Nehemiah 13 Grace Emmanuel Church 02/04/17 ______

Nehemiah 7:1 After the wall was finished… That’s the part that everybody focuses on in the …and for good reason. It’s an amazing story of what happens when a person single-mindedly follows the plan of God for their life, and completely submits to the sovereign reason God placed them on this planet! (That’s a sobering thought for all of us…isn’t it? Am I accomplishing… through my life… what God intended for me to do when he implanted me in my mother’s womb?

That’s what said in his John 17 prayer to the Father… John 17:4 I glorified you on earth by completing down to the last detail what you assigned me to do! (MSG) Man…I want to be able to say that! Don’t you? <<<

______Let me recap the “completing down to the last detail” work that God gave Nehemiah and the scribe to do…and I’ll do this review in the form of a story.

God called Nehemiah, the Jewish Cupbearer, the personal advisor to the Persian King Artexerxes and asked him to return to the Jewish homeland and rebuild the ruined walls around . Nehemiah struggled with God’s call… but finally agrees to take a team and travel 1000 miles west to Jerusalem…to lead a scattered and demoralized Jewish remnant to attempt the impossible!

In just ______days Nehemiah and a band of untrained, former exiles rebuilt 2.5 miles of walls… 8 feet thick, 36 feet high! It was a stunning example of God doing what seemed impossible, through one of his submitted, obedient children… It’s not one drop different than what he has promised, and is willing to accomplish, through each one of us in this room. Same God, same empowerment…just different tasks he has called each of us to do! Nehemiah faced massive opposition from the surrounding pagan people. It was, all, in fact, satan’s attempts to stop the rebuilding of the very place where God’s prophesied Messiah, the

1 Savior of the World, Jesus Christ… would live, and die, and then rise again from the dead…victorious over sin and satan and death , and hell! ______But before Jesus could even arrive…the city had to be rebuilt. The temple where he would preach had to be constructed. The stones on the roads where he would drag his cross had to be laid down. All the construction would have to be built around a barren hill outside the city…where three crosses would one day be planted.

Imagine how many times Nehemiah and his buddy Ezra the scribe walked around that hill… never imagining that on that hill would one day hang the Suffering Savior Isaiah had described in chapter 53.

These heroes (of this series of sermons)…may very well have climbed onto that hill and prayed that God would hurry and sent the long awaited Messiah… the one Isaiah had described as Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace. Nehemiah might have knelt and prayed at the very place the hole would be dug for the middle cross. ______Nehemiah and Ezra never met Jesus…(not in this life.) They were born 480 years too early. But in God’s great plan they were born just on time to “complete down to the last detail what God had called them to do!”

Ezra came first to try to instill in the former exiles the truths of God’s Word…to lead them to levels of worship that years of exile had robbed them of. But when he got there, 13 years before Nehemiah, he walked into an absolute sin sewer! … He found out that hundreds of them had married their pagan neighbors and brought the idols of their new spouse right into their homes…something they were absolutely forbidden to do in Moses Law in the inspired Word of God.

Worse yet, 111 of the priest and Levites (are listed at the end of the )…their spiritual leaders… had led the way in doing the very thing that had caused God to allow them to be taken into exile… in the first place.

Let me shift the story and fill in some blanks. The way Ezra handled this seems almost brutal. He got them altogether and said: “You guys have so flagrantly disobeyed God’s Word’….that the only way out of this mess is to first repent…and second…send your idol worshipping spouses back home to their fathers households. Think with me here… God could see over the hill of time… and see what has to happen today to prepare for a righteous “tomorrow.” (Same with us!)

2 It wasn’t just that God was preparing a city for Jesus arrival…he was preparing a people for Jesus arrival! What wasn’t supposed to happen… was that Jesus would arrive in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, as the Savior of the world…… to find that all of God’s followers… were following pagan idols and sacrificing their children to Molech.

It’s bad enough that the God-following Jews crucified the prophesied, long- awaited Messiah when he arrived. But at least…when the Early Church was born… it spread like wildfire through people who already believed in YAHWEH…the Creator God of . ______Now you are not going to find this in the Bible…but Jewish Rabbinical literature (not inspired Scripture but probably accurate) tells us.. that when all those idol worshipping spouses went home to daddy…it seriously ticked off their daddies. They began (for the next twelve years to raid… pillage, terrorize Jerusalem and the Jewish people.

By the time Nehemiah shows up to rebuild the walls, the people are just ravaged! Every moment of every day…they and their families were in danger of death. Their farms, where they were trying to grow food… to feed their families and communities… were constantly being pillaged… their food stolen.

These people had to feel like… when they had finally tried to follow God’s law…and it had thrown them out of the frying pan into the fire. Following God… instead of making their lives better…. had made them into a hell on earth! ______You’ve got to put all of those facts in the old “noggin” when you think about Nehemiah arriving and in 52 days, miraculously… 2 ½ miles of 36 foot high walls are re- built… in spite of the terrorizing neighbors! Their city is protected. Their houses and families are safe. God has come through…the God they thought had deserted them…

As the reality that the wall is finally done sinks into their “noggins”… They come en mass…as many as 75,000 of them squeeze inside the Jerusalem walls …and demand that Ezra read, and teach them, the Bible. It is starting to sink in that the God they had rejected…had not rejected them! His “rules for living” (Laws) were not to harm them but to bring his power, presence, and protection into their lives. (There is a modern day application there… Following God’s plan for our lives is not designed to restrictive) It is designed to bring God’s power, presence, and protection…

Nehemiah 8:1 all the people assembled with a unified purpose at the square just inside the Water Gate. They asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had given for Israel to obey.

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______Ezra gladly did! Finally he gets to fulfill the real reason God had sent him to Jerusalem!

בָּרַ ך) :6 Then Ezra praised - blessed) the LORD, the great God, and all the people chanted, “Amen! Amen!” as they lifted their hands. Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

We got to look in on the beginnings of a genuine revival…. A repenting before God like most of those people had never done, or even heard of, in their whole life. When the Word of God dug into their souls… it not only exposed their sin…it drove them to want to repent of their sin.

I’m going to show you something here in a minute that I have never noticed before, in forty years of preaching: But first let me finish the story… ______Remember how the move of God intensifies as we move into Nehemiah chapter 9 …

Nehemiah 9:1 On October 31 the people assembled again, and this time they fasted and dressed in burlap and sprinkled dust on their heads…. 3 They remained standing in place for three hours while the Book of the Law of the LORD their God was read aloud to them. Then for three more hours they confessed their sins and worshiped the LORD their God

One group of Levites stood on the stairs on one side of the raised platform and another group stood on the other. As the Word of God was read Group One, perhaps led by Ezra, would cry out to God in repentance for all the areas where they had broken God’s law…and then they would stop and the Levites on the other side, Perhaps Nehemiah himself … or maybe Ezra would yell out:

5 “Stand up and praise the LORD your God, for he lives from everlasting to everlasting!” Then they prayed: “May your glorious name be praised! May it be exalted above all blessing and praise! 6 “You alone are the LORD (YAHWEH) !

This went on for three hours….

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“You alone are God…. you alone are the LORD!” “You alone are God…. you alone are the LORD!” ______We have to insert this into its context…These people had fallen into grave sin. They had together repented of their sin, only to be so harassed by the idol worshipping pagans around them that they felt like God had totally rejected them. Then… came the miracle of the wall… which brought cascading out of them a desire to really know God. They had gone through a time of progressively repenting deeper and deeper into the hidden recesses of their souls… As they were washed clean… cleansed of their guilt-producing sin… their anguish turns to praise…. Lots and lots of praise! (the rest of chapter 9)

You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you. You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him from Ur. You have done what you promised, for you are always true to your word. You have a glorious reputation that has never been forgotten. You divided the sea for your people so they could walk through on dry land! You hurled their enemies into the depths of the sea. You led our ancestors by a pillar of cloud. You came down at Mount Sinai and spoke to them from heaven. You gave them instructions that were just, and commands that were good.

More than fifty of these worship phrases to God… Isn’t this an amazing book? It is so detailed so descriptive of what happen inside a group of people when they turn from their sins and run into the arms of a loving God!

17b You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. You did not abandon us!!…

No he didn’t and no he doesn’t today. If you are here today…at any level of the pathway that these children of God had traveled…. Living in rebellious sin… repented but feeling like your life is still chaotic, seeing the mighty hand of God revealed and wanting more ...

5 ______So now what…what does a group of people who have totally repented and forsaken their sinful ways…who have brought their lives under the sovereignty of God…who wanted their lives to ‘bring glory of God by completing what he has called them to do…

What comes next?

Nehemiah 9:38 The people responded, “In view of all this, we are making a solemn promise and putting it in writing. On this sealed document are the names of our leaders and Levites and priests.”

OK…here they go sinking into legalism. We don’t live under the Law…we are New Testament Christians… we live under grace. Vows are an ancient outdated custom! OH???

If you are married did you make vows? Were they a bad thing or were they an expression of your love? That’s what’s happening here… These people has gone from an almost deistic view of God…to a vibrant personal relationship with him. He had become very, very real to them. There repentance and aligning with God’s principles for living were no longer burdensome. They now understood what it meant to be living under the direct presence, power, and protection of God.

What they were getting ready to do now…was a direct act of love, and act of worship!

Nehemiah 10:28Then the rest of the people—the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, Temple servants, and all who had separated themselves from the pagan people of the land in order to obey the Law of God, together with their wives, sons, daughters, and all who were old enough to understand— 29 joined their leaders and bound themselves with an oath…. They solemnly promised to carefully follow all the commands, regulations, and decrees of the LORD our Lord:

This was a serious thing to them… Moses’ (Numbers) and Solomon’s (Ecclesiastes)… warn negative consequences on those who make vows and fail to keep them. These newly vibrant God-followers were unfazed. In fact, they were putting all their vows in writing so nobody could later say: We didn’t really say that, or that’s not what we meant… They were onto something!

William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army was once asked what his secret was to his incredible ministry. This is what he said, “God has had all that there was of me. There have been men with greater brains than I…but from the day I got the poor of London on my heart and caught a vision of what Jesus Christ could do

6 with me and them, on that day I made up my mind that God should have all of William Booth that there was.” (Wow!)

______So what was on their love list of promises to God? (We need to see this more in the light of a wedding vow than a “God will get me if I don’t” vow.) These people were expressing their new found love back to God!

30 “We promise not to let our daughters marry the pagan people of the land, and not to let our sons marry their daughters.

We kind of understand that one. Remember this wasn’t racial bias. We read earlier in Nehemiah that a lot of the surrounding pagan had become Believers in YAHWEH God. There is no evidence that they stopped their sons and daughters from marrying those people. It wasn’t racial…it was all about idolatry. That was the one huge issue that had driven them away from god for the last 1000 years. That was the issue that tripped up King Solomon and his sin has snowballed for 10 centuries. You’ll be glad to know that this is the point in Jewish history where it comes to an end. They have lots more problems by the time Jesus shows up…but this is not one of them.

31 “We also promise that if the people of the land should bring any merchandise or grain to be sold on the Sabbath or on any other holy day, we will refuse to buy it. Every seventh year we will let our land rest, and we will cancel all debts owed to us.

Old Testament law forbid, in no uncertain terms, working on the Sabbath. The children of Israel were forbidden to gather manna on the Sabbath. Oddly what we don’t find (I welcome your correction) is any prohibition against buying on the Sabbath. These people…Jews in general had developed the pattern of not doing any work on Saturday, but that became their market day to buy from all the unbelievers who wooden idols didn’t forbid much of anything.

Here was the new logic. We are making like never before the Sabbath be our day to devote ourselves of worshipping God in this new love relationship we are developing with him. But we are letting the pagans around us hijack our worship day into their commerce day. (There are so many applications here…but that would be meddling.) Oh well… (Sunday, the Lord’s Day is not the Jewish Sabbath but….. I better hurry on…

32 “In addition, we promise to obey the command to pay the annual Temple tax of one-eighth of an ounce of silver for the care of the Temple of our God. 33 This will provide for the Bread of the Presence; for the regular grain offerings and burnt offerings; for the offerings on the Sabbaths, the new moon celebrations, and the annual festivals; for the holy offerings; and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel. It will provide for everything necessary for the work of the Temple of our God.

7 34 “We have cast sacred lots to determine when—at regular times each year—the families of the priests, Levites, and the common people should bring wood to God’s Temple to be burned on the altar of the LORD our God, as is written in the Law.

Notice how their new devotion to God brought new devotion to the House of God. Nine times, here the words “house of God are used.” We go to such great effort now to downplay our church buildings … the building is not the church, the people are the church”… we are now the temple, we don’t need a building to worship God. When I was a kid, churches were still revered as the house of God. I got called on the carpet in front of the church leaders when I was probably 13… because I did something that shouldn’t have been dome in the “House of God” Now the church building means no more than the Wal-mart store building.

It wasn’t really about a building in OT times either. Jeremiah makes clear that OT salvation is a matter of the heart. But I’m struck by how much of Scripture is given to detailing how God wanted the Tabernacle and then the Temple built. The Israelites were without a temple while in exile…that was a part of their exile. To get their temple rebuilt in Jerusalem and offer sacrifices was a huge day for the former exiles.

And now when they are in a time of revival…they instantly moved to make a priority out of caring for the house of God. Preserving and enhancing the worship of God. They weren’t trying to make their worship of God more palatable to the pagans around them. If fact, just in this 13 chapter book, the more they focused on truly worshipping God, the more the pagans left there idolatry behind and began to worship God with them. There has to be a lesson there. ______We’re going into the deep end of the pool here…better put on your swimmies.

A man had just put the finishing touches on a fresh concrete driveway. He went inside to enjoy a glass of lemonade when, to his horror, he saw his little neighbor boy playing in the fresh concrete. He went outside and yelled angrily at the boy. After he had fixed the concrete and come back inside, his wife said, “Why did you yell at him? I thought you loved little boys.” The man replied, “I love little boys in the abstract, but I don’t like them in the concrete.”

Every Christian is for spiritual renewal in the abstract, we don’t like it in the concrete. Spiritual revival is a wonderful concept. But when it means that I must actually change the way that I think, the way that I relate to my wife and kids, the way that I spend my time and money, or the way that I do business, now just a minute! Chess has gone from preaching to meddling!

8 35 “We promise to bring the first part of every harvest to the LORD’s Temple year after year—whether it be a crop from the soil or from our fruit trees. 36 We agree to give God our oldest sons and the firstborn of all our herds and flocks, as prescribed in the Law. We will present them to the priests who minister in the Temple of our God. 37 We will store the produce in the storerooms of the Temple of our God. We will bring the best of our flour and other grain offerings, the best of our fruit, and the best of our new wine and olive oil. And we promise to bring to the Levites a tenth of everything our land produces…

Oh boy…it is that Old Testament outdated concept of tithing. Everybody has to give 10% of their income to God or he will curse their crops, make their car break down… bun up their dishwasher.

First: The whole concept of God cursing humans is misleading. God promised blessing, the curse comes from sin and us living in a sin choked world. When we walk into God’s loving plan for our lives we walk into the promised blessing of God. When we walk contrary to God’s loving plan for our lives we walk out from under the blessing of God back in the direction of sin’s curse. It is not God doing the cursing.

Second: Who is the one prophet in the Bible we always think of when we get on the subject of tithing. Famously…. Malachi!

Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in!

When did Malachi live? When did he write those three sentences? Right exactly where we are studying in the Bible. We get confused because Ezra and Nehemiah are 1/3 of the way into the Bible and Malachi is the last OT book… but they are happening at exactly the same time.

I’ve never caught this until this week. Malachi is part of this great revival. Unfolding in front of our eyes. ______Malachi was part of this great revival. His words along with Ezra and Nehemiah’s were part of the great turn around in these people’s hearts. We always think of Malachi as delivering the end of the Bible oracles! Some of them are negative but some really positive

9 The book starts with God expressing his love…how often do you find that in the OT?.

Malachi 1:2 “I have always loved you,” says the LORD. But you retort, “Really? How have you loved us?” And the LORD replies, “This is how I showed my love for you…

Chapter three starts with:

Malachi 3:1 “Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. (the Messiah is coming x 2)

Then this… This is what made the people write that covenant about how they were going to care for God’s temple, and bring the firstfruits of their crops, and bring a tithe of all they earned. They personally heard Malachi say these words:

Malachi 3: “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me! “But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you? ’“You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. 9 You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! 11 Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. 12 “Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

______Alright Chess… that’s all good enough for them.. but why are we even talking about this? Everybody knows that tithing was an Old Testament command that is not in effect today. God loves a cheerful giver… If I give a dollar cheerfully, that’s better than giving a 100 dollars grudgingly. Jesus didn’t have anything to say about tithing…therefore if you plan to take this sermon any further you need to shut your trap.

I’m amazed how many Pastors and church leaders I read that share the same view… and I’ve got to say…I’m not sure what Bible they are reading…or not reading.

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______I’ve got to turn and say to Mr. Femi : You are just completely confused:

Matthew 23:23 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.

To give you a couple of other passages in different versions:

Luke 11:42 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

Why didn’t Jesus have a big teaching session on tithing? Because they were already all doing it. It’s the one thing, after Ezra’s time they got right. Jesus also didn’t teach anything on taking foreign wives and serving their idols, because they weren’t doing that anymore. They fact that he didn’t forbid pagan wives doesn’t mean that he was suddenly in favor of it. (Do we understand the logic here?)

Luke 18:9 …. Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people— robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

They had a lot of issues that Jesus was going to correct them on but tithing wasn’t one of them. They were still believing with all their heart what Malachi has prophesied…and they were undoubtedly living under the “open windows of heaven blessing.”

11 ______The Apostle Paul and the Early Church did not change anything from Malachi’s great promise:

1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

In the next letter to the Corinthians Paul write what I think is the most profound passage on the subject in all of Scripture.

2 Corinthians 9:6-11 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work….

10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

______We are not that different or distant from the people inside those rebuilt Jerusalem walls.

1) A focus on our sin brings conviction 2) Conviction should lead us to repentance 3) Repentance brings a new found “Joy in the Lord” 4) A new life bring a new love for God’s Word 5) God’s Word begins to transform us inside 6) As we transform we run toward God’s will for our lives 7) We become increasingly willing to correct wrong behavior 8) Righteous living brings even more joy and a greater thirst to know God

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