1. Ezra 10:1–44 (ESV)
  2. Application

True repentance and breaking with sin

Ezra 10:1–44 (ESV)

1 While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly.

Repentance is not just saying I am sorry, and it is not just grief. You need to have grief and you need to be sorry. Truly sorry. Heartfelt sorrow is a part of repentance. So I am sad by what I have done, but I am not just sad because of the consequences. I am sad because of the evil of the sin. I am so grief-stricken by it, that I then leave it, I abominate it, I abhor this evil. I turn and cling to what is good.1

Terry L. Johnson