Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. For they 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 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 have been chief in this trespass. Ezra says, obviously Ezra is the man of God, the prophet prophesying to Israel at this time.

Now let me tell you what's going on in Ezra chapter 9. They've been through battle being taken over by country after country. Now why were they being taken over? Why were they being defeated? Why were they being passed from one kingdom to another kingdom? From one king to another king.

From one captivity to another captivity. I tell you why, because they had turned away from God. God's protection had always kept them from that and they turned away from God. When you turn away from God, you and I, we can go have our fun, but we're going to lose God's protection.

And we don't miss it at first. Oh, but that day comes when you're sitting in that ditch of sin. Oh, you'd give anything for the protection of God at that point. In Ezra chapter 9 for some reason this captivity, all this oppression, all this stuff had just stopped for a little while. We don't even understand in the book of Ezra exactly why this happened. There was no clear cut reason except that God just did it, but for some reason everything was calmed down a little bit even though they were under the ownership of another kingdom and Israel had been passed back and forth and the people of God, the Jewish people had been passed back and forth as if they were apprised. But for some reason the persecution kind of stopped for a short period of time. All the oppression, all the bad things that had happened, all the pillaging and killing of the wives and taking of the goods, it had all stopped just for a short period of time.

We don't know why. And it was during this chapter and Ezra is pleading before God, seeing what was going on with his people. Verse 3, when I heard this thing, all that had been going on with the people, when I heard this thing, I rent my garment, my mantle and plucked off the hair off my head and of my beard and sat down astonished or confused, bewildered.

Like how did this happen? Verse 4, then were assembled unto me everyone that trembled at the words of the God of Israel because of the transgression of those that had been carried away and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice and at the evening sacrifice I arose up with my heaviness. And having rent my garment, my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God and said, Oh 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, to a spoil and to confusion of face as it is this day.

Look at verse 8. And now, for a little space, grace hath been showed from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape, 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 to repair the desolations thereof and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. Father, as we preach this morning on a little space of grace, Lord, I really need you this morning. Lord, I believe that you have given us a little space of grace.

You've given us opportunity to get things right, to be where and what we need to be. Lord, I don't know how long we have till you come and I don't know how long we have till that last track has been given out and that last bit of the gospel has been told to others. Lord, I don't know how long we have.

We might have a year, we might have a hundred years, we might have less than an hour. All I know is, Lord, that we as a church have got to do more in the time that we have. Lord, we've got to get ourselves right. Lord, we need a reviving in our midst. And Lord, I thank you for this little space of grace. Lord, I ask that you'd help us as we look at your word this morning. In your name we pray.

Amen. I want you to look at a couple of things that had happened to the children of Israel. Look at verse one and two, if you would. The Bible says in the middle of the verse, the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands. Look at verse two.

For they have taken their daughters for themselves and for their sons so that the holy seed had mingled themselves with the people of those lands. First thing I see what happened to them is separation was not practiced. That's not a word you want to hear on a Sunday morning, is it?

You say, what's wrong with practice? That's not the word I'm talking about. Separation. See what had happened and the reason they had gotten to the point they were at is because you got to the point you couldn't tell them from the other people. You couldn't tell the holy people from the unholy people.

You see, you and I can get to the point we become so comfortable with life and nowadays it's not popular, buddy. Bless God at a church you ought to just get up and make people feel good, never talk about sin. Persons should never feel guilty. You shouldn't come across as possibly mean in any way.

And I'm going to be honest with you, sometimes I think I struggle because I just try so hard to not come across that way. But dear friends, the Bible still teaches the principle of separation from the world. It is still a biblical principle and we have been given illustration after illustration of what happens to a group of God's people when they begin to so mingle themselves with the world that you can't tell the difference. I'm saying we're acting the same, going to the same places, listening to the same stuff, participating in the same things, looking the same, acting the same, talking the same. And now we're asking the world to come into our church and now our church services and our church things that go on in church looks just like things that happen in the world.

They look just like concerts that happen that are out in the world and before long you can't tell the difference between the church and the world and the world and the church and the Christians don't look any different from the non-Christians. And before long we're so mingled and we're all just getting along but nobody's getting saved. So, separation was not practiced. Ezra was heavy.

He was burdened because he could see it. I noticed second that look at verse two, the last part, it says, the hand of the princes and rulers have been chief in this trespass. I find not only had separation was not practiced but second, scandal was by the positioned. The ones that were in charge. In other words, the leadership was doing wrong. Let me tell you why I believe that oftentimes we are in the position we're in because over the years those that have been in leadership have gotten caught up in sin, gotten caught up in mess and all of a sudden before long who in the world do you believe, who do you trust?

And we get up to this pulpit oftentimes and we look out at people and we rip them apart one into the other telling people everything they're doing wrong when it's been going on in the preacher's household too. I'm here to tell you that over the years there have been those in leadership and by the way, in our country right now, if there's anything that describes this, our leaders are the chief in this trespass. We're to the point we can't trust Washington. We can't trust our leaders, half of them. I'm sure there's good ones and I'm not saying that. I'm just saying on a whole, you can't even get to that position anymore nowadays unless you're dishonest. That's where we are in America.

Third, I'll get off that very quickly. Verse four. Then were assembled unto me, Ezra says, everyone that trembled at the words of God. In other words, not everybody was scared of what God had to say anymore. I find third that self-righteousness was pervasive. What this means is that there was very few that feared God anymore.

Ezra said, they're gathered unto me, those few that still remain that trembled at the words of God. There was a day where you'd get the Bible out and you would say what God had to say about sin and individuals would literally tremble because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit about living a pure and holy life. But that's gone nowadays.

In fact, now it's gone. Now they get mad at the preacher that even preaches on it. You are scared at what God has to say anymore. We've raised a generation that doesn't give a flip what God has to say, what the preacher has to say, and they don't even care what mom and dad have to say. They're not going to listen to a police officer. They're not going to listen to a judge. They're not going to listen to mom and dad. You think they're going to listen to the man behind the pulpit? They make fun of them.

They criticize them. Let me tell you something. I have preached 10 years in evangelism. I preached in 31 different states. And I'm telling you, I have preached and I have watched individuals that I just knew, you know, sitting in the seat, they're cracking jokes about what you're preaching about and different things.

And listen to me, dear friend, you can have a big time and they can have fun and they can laugh it up and they can go party after the service, but there's going to come a day when they're burning in hell if they've never been saved, they're going to remember that night that they've made fun of the preacher of God's word. Dear friend, listen to me, you and I ought to still tremble at the words of God in this book. It ought to scare us. And we ought to have a healthy fear of God. But the people had gotten to the point where they didn't fear God anymore. They didn't fear what God could do.

Dear friend, are you trying to jump on everybody this morning? No, dear friend, but I'm here to tell you, when a church fears God's word, there is an energy, there's an excitement to serve God, there's an urgency, you don't have to beg and plead to get people to come and you don't have to give away something to get them to show up at the service. They're there because they want to, because they're trembling at the words of God. I notice, fourthly, in verse six, and said, Oh my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to thee. Ezra wasn't even the one that had done it, but he was so ashamed of what his people had done.

He said, God, I'm ashamed to even look at you. I find fourthly that shame had perished. Nobody was ashamed anymore. There was no shame. They could live a lifestyle that was totally against what God had given in his word and they were proud of it. They weren't ashamed anymore. You know, there was a day if you were going to participate in different kind of lifestyles that you would, you know, you did it, but you just didn't flaunt it.

Because you knew it wasn't right. But I'm going to tell you, nowadays, not only is it, there's no shame anymore. They're proud. And I'm talking about just living a promiscuous lifestyle. I'm talking about participating in things that is so far against God's word. There's no shame anymore when we do wrong. There's no shame anymore when we say things and do things and all these things. We used to bring shame to the people of God and we used to say, God, I'm ashamed of what I've done and I'm ashamed that I thought those things. And nowadays we're not ashamed anymore and we don't feel bad anymore and the conviction's not there anymore. You know why? Because we grieve the Holy Spirit of God so much by how we live that it's almost non-existent anymore.

I notice fifthly, are you getting honest? I'm just telling you what happened to them. If the shoe fits, I'm telling you what happened to them. I'm not telling what happened to you. I don't know you. God didn't put you in here. He put them in here.

It's for us to learn. So if they get mad at me, they can get on me when I get to heaven. What happened to my mic? Old Satan trying to get my mic down.

He ain't going to work. I'll pull this one out of the pulpit if I have to. It's going to be heard today, what I have to say. Look at verse 6. I'm ashamed to live my faith, look at this, for our iniquities have increased over our head and our trespasses have grown up into the heavens.

Look at verse 7. Since the days of our father have we been in great trespass unto this day and for our iniquities I find fifth that sin was prevalent. Is prevalent in America now? Anybody still here with me?

Is America prevalent now? You say, preacher, you're preaching awfully hard on a Sunday morning. Well, dear friend, if you're here and you have children, you better be glad you're in a church that has a preacher that'll get up and preach hard on a Sunday morning. And be honest enough that you know what?

Hey, if we don't, if somebody is like, I can't believe that a person would even say anything negative out of the word. Dear friend, listen, we've got to preach the whole counsel of God. I've got a burden for our church. I've got a burden for our people.

I've got a burden for my own family. And I'm telling you right now, we've got to be honest and we've got to say this is what, this is what's happened in the past. This is what's going to happen to us. And it's what's happening to our country right now. Sin was prevalent. Ezra said this, we've sinned so much it's literally we're over our head in it. He said it's risen above our heads. You can't turn on a TV and not see sin all over America.

We are over our heads in it. And here's the problem. It's starting to do that in the church now. Promiscuousness, adultery, fornication, lasciviousness is rampant in the church building, in our people. Do you know that now, as of last year, the divorce rate amongst Christians has matched the divorce rate amongst non-Christians? No, we're not trying to make anybody bad if they've been divorced and different things. That's not the point. I'm just sitting here today saying we're struggling just as much in the church as they are in the world.

It's getting to the point we can't say they anymore. We've got to say all of us. All of us. You say, well, this is what all went on with this was amazing in verse seven at the very end. He gives the result of all this. He says this. He says, to the sword, we've been delivered into the hands of the kings of the land. Notice this, to the sword.

Second, he says, to captivity or slavery. Then he says, and to a spoil. He said, we've been spoiled. All the blessings of God, all this sin, it's spoiled. It's caused the sword. It's caused slavery. It's caused sin.

It's caused all this stuff. Notice that the last it says, and to confusion of face. That's sadness. Confusion of face.

What do you mean? We're the people of God. Why are you so sad? You know why they were so sad? They were in captivity. They've been taken by the sword. They've been put into slavery.

All their goods had been spoiled. And now they were sad. I've never seen in my day where individuals say born again Christians, and I'm included, the average day you could look at us and we look sad as can be. We're the people of God. Don't we have a lot to look forward to? Don't we have a lot to be thankful about? But we're hurting, aren't we?

We're hurting because of what we've become. You say, well, preacher, I don't know about all that. Look at verse 8 and 9, and I'm going to let you go. I am going to take the offering before I let you go today.

Look at verse 8. All this Ezra says, God, I'm ashamed to look at you. I'm so heavy, he says, because of what we've become, the direction we're going, and I see what's happening, and I can't even look up.

I'm ashamed to look at you. I just feel so bad and guilty for what all we've done. But in verse 8, he says, and now for a little space, grace hath been showed. We don't know why in Ezra, why things had stopped for a season. We don't know why the captivity had stopped. We don't know why the persecution had stopped.

We don't know why the killing of the Jews had stopped. But it all stopped just for a short period of time. And Ezra says, now God has given us a little space of grace.

Why? Well, he gives four things. He says, if you'll notice first, he says, to leave us a remnant to escape, we see first deliverance. Ezra says, God has given us a little space of grace for deliverance. This is our chance. This is our opportunity to make it right. This is our chance to get out of this life we've been living, to get out of this slump that we've been in, to get away from mingling ourselves with the world and participating in all the things that are doing. God is giving us a little space of grace.

And dear friend, I've seen it in my life. For some reason, individuals that are living wrong and heading down a wrong road, God will give you a space to repent. Deliverance. He'll leave us a remnant just enough to escape. He reminds me of that wonderful verse that says that God has promised us a way of escape. We have a holy priest that has guaranteed there's a way for us to escape the bondage of sin. I notice secondly, he says that there's a remnant to escape and to give us a nail in his holy place. You say, what in the world does that mean?

Are we going to give us a nail? What do you mean, preacher? This is simply a term that describes the rebuilding of the temple. Because when they had been taken captive, the temple was knocked down, burned down, all the things. And Ezra said God has given us a little bit of time for us to rebuild the house of God. In other words, in all the confusion and all the captivity and all the stuff that's gone on, we've forsaken the house of God, we've gotten away from it, it burned down, we got rid of it, now we're just doing other things and before long we kind of get used to not having the temple for too long, we get used to not being in the house of God. And Ezra says God's given us a little space of grace so that we can rebuild, put those nails back in the temple, erect the house of God so we can go in and get the doctrine of God's word.

Why did he give them a little space of grace? For deliverance and second, for doctrine. Dear friend, church is important. Church is why Christ died for the church.

And if it's that important to him, it ought to be that important to us. You know what I believe when we start to get to the point that these people have gotten to, you know what you look at and all of a sudden you realize there's just folks not going to church. I wonder how many saved individuals within 10 miles of our church are sitting at home today, not sick, not whatever, just not interested.

Could you imagine? And think of how many churches we have in this area and there's people in them and some of them are full this morning. Even with that, there are a whole bunch of people that have been saved by the grace of God. They're just not in church.

They're just not interested. Ezra says God's going to give a little space of grace for us to get back in the house of God. We've left it. We've gotten away from it.

And we've got to make it important once again, he said. I want you to notice thirdly, it says that our God may lighten our eyes. What does that mean?

It means direction. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, the Bible says. What he is saying is this, God's given us a little space of grace so that God can enlighten us. God can wake us up. God could show us the right direction, show us that hey, we're heading wrong. We're heading in a dangerous area.

We're heading in a dangerous direction and we need to head in the right direction. And dear friend, I'm here to tell you that if you stay out of the house of God, you will not get that right direction. You notice that he says we've got to rebuild the temple before God can enlighten our eyes. Dear friend, you and I need direction from God.

It's so important for us in our family. I want you to notice fourthly, look at verse 8 and verse 9. Look at the end of verse 8 and give us a little reviving in our bondage.

I wrote this down that he gave a little space of grace for determination. Do you know what a little reviving will do for you? It will get us out of, excuse me, I don't know if this is a bad word. I don't think it's a bad word but it's kind of a redneck term I guess. It gets us out of the funk. Is that a bad word? It's not a bad word, is it? Some of you are like, I don't know either.

Okay, we're all on the same page. You go to lunch today and talk to the waiter and say, hey, our preacher preached on funk this morning, all right? It gets us out of this funk we've been in of just apathetic, don't care, lazy, don't really feel like going to church, don't really want to go do this, don't want to talk to the person about the Lord and just every little thing hurts our feelings and every little thing offends us and every little thing gets us upset and then we start looking around and the grass is always greener everywhere else.

And I've watched it happen, folks. All it takes is one little thing for you to get bent out of shape about it at church and it's like a snowball effect. That little thing, it just begins to grow and before long now you're looking for things to see and now you're scrutinizing just to try to find something else you don't like about a church and before long it'll get to the point that every other church, everything they do is wonderful and there is nothing we can do that's right for you. It gets to the point there ain't nothing you like about a church anymore. You know why it all started with a little thing and it just snowballs and before long then you say, well, nobody talks to me at that church and nobody likes me and nobody wants to reach out to me and before long a person hadn't been at church for three months but somehow we're unfriendly because we haven't spoken to them.

How can we do that if they're not here? It all happens to us, doesn't it? There's some mornings I come to the pulpit and I say, nobody wants to hear what I have to say today.

Well, that was right. Okay, but you know what I'm saying? Those things happen to you, but we need a little reviving. Let me tell you the most exciting part about this and I'll let you go. There's more that I was going to share, but our time's gone.

That word little. I was looking at this passage and I read and I said, Lord, what we need at Kerwin's a little reviving. I mean, we need a lot of reviving, but you understand what I'm saying. God, we need a revival to start. We need this apathy to just something to break through that. We need folks to start caring like they used to and folks to start getting a little bit of energy like they used to and start, hey, I desire to I love my church and I want to help my church and I want to honor God with where he's put me and I want to worship him and serve him and as a God, we need a breakthrough.

We need something. And this word little in verse 8 said God is giving us a little space of grace for deliverance, a way of escape, for doctrine, rebuilding the house of God. I noticed what he said thirdly that our God may lighten our eyes.

God, give us some direction and some determination reviving. God, that's it. But that word little intrigued me. That word little, this Hebrew word, and I'll spare you the whole telling you the word and all that stuff. Let me tell you what that word little means. It does not mean small. It means a few. Now, there are times in the word of God where the word little and I've looked them up used that that word little is a different word for little and it means small, tiny, little. But here that word little doesn't mean a small reviving.

It means the word for few. It means this that you, it doesn't mean that you're going to have a big revival for a lot. It means that you'll have a big revival for a few.

It means this that there might not be a lot of people get revival but a few people are going to get a big revival. And you know what you and I need here at Kerwin Baptist Church? What I'm praying for as a pastor, I might not be able to get everybody revived and I might not get everybody excited about revival but if just a few would get excited, if just a few would want revival, if just a few would long to see what God could do at this church, God will give us a little reviving. We don't need a whole bunch of people, we just need a few to get revived.

And that will start spreading. I'm asking you this morning what Kerwin Baptist Church needs is a little reviving. We need a few that will get revived.

We need a few that will get determined. And just look at the devil spitting his eye and say, you've done everything you can do lately but I am not going to let it get me. It is time for you to be pushed in the background. Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. And like it or lump it, Satan, I'm going to have revival in my life and revival in my family and bless God, my seat and my pew, there's going to be revival in the services. But God would just give revival to a few. Father, we thank you for this morning. Lord, I don't even agree with you for having me preach this this morning. Lord, I know I did what you wanted me to do. Lord, I just beg and plead that a few of our folks would put things aside that bug you and bother you and make us complacent. And would you help us, Lord, to be one of a few that would get revived. Not because they like Brother Daniel, they might not like me at all. But because we love you. Because this is your house. God, I pray that you would begin a spark of revival. If and nothing else, a few of our people. God bless you.