—this relationship.
Someone tell me the first four words of the Bible.
In the beginning, God.
In the beginning God…
—Genesis 1:1
Revelation 22, the last chapter of the Bible, says:
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the first and the last,
the beginning and the end.
—Revelation 22:13
Nothing could be further from the truth than the lie of humanism. It is not all about mankind. It is not all about me. It is all about Him.
First to last, and everything in between.
Until I see that, my life will be wasted. I will be going around in circles, trying to find that elusive happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction that only God can give—and He only gives it when He is in His right place.
Let me read just a little bit out of the early chapters of Revelation. Revelation gives us a lot of bad news about things that are coming on the earth. It also gives us glimpses into heaven, to see the end of the story and to see things as they really are.
The end of Revelation 4, beginning with verse 9, says:
And when the living creatures shall give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sitteth on the throne, to Him that liveth for ever and ever,
the four and twenty elders shall fall down before Him that sitteth on the throne, and shall worship Him that liveth for ever and ever,
and shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power:
for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they were, and were created.
—Revelation 4:9-11
In the next chapter, beginning with verse 11:
And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders;
and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
saying with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing.
And every created thing which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things that are in them, heard I saying,
Unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, and the dominion, for ever and ever.
And the four living creatures said, Amen.
And the elders fell down and worshipped.
—Revelation 5:11-14
From Colossians: I always think of Ephesians as being the highest revelation of the church in the Scriptures, and I always think of Colossians as being the highest revelation of the Lord Jesus.
For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things have been created through Him, and unto Him;
and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
And He is the head of the body, the church;
Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead;
that in all things He might have the preeminence.
—Colossians 1:16-18
That is the reality of the universe. That is the reality of eternity: that Jesus Christ might have first place in everything—or, as the King James says, “the preeminence.” Of all things eminent, glorious, and powerful, He has the preeminent place, the first place of glory and honor and power. That is reality.
On the other hand, the reality for us is not that we are God, not that life revolves around us.
For none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself.
For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord:
whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
—Romans 14:7-8
And He died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves,
but unto Him Who for their sakes died and rose again.
—2 Corinthians 5:15
Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you,
which ye have from God? and ye are not your own;
for ye were bought with a price:
glorify God therefore in your body.
—1 Corinthians 6:19-20
We are His by creation. We are His by redemption. We belong to Him. It is all about Him. That is the reality of life.
But there is this deception that has so permeated the age in which we live. It is everywhere. It is in everything. We grow so accustomed to it that we do not even recognize what we are seeing, hearing, thinking, and saying.
It affects everything. It affects how we come to the Lord’s Word.
“Lord, You could not possibly be saying that to me. Lord, that would make me so unhappy if that is what You were saying to me. Lord, I just cannot be fulfilled if my life has to be like that. Lord, that is too hard. That does not fit my culture. That does not fit my understanding. That does not fit my preferences. That is very uncomfortable to me, Lord. You cannot be saying that, Lord.”
Because it is all about me.
May the Lord deliver us from that deception of this age.
The second word that was on my heart was that our age is becoming increasingly virtual. It is not a biblical word, obviously, so I will give you another word: counterfeit.
Sonny mentioned that he knew almost everyone in here, and half of you I do not know. That makes it easier for me to say some of the things I will say tonight, because I am not saying it to any of you, and you do not have to think that I am, because I do not know you. I do not know your personal lives.
But I was reading recently in an accounting magazine and came across something that was not really related to accounting. I was fascinated in a way that gave me an emotion somewhere between incredulous and horrified—terrified, I do not know what. I do not know how to describe it, but I was fascinated.
It was talking about communities called virtual worlds. You guys know these things; I do not. I am kind of old-fashioned. It was talking about a particular one called Second Life. Interesting name.
It mentioned that these virtual worlds—things that are kind of a cross between a video game and a social-networking community—have another term given for them: metaverse, like a universe, a metaverse.
I found a definition for metaverse: a metaverse is a user-defined world of general use in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate.
This particular one I was reading about, Second Life, said that when you join up with them, you choose your—what do they call it? Avatar. Is that pronounced right? You choose your avatar. You choose the person that is going to represent you in this fake life, this fake world. You choose your own name. But it mentioned that over time, most people customize and accessorize their avatar.
Why am I going into this? This is not a message about Second Life or virtual worlds. I do not care about all that stuff. What struck me is: this is the world we live in.
This is the world we live in.
You know, 1 John 5 says that the whole world lies in the evil one. The New American Standard says, “in the power of the evil one,” but literally:
We are of God: and the whole world lieth in the evil one.
—1 John 5:19
He is called in other places the prince of the power of the air. He is called the ruler of this world, the god of this world. This world is Satan’s playground. It is Satan’s stage. He has had all of human history to design the set of this stage.
Here we are at the end of the age, and things are as perfect as Satan’s wicked, hateful wisdom has been able to make them. This world is a counterfeit.
Now, it is real. I am real. We are living a real life. But you understand what I mean. The world system is a counterfeit of real life.
There are things in this life that can seem to give me almost peace—at least calm. There are things in this life that can seem to almost give me something kind of like joy. When the circumstances are all just right, I can be happy. It is kind of like joy. There are things that can kind of satisfy.
This world is a counterfeit to reality, a counterfeit to real life.
I will talk more tomorrow about Jerusalem versus Babylon, the bride versus the harlot, the real versus the counterfeit. But one of the differences between Jerusalem and Babylon—the bride and the harlot—is that Jerusalem is all about internal reality and character. The harlot is all about external adornment, external appearance.
Here we are in this virtual world, this virtual universe called Second Life, where you can customize yourself over time and accessorize yourself over time.
But it is all, as Satan tempted Jesus, the kingdom without the cross.
If Thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall all be Thine.
—Luke 4:7
“You do not have to go to the cross. That is unnecessary. I can give it all to You.”
But that is the harlot speaking. She looks like a queen. She looks like a bride. But it is all external.
The reality is:
Our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
—Philippians 3:20
We are men and women on the earth. We do have a life to live in time and space. But if we do not know the higher reality, the more eternal, lasting, weighty reality of our spiritual life in the heavenly realm, then we will waste our life on this earth. We will waste that short, little, precious time and energy that the Lord has given us, living as mere men—living the way people of this world live.
We may not feel hopeless, but we will be living in vanity if we do not see the higher, truer, more lasting and eternal reality of our heavenly life, our spiritual life with the Lord.
This theme keeps coming up because it is the Lord’s theme. I am often amazed: four Gospels, three of them called synoptic—they are alike—and then John, so different. Very few of the things recorded in the Gospels are recorded in all four because John is so different. Many are recorded in two or three; very few are recorded in four.
But five times in the four Gospels, we have basically what I am about to read. Sonny read it twice last night from other passages.
And He said unto all, If any man would come after Me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
For whosoever would save his life shall lose it;
but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it.
For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose or forfeit his own self?
—Luke 9:23-25
This life actually is all about being changed. The enemy wants to offer us a self-directed, self-user-defined world to live in, where you can customize yourself and accessorize yourself. You can choose how people see you. You can choose how people interact with you. It is all on your terms.
But actually, it is all about the Lord. Life is all on His terms. If you want real life, then you will learn to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him. In that, there is transformation.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
—Romans 12:1-2
There is this transformation. It is not customization. It is not user-defined. It is transformation from your natural self into the beautiful, desirable Person of eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ—into His likeness and nature. But it is on His terms, and it only comes by taking up your cross and following Him where He leads.
Ephesians 4 talks about growing up into Him Who is the Head, even Christ. Life is about growing, changing, and becoming more and more, in practical reality, like Him.
Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord.
—Hebrews 12:14
Pursue sanctification: this ongoing process, as Sonny said last night, of taking that which has been done, that which is reality, that which is finished in the Lord’s finished work, and letting Him, step by step, as we claim this ground and take this inheritance, work it into the reality of our lives.
Little by little, line upon line, order upon order, we are actually changed from who we are in the natural into His image and likeness.
Philippians 3: Paul talks about “this one thing I do,” forgetting what lies behind and pressing on for the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The Christian life is so intense, so energetic, so focused, and so moving. There is nothing boring about following the Lord. There is nothing passive about following the Lord. There is nothing weak about following the Lord.
But it is not on your terms. It is not on my terms. It is on His.
We live in this world that is a counterfeit in so many ways. It offers us so many counterfeit ways to think that we are having life. But just as Jesus said, unless you take My body and blood into yourselves, you do not have life. Unless we live in the spiritual realm, even while we are living on the earth, we are not living life.
The third word, the third characteristic of our age, is Laodicean. Somebody give me the parenthetical other word for that.
Lukewarm.
Laodicean: lukewarm. We live in an age that is lukewarm, that loves lukewarm.
I do not know if any of you remember, a few months back—however long ago it was—Rosie O’Donnell caused kind of a stir because she basically said, “Muslim extremists, Christian extremists—it is all the same.”
That really is increasingly how the world is thinking. The age we live in basically does not mind religious, but it hates spiritual.
It expects everyone to be decent people. Do not try to be holy people.
We should be broad, expansive, inclusive. We do not want people who are zealots. We do not want people who are radical.
That is the age we live in. That is what is comfortable: lukewarm. That is what is comfortable to me in the natural.
I drink my coffee warm instead of hot. I do not want my bath water scalding. I certainly do not want it cold. I do not want it too cold or too hot. I like lukewarm.
But it is not just in the natural. Really, I like lukewarm in those other areas too.
Spiritual. Holy. Radical. Those things are too costly to me. I really do not like those things for me. In fact, I am kind of uncomfortable with them in you. I would rather just kind of keep everything lukewarm.
One of the lies of the age is that the enemy comes to you when you recognize something like that in your heart, and he says, “See? That is just not you. You are not the radical type. Holiness is just not for you. You are just not as spiritual as some of these other folks. Do not fight it. Just recognize who you are and be who you are.”
It is a lie. I love lukewarmness, but I have the eternal, overcoming life of the Lord Jesus Christ in me.
He says, “Walk by the Spirit.” Be spiritual.
He says, “Be holy yourselves in all your behavior, because I am holy.”
He says, “Take up your cross and follow the Lamb wherever He goes.” That is radical. No matter where He goes, no matter what He does, no matter what He is saying—that is where I am called to go, do, and say. That is radical. It is not comfortable to me, to my natural self.
I am not called to live by my natural life. In fact, I am called to deny my natural life and live by His victorious, overcoming, glorious, heavenly, eternal life.
Jesus said to the Laodiceans:
I would thou wert cold or hot.
So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold,
I will spew thee out of My mouth.
—Revelation 3:15-16
A few verses later, He says:
As many as I love, I reprove and chasten:
be zealous therefore, and repent.
—Revelation 3:19
It is not the end of the world if you, like me, recognize, “Ah, I like lukewarm.” It is okay. Be zealous and repent every time you see that in yourself, and follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
The fourth characteristic of this age is what I call Samaritan. I do not think you could possibly know what I mean by that, so the other word is compromised.
Write down 2 Kings 17, if you are taking notes. You can read that later, and it gives you a good glimpse of Samaritanism.
When the kingdom of Israel was one kingdom under Saul, David, and Solomon, and after Solomon died, the kingdom was split into two. The northern kingdom was called Israel; the southern kingdom was called Judah.
Israel never followed the Lord after that, not in reality. They always had the external appearance of following the Lord. They always said they were worshiping the Lord. They had the same Scriptures and a priesthood, but they had those golden calves that they called the Lord, and that is what they worshiped.
They never had a good king. They never followed the Lord. They went into captivity, I believe, about one hundred fifty years sooner than the kingdom of Judah, which was up and down, back and forth.
When they went into captivity, the land was not left as a vacuum, uninhabited. The king of Assyria settled it, and some Jews still lived in it—a few. Then he settled it with people from many other nations.
They asked to be taught how to worship the god of that land. Some renegade priests were sent back—at least one was sent back—to show them, “The God of this land is named the Lord, and this is how we worship Him.”
They said, “Good, good, good. Now the lions will go away. The god will be happy with us.” But it specifically says they worshiped God and the gods of all the nations from which they had come.
So Samaritanism is this compromised mixture of the true God plus the gods of the surrounding nations.
We live in an age that is very Samaritan, very compromised. I feel like the church in America is a Samaritan church. It is God-plus. It is God-and.
But specifically, I want us to look a little bit from the book of Ezra, read some from Ezra 9 and Ezra 10, and talk about this matter of compromise.
Specifically, Ezra is dealing with the problem of mixed marriages. I want to talk about that a little bit: the historical situation, and then the spiritual reality of how it applies to us.
What was happening here was that God’s people had come back from Babylonian captivity, come back into the land. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah cover a little over one hundred years of time, and there were three returns during those two books.
At the beginning of Ezra, Zerubbabel brought back almost fifty thousand people. Then halfway through Ezra, Ezra came back, about sixty years after Zerubbabel’s return, I believe. Then perhaps eighty years after Zerubbabel’s return and about twenty years later, Nehemiah came back.
These books cover one hundred years, and they are not always chronologically presented. But both Ezra and Nehemiah, who were contemporaries for part of their lives and whose time in Israel and Jerusalem overlapped, were dealing with this matter of mixed marriages.
The Lord’s people had come back from Babylonian captivity, left everything, and had their hearts stirred to come back to nothing and rebuild what was on the Lord’s heart. Yet, over time, they settled into taking wives for themselves or their sons—something that the Lord had strictly forbidden in the law of Moses and many times through the prophets.
When Ezra and Nehemiah became aware of that, they were greatly distressed. They were greatly humiliated before the Lord. They were very repentant for the sins of God’s people.
That is the situation we come into in Ezra 9. Spiritually, what does this mean? What does that have to do with us?
God’s people—His holy ones, His saints, His set-apart ones—marrying, or as the Hebrew literally says, giving dwelling to the daughters, the fair things, the refined, beautiful things of the surrounding nations of the world.
When God’s holy ones, His set-apart ones, start making room in our hearts, giving dwelling to the fair things, the beautiful things, the lovely things, the desirable things of the world, it is a mixed marriage.
Marriages often bear children. Those children, the fruit of that alliance, that intimacy that we have opened our hearts to, are never good fruit when it is a mixed marriage.
That is the spiritual reality Ezra was dealing with. These are beautiful things, lovely things. We are not talking about inherently wicked things, the overtly disgusting, vile, despicable things. All of us know to stay away from those things.
What about the things that we could argue with anybody about? “There is nothing wrong with that. Why, it is good. It is beautiful. It is lovely.” It is those things. If the Lord says, “This is a daughter of the land. This is a fair thing to your eyes, but it is of the world.”
The problem with the daughters of the land is that they are beautiful, lovely, desirable, and sometimes seductive. But when you give dwelling to one of these foreign wives, she brings with her her religion, her philosophy of life, and her gods.
So what? Solomon. It is what caused Solomon to turn from the Lord. He gave dwelling to foreign wives, and they turned his heart to their foreign gods.
It is not a matter of, “There is nothing too terrible about this.” What is the source of it? Is this something of the Lord? Is this something of the world? If it is something of the world, it brings other gods into your heart and into your home. It cannot help but bear fruit.
As Nehemiah says in Nehemiah 13, these children did not speak the language of Judah. They spoke the language of their mother, whatever that foreign tongue was.
Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.
—James 4:4
It is serious business, and it applies to every single one of us. I have had my heart laid open before the Lord these last few weeks as I have meditated on these things.
There are plenty of things I find lovely, desirable, attractive, that sometimes the Lord says, “She is foreign. Do not give dwelling to her.”
Let us begin reading in Ezra 9:
Now when these things were done, the princes drew near unto me, saying,
The people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples 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.
For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons,
so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the peoples of the lands:
yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been first in this trespass.
—Ezra 9:1-2
Here is the first thing: they have not separated themselves. It is a simple thing. We are holy ones. We are set-apart ones. We do not belong to ourselves. We are not for common use. We are not for our own use. We are not for anyone’s use except the One Who created us and redeemed us. We are set apart for His special use.
But if we do not separate ourselves from the daughters of the land, from the fair things of the world, we will fall. We will be turned.
The hands of the princes and rulers had been foremost in this unfaithfulness. “Well, Matt is talking about compromise and mixture. I do not have to listen to this. I am one of the spiritual leaders in my assembly.”
The hands of the princes had been foremost in this unfaithfulness. In the middle of Ezra 10, it gives a list by name of the sons of the leading priests and Levites who came back with Zerubbabel who had taken foreign wives.
I am always so thankful in Scripture—and there is plenty of it in Ezra and Nehemiah—to see the detail with which the Lord keeps genealogies and lists of people who came back, people who left everything in Babylon to return to an apparently God-forsaken land to rebuild something from ashes and ruins simply because He said, “You, go.”
All fifty thousand names are not there, but the names, clan by clan, tribe by tribe, family by family, city by city, are there. In many cases it specifically says that they were all kept by name in the genealogy.
The Lord knows. The Lord keeps track. Nothing that you do in response to Him, nothing that you give Him, no obedience offered to Him, ever goes unrewarded or unnoticed.
By nature, what motivates me is not praise and recognition. But some of us are motivated that way. That is okay; we are just wired different ways.
But when the Lord says, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,” there is not one of us who will not consider that to be the highest reward we could ever have been given for our little bits of faithfulness and obedience—all by His grace, all by His strength, all by His power, all by His life.
It does not matter who you are, who your parents are, or who your grandparents are. All of us need to have our hearts laid open before the Lord.
“Lord, have I given dwelling to any foreign wives? Lord, is there fruit in my life from these unholy unions, from these intimacies, this place that only belongs to You that I have given to others?”
None of us are exempt.
And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my robe, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded.
Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the trespass of them of the captivity;
and I sat confounded until the evening offering.
And at the evening offering I arose up from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe rent;
and I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God;
and I said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee, my God;
for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our guiltiness is grown up unto the heavens.
—Ezra 9:3-6
Since the days of our fathers we have been exceedingly guilty unto this day;
and for our iniquities, we, our kings, and our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands,
to the sword, to captivity, and to spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
And now for a little moment 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.
For we are bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage,
but hath extended lovingkindness 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 ruins thereof,
and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
—Ezra 9:7-9
Ezra did not consider these personal matters to be disconnected from corporate matters. He said, “Lord, You have given us this great mercy, this little space of reviving. You have allowed us favor in the eyes of the kings of Persia so that we could actually come and build Your house and build Your city. And look what we have done. Lord, forgive us.”
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, is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands,
through 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 prosperity for ever:
that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever.
And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt,
seeing that Thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such a remnant,
shall we again break Thy commandments, and join in affinity with the peoples that do these abominations?
wouldest Thou not be angry with us till Thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape?
O Lord, the God of Israel, Thou art righteous; for we are left a remnant that is escaped, as it is this day:
behold, we are before Thee in our guiltiness; for none can stand before Thee because of this.
—Ezra 9:10-15
The things that are abominations, things that are vile, we recognize those things. We stay away from those things, hopefully, mostly.
But look at verse 11. It is very instructive to me, the words that Ezra used:
The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands,
through their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness.
—Ezra 9:11
Out of those three terms, one of them we do fairly well at staying away from. None of us wants to be involved with abominations. But what about unclean? What about impure? Those are kind of gray-sort-of areas.
Remember, we are talking about beautiful things, fair things of the world, lovely things.
Can I get real personal? Please do not answer these questions out loud.
What kind of music do you listen to?
What is the common subject matter of the music you listen to, if you cataloged it for a few days?
The music I could listen to for a lot of my growing-up years—if I think about the music of the world, any music that has words, that is music of the world—it all seems fairly common. Different music styles between rock and jazz and country or whatever, but the words: it is all illicit sex, not married, pure sex.
I do not recall too many songs about coming home to my wife of twenty-four years that I daydreamed about all day long and having the fireworks go off. It is all adultery. It is fornication. It is the one that I see across the room while I am holding my wife’s hand. It is the one that is forbidden.
It is bondage: drugs, drinking, whatever. It is rebellion against authority. It is humanism. It is all about me—my happiness, my fulfillment, my temporary satisfaction.
What kind of art do you enjoy? A lot of beautiful things. Is any of it foreign?
What kind of things do you watch on TV, in videos, at the movies, on the computer when no one is around, with your cell phone?
For years, I used to say that having a TV in my home would be like having a twelve-inch sewer main coming through the wall and pumping sludge and filth into my living room. I do not care if there is something edible that comes through every now and then. I do not want the sludge. I do not want the filth. I am not digging through there to find that piece of chicken.
But when I started realizing what the World Wide Web was, what the internet was, and the opportunities it provided, I said, “Wow. That is a twelve-inch sewer main, but the internet turns every computer into a doorway straight into the pit of hell.”
Every vile, wicked, satanic thing known to man is available a few clicks away in the deceptive, apparent privacy of your own home or your own office.
Nothing is private. Nothing done in secret will not one day be shouted from the housetops.
What do you read—books, magazines, what you read in the newspaper? Gosh, it is all junk. What do you talk about at work, or when you go out with your friends? This is where the rubber meets the road for me. What am I putting in?
“Well, I do not listen to the words, Matt. I just like the music.” Baloney. Those words are going down in the depths of your soul and searing themselves into your soul.
I last intentionally listened to rock music in about 1980. Astute mathematicians will figure out that was twenty-nine years ago now.
I hardly ever go into a grocery store or walk through the mall without starting to sing along with some rock song from the seventies that they are playing over the music system. Twenty-nine years later, it is there because it is there.
If you spend the next twenty-nine years desiring to follow the Lord in holiness, you will spend the next twenty-nine years wishing that you had not put into your soul some of the things that you have put into your soul, because they cannot just be erased away.
The Lord can and does, in His mercy, take much from our memories. Kit talked about much that we want to forget, and some the Lord allows us to forget.
But do not be cavalier about these things. I cannot tell you how many people, how many brothers and sisters—good brothers and sisters who love the Lord, who have been the Lord’s for thirty or forty years, your parents’ age—who to this day are in bondage to things that they opened a door in their heart to when they were your age or younger.
It is like a little ring in the nose. Just a little thing. It does not weigh much. Some people even consider it attractive.
But when your enemy grabs that ring and starts leading you where he wants you to go, you know how much resistance you can put up? You can whine. You can complain. You can register your displeasure: “This is not where I want to go. I do not want to go there again. I do not want to do this again. That is not how I want to live.”
But you have no ability to really resist.
Rip that thing out of your nose.
Do violence to yourself now in order to be free of those things that the enemy would use to bind you for the rest of your days on the earth. You do not have to walk in bondage. You do not have to walk in the shame of being at the whim of the enemy.
But you do have to do violence to yourself in order not to be in that position.
Let me read a few Scriptures.
I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way:
Oh when wilt Thou come unto me?
I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.
I will set no base thing before mine eyes:
I hate the work of them that turn aside;
it shall not cleave unto me.
—Psalm 101:2-3
So convicting: “I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.” It is one thing before the assembly. I think most of us are pretty good at walking before the assembly in the integrity of our heart. We can all play the game. We can all put on that face and keep things outwardly looking pretty good.
What about in the privacy of your own home?
“I will set no worthless thing before my eyes.”
“I hate the work of those who fall away.” The whole entertainment system, the whole entertainment world, is pretty much controlled by those who fall away. “It shall not fasten its grip on me.”
The lamp of the body is the eye:
if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness!
—Matthew 6:22-23
And if thine eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee:
it is good for thee to enter into life with one eye,
rather than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire.
—Matthew 18:9
The Lord Jesus is not expecting us to be a bunch of one-eyed, one-handed, one-footed disciples of His. He is expecting us to be those who take the kingdom by violence—not the world’s kind of violence, but His kind of violence: violence to ourselves, violence to our self-life, violence to that which we love, which comes so naturally to us, which satisfies something fleshly in us.
Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise;
redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
—Ephesians 5:15-17
Be careful how you walk. We live in such a free society. It is what America is all about, right? We are free, independent, self-sufficient. “No one can tell me what to do. No one can tell me how to live my life. I have my rights.”
Be careful how you walk. Walk circumspectly. I think that is the King James word for this verse. I do not know, but walk circumspectly. It is the idea of drawing a circle, a circumference, for yourself—limiting yourself.
Scriptures that talk about modesty use a Greek word with that same idea: putting limits on yourself. We are such a society of libertarians. “No one is going to tell me what to do. You are going to tell me how to dress? No one is going to tell me what music to listen to, what to read, what to watch. I am a grown man or woman. It is between me and the Lord.”
And the Lord says, “Be careful how you walk.”
And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
—Colossians 3:17
When Chip talked about things he would or would not do or say with his dad in the room, I could really relate to that. That brings it home. It puts things in focus, does it not?
Anything I cannot do in the name of the Lord Jesus and give thanks through Him for, I probably ought to look at real seriously. I probably ought to ask the Lord about real honestly.
Whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
I am not going to take the time to read the first half of Ezra 10. You can read it later. But let me summarize it for you, because it is good news.
The people of God heard the prophetic word of God through Ezra, and they did not make a defense. They did not start explaining themselves. They did not start arguing. They simply confessed.
They simply agreed with God and with Ezra and said, “We have been unfaithful. We have married foreign wives. We have sinned.”
They called an assembly. They gave everyone three days to get there. I thought, well, we had a lot longer to get here, but we are here for three days.
Then it was interesting: they said, “We have sinned, but there is still hope for Israel in spite of this.” Amen.
It took them three days to all assemble, and then they heard the Word of the Lord again: “You have been unfaithful. You have married foreign wives. You have disobeyed the Lord. You have brought shame on the Lord’s name. You have given dwelling to things that have other gods, and you have had children by those unholy alliances.”
They said, “You are right.” They confessed it. They covenanted with Ezra and with the Lord: “We are going to get rid of these things. We are going to take these things out of our lives.”
Can you think of anything more heart-ripping to the human heart than men sending away their wives and their children? It does not even match my theology.
Remember, we are talking about spiritual things here. We are talking about violence to self in order to follow the Lord in holiness and purity.
They confessed. They agreed with God: “Yes, Lord, You are right.” Not making excuses, not arguing, not defending myself. “You are right, Lord. I repent. These things are going.”
They said, “We cannot do it in two or three days. This is a big deal. We have really sinned greatly, and our lives are really interwoven.” So they made a plan, and it actually took them three months from start to finish to carry out the outworking of their repentance.
The Lord was not displeased anytime during that three months. They were absolutely doing the right thing. They agreed with God, confessed their sin, turned from their sin in their heart, and set themselves to make things right—to purge their lives of these foreign wives and foreign children.
I think it is real good each time after someone shares a message with us, when we take a few minutes to pray and commit to the Lord the things that we have heard. I want to ask that tonight we specifically take a few minutes, have a few minutes of silence before the Lord, even before there are any prayers out loud.
I want to ask you to ask the Lord about these things.
“Lord, have I been a humanist? Have I just been living life as if it is all about me? Have I been living like a mere man in some make-believe world? Have I been lukewarm?”
“Lord, have I given dwelling to lovely things of this world that have brought in other gods to my heart and other affections, borne fruit?”
If all you hear tonight is my voice, if you just hear condemnation brought on you by Matt’s legalistic word, you might make the equivalent of a New Year’s resolution: “That is right. I am going to be done with such-and-such. I am going to quit doing so-and-so.”
It will last a few days, a few weeks, a few months. Either little by little you will slip back into it, or all at once you will fall back into the very things that the Lord is touching your heart about—the things that you have decided you should be rid of.
The only difference will be that you will have more condemnation the next time around, because you will have some head knowledge that says, “I really should not be doing this.”
Even worse than that would be if you are a person of great willpower and decide, “That is right. I am giving this up. I am going to quit that. From now on: holy, righteous.” You will become self-righteous, arrogant, judgmental, and it will be worse than your current state.
But if you ask the Lord honestly, transparently, with childlike humility:
“Lord, I do not want to hear Matt’s voice. I do not want to make stuff up. But Lord, would You speak? Would You put Your finger on things? Would You show me specific things I need to turn from?”
And if He does, if He has, if you will just agree with Him—do not argue, do not justify, do not rationalize. Just agree with Him.
“Lord, You are right. These are foreign wives. This is mixture. This is compromise. Lord, by Your grace, by Your mercy, and in Your strength, I am turning from that this moment.”
“Lord, would You show me in the coming days, weeks, and months practical steps to take to extricate myself from these alliances, these intimacies, these relationships, these marriages?”
He will do that. He will wash you, cleanse you, and set you apart again to His special use. He will give you that practical wisdom, knowing how to walk it out.
So if we can just take a few minutes and sit before the Lord, and then if anyone has prayers out loud, then please pray.