Again, our sermon text is Nehemiah 13 verses 1 through 14. On that day, they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Morobite should ever come into the assembly of God, because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, God turned the curse into a blessing. So it was, when they had heard the law, that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel. Now before this, Elisha of the priests, having authority over the storerooms of the house of our God, was allied with Toviah. And he had prepared for him a large room, where previously they had stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, the tithes of grain, the new wine, and oil. which were commanded to be given to the Levites and singers and gatekeepers, and the offerings for the priests. But during all this I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I had returned to the king. Then after certain days I obtained leave from the king, and I came to Jerusalem, and discovered the evil that Eliashev had done for Toviah, preparing a room for him in the courts of the house of God, and it grieved me bitterly. Therefore, I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room. Then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms, and I brought back unto them the articles of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense. I also realized that the portions for the Levites had not been given them. For each of the Levites and the singers who did the work had gone back to his field. So I contended with the rulers and said, why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together and set them in their place. Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain and the new wine and the oil to the storehouse. And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouse, Shalamiah the priest and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Padiah. And next to them was Hanan, the son of Zakkur, the son of Mataniah, for they were considered faithful, and their task was to distribute to their brethren. Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for its services. Oh, Father, we thank you for the reading and hearing of your word, for it's good and pleasant to hear your word. We pray that it would dwell richly in our hearts. We pray that you'll give us a zeal, as Nehemiah, let us not have a fear of man, but a fear of God. I pray that as the word is preached today, that you'll give, Scott, the fear of God, not the fear of man, as he preached you the word. We thank You, Father, for Your goodness to Your people. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. As we turn here to the final chapter of Nehemiah, we find ourselves at the end of a record of Reformation and how God has cared for His people, continued to call His people to holiness, calling His people to walk in the ways of God. This is a 117-year period of the post-exilic period. Those who have returned from Babylon from exile have now been back in the land for over a hundred years. And the situation here in Nehemiah chapter 13 is that Nehemiah has gone back to Babylon for a short period of time. We don't know how long it was. It could have been as much as twelve years. But he was gone for some period. It takes about four months just to walk to Babylon from this place. So he was at least gone a year because the turnaround would take about that amount of time. But he comes back and he finds that the people have slipped and they've slipped dramatically and they've slipped really specifically from things that they had committed themselves to previously and made written covenants before God to keep. But He comes back and they've slipped, and so it brings up the subject of slipping, how the church might find themselves slipping. Now, as we consider this passage, I think we should recognize how unflattering it is to the people of God to say such things about the church. Now, in the Bible you find a realistic picture. In the Bible you don't find pie in the sky. In the Bible you find reality, you find things that actually happen. among the people of God and God doesn't gloss over them because He desires His people to really walk in holiness. And so...and so He deals...He deals in reality. Now there's a summary statement in this...in this whole chapter. Now we're not going to handle the whole chapter this morning, we're just going to handle the first fourteen verses. But this one statement summarizes everything that happens in Nehemiah chapter 13. where Nehemiah says, I cleanse them from everything pagan. And this is what God is doing with His church, to cleanse His church from everything pagan. And there are specific areas of paganism that the Old Testament church has slipped back into even after rejecting. And as we're in a passage like this, we should all think about, are there any ways that I've slipped? holy, any godly and true ways that I turn toward Him, and yet I've slipped back now. That's the situation that we find here. Now, just in terms of the time frame and the moment in redemptive history, I think it's important to point out that this scene here is happening right in the zone of the days of Malachi the prophet. Malachi is either prophesying while Nehemiah is gone or at the time when Nehemiah has now returned. We're not sure specifically. Now, you know Malachi is the last prophet to speak in the Old Testament. And the people are saying, Lord, how have you loved us? And then Nehemiah speaks of how he has loved them, but I'm sorry, Malachi speaks of how he has loved them. But Malachi confronts the people on these exact same issues that we find in Nehemiah chapter 13. Every one of them occurs in Malachi's prophecy. The worship of God, according to Malachi, has become tiresome. They're bringing their sacrifices, but they're bringing lame and blind sacrifices. And they're listless as a people. And they're saying, my, how tiresome it is. They're just kind of dragging themselves into the worship of God. There's just nothing real or beautiful about it at all. And Malachi is telling them, this is where you're at. And he says, would you bring this kind of sacrifice to your governor? No, you wouldn't do, you wouldn't even think of it, but you're bringing it to me. Malachi also reveals the problems in the family and how marriages are in disarray. And in the very final prophecy, in the final words of Malachi, when he prophesied the coming of Jesus Christ, he says, in that day, he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents. He'll work about a renewal of love in the family because that had broken down at that time. So, this historical moment is really very, very clearly framed in the Bible through the prophet Malachi and especially here in Nehemiah chapter 13. But the heart of the matter is what Nehemiah says at the very end in verse 30, I cleanse them from everything pagan. What does it mean? What is paganism? The word that Nehemiah uses for pagan here in this chapter is often translated foreign or alien. And it's used in terms of things that are foreign to God, particularly foreign gods. And Nehemiah is talking about foreign objects, foreign philosophies, foreign ways that creep into the worship of God and into the families of the people who worship God. There are foreign objects, there are aliens among us, and those aliens are really of the spirit of the Ammonites, which we'll read about here in this chapter. But in the midst of this, God is so kind to give a man to his people. Nehemiah's one holy passion always was, from the very beginning, was to see the beauty of the Lord rest upon the people through their turning to the holiness of God. And Nehemiah's constant appeals, his whole life, particularly with he and Ezra at the same time, was to reestablish the holiness of God in the worship of God and in the families of those people. And you see that running through both Ezra and Nehemiah, and I pray that our church has that same one holy passion, that we would long to see the holiness of God fill every part of our church, that we would want, that we would cherish the regulation of God in our church, that we would want His ways, not our own. and also in our families, that we wouldn't want our marriages to be our way. We wouldn't want our family life to be our way, but God's way, God's holy way. This was Nehemiah's one holy passion, and I pray that it really is the passion of our church, and that we would be like Nehemiah in our own hearts, and we would say, thus I cleanse my heart of everything pagan. And pray for the elders of this church, myself included, that our hearts would have that one same holy passion, that the Word of God would be the center of everything. Not our words, not our personalities, but God, His words, His personality, His ways. And this is the Reformation that we see. Now the moment in time here is a very dramatic moment. You'll see really dramatic things. You'll see Nehemiah going into Tobiah's room and throwing his stuff out. It's an extremely dramatic and even physical moment. But it really portrays a scene that happens in a lot of areas of life. You know, Jesus spoke about it when He talked about an owner of a vineyard who went away for a season and he put his vineyard in charge of various managers. And he comes back and it's being mismanaged. It's in ruins. And the things that he's established have been compromised. And it's very much like a lot of things that happen in this life. You know, I know men who have built businesses. Their hearts have been toward God. They've wanted to build their whole operations on the things of the Kingdom of Heaven. And as they get older, they worry about the next generation as to whether the next generation will have the same heart for holiness that they had. And they fear that when they turn their company over to their children that it might not in five or ten years be the same place at all and maintain the same values. And it might slip right along with the great technology companies of this world. You know, it happens with parents when they raise their children. And they, with all their hearts, though imperfectly, pour as much of the kingdom of heaven into their souls as they knew how to do. And they go off, maybe they go off to college, and they reject absolutely everything that their parents have taught them their whole lives. And their parents' hearts are broken. That's exactly what we find here with Nehemiah. It's like a pastor who's labored for years, and then he leaves for a season, and he comes back and everything is lost. This is the scene that we find here in this chapter. And so, there's so much to learn here. One of the primary things I want to direct our minds toward though, among the many things that we could focus on, are the specific ways that we too might turn away from everything that is pagan. That we too might turn away from everything that is pagan. This message is really the first part of a three-part series of turning away from everything pagan because we're breaking up Nehemiah 13 into three sections. This is the first section where Nehemiah is dealing with some very specific things. In part two there will be other specific things. In part three there will be other specific things. And you have the outline in front of you. I'd like to just sort of walk you through this outline before we jump into the text. As you can see, it's a different kind of outline. There are four points to it, and the main point is actually the application. Under it is the situation. In some ways, you might argue it should be reversed. The situation should be before the application, but I've stated it this way. So, the first thing that we learn about turning away from paganism is keep returning to the Word of God. That's verses 1 through 3. The situation is that the Word of God called for separation from the influence of the unbelievers. And the people took, they took that encouragement. And the second way that we turn away from paganism is that we confront compromise. That's in verses 4 through 9. And in this section, the situation is that Nehemiah confronts the compromise in the worship of God that took place in the temple while he was gone. And then the third way that we turn from paganism is that we increase the support of the ministry. That's verses 10 and 11. And the situation here is that there had arisen a lack of support for the ministry of the Levites. And Nehemiah confronts that and he restores it. They'd sort of lost their heart for giving generously to the worship of God, and so there wasn't that much of it going on as there was before. Not as many singers, not as many Levites. And then fourthly, the fourth way is pray for usefulness and long-term fruit. That's verse 14. And here in this final verse, Nehemiah prays that the good that he had done would prevail, that it would continue on. And this is such a This is such a right prayer for us to pray. All of our efforts are so feeble, but there is good in them. But we so long that they would survive. And so, that's that final prayer. So, let's begin to take these one by one in a little bit more detail. And, you know, how do you turn from everything pagan? And the first comes from verses 1 through 3, keep returning to the Word of God. So, verse 1 reads, On that day they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people and in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water but hired Balaam against them to curse them. Our God turned the curse into a blessing. We could do a whole sermon on that phrase right there. So it was when they had heard the law that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel. So determining the exact timing of all these events is a little bit difficult. I'm not going to focus on that this morning. But here's what's solid as a rock these first verses. You find the hearing of the Word of God and a true and heartfelt response to the Word of God. This demonstrates the life-changing power of the Word of God. They heard and they obeyed. They heard and the Word of God was received with meekness as it was implanted. And, you know, this is so helpful in this life as we turn away from paganism, that we have the Word of God, because the Word of God always shows us who we are. The Word of God is powerful, more powerful than a two-edged sword, and it pierces. It goes down and it touches you, touches you and shows you who you really are. That's exactly what was happening here. The Word of God exposes sin. It's the best thing that can ever happen to us. You know, James talked about it as observing your face in a mirror, that the Word of God is like a mirror. It tells you the story of your life. It penetrates all the way through your self-protectionism. It penetrates through your seared conscience and your hard heart, and it pushes in, and it shows you your face. And so you see yourself. That's exactly what happened here. The first line of any Reformation is to keep returning to the Word of God. You know, we're in a season right now in evangelicalism where everybody's having a conference on the Reformation. There are dozens of them. It's unbelievable. And, you know, the Reformation took place 500 years ago where everybody's celebrating, you know, the 500th anniversary of the 95 theses being pounded onto the door at Wittenberg, and there was a Reformation that happened then. But is the Reformation over? I mean, is the Reformation in your life over? Is it over in my life? Is it over in this church? No. The seed of the Reformation is the seed of the Word of God implanted in the soul of man. If you want your life to be consistent with the will of God, the Word of God is always the place to go. And this is the fundamental seed of every Reformation. And it's what we need in our church. It's what I need in my life. And now, in the midst of this is a command regarding the Ammonites and the Moabites. Now what's that all about? Why is he talking about the Ammonites and the Moabites? Well, in Genesis 19, you'll read the story of how Lot's daughters lost hope for having children and having any kind of legacy, and they got their father drunk. And both of these daughters had children, Ammon and Moab. And they were wicked children. Their mothers Their mothers had turned from God. They didn't believe that there was hope in God. And so they used their own means to do the will that they wanted to accomplish. And so these peoples, the Ammonites and the Moabites, they always had their face against God, and God always had His face against them. And the Ammonites, there are two different reactions that the The Ammonites and the Moabites head toward the people of God. The Ammonites refused to help the children of Israel with food and water after they had left Egypt. They left Egypt, the Red Sea parted, and they were out in the wilderness, in the wilderness wanderings. And they had to go through the land of the Ammonites. And Moses appealed to the kings, to the king of Ammon, that he could go into the cities and buy food because they needed food and water. And the Ammonites said, No way, you can't come around here. They did not have compassion on the people of God. They hated the people of God. And then the Moabites did something differently. The Ammonites refused to help. The Moabites actually took proactive action to attempt to hinder the children of Israel from entering into the Promised Land. And on four occasions these people hired Balaam to curse Israel. They hired him. But it's really a remarkable story and it's a very encouraging story, too, because even though they hired him to curse Israel, he just couldn't get it out of his mouth. Apparently he got paid. But he never could bring himself, because of God's power at work in his life, to determine the use of his voice and his life. He just could not curse Israel. That's why it says here that God used this for the good. God blessed them. It was a blessing, came from it, because God is in control of everything. But the Moabites were, as we read in Numbers, chapter 22, they were exceedingly afraid. They were sick with dread. They were very scared. And so they hired Balaam to try to divert the people of God. And you can read these stories, you know, for example, in Deuteronomy 23, the restrictions that God placed upon the presence of the Ammonites and the Moabites in worship. And so the Ammonites and the Moabites openly resisted the people of God. And so God declared that they could not enter into the worship of God. But it's really very simple. Unbelievers who hate God do not and cannot enter in the worship of God. That's really the principle. that's there. We know that this is not a racial thing. This is a spiritual matter because we know that Ruth was a Moabite and she did enter into the worship of God. She could enter into the worship of God because she was a child of God. So, I believe that these matters are spiritual matters and the whole application here is to read and obey the Word of God, make the Word of God the whole center of your life, and so that even your worship is regulated by the Word of God and the Word of God alone. Now, what we find here is that Nehemiah has either already departed or he departs between verse 3 and verse 4. And again, I want us to really focus on the reforms that are taking place here. So, the first way of turning away from everything pagan is keep returning to the Word of God. You've not reached the bottom of it. You know, maybe you've read through the Bible several times. God is not finished with you yet. Keep returning to the Word of God. It's the heart of everything. And the second way is confront compromise. It's important that as we return to the Word of God, we confront compromise. And I want to say that ought to be both personally in your own heart before the Lord, in your family, and it ought to be happening in your church as well. Those are the three ways. And what happens here in these verses 4 through 9 is that Nehemiah confronts the compromise of the worship of God in the temple. Now, let's read verse 4. Now, before this, Eliashib the priest, having authority over the storerooms of the house of God, was allied with Tobiah. That's astonishing. Tobiah was an enemy of God. And he had prepared for him a large room where previously they had stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, the tithes of grain, the new wine, and the oil. So there was a change happening in the temple. Perhaps it was a slow change, but the room is being filled up with other things. And so in verse 6, and these things that the room was filled up with were the things that were used to support the singers and the gatekeepers and the Levites who served the worship of God. So they were pushing, they were using something that was dedicated to God and dedicating it to a pagan. And so Nehemiah is dealing with this. Verse 6, but during all this I was not in Jerusalem. This was happening while he was gone, for in the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I had returned to the king. Now, Nehemiah came in the 20th year of Artaxerxes and he leaves in the 32nd year. So, Nehemiah was in the Promised Land in Jerusalem for 12 years. And then he left, but the wall was finished very quickly right after he arrived. So there were many intervening years that were drawn out after the wall was dedicated, which we just recently read about. So he was gone, and then we read, then after certain days I obtained leave from the king, And I came to Jerusalem and discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah in preparing a room for him in the courts of the house of God, and it grieved me bitterly. Therefore, I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room. Then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms, and I brought back into them the articles of the house of God with the grain offering and the frankincense. So, Nehemiah is really disturbed that an unbeliever has taken up residence in the temple and what was dedicated to God was given to a pagan and now Tobiah is living in the temple. Now, why is it so bad for Tobiah to live in the temple? There are three really good reasons. God commanded that only the Levites could live in the temple. And even if you were a godly Jew, you couldn't live there. But there are three problems with Tobiah being accepted into the temple. First, he was an enemy of God. Secondly, he was not a Levite. And thirdly, he was an Ammonite. Those three reasons were clear enough reasons why he shouldn't be living there. And now I want to bring you actually five applications from these verses. And the first is this. Tobiah did not win with all-out warfare. He had already tried all-out warfare. We saw that in the early chapters. He wrote slanderous letters. He was mocking the people of God and probably was involved in attacking them, which was the reason that they had to hold a weapon in one hand and their tools in another hand. Tobiah was the reason they had to protect themselves and why they were afraid at the beginning. And so now he's polluting the worship of God. Let's make this really clear. Tobiah did not stop the worship of God. Rather, he is an influence to compromise the worship of God. The temple worship continued, but it didn't continue in the same way. There were cuts There was less. They kept using God words, but they began to modify the intensity of the worship by cutting down on the support of those who were leading the worship of God. So, there was less going on by degrees. And so, this is how it happens in our lives. But often the compromises that happen don't happen because we cut everything, it's just because we cut a little bit. And that's what happened. That's how Tobiah gets into your soul. It's a cut here and a cut there. A little compromise here and a little compromise there. Maybe it's in your gathering with the people of God to hear the Word of God, maybe you're cutting down on that, or maybe you're cutting down on your private time with the Lord. Maybe there are things that you're just sort of cutting back on. Beware, because Tobiah didn't win with all-out warfare. He won with a little bit of incremental change. The second application has to do with family connections, and the point here is that family connections can be the source of compromise, because Elisha, the high priest, was somehow related to these haters of God, particularly Sanballat. In verse 28, we read that one of the sons of Joida, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite." And then he says, therefore I drove him from me. So you had these family alliances that were at work. In Nehemiah chapter 6 verse 18 we read that many...that many were pledged to these...to these God-haters, to Sanballat and Tobiah, and we read that in verse 18, that many in Judah were pledged to him because he was the son-in-law of Shekeniah, the son of Arrah, and his son Johanan had married the daughter of Meshulam, the son of Berechiah. This is...these are family connections. Family connections can be really harmful or they can be really good. In this case, the family connections caused compromise. You receive pressure, pagan pressure from your families. and you capitulate to them. And so there becomes a snare. Jesus spoke about this in Luke chapter 14 when He said, If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. There are family pressures. Your children can pressure you to compromise. That's what Jesus says. Your sister can pressure you to compromise. Your father, your mother. There are family compromises that we are subject to that we should always be aware of. And the question we should ask is, are any of my children causing me to compromise? Is my wife, is my husband causing me to compromise? Because that's exactly what we find here in Nehemiah. There were family connections. that caused those compromises. You know, we have to be so careful that we don't make idols of our children or idols of our spouses. Because these family alliances and allegiances can be very harmful. You can go right back to the fall. Adam and Eve fell together. Abraham and Sarai fell together. Solomon fell together with his wives. Ishmael had a very powerful family line and they stuck together and they're still sticking together and they actually form, you know, many of the inheritance of Islam today. There are pictures of people who were courageous like Gideon. who departed from his family legacy and he smashed his father's idols, of course, it put him on the run. And thankfully, Gideon's father saw the error of his ways and Gideon's father joined him in the Reformation and turning away from idols in Israel. But you must be very careful about your family alliances and what they are doing to you. And then the third application It has to do with repentance. There's a...I think there's a beautiful picture of repentance here in these verses. Nehemiah responds with a very strong four-fold response that really describes what repentance is. First, he grieved bitterly. Second, he threw out the goods of Doabiah, he took action, he did something about it. It wasn't just a pietistic feeling, O Lord, help me, he took action against the idols that were there. And then thirdly, He commanded the cleansing of the rooms. He didn't just throw everything out, He cleansed the rooms as well. He dedicated them to the Lord. And then fourth, He brought back the articles of the house of God. He filled up the house of God with the things that they should have been filled up with. You know, it's one thing to turn away from your sin, it's another thing to fill your life up with the things of God. Jesus talked about the danger of demons departing from your life and if the house is just swept clean and nothing fills it up, you're in worse shape than you were before. Fill up the house with the beautiful things of God. So this is a really good picture. The fourth application is beware of creeping worldliness. I think that's what we have here. This worldliness was creeping into the worship of God and it can happen to us. There is a subtlety to sin. Sin covers its tracks. It blinds the eyes of the sinner. And then it comes on hard as a final result. And then the fifth application, the final application in this section is confront the Ammonite within. There are Ammonites within our hearts. There's worldliness, worldly thinking, worldly impulses in our hearts. And refusing the Ammonite within rather than feeding the Ammonite within is so critical. These foreign influences in our lives are so critical. You know, we know that God has made our bodies to be temples. And that's why Paul said, Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. And the temple is made holy by confronting and refusing the Ammonite within. The ways in thinking of the world that have gripped our hearts and identifying them and throwing them out is a way that we confront the Ammonite from within. And so after Nehemiah throws out Tobiah's gear, he faces another conflict right on the heels of that. And that conflict needs to be addressed because there's something else that also needs to be changed. And he recognizes that there are not enough Levites working in the temple. And there's a shortage of singers. And there's a shortage of gatekeepers. These are all Levites. Levites are singers and gatekeepers. And so how do you turn from everything pagan? You increase the support of the ministry. That's verses 10 through 13. Because there was a lack of support for the Levites and Nehemiah confronts it. Verse 10, I also realized that the portions for the Levites had not been given them. for each of the Levites and the singers who did the work had gone back to his field. There was no support, and so they went back to their fields. And the time that God had designated, designed for them to be given to promote and propel and sweeten the worship of God through the care of the temple and the actual singing in the temple They had to survive. And the only way they could survive was to go back to their work. And so they went back to their fields. And verse 11, so I contended with the rulers and said, why is the house of God forsaken? That's one of the penetrating questions of this whole chapter. Why is the house of God forsaken? Why? Why is it? That's a question that we should always ask. Why? is that if there's not enough workers, if there's not enough worship, if there's not enough intensity, why? Why is that happening? And that's a question that all of us should grapple with. It's definitely a question that elders must grapple with, but the whole church should grapple with that same question. Why is the house of God forsaken? And you might be saying, why have I forsaken the house of God? Why? What has happened? Where has the intensity gone? Where has that zeal gone that once used to be there? You know, when you used to just so long to hear the preaching, you used to so long to be with the people of God, you used to so long to pray, but it's not like that anymore. Why? Why is the house of God forsaken? And so then we read, and I gathered them together and set them in their place. Then all Judah brought the tithe and the grain and the new wine and the oil in the storehouse. So, Nehemiah's, you know, he is pressing the reset button and he brings everything back in. And then Nehemiah appoints four men. This is in verse 13. A priest, a scribe, a Levite, and an assistant. Okay? He appoints people who will take care of the revival of the worship of God, at least the administration for the revival of the worship of God. Verse 13, And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouse... Now I want you to notice, these are kind of functional, mechanical duties that need to happen to support the worship of God. And Shalamiah the priest and Zadok the scribe and of the Levites, And next to them was Hanan, the son of Zechariah, and Mataniah, for they were considered faithful and their task was to distribute to their brethren." So here, you know, the devil has struck the worship of God, diminishing the role of those who are leading the worship of God, distracting them, diverting their energies back to their fields instead of to the worship of God. And the energies and the money that was designed for that is now being diverted to other places. And so, Nehemiah is confronting that. Now, here are some applications. First of all, they were careless in taking care of the singers and the gatekeepers. Now, remember, these were hard economic times. And perhaps, you know, they felt like they couldn't afford it. and they weren't prioritizing the worship of God. The other thing that we see here is the presence of faithful men. He appointed faithful men, and we always need a rising number of faithful men in the church of Jesus Christ. I liken these to deacons in a church, faithful men who carry out the physical needs of the church so that the worship of God can actually grow and expand far beyond where it is. You know, elders can only do so much, and they're designed by God to devote themselves to the Word of God and to prayer. In a lot of ways, the life of an elder is a very simple life. It's those two things. Those are the two priorities. But how many things can get in the way of that? And so God has established that deacons would be appointed faithful men. We read about it in Acts chapter 3, when the apostles in Acts chapter 6 where the apostles summoned the multitude of the disciples and they said, it is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. And so, Nehemiah sets this, in many ways, a deacon function. Maybe it's not a perfect fit with Levites, but it has many of the same elements. And he finds faithful men so that they could deal with the expansion rather than the retraction of the worship of God. Another application I'd like to bring from these verses is that it is appropriate to confront the church if she loses interest in the worship of God. It says here that Nehemiah contended, he contended with them. Why is the house of God forsaken? And then he gathers the things to put rightly in their place. And he rebukes them and he's striving with them. He's pleading with them and actually making a complaint against them. And I don't know if that's ever happened to you. I don't know if a pastor has ever confronted you and said, why is the house of God forsaken? It is true that pastors, they really care. They really care if the people are at the times of prayer and the times of preaching and the times of instruction. We really care. We care a lot. And so every once in a while you might find us asking you a question like that. Don't despise that. This is what we're supposed to do. But we need to be very careful to evaluate whether we have a cutback mentality or whether we have a grow and expand mentality. in our hearts, in our families, and in our churches. All those three areas are really critical. And we should ask, how are we doing as a church? And are we cutting back or are we expanding? And so that's the situation here. What's the application? Increase the support of the ministry. That's Nehemiah's cry to the people there. and then the fourth way that you turn from everything pagan is that you pray for usefulness and long-term fruit. That's verse 14. Now, as you observe, Nehemiah prays over and over again in this book. And here, there are three prayers of Nehemiah that are very similar here right in this 13th chapter. And we see the first one in verse 14. where Nehemiah prays, Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for its services. Nehemiah sees how fragile, how frail the church is, and he also realizes that he's invested an enormous amount of labor and heart in the reformation of the church, and he's saying, Lord, do not wipe out my good deeds. He's crying out to God that the fruit would remain. That's what he's doing. And I think every Christian can pray this prayer. Every father and mother should pray this prayer, really, over their families. Oh, Lord, do not wipe out my good deeds. Every father knows that he falls short in a thousand ways. Every mother trying to raise children knows that she falls short. This is such an appropriate prayer for a mom. Oh Lord, don't let my weaknesses eclipse good things that I've really desired in my heart. This is a really remarkable prayer. Nehemiah also prays a very similar prayer in verse 22. Go ahead and look at it. And this was a prayer for mercy. Remember me, oh my God. Concerning this also, spare me according to the greatness of your mercy." In this prayer, he's saying, oh Lord, have mercy on me. And then the third prayer is in verse 31. Remember me, oh my God, for my good. But this is a prayer that I think all of us can pray with our whole heart. Do not wipe out my good deeds. You know, you look back on your life and you see the ways that you've invested your life, your energies, You see what you filled your mind with. You see what you've been an advocate of your whole life long. And you look back at the work of your hands and you cry out to God and you say, God, do not wipe out my good deeds. There's plenty probably that will be wiped out and should be wiped out. But this is a plea that God would bring forth fruit that remains as a result of our labors. And it's it's it's right to remember. It's right to remember your sin and it's right to remember your good deeds and to call out for God's mercy. And, you know, we should pray that God would magnify and multiply the good fruit. You know, this storyline of people leaving and coming back and finding things so different, the pastor who leaves his church, or the landowner who leaves his vineyard and comes back, or the father and mother whose children leave and everything changes, all of us need to pray this prayer. that God would, it's like what David prayed, Lord confirm the work of thy hands. Confirm the work. Make it real. Make it good. And so you can legitimately pray because there has been good that's come from your life. And that Almighty God would bless what was good. That He would fan to flame every good thing that you sowed. There are many ways that we fall short, but this prayer is a really, really important prayer. Now, we often might be discouraged. you know, that our good works might be forgotten or they might be thrown down at some time. And we might live and have no recognition from this world, but we can always know that God sees all things. We can always know that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him. And the writer of Hebrews makes it really plain that God does look, He does recognize. In Hebrews 6.10, the Lord, we read, for God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. And that's why Paul says to the Galatians, let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially of those who are of the household of faith. And we have to recognize that on that last day, God will test our works. The wood and the hay and the stubble will be separated from the fruitless and trivial, unprofitable works of our lives. You know, it's so important that we recognize where we're investing our lives. Are we investing our minds and our hours in trivialities or in things that really are of the holiness of God for His kingdom? God has it that He would capture every minute of your life. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. God desires everything to be holy. every part of your life, not one part of our lives separate and secular from God, everything infused by the holiness of God. That's really the call that we find here. Nehemiah is crying out that holiness would be his legacy. And, you know, we have this picture of these young girls, these ten virgins in Matthew 25. And some were ready and some were not. Some had oil and some did not. Some were trivial and some were not. And Nehemiah is bringing up this matter of what happens. Jesus spoke of the parable of the talents where He said the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling into a far country and called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And he came back and what did he find? He found that some invested wisely and some were trivial. And they gave their lives to things that didn't matter at all. And there was a tragic result. You know, where will we be when the Son of Man comes in His glory? Have we removed ourselves of everything pagan? Are we ready? Have we inspected our hearts? Have we sought out every unholy thing that might be resident within the temple of the Holy Spirit that God has given? So, in this chapter, there are very specific ways that we might turn away from everything pagan, and I'll just repeat them. First of all, keep turning to the Word of God. Secondly, confront compromise. Eject the Ammonites that are within the temple. Number three, increase the support for the ministry. Crank up the ministry. Don't be in a cutback mode. Be in a crank up mode when it comes to the ministry. And then number four, pray for usefulness and long-term fruit. Now, I want to pull back from this and just step back and see this whole picture and remind us of one thing. Nehemiah ends with a picture of the people of God in compromise. Nehemiah ends where the people have broken their covenant with God. You would think that Nehemiah would end on a crescendo of glory and beauty and joy, but the Old Testament doesn't end that way. The Old Testament ends with the people who cannot keep their covenant with God. They even put it in writing, they even sign a covenant, and they cannot even keep their written covenant with God. You know, why is that? Why does not the Old Testament end with a crescendo of victory? And I think that quite likely the Old Testament ends with this scene because God's people need a covenant keeper. They need one who keeps every law. They need a faithful and compassionate High Priest. They need one who is a covenant keeper. so that covenant breakers can receive mercy from God. And that's why Malachi ends the way it does. Malachi ends with a vision of Jesus Christ where He turns the hearts of fathers and mothers. He turns everyone's heart who turns toward Him. And He gives them a covenant keeper, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Jesus Christ who never broke any law, Jesus Christ who kept every covenant is the sacrifice...is the atoning sacrifice for those who cannot keep their covenants. And that's why when Jesus comes, He says, Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, for I will give you rest. What makes you weary? Sin makes you weariest of all. And Jesus Christ calls sinners to come, to come to Him who does keep all of His covenants, to trust in Him, to believe in Him, to follow Him and to obey Him and to fill every corner of life with His holiness. That's the call of Nehemiah. That's the call of Jesus Christ. And it's the whole reason we gather here today, that we would come and surround ourselves one with another with the covenant of God in the center and devote ourselves to the Word of God afresh. to make it the center of our lives and to eject the Ammonites that are among us. This is the work of the church of Jesus Christ. Would you pray with me? Lord, Lord, we thank you for these remarkable instructions, these personalities that teach us how to walk with You, and I pray, O Lord, that You would make us a people who do turn toward You in every area of our lives. Lord, that You would give us such a heart within us to love You and to keep all of Your commandments, that it might be well with us and with our children forever. Amen.