Your word, O Lord, is firmly fixed in the heavens. We pray that you would give us life by your precepts and save us. Your commandment is exceedingly broad. We pray that you will open our eyes to see its beauty and its breath through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Turning your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 9, we'll be looking at the first few verses of chapter 9 of Nehemiah. This is the 193rd sermon in the survey of the Old Testament and the 21st on the book of Nehemiah. The way forward is backward often. How am I to grow? Well, here's how we grow in Christ. We look back at Christ. as both law giver and as law keeper. And then we do that when we look at him as the law giver and the law keeper, then we become aware of our own weakness and of our own failure. Self-examination, self-evaluation results in self-condemnation. The scriptures are like a mirror, James 1.23. And as we look into that mirror, we see our blemishes and our flaws and our imperfections. That then is to lead to repentance from the heart and confession with the mouth as we then plead for the grace of the Holy Spirit. So the way forward is backward. This is what the Apostle Paul means when he says in 2 Corinthians 12 that power is perfected in weakness, that when I am weak, then I am strong. We're only strong when we're weak, when we realize our weakness, when we realize our inadequacy, when we realize the futility of our own efforts. And so we cast ourselves down at the feet of the cross and cry out to God in Jesus' name that he will give us his strength, that he will give us his grace, that he will enable us to get the victory over the powers of darkness. and sanctify us and set us apart and enable us to live a life that is pleasing to Him, enabling us, in the language of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5.24, to crucify the flesh in its lusts and to live and walk by the Spirit of God. Romans 8.13, if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. What's necessary in order to put to death the deeds of the body? Well, an awareness of what those deeds are. a recognition of the deeds of the body that need to be put to death. And then the putting to death itself, that's a painful process of slaying our sins, slaying our lusts, relinquishing our idols, loosening our grip on our false gods. Those are painful steps that we take. But the way forward is backward. We look back at Christ. As lawgiver and law keeper, we see our inadequacies that leads us to repentance, that leads to mortification, that leads to progress. God's power is perfected in our weakness. It's when we are weak that we are strong. Stephen Sharnock, one of the great English Puritans, says adversity brings us into the secret chamber of our own heart, which we had little mind before to visit. by a self-examination. You see, prior to adversity, the adversity of looking into the darkness of our own hearts, the adversity of our self-examination, the adversity of the revelation of our own weakness and foolishness and inadequacy and the pain and adversity of self-knowledge and self-realization, seeing ourselves as God sees us. That adversity, says Sharnock, brings us into the secret chamber of our own hearts. That's a place we don't normally want to go. We don't want to look into that secret chamber. We don't want to subject ourselves to self-evaluation. Because if we're really self-aware, it's going to be a painful thing for us. I think that looking back over my life, this is why I had a difficult year my junior year of college. I had absolutely carefree freshman and sophomore years. They were just a delight. I was just having a good old time. And I really started to grow as a Christian the second half of the sophomore year. Junior year, I was an on-fire Christian. And I'll tell you, I never had such low self-esteem in all my life as I had that junior year. I just thought I was completely and utterly giftless and worthless. In other words, I had a pretty clear sense of myself for the first time in my life and was really wrestling with it and struggling with it. That was, I think, the foundation then for growth in the years that then followed. It was only when we confront our weakness that we really experience strength, that we are of a mind to get on our knees, that we're of a mind to cry out to God, that we're of a mind to plead for the strength and the help to put to death the sin that clings to our souls and drags us down again and again. We cry out to get the victory. We cry out with the Apostle Paul. I was just explaining the other day, the next to last, the penultimate verse of chapter 7 of Romans, that was a very, very precious verse to me. as a growing, struggling Christian. Wretched man that I am, the Apostle Paul says. I'll tell you, I identified with that verse. I emotionally connected with the Apostle Paul. Why? Because I knew I was a wretched person. Who will set me free from this body of death? Well, thanks be to God, he says. All right, he gets the victory, but still he finds himself in a position of self-awareness seeing his true condition, understanding the darkness of his own heart, seeing his own twisted and contorted nature, and it's a wretched thing to see. And yet, it's the foundation for moving forward. It's the basis upon which we grow. Now, all that to say, as we're leading into chapter 9, this is a chapter devoted to the confession of sin. Now, let's just recall where we have come. The festivals and holy days are over. We have worked in chapter eight through Rosh Hashanah, the new year, the first day that we saw in the opening verses of chapter eight. Yom Kippur, which chapter eight skips over, but which takes place on day 10 of the seventh month, the festival month. Then the Festival of Booths, days 15 through 22. Then as we come into chapter, Nine, it says now on the 24th day of this same month, the sons of Israel assembled with fasting and sackcloth and with dirt upon them. 24th day, what's that about? Festivals are over. Well, they're staying over. Why are they staying over? They should be going home by now. The festivals have been over for two days. Why are they still there? They're still there because there's unfinished business. What happened? What unfinished business? They were on such a such a spiritual high. They had such wonderful times together. Remember day one, they had the five-hour reading in chapter 8, verses 1 through 12. That then led to mourning, which Nehemiah and the leaders then disrupted. And said, no, this is not a time for mourning. This is a festival time. We'll get to the mourning and grieving of our sin later. We'll get to that in due time. But now is festival time. Then days two through nine, they had their training sessions, as Derek Kidner calls them. That's in chapter eight, verse 13, where the leaders of the households were coming. It says at the end of verse 13 that they might gain insight into the words of the law. So they had the five-hour reading on day one. They had daily training sessions with Ezra, days two through nine. Days 15 through 22, chapter 18, tells us about more daily readings from the law of God, from the word of God, that were going on through that period. So you have this cumulative three-week impact of the readings of Scripture to the people of God which has uncovered the guilt of the nation. In other words, you read the Bible, you feel guilty. Right? Read the Bible, you feel guilty. And read the Bible, you see your inadequacy. You see the ideals that are taught. You see the lives as they're meant to be lived. And if you're honest about things, you feel kind of bad about it. You realize that you fall short of the standard that Christ has set, the standard that the law of God sets. You don't live as He did. You don't love as He did. And so you feel guilty about things. Well, they've just spent hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours reading the Scripture, and there's some unfinished business. What unfinished business? There's a lot of sin to confess. Don't tell me you want to come to church to feel better about yourself. That's not going to happen. You'll feel better about Christ. if the gospel is being properly preached, but you're not going to feel better about yourself. You're going to feel worse about yourself. You're going to feel good about being cleansed from that sin, and you're going to have joy and peace in knowing that your sin has been forgiven. But about yourself, of yourself, There's not going to be a whole lot to feel good about. And the more that we read, the more that we're aware of this, the more that we study, the more that we are aware of our own lamentable character. This is why I believe that somebody who is as spiritually mature as the Apostle Paul calls himself the very least of all the saints. why he says that he is the foremost of all sinners and the least of all the apostles. Why does he characterize himself in that way? I mean, this is probably the greatest missionary, I think undoubtedly the greatest missionary in the history of the church, this great man of God, this profoundly insightful theologian, probably the greatest Christian that ever lived. Why does he characterize himself as the chief of sinners? There's a lot of really awful sinners out there who do really terrible things. Well, I think he characterizes himself in that way because he has some insight, that insight that no one else has, into his own heart. So he can't think of himself in any other way. So he is constantly walking in the Spirit, walking in dependence upon Christ. crying out to God for help because he understands who he is and his propensities and he understands where he would be left to himself. So this is, I believe, the way that we're to understand chapter 9 and devoting the entire chapter to the confession of sin. Because they've had all of this scripture reading as background, and they've got unfinished business. The festivals are over. Day one through day 22, it's all over. They've worked their way through Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Tabernacles. It's all over. They're hanging around. Why are they hanging around? They've got sin to confess. How do they know they have sin to confess? Because they've been reading the Bible. And they realize they've not kept God's laws. They're not the people that they ought to have been. They haven't. Their ancestors haven't. And so they're ready to begin to confess their sin. Therefore, in verse 1, the second half, they clothe themselves with the symbols of repentance. They are fasting, they are in sackcloth, and they are throwing dirt upon themselves, ceremonial ways of symbolizing externally the internal heart attitude of repentance. Verse 2, and the descendants of Israel separated themselves. from all foreigners. This separation is a sign of the step of repentance that they're taking. They are separating themselves from idolaters and their idolatry. from the immoral and their immorality. So they separate themselves from all the foreigners, and this is at the heart of the problem that we will encounter as we come to the conclusion of Nehemiah chapter 9, is that they were being corrupted by the nations. Israel was called to separation, including physical separation, and they had compromised that. So this is the first step in that repentance. They separate themselves from all foreigners. And they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers, that is, of their ancestors. Verse three, while they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the Lord their God. For a fourth of the day, and for another fourth, they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. Now, I believe what that means, as they're talking about the day as daylight, and so what we should envision here is three hours of scripture reading, They just did all that scripture reading. What are they reading the Bible for? They can't get enough. They're eager about these things. This is the time of revival. They're hungry for the word. They can't get enough of that. That's why they had the public readings and then they had the private readings with Ezra. Further explanation, further insight, further elaboration. And now they're past festival time and they get together and they have another three-hour reading followed by another fourth of the daylight, a three-hour session of confession of sin. This is not some, Lord, forgive me all my sins type of prayer. This is deep, thoughtful, comprehensive prayer of confession that we have here. We can, I think, deduce as well from chapter 7 and also from Ezra 3 that there were also exhortations in connection with the readings. There was singing of praise as well as the prayers. Yet only this prayer is recorded, as it were, as a matter of emphasis. This is the way forward. The way forward is to look back. Look back at what? Confess their sin. Not just put it behind them. Not just move on. They can't move on. They can't just put it behind them until they deal with it before Almighty God, honestly and comprehensively, through the confession of their sin. There's no way forward if you can't deal with the past. In the blood of Christ, there's plenty with which to deal with the past. No matter what we've done, whether we are Rahab the harlot or David the murderer, David the adulterer or the thief hanging on the cross, whoever we are. There is plenty in the blood of Christ to cleanse us from all of our sin, but confession is necessary, and confession involves looking back and repenting of the past that's been done. They're not saying here, oh, we've already done with that. We've dealt with that already. They're not saying, we need to be more forward-looking and more progressive. We need to move on. We need to get about the business of rebuilding the nation. They're not going to get about the business of rebuilding the nation until they have dealt before God thoroughly, comprehensively with the past. Verse 4, now on the Levite's platform stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shabaniah, Buni, Sherebiah, Bani, Shanani, and cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God." These Levites may be those who are helping to pass on the language of prayer to the whole assembly of the people of God. The point, if you want to reform the church, if you want to move ahead, If you want to put the past behind, then you cannot ignore the past. You kind of pretend as though nothing has happened. The church needs to acknowledge its idolatry and its unfaithfulness and forsake its way in change. And personally, the same is required. There must be honest, humble, comprehensive confession. Now, let's make some observations about the prayer. We'll get into the details next time. Number one, the prayer is biblical. It is laced with biblical language and allusion and reference. Chapter 9 goes on page after page, 38 verses of confession. One of the commentators calls it a brilliant mosaic of biblical quotations, recollections, images, and phrases. He says, as well, there is scarcely a sentence in the prayer which does not display its debt to the patriarchs, prophets, priests, and psalmists. Why is that important? Because we don't know how to pray. We have to say, Lord, teach me to pray, like the disciples. We don't know what to say to God. We don't know how to address Him. We don't know what language to use, what terminology to use. And so how do we learn? do as the disciples do. We ask the Lord to teach us to pray. How does he do that? Well, he teaches us through his word. So we learn the language of praise by looking at Bible praise, and we learn the language of thanksgiving by looking at Bible thanksgiving. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Psalm 103. I learn the language of confession by going to Psalm 51 and Psalm 32 and Daniel 9 and Nehemiah 9, and I learn the language that's appropriate for the confession of our sins. And for pardon, I go to Psalm 51, blot out my transgressions, cover my guilt. So I go to the Bible to learn that. I go to the Bible to learn what I should be interceding for, what's really important. I don't know if I've ever explained to this group, but I realized one day, I don't know, 15, 20 years ago, that there's a whole lot that the Bible requires of us that we never pray about. Jesus commands it, the apostles urge it, and we never pray about it. So one Sunday I decided, you know what, I'm going to pray the Sermon on the Mount. Didn't Jesus say, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God? I guess we ought to be praying that we'd be poor in spirit. Then you say, blessed are those who mourn their sin. I guess we ought to pray that we'll mourn our sin, and that we'll be meek, and that we'll be merciful, and that we'll be pure in heart, and that we'll hunger and thirst after righteousness. How do I learn that for which we ought to intercede? Well, I learn it from the Bible. What the Bible says is important becomes the subject matter of my prayers. And this is a good example of that. Every line of this prayer has some biblical language, biblical allusion, biblical reference. Matthew Henry, in his comments on this passage, says, as the word they read aloud would furnish them the matter for prayer. See? How do they know what they are to pray for? Well, they've just been reading the Bible, so they know everything they've been doing wrong. So prayer would make the word the more profitable. The word is of use to direct us in prayer. And by what he says to us, we may learn what to say to him. Matthew Henry has a beautifully succinct and almost poetic way of saying things. By what he says to us, we may learn what to say to him. We don't know how to pray. The Bible is our prayer book. It teaches us how to relate to God and what to say to God. So number one, the prayer that we will look in next time, is a biblical prayer in the truest sense of that term. Secondly, the prayer is detailed. They are led through a thousand years of biblical failure, biblical history filled with the details of Israel's sin. And it's a sad saga. The rebellion in the wilderness, the golden calf, the casting of the law behind their backs, the killing of the prophets, blasphemy, disobedience, doing evil, acting arrogantly. In the prayer they say that Israel would not listen. They turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their necks and acted wickedly and sinned, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. There's no excuses in this prayer. There's no blame shifting. There's no explaining things away. A thousand years are rehearsed with specificity, detail, and without excuse. Third, the prayer mingles or interweaves confession with recollection of God's goodness, the effect of which is the sin is seen as even more evil and God's goodness is seen as even more gracious. Just look to verse 26. Let me read this section. There, those praying pray as follows, but they became disobedient and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and killed thy prophets who had admonished them, so that they might return to thee. And they committed great blasphemies. Therefore thou didst deliver them into the hand of their oppressors, who oppressed them. But when they cried to thee in the time of their distress, thou didst hear from heaven, and according to thy great compassion, Thou didst give them deliverance, deliverers rather, who deliver them from the hand of their oppressors. See, there's the sin. There's the goodness of God responding to their sin and their cry for forgiveness. Continue verse 28. But as soon as they had rest, they did evil again before thee. Therefore, thou didst abandon them to the hand of their enemy so that they ruled over them. When they cried again to thee, thou didst hear from heaven, and many times thou didst rescue them according to thy compassion, and admonish them in order to turn them back to thy law. Yet, so there's the goodness of God, yet what now? They acted arrogantly and did not listen to thy commandments, but sinned against thy ordinances, by which if a man observes them, he shall live. But they turned a stubborn shoulder, and stiffened their necks, and would not listen. However, Thou didst bear with them for many years and admonish them by thy spirit through thy prophets, yet they would not give ear. Therefore thou didst give them into the hand of the peoples of the land, nevertheless in thy great compassion. Thou didst not make an end of them or forsake them, for Thou art a gracious and compassionate God." So by the time you get to the end of that, what are you sensing? How wicked these people are, over and over again. God had mercy. God forgave. God showed compassion. God restored them. And yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, again and again. So by the time you get to the end of that, you think, what a corrupt and disobedient and perverse people they were. And how great is the long-suffering and patience and goodness and kindness of God. Over and over again, He showed mercy to them. Again, Matthew Henry says that this is interwoven as it is. that God's goodness, notwithstanding their provocations, might appear more illustrious, and their sins, notwithstanding His favors, might appear the more heinous." This is why it doesn't work to just dwell on the positives. That's why we can't do that. We will only truly understand the positives of the gospel, God's grace, God's mercy, God's goodness to us in Christ Jesus against the backdrop of the negatives. It's the negatives that give the positives their shining, gleaming, sparkling appearance. That's why the Apostle Paul in Romans 5, in the middle of his exposition of The atonement says it was while we were yet what? Sinners. And again, while we were yet enemies. Now, what are you to see in that juxtaposition? While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were yet enemies. What are we to see in that juxtaposition? We're to see the greatness of human depravity and evil and the greatness of the grace of God who saves even sinners and even enemies. They go hand in hand. The depth of human depravity highlights the goodness of God and the greatness of the gospel. That's why it's unthinkable to dwell only on the positives. 1 John 3, 1, behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us. that we should be called the children of God. Why is he amazed at it? John, in his last years as an old man writing this epistle, why does he speak of it in such a way, still amazed after all these years, still amazed? Behold, look, what manner of love. How great is it that we, that we should be called children of God, rebels that we are, stiff-necked that we are, degraded as we are, rebels that we are, that we, even we, should be called the children of God, that our sins should be forgiven, that we should be brought into the household of God, that we would have the privilege of calling God our Father and knowing that we are his children, that we would give the confidence and assurance of eternal life, Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us." Our gospel is a gospel of, according to Acts 20, 21, repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance toward God and faith, as we were seeing this morning. For us to repent properly, our repentance needs to be biblically informed and shaped. It needs to be, as in this prayer, detailed and specific. It will not do just to say, Lord, I'm sorry. Even, Lord, I'm sorry at what happened. Lord, I'm sorry about the situation. That is not an adequate confession in human relationships. And it's not adequate confession in our relationship to God. Specificity is needed. Exactly of what are we guilty? Confess it, forsake it, repent of it, turn from it. Detailed and specific, and as in this prayer, confident of God's grace to us in Christ Jesus. of the adequacy of the atonement, of the certainty of the forgiveness of our sins, of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ, of the power of God in the gospel that breaks the bondage to sin and liberates us and frees us to live the life that is pleasing to God, the life that we were created to live and meant to live, that is consistent with our nature as those made in the image of God, the restoration to fellowship with God that He might once again walk with us in the garden in the cool of the day. That's our gospel. That's what we find here in Nehemiah chapter 9. It ought to be encouraging to us because it opens before us the nature of true repentance, and it offers to us as well the promise of forgiveness for all who do truly repent as we pray together. Our Father in heaven, we confess, O Lord, that our understanding of our guilt is inadequate and superficial and generalized and weak and powerless. O Lord, we pray that you would search our souls, that we might with the apostle crucify the flesh and its lusts, that we might in our weakness know your power, that your power might be perfected in our weakness, so that we might say with him, when we are weak, then we are strong. Be patient with us, O Lord. Persevere with us, O Lord. Draw us ever closer to Yourself, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.