So we're in Nehemiah, starting in verse 13, starting verse 23. In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke according to the language of one or the other people. So I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, You shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves. Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, pagan women caused even him to sin. Should we then hear of your doing, all this great evil, transgressing against our God by marrying pagan women? And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib, the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanbelet the Horonite. Therefore I drove him from me. Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. Thus I cleansed them of everything pagan. I also assigned duties to the priests and the Levites, each to his service, and to bring the wood offering and the firstfruits at appointed times. Remember me, O my God, for good. Father in heaven, Lord, I pray that you would help us to see, to identify, to hate areas of compromise in our own lives, Lord, where we and our children have begun to speak the language of Ammon, the language of the pagans, Lord, instead of the language of the New Jerusalem. Oh God, I pray that from within our hearts, oh God, that right affections and right desires and right thoughts would well up, O God, as your son said, that from the abundance of the heart the man speaks, O Lord. I pray that out of the good abundance of our heart, which is wrought by you and us, Lord, I pray that we would speak that language that pleases you, O Lord, that we would have no corrupt thing coming from our lips, Lord, that you would be pleased with everything that we say, Lord, and that it would edify one another and glorify the name of Jesus Christ in his name. Well, here in this very last chapter of Nehemiah, there's put on display a dramatic and rocky reformation that's going on. There has been the rebuilding of walls. There has been the restoration of the worship of God and the reinstitution of the sacrifices of God. And here we find a picture of the restoration of marriages, and particularly a call to return to God's ways of marriage. And there's this complete reformation that's taking place here among the people, and it's a reformation of worship. It's really a reformation of the marketplace and the way that people are using their money, particularly to support the work of the worship of God. And it's a reformation of the home as well. And the key verse in this chapter is verse 30, in my view, where Nehemiah says that he cleansed them from everything which was pagan. And he's talking about everything pagan that has crept into their worship, into the use of their resources, into their family life. And there are these examples that Nehemiah gives us in this testimony. One question that you might ask is, is this a comprehensive list of everything pagan that He cleansed them of? It's possible that it's a comprehensive list, but I doubt it because paganism runs through every area of your life. And Nehemiah is dealing with these gigantic areas of life, your life in worship and anything pagan that has crept into it, your life in the use of your resources and the way that you view the services of the church, and also of your marriage. So paganism has its way in many areas of life, and I think that that phrase, I cleanse them of everything pagan, should tell us the depth of the salvation that God desires for us. He desires to go deep, deeper than the top line of the top-level public expression of your worship, deeper than the top-level view of what you do with your pocketbook. Deep, deeper, way deeper than your marriage and its fundamental surface expression. God wants us to go deep, very deep, and really to cleanse of everything pagan. That's the Christian life. That's the true Christian life. The Christian wants to cleanse themselves of everything pagan, not just a few things pagan. And what that means that God has never done with us. And we continue to discover these foreign objects that have lodged themselves in our thinking and in our lives. And there are foreign objects everywhere that need to be purged. The terminology that Nehemiah uses here is the terminology for the use of the word pagan. And he's talking about something foreign, something alien to God, something that's different than the righteousness of God. And one of the great joys of the Christian is that he continues to be relieved of everything pagan. And God is so kind to continue to cleanse us of everything that is offbeat in our worship of God and in every area of the living of our life. So that's the subject of this section here, and the example is marriage, and we'll see how Nehemiah deals with that. Now, if we could just take ourselves up above the clouds a little bit and look down at what's happening here. As we find ourselves in the final chapter of Nehemiah, we're in the very last narrative of the Old Testament. This is the close of the Old Testament canon. It's also at the end of about 100 or 117-year period of Reformation. The Jews were sent into captivity in Babylon. They were there for 70 years, and then God just immediately created a revival, and He stirred the hearts of 50,000 people at one time, and they walked for four and a half months across the desert to go back to Jerusalem, and they had the blessing of the King. and resources and protection from the king. It was a miracle that took place. The Word of God prophesied that Cyrus' heart would be moved to support the work of God, to restore worship in Jerusalem. And so now the people have been back for at least a hundred years, and God has continued to reform them. Their Reformation began with their desire to come back. And then it ensued as they established the altar, they re-established substitutionary atonement, and then they built the temple, and then they built the walls of Jerusalem. This is progressive sanctification of the people of God. God saves you and He keeps loving you. and sometimes through chastisements to show you how much sin there's left in your life. You know, if you're experiencing some trouble in your life, the truth of the matter is that God is usually using that trouble to root out pride and self-sufficiency and lack of love for God. These trials are good. They really are helpful for our souls. And so you can see that in Nehemiah. If you've walked with us through Ezra and Nehemiah these last many months. You've seen how chumalt is often the mechanism for reformation and for the cleansing of everything pagan. So, all these reformations have been going on, Nehemiah goes back to Babylon as he promised King Artaxerxes he would do, and he comes back, and we don't know exactly how long he's been gone, I just want to suggest it was somewhere between two and twelve years. I think it was probably the longer length of time that he was gone. And he comes back and he finds that the people have slipped back into many things pagan, in their worship, in the use of their money, and in their conduct in their marriages. And he discovers this as he comes back. He finds compromise everywhere he's looking, in the temple, in their financial priorities, in their misuse of the Sabbath, in their loss of delight in the Sabbath, and also really the loss of the delight of the presence of God in their marriages, and it's affected their children dramatically. And we'll see how dramatic that was. So that's the setting that we find here. Nehemiah is here to cleanse from all foreign matter. And as we walk through these verses, I think it's right for us to ask what foreign matter is there that exists in anything in my life, not just my marriage. Well, we're gonna drill down into that matter in marriage, but God really desires to cleanse us of everything pagan. And that really is where our greatest relief, our greatest delight, our greatest joy exists. And so we'll see this. You know, the Apostle Paul, Express this to Timothy. This is something that the people of God always must keep in mind. And he said to Timothy, let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, and some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work." And so I pray God would use this passage to help us to deal with the wood and the hay and the stubble that exists in our lives. Because in a house there are things that are honorable and there are things that are dishonorable. And here we're going to see how Nehemiah dealt with these things. And I just want to suggest that these are the ways that we too can deal with the wood and the hay and the stubble that exist. in our own lives because God desires to cleanse us from everything pagan. Now if you have an outline in front of you, you'll see that the way I've organized these phrases and verses here is under really the heading of how six ways that Nehemiah is used of the Lord to cleanse from everything pagan. So there's six ways that he did it, and these are there for our example, for our instruction, to help us understand how we might do the exact same thing to cleanse ourselves of everything pagan. And so let's begin with the first one. As you can see, there are six, and I'll just review them quickly. The first thing that he did is he conducted an honest observation, and he saw the sad state of affairs. Next, he had a strong reaction against that which was pagan. And thirdly, that he brought forth a vivid recollection of an example of how bad this can be. And then fourth, he made an appropriate separation from things that were pagan. And then fifthly, He presented a life-giving agenda. I can't wait till we get to verses 30 and 31 because you'll see how what He does is exactly what God has called New Testament believers to do. And of course, these are in the forms and shadows of the Old Testament, but this is the gospel of Jesus Christ that's here. And then finally, He prays. He prayed that God would preserve whatever was good that He did. And I think He's recognizing that He's not a perfect man. but there were good things. So that's how he dealt with these things. So let's begin with the first. He first makes an honest observation, and he observes the sad state of affairs, the sad, polluted families that were in spiritual disarray. And that's in verses 23 and 24. And in 23 we read, In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab, And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod and could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke according to the language of one or the other of the people." And so, there are a few things to recognize in these first verses here in verses 23 and 24. They ignored God's ways of marriage. And they married for wrong reasons. And they married women from Ashdod, which was a Philistine city. The Philistines were always at war against God. They worshiped gods that caused them to bring their children through the fire. And Shemosh was the god of the Ashdodites. And these people hated God. And the sin was that they went and they married pagans. They married for the wrong reasons. Malachi seems to allude to this in chapter 2, verse 10. It seems that quite possibly men divorced their Hebrew wives in favor of their pagan wives. And now before we get too high-minded about this and think that it doesn't apply to us, I think we should ask a a related question and it's, did you marry for all the right reasons? Like, was there any foreign thought, foreign to the glory of God, foreign to the purity and the majesty of God that caused you to enter into your marriage? This is what they did. This was the fundamental issue. They married for the wrong reasons. They did not marry for the glory of God. It's interesting, the King James Version says that they married outlandish women. Well, he's talking about women who love false gods. These men, you know, of Judah, quite likely they married for carnal desires, they married for lust. It was the basis for their marriages. Perhaps they married for beauty, but they didn't marry for the glory of God. They married for self-glory which, by the way, is always the root problem in every marriage. It's the glorification of self and not the glorification of God that causes all trouble in marriages. And this was their root issue. And when you marry for lust or self-glorification or self-gratification, you're always going to struggle in your marriage. And that's what they did. They married not for the glory of God. And so this was their sin. And then the way that they entered into their marriages had a profound impact on their families, such that their children didn't even know the language of God. They couldn't even read the Word of God. And I think this brings us back to a larger issue that I know many of us have been concerned about, and that is that the spiritual condition of a nation and the spiritual condition of a church is fundamentally tied to marriages and homes. A paganized marriage makes for paganized children, which makes for a paganized church, which makes for a paganized nation. And these things that happen in homes, these things that happen in marriages are so fundamental. They are fountainheads of either everything good or everything evil and harmful. And somebody said it, I think succinctly, as the family goes, so goes the church. And the strength of a church always depends on the strength of their homes because, you know, marriages are always reflective of the relationship of Christ and His church, or they're not reflective of it at all. And so if God has intended marriage for a particular purpose, And even though the purposes of marriage were revealed far more clearly in the New Testament, the purposes of marriage were known in the days of Nehemiah as well. But the result was paganized children, and they were corrupted by the paganism that existed because of the paganism of their marriages. And now you remember back in Nehemiah 8 where the narrative says that all those who could understand gathered. You remember that? Well, there were a lot of people in Israel that couldn't understand because they were speaking the language of Ashdod. They were speaking foreign language and they couldn't even understand the Word of God that was being read when Ezra was reading it in front of that great crowd in Nehemiah chapter 8. They couldn't understand the language of heaven, and it wasn't being spoken in their homes either. And you know, this is very much like our own day. I don't want us to try to disconnect our thoughts from this and think that we're any different, because today in our own land, You have homes where the Word of God is not read, and it's not understood, and it's not adored. And you have families that have the language of Ashdod being spoken in their home, because it's not the language of the Word of God that's prominently spoken in their home. It's the language of Ashdod. It's the language of the pagans. It's the language of the foreigners. And if you want to have a pagan family, all you have to do is fill it up with Hollywood. That's all you have to do. And you'll be speaking the language of Ashdod, and your children will sing the songs of Ashdod. And they'll use the language of Ashdod. I mean, right now in America, I read, I think it was last week, 40 percent of Americans don't think that your gender is determined by biology. Forty percent. How about that? That's a phenomenal shift. You know why that's happened? Because the language of Ashdod is being spoken in the homes of the American families. And, you know, I was at this conference last week on awakening with Jeff Pollard and he made a statement that I wrote down. He said, The music and the films of this world are catechisms of hell from hell. It's not very hard to have your children schooled in Hollywood and sing the songs of Hollywood and not so much have the language of heaven on their lips, where they recite the things of Ashdod rather than the things of God. Now, we also live in a Christian culture where very few people even teach the Word of God to their children. I know that's being turned around in many places. I mean, I think there are hundreds of thousands of homes in America today where the Word of God is honored and respected. And there's this thing called family worship that's been recovered, which by the way, I don't know anybody who practiced that when I was growing up as a Christian in California in our church. And I moved out here, it was the same here. Even in this Bible Belt, there were almost no families where family worship was being conducted. They didn't think it was important. And as a result, we raised a generation of Ashdodites, who loved the language of Ashdod, and they speak the language of Ashdod. And so that's what was happening. And in our Christian culture today, You know, in most churches, parents are happy enough that they have an hour or two of instruction in the Word of God a week. And that's a recipe for spiritual disaster and really the wrecking of a family. So, they entered into marriage for the wrong reasons. And I think we should ask, Has this affected us in the sense that as we've entered into marriages and not for the glory of God, has that also affected our children? Now, what are the right reasons to marry? Well, we know it's not for looks or lust or for money. We know that. That's easy. And that's the easiest thing to fall into. But the right reasons are two, and I'm gonna just give, I'm gonna bring this, I know there are more reasons, but I'm gonna play the role of reductionist here for the sake of efficiency. The right reasons for marriage are two, and the first is for the glory of God. God created marriage to be a display of His love, His mercy, His everlasting kindness, such that a husband would love his wife like Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. God gave marriage for the preservation of love, and so that a wife would do the same thing. She would love her husband by submitting to Him and by respecting Him. That's what love does. Love gives up its life as is displayed in Christ and His church and a husband. And love also trusts and follows and submits. That's what love does. And that's the first reason to be married is for the glory of God. To be married so that you would glorify God and that you would that you would be equally yoked in the work of the kingdom of God. God created marriage to be a labor of the love of God to display the glory of God. And that's what our marriages were designed for. And then the second right reason to get married is to have children. Malachi 2 makes that really clear. He says, why marriage? Their answer? God wants a godly offspring. That's what He wants. He wants it. You've bumped into people who don't want to have children, and they call themselves Christians. Let's just be really clear, that's a pagan idea. That's the language of Ashdod. When you find somebody who says, I don't want to have children because we want to glorify God a different way, that's the language of Ashdod because God said, why marriage? Because He wants a godly offspring. He wants a godly offspring, and people who get married should want...should want to bear children and to bring them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord. That's what they should do, and that's the first thing that they should do is to set themselves to giving God godly offspring. Now, I know we live in a culture that doesn't like that. We even live in a Christian culture that doesn't like it that much. But God is very clear. So the first thing that we see is Nehemiah makes an honest observation and he sees the sad state of affairs of families that have been profoundly affected and the children are the big losers because they don't have the Word of God on their lips and they don't even have the capacity to think about God and His goodness and His loving kindness. They have no way of salvation, they don't have any way of dealing with their sins, or they don't know what's right and what's wrong because they don't have the Word of God. So, Nehemiah makes the observation. The second thing is that he has a strong reaction. And if, you know, if you're going to root out paganism, then you need to consider what kind of reaction you ought to have toward your paganism. Nehemiah has a really strong reaction to the paganism, and he contends with the people who've hurt their families through their paganism. And so, in verse 25 he reads, So I contended with them, and cursed them, and struck some of them, and pulled their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, You shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons. or yourselves." And so, as Nehemiah discovers the paganism, he contends with the paganism. He's fighting against it. He's responding strongly, uncompromisingly, and he's contending for marriage. It's worth contending for marriage, and it's worth contending for marriage in the face of paganism. It's worth it. And it really is worth whatever loss of reputation you might get as a result of it. You know, one commentator said, there are times when good men must assume great severity of manner. and allow a holy indignation to fire their souls. Gentleness of style before bare-faced villainy is weakness and inefficiency. Had Nehemiah acted with a soft and effeminate method, the offenders would have laughed at him. God loves to guide with His eye, but sometimes He uses a thunderbolt, and Nehemiah actually uses a thunderbolt to deal with this. How important is marriage? Well, it's worth a thunderbolt to wake up the sleepy. And there are reasons that Nehemiah would act so strongly, and as I've tried to think through here, I've identified five reasons why it was required of him as a servant of God, as a preacher of the Word of God, to react so strongly. And the first is that he understood the command to Abraham. Remember when Abraham commanded his wisest, oldest a most trusted servant who controlled all of his affairs to go find a wife for Isaac. Do you remember what he said to him? He said, I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and of earth, you will not take a wife from my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but you will go to my country and to my family and take a wife for Isaac. You see, Nehemiah understood the Word of God. He was governing his life by the Word of God and he understood How wrong it would be to take a wife from pagans. The second is that he understood the command of Moses. In Deuteronomy chapter 7, 1 through 7, God through Moses tells the children of Israel that when they go into the land of Canaan, there are certain things that they must do and must not do. And He tells them this in verse 3 of Deuteronomy 7, Nor shall you make marriages with them nor give your daughter or son to them, for they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. So the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly." And then he says, and when you go in, don't marry their sons and daughters, but destroy their altars, destroy the paganism, burn them down with fire, you know, eliminate every form of paganism and don't marry them. That was Deuteronomy chapter 7. Third, he understood that God sent a plague and stopped a plague on the children of Israel, and it was over this...partly over this matter of marriage. It was stopped. There was a plague that was stopped when Phinehas raised up a spear with a...you know, because a man was parading with his Midianite wife, committing immorality, and he killed them. And God stopped the plague. It was so serious that it required such a thing. And he understood God's zeal for marriage and the purity of the people of God. Fourth, he understood the prophet Malachi. I already quoted it, he desires godly offspring. And fifth, he understood the tragedy which Hosea identified in Hosea 5.7. They have dealt treacherously with the Lord, for they have begotten pagan children." You know, it's a tragedy to beget pagan children. And these are the reasons, I believe, that Nehemiah responded so strongly. Nehemiah knew God. He knew the Word of God. And he was allowing the Word of God to shape his thinking about marriage. And as a result, it seemed right to him, and it was right to him, to respond strongly. Now Nehemiah did four things. First, he contended with them. In other words, he resisted them. And I, you know, I couldn't help but think of Proverbs 28 verse 4. which said this, those who forsake the law appraise the wicked, but such as keep the law, contend with them. If you keep the law, you're going to end up contending with the wicked. And that's what Nehemiah was doing. So the first thing he did is that he contended with them. He resisted them. And secondly, he cursed them. Now, what does that mean? not in the modern sense of the word cursed. He didn't use curse words toward them. That wasn't what he did. He brought about, he uttered a curse against them in the same way that we read about in Deuteronomy 28. He told them of how cursed it was toward them if they disobeyed the Lord, that your life is cursed because of disobedience. And in Deuteronomy 28, he says, If you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all his commands and his statutes, which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. And then he says, Cursed shall you be in the city. Cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall you be when you come in and when you go out. You know, when you turn away from the Word of God, you're cursed. And so, he was expressing that. And thirdly, it says he struck some and pulled out their hair. You know, one time I was in Australia preaching with Kevin Swanson. We were preaching all over the country. like all day long and he would go and I would go, he would go and I would go. And one time he was on the platform, I think it was in some town in Australia, and he jumped off, he was running, and he jumped off the platform and he grabbed my beard, barely, and was illustrating this scene in Nehemiah. So, Nehemiah struck them and he pulled their hair. Now, the pulling of hair Ken actually referred to shaving their hair, which was a declaration of shame. It can refer to that. Was he plucking out hair? We're not sure. The word can mean both things. And then it says he struck them. I think we need to recognize that Nehemiah lived in a different time, and the civil laws of the land were different. Like, for example, in Deuteronomy, the civil magistrates were given the rod to beat those no more than 40 lashes. So there was striking, there was actually striking as a civil punishment. of a crime. And so these days were different. I think we read it differently than perhaps they understood it at that time. But if you go to Deuteronomy 25, verses 3 and 4, you can understand how that is. Now, also, you know, this was a Persian...this was under Persian law as well. And, of course, Ezra and Nehemiah were attempting to bring biblical law into play. It was a strong reaction. Was it wrong of him to do this? My view is no, it wasn't wrong, and that he was acting in a godly way. And then, fourthly, he made them swear, he made all of them swear, not to give their sons and daughters to pagans. He made them say, we will never do this again. And this was, I think, a picture of discipline. It was a picture of resisting the works of the devil in the Old Testament church. And it's important that churches deal with sin, that proper, biblically ordered discipline is carried out in churches. Churches that neglect discipline, are they true churches? That's a good question. Churches that don't cleanse from paganism, are they true churches? Are people who claim to be Christians that don't deal with their paganism really Christians? Those are the questions that are really asked here. So Nehemiah is showing how to confront paganism and what he does is he brings about a strong reaction. First he makes an observation of the reality of the situation, then he engages in a very strong reaction. And then the third, he brings forth a vivid recollection and he takes the people back to an illustration of another person that he knows very well from the Word of God. That would be Solomon. And so he gives the example of Solomon to illustrate how damaging this is. And so in verse 26 and 27 we read, did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things? In other words, this is exactly what Solomon did. Yet among many nations there was no king like him. who was beloved of his God. And God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, pagan women caused even him. Do you see those words? Even him, even Solomon was movable by pagan marriage. And then verse 27, he says, should we then hear of your doing all this great evil transgressing against our God by marrying pagan women. He calls it a great evil. And Solomon's wives did turn his heart against God. And by the way, that sin, that sin eventually caused the division of the kingdom. It had a dramatic impact. And it was a terrible impact. You know, one leak in the boat can sink the whole boat. And this is why I think Nehemiah's words are very helpful. I cleanse them of everything pagan. Everything pagan. Anything pagan can sink your ship and it can cause dramatic impacts for many, many years. And that's exactly what happened to Solomon. You know, they knew better. And if you turn to 1 Kings 11, I'd like you to do that. Turn to 1 Kings 11, and we'll read what was in the back of Nehemiah's mind, because his thinking had really been shaped by God and His Word. And he's reflecting back on King Solomon. Now, if you're going to 1 Kings 11, I'd like you to open your Bibles up. We're going to begin in verse 1. But in 1 Kings 3, we learn that Solomon was making a slow trajectory toward this. In chapter 3, verse 1, he made a treaty with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and then he married Pharaoh's daughter. And he was just moving along this trend line. You know, these things don't happen in a moment, they happen over time. And that's what happened with Solomon. And in 1 Kings 11, we read that King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. from the nations whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, you shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after other gods." And he's quoting Moses here in 1 Kings. And then we read, Solomon clung to these wives in love. And he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. And verses 4 and 5 are so tragic to read. For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David. And verse 7 is even more stunning. Then Solomon built a high place for Shemosh, the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the people of Ammon." This trajectory of paganism took him to the place where it seemed reasonable for him to offer children, the babies of Israel, as child sacrifices. So the littlest vestige of paganism is dangerous. And that's why Nehemiah says, I cleanse them from everything pagan, everything. Get it all out. Sweep it all out. Get rid of every bit of it. And then verse 8 in 1 Kings 11, and he did likewise with all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. Well, these are tragic results of it all. And Malachi 2 does address this in Malachi 2, verse 11, because Malachi is the prophet who's speaking during this time. And so, you know, there was a vivid recollection. You know, your life is either going to be an example and an inspiration to turn away from evil, or your life is either going to be an example and an inspiration to incline your life toward paganism. And all husbands and wives need to ask themselves that question this morning. Is there anything in your marriage that's inclining you and your children toward paganism? Is there anything? Is there anything? Because God has given you the responsibility to cleanse of everything pagan. This is the Christian life. This is the true Christian life. everything pagan. And so after this illustration, that Nehemiah gives, he engages in what I'm calling an appropriate separation. And here, Nehemiah deals with the religious compromisers that are around him in the worship of God, in Jerusalem, in the temple, and he speaks of it in verses 28 and 29, because he must separate himself and the people of God from everything pagan in the worship of God, in the temple of God. And so, verse 28, and one of the sons of Joida, the son of Eliashib, the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Now, whenever I say Sanballat the Horonite, everybody's supposed to go, ssss, you're supposed to hiss and boo, because he's really the bad guy in the entire narrative. And so he says, therefore I drove him from me. Remember them, oh my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. So even the priests were marrying pagans. And now the grandson of the high priest is married to the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite. And, you know, the law of God was very clear in Leviticus 21 is a very clear prohibition of the priests marrying foreigners. And the, you know, the potentiality here was that any person in the high priestly lineage could become the high priest. Imagine, imagine if the perspectives of Sanballat took hold in the form of the high priest. That was the trajectory that they were on. And Nehemiah said, no more trajectory in that way, and he chases him out of the temple. And remember, he had already thrown Tobiah's stuff out of the temple, because he was occupying a room. Now he chases these people out of the temple. He removes him from office, is what he does. So Nehemiah is showing how to confront paganism. And here, this is the making of appropriate separations. Disengaging from certain people that are encouraging paganism. That's what he's doing here. It really has its focus in the worship of God. And so he was chased out of the temple. He was removed because of the paganism that he was bringing into the worship of God. And then the fifth thing that Nehemiah does is he presents a life-giving agenda. Not only does he cleanse, but he restores. And to me, these verses are so helpful to understand the heart of Nehemiah and and how connected he was with true salvation. So in verse 30, and in the first part of verse 31, we find what his agenda was. This was Nehemiah's agenda, and I would just like to suggest that this was the heart of his agenda. Thus, I cleanse them from everything pagan, And then notice these words, and I want you to be very careful to understand what he's doing. I also assigned duties to the priests and the Levites, each to his service, and to bringing the wood offering and the first fruits at appointed times. And so what we see Nehemiah doing in general terms is that he removes, but he replaces. He doesn't just take things away, He restores with life-giving things. And that's what we find Him doing. He not only cleansed of everything pagan, He is establishing positive activities to replace those things. And when you remove paganism, what do you replace it with? You replace it with godly things. That's what He does. I think this might have some reflection on what Jesus talked about in Matthew chapter 12 when He said, when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none. Then He says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself. and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first, so it shall be with this wicked generation." Jesus is talking about people who get very disturbed about their sin, they begin to hate their sin, they see how damaging it is, they see that the devil is truly stinking lousy, he'll make you stupid, he'll mess you up. They realize that, they feel really bad about it, they feel so bad about it, They might even act like Judas did, who repented, had remorse, gave the money back, said he was sorry. And they feel really bad about it, but they don't. They clean the house, but they don't replace it. But Nehemiah comes and replaces it with something better. I want us to observe four things that he replaces it with. And this should help us also to understand what we replace our paganism with. First of all, he restores the service of the priests. He mentions the priests first, and he puts the priests back to work in the work that they were called to do. And the priests were to consecrate themselves before God, and the priests dealt with offenses toward God. You can read all about this in Leviticus chapters 8 through 10. You can read about it in Numbers 18. You can read about it in Leviticus 1. But what you find here in the restoration of the service of the priest is a restoration of substitutionary atonement. It's turning to the cross of Jesus Christ. That's what this is, figurative. And that's why in Leviticus 1 verse 3 we read, let him offer a mail without blemish, he shall offer of it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. He does it of his own free will out of his heart of hatred toward sin and his desire for cleansing of his own sin and the cleansing of the sins of Israel. And so he offers a mail without blemish. That mail without blemish is a picture, it's a type, it's a prophecy of Jesus Christ, the Lamb without blemish who was slain. And so the first thing that one must do to replace the paganism is to return to Jesus Christ as the only substitute for sin and to recognize that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the priesthood. We see that very clearly in Hebrews chapter 10, that we have a high priest that we can draw near to with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. He who promised is faithful. And so returning to the priesthood, and in our case, New Testament believers to return to Jesus Christ as the only atonement for your sin So he restores the priest the second thing is he restores the service of the Levites. Do you see that there in verse 30? now the Levites Were teachers, they were administrators in the Word of God. They led in the worship of God. In Nehemiah chapter 8, they were interpreting the law of God. So they were teachers and administrators to organize and bring forth the work of the worship of God. And he reestablished that. And then thirdly, he brought back the wood offering. This is the burnt sacrifice. In Leviticus 6, verse 13, we read, "...the fire shall always be burning on the altar, it shall never go out." To say that there's an everlasting covenant for an everlasting salvation, that the fire never goes out, He restored a constant supply of wood in order to tell the story that God's mercies are new every morning. He's faithful. He will never leave you or forsake you. The wood will never run out and the fire of atonement will never run out for you. And then, fourthly, he reestablishes the first fruits. So these four things, the priests, the Levites, the wood offering, and then finally, the first fruits. What's the first fruit offering reflected of? It's reflective of the fact that everything in your life belongs to God. And you demonstrate that by giving of your first fruits. You give the first and the best of what God gives you, the first and the best of your time, the first and the best of your paycheck, the first and the best of the gain on material things, the first and the best of everything, the first fruits, that God has your best, not your worst. Malachi addresses this as well. He says, you're bringing the lame and the blind. He says, you wouldn't even bring it to your governor. But Nehemiah is restoring the firstfruits. And to restore firstfruits in your life, really, it's a matter of the heart that says, I want the very best of my life. I want everything in my life to be under the government of God and to belong to God, to be useful to God. I want to be a servant of God. I want to be a slave of my king. And I want everything in my life to reflect that. And therefore, the very first and the best of everything will go to God, not the worst and not the last, not the dregs, not the bottom of the barrel, but the very best. And then finally, Nehemiah. Nehemiah works toward the cleansing of everything really through a prayer, his final prayer. It's a prayer for preserving the good that he did. And so he says, remember me, oh my God, for good. Now, if you remember back, this is the third prayer in Nehemiah 13. You know, Nehemiah first deals with the corruption of the worship of God, and he prays, Lord, remember me. And then he restores the Sabbath, and then he prays in verse 14, or in verse 22, remember me. And then finally, after dealing with this matter of marriage, he says, oh Lord, remember me. He's working on various fronts of paganism that have invaded people's lives. And my view is that if you look at these prayers, they're prayers of humility. They're prayers of a recognition of his own sinfulness. Like in verse 14, he says, Lord, remember me, oh my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done in the house of my God and for its services. And then in verse 22, he says, remember me, oh my God, and spare me. according to the greatness of your mercy. I think these are humble prayers. And this is a picture of a man whose face is before God. And his face is before God, and so he recognizes that God is working through him, but he also recognizes his weakness. And he recognizes that he needs God's mercy. Maybe in the same way that Spurgeon said that even in your repentance, you must repent because your repentance is so imperfect. And I think he's recognizing that. And but Nehemiah is a man who lives before the face of God. And he's always relating with God. He's always wanting to know what God thinks. He's always casting his life upon God. And we learn that really in this prayer. Interestingly enough, we encounter these words, Lord, remember me, in another place. We encounter them at the cross of Jesus Christ. In Luke 23, this is the exact prayer of the thief on the cross. He says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Remember me, Lord. Take me. I want to be yours. And I think that's what that prayer is at the very last. Lord, I want you. I want your good to rule and reign. Have mercy on me, a sinner. So that's how Nehemiah ends right there. And I just want to bring us a number of applications. And of course, the first one is really obvious. What kind of paganism exists that needs to be rooted out? Am I flirting with paganism? You know, the materialism that is causing me to withhold tithes and offerings as Nehemiah deals in the first section. You know, am I asleep on the Sabbath? and I'm being deprived of the delight that God has for me because I'm so worried about this world and everything, and I don't delight in the Sabbath, and I'm working and I'm playing and I'm jiving around because my jive has become my food. Has that happened? Or my marriage, you know. You know, any of the paganism that caused you to enter your marriage, is it still alive? Are you still seeking your own glory? Is your marriage still about your own lust? Is your marriage about you or is it about the glory of God? You know, these are all manifestations of paganism in the various categories of life that Nehemiah is dealing with. You know, the final scene of the Old Testament is a people who can't keep their covenants. Because all these things that Nehemiah addresses here in chapter 13, they made a covenant that they would never do in chapter 10. And so the Old Testament, in some ways, it kind of ends with a whimper, in a way. And I think there are a number of things that we should take from that. Even our most honest efforts, our most genuine, passionate, pure motives are not without mixture. And we'll always be people who need the blood of Jesus Christ, always. And whatever reformations that have taken place, we shouldn't trust in them. because they can fall so easily as they fell here. These things have been written as an example for all those who have reformed some area of their life and think everything is okay. Guess what? We're not okay because there is remaining sin and we should be very careful not to be proud about any single thing that's been reformed in our lives. You know, Nehemiah shows us how inconsistent and flaky the Church of God can be, and it should be a caution to all of us. And I think it's healthy for us to realize the frailty of the Church of Jesus Christ. It's healthy for us to sing, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. It's healthy to recognize that. And as we look back at this testimony of Nehemiah, we see the rocky road of Reformation and the difficulties that took place and the challenges and the sins and the pressures and the trials. And a lot of times those things they cause sin to rise up in our hearts. And as they did here. But what we find is also is that God God sustains his church and he he he never leaves or forsakes his church. The other side of the coin of Nehemiah is that God sent Nehemiah to reform and restore. God is faithful. He sends his word, and he is sending Malachi at this very same time. God does not abandon his people, and he doesn't give up on his church. And by the way, he doesn't give up on you if you're a Christian. But maybe you're like Sanballat and his relatives living in the temple, and you're going through the motions, but your heart really doesn't love the things of the kingdom of God. And paganism is just okay with you. And you give it a pass because you just don't care. Here's what that means. It means that you're not a child of God. That's what it means. But if you see your paganism and it disturbs you, and you're turning away from it, and you're bringing your sins before the cross of Jesus Christ, and continuing to set aside the paganizing things, then praise God. I think Paul summed it up very well in 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1. And I want to close the sermon with these words from heaven. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Let's be a church like that. Let's pray. Lord, Lord, we thank you that you have demonstrated such mercy and kindness and forbearance toward your church. how You have provided a substitute, a perfect, pure substitute for our sins, that You have provided worship for us, You've provided Your Word for us, You've provided many illustrations for why we should turn toward You and hate every vestige of paganism that exists, Lord, even giving us the example of Solomon. Lord, we thank You that all these things have been written for our example. And Father, I pray that You would descend upon us as a little church here in Wake Forest, and that You would make us a holy people, that we would be a people who would be known by You as a people who are cleansing themselves from everything pagan. Oh God, that you would make us a people like that. And a people whose hearts are so aware of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, of his substitutionary atonement on the cross, and how you set sinners free, and you do forgive them, and you forgive them for all eternity. by the work of Your eternal Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.