# Dealing with Sin

Key Passage: Ezra 9:10
Date: June 7, 2024

Turn to the Bible, the book of Ezra. We’re going to be in the last verse of chapter nine, then we’ll be in chapter 10. We’ve been on the book for months, really, almost all year long. We’re nearing the end of it.

Our memory verse for the month is Hebrews 13:15. We won’t go over that tonight, as it’s the last Wednesday of the month. But Ezra—help me with review. Let’s review a little bit in our minds going toward the book of Ezra. He’s going to put our map up for us there. If you know the answer, just say it out loud: Ezra is about the…

Good. Remember, the temple was destroyed. They went into captivity, and then they were allowed to come back. How many years were they in captivity? Seventy years. Good. Who was the king? There was a king that came on the throne, and he took over Babylon. He was very favorable to the Jewish people, said, “Go back.” Cyrus. Good.

I haven’t mentioned this in a while, but chronologically, if the books of the Bible were in order, the book of Ezra would be right close to the end of the Old Testament. Just get that timeline right. Some say it would be Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi. Of course, there are two prophets that would be in there. We’ll talk about them in just a second. They sent a group back all the way over from Babylon to Jerusalem, a long ways. Straight across, how many miles is that? Five hundred. Most everybody thinks they went up by the rivers here. How many miles would that be? Long ways. How many people? It was just shy of what? Fifty thousand, the first one, just shy of fifty thousand.

Can you imagine that journey with families and little ones just born, and all those things going on? All these people went all the way back to rebuild the temple. And when they got over there to rebuilding the temple—of course, any time you do something for God, there’s opposition. Opposition came. What was their first tactic that they used against them? They tried to join up with them. And the people of God wisely said, “No, you’ve got no part. Your intentions aren’t to build the temple of God.” But eventually they sent back a letter to another king at that time who had taken over. He did not really, as far as we know, look for the decree of Cyrus, didn’t find it for sure. And so that stopped the building of the temple. It was just stopped. The work that they had come to do, and God had called them to come back over here and build this temple back up in Jerusalem, it was stopped. Just a very sad thing. We think somewhere around 14 years, most people say around 14 years, it was stopped.

And these two prophets, two minor prophets in the Bible, started preaching again. One said, “Well, it’s not time for you to live in your sealed houses while the temple of God lies waste.” And the other fellow, the younger one, about two months later, he started preaching and said, “Hey, we’ve got to get this business done here.” Do you remember who those two prophets were? Good. Who was the older one? Haggai. Good.

After that preaching, they did start rebuilding again. And opposition came. They tried the same thing. They sent a letter back to the king, and it stopped. They sent another letter back—a different king over in Babylon this time. He went searching for the decree of Cyrus, and he found it. But it was in an odd place, not the normal place. Where was it? In the summer palace, they found it. And so that king said, “Well, you have my blessing, and I’m even going to support you.” God put His hand all over it and made it possible for them to rebuild the temple.

Chapter 6:15—they had finished rebuilding. Then another group of people came back. The temple was already built, but they didn’t come back to rebuild it. They came back to beautify it. A lot smaller number of people. Anybody remember that number? About five thousand. Who was the man in charge of that? Ezra. Good.

In chapter seven, Ezra comes on the scene. Of course, they go back, and the people start coming to Ezra, the leader, and say, “There is sin in the camp,” and there was. Do you remember the sin that was going on in the camp? They didn’t separate. They were intermarrying with the lost races—saved and lost people getting married—and God was not for it. They had already told them that.

So chapter nine, especially the last part, is very much Ezra having a prayer meeting with God. Ezra is mourning and confessing the sins of Israel. And it’s just a great prayer meeting Ezra has. We’ll just look at the last verse. This is what he’s saying: “Look, we fell into sin, Israel. God sent all those prophets warning us. We didn’t listen. So captivity came, and they wiped Jerusalem out, brought them out for seventy years. Now, after seventy years, God’s given us a little grace, and the groups went back to rebuild it, we’re trying to beautify, and we’re falling back into sin.” That’s what he’s praying. It’s such a sad thing. That’s what we’re going to pick up tonight: the last verse of the chapter.

Would you please stand if you are able as we read the Word of God together? Ezra 9, verse number 15. He is finishing his prayer. We’ll just read the last verse. If you are there, would you say amen? Amen. Verse number 15, the Bible says: “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.” It’s a sad thing. For all that happened, he said, we’ve still got sin, and we can’t stand before it.

Look in chapter number 10. We’ll just read the first three verses, chapter 10, verse number one. “Now when Ezra had prayed and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there were assembled unto him out of all Israel a very great congregation of men, women, and children: for the people wept very sore.” And Isaiah, the son of Jail, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, “We have trespassed against our God and have taken strange wives of the people of the land.” I like this statement: “Yet now, there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now, therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and such as are born of them according to the counsel of my Lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the law.”

Just for a little while tonight, let’s just focus on this subject: dealing with sin. Sin must be dealt with.

And would you just pray and ask God just to cleanse us tonight? I feel like the Lord has been working in my heart. I need some deep cleansing, and sin’s got to be dealt with. They are dealing with this sin, and let’s just try to learn something from tonight. Would you pray and ask God to speak to your heart as I do the same?

Lord, we come. Father, thank you that you have mercy, you have grace, you have forgiveness. Lord, it’s amazing that you can even clean the stain of sin in our lives. Father, I pray that we would do the necessary steps to get to that point. Lord, please work in our hearts, Father. Thank you for what you do. We love you, Lord. Father, we ask for these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Years ago, I welded for years and years at a shop. I had welded something pretty close to my face, which was fine; we did that often. But then I lifted my hood. Sometimes, as the metal would cool off very quickly, there are little BBs—as you weld, if you are MIG welding or wire welding, some of you know—little BBs pop off. Anybody ever welded and gotten burnt a little bit from that? Yeah, a lot of y’all know.

When I lifted my hood, because one of those BBs landed on the metal while it was cooling off, that BB popped and hit me in the eye. It burned just a little bit into my eye, and I knew it right away. We went to the doctor that night, and they got that little metal BB out of my eye. But it left a little indentation. It burned a little bit in there and left some impurities—they said, actually, like rust in my eye—from that little indentation where the BB was.

I had to go to the specialist, maybe the next day. Your eye grows over very quickly. I remember him numbing my eye, putting in the stuff that numbs it so you can’t feel anything. Then it looked like an ink pen, maybe a fatter ink pen with a point—it was really a drill. They put your head in a little brace, you know, and they go in there. He said, “Now I’ve got to get all that rust, all that stain, if you will, from that hot BB. I’ve got to get that out of your eye before it grows over.” When you put that little drill in there, you could hear it a little bit, and you could feel it, but you can see your eye because he’s drilling there a little bit.

Here’s the reason why I tell that story: because sin leaves a stain. It’s rust. When we allow God to cleanse us, he cleans all that away. Friend, sin must be dealt with.

The thing about it is, God is a forgiving God. He is a loving God, a merciful God, full of compassion. But my sin—He doesn’t just say, “Well, I love you so much, I’ll sweep it under my rug.” No, because that would sacrifice His justice and His righteousness. Remember, they said, “Holy, holy, holy”—by the way, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. His mercy and His love do not sacrifice His justice. Why does that work? Because His Son paid the cost. So He doesn’t just say, “Well, I forgive you everything. We’ll just write it off and forget all about it.” No, no, no. Sin must be dealt with. Sin was laid on Jesus, and He dealt with our sin.

If you are a born-again Christian, as far as your eternal destiny, Jesus dealt with your sin as far as your judgment, as far as eternity, okay? I am thankful Jesus dealt with my sin. Amen. I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with my sin as far as my eternity, because there would be no hope. If I paid for my sin, I would burn in hell forever, never, never, never.

But, friend, here’s the thing with sin: it has repercussions. It leaves that stain in my life, and I must deal with that so I could not just be forgiven, but I can be fully cleansed and that stain can be wiped away. Sin must be dealt with.

I think about a preacher on the mission field. God had blessed and used him in a great way; God had His hand on his mission, doing a great thing. He came back and preached in the States, and I listened to it. He said when he first got there, he was praying for revival: “God, would you do something in our church?” It seemed like the more they prayed and asked God to do something, the more people kept coming to his office. He said he was shocked at the sin that was in the church—incredible sin.

But he realized that for God to do something mighty there and put His hand on that, sin had to be dealt with. He said the more they dealt with the sin in their lives, the more they got clean and right with God, and God began to remove that stain away. The more God began to put His hand on that church. Friends, sin must be dealt with. If I am going to experience God’s blessing and His joy and peace—not just in eternity, yes, but down here—I’ve got to deal with my sin.

Ezra, when he brought about five thousand people over, they began to come to him and say, “Hey, Ezra, tell the camp we have not separated ourselves from the world and the sinful people and begun to intermarry with them.” Ezra didn’t say, “Well, we won’t worry about that. It’s all right.” He didn’t do that. He began to fast and pray and mourn and weep and cry. And praise the Lord, people got on board and said, “We’ve got to do something about this sin in the camp.” And sin must be dealt with.

Look over, if you will, in Proverbs chapter number 28. Proverbs 28, verse number 13. It is an amazing verse about this subject of our sin. Proverbs 28 and verse number 13 is a great verse about how to deal with sin.

Now, that’s a good dad right there. He’s taking Autumn out. Look at that right there. Is he going to change diapers? Wow. You’re putting me to shame, Brother Matthew, I’ll tell you for sure, man. That’s a good dad right there.

Proverbs 28, look at verse number 13. The Bible there says, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.” Pretty strong, folks. That’s not a “well, maybe might.” He says it shall not prosper. “But whoso confesseth and forsaketh shall have mercy.” Both are strong statements. Both use that word “shall.” If God says something will happen, you can count on what’s going to happen, but “shall” is just a touch stronger. He said, if I cover my sin, you shall not prosper. But if I confess and I forsake, God said, you shall have mercy. What a wonderful promise both ways.

I think many times people have—and by the way, you confess first to the Lord; He’s the only one who can forgive sin. But sometimes you need help. We’ll talk about it in a second. Many times people came to my office and have confessed sin, not that I can forgive, but I’ve tried to help them with the sin. Almost always, I’ll say, “Hey, I’m so glad you came because God says you shall have mercy. If you cover it, you’re not going to prosper.” And what a promise that is.

First of all, who confesses? It starts with confessing, admitting. I remember a man years ago who had a drinking problem. He told me, “Well, I don’t drink that much. It doesn’t affect my marriage or anything in my life.” The funny thing is, his wife came along a little while after him, not in front of his face, and she said, “Pastor, it’s tearing us apart.” Praise the Lord, he got honest about that. He rededicated his life; as far as I know, he hasn’t drank since. That’s been years ago. But it takes just admitting, “Hey man, I’ve got an issue. I’ve got a problem here.” Whoso confesseth.

Now here’s something sad: sometimes we have to deal with sins that people will not confess.

Look over in First Corinthians, if you would please. The church at Corinth had this situation going on, and they just wouldn’t deal with sin, and it was a sad scenario. First Corinthians chapter number five. Let’s just see what goes on here. First Corinthians chapter five, verse number one: “It is reported commonly—in other words, everybody knows about this—that there is fornication among you, sexual sin, and such fornication as is not so much named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.” It’s a sad thing. This church has incest going on inside; it’s a tragic thing. Everybody knows about it.

I want you to notice three lessons we can get from this. Look at verse number two. The first thing he says—this is going on in the church there, and everybody knows about it. Verse number two: “And ye are puffed up.” Now, when there’s sin going on, don’t get proud and snooty, looking down your nose at somebody. That’s what was going on. They were puffed up. They thought they had it all together: “Well, we don’t do that. Can’t believe he’s doing that. What in the world is he doing?” No, that’s a wrong attitude. It wasn’t for the grace of God, there go I. Thank God; He saved me from my sin and helped deliver me from my sin.

So the first thing, he said, is that you’re puffed up. And the next statement, look at it—here’s number two: “And have not rather mourned.” It ought to break your heart. I sometimes—there have been times—I never like to deal with things, but somebody maybe is living in very open sin, and I have to go to somebody and say, “Hey, we love you. We want you to be in the church; you’re welcome anytime. But to be a member, you’ve got to get this thing right.” I never like that, and I go there with a bad attitude, thinking I have it all together—shame on me. It’s a good thing if I’ve shed some tears over that.

He was telling the church, “You’re puffed up and you’ve not mourned over it.” If I go with a cynical, critical, looking-down-my-nose attitude, shame on me. I should break my heart that Satan is having his way with that person. He said, “You’re puffed up and you’ve not rather mourned.” And then let’s keep going. Verse number two continues: “that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.” Oh, sometimes sin just has to be dealt with. He said, “You’re proud, looking down your nose about it all. You’ve not mourned over it.” And he said, “You need to deal with it. You need to move it out.” You’ve got to deal with that thing.

Why? Sin leaves stains. Look: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” It’s not a matter of God not forgiving them; it’s the matter of the laws of sowing and reaping. Sin’s got to be dealt with.

Here’s this sad thing. Let’s keep reading over there. Look in verse number four. First Corinthians five, verse number four. Here’s the sad thing about it: if I don’t deal with the sin, let’s see what happens. Verse number three: “For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together in my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now look what he is saying. He said you need to remove that person and say, “All right, we’re going to let the end of that sin run its course in your life.” Not because we want to hurt you, deliver someone to the devil, but why? Because we want, in the end, for them to get right—for the spirit to be right, see.

But here’s the thing I wanted you to see. Let’s keep going here. Verse number six: “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” He said, “Look, if you just let that sin continue, continue, you know what happens? That sin grows.” A little leaven—some of you ladies know much better than I. I’ve never made homemade bread in my life, probably never will. If I try to do that, it will probably be a wreck. Any of you ladies ever make homemade bread? You’ll probably do a much better job than me. My wife makes good homemade bread, she sure does. You ladies can tell me better than I, but you put that little leaven in there, and it kind of grows—the yeast, if you will. He said, “Look, sin is like that: a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” He is saying it has to be dealt with.

I think about a situation where a wife’s husband was involved in very immoral sin, unlawful against the laws of the land. She kind of hid behind submission and all these other things, didn’t want to deal with it. Can I be honest with you? Her husband ended up in jail, and not too long ago, her husband died in jail. Sin must be dealt with. I’m not talking about you nitpicking—we talked about that Sunday night—but I’m talking about major things here. Sin must be dealt with.

Ezra didn’t just sweep it all under the rug and say, “Well, it’ll be all right.” He fasted and prayed and mourned, “Lord, you’ve got to have mercy on us. We can’t stand before you.” And these people got behind him and said, “You’re right, Ezra. We need to do something about this issue of sin.”

Look back over in Ezra, chapter number 10 tonight. Ezra 10, verse number 3. He says there, “Now therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and such as are born of them according to the counsel of my Lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the law. Arise, for this matter belongeth unto thee; we also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it.”

Here’s the thing: Ezra was the leader. He brought about five thousand people back; they were there to beautify the temple. He was a scribe, he was a priest. When they told him about the sin, he just wept and mourned. These people got behind him, and this is what they said: “All right, Ezra. We’re going to follow your lead. If you are following God’s commandment, we’re going to follow your lead in getting this thing right.”

Here’s my point on this: Sometimes we need help in overcoming our sin. Sometimes we need healing concerning our sin. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the pastor; I’m not trying to generate more work. But I’d rather sin be dealt with. Why? So God can put His hand on your home again, and God can bless your health or your finances or your marriage or your child or whatever. That’s why—so God can bless the church more. Can I just say, my door is open if I can help? It doesn’t have to be me; it can be somebody else. But I do my best to help. I don’t have all the answers; I’m not trying to act like I do. But, oh, friends, sometimes you need to get help.

Over the years, oh my goodness, I don’t say these things to brag or whatever, but I say it to show that these things must be dealt with. I don’t know how many times over the years drinking has come up, and somebody comes here saying, “I’ve got a problem with drinking,” or even smoking. I remember one time someone was leaving the church on the way out—not leaving for good—and they shook my hand and gave me a pack of cigarettes. I thought, “Oh my goodness, man, let me hide those things.” I put them down, trying to get rid of them. They gave them to me. I forgot all about them and went home. You know how you unload your pockets when you get home Sunday night after everything’s over? Tammy was in the living room. I said, “Tammy, you won’t believe what I have in here.” She said, “What do you have in there?” I said, “I have cigarettes in here.” She said, “What in the world did you do with cigarettes?” And I told her the story.

I think about two men at the same time who both had issues with pornography. We kind of got them paired up as accountability partners. As far as I know, they won over it. Drugs, affairs, abortions, and all the rest of that stuff. I’m not saying I like all that, but I’d much rather it be dealt with than the stain still be there. My eye would have been messed up for life with blurred, messed up vision if they hadn’t taken care of it. They want to take care of it pretty quick because the skin grows over fast in your eye. We’ve got to take care of this thing, and sometimes you need help.

I think about a person, a wonderful person in our church, who was in a leadership position but had a sinful habit of tobacco for years. It took maybe a year to work over the thing. We were merciful because they were sincerely working at it and gracious over it. But as I was saying, sin must be dealt with. If I don’t deal with it, it grows. It’s so sad. Sometimes it grows to be an ugly monster, and sometimes the world sees that ugly monster, and it’s a bad testimony for the Lord, and it harms our homes and our families and everything, often because originally sin hadn’t been dealt with. Ezra didn’t just sweep it underneath the rug. He said, “We’ve got to do something about it.”

One more thing, we’re done. This is not one of those shouting hallelujah sermons, amen. It’s not going to be one of those where you pull the Lord’s Supper table out and run around and shout hallelujah. It probably won’t be that type of message. But as Bible study, nonetheless, dealing with sin—we’ve got to do it.

Look in Ezra chapter 10, verse number nine. Here is one last thought. Verse number nine: “Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days.” They gave them a limit; they said, “We’ve got to take care of this thing. You better gather here within three days or else.” It was the ninth month on the 20th day. The ninth month in our calendar is different than the Jewish calendar, but that would be equivalent to September the 20th in our day and time. All the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and for the great rain. As they were trying to get right, it seems—I checked the commentaries—there was a great rain coming. There are always problems when you are trying to get things right; the devil fights that.

And Ezra, the priest, stood up and said unto them, “Ye have transgressed and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel. Now, therefore, make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and do His pleasure, and separate yourselves from the people of the land and from the strange wives.” Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, “As thou hast said, so must we do. But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain. We are not able to stand without, neither is this a work of one day or two, for many that have transgressed in this matter. Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us.”

Only Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jahzeiel, the son of Tikvah, were employed about this matter. And Meshullam and Shabbethai, the Levite, helped them. And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest was certain chief of the fathers after the house of their fathers. All of them by their names were separated and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine this matter. So it took them about ten days to really figure out a plan, to get a method for how they were going to deal with these things.

Now, verse number 17: “And they made an end with all the men”—about a hundred of them, by the way—“that had taken strange wives by the first day of the first month.” So, now, Wednesday, we started over there in September. Their calendar is a little different, but it would be about like January. It would really be like two months and ten days.

Here’s my point in this last section: We’re done tonight. You say, “Good, because this is a hard message, preacher.” But here’s the thing: It takes time to deal with sin. Yes, if I confess my sin, He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse. But friend, down here, that’s eternal, yes, before the Lord, yes, but down here, be not deceived: God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. If I sow to the flesh, I shall of the flesh reap corruption. There is that stain of sin that must be dealt with.

The old preacher said that before he was saved, he was in a bar fight and got an arm cut off. He said, “God’s forgiven all my sin back there, but my arm hadn’t grown back yet.” I’m talking about our sin and our lives; we must deal with that and take the stain out, even going in and saying, “All right, all right. You know, it’s no fun when they have to drill your eye.” They put your head in that brace where you can’t move it because they don’t want you jerking. Brother Frank knows about those things with the radiation on his throat. There’s no fun in that, but I’m glad all these years later—I’m going to have to wear glasses when I read my Bible, but I can still see, amen. That’s just part of getting old.

As a senior in high school, I was never very good at sports, though I always loved them. In your senior year, you are supposed to be at the top of your game. I played goalie three years of high school. I made All-Star and was supposed to play in Tampa Bay, Florida, during my senior year of basketball.

I think it was soccer season; it had already started. We had an all-night campout for Teen Boys at a church member’s house that had a little creek flowing behind it. We had skimboards. Everybody know what a skimboard is? Brother Jim does. It’s just a flat, very slick board, almost like a very small surfboard. We were using the bed of that creek, just a couple of inches of water. You run, you jump on it, and you slide. I was doing that with a bunch of his boys in the creek bed. That thing slid one time, and I fell. I still remember my ankle—it hurt so bad. I thought, “Oh no, man, I messed my ankle up.” It wasn’t broken.

I went to the doctor, and they said, “Well, you can try to take it easy, but probably you’re going to have to get a cast on it.” I thought, “Man, that’s my senior year. I don’t want to get a cast on my ankle.” So I said, “Well, I’ll be all right.” They said, “All right, your choice.” But I kept re-injuring it. Every time I re-injured it, it would take a little while to get well enough to play. It got worse and worse. Finally, I said, “All right, it’s just not working. Basketball season’s coming. You can’t play basketball on a lame ankle.” I tried the air cast and all those other things; it just wasn’t doing it. So finally, I had to get a cast on there.

Senior year—tragedy, man! I thought my life was ruined. I would go to the funeral home in a cast on my leg. I can’t remember how long, a month or two, but it took that month or two with the ankle in a cast for it to heal. For the most part, all these years, my ankle never bothers me anymore. But it took a life of me to be in a cast. Sometimes, when you’ve got major sins in your life and issues in your life, you’ve got to let God—and sometimes God uses people—to put a cast on there. All these years later, I’m glad. The doctor said, “Fella, you’re just going to have to deal with it. We’re just going to have to put a cast on there.” I didn’t like it, but I’m glad now. Sin’s got to be dealt with. It’s got to be dealt with. Sometimes it takes time to remove that stain of sin, but in the long run, praise the Lord. Somebody comes to my office; do I like dealing with those things? No, but in the long run, I’m glad. We had to use that and put on the cast and deal with the issue there. Ezra didn’t sweep it under the rug. He dealt with it.

Original File: Ezra- Dealing With Sin - Pastor Paul Chisager Wednesday 11619