“Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.
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. Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice.
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,” Ezra 9:1-5.
In the morning services in Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church of late, there has been a setting forth, by the minister, Rev Samuel Fitton, of the vital and very relevant teaching of the book of Ezra.
On two recent Lord’s Days, the above verses have been expounded. As is the case with most preachers, even when sitting under good preaching, thoughts arise in one’s mind from the passage under consideration that may be a little diverse from what the minister is setting forth. It is impossible in one message to comment on all that is contained in any given passage of God’s Word.
As the minister spoke, in his introductory summary of what has been noted so far in these opening verses of Ezra chapter 9, there occurred to me a thought very applicable to the situation in which the Free Presbyterian Church finds itself today.
I jotted down that thought for further consideration later. I want to share with you what presented itself to me from this passage.
1. EVEN IN THE MIDST OF REVIVAL, SIN MAY BE HARBOURED IN THE HEARTS OF GOD’S PEOPLE.
1. Note what Ezra said in his distressed praying in response to the revealing of the wickedness found amongst the Israelites. (more…)
