Turn your Bibles, please, to Nehemiah chapter 9. And I'll ask you this question. What is Memorial Day? Well, I'll tell you what it has become. Memorial Day has become the unofficial start of summer. It has become a three day weekend. It has become an excuse to have a picnic. And these traditions are acceptable. I'm not putting them down in any way, but that's not what Memorial Day means. Memorial Day is A day that has been solemnized by our government to pause and to reflect and to give thanks to God. Here's the key word, and to remember. Memorial, a derivative of memory. To remember. A day to stop and to remember those who died while serving in our country's armed forces so that we might live in freedom. Thankfully, we still live 365 days a year in freedom. And we take that for granted. Nevertheless, please know that had those soldiers and sailors not given their lives all the way from Lexington and Concord in 1775 right up to this very day, we would not have liberty and justice for all. My father lost a very close friend in World War II whose mother was a widow and this young man that perished in the war was an only child. And my father took flowers to this gold star mother every year until she died in memory of her son. So let us remember them. And I speak today not only as a pastor but I speak today as an American. It's really not too much to set aside one day a year to remember their sacrifices. And I speak today as an unashamed American. Now I realize that we here at North Shore Baptist Church are the International House of Worshippers. I realize that many of you were not born here. I think you know me well enough by now to know that I love you, and I love your culture, and I love your country, and I really love your food, but also know that I am an American, and I love America. I love my wife. That amen comes from a man that was born in Guyana. Ah, Americans, we should be ashamed of ourselves. I love my wife more than I love any other woman in the world. And I love my country more than I love any other country. You say, well, you haven't been to every nation. True. And I haven't met every other woman in the world. But I still love my wife more than any other woman. And I still love my country more than any other country. And I think it is good and I am thankful that our government has set aside a day that we remember our fallen heroes. But as we look at this from a biblical perspective, I believe it's very profitable that we remember what God has done since the beginning of time. Jesus commanded that we remember. There are commands throughout Scripture to remember. Luke 17, 32, he says, remember Lot's wife. Paul, on countless occasions, told his hearers to remember. One example is 2 Timothy 2, 8. He writes to Timothy and says, remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. And throughout the Bible, God inspires his authors to recount historical events through stories. Let me give you three examples of where this is spread throughout the entire Bible. Three men. Abraham, Moses, and David. Abraham appears first in the book of Genesis, chapter 11. And do you know that in the 66 books of the Bible, Abraham's name appears in 27 of those? Do you know that Moses doesn't appear until the second book of the Bible, Exodus? But, in the 66 books of the Bible, you will read Moses' name in 31 of those books. David doesn't get any ink until the eighth book of the Bible, and that is Ruth, but David's name appears in 28 out of the 66 books of the Bible. Obviously, the Lord does not want us to forget these men, but to remember them. Also, not just through stories, but also through songs. You know, the authors of divine scripture frequently will replay the major events of the history of God's people over and over and over again in the Psalms. And now, you don't think of the book of Psalms as being an historical book, per se, but certain Psalms are brimming with history, particularly with reference to the Exodus. Even in Psalm 103, as we read this morning, he made known his ways to Moses. Psalm 78, a Psalm of Asaph. Again, of the Exodus, and the entire psalm is historical. Verse 13, He divided the sea and caused them to pass through. Psalms 105 and 106 are also historical, and they point in large part to the Exodus. Psalm 105, verse 29, He turned their waters into blood and killed their fish. Psalm 106, verse 9, He rebuked the Red Sea and dried it up. So He led them through the depths as through the wilderness. Psalm 135 and Psalm 136, they are both historical Psalms. Again, with reference to the Exodus. 135.8, He destroyed the firstborn of Egypt, both man and beast. And then, one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 136, which is antiphonal. Each verse is met with the response, For His mercy endures forever. We read in 136.10, To him who struck their firstborn, for his mercy endures forever. And then one of my favorite verses in all the Bible, speaking of the conquest of the land, Psalm 136, verse 20, it says, and Og, king of Bashan, and his mercy endures forever. I just love that. I don't know why, I just like the way it sounds. One day I'm going to preach a sermon on Og, king of Bashan. I don't know what I'm going to say, but one day you'll hear a sermon on that. Memorial through singing through the psalms, memorial through stories. But this way of remembering is not confined to the old covenant. If we look at the sermons that were preached in the book of Acts, frequently these sermons will reflect the history of Israel. Peter's second sermon in Acts 3 mentions both Abraham and Moses. If we look at Stephen's sermon in Acts chapter 7, he mentions Abraham, Moses, and David, along with several other people. And then the clearest example that we have in all the scriptures of history being recalled for the purpose of remembrance is Hebrews chapter 11. Verse 8, By faith, Abraham. Verse 23, By faith, Moses. Verse 32, For time would fail me to tell of David. And so on and so forth. But you know that the way of remembering is not just done through stories and through songs, but it is also done through visuals. It was done through stones. The memorials were done. The children of Israel were constantly building altars. They would pass through a certain place and God would do something great. And they would erect some stones there which would stand in place for generations. And those stones would testify to what God did. Without question, the most significant memorial that was ever established is what we celebrated earlier today, and that is the simplicity of the Lord's Table. This is a memorial. Every time that we have the Lord's Supper, it is Memorial Day. Jesus said, do this in memorial, in remembrance of Me. And so, through stories and songs and sermons and stones and suppers, God puts us in remembrance of what He has done in the past. But I want to give you one other. God puts us in remembrance of what He has done in the past through supplications, or in other words, through prayers. And as we look through Nehemiah chapter 9, The majority of it is a prayer. Let me set it up by telling you what has happened in the first eight chapters of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a cupbearer working for King Artaxerxes, the Persian king, in the year 445 BC. position of prestige. He received a report from his brother Hananiah that the walls of Jerusalem were still in disarray and that the gates were still burned. This caused him to be crushed in his spirit and that caused him to go to his knees in prayer. And he besought the Lord earnestly and the Lord gave Nehemiah an opportunity to speak to the king Artaxerxes and make the request And as he made the request to go back to Jerusalem, 800 miles, and to rebuild the walls, not only was the request granted, but also Artaxerxes says, take as much supplies as you need. And so he went back and he surveyed the city and he rallied the people together and he put them to work and work they did. Now it wasn't without opposition. They met opposition from Sanballat and from Tobiah and from Geshem. They met opposition from within because the people were holding one another in depth. But they overcame these obstacles and in 52 days we read in chapter 6 verse 15 of Nehemiah that the wall was completed. The people were assembled there. We get a population count in chapter 7, as many as 50,000 people could have lived there at this time. And then in chapter 8, they have their first worship service. And their first worship service, which was held at the Watergate, was a 6-hour Bible reading. followed by the people being crushed because of their sin, but instructed to be joyful. And they went out there on the first day of the seventh month from that place rejoicing. And when the fifteenth day of the seventh month came along, the people celebrated the festival of booths, something that the Jews had not done for over a thousand years. That brings us to where we are today, chapter 9. It is their second worship service per se. This one is held on the 24th day of the seventh month. Now, as I said, the bulk of this chapter is a prayer of remembrance. In fact, it is the largest formal prayer that is written in the Old Testament. So today, before we study it, I think it would be very appropriate that we do some praying of our own and ask God to speak to our hearts through this text. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we have bowed before you today and we have invoked your presence to come among us. Lord, we have prayed, Lord, for the needs of our body. And Lord, now we pause again and we pray, asking you, Lord, that you would particularly bless the preaching of the word, Lord, that you would be with me and that you would give me the words to say, Lord, not so that I might be eloquent and Lord, not so that my homiletics might be polished, but Lord, that you would give me the words which would be said so that your people might be blessed and so that sinners might be convicted. Father, we pray that your spirit would accompany the word. We pray, Lord, that we would not just come to have another history lesson of the Jewish people, although that is important and it is important to remember. But, Lord, I pray that there would be a demonstration of power whereby our lives might be changed. I pray that our hearts would be touched and that we, at the end of this day, would leave here different, Lord, that we would leave here loving Christ more and living for him better than we have in the past. As always, Lord, I pray for those that know you not. I pray that you would do a sovereign, regenerating work in their hearts. Draw them to yourself and save them for your glory. Lord, for us, your people. Lord, may we be excessively edified through the proclamation of your word this day. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Amen. Well, the prayer that we're going to be studying is in the context of a corporate gathering. Look at the first three verses and look at the context. Now, in the 12th month. Sorry, that would that also is inspired scripture, but that's the book of Esther. We go back one. How to see your moment there, this is Chapter nine. Now, on the 24th day of this month, that's the seventh month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting in sackcloth and with dust on their heads, reminiscent of what the king of Nineveh prescribed for the people when they were seeking God at the preaching of Jonah. Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners. Now this has absolutely nothing to do with race or with culture or with ethnicity, but it has everything in the world to do with the pagan idolatry and the godlessness of these people that were influencing the people of God. And they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. Now please don't be confused here. They were not confessing the iniquities of their fathers so as to have the iniquities of their fathers forgiven, such as some would say to get them out of purgatory into heaven. And by the way, there is no such place as purgatory. The scripture does not speak of it. The scripture does not imply it. The scripture doesn't give any room for that at all. There is heaven. There is hell, you're one place or another, and once you have gone to that place, you are not to be prayed for in terms of your benefit or getting you more comfort or moving you from one place to another. No, what they're doing in confessing the sins of their fathers is that they are saying, and we'll see it later in the chapter, they are saying, we are in the predicament that we are in right now because our forefathers have so consistently disobeyed your laws. Verse 3, And they stood up in their place, and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God, again the divine nature of Scripture as they saw it, for one-fourth of the day. Previously they had listened to six hours of Bible reading. Now they're listening to three hours of Bible reading. But they didn't go home. The worship service still lasted six hours. For another fourth of the day they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God. Then we have mentioned in verse four and in half of verse five the list of some Levites and these Levites are going to do some reading of the scripture. They are going to be reading in the form of a prayer or reciting facts from scripture. Now personally I don't know how you feel about public prayer. I think prayer is a very subjective thing on many levels. When you study prayer in the scriptures, you really cannot pin down the way that prayer should be done. I know the way that we do prayer in the 21st century in North America at North Shore Baptist Church. I know what is acceptable in the founding of our ears here, and I know what is not acceptable. However, if we were to look at scripture and see the way that they prayed there, That's not to say that the way that we are praying, the way we are praying is bad or unacceptable, but sometimes it's just a lot different. And what is going to happen in the prayer that we are going to read this morning is they are going to tell stories. Now, I don't know about you, but personally I am a bit unnerved when someone tells stories in their prayers. You know what I'm talking about. They are not concentrating on the Lord. They are not mindful of His presence. They're either wanting to preach a sermon or they're wanting to teach a lesson or they're wanting to bring someone under the conviction or they just forget that they're talking to God and they all of a sudden in the middle of the prayer start talking to people. in the room. Lord, you remember how I used to own that 1976 Buick Skylark with the bad muffler and how I bought it for $2,200, Lord, even though it needed new tires. And it's like, this is not really prayer. This is not really concentrating on God. This is just sort of informing others in the room. Personally, it's hard for me to worship when someone is just rambling on in a prayer that is seemingly pointless, telling stories, not praising God for His attributes, not thanking Him, not asking Him for anything, just telling Him stories with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. Well, Nehemiah chapter 9 is a series of stories. But these stories are not spoken to one another. These stories are prayed to God and they are not haphazard ramblings about the history of the people. There is a very deliberate point to these stories. They all mesh together and they make two major points. And you are going to get sick of hearing me say this this morning, but it's going to be repeated over and over and over again. This prayer, which goes from verse five. all the way through verse 37 is just going to spell out over and over and over again that God is great and that God is good. The stories that the Levites recite are not for the benefit of one another. They are not aimless ramblings. They are directed toward God. In fact, God is so much the focal point and the hero and the champion of this prayer that He is addressed 70, over 70 times in this prayer. You, or your, or yourself. It is not them speaking to one another, it is them speaking to God, referring to Him. And He is implied as the subject a few dozen more times than that. This is what we call a theocentric prayer. God is the center of it. And with the exception of Abraham, the only time that the Levites bother to mention anyone else is merely to demonstrate how needy and frail and pathetic and sinful and wicked they are. And so by drawing attention to the past sins of the Jewish people, all they are doing is supporting the overarching theme is that God's goodness is really good to sinners. The prayer is divided into 11 sections, and it moves chronologically From the creation up to their present day, it is prefaced with a short call to worship. Notice the call to worship as we see it there in the middle of verse five. Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever. That is the call to worship. Now, why are they to stand up and to bless the Lord forever and ever? Well, the answer is we are going to see is because he is great and because he is good. And what follows, every bit of it is directed toward God. And so, let's go through it verse by verse. The themes will not change. At times, it will seem very, very redundant. You do not have to be a Hebrew scholar. You do not have to be an excellent exegete. You do not have to have gone to Bible college or seminary in order to understand what's happening in this chapter. This, perhaps, is the simplest passage of Scripture that I've ever put in front of you. God is great. God is good. Let's begin with the first section here in chapter five. Starts with the creation. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. In other words, we bless God or we thank God, not for the things that he has given us, but we bless God and we praise God for who he is. You alone are God. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, or the stars, the earth and everything in it, the seas and all that is in them. And you preserve them. The host of heaven worships you. One thing I want to take note of here is that not only has God created everything, but God is in the process of preserving everything. We read in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3, speaking of Christ. Now you know that Christ made everything. John chapter 1 verse 3, all things were made by him. But he didn't just make the world, wind it up, and then let it go on its own. The world which God created is being preserved by Him. We cannot truthfully sing, this land is your land, this land is my land. It's all His land, from California to the New York Island. Every bit of it is His, and He is in the process of preserving it. It says in Hebrews 1.3 that He, Christ, is upholding all things by the word of His power. What does that mean? Well, here's the translation. It's very complex. Theologically, it means God is great. God is great. The next section highlights the father of the Hebrew people, and that is Abram or Abraham that God changed his name to. And we see this in verses seven and eight. You are the Lord God who chose Abram. There's a good verse that we could camp out on for five weeks if you know what I'm saying. You chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees. And we read in Joshua that he was an idol worshiper at the time. and gave him the name Abraham, the father of many or the father of many nations. And you found his heart faithful before you and made a covenant or an agreement with him. And what was that covenant? Well, it had to do with descendants. It had to do with the seed. It had to do with the blessing. But it also had to do with the land to give the land of the Chaldean or the land of the Canaanites, and who was living in that land? Well, it was the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it to his descendants. You have performed your words, for you are righteous, or you are great, and you are good. Now, the next four sections, from chapter 9, verse 9, through chapter 9, verse 21, all have to do with Moses and the Exodus. But again, it's just going to demonstrate that God is great and that God is good. Verse nine, you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the Red Sea. Why? Because you are good. You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants and against all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted proudly against them. And so you made a name for yourself as it is this day. Why? Because God is great. Every single one of those plagues. The frogs, the lice, the locusts, the death of the firstborn, the parting of the Red Sea. Every bit of it, God was just doing one thing. He was saying, look at me. I'm making a name for myself. I am great. And He is good. Verse 11. And you divided the sea before them so that They went through the midst of the sea as on dry ground or dry land, and their persecutors you threw into the deep. Why? Because he is great as a scone into a mighty waters. Because he is good, moreover, you led them by day with a cloudy pillar and by night with a pillar of fire. to give them light on the road which they should travel. Here's the next section, verses 13 through 15, again having to do with the Exodus and again spelling out the same themes. You came down also on Mount Sinai. What does that mean? That means that God is great. How great is He? He is so awesome that when Moses walked down off of the mountain, His face was shining because of the glory of God. He could not look upon the face of God and live. If a beast were so much as to touch the mountain because of God's holiness, the beast would drop dead. What does that mean? That simply means that God is great. He is awesome. He is fantastic. He is terrific. Filled with awe. and spoke with them from heaven and gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. You made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them precepts, statutes and laws by the hand of Moses, your servant. You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger. Why? Because you are good. and brought them water out of the rock. And 1 Corinthians 10 tells us that that rock was Christ for their thirst. And told them to go in to possess the land. And sure enough, they did it. And why were they able to do it? Because God is great and God is good. And it was the land which you had sworn to give them and you did it. Amen. But now, as we move into verse 16, it takes a little bit of a shift. I believe I can substantiate through the first 15 verses that God is great and God is good. But now I'm going to demonstrate that God is very good. And His goodness is going to be demonstrated in the face of or with the backdrop of the deplorable sins of His people, which they repeat over and over again. Here's where it gets very sad, beginning in verse 16. His goodness is taken to a new level. But, something new, but they and our fathers acted proudly, hardened their necks, did not heed your commands. They, our fathers, refused to obey and they were not mindful of your wonders. It didn't matter to them that you were great. They didn't care about the wonders that you did among them, but they hardened their necks. And in their rebellion, they appointed a leader. This is speaking of Korah and his rebellion that we read about in the book of Numbers to return to their bondage. But you are God. Good God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness and did not forsake them. Now, if you read that there, And the chapter ended, you would pretty much understand everything that's being said, right? He provided for them, He drew them out, they rebelled, and He forgave them. This is not complex in any way. But, play it again, Sam. Let's listen to it one more time. Verse 18. Even, that's not a small word, that's a very big word, because this is the climax of their most gross and immoral sin. Even when they made a golden calf for themselves, the reason this sin is so gross and it is so immoral is because of when it was done. This golden calf was made when Moses was up on the mountain receiving the law. is so immoral and so gross that while they were up there receiving the holy law from God, they were having a drunken orgy down at the base of the mountain, looking at the golden calf saying, that is our God and it is that calf that brought us out of bondage and brought us to where we are today. Even, even in the midst of this worst sin, when they made a molded calf for themselves and said, this is your God that brought you up out of Egypt and worked great provocations. You really did everything you could to make God mad. Oh, my goodness. Yet. In your manifold mercies, you did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day. You see what it's saying here. It's not just saying that God restrained himself from wiping them out. But what it's saying is he went to them and continued to provide for them by providing the cloud and the fire to lead them on the road, nor the pillar of fire by night to show them light. You didn't withdraw that and the way that they should go. You also gave them your good spirit to instruct them. and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness." And we read in the book of Hebrews that with most of them the Lord was not well pleased and that they could not enter in because of unbelief. He put up with them for forty years. You say, Pastor, I'm in a horrible marriage. You're not married to anybody as bad as the nation of Israel. God put up with them for 40 years. They lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell. The next section, beginning in verse 22. Moreover, you gave them kingdoms and nations. Why? Because you're great and divided them into districts. So that they took possession of the land of Sihon. This is talking about now Joshua and the conquest of the land. The land of the king of Heshbon. And here we go in the land of Og, king of Bashan. You also multiplied their children as the stars of heaven and brought them into the land which you had told their fathers. Why? Because you are great and because you were good to go in and possess. So the people went in and possessed the land. You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land. Don't think that you are a lean, mean fighting machine. God is the one that gave you the land. And by the way, when you went into the land of the Canaanites, look at what it says. And God gave them into your hands with their kings and the people of the land that they might do with them as they wished. And they took strong cities, a rich land, and possessed houses full of goods, cisterns already dug, or wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves, condominiums that are already furnished, fort and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and they grew fat and they delighted themselves in your great, there's our word, goodness. Do you see what's happening here? The Canaanites work like crazy to till the land, to water it, to farm it, to weed it, to build, to dig the wells. It's all prepped. And you come walking in like you're on vacation and God hands it to you. And you've never shown Him anything but stiff-necked rebellion and He just hands it to you because of His great goodness. So I think we could end here today. I mean, I think you've gotten the point right. Well, the Levites didn't end there, they keep pressing on, they keep driving this point into the ground, beginning in verse 22. I'm sorry, beginning in verse 26, the next section. Nevertheless, there you go again. Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you. cast your law behind their backs and killed your prophets. You know, this is one of the charges that Christ makes against the scribes and the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23, that every time God would send messengers to the people, they would, they didn't like what he was preaching, they would kill him. That's what they did to Christ. That's what they did to Christ's apostles. That's what they had always been doing. These prophets who testified against them, to turn them to yourself, And they worked great provocations. In other words, you're doing a lot of things to make God really mad. So what did God do? Well, he disciplined them. He did not obliterate them. He didn't wipe them out, but he disciplined them. He gave them a slap on the wrist. Therefore, you delivered them into the hands of their enemies. This is talking about the book of Judges, the Philistines and the Midianites, so forth and so on, who oppressed them. And in their time of trouble, what did the people do? Well, when they cried to you, you heard from heaven, and according to your abundant mercy, you gave them deliverers. Judges, Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Gideon, Samson, Jephthah, so on and so forth. You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies. So what did the people do after they were delivered? Well, they praised the God of heaven and never went back into their sin again. No, here we go again. Verse 28. But after they had rest, they again did evil before you. Therefore, you left them in the hand of their enemies, the cycle of the judges, so that they had dominion over them. Yet Here we go again. When they returned and cried to you, you heard from heaven and many times. There's an understatement. Many times you delivered them according to your mercies and testified against them that you might bring them back to your law. Yet again, they're falling back into it. They acted proudly and did not heed your commands, but sinned against your judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. They shrugged their shoulders, stiffened their necks, and would not hear. Yet for many years you had patience with them, and testified against them by your spirit in your prophets." This is Jesus speaking now. about everything from Elijah to Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, so forth, the pre-exilic prophets, the prophets that are preaching. Micah is one of them preaching. Joel is preaching to them. This is before the exile. God is sending his prophets, preaching the word to these people. Maybe they will repent, but what does it say in the middle of verse 30? Yet they would not listen. Therefore, you gave them into the hands of the peoples of the lands. This is talking about the Assyrian captivity, which was in 722 B.C. and also the Babylonian captivity, which is in 586 B.C. They got carried away from the land. So did God completely abandon them? No, he did not. Why? Because he is great and because he is good. Nevertheless, in your great mercy, you did not utterly consume them nor forsake them. Now, they got a pretty good spanking, but they were not utterly forsaken. For you are a God gracious and merciful. This is ridiculous. I mean, if you're keeping score up to this point, this is the sixth time in the chapter that the sin and the rebellion of the people is met with the goodness and the mercy of God. Again, allow me to belabor the point. Listen to the accusations just in this chapter alone that are brought against the people of God on six different occasions, 19 separate offenses. What did the people do to God over the course of their history? Here we go. They acted proudly. They hardened their necks. They refused to obey. They were not mindful of your wonder." In other words, we don't see that God is so great. Again, they hardened their necks. They appointed a leader to return to their bondage. They made a molded calf. They were disobedient. They rebelled against you. They cast your law behind their backs. They killed your prophets. They did evil. They acted proudly. They did not heed your commands. They sinned against your judgments. They shrugged their shoulders. They stiffened their necks. They would not hear. They would not listen. Nineteen separate offenses against the court of heaven. Guilty of cosmic treason in the first degree. Now, did I read that? Did I read this whole chapter? A couple of conclusions I come to. Here's one of them. God is very different than I am. Very different. On Friday, I was riding home the train from the city, from the chiropractor. I took Savannah with me that day. It's always a delight to be with my lovely daughter. And she was sitting beside me on the train. The train was crowded. By the way, can anybody explain to me why the train seats are designed with those little like scoops in there, which maybe Madison could fit in, but too narrow. normal size adults can't fit in, but you're plopped in and you're in there snug together. You're riding the train. Train is packed. School is letting out. Some teenagers get on the train and one particular group decides that they are going to be particularly obnoxious. Intentionally very loud. Vulgar. Speaking to one another so as to disrupt the other people on the train. Speaking about all sorts of gross immorality, throwing F-bombs around left and right, and I'm sitting here with my 12-year-old daughter, and the Edmore neck starts to kick in. And I thought to myself, okay, there's four of them. The one with the loudest mouth, if I get over there, and if I can just Get my hand up under his throat and bang him up against the wall. The other guys might beat the living daylights out of me, but this fellow is going to know that he's been in a fight. And the rage that's building up in my heart saying, how dare he insult my daughter that's sitting beside me and speak this vulgarity publicly, loud and obnoxiously. And the rage is building up inside me. So I said to Savannah, sweetheart, I'm about to embarrass you. I took what was on my lap and I handed it over to her. And with all the restraint I could muster, I walked over to him and I got very close to his ear and I said, sir, I would not embarrass you for the world in front of your friends. I said, however, please know that you're embarrassing me. that my 12-year-old daughter is sitting over there, and I am in a very bad mood. I said, we will have no problems if you will just stop doing that, and I'm going to go back and sit down. I think everything's going to be okay. Now, I don't think it's because of my size. I think he just thought I was crazy. He became very quiet, and we had a peaceful ride home. But as I was sitting there in the, yes, justice for all, yeah. Ed Moore, crime fighter. As I was sitting there, I was so, I do not regret what I had done and I would do it again, but how I felt was so ungodlike. Because what I thought of this young man and his group was not mercy. I wasn't walking over there to Him, wanting to reach in my wallet and pull out some money and to feed Him and to bring water for His thirst and to give Him sandals for His feet and to give Him a land flowing with milk and honey and to bless Him. No, I wanted to do Him harm. We're riding on God's train. And every time we willfully disobey, we are spitting in His face, we are cursing, we are embarrassing Him with our vulgarities. We're breathing His air. We're eating His food. What does God do for us? You know, the majority of the people in the world today hate God and they hate His Gospel and they hate His Son and they hate His Word. They will not be found in a house of worship today. You know what's going to happen tomorrow? For most of them, they're going to wake up and they're going to walk to the refrigerator and it's going to be full. And he's going to feed them again tomorrow. And he's going to feed them the day after that. God is good. In fact, God is good to a level that I cannot understand. And I think the Levites here are praying a brilliant prayer. You say, well, how do you feel when you read this prayer about all of these crimes that they committed? I want to tell you something. I feel wonderful when I read this prayer. Because every single one of those crimes is not met with justice, but every one of those crimes is met with grace and love and mercy. And since I myself am a cosmic criminal, I need a God who's really good. I need a God that is unbelievably good. And this chapter tells me that I've got one. Now, let's go back to this marriage thing. Some of you are on the brink. You're ready to cash it in. Because you just cannot stand the worm that you're living with. And I am not here this morning to defend your spouse. I'm just here to say that you can hang in there. And the reason that you can hang in there is because the Gospel is of first importance. Because the power that was given to you to forgive your sins is the same power and the same motivation and that same cross that you look to endure and to put up with and to love and to be kind toward and to provide for that spouse of yours that makes your life so miserable. This prayer is not an aimless rambling about the history of the Jewish people with no apparent point. No, this prayer This prayer is clever. It's reminding God, not that he's forgotten, but it's reminding God of how good he is and how that goodness has played itself out all the way from Abraham to that present day. Now, if you want to pray a prayer like this, you're going to need three things. The first thing you're going to need is the knowledge of the scriptures. These Levites had to be very well versed in the scriptures to put this prayer together. If you don't know the Bible well, you don't know God well. You know a God of your imagination, a God that you have created, but you don't know the true and living God well. This is a prayer which reflects accurately the history of God's people and interprets it correctly. People who do not know the Bible well do not interpret events on the news and in their own lives. And in history, well, you don't. If you know the Bible well, you pretty much know what's going on and why it's going on. The second thing that you need in order to pray a prayer like this is humility. This was their memorial day. Now, here I stand in front of you today. With the brightest red tie that I could find in my closet, my blue suit and my starched white shirt. And I say, God bless America. I am glad to be an American. It is Memorial Day and I am proud of my country. Were these people proud of their country? No, they were humbly crushed. Six different sets of offenses. Nineteen separate crimes. Their forefathers were some really wretched worms. They're in sackcloth and in ashes. Thinking about and recalling that their forefathers repeatedly, incessantly, habitually rejected God at every turn of the road. Do you realize, brothers and sisters, this is mind-boggling, that if you read the history of the Jewish people, that there was not one single generation. Think about the good old days. There were no good old days. There was not one single generation that was faithful to God. And so here they are on the 24th day of the seventh month in the year 440 BC. They're not waving flags. No, they're in sackcloth and ashes. They are decked out in brokenness and in humility because they said, we, if you read the history books, have done nothing but fail God. Humility. And the third thing they did. And this is what so many people miss. See, I think there are people that know their Bibles and they are willing to admit that sins have been committed and that these sins are gross and immoral and that these sins are an offense against the high court of heaven. They get that far, but they stop right there and they are crushed. The third thing that's needed when you pray a prayer like this is to remember that mercy triumphs over judgment. And they constantly bring to God's attention how mercifully he had dealt with them in the past. And they repeat that over and over and over and over again. Which brings us to the conclusion of the prayer. Verses 32 through 35, section 10, and then verses 36 and 37, section 11. Here's section 10. Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty and awesome God who keeps covenant and mercy, do not let all the trouble seem small before you that has come upon us, our kings and our princes, our priests and our prophets, our fathers and on all your people from the days of the kings of Assyria until this very day. Translation, we've been getting seriously kicked around since 722 BC, almost 300 years. So, Lord, please, Please do it again. Show your mercy. Do not look lightly on our current affliction. Yes, we have a temple. Yes, we have a wall, but we are still slaves to the Persians. Verse 33, however. You are just and all that has befallen us, we are not blaming you. You have done the right thing in sending us into captivity. For you have dealt faithfully. But we have done wickedly. God is faithful. He cannot deny himself. If we deny him, he will deny us. Second Timothy, chapter two. Neither our kings nor our princes, nor our priests, nor our fathers have kept your law, nor heeded your commandments and your testimonies which you testified against them. For they have not served you in their kingdom or in the many good things, there's that word, good things that you gave them, or in the large and rich land which you set before them, nor did they turn from their wicked ways. What he's saying here is we don't deserve anything. I mean, God, I'm not blaming you for where we are. We've brought this upon ourselves. Final section, 36 and 37. Here we are. Servants today, this is where it brings us. And the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and bounty, well here we are, servants in it. You gave this land to our fathers so that they would go in, possess it, and be masters in it, but now here we are back in this land and we are living as slaves in our own land. And it yields much increase to the kings you have set over us. The kings are getting rich on us. because of our sins. Also, they have dominion over our bodies and our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. We don't own the land. We don't own our pets. We don't even own ourselves. It's so sad. Verse 38, you know, in the Hebrew Bible, verse 38 is part of chapter 10, but I'm so glad that in the English Bible it is included in chapter 9 because it tells us what they did in response to this prayer. Because of all this, we make a covenant and write on it. Our leaders, our Levites, our priests seal it. We make it official, we seal it. In other words, we are going to get up off of the canvas one more time. Now, where in the world do they feel the confidence to get up off of the canvas based upon the fact that they had been so wicked for so long? If you were listening, you know the answer to that, and that is because God is good. And based upon his track record and his abundant mercy, we can seek restoration. So I asked you, how much confidence do you have today to confess your sins and to really believe that God will forgive them? God's character has never changed, and God's character is at stake right here. He sent his only begotten son, Jesus, from heaven to earth to live a perfect life and to go to the cross and to die in place of hard hearted, stiff necked rebels like you and me. And now while that risen Christ is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, if those people back then could get up off of the canvas, go to God based upon his character and say, God, we're going to go into covenant again and God would forgive them again and restore them again. How much more we on this side of the cross can we not go before God, regardless of how much we've sinned and say. I want to be restored. We can confess our sins because he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And 1 John 1 7 says that the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Now, here's your punch line. Some of you walked in here today. In deep, stiff necked sin, and you believe in your heart of hearts that God has run out of patience and that you have exhausted all of your appeals. I tried to do what I'm about to challenge you to do, and I was not able to do it. And that is just as the Levites prayed the life of the history of Israel and recalled it back to God, I started praying my life back to God, saying, here's what you have done. But I wasn't able to finish the prayer. And here's why. Because when you start to do that, and it's not because I have a bad memory, because I have a fairly good memory. But I cannot bear the pain of remembering the times without number that I have failed Him and that every time I have failed Him, He has forgiven me and forgiven me and forgiven me. Finally, I had to just stop praying. If you were to pray your life back to God, it would sound pretty much like the history of the Jews. A ridiculous amount of mercy and a chronic failure on our part to stay faithful. It will be, try it. It will be so painful and embarrassing that you cannot bear to recall all of the times that you've let him down. Yet at the same time, if you are able to do it, what you will come in contact with is this, the mind boggling number of times that he has been gracious and restored your soul and forgiven your sins. So I want to say to you today, no matter what you've done, But, Pastor, no matter what you've done, no matter how many times you've done it, no matter how habitual it is, no matter how gross it is, no matter what you've done, God says, get up. And He hugs you. And He kisses you on the forehead. And He feeds you. And He quenches your thirst. And He restores your soul. God is so great. My tiny little mind can't even begin to comprehend it. But, oh God is so good. My, my. Crushed His Son so that you might be forgiven. If you're not saved today, I don't know why you would want to disassociate yourself with this God. He's someone you might want to get to know. He's good. He's good. Father in heaven, thank you. And now, Lord, not with a formal covenant with a seal, but Lord, we renew our faith today. We get up off of the canvas. By the blood of Jesus, we re-enter your presence and say, here we are to worship. And we don't do so sheepishly, but we do so boldly through the blood of Christ. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.