Nehemiah is praying to God. He says, Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there. They are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name and give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Now I was cupbearer to the king. This evening we are finishing chapter one of our Nehemiah series. We're very new in it. It's only the third installment. And it includes the balance of Nehemiah's great prayer to God. Well, let's follow his example and pray to God ourselves here tonight. Now Father, fill us with your Holy Spirit. Give us the fullness of who Jesus Christ is. We love the Lord's Day. It's the special holy day, and we want to take full advantage of it. So give us all of your Son tonight, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So if you were here last Sunday evening, I know not all of you were, we started Nehemiah's prayer to God. It was a heartfelt petition filled with praise of the great triune God, Yahweh, And it was filled with supplication for the beleaguered church, in their case in Jerusalem, that was having lots of trouble. And it also included confession of sin. That would be the whole community's sin, Nehemiah's family's sin, and Nehemiah his own sin was completely confessed as well. In tonight's text, Nehemiah completes his prayer before God, again appealing to God's covenantal nature. And that's a key point, not only in Nehemiah, but throughout the Bible, the covenantal nature of God. He is totally a covenantal God. and by referencing God's redemption of his people, and by taking advantage of the station and position that God had put Nehemiah in as the king's cupbearer. We're going to read that tonight as well. Nothing is wasted in prayer and everything is covered. And that's what we see in this book's namesake, Comprehensive Petition of Almighty God, which provides for us a good model and template of how to pray as well. So let's make it our goal this evening to pray with confidence since regenerate churchmen possess Christ by faith. We're looking together at Nehemiah 1, verses 8 through 11. The title of the sermon is Nehemiah's Prayer Part 2, and here's where we would begin our work in the outline if you're interested. The doctrine, effective prayer, includes reminding God of his covenant with his church. Now, it's not that God ever forgets anything. That would be impossible for God to forget anything. God knows everything in an eternal instant. He sees it all together all the time. He knew the beginning from the end, the end from the beginning. Everything is together with him. We see things in a line, God sees it in an instant. He doesn't forget anything, but the Lord delights to have us, his beloved children, remind him, if you will, of his promises and his grace to us as his church. To bring to his divine mind the glories of who he is. It's kind of like a parent. Sometimes the parents, grandparents, we like to have our children just or other children in the church that we minister to just to remind us of something that we had promised them perhaps or part of our character that they really appreciate that they want to see fulfilled. So, effective prayer includes reminding God of His covenant with His Church, and this puts the onus, O-N-U-S, onus of success on the Lord. Now I understand that that word onus might not be that well known. What it means is, the burden or the responsibility, if you will. It puts it on the Lord. We'll see where he is the main carrier of it. It's always interesting and informative to note how a lot of the biblical prayers in both the Old and New Testaments are framed. They're often expressions of human need and grief and misery and trial and hardship, and therefore people come to God in prayer. And then the answers to the problems we all find ourselves in are sought in what God alone can and will do. Based on His promise in His covenant of grace, which is totally fulfilled now in the New Covenant Church, in the person and blood and body and righteousness of Jesus Christ, who was risen from the dead. So the promises of God are all yes and amen in Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 1, and that is a blessing for us. And then, only then, after God's role is established by us, even in our prayers, it's understood that as a concomitant to our prayer being offered to God, we the people of God who are offering this prayer, who have reminded God who He is in covenant, we then also We consecrate ourselves to him, we repent of our sins, and we also commit ourselves anew and afresh to the covenant of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ in the context of his visible and faithful church. So the Lord is being reminded of his gracious gospel promises by the great Nehemiah here, and those promises apply to the wonderful people that he had established the gospel in the Old Testament, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. through whom we enjoy the blessings of the covenant in fullness in Jesus today. As you know, Abraham, the father of our faith. So these promises become the foundation stones in the person of Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone of God's grace and mercy to us. And in answer to prayers, God relents from judgment and exercises mercy. Now one classic example of this, where a human being is a type of Christ, is taken from Exodus chapter, Deuteronomy, excuse me, 927, where after the Israelites had created the golden calf and bowed down and worshipped it, Moses comes down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments and he sees what they've done, He then intercedes for the people, and he reminds God, God, your covenant God, sure you could destroy these people, but you have made your promises. And God relents from destroying the people at that time. And Jesus Christ, of course, is the ultimate mediator, the one mediator between God and men, 1 Timothy 2.5. So, effective prayer includes reminding God of his covenant with his church. This puts the onus of success on the Lord, even as it rightly humbles us, the supplicants. Now, a supplicant is a person making the prayer. So, when proud sinners are brought low enough to recognize that they themselves can do nothing to extricate themselves from their sin and the consequences thereof, then the benefits of humility and faith and grace and life in covenant begin to kick in. And that's what Nehemiah is asking for. After all, none of us in our flesh come to Jesus first with any of our struggles. Instead, all of us seek to get the resolution through our own efforts or some other human contrivance and device. But once the gospel principle of who Jesus Christ is and what he is in the covenant, and the promises God has made, and how he is the fulfillment of that, once we trust God enough, know he loves us, we love him, we're in covenant, even though we're still sinners, we begin to trust him, and it takes root in our redeemed nature in Christ that we can depend upon him, and look to him first, not last, not second, but first, even as Nehemiah does here, and accept the stance of humility that is accompanying a desire to seek God in prayer. And that is also very important. So don't forget, dear saints, no prayer that's acceptable to the Lord is ever offered through anyone but Jesus Christ. And faith in him presupposes complete bankruptcy of the flesh, both of ourselves and others, and the total sufficiency of the triune God, who has given us everything we could possibly need or want. in his son Jesus, whose birth we celebrate in this season. And therefore, let us not, as Christian churchmen, ever be afraid, ashamed, or reticent to pray to God. If that's ever a temptation, please put it away. You are the ones that have the right access to God. You're the ones that are in covenant, those of you who are faithful in the church. and you should come to him. He is pleased with your petitions so long as they are bathed in faith in Jesus' atoning provisions and you are faithful in him and his covenant." So effective prayer includes reminding God of his covenant with his church and now from the text Let's discover what to keep in mind when offering prayers for the church. So there's some helpful principles for intercession taken from the excellent pattern of Nehemiah's prayer that we finish up tonight. So let's look at what to keep in mind when offering prayers for the church and remembering that the church is always the first object of our prayer. Whenever we have a list of prayer, we always start with the church. And that starts with those closest to us in the church, and it goes down through there. So the first thing is verses 8 and 9, the stipulations of the covenant, S-T-I-P-U-L-A-T-I-O-N-S. Children, that's conditions or the factors of the covenant, the parts of the covenant that are important. I'm trying to make this as simple as I can. But let's look at verses 8 and 9 for a moment. It says, Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there." So there are two stipulations to the covenant here, two terms. The first is negative, and it's mentioned in verse 8b, if you are unfaithful, these horrible things will happen, and of course the Bible's just full of that, in both the Old and New Testament. And the second is positive, verse 9a, if you return to me, doesn't matter how far flung I've thrown you across the globe, I will bring you back to my house. In their time, it would be the temple in Jerusalem, today it would be the church, universal. So, here's something to remember, dears, that this prayer opened in verse 5 with an appeal to God as the perfect covenant keeper. I want to challenge this, let's look at that. And I said, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Nehemiah started this prayer not with the trouble in Jerusalem, the people there, but with God himself, reminding God that he is the covenant keeper perfectly. And therefore, even though these stipulations in verses 8 and 9 appear on the surface to imply that the covenant success is in our hands or is somehow really dependent upon us, we need to be very careful there. The reality is that in God's providence, sovereignty, and grace, He, the Lord Himself, secures and guarantees the fulfillment and completion of the covenant in the person of Jesus Christ through simple faith and abiding in Him in the context of the covenant, i.e. the Church, the visible new covenant Church, which you are. The stipulations are important, but they're simple. They're impossible to keep without the grace of God, but they are marvelous. And they are all accomplished by God. Because He's the one that regenerates people, He's the one that keeps people faithful in His covenant. So, in truth, all of us, at one time or another, either did or do, even now, stray from the Lord. Right? I mean, even the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 2, we read about it this morning. Paul's calling them back to Jesus, to the gospel he had preached to them. He determined to know nothing but Christ Jesus and him crucified. And this is the key for us. That we come back through the preaching of the gospel in the context of the church. And when we do that, notice how dramatic God's work is for His covenant children. Verse 9 says that no matter how far away they had been cast from Him, the Lord would nonetheless, in His infinite grace, bring them back to His church, His temple, His place of worship. And actually, that had already happened. I don't know if you were here a couple weeks ago, we went through that introduction, we shared all those dates when Cyrus told the people they could go back into Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, and they had done that. Now they were in a bad way, but God had already done a marvelous thing. Let's remember when we're interceding before God for either ourselves, the church, and those yet far away for whose souls we pray that we come to God in covenants. And He is the perfect covenant-keeping God. So, keeping in mind these things as we offer prayers for the church. The stipulations of the covenant, now verses 10 through 11b, the subjects of the covenant. I'm going to be using some alliteration here. They are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name. And give success to your servant today and grant him mercy on the side of this man. That is the king, Artaxerxes, with whom Nehemiah will be chatting and asking for a favor. But here, in verses 10 and 11 through B, part of that verse, observe how often the word servants or servant is used. There are four references. In other words, though the people in Jerusalem were in great distress and reproach, to quote from verse 3, and though they had sinned a whole lot, as verses 6 and 7 say, nonetheless, they, this is key there, they were still in the covenant. They had not utterly forsaken or abandoned the church or the old covenant temple. They were still God's special object or objects of his favor and his grace and his mercy. Now people that are outside the covenant, they're on their own. These promises don't apply to them. They might be in Christ, we're not judging that, but they have no assurances. They can receive no absolution because they're not in covenant. But these people here, even in Jerusalem with all the trouble, they were still in covenant. And they're the objects of God's special bond of affection. And Nehemiah even affirms in verse 10 that the Lord had redeemed them, those who were languishing in Jerusalem. His immediate prayer in this context, and this is interesting, I challenge you with this too, a person, even a child, in the covenant, faithful, and of course a child's faithfulness is largely dependent upon the parent's faithfulness, is assumed to be in the Christ of the covenant. And even adults who can come to church and hear the gospel week after week after week in a faithful church are assumed to be in Christ, in the covenant. So the prayers that, for instance, Nehemiah is offering, and you read in the Bible, and it has to do with covenant, they're not, hey, save these people. It's not like, you know, they're lost and save them. No, it's assumed they're in, but they do have needs. They have great needs for relief, ennoblement, leadership, and provision. And that's what the people in Jerusalem needed as well. Now, this will all be more evident with regard to the request Nehemiah will make of Artaxerxes, because really that's why Nehemiah wanted to make the request, so that he could go and meet those needs by God's grace, be incarnated there as the person God sent to Jerusalem to help the people. And indeed, you know the story, he did that. So at the end of his prayer here in verse 11 A and B, Nehemiah is gearing up for that big moment with the King Artaxerxes and he's asking God for success in that endeavor. And that's what's meant by these words, and give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Of course, that man is this king. And remember that Nehemiah had taken four months between the time of hearing of the trouble in Jerusalem and even approaching Artaxerxes, which again is incredibly instructive. And that's where his victory was won as he sought not the help of man, but the help of God. And then he procured it. And when the time was right, he acted on it. So let us, like Nehemiah, and like our Lord Jesus, remember always to pray for the covenant community of the body of Christ first. And in so doing, we glorify God, build up the church, and bless the whole world. So what to keep in mind? The stipulations, the subjects, and finally, verse 11, see a very, very key profound point in this book, and that is the sovereign design of the covenant. Now I was cupbearer to the king." So we didn't even know that until we read it here. Of course, most of us have read the book of Nehemiah several times, so we understand it, but all this that preceded doesn't express that until the very end. So now he expresses that he's the cupbearer. to the king. Now it was no accident that Nehemiah was the king's cupbearer. That wasn't chance or happenstance. It was God's sovereign design for him. And it was also true that Nehemiah had to petition Artaxerxes. Or to put it another way, someone had to ask Artaxerxes for this favor. I mean, really, in a very real sense, the human side of the story was absolutely necessary. But in God's sovereignty, God used even these human beings, including our Xerxes. And again, it's the king of Persia. We just had our Esther study not too long ago, and we saw how Ahasuerus was used by God as well, the king of Persia at that time. So the sovereign providence of God. Here's the thing, you dear Redeemerite, Presbyterian, Calvinist, believers in sovereignty. Your lives are divine appointments too, every single one of you, young and old. And you want to seek the best in Jesus Christ. Your lives are designed in covenant to honor God in Christ, to forward the gospel, build up the church, and bless the earth. You are not an arbitrary result of chance and serendipity. You are the crafting of Almighty God in total perfection. Psalm 139. And you are special because you are the objects of God's grace. You are the jewels and gems of the earth. You are the royalty of heaven. Nehemiah knew that the rules and the culture and the discussions that took place in the presence of the Persian monarch, because he was there a lot in important times holding the cup, and sipping it, but he understood that his request to be made in Chapter 2 was not a slam dunk. He was not proud or arrogant or presumptuous. He didn't just say to himself, well, you know, I know Artist Xerxes likes me, I'm a really great guy, I've done a great job, I'm very faithful, and this is an easy thing. Not at all. Again, he spends four months thinking about it, praying over it, crafting the words that he's going to use, and the timing for making the request. And it's all here at chapter 1. Then chapter 2 flushes it out. So dears, as you know, we always look at the doctrine, do some exegesis or explanation or exposition of the Bible. And now we're going to do some more application. Let's consider and learn how God conveys C-O-N-V-E-Y-S, the church from real trouble to a lively hope. Conveys means brings, if you will, children. Brings would be fine. How God brings or conveys the church. Things were falling apart in Jerusalem, but this wasn't the time for despair or despondency. Rather, it was the opportunity to trust God and see him do amazing things. And that's what challenges for us, too. So, how the Lord conveys the Church from real trouble to lively hope? By inspiring us to appeal to his gracious nature in Christ. That's the key, the gracious nature of God in Christ. The Holy Spirit does that. He inspires you, leads you, encourages you to avail yourself of the gracious, covenant nature of God in Christ. He's already given you everything that you could ever want. How is he going to withhold any other gift from you? So if we can grasp even a little bit of this, it will go a long way toward our life, our joy, our hope, our change, our happiness, and our eternal and temporal satisfaction. So Nehemiah does not start with man in his prayer, but with God. And Nehemiah does not depend on how good the church had been. He doesn't say to God, you know, God, those people in Jerusalem, they've just been hunky-dory. They deserve it. They deserve your favor. Not at all. Instead, he appeals to how faithful and good God has been in his covenant-keeping to his people in the church, expressed in, to, and through the line of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, the new covenant promise in Jeremiah, and then finally the total and complete fulfillment of it in the person and work of Jesus Christ himself. And it's totally fulfilled today. So, this is how we should come to God. You might say, is there any stipulation? Is there any condition? Yeah, faith and faithfulness. Are you a faithful member of the faithful church, the visible church? and you love and know and believe in Jesus Christ, then you ought to come to God with all of your petitions, thanks, praise, and intercessions, and desires. By inspiring us to appeal to His gracious nature in Christ, our Lord releases us from everything that binds us. Nehemiah, this is interesting, Darius, because Nehemiah's going to get the go-ahead from Artaxerxes, and actually even after four months of really being concerned about it, and enough to pray a lot about it, it's very smooth. It's no problem. It's like, yeah, we trust you, we believe you, we have confidence in you, go do it. He gets the go-ahead, He will get the wall built in 50 some days, 52 I think, something like that, very fast, not even two months. And he's going to lead the people in Jerusalem very well, so well that some people will wonder if he's the Messiah to come, and he of course denies that. And his enemies are so upset with him because he has done such a good job of leading the people there and so many good things have happened. Before it was all in a shambles and now it's coming together. Good things were happening, but here's the key, there's none of this came easily. If you write those words down, it's important. Nothing he does in this book came easily. not getting the request out four months, not getting to Jerusalem, getting the wall built, fighting off enemies, getting slandered, receiving evil reports and evil letters, scaring him, seeking to intimidate him, stop the work, all that kind of stuff. It was really, really hard. And this is the key. This work of Christian ministry, this life of faith, is not easy. He had to continue to trust and pray all through the process. He didn't stop praying. Once he was there, he said, sure, go. He continues to pray. And we'll see a lot of prayers in reference to prayers and some very short prayers. So it is with us, dears, in Christ. Church life is a journey, an adventure, a battlefield, a place of rest, peace, and love. But Jesus went through all of it for us already. He's paved the way for us. And since he is the church's high priest, let us follow him into the throne room of grace and pray and worship God through him, trusting in Jesus' shed blood and glorious resurrection. So, beloved, Nehemiah's prayer part two is bathed in the blood atonement of Christ. By faith, let our souls be as well. Let's pray and join in this chorus of praise. Thank you, Father, for what you did for Nehemiah and for the church in those days and what you're doing today for the church today as well. We know that you have provided everything we could possibly need or want in the Lord Jesus Christ and nothing can thwart you or in any way stop you. We thank you that you're a sovereign God. We bless you and praise you for your kindness being a covenant keeping God. that you have provided us everything we need in the person of Jesus. Thank you that this covenant, though simple and streamlined, especially in the New Testament, is serious and beautiful and supernatural and is evidence of God himself at work in us. We thank you for Jesus, the one who's done all the work for us and has provided us everything good in himself. We pray in his name. Amen.