Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

This is the last message in our Demolition series, based on the Old Testament book of Ezra. We’ve been learning how God brought the Israelites out of slavery in Babylon and how he rebuilt them as his people. But as we’ve been saying for the past month, before God could rebuild them, he had to do some demolition work. He had to demolish some things in their lives to make room for something far better. And he’s doing the same things in our lives as we move through this series.

Today, God has one more thing that he wants to demolish in our lives: the walls of sin.

Some of you are already rolling your eyes. Maybe you’re visiting us for the first time today and you’re thinking, “A sermon on sin. Man, these guys are real original.”

I’m sure that a lot of you are ready to check out right now. But hang on a second…if you hang with me, God is going to do something in your life.

How do I know that? Simple. It’s because I know that your life has been completely messed up by your own sinful choices. You can try to blame someone else if you want, but deep down, you know that it’s your fault. And you can’t make everything right again by yourself. You’ve tried. You can’t do it.

Am I singing your song yet? You’d better believe I am. That’s the boat that every single one of us is in.

Today, God wants to swing his diving wrecking ball through the walls of sin in your life. He wants you to experience the freedom that he alone can provide. Open up your mind and heart, and let the demolition work begin.

Our focus text comes from Ezra 9 today. As we unpack the truth of God in the final message of this series, God is going to teach us the principles that are at the core of how he will demolish the walls of sin in our lives.

The first thing we have to do is get real with God.

As we learned from Ezra over the last couple of weeks, the Israelite people had finally rebuilt God’s temple in Jerusalem. It took a while, but they finally were obedient to God’s call on their lives. The house of God was reconstructed. And now that the temple had been rebuilt, they began worshipping God there.

Ezra 8:35 says, “Then the exiles who had returned from captivity sacrificed burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven male lambs and, as a sin offering, twelve male goats. All this was a burnt offering to the LORD.” (Ezra 8:35, NIV)

Animal sacrifice was a required element of worship in the Old Testament. These sacrifices were symbolic of God’s forgiveness of sin. Instead of punishing his people, God allowed the animals to take the punishment instead.

But the danger in these sacrificial ceremonies was just that…they could become completely ceremonial. It was easy for these rituals to become nothing more than a religious exercise, motivated by habit and tradition instead of true heart change.

The same danger exists for us today. It’s really easy to start going through the right God-motions instead of actually encountering God. It’s easy to allow habit or tradition to govern our actions instead of a heart that is being changed by God. You can come to church every Sunday, sing the songs, take communion, listen to the sermon, and leave without any significant change in your life.

Now, that initially sounds like a contradiction to what I said last week. Last week, I said that when you truly encounter God, leaving unchanged is not an option. And it’s true. When you have a true encounter with the Lord, you cannot leave unchanged.

But here’s the deal…it is possible to have a religious experience without a God encounter. There are a lot of religious people who never encounter God. They go through the right motions. The say and do everything that is expected of them. On the outside, it really looks like they’ve got their stuff together. But it winds up being nothing more than smoke and mirrors, because they never allow God to truly impact their lives. They never allow him to change them from the inside out. They end up being very religious people who are living very far from God.

That’s actually a pretty good description of a lot of the Israelites in our story from Ezra. We’ve just read about how they were offering sacrifices in the temple. They were doing all the right, religious things in their lives. But look at what the Bible says about them right after that.

Starting in Ezra 9:1, “After these things had been done, [meaning right after they had offered these religious sacrifices] the leaders came to me and said, "The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices…

They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.” (Ezra 9:1a, 2, NIV)

In the Old Testament, God had consistently commanded his people not to intermarry with the peoples in the surrounding lands.

In Deuteronomy 7, God told the Israelites, “Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD's anger will burn against you

and will quickly destroy you…For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. (Deuteronomy 7:3-4, 6, NIV)

Now, what’s up with God telling the Israelites who they could and couldn’t marry? Isn’t he just being a big meanie? Why is God so down on love?

You have to understand this in the original cultural context. As Keith Schoville points out, “Marriage [in this culture] was not a boy-meets-girl romantic affair. It was a family alliance formed with bride-price and dowry arranged by family leaders for economic and status benefits.” (Schoville, Keith. Ezra-Nehemiah. City: College Press Publishing Company, Inc, 2001, pg. 119)

Tina Turner would look at this setup and ask, “What’s love got to do, got to do with it?” The answer is, “Not much.” Love had very little to do with marriage in this culture. Marriage was a contractual agreement. A legally binding treaty between the families.

God prohibited his people, the Israelites, from intermarrying with other peoples around them because he knew the devastating impact it would have on them. Because of the signed treaties that preceded a wedding, it was a lot bigger than a marriage of two people. It was a marriage of two cultures: one that honored God and one that lived in complete opposition to him.

But despite all this, the Israelites did it anyway. Even though God had directly commanded them not to intermarry with these other nations, they sinned against him and did it anyway.

And Ezra tells us that they committed this sin right after they had started offering sacrifices to God in the new temple. They were legalistically following the religious ritual of sacrifice, but all the while were living their lives in direct opposition to the principles of God.

The takeaway here is that religion is utterly worthless. It is possible to be totally religious and still absolutely miss the point. The point is that God wants your heart. He wants your mind. He wants your life. He wants you…the real you.

So, as God’s people, can we drop the religion? Please? Pretty please with whipped cream and candy sprinkles on top? Can we please stop being religious and start being real?

The first step in allowing God to demolish the walls of sin in our lives is to be honest with yourself and, more importantly, to be honest with God.

Religion hamstrings us, preventing us from truly encountering God. Religion completely focuses on saying and doing the right things. It’s all external. It prevents anything that might happen internally. It keeps us from being changed by God from the inside out.

How could the Israelites sacrifice to God in the temple and sin against God in their lives? You can answer that question with one word: religion. They had a religion about God, but not a relationship with God.

Some of you find yourselves in that very same place. You’re doing the church thing, but it’s been reduced to going through the right religious motions. Truthfully, you’ve never felt further from God than you do right now.

Where do you go from here? You go to the next principle from our story in Ezra.

You get serious about repentance.

Here’s another difference between religion and a real relationship with God. Religion will rationalize instead of repent.

Have you ever played this game? “Well, I’m not perfect…but I sure have my act together more than he does. At least I’m not as bad as she is.”

What have you just done? You have made yourself the barometer of good and you evil. You are now the standard, differentiating sin and righteousness. That kind of attitude rationalizes sin instead of repenting for it.

This is why getting real with God is the first step. It begins by honestly saying, “You know what God…I don’t have it all together. I am one seriously jacked up individual. I am a horribly messed up, screwed up, sinful mess.”

That’s where it starts. And that’s why religion is worthless. Because religion can never say that.

As Mark Driscoll points out, look at the people who encountered Jesus. When Jesus went to prostitutes and swindling tax collectors, he told them, “You are sinners.” And they said, “Totally! Can you help? We’re completely messed up. Can you come over to our house for dinner? We need your help!”

When Jesus went to the most religious people in his culture, he told them the same thing: “You are sinners.” And they told Jesus, “You have a demon! You’re an evil doer! You hang out with a bunch of sinful people. You’re not like us. You broke our rules. You don’t honor our traditions. We’re going to kill you.”

That’s why it’s time to check your religion at the door. Because religion can never be authentic. It can never be honest. And therefore, it will never repent. And without repentance, the walls of sin will never be broken down in your life.

After Ezra learned that the Israelites had sinned against God by ignoring his commands about marriage, look at what happened next.

Ezra said, “When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. (Ezra 9:3, NIV)

What in the world is going on here? Ezra is tearing his clothes and pulling his hair out. To us, it probably sounds like the dude is ready to meet some nice men in white lab coats who will show him the way to his new padded room.

But, once again, we’ve got to see this in the context of that culture. Why did he tear his clothes? Why did he pull out his hair and beard?

Ezra was confronted with the sin of Israel and he mourned over that sin in the exact way that people in that culture would mourn after the death of a loved one.

In ancient Jewish culture, when a person was in mourning, they would tear their outer clothes. If the grief was particularly sharp, if their pain was very intense, they would tear their inner garment as well. Ezra tore both.

Another sign of mourning was to partially or completely shave your head. Ezra’s pain was so intense that he simply grabbed the hair on his head and in his beard and ripped it out by the roots.

Ezra was completely broken by Israel’s sin.

That’s because true repentance is marked by brokenness.

Ezra hadn’t lost his mind. And he wasn’t just going for drama. This isn’t a man who is being melodramatic or who has gone loco. This is a broken man. Ezra saw sin for what it is…the most destructive force in our lives. The one and only thing that separates us from God. And because of that, he was broken.

You cannot experience true repentance until you experience true brokenness.

I know fella who allowed himself to get caught up in sin. I, along with some others, confronted him about his sinfulness. He said that he knew it was wrong. He said wanted to change, but he wasn’t willing to make the drastic changes in his life to really rid himself of this sin.

Not surprisingly, several months later, he was caught up in the same sin again. We confronted him again…but this time, it was different. This time, he wasn’t defensive or combative. He simply wept. He committed to make the deep, necessary changes in his life. This time, he was completely broken. And because of that brokenness, real life change happened.

After David committed adultery with Bathsheba, listen to what he prayed.

“You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.” (Psalm 51:16, NIV)

In other words, David said, “God, I know that you don’t care a rip about external religious displays. If that’s what you wanted, then I would do it. But you want something more.”

Then David went on to pray, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17, NIV)

“God, you don’t want religion. You want repentance. You want brokenness.”

Some of you need to pray the prayer that Craig Groeschel calls “the most dangerous prayer.” You need to pray, “God, break me.”

God, break my pride. Break my heart. Break my life apart because I have become calloused to my sin. I have allowed religion to replace my relationship with you. God, break me.

Understand that, if you pray that prayer, God will answer. And the breaking will not be pleasant. God needs to bring us to the same point as Ezra. Mourning over our sin like we would mourn over death…which makes perfect sense because our sin caused a death. It was the one and only cause for the death of God’s Son.

1 Corinthians 15 tells us, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…” (1 Corinthians 15:3b, NIV)

The only reason there was a cross, the only reason that Jesus died, is because of our sins. This is the beautiful tragedy that is the gospel story. Jesus, the holy, sinless, perfect Son of God, died in my place and he died in your place. He died to pay the price for our sin that we could never pay on our own.

Mourning over sin like you would mourn over death makes perfect sense because our sin was the very reason for the death of Jesus.

Repentance is marked by brokenness. But it doesn’t stop there.

Brokenness leads us to grace.

When you’re broken, you realize that you can’t do it on your own. You need help. You need grace.

Religion will never allow itself to be broken. Instead of brokenness, religion values all-togetherness. Religion will tell you that you need to clean yourself up before you come to Christ. Instead of being broken, you need to get your life all together, and then God will accept you. Some of you have tried to play that game. Doesn’t work, does it?

The great church reformer, Martin Luther, was concerned about a friend of his who felt like he had to get his life put together before he could come to church. Listen to part of Luther’s letter to him. This letter was written in the year 1544, but it speaks loud and clear even today:

“My faithful request and admonition is that you join our company and associate with us who are real, great and hard-boiled sinners.

You must by no means make Christ to seem paltry and trifling to us as though He could be our helper only when we want to be rid from imaginary, nominal and childish sins.

No, no! That would not be good for us. He must rather be a savior and redeemer from real, great, grievous, and damnable transgressions and iniquities…” (Martin Luther)

Our sinfulness is not a trivial thing. It is, as Luther said, “real, great, grievous, and damnable.” And we’ve got to get real with God, owning up to our real sinfulness, and allow him to break us. It’s the only way we can actually experience his grace.

But once you are broken, once you experience the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, something beautiful happens.

Grace leads to joy.

Religious people are not joyful people. Maybe you’ve met some of them. The most unhappy, sour, brittle people I’ve ever met in my life are religious people. It just seems like there isn’t an ounce of joy in their bodies.

Because of their unwillingness to own up to their sin and allow God to break them, religious people never experience the liberation of his grace which leads to the joy of the Lord.

But the people who have dropped religion in favor of a God-relationship, they exude joy. It just drips off of them.

After he tore his clothes and yanked his hair out, Ezra offered up one of the greatest prayers of Scripture. Listen to a little bit of it.

Ezra prayed, “O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.

But now, for a brief moment, the LORD our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage.

What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins have deserved…” (Ezra 9:6, 8, 13, NIV)

Even in the midst of his repentant brokenness, Ezra is already recognizing God’s grace at work. “The Lord our God has been gracious…” “God, you have punished us less than our sins deserve…” He is already seeing God’s grace at work. And that grace leads to joy.

Joy in knowing that the garbage in your past will no longer determine your future. Joy in knowing that you can stop carrying around the guilt that is strangling you spiritually. Joy in knowing that there is no part of you that is secret or hidden from God, yet he loves you anyway. Joy in knowing that you are not good enough, but Jesus is good enough. Joy in knowing that his blood has closed the deal. Your check is good with God and your eternity is no longer in question.

That’s the joy that springs from being broken and allowing God’s grace to mend you up.

Listen to these words from Psalm 103. “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love…he does not treat us as our sins deserve [aren’t you glad about that?] or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth [that’s pretty high], so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west [that’s pretty far], so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:8, 10-12, NIV)

I went to college with a guy that, to this day, is one of the most depressing people I’ve ever met. He always walked around, looking down at the ground. This guy was Eeyore in human form. Finally, I ran into him in the hall of our dorm and I thought, “You know what, I’m going to try to see if I can help this dude..”

So I said, “Hey man, what’s wrong? You seem really depressed. What’s going on?”

He didn’t even look up at me. He just shook his head and said, “I’m a sinner.” And he walked away.

I’m not making this up! When he was going to Sunday School, he must have missed the class about grace. He struck me as a very committed, religious guy with absolutely no joy.

That doesn’t have to be you. If you are in Christ, you are forgiven! You are clean! God has made you holy and pure! If you can’t get excited about that, then something’s wrong with you! You’ve been given the greatest gift in history, so there’s no need to walk around looking like somebody just ran over your dog. You’ve been washed white in the grace of God, which leads to a joy that transcends human understanding!

God wants to demolish the walls of sin in your life. It starts by getting real with him, truly owning up to your sinfulness. It requires repentance. Real repentance starts with brokenness, which leads to grace, which gives us joy.

I know it sounds crazy. It sounds crazy to say that brokenness is the first step on the path to joy, but God works in backwards, upside down ways. He will break us, demolishing the old, to make room for something far better.

The Bible says it this way. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV)

Mike Edmisten

Tags: Demolition, authenticity, brokenness, grace, religion, repentance, sin