Are There No Tears?
Tears of great agony poured from the heart of Ezra as he lay
weeping before the house of God. Innocent though he was of
the great sin that
deeply troubled
him, Ezra cried as if
it was his
own.
"Oh my God. I am
too
ashamed
to lift my
face to You
because our
sins are higher than our heads. Our
guilt has
reached to the heavens. We
have disregarded Your
commands," cried this
humble man of
God.
Hearing of the
peoples'
unfaithfulness to God's
command
broke the heart
of Ezra.
What meant so little to the
ungodly meant so very much
to
him.
The people, including
even the priests, had
not kept
themselves
separate from
the
neighboring people
who practiced detestable and
hideous
acts.
They had taken
some of
the women as wives for themselves and their sons,
and mingled the holy race with the people around
them.
The bloodline
- the
holy bloodline was at
stake.
Ezra's bitter tears
touched the heart
of the
the people
and they too, wept with
the man of God. "We have been
unfaithful to God," they
cried.
"Separate
yourselves from these people's
wicked sins,"responded Ezra
through
his tear stained soul.
Repentance
moved
swiftly among the people as
they turned from their sin.
"As you
have said,
Ezra, so must we do," they
confessed.
Is there not
a cry
for the Holy
Blood to be honored
today? As the
writer of Hebrews declares:
"If we
deliberately
keep on sinning after
we have received the truth, no sacrifice for
sins is left,
but only a fearful
expectation of judgment
and of
raging
fires
that will consume the
enemies
of God.
Anyone who rejected
the law of Moses died
without mercy on
the testimonies of
two or three
witnesses. How much more
severely do you
think a man deserves
to be punished
who
has trampled the
Son of
God under foot, who has
treated as
an unholy thing the blood of the covenant
that sanctified
him, and who has
insulted the Spirit of grace?" (Hebrews 10:
26-29
NIV)
Who in the
major pulpits of our
land
would dare
cry such
words? Rather, make the message
of
the cross as comfortable as possible so as
not to
offend the people of the pew.
Yes,
speak of the Savior whose blood can
make sin white as
snow, but woe to
the pulpiteer who
declares a Holy God
demands
a holy life!
Ezra
cried
for his people to separate themselves from sin.
Who today
cries with the agony of
Ezra? The gospel of the Blood is trampled
underfoot
throughout churches across
the land because
unconfessed
sin
runs
rampant as "believers" choose to hold
to their unholiness. Unlike Ezra, fearful
leaders back
down, or worse, indulge
in the revelry of rebellion.
He who
seems to be
only the gentle Lamb of
Calvary in the minds
of so many is
in
reality the roaring Lion of
Revelation!
He demands repentance or
consequences.
To His church the
Lord
Jesus
commands repentance and a return to first
love.
Is Jesus your heart's desire? Are you truly
in love with Him or are
you like so
many others, just
going through the
motions? Like so many
believers
you
may
be one
who has
lost those loving
feelings
for the One who loves you
most.
You
may remember when your walk with Jesus was so
fresh
and vibrant - so
alive! Yet,
something has happened.
He is no longer first in your
life. Others
things have
entered in
and instead
of having a crush on Jesus, those things have
crushed out
your relations with the
true lover of your
soul. It is
time
to cry
out with tears of repentance and
come back into the arms of the One who really
matters.
With fire in His eyes the Almighty of
Revelation gives not
an option, but
a command to repent.
He demands
repentance from sexual
immorality.
In this
sex-sin world,
sexual
misconduct is
often found as much
inside the church
as outside. Like
Ezra, should not cries
of agony be heard
across the land?
Great trouble and
intense suffering comes to a people who
refuse to
repent.
Searching
the hearts of His people the One whose voice
thundered
like the waves, spoke to
those who were snuggled
away in
the
smugness:
"As many as I love, I correct and
discipline: therefore shake off your
complacency and
repent."
As
Ezra was commissioned to help rebuild the
temple in
Jeursalem, so Nehemiah was
called to restore the
walls and
gates. Upon
hearing the news of the
city's
dreadful condition Nehemiah
wept.
"We have
sinned
against
You, O Lord God! We
have acted wickedly against You,"
sobbed this
broken
vessel of
God.
In
captivity, hundreds of
miles from
home, Nehemiah
served in the house
of the
Babylonian king as the trusted cupbearer.
Distraught
by
the condition of his
homeland,
Nehemiah's countenance was noticed by the
king.
"You are not sick; this is nothing but sorrow
of heart," the king
rightly
discerned.
Though
honoring
the king, Nehemiah
replied, "Why
should not my
face be
sad? My city lies in waste and the gates have been
destroyed by fire."
"What is it you want?" the king
asked.
"Send
me to the city
that I might rebuild
it," responded
Nehemiah.
Tears
from
the
heart
prepare the hands to
do the
work of God. "They that sow in tears
shall
reap in joy. He that goes
forth and weeps bearing
precious
seed shall come
again with
rejoicing, bringing
his
sheaves with
him." Psalms 126: 5-6
Is
the
church today what it should be?
Surely believers have not become so
complacent to be
satisfied with the
spiritual condition of
their walls
and
gates. Can the church not see the walls
have been broken down and the gates
burned by the
enemy?
"We are
in need of nothing," boasted the church of
Laodicea."
"You are wretched, miserable, poor,
blind and naked,"
responded
Jesus.
Shall the church
be so
foolish to say to the
Lord,
"We're
fine. We have no
need
of rebuke or
correction."
Surely
not.
Scorned and
ridiculed by
the enemy Nehemiah
answered, "The God of
Heaven will
give us success;
therefore we His servants will rise and
build!"
Let
the church be
reminded these walls and gates were build on
the
foundation of tears - tears of
repentance.