Dr. Kevin DeYoung | Fruit in Keeping with Repentance

·42 min·4 clips

Pastor Kevin DeYoung confronts the shocking mass divorce in Ezra 10 and asks how it aligns with Jesus' teaching.

This episode is a sermon by Pastor Kevin DeYoung concluding a series on the book of Ezra. He opens with prayer and reading Ezra chapter 10, which describes the Israelites' mass divorce of foreign wives. DeYoung immediately highlights the theological problem this poses, contrasting it with Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5 and Paul's in 1 Corinthians 7 against divorce. He notes that Reformation Day was two days prior, referencing Martin Luther's first thesis on repentance. DeYoung explains that the foreign wives were not a racial issue but a religious one, involving women from pagan cultures. To resolve the conflict, he delves into timing details from Ezra 7-10, showing the marriages occurred within four months of the exiles' return, making them recent and akin to annulments. He further contextualizes this with Malachi 2:11-16, suggesting some men may have divorced their Israelite wives to marry these foreign women. DeYoung then extracts three lessons on repentance from the passage. First, repentance must stem from serious conviction, as seen when the people wept bitterly and trembled in the rain. Second, it requires deep commitment, evidenced by their covenant, oath, and a three-month investigative process involving local elders. Third, repentance bears personal cost, affecting the men, women, and leaders, unlike worldly grief that avoids consequences. He contrasts cathartic confession with character-forming repentance. DeYoung concludes by linking Ezra's ending to the broader biblical narrative, emphasizing that continual repentance keeps God's people from bondage, and hope exists through Jesus' sacrifice for covenant breakers. The sermon closes with a prayer of confession.

As heard by us

A sober sermon on repentance that keeps mercy and obedience in view.

The episode keeps Ezra 10 grounded in repentance that has consequences, not just feeling sorry in the abstract. It moves through the grief in the chapter, then brings in Malachi and a closing prayer that ties sin, mercy, and restoration together.

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Why you'd press play

When repentance gets costly, this sermon stays with the hard part.

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