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What is life? Where does it come from? What does it mean? While science searches for the answers, the word of God has already provided them. I suppose about all of us, at some point in our lives, ask the question what is my life all about? Why am I here? Perhaps as we near the sunset of life, we look back and think what was it all about? Did I really make the most out of this life? The apostle James asked a similar sobering question.

James 4:14 “…For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”

James’ rhetorical question is a challenging one. It should provoke a great deal of reflection and introspection. Perhaps it’s a question that seems easy to answer, on paper. It’s a question that the great sages, theologians and philosophers have waxed eloquent while trying to answer, but it is certainly a very personal and very real, sobering question. What is your life?

A few days ago, I conducted a funeral for a man who wasn’t that old, and like many other funerals I have preached, it caused me to pause and consider that very question. Sometimes I struggle for appropriate words at a funeral because I wonder what did that person really make of his/her life? Here I am, trying to summarize however many years that person lived upon this earth, and how do I do that? Did the things that he/she chose to spend time on earth for, and the things that he/she invested in really matter? Do they matter NOW?

When we lose someone young, strong and vital, we suddenly come face to face with our own mortality. When we say goodbye to someone who has lived a long life, we’re prompted to step back and evaluate what life amounts to. What is its meaning and purpose? We’re going to take a look at a few answers to that question today because it will tell us some important things about ourselves.

One, your life is a brief and uncertain existence.

James 4:14 “…For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”

What James is talking about is like the morning fog: it appears nestled down in the valley in the early dawn, and just as the sun begins its westward and upward climb, it’s gone. Like a handful of steam that you might try to catch in your hand, or a cloud that forms in the sky and then scatters away. James says that’s what your life is. He says that because he wants us to remember that life is far from a permanent thing. In fact, he begins that verse by saying “whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow…” Here we are, laying plans, thinking that we have a long, long time to live and many dreams to pursue and goals to accomplish. James says that when it is all said and done, no matter how long we spend on this earth, it was but a vapor.

When Job was languishing in his suffering and sorrow after death had come and taken his loved ones, life became such a mystery to him.

Job 7:6 “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle…”

In the scriptures, we also find life compared to taking a journey, or a frail and fragile flower. Life has been referred to as a dream, likened to a tale that is told, compared to a handbreadth, suggesting it has very limited dimensions. Actually those are only a few of the many figures of speech used in the Bible and beyond to remind us of the brevity and fragile nature of life. It is a precious gift from God, but it is also a very brittle thread that can break at any moment. As we get caught up in living our lives, we forget about that.

Psalms 39:4-5 “LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah”

Psalms 144:4 “Man is like a breath; His days are like a passing shadow.”

Proverbs 27:1 “Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth.”

Just as James tells us that life is a vapor, all of these passages remind us not to place much confidence in the future and in our earthly lives. One of my favorite little poems reads as such:

“The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour…

The present only is our own,
So live, love, toil with a will,
Place no faith in “Tomorrow,”
For the Clock may then be still.”

― Robert H. Smith

For many years, I worked in television news. One of my duties, besides anchoring nightly newscasts, was to go out sometimes and cover ‘spot news.’ There were many times, especially late at night, when I would be sent to the scene of a tragedy; maybe a house fire; many, many car accidents; occasionally a murder. After a time, you become a little bit jaded, a little hardened to the scene of it all. You get to the point where it’s just another story and you don’t give it a whole lot of thought. But I’ll tell you a thought that I was never able to escape no matter how many times I saw the coroner come and take a victim away: here was a person who, an hour or two ago, was just as alive as I am. Here was a person who woke up this morning and went about his daily tasks, and if he stopped to think about it, had every confidence that he would be home tonight with his family, but he didn’t come home. Life is fragile. You see, those people that I’m thinking about weren’t all seventy-, eighty- or ninety-years old. Many of them were forty, thirty, twenty, high school students, and even children. Life is a brief and uncertain existence. It is a vapor and we need to remember that.

Two, your life is a precious gift and a sacred trust.

Acts 17:25 “”…since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.”

There is an axiom in science that says that life only comes from life. That tells me that the idea that somehow life just accidentally or spontaneously emerged in the universe is preposterous. Life comes from other life. The apostle Paul said in the above scripture that God gives life to all. The eternal, self-existent God has given to all temporal and mortal beings life.

Genesis 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

Not from an animal, through evolution, but He formed man from the dust.

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

In other words, man is different from all of God’s other creation. Life is precious, period. But human life in particular–because human beings are made in the image of God. That is, He made man a rational being. He made human beings not with merely a body, not with merely the breath of life, but with an eternal soul. We ARE a living soul.

Have you ever thought about the fact that there was a time when you were NOT? It has been said that when the Caesars conquered the ancient world, you were not; but there will never come a time when you will not BE. When the founding fathers signed the Constitution of the United States, you were not; but there will never come a time when you will not BE. We are not only rational beings, but we are eternal beings. God made man above the animals. In fact, He made the animals below man and gave man dominion over them. There is a difference.

Ecclesiastes 3:21 “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?”

You see, life is precious. The atheist, Darwinian evolutionist wants you to believe that you are really just a mass of molecules. That you are a series of chemical reactions and electrical impulses and nothing more than that. Surely we can see that that is such a depressing philosophy that would mean that life has no purpose. Now I know that its proponents try to gloss over it, saying that life has whatever purpose you give it, but seriously step back and think about the idea that if we are merely an accident, if we were not created but just “happened to be,” life has no real purpose. The universe has no meaning. We certainly as human beings have no meaning for our existence. It’s merely a random accident, a happenstance. Friend, I don’t have enough faith to believe that.

From this godless philosophy is born the notion that life is cheap and without any real meaning. This philosophy is what allows men and women to murder millions of babies per year inside mother’s wombs with clear consciences.

Psalms 139:13,16 “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb…Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”

Yet today, we’re told that it’s just a fetus, just a mass of tissue with the potential for life. We worry about the many ramifications for people here who are already born. I’m going to tell you that EVERY life is precious. Every life is significant and matters in the eyes of God. Every life is recognized and loved by God. Every life is permitted of God, sustained of God and is a sacred trust from God.

Don’t cheapen your life. Your life matters. Don’t cheapen anyone else’s lives because theirs do, too. God placed you on this earth for a purpose, and it is a divine purpose. You were born for His good pleasure and for His glory. In other words, you were born to serve the Lord. Did you ever stop to realize that? But our pride causes us to take away that which is for God’s use and turn around and give it to ourselves.

The Bible teaches that one day we will be judged for how we spend our precious time here. Why? because our lives are a gift from God. Our lives are given to us by God. God forms our bodies and allows us to live, therefore we are accountable for how we use that life that God graciously gave us.

Acts 17:28 “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.” 

Romans 14:10-12 “or we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

That day is coming. When every single person is going to stand before the Lord and give an account for the life, the time, the years that God allotted us here upon this earth. Therefore, we will answer for how we spent our time, for who we served, what we loved, what we invested in, what we devoted our time to. Paul is reminding us that we are each a steward of the life that God gave us and we will give an account to Him.

But we’re told by a lot of people oh no, your life is about YOU. Life is short and you shouldn’t let it pass you by without doing what makes you happy. Why do they say that? Whether they realize it or not, what they are really saying and what they really think is this: this life is all there is. There is no life after this. You’re just an accident, a series of chemical reactions. You’re only here for a little while, so you’d better grab it while you can because you’re going to be gone and there’s nothing more after that. The Bible says that God has set eternity in our hearts. Life is not all about YOU. Life is not all about ME. Life is not all about fleeting temporal pleasures.

When you boil it down to life’s most simple terms, there are two duties that I have as a human being entrusted with life from God. When we hold a newborn baby, we often look at that child, close our eyes and dream of what life will be for him or her, what they will accomplish, what career will they choose, will they be famous or rich, or have some great achievement that the world will applaud…But when God breathes into a body the breath of life and sets a heart to beating, He has one major purpose. Solomon told the young man what that purpose is:

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

Solomon is telling us that life is a sacred trust and we will answer for how we use it. Jesus broke that down into two very important commandments when He talked with the rich young man.

Mark 12:30-31 “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

What the Lord is telling us is, this isn’t rocket science. There are two great, foundational principles that a faithful and obedient Christ-serving life is built upon: loving God supremely–more than ourselves or anyone else–and loving other people. Love the Lord with all that you are and all that you have, obey His word, devote your life to Him, serve Him here upon the earth. And if we don’t do that, we have missed the whole purpose of life. If we spend our lives living for self or living to please others, or to living to achieve the fleeting things of earth, we’ve missed the point. Jesus also said that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.   Sometimes a person’s love for God is more difficult to assess. People’s devotion to God can be seen in their deeds and in the lives they live, but their hearts are up to God to judge. It’s often more clearly seen how the person keeps the second commandment that Jesus talks about. Our relationships with other people, which comprise a great deal of the Lord’s commandments for our lives, are very telling as to how we esteem, how we value and what we think the purpose of life is.

What is your life? It is a trust from God, a sacred trust for which we are accountable to Him.

Three, your life is a short window of opportunity.

Even Jesus saw His own life that way.

John 9:4 “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”

Jesus had just over thirty years to accomplish His purpose on earth. To some, thirty years may seem like a long time, but not to anyone who has lived thirty years, I can tell you that from experience–and then some. Those years fly by. They’re like a dream. They are gone forever. You look up one day and say where did it all go? Life has passed by. Jesus felt a great burden to use the golden hours and precious moments to do what God had sent Him to do.

Psalms 90:10 “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”

Life, at its longest, is still short. And it is precious. It’s an opportunity to bring glory to God who created us. I want you to think seriously right now. What are you doing with your life? What does your life consist of? How are you spending its fleeting moments? Let us all pause today and reflect on that important question what is your life?

On every tombstone, there are two dates etched. I like to walk through cemeteries. It may seem a little morbid, but I enjoy walking through graveyards, especially old graveyards, and I like to read the headstones. Perhaps you find some interest in that, too. It’s interesting to me to think about the time span and the eras in which those people lived. Those dates seem very significant to us: the day we entered the world and the day we left the world. We’re careful to note those dates and we place a lot of significance on them. We make sure those dates are not forgotten. In reality though, God is not concerned about those two dates. He’s concerned about the dash in between them. How did we spend our lives? To what did we dedicate it? What was its aim and purpose? Somebody wrote about that subject and I want to read the little poem to you. It’s called The Dash:

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on his tombstone, from the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came the date of his birth, and spoke the following date with tears.

But he said that what mattered the most of all was the dash between those years.

For the dash represents all the time that he spent alive on earth.

And now, only those who loved him know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not how much we own—the cars, the house, the cash.

What matters is how we live and love, and how we spend our dash.

If we could just slow down enough to consider what’s true and real,

And try to always understand the way other people feel,

And be less quick to anger and show appreciation more,

And love the people in our lives like we’ve never loved before,

If we treat one another with respect and more often wear a smile,

Remembering that this special dash might only last awhile.

So, when your eulogy is being read with your life’s actions to rehash,

Would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your dash?

-Linda Ellis

When you stand before the Lord Jesus Christ in judgment, will you be glad for how the Lord looks at how you spent your dash? I do hope you’ll spend some time reflecting on this question. What is your life? Are you spending it for the glory of God?

 

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What does it mean to confess our sins? What does a true confession look like? We continue our look at one of the most famous confessions in the Bible recorded in Ezra 9. Let’s revisit that passage again.

Ezra 9:5-10 “And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God, And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.

Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. And now for a little space grace hath been shewed 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 were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments…”

This is an incredible confession from the lips of Ezra. He was a priest and a scribe and in his role as a priest, he represented the people of God, and he offers this confession which, ultimately, led the people to repentance, to real change. Last week, we observed the attitude and content of his confession. Today, we’ll look more closely at the result of it. What does happen when we confess our sin? Is it enough that we simply admit that we have sinned? What if we even admit our sin with tears and shame as Ezra did. Today, we’ll see that there was more involved in this confession that Ezra offered to God.

The people of God spent seventy years in Babylonian captivity as a result of their sin. But God, in His grace and mercy finally allowed the people to return to their native homeland, the city of Jerusalem.  After all these years, they were allowed to return to rebuild the toppled city walls and to reconstruct the temple, which had all been destroyed. The first wave of thousands of exiles returned, and they set about this work. You would think that seventy years in captivity would’ve taught them some lessons. You would think they’d have returned with humble hearts, very careful to do God’s will and to refrain from sin at all cost. But, no. They immediately went headlong back into sin. They once again began to take wives from the pagan nations, which God strictly forbade. Make no mistake: that sin has gotten God’s people in trouble in every age of time, and it continues to get some of God’s people in trouble today.

Well, they committed this sin again, and when word got to Ezra, he was just mortified, shocked, and speechless. He was vexed. The Bible tells us that he sat down and hung his head in shame and sorrow. He was so overcome that he couldn’t say anything for much of the day. When he finally broke his silence, he began a tearful prayer of sorrow and contrition on behalf of the people.

Ezra 9:5 “And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God…”

Now, the evening sacrifice was the time when sacrifice was made for the people’s sin. But Ezra understood that something must come before asking God for forgiveness, and that is a confession of sin. That was first in order. God had said this concerning people who had gone astray:

Leviticus 26:40-42 “If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;  And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.”

God said there was a condition to forgiveness and that is the confession of sin. John later wrote to Christians saying this:

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

So, Ezra well understands that before God will forgive the people, the people must be willing to confess their sin. They’ve got to get rid of this awful iniquity that has now consumed them. We can learn a great deal about what a real confession is from the confession that Ezra made. Last week, we saw that Ezra was appalled by this sin.

Ezra 9:3 “And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied.”

Ezra understood what a serious thing the people had done. He understood that they had sinned and there was no other way to look at it. He didn’t call it something else; he called it sin. Consequently, calling sin something besides sin doesn’t make it something else. Sin is still sin. Calling fornication something else doesn’t make it not fornication. Calling adultery something else or watering it down with some nice, acceptable, palatable term doesn’t make it any less of a sin.

Neither did Ezra do like many people do and try to rationalize or justify the people’s sin. He didn’t blame someone or something else for it. He didn’t minimize it, call it a mistake or weakness or a shortcoming. He called it what it was: sin. He said their sin was so great, it had reached over their heads to the heavens (Ezra 9:6). Ezra continues:

Ezra 9:10 “And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments…”

You can’t ask for a more open and honest confession and admission of sin than that. That’s what confession is. I would point out again, as we learned last week, that the Greek word for confession is used in the New Testament and it means to agree or to say the same thing as. Many don’t agree with God about their sin and that’s why they won’t confess their sin. They look at and treat their sin entirely differently than God does. Ezra not only plainly says that they had sinned, but he goes so far as to name the offenders one by one (Ezra 10:18-44). He calls them by name. He calls their sin by name. He calls their deed what it was, and that is sin. Iniquity. He is very open and forthright and he leads the people in confessing their sins to God by calling it what it is without alibi, without excuse, without rationalization. That’s what confession of sin is. And, yes, that takes humility and courage, but that’s what a confession of sin is all about.

Why did Ezra react so strongly to their sin? Why did he get so upset? He not only understood that they had blatantly done what God said not to do in His word, but they did it in the face of God’s love and grace. Listen to what he tells them:

Ezra 9:8-9 “And now for a little space grace hath been shewed 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 were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.”

He basically says, We’re only here because God in His grace let us return. We didn’t deserve to return here! We were being punished for our sin and we deserved to be punished for our sin! But God—undeservingly and graciously—gave us the opportunity to return to our land. You know, all of us are the recipients of God’s grace. All of us have received mercies from the Lord from day to day in our lives. We don’t even deserve to live. We don’t deserve the air that we breathe, the food that we eat, the clothes on our backs. The Bible says that God causes it to rain on the just AND on the unjust (Matthew 5:45). The blessings and mercies of God which He has undeservingly shown to all of us–regardless of where we may be spiritually today–should cause us to stop and think about how we react to God’s blessings and how we treat God in the face of His grace. These people had returned by His gracious permission and plunged right back headlong into sin. Well, it was inexcusable.

Ezra 9:10-15 “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 with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth 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 trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this; Should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? 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.”

You’ll never find a more clear and powerful example of a true confession of sin than what we just read. Was it enough for Ezra and the people to admit all of this? To simply admit to God that they had committed this sin? Were their tears and guilt and words enough to turn back God’s wrath and to find His forgiveness? You know, some people will admit their sinful actions and perhaps be sorry for it and the mess that their actions have made.

But is that what Ezra’s confession amounted to? No. Let’s see what happened afterwards. We can see not only what confession consists of, but what it results in, and that is repentance. You see, a confession without repentance isn’t really a confession. It doesn’t do any good. It might let you get it off your chest and you might feel better to admit your sin, but it won’t avail anything with God if it doesn’t result in a change of course. Look at what happened when Ezra made his confession and what it led the people to do.

Ezra 10:1-2 “Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore. And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, 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: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.”

Notice that they repeated Ezra’s confession in just as specific terms. They didn’t just say, We’ve sinned. They confessed and identified what the sin was.

Ezra 10:3 “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.”

With that, Ezra gathered them all together and he goes on to say this:

Ezra 10:10-12 “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.”

Now, this wasn’t easy. But sometimes it takes extreme measures to repent of sin. You know, even today in this very context, there are Christians who violate the marriage vow through adultery. They divorce and marry people that they have no scriptural right to marry because of the nature of the divorce to begin with. The Bible speaks to that in Matthew 19:9. John also told Herod that it was not lawful for him to have the woman he had (Mark 6:18). It was a relationship of which God did not approve. You know, there’s only one way for such people to remedy that scriptural situation and that is to leave the sin. You say, Well, won’t God forgive it if I’m sorry? Not if you’re content to continue in it.

That’s not only true of unscriptural marriage; that’s true of ANY sin. If a person is living in immorality and that person wants God to forgive that immoral lifestyle, then that person has to forsake that immoral lifestyle. If a person or church is practicing false doctrine and unscriptural practices, they must not only confess the falsehood, but they’ve got to stop doing it as well and turn to that which is true and right.

Is your worship unscriptural? Do you realize that your religion is not that which is described in the New Testament? Are you doing things that are not right and in accordance with the teachings of Christ and His apostles? Well, it’s not enough to say, I wish it weren’t this way. I wish the church I’m going to would do differently. You’ve got to stop that practice and turn away from it. Confession does no good and it’s not a true confession if it doesn’t involve repentance.

There’s a good New Testament example of this kind of repentance recorded in Acts 19. You may recall that some vagabond Jews at Ephesus were falsely using the name of Jesus. They were merely imitating what they had seen Paul do and were trying to control demonic powers. They got into trouble. They had no business doing what they were doing, and an evil spirit attacked and wounded some of the men. That caused fear to grip the people of Ephesus and it stirred their hearts.

Acts 19:18-20 “And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.”

Now, there’s a picture of true confession and repentance. When they realized that what they were doing was wrong, they confessed. They acknowledged that what they were doing was wrong, then they gave that sin up. They cleaned their houses of everything that was attached to the sin. They rid their lives completely of it. They wanted nothing more to do with it. You see, that’s the picture of true confession and repentance, much like that of Ezra and the returned exiles in Jerusalem so long before.

Merely admitting sin is not enough. True confession involves repentance, and that demands change. That’s what many refuse to do. Nobody said it was easy. Confessing sin takes great courage.

Ezra 10:3-4 “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.”

They understood that it was going to take courage for these people to do what they had to do. Do you have a hard time coming to grips with your sins? We struggle with that as human beings. Do you find it difficult or even impossible to say the words I have sinned? I’ve known people who just can’t bring themselves to say it. It’s been hard for me at times, especially to say to another person that I’ve wronged, I have sinned against you. Our pride gets in the way. We want to make excuses for it and water it down instead of just saying it. Our pride won’t let us do it.

Sometimes our stubbornness gets in the way. The sin itself gets in the way and it’s hard to give it up. Do you have the courage to do what is necessary to forsake the sin in which you live today and turn to the living God? Are you ready to let the Lord change the course of your life? You can and He can if you only have the courage and conviction to do so. But it takes a heart and attitude like that of Ezra. It takes the resolve of the prodigal son who said this:

Luke 15:18-19 “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.”

It takes a broken heart like that of David, who prayed with bitter tears after Nathan the prophet came unto him:

Psalm 51:1-4, 16-17 “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest…For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”

 

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