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Before you leave today, there'll be a set of notes for Nehemiah available. Just encourage you to do a bit of reading on Ezra and Nehemiah. Maybe that's what you've been doing, but I just encourage you to do that. We're dealing with two passages today, one on Ezra, Ezra 9 and 10. But because there's a passage in Nehemiah that also deals with the same issue, that is confession in regards to the issues that were there at the time, intermarriage in particular, we deal with Nehemiah 8 and 9 as well. So next week, we'll be dealing with the beginning part of Ezra, sorry, Nehemiah, the action part, the wall building and so forth, and then the latter, the last week that I'll be here, we'll be spending on the latter part of Nehemiah. So there's where we're going for these studies in What do we call it? Expectation and Renewal. It's coming out, isn't it? It's a couple of words that just seem to strike me as being relevant to the book, but I've seen more of how applicable the title is as we've gone through. Expectation and Renewal are very important elements. No expectation. Reminds me of C.H. Spurgeon, who was talking to a fellow pastor, and the pastor said, I preach the same as you, and I believe all the same things. He said, you get a whole lot of converts, and I get none. He said, well, you didn't expect to, did you? He said, no. He said, well, that's the difference. It's important. It's not just a matter of niceness or something you should have. It's very important. If you're not expecting something, or as they say, if you're expecting nothing, that's probably what you'll get. And so the Lord has given us many promises so that we would be able to live as human beings. And human beings, by nature of the case, are forward-directed creatures. A person without a hope is? Hopeless, exactly, in the second meaning of the word. So expectation is important and renewal, of course, is important. And we're talking about that today, calling it confession and renewal. And we'll see something more of what that means. The two periods of time that we are referring to, after Ezra has returned, he's been back for about four and a half months. If you look at the dates in the book, you'll see that he's been back for about four and a half months. Some people question how it could have been so long before somebody came and said, hey, there's a problem here you should be dealing with. But it's likely that as a person appointed by Artaxerxes to come back and effectively be a minister for religion, I suppose we call it these days, that is to see that the religion of Israel was re-established properly, that he had to visit various other governors and so forth. It doesn't say he's an actual governor, but he must have had to visit others, so whatever. For other reasons, he's been back in the land for some time. We've heard about his coming back, but now he's told about the problem of intermarriages between Jews and non-Jews. The second comes, that's about 458 BC, that when he comes back, we know that because they tell us which Yeruvate exercise he arrived. And the same with Nehemiah. that we find out that it comes back about 444. So that's about 14 years later and Ezra is still there. And so the episode that we're going to pick up has Nehemiah and Ezra. In fact, Ezra is called in to read the scriptures as the local scribe. He's sent back as a scribe of the God of heaven. by Ataxerxes, so he's a scribe, that is, and he's also a priest, he's in fact related to the first high priest of Aaron, that is. So they're the two periods, they're two sections, they both involved Ezra, first one just Ezra, second one Nehemiah's come back and Ezra's called in to be the reader of the scriptures and they're involved in what goes on. So between the two of these periods, because they're both dealing with the same issue, we'll take them together. Confession in both cases has to do with intermarriage. Have a look at Ezra chapter 9 and verse 1. After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites that is, right across the board, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the land with their abominations, from the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons. and so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands, and in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost." So that's the actual issue. Now, you say, well, what's the issue? Well, the issue, of course, is that Israel had been told from way back, right from the beginning, that they were to keep themselves separate from the local inhabitants because, and in fact they were to destroy many of the inhabitants when they first came. 34.15 tells us, You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their ashram, for you shall worship no other god. For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and you war after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and you are invited to eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons and their daughters, who war after their gods and make..." Can you see the issue of intermarriage is not just who you marry, it's who you worship. That's the importance of the whole matter. It's repeated again in Deuteronomy, which we probably don't need to, it's Deuteronomy 7.3 if you want it. It's also repeated in Joshua 23. And in Judges, you remember that rather infamous book, not infamous book, because it's in the Bible, it must be okay. But the book telling of the rather infamous behavior of Israel during that period, it starts with the fact of their intermarrying, Genesis 3 and verse 6. And their daughters they took to themselves for wives and their own daughters they gave to their sons and they served their gods. That is, when Israel has no discrimination in regard to intermarriage, then by nature of the case, the issue is not just who you marry but who you worship. and the decision to marry just whoever you please is by nature the case a decision to be ambivalent in regard to who you worship. So that was the issue for Israel. It would lead them to a loss of identity. Some would say that identity is a very big issue, and of course it is in these books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Some of the severe measures that are taken have to do just not with doing the right thing. We're great people for doing the right thing. Very legalistic, aren't we? But the issue for the Scriptures all the time is not just doing the right thing, it is worshipping the true God and having a heart for Him, that's the issue. And everything that leads to that, as Paul would later say, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. He said that in a particular context, but I think it applies there. So because of the idolatry, the people had had to be reminded, including by the prophets in Isaiah 52, come out from among them, touch no unclean thing, and I'll be a father to you, and you'll be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. So in returning, that was addressed particularly to the returning exiles, Isaiah 52, 11, that they were instructed to go back and to be the people of God, that is to be truly worshippers of Him. So you can appreciate something with that background. Incidentally, you probably know in one of my verses that I often pull out in regard to mixed marriages in our own day, because many of us, well some here, may be married to a non-Christian. And that's the way it is. It may be that they were a non-Christian when you married them and you were a Christian. And you might say, well, I shouldn't have done that. But then again, you might have become a Christian. Do you know what I mean? There's all sorts of situations happen when the gospel goes out. That's just how it is, isn't it? And I love that verse in 1 Corinthians 7.14, which says to a Christian spouse of a non-Christian husband or wife that the The non-Christian partly is sanctified by the faith of the wife or the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, which means not rigid, you know, they'd be like Gentiles, the outcast, you see. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. And as we often say, they might be holy hollers, but they're holy. It's wonderful, isn't it? So you can go home. What kind of home are you going to? You're not going to a non-Christian home, you're going to a Christian home. You're a Christian, it's a Christian home, sanctified by your faith. That's dynamic, isn't it? Quite dynamic. So the issue is not just who you marry, it's where your heart is that the issue is here. But nonetheless, at that time, they did need to deal with, in fact, as we shall see when I get to that verse, it's, in Nehemiah it says, they have broken faith. which suggests that they have broken the covenant, which if you think of it in legal terms is treason. Or if you look at it from another point of view, you could say that their marriages were illegitimate in the first place and therefore they can be annulled. You see, you can't just lift it off here and say and apply it here. There's a particular issue going on and it is the question of identity, it's a question of worship. That's this important issue as regards the marriage thing. So let's just clear the decks a little bit as regard to the issue that's being raised here. Now, let me just say here that what happens then, and I'll read this a little bit, when Ezra hears this news, 9 and verse 3, as soon as I heard this, I tore my garment, a Jewish sign of lament, and my cloak, and I pulled hair from my head. Some of us can't afford to do that, but anyway. Pulled hair from my head and beard. Could have been quite painful, but it's a dramatic action, and it just demonstrates that he is appalled. It's a necessary word in our days of toleration of everything. We need also, a friend of mine who's not a Christian said to me one time, we just need to be tolerant. I said, no, no, I think we need to be resilient. It's different, isn't it, that you use discernment. Sometimes it's important to be appalled, isn't it, at what's happening. That's right, he says, I tore my garment, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. And then all who trembled, so it wasn't just him, all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled. until the evening sacrifice. It's interesting, when the Twin Towers came down in America, John Piper was interviewed within 24 hours of the actual event. It was on Christian radio in America. I'll never forget what he said. He was asked to pray to begin the interview. And his opening line was, Lord, teach us to grieve. We've forgotten how to grieve. Isn't that amazing? That's a most prophetic word for a country that's been attacked. That the country didn't need just to respond, it needed to grieve, to let the impact of what had happened. Why are we so hated, for example, is a fair question. It's not to have a go at the Americans. We need to do the same here in Australia, don't we? And to grieve sometimes about what's taking place. As we'll see today, you need a lot of joy in your heart to be able to grieve properly. But we do need to grieve. And so, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my fasting with my garment and my cloak torn, in other words, he hadn't done anything to change, and fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God saying, oh Lord my God, oh my God, I'm ashamed and blushed to lift my face to you, my God. For our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, now guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From the days of our fathers to this day, in other words, he's not just talking about what's happening in front of his eyes, he says, this is how we've always been. And I thought perhaps that captivity might have changed a few things. We're still the same. You see what he's saying? From the days of our fathers to this day, we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities, we our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, that's the captivity, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering and to utter shame as it is today. In other words, we're still having to do things according to the kings of the lands, all the dating comes from there, they can't do anything without permission. But now for a brief moment, favour has been shown by the Lord our God to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within this holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery. For we are slaves, for yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving, to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we've forsaken your commandments." So there's his confession. Confessions have always been part of revivals. You don't have God come near without you become aware of one or two inconsistencies in your own life. And it's not a matter of you've got to do something to get God to come near or to have favour on you, but it's just what's appropriate. Given the situation, it's the only way to, you know what I mean? It's like God draws near and the only appropriate response is repentance, is confession of ourselves being other than what we should be. It's all important to see, however, what its nature is. You remember that Paul had to make a distinction when they were disciplining somebody in Corinth. He said, it's important that we have, there is a sorrow that just leads to death. Just mad as hell because I've failed. And that's just a grievance that's to death. But he says there's a grievance that leads to life. And that's what he's interested in. And it's a very delicate matter. It's not just a simple thing to bring someone to repentance. Not just a simple thing to grieve for your sins. Grieving for sins could be just moroseness. And I hope today what we can see is there's an enormous difference between confession of sin and moroseness. because it leads to life, not leads to death. So the twin truths are articulated in this passage. I've read some of it already, but let's just itemize them again. Here's the truth of our sin, 9-2, we've read it already. They have the faithlessness In this faithlessness, the hand of the officials has been the foremost. Verse 4, the faithlessness of the returned exiles. Verse 6, our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, now guilt has mounted to the heavens. Verse 7, we have been in great guilt and for our iniquities we Iniquity is the deepest of all the words about sin. It's just utter pollution. I don't know if you've sensed that. Sometimes, you know, an odd thing or two you find's not been right in your life, and you think, well, I've got to muscle up a bit. But sometimes you just realize that this is the core of who you are. And you don't like it. It's not a pleasant thing to encounter yourself unattended by grace. True? Not a pleasant thing at all for that reason that we, you know, eat, drink, and be merry is not a counsel of happiness. Well, it might be happiness, but it's not of joy. It's a counsel of despair. For tomorrow, we die. So if you see a person eat, drink, and be merry, they're not a truly happy person. They're living by a counsel of despair. Because that's what you do when you haven't got anything else. And so that's the way we deal with what we are and what's happened and so forth, often we've forgotten how to grieve. But here he itemizes the depths of what's happened, both in its practice and in the depths from which it's come. But also it's in the context of God's favor. Have a look at verse eight and nine, we've read it. Now for a brief moment, favor has been shown by the Lord to leave us a remnant, to brighten our eyes, don't you like that? Why? Don't you often need your eyes brightened up a bit? When you need your eyes brightened up, where have your eyes been? They might have been looking outward at something outside, but my guess is most often they've been looking inside. In fact, I've got a pretty good idea that our view of what's going on around us is largely controlled by what's going on inside. I said to one of our students one time, when I work with students, it's not so much what happens in front of your eyeballs, it's what happens behind your eyeballs, not what's happening in front of your eyeballs that helps you see what's going on. I had a very dramatic example, not a dramatic, but a very interesting example. I asked one person, how did the meeting go? Oh, pretty terrible, only about five there. It was all over the place. And I asked another person about how the same meeting went. Oh, really good, and so forth. And it was very clear that what's going on behind the eyeballs, as much as what goes on in front of the eyeballs, depends what you see. Interesting. So it may well be that a lot of our disenchantment with what we see around us is misgivings about yourself. And it would be just good, wouldn't it, to have a clean heart and clean eyes, you know? If your heart's only interested in your nest egg, then beware of covetousness, Jesus would say. And if the eye is evil, then the whole body's full of darkness. It's quite serious, the state of your eyes. That is, your spiritual eyes, I mean. I mean, with what kind of eyes you're looking at things. So you do need a clean heart to be able to see dirt in the world. Otherwise you might only see reflections of your own dissatisfaction with yourself out in the world. That might be just how it happens. So here he puts it in the context, you may brighten our eyes and grant us a little revival. I think I've actually expounded on brightening of eyes more than Israel had in mind, but nevermind. Allow me to sermonize a little bit. God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery. For we are slaves, yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, to grant us some reviving, verse 9. Do you see who's doing the grieving? It's a person who's conscious of the enormous thing God has done to bring their captivity to an end, which meant that he had pardoned their sins. Remember Isaiah 40? Comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and tell her that the warfare is accomplished. Her sin is pardoned and she has received from the Lord's hands double for all her sins. That's God's generous assessment of how much they'd suffered for their sins. Now the truth of the matter is probably they hadn't suffered half enough for their sins, certainly not enough to correct them. But nonetheless the Lord is generous and so the Lord had been enormously generous to bring them back and Ezra knows that. And now he knows that they've not just sinned in regard to their idolatry, they've sinned in regard to the coming of grace. That's serious. If we neglect such a great salvation, isn't that a more serious sin than all the sins that we needed to be saved from before? So you can see the depth of the situation that Israel is in. Now, that's where we're going to leave that story, because I can leave you to read the rest, and I can leave you to look at the notes that are there that will explain other bits of it. Incidentally, when you get eight pages of notes, you think, oh, too long. But you do only have to read a half a page at a time, really, so you can spread it out, and then it makes it seem a little bit easier. So I just encourage you in that. Yes, I'll leave you to go through that. What happens in chapter 10 then, is that while Ezra had prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, very great assembly of men, women and children gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly. It's quite a time. I can imagine what would happen if I wept bitterly in Rundle Mall for the state of Adelaide, It'd probably take me away as a nuisance, that poor fellow. It's one thing for Ezra to weep, it's another thing for the whole group to weep with him. Something's happening that's deeper than just one man having an effect on people. It's interesting, isn't it? Oh, that God would give us such a day. It would have to be a day that God gave, wouldn't it? Yeah. And then Shekhinah takes over. It's very interesting. My initial reaction was to say that Ezra is the teacher and not a very practical man. He doesn't know what to do anything. He just sits there and goes on mourning. until Shekhinah comes along and says, let's do something about it. But it's more likely that, it's interesting, because Ezra actually has authority to act. You remember what we read previously, that he was commanded by Artaxerxes, not only to get on with the, to actually implement the law of the God of heaven, but also to take issue with people who wouldn't do what he said. and numbers of other instructions. So he actually had power to act and didn't. It's quite interesting. That could tell us that he's not the person who sees what needs to be done. I'm not sure that that's the real issue. It might be that he knows that something has to come from the people if it's going to be real. I think that's more likely what it is. But whatever it is, Shekinah comes forward and says, look, we've got to do something about this, because what you're saying is true. And we're standing in jeopardy of the whole future of God's revelation to the world. There's no small thing going on here. If we lose our identity, where's the light that goes out to the nations? And so she said, we've got to do something. And he comes up with a plan. And you can read all about that. as to what they'll do. Now, it would appear that whatever does happen at that time, and we're not told any great deal, because the rest of the book just tells you about who the victims were, not who the victims were, but who the culprits were, itemized by name, and how they would go about dissolving those marriages. That's what they were going to do. It's quite amazing, really. As I say, we're not saying lift that out and say it's what you've got to do now. It's simply how it was at the time. They may have been illegitimate marriages in the first place. Whatever took place, it would seem as though it wasn't thorough enough because 15, 14 years later when Nehemiah comes back, the same issue arises. And this time it seems to be dealt with more thoroughly, but even then it has to be dealt with ongoingly, never goes away really. So let's go next to Nehemiah, the second wave under Nehemiah. Now what happens at the beginning of the book, and which we will look at next Thursday, is the return of Nehemiah, how he comes back, and he gets into building the walls, which was the real issue at the time. that was needed and what he was so concerned about. But it's after that that we pick up this story in chapter 8 of Nehemiah. Let's read verses 1 to 8. In fact, I'm going to read from the previous sentence in the previous chapter, 73b. When the seventh month had come, The people of Israel were in their towns. That's an important date because we know that the walls had only been finished in the sixth month and the 20th day, or a bit after that, I think. So, in fact, there's only been a week since they're finishing the building of the walls. And if you know the book of Nehemiah, you know that building those walls was hard work with the double job of guarding them at the same time. So, the people had a week off and then this happens. It's the seventh month. Now they could know that the seventh month is important in their history, but we otherwise, we don't know why the people gather, but it does seem to be a spontaneous movement that everybody wants to be in Jerusalem. And so they flock in from the towns. And the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate, and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month. And he read excerpts, probably, from it, in other words, because if you're reading the law, he could either mean the whole Pentateuch, which would take more than a morning to read, or even just a book of Deuteronomy. Now, I haven't tried, but I think that might take more than about three or four hours, too. So it's probably excerpts from that. He read from it facing the square before the Watergate from early morning. Watergate meaning they're not in the temple, meaning the women can be there as well and children. and in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand, and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform they'd made for the purpose. Beside him stood various people, Levites, to read. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people as he opened it, and the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Amen, Amen, meaning, may it be so. The best example of an Amen, well, other than Jesus Christ, he's the Amen, isn't he, to all of God's promises. But a good one to remember is Mary. Let it be so, to me, according to your word. Christ is born. That was some Amen wasn't it? It's a great prayer, Amen. And they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground and then there's other and these Levites also, helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places, and they read from the book of the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense, which could mean it was written in Hebrew and explained in Aramaic, so that the people understood the reading. There's the occasion. Now, The first thing that we need to know just about this, and it's going to come to the confession in a moment, but the first thing is looking at the very warp and whoop of Israel's life. As we said, it could have been that they arrived because it's the seventh month. The seventh month was the time when you kept the Day of Atonement, followed by the Feast of Booths. And in other places, this seventh month is called the first month, but it's all very difficult in regard to calendars when you go back into history, so we won't go into that too much. But part of the walk and woof of Israel's life was to know the scriptures. In fact, the Feast of Booths, once every seven years, according to, if I've got it here somewhere, No I haven't, but somewhere, it was required, Deuteronomy 31, 9 and onwards, at the Feast of Booths, 7th month, that is Feast of Booths, you remember, living in tents? to remember the time when they lived in the wilderness, depended on God and so forth. They kept this feast of booths, or tabernacles sometimes it's called. And in that annual celebration, once every seven years, they would read the whole law, day after day, just to go through it. So days before books, and computers, and iPods, and all the rest of it, then it was a good way to go. Also a good holiday for the kids, no doubt. So they read the law, and I just want to make the point that if we're talking about renewal, if we're talking about having expectation, the regular expectation, the regular exposition of the scripture is a vital part of the warp and woof. of our lives. Now I don't need to persuade you of that, I'm preaching to the converted, because we're here together around the Word of God. But let's just emphasize the fact that this is not just an incidental thing or something we like to do, but it is the part of what God has ordained should be the warp and weep. Let's face it, the world is always pressing on us, is that true? with its enticements. The flesh is always pressing in on us with its corruptions. The devil is always pressing in on us with his accusations. And if we don't have the Word of God as the constant, as it were, into the warp and whoop of our life, not for any particular purpose, to learn a particular thing, but just to be in the Scriptures, I was quite moved recently to hear a particular theologian that I respect, and he must know big parts of the Bible off by heart. He's a very brilliant person, but he's constantly reading the scriptures. We can't afford to do without it. It needs to be our life. There's a very lovely passage in Isaiah 8, at a time when Israel was not living well under Ahaz the king. And I'd like to point it out, Isaiah 8.11. It was a time when there was all sorts of threats. Goodness only knows, we know enough about threats these days, don't we? The Lord spoke with us, with his strong hand on me, and he warned me, this is 8.11 of Isaiah, he warned me not to walk in the way of this people saying, don't call conspiracy, all this people call conspiracy, and don't fear what they fear, nor be in dread. That's a direct command to us in the 21st century, don't you think? That we don't need to fear and must not fear the same things that the world fears. If there's something, as somebody's pointed out, the things we need to fear here is not the Muslim extremists, but the thing we need to fear is our own secular humanists. It's not what radical Islam wants to do to our countries that's destroying us, it's our own secular humanists who are changing our laws. But even having said that, don't dread what other people dread. What are we to dread then? For the Lord of hosts, Him shall you honour as holy. Let Him be your fear. Let Him be your dread. I came to the conclusion some years ago that if I didn't fear God, I'd fear everything else. But you fear God and a lot of other fears are dealt with. Quite interesting. He will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling as well for Israel. Many will stumble and so forth. And then he says, bind up the testimony. Well, here we are around the scriptures. Seal the teaching amongst my disciples. And then he says, I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob and I will hope in him. Behold I and the children of God the Lord has given me, that's Isaiah's own children, are for signs and portents in Israel from the house of the Lord of hosts who dwells in Mount Zion. And then he goes on, people are out inquiring about mediums and all sorts of new ways of finding out some guidance. Sounds familiar? Yeah. And the Lord says, no, the scriptures, bury yourself in them, fear God. Very clear, isn't it? We want renewal in times when we're living under other powers. We need to be in the scriptures to give us that warp and woof of our whole life. So first of all, read the law. Secondly, they read the law, and then what happens is that they begin to weep. Here it is 8 and verse 9 in Nehemiah. Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest, the scribe, and the Levite, who taught the people, said to all the people, this day is holy to the Lord your God. Don't mourn or weep. For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law. You have to ask why they were weeping. Then he said to them, go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet wine, and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready. For this day is holy to our Lord, and don't be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Actually, that word strength is really the word for stronghold. Come back to that in a moment. The joy of the Lord is your stronghold. That is, it's a place of refuge. It can be used as a word for strong, but by and large it's a word that's used for stronghold, you know, a place of safety. So the Levites calmed all the people, in other words it was quite noted, not just an odd person dabbing an eyelid here and there. The Levites calmed all the people saying, be quiet for this day is holy, don't be grieved. And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions to make great rejoicing because they'd understood the words that were declared to them. Now we find out later that in fact they made a resolve to put away the wrongful marriages that they had, to start bringing the money in for the tithes and the offerings to keep the worship going. Do you see? There was a lot of stuff they read that told them they hadn't been living rightly. So that seems to be why they're not, they're weeping. Well, just remind yourself before we go any further, another day when the people cried out in distress, Day of Pentecost. Now they'd done worse than this mob done. God had sent them their Messiah and they killed him. Regicide. What'll we do? That was big trouble. It wasn't just a how do I get converted. That wasn't on their minds. It was the national future was at stake. What do we do? Repent, be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus, for the remission of sins, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, it's a different situation, I know, but I just wanted to point out that, in fact, there's a similar time there when weeping was met in a strange way. And he says to them, don't mourn or weep, for all the people wept as they heard the word of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Very interesting. Joy has to come first. Now, what would it mean, the joy of the Lord is your strength? It means that God has the joy before I do. God has joy for different reasons, for the ones that I might be expecting to have joy over. And that's important, isn't it? We have a faith sometimes that's very much based on what we've done and how we feel. But here we're being called upon to have a faith that is based on who God is and what He's doing. And God's having a good time. He's, as a very cheap way of putting it, He's rejoicing. Now, the place where this is so classic for us is Zephaniah. You probably know this verse very well. Zephaniah is not an easy book to read. It's got a lot about judgment in it. But it finishes up beautifully, so we tend to focus on the last chapter, which I'm going to do now. Verse 14 of Zephaniah 3. Sing aloud, daughter of Zion. Shout, Israel. Rejoice and exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord's taken away the judgments against you, cleared away your enemies. King of Israel's in your midst. You'll never again fear evil. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear not, Zion. Let your hands not grow weak. Joy of the Lord's your strength, you remember. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save, who will rejoice over you. God will rejoice over you. What's causing the Lord to rejoice? You! Not because of who you are, but because of the intentions that He has for you and the great thing He's accomplished for you in His Son. You see that? He is in your midst, the Mighty One who will save, He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, or He will rejoice in His love, or He will quiet you, or He will rest in His love. It can be any of those translations. He will exalt over you with loud singing. The joy of the Lord is your strength. forget about where you're at for the moment, get a picture of what God's thinking about you, because you're gonna need all of that in order to be strong enough to do what you need to do. That's why I said earlier on, if you're gonna grieve, you need a lot of joy to grieve. You remember we said something about fasting last week, I think it was? The Lord said, when you fast, Don't go out looking miserable, but anoint your face. Men put on makeup, you know, but anoint your head and so forth and put on a good robe and so forth. Now what was the Lord doing? Was he actually asking people to go out hypocritically, saying, I'm really feeling miserable but I'm looking happy? I can't believe that the Lord was asking us to be hypocrites. He said, I want you to present to the public as a happy person. Because a person that's grieving, there's got to be a person that's happy, first of all. Do you know what I mean? There's got to be something good to grieve the loss of. I think about that, it mightn't come to you straight away, but it's certainly been true for me. I think I can go straight from something wrong to morbidity, just like that. And you say, that's a habit of mine or something or other. Well, I guess it is, and you have to correct it. The Lord doesn't want us to go from the things that are wrong to our feelings, he wants us to go to Him. What's God about? And then you've got a panorama of the great things that God's about in history, and then you've got a basis in which you can grieve for how far short we've fallen of that God. What causes you your greatest grief? Is it just the state of the economy? Is it just the violence in the streets or the threats in the world? Or is it the fact that our country doesn't know our God? Where did I get that grief from? From enjoying his presence. Do you see that? So they're told to go home and have a good time. And if anybody hasn't got enough money to put this pork, no, sorry, not pork, it's stews, the steak on the plate, then invite your neighbors in so everybody has a good time. It's lovely, isn't it? Joy first, so I've quoted you before, the Englishman who set up all the orphanages, George Muller, yeah, my first duty every day, whole business of looking after 2,000 orphans, first duty every day is to have my soul happy in God. It's good, isn't it? Joy first. Fasting and sackcloth second, with a life change. So go to chapter nine and verse, oh, first of all, as they celebrate the Feast of Booths, 8.13 to 18, they celebrate the Feast of Booths, and out they go, they have a wonderful time. And verse 17, there was very great rejoicing. Oh, how our spirits need to be emboldened by joy. And may God, even amongst us here, may He just put a song in our hearts, you know? It's so important that we not be happy, just happy relates to happenings, if you can link those words. I don't know if it's etymologically true, but I think it's how it works, you know? Happiness relate to happenings, but joy is what God puts in your heart. And may God give you a happy heart in himself. So important, isn't it? Never doing much good without that. A few days later, the Levites lead Israel in a prayer. And this is where we'll spend the rest of our time, just what time we've got left. 9 verse 5. The Levites. Notice it's not Ezra who's read the law. It's not Nehemiah. It's the people again. It's a spontaneous movement. The Levites, although I'm going to say it's probably not just a spontaneous movement because the prayer has got a form to it that owes things to Psalms like Psalm 106, Israel had been taught how to confess their sins. And how they confessed their sins was to start with God. Do you see that? Not start with the problem. So let's look at the nature of this prayer. The Levites, and these other Levites, numbers of them, are involved in the telling, however, that happened in the days before loudspeakers. Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise. You are the Lord alone, you've made heaven, etc." In other words, they talk about God. Secondly, they talk about God's revelations and deliverances to Abram. You found his heart faithful, verse 8, and you kept your promise to him. And then the Exodus, verse 9. You saw the affliction of our fathers and heard their cry in the Red Sea. They performed signs. So there's the whole story of the Exodus that follows. So there's a long story about God's revelations and deliverances. And then I'll go straight on to the order I've got here. He talks about God's continual mercy in the presence of their sins, 19. You and your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. Verse 27, according to your great mercies you gave them saviors during the days of the judges who saved them from the hand of their enemies. And verse 31, nevertheless in your great mercies you did not make an end of them and forsake them for you are gracious and merciful. Mercy was important Israel. And we need to, do you see why we need the expositions of scripture? You need to know your family history. And the Bible is your family history. It's not primarily a religious textbook. It's your family story. And you need to know that because you need to know that many, many times in Israel's history, they mucked up. What happens when you muck up? You need to know that. And I don't know that I could even be standing here if I didn't know Israel's story. You need to know that there's life after sin. And so they recount the history of Israel and the Lord's goodness to them. But then they also make it very clear in that context of Israel's sins in the past. Verse 16, our fathers acted presumptuously, stiffened their necks and didn't obey your commandments. Verse 18, when they made for themselves a golden calf and said, this is your God who brought you up out of Egypt. Verse 26, Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their backs, and so forth. 28. After they had rest, they did evil again, that's in the days of the judges, and you abandoned them to their enemies, and so forth. Verse 30. You gave them lots of profits, yet they would not give ear, so you gave them into the hands of the people of the lands. So they confessed their sins. And then 34. Our kings, our princes, our priests, fathers have not kept your law, paid attention to your commandments and your warnings, even in their own kingdom and amidst your great goodness. Behold, we are slaves, now brings it down to himself, in the land that you gave our fathers. Do you see that the confession is preset for us? We are told how to go about the confession of sin. And the confession of sin does not begin with you. It begins with God and His goodness. The confession of sin continues with the goodness of God to Israel in revealing Himself. It continues by saying that the people of God constantly fail, and it goes on by telling you that the people of God constantly experience the mercy of God. Then you're in a position to confess your sins to God. That's how it works. Tell me the order of the Lord's Prayer. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Oh, and forgive us our trespasses. It's interesting, isn't it? The setting for the confession of sin is primarily the confession of God's goodness. Now here's where I'm going to quote Geoffrey Bingham's book, The Comfort and Question of Confession. It's on Virginia Notes, the website where you can go and see it. It's on page two. And he makes the observation that the word confession in the scriptures, I think the New Testament particularly, is primarily the confession of God, and secondarily, the confession of sin. Anytime you think of the word confession, think about what you're confessing. And then your confession won't just be morbidity, or fear, or trying to make up to God, or smooch up, or doing something from you, but it'll be in a context of God and His goodness. Now the interesting thing is, when they came in that way, Israel's eyes were opened, and they could see things clearly. Verse 38, because of this, we make a firm covenant in writing on sealed document, and here's the names of the people, and there's a long list of names, and here's the obligations of the covenant, 1028. The rest of the people, priests, Levites, gatekeepers and singers, all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands of the law of their gods, their wives, sons and daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, join with their brothers and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law. We will not give our daughters to the exiles, to the peoples of the land, or take our daughters for our sons. and other rules about Sabbath and how they're going to go on doing the things that were needed in the actual day. Well, I trust that that's been helpful. Let's just say again, these are days in which we have expectations, true? There are days in which we have expectations that God will give us a little refreshing of our eyes. Or, as Acts 3 says, times of refreshing from the hands of the Lord, which I think we can apply to today. But if this is the case, it's going to involve being real before God. But being real before God doesn't start with our sins. It starts with Him, His story, His revelation, His mercy. Yes, your sins, but if you do it in that way, you'll have the head of steam to change your life. Won't come from just a desire to change. Well, let's pray. Dear Father, we bless you that you have set before us the way of our life in your scriptures. And most wonderfully, Father, you have set before us the way of life when we sin, what to do, where to go. And we bless you, our Father, for our Lord Jesus Christ, who himself, and in the context of his failing disciples, said, my joy I give to you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Grant then, our Father, that we, your people, would live in your mercies, performed by our Lord Jesus Christ, and so have the power to grieve and the power to change. And we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
Confession & Renewal
Série Ezra & Nehemiah
In times of renewal among God’s people, confession of sin has always played a part. But confession needs to be understood Biblically because it is not just misery and ‘owning up’ to our misdeeds. When confession is real, it happens because of a revelation of God’s favour. Being aware of our wickedness, and being aware of God’s abundant goodness—at the same time—are the twin foci of genuine renewal among God’s people.
Identifiant du sermon | 218151617491 |
Durée | 52:41 |
Date | |
Catégorie | Enseignement |
Texte biblique | Esdras 9; Néhémie 8 |
Langue | anglais |
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