And I invite the rest of you to open your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 5. And we're going to be looking at Nehemiah chapter 5 verses 1 through 19 in our series that we call Rebuilding. So if you haven't been with us, we've been going through the history of Nehemiah, seeing how they've been rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem that had been destroyed. They're trying to revive the good things that God has given them in the past so that they can provide a better future for their children. And we're thinking too, what are some of the traditions, some of the good things that God has given to us in the past that we need to restore if our children are gonna be having a better future as well. But in this particular bit of Nehemiah's history, we're gonna be seeing that trouble often comes from inside the walls of God's family. It's not just the enemies, those who hate the Lord, who are outside the walls, but we have plenty of our own trouble, plenty of our own drama inside the family of God as well. And a question we could consider is, how do we respond when God's people fail us? Let's think about that as we study God's history and his word. But before we do, let's offer this prayer. God, we pray that you give us wisdom and clarity into what your word speaks to us. We could not do this rightly if it was not for the gift that you gave to us on that Pentecost Sunday. That we would have the Holy Spirit given to the men who wrote your words on paper, that we would be able to read it and understand it today. It would not be, this would not be if it was not for the men and the women who've done the work of translating the Bible into our language. If you had not been protecting their hands, their understanding, And if it's not for the Holy Spirit you've placed into us, we would not be able to read it and truly grasp what it is that you want us to know and to do. So Lord, bless us with your Holy Spirit as we study your truth today. Father, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So friends, I now invite you to stand in body or in spirit as we look together at Nehemiah chapter 5, starting with verse 1. Hear these words of the Lord. Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. For there were those who said, with our sons and daughters, we are many, so let us get grain that we may eat and keep alive. And there were also those who said, we are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine. And there were those who said, We have borrowed money for the king's tax on the fields and our vineyards. Now our flesh is as of the flesh of our brothers and our children as are their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved. But it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards. I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. I took counsel with myself and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, you are exacting interest from each his brother. And I held a great assembly against them and said to them, We, as far as we are able, have brought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us. They were silent and could not find a word to say. So I said, the thing that you're doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations of our enemies? Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them. Then they said, we will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say. and I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised. I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, so may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who do not keep this promise, so may he be shaken out and emptied. And all the assembly said amen and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised. Moreover, From the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor. The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily rations 40 shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded over the people, but I did not do so because of the fear of the Lord. I also persevered in the work on this wall, and we acquired no land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work. Moreover, there were at my table one hundred and fifty men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. Now what was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox and six choice sheep and birds, and every 10 days, all kinds of wine in abundance. Yet for all of this, I did not demand the food allowance of the governor because the service was too heavy on this people. Remember for my good, oh my God, all that I have done for this people. The brothers and sisters, the grass withers, the flower fades. You can be seated. So one of the common responses people give when they are trying to reject coming to church, often people will say, I don't want to go to church. The church is full of hypocrites. Anyone ever hear this accusation before? Yeah, and when they say, okay, the church is full of hypocrites, they usually have some examples of injustice done by church leaders. You know, pastors, elders, or other people in the church that have done abuse, whether it be verbal abuse, sexual abuse, financial abuse. And we hear these stories, and we have to acknowledge that, yeah, unfortunately far too many of those stories are true. Now when we think of it, and our experience of being inside the church, we could add a few of our own complaints to this list too, right? Unfortunately so. So is the church full of hypocrites? It certainly is. But is that the reason we should stop going to church? No, the fact that we're hypocrites is the very reason that we're here. Because any place there's people, you're gonna find hypocrites. None of us lives up to the righteousness that is put into our consciences. God's law is written into our hearts whether we want to acknowledge it or not, and yet none of us, by our own strength, by our own wisdom, by our own niceness, none of us can live up to the righteous requirements of God's law. We are all hypocrites. But only in the church, only through the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed does a hypocrite have any hope of becoming anything more than a person who wears a mask that says one thing, but behind that mask is somebody far more foul. And so we, because of our hypocrisy, we turn to the Lord. And we see an example of such hypocrisy being given by God's people here in the history of Nehemiah. And so let's unpack a little bit of the scenario of what's happening. We read first in verse one and verse two. Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. For there were those who said, with our sons and our daughters we are many, so let us get grain that we may eat and keep alive. So here we've been studying the history of God's people trying to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. There have been many people who have left their fields, left their family businesses in order to do this grueling work on the wall day and night. They are laboring away of one sort or another, doing it with a sword and a hand because they have enemies who are seeking to put them to death. And while they've been leaving their fields, leaving their family businesses, who's gonna be providing for them? And what's going to happen to the fields if there's no one who's working in them? And so we find is of these families that are doing this great work for the Lord, they're beginning to starve. They're running out of food. They're running out of money. And so they're starting to get desperate. And they're starting to do some math here. And they're realizing, you know what? Let me count up all the people who are part of our family. Our families, those of us who are starving, there's a lot more of us than those who have all the food, all the money right now. Maybe we should just take the food for ourselves. They're starting to get desperate, which I don't want to say that that desire with them is good. Would that not be a natural way for people to start thinking? If you cannot feed your children, what extent would you go to to make sure that your children would not starve? And so we see that there is a very real problem that is taking place here in Jerusalem. But there's more complaints. There were those who said, we are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine. So it seems like maybe there's also an additional problem going on, that there is a famine that is lasting in the land. So we see that there are all sorts of troubles that are coming upon God's people as they're trying to follow His commandments and His will. But for those who had land, who had businesses, things of worth, because they are desperate, what are they doing? They're selling them off, their businesses, their homes, so that they could be able to feed their children. But this is going to put them into an even deeper problem. That is their means of making money in the future, right? If you have no good, if you have no land, if you have no property, how are you going to provide for your children in the years to come? But right now they're so desperate where they realize that if we cannot feed our children today, we're not gonna be alive tomorrow. And so at what point are those goods going to be for us? So they're mortgaging and they're selling their stuff. But now we need to be asking a question right here. If the families that are so busy working on the walls, obeying the commandments of the Lord, if they're the ones who are being hardest hit by the lack of grain, then who are the people who have grain? who are the people who have the wealth that they could go and buy the land of others. Conceivably, these are gonna be those who aren't obeying the Lord. These are the ones who aren't helping in the building of the walls. And so what we see is that there are selfish people who are letting other people risk their safety to build the walls and financially profiting off the sacrifices of the selfless people. And so this is where the rich, they know that not only am I, at the end of this, am I going to have a wall that is going to keep me safe, but now I'm also going to have their houses, their fields for my future profit. Friends, if you couldn't tell already, this is an incredibly evil thing to do. But the complaints go on further. Verse 4. And there were those who said, we have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards. Let's keep in mind how this complaint is going to hit really close to home for Nehemiah. As we're complaining about the king's taxes, if you remember my description of Nehemiah before, the Bible says that he is the cupbearer to the king. And who is the cupbearer? Well, the cupbearer is the one who works at the right hand of the king. He is the one that the king trusts the most, but also the cupbearer in their culture was the treasurer. He is the one who received the taxes, who counted the taxes, who distributed the taxes that were taken from the people. And so it's the people who are complaining about these taxes that are being taken in the name of the king. What kind of position is that going to put Nehemiah? I would suspect that there would be a growing bitterness with Nehemiah here where the people could easily say, well of course you can demand that we leave our fields to build your wall. You're being bankrolled by our money. You're living off of the money that we've had to mortgage and sell our homes for. So Nehemiah, excuse me, He is being put into a difficult situation as well. Not that he was the one that had demanded this money from the people, but he's being implicated here, is he not? And then we see just how deep the darkness goes of what is happening within God's own people. They go on, they say, now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers. Our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves. And some of our daughters have already been enslaved. But it is not in our power to help it. For other men have our fields and our vineyards. So if you have no means of working your own land to bring in your own profit, then the money that you have, when that runs out, what is the one last resource that you have as your family? It is your children. And so this is where they are sending their children off into slavery. And so this here is rightfully a terrible position that they are being put in here. And there is much evil that is being done in the way that the people are treating those who are doing the work on the walls and those who have been hard hit by the famine. I do want to bring in some of the historical context just so we can really understand what is taking place here and why would a father in any condition be willing to sell and send their daughters off into slavery? And it's important to understand that the slavery that is spoken about in the Bible is not the same kind of slavery that happened in the early years of America. That was a form of slavery known as chattel slavery. That was a form of slavery where They would take people, they were taking the Italians, they were taking the Irish, and they were taking, most famously, the Africans, and they were treating them as if they were animals, as if they were livestock. They were taking them and treating them as if they were less than human, and abusing them for their own financial gain. So when we think of the word slavery, we think of American slavery. The slavery described in the Bible, when done properly, is a completely different kind of deal. The biblical model of slavery is actually a redemptive slavery, which even to say those two words together, because my mind is so full of the American history, to call slavery, a redemptive slavery. It sounds like a paradox right there, but it's not when we understand what was intended by the slavery that God spoke of in the Old Testament. And so we see that the slavery that God had allowed in those days was not one designed for taking the humanity and dignity away from somebody, but it was intended to be a way to restore somebody to a place of dignity. Taking someone who could not care for themselves and help put them back on their feet so that they could take care of themselves again. And so one of the things that we need to keep in mind is that when they would send their people, their children off to slavery, it's not like they were sending them away to some foreign nation where they would be beaten and abused in every kind. No. What they would do is, if they could not feed their children, if they could not take care of their children, they would send their children off to the nearest family member that could feed them and financially support them. So a father, if he had a brother who was not in that same kind of condition, would send them off so that your children, for a time, would be treated as their children. So let's think of this in something that would be more like our context, where let's say you've got a father who works in a factory, but that factory shut down, and so for a time he's laid off, and he's unable to find work for a while, and he reaches to a point where he cannot pay for the mortgage on his house, and they're about to lose his house, and they're wondering, how am I gonna be able to put enough food on the table to help feed my children? And so his brother, who is financially better off, says, how about this? I'll pay a few of your mortgage payments. I'll help to cover you for a period of time. But what I want is for you to send your daughter to me so I can feed her. I can make sure she has food, she has clothing, she has safety. But while she lives with me, she's going to work in my business. And while you're trying to help pay off your debts, she's also going to be working for me, working to pay off her debt. And once the two of you have enough money to pay me back for the money that I gave you, she can return back to your family. But if six years go by and you still have not been able to pay off the debt, then I'm going to count as if that debt is paid off. Because I'm not looking for somebody who is going to be my servant forever. My desire is that you as a father and you as a family are going to be able to live with dignity on your own. And so we see that this is meant to be redemptive. This is meant to be helpful to a family. But we see here the description that some of the daughters have already been enslaved. And so I know some people have read a passage like this and be like, well, why is it the daughter is being sent off into slavery? Why isn't it the sons? Is this some kind of sexism that's taking place? No, it's not. Because again, what is the condition in that father's home? He's not able to give food to his children. He's starving, he can't take care of himself and so, It is a form of mercy to the daughters. I mean, hey, I would love to have you here. I would prefer that, but I would rather for a period of time, I know you're in a place where you are being fed. But then there's also another factor when we look at what the Bible talks about in terms of how a slave or bond servant is the more gentle word, but it's the same word in the Hebrew and the Greek. But if you send your child off to be a slave or a servant of your family member, the price to pay off that slavery for a daughter is half of that of a son. Which again, some people have looked at the Bible and looked at the form of slavery and they're being like, oh, you think women are half as valuable as men? What is this, sexism? Again, no. Just think about this, what is it saying here? It's saying because we love our daughters so much, because we have such great compassion for the daughters, we don't want them to be in this condition as long as the sons. And so it's not saying that we see the daughters as less valuable, but we have a deeper compassion for the daughters and for the sons. For the sons, we say, you're tough. You can put up with slavery for your uncle a few years longer here. And so I'm spending a little bit more time trying to explain the context when this is not the main purpose of this passage, but I do this because when you read through the Old Testament, and I pray that when you read the Bible, you're reading all the Bible, not just your favorite New Testament verses, but even the Old Testament. When you come to some of these passages describing slavery in those days, and you're like, slavery? I was told that that was icky. What is God asking his people to do? I want you to know. When we do things according to the will and the commandments of God, it doesn't take the dignity or the humanity away from somebody. It is redemptive. It is restorative. So I want you to understand what it is when you read the Bible and to You know, when people outside the church, when they see certain verses cherry-picked, like this one here, and they go, what are you? Some kind of sexist? Be like, no! Let me explain it to you. Actually, this is a beautiful and compassionate thing that is taking place. If, if the people are doing things according to the word of God. However, there is a problem here. And part of the problem is that God's people are a bunch of hypocrites, right? And so what do we see is that God's people are not actually practicing redemptive slavery the way that He had intended it to be. But we see that there is some selfish and evil motives mixed in with this. Though it may not be as bad as the kind of slavery that took place in the other nations, we see that their hearts were not where they should have been. And so we look at more of this description of what the wealthy people were doing in those days. Nehemiah says, I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words, and I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, you are exacting interest each from his brother." So here we see that again, this is not the redemptive plan that God had, but this is an example of the rich getting richer by exploiting the poverty of the poor. the nobles and the officials who some of these may have been the ones who just were watching others build the walls they saw that their own family the broader family of Israel they were in a corner and they could not get themselves out of the dilemma that they have worked themselves into So instead of saying, hey, let me help cover you. While you're doing this good work for me, let me do something for you. No. As they were extending loans to the people, they were charging interest on those loans, which God's own commandment says that the people of Israel, people within God's family, were not to exact interest against their brothers and their sisters. Why? Because when we extend loans, gifts to those who are part of God's family, our purpose here is to restore someone, not to make a profit off of that person. So we see that they were not being kind and sincere in their motives. There was a selfishness that was mixed in. They were hypocrites. And so, what do we do with hypocrites? What is the response? Well, we see that Nehemiah calls them out. He doesn't let them continue in their sins. He calls them out. He says, return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them. So Nehemiah demands that they give everything back, including not just the land, but in the interest that they have illegally taken, taken against the commandments of God. And what did God's people do when they had been called out for the evil that they were doing? Verse 12, then they said, we will restore these things and require nothing from them. We will do as you say. And I called the priests and they made them swear to do as they had promised. So we see good news here. that the wealthy people who've been taking advantage of their brother's poverty, they acknowledged their sins and they repented of their sins and they returned the land and the goods and everything to them. And it says that they did that that very day. And so this is where we see that our God's people, hypocrites, yes, but by the grace of God, our hypocrisy does not look the same as others. Because by the grace of God, by the working of the Holy Spirit in us, when our sins are brought to our attention, Because of that Holy Spirit, it grieves our heart. It breaks our heart when we see our sins. That's not gonna be something that happens apart from the Holy Spirit. Because there are a lot of times where you see people outside the church, outside of God's family, where if they're called out for something that they've done wrong, they feel bad, but it is our human nature to feel bad for being caught, not to feel bad for doing wrong and offending God. because we've been people who've been given the Holy Spirit. Again, remembering the gift that was given to us on Pentecost. We can acknowledge our sins, and when we do, we feel truly sorry for it. And if you feel truly sorry, you're gonna say, My own sin is gross. I don't want to belong to that anymore. And that we turn from it. And so this is what we see, is that because these people, even though they had been doing terrible evil to their own family, their own nation, when they were called out for it, they acknowledged it and they turned from their sins. This is something you see among God's people in a way that you aren't going to see from those who do not have the gifts and the blessings of God. And let's just think about this. All right, here we have examples of politicians and wealthy people who've been caught committing a crime. What do we see in the world today? What is our expectation of wealthy people and politicians who've been caught taking advantage of other people? Are they gonna go, you're right, I'm going to give everything back. Is that typically what happens? No. Now I do think it does happen from time to time. But human nature, apart from the gift of God, we are going to be people who are going to dodge, we're going to deceive, we're going to do anything to be able to move on and say, I don't know what you're talking about. No. The hypocrisy of God's people does have a hope. We don't have to stay the same way. And by the grace of God, we will not stay the same way. Because as God is rebuilding Jerusalem in these days of Nehemiah, he's rebuilding more than just the walls. He's rebuilding the people. He's rebuilding their hearts. He's rebuilding their worship. And we see this example being demonstrated by Nehemiah himself. A little later on, he explains that the former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily rations 40 shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so because of the fear of the Lord. So Nehemiah is not acting like the governors who came before him and he says the reason why he lives differently than the other men is because he has the fear of the Lord. Just something we read earlier that Nehemiah was demanding of the nobles and the officials. Walk in the fear of the Lord. Now, does a governor have the legal right to collect taxes from the people? They do. They have a right because they are doing a business that is meant for the good and the service of God's people. And in order to perform those goods, they are going to need resources. So a governor does have the right to collect taxes. But does that mean that a governor has the right to collect any level of taxes that they desire? Certainly not, because we see that it was a tyranny that was being done. The burden was so heavy on the people that they could not bear it. And so we do see that there is a point in which taxes turn from being a good to the people to becoming a tyranny on the people. But I feel like if I go any further, now we're gonna have a different conversation of government and things like that. But we'll just acknowledge that Nehemiah had every right to collect some taxes from the people. But he did not do so. He did not demand anything from the people. Why? Because of the fear of the Lord. He knows that there is a perfect, powerful, holy, righteous God who one day is going to call Nehemiah to account. And he's gonna look at Nehemiah's ledger and he's gonna see, what did you do with your life? And he knows that our evil is going to leave us wanting. Our evil is going to leave us worthy of judgment by this God. A God whose judgment is one that we could never possibly escape. And so what is he desperately trying to do? He's trying to demonstrate to God the generosity that he knows that comes from God himself. And so he's giving this plea, and his heart, I think, is very well seen in the last verse of this chapter, verse 19. It says, remember me for my good, oh my God, all that I have done for this people. We see several times in the book of Nehemiah, he's giving a prayer. God, I did the best that I could. Don't destroy me. I did everything that I could to bless your people here. And so Nehemiah, in order to try to bring honor to God, in order to elevate the name of his Lord, he wipes out the debt to the government that has been asked of the people in the past. But he does more than just wiping out the debt. He also pulls from his own riches, his own storehouse of wealth. I'm making new words today. But he is blessing the people from his own goods, which is different than what we saw the leaders doing previously, where they were taking from the poverty of others to finance themselves. So verse 18, now what was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox, six choice sheep, and birds, and every 10 days all kinds of wine in abundance, yet for all this I did not demand the food allowance for the governor because the service was too heavy on the people. And so we see that Nehemiah, he takes the burden of the people and he puts it on his own shoulders. He bears the weight that the people themselves cannot bear. And why is he able to do so? because Nehemiah is a servant of the king. Nehemiah is the one who previously was sitting at the right hand of the king, who comes with the king's honor, who comes with the king's wealth, and because of this he can take on the burdens of the people so that those who are The diplomats, those who come from the other nations, those that they want to draw in so that the nations would come and see the temple of God, that the nations would see the God, know God, love the Lord. In order to do so, that's an expensive work to do. Nehemiah takes all this burden on himself. because of the position that he has, that no one else has, no one else could possibly do. And in this kind of work of his generosity, the bearing the burdens of the other, is a way in which we see Nehemiah, again, being a type of foreshadow of Jesus Christ himself. Not that he is the same as Jesus, but that he is a hint, a small hint, a shadow of the greatness of who Jesus is and what Jesus would do eventually for us. Because what did Jesus do for us? Jesus, he looked at us, he looked at us in our sin and misery, and he acknowledged something that all of us need to acknowledge. We are born in a position of treason against the King. We are all people that followed the model of Adam and Eve. I was talking with someone yesterday about this, but what happened to Adam and Eve? They were put in the Garden of Eden, God created them to be perfect, blessed in every way, and he said, work for me. Help use this world so that my glory, my righteousness would be seen. Just don't eat from this one tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But what did Adam and Eve do? They looked at that tree of knowledge of good and evil and said, oh good. I'd like to be able to do my own good. I'd like to be able to do things my own way. Why would somebody, when given all the goodness that God had blessed them with, eat from a tree that promised to give them a goodness of their own? Because they thought that they could have a goodness that was greater than the goodness of God. And so they said, instead of being your servant, a slave of your kingdom, I'm going to create a kingdom of my own. I'm going to do things better than you did. And what do you call when a servant turns their back on their king? It's treason. And what is the penalty of treason? It's death. And what we see is that all of us are born in the condition of Adam and Eve. All of us are born in this condition of treason where we are trying to build kingdoms of our own, going our own way when we really should be servants of the king. And so Jesus who was sitting at the right hand of the king of heaven and earth. He looked at us, saw this burden, this debt of death that we owe and realized that we could not pay this debt ourselves. And so what did Jesus do? He came into this world. He took on our humanity. He lived the perfect life that we could not live. And he died on the cross to pay that debt that we could not pay. And he took on his shoulders. He took our expense and he put it onto his account so that our debt would be wiped away. His blood paid the debt of our death. But it wasn't just that. He didn't just wipe out our debt and say, okay, now it's on you. Now you work yourself out of this danger, out of this trouble. No, He gives us His righteousness. He gives us His name, His glory. And what does that make us? That makes us hypocrites. Because what's the definition of a hypocrite? Somebody who wears a mask that hides what's behind it. And so, in our own nature, in our own way of living, we're a hypocrite in the sense that we should know better, but we don't do better. But even this mask that we wear is one of a mockery against God. The mask that we try to wear is one that says, I'm a king of my own kingdom. But Jesus, in his mercy, he takes that mask from us, and he gives us his own righteousness. So that when the Father looks at us and He sees us, who does He see? He sees the face of His own Son. But who's behind that mask the whole time? Broken sinners, twisted people who are not deserving of the household of God. And yet because of His love and His mercy, Jesus did this for us. Now you might hear this and go, okay, but that still kind of leaves us in the situation of hypocrites. We're wearing the face of someone that isn't really us. Well, God gives us a solution to that dilemma as well. And what is the solution to that? The solution to that problem is slavery. What? Slavery? Why is slavery the solution to this dilemma? Because remember, what is the redemptive purpose of slavery that God has intended? Someone else will pay the price for you. Someone else will pay your debt. And as they have done so, what happens to you? You now become their servant. You now become a slave. You were a slave to death, but you now become a slave to righteousness. And what happens to those who become the slaves of Redeemer? They become like sons and daughters. They're the ones who share in the wealth. They're the ones who share in the food, the house, the blessings of the one who's redeeming them. Friend, when you become a slave to Christ, you become His son, you become His daughter. His household, His riches, His fortune. You gain the access to all those good things. And so when Jesus comes into this world again, and when He comes on that day of judgment, and when He marks us according to all the sins that still remain on our account, He's going to look at us and who is He gonna see? He's not gonna see our sins. He's gonna see that mask. He's gonna see His righteousness and say, You are clean, you are holy, you are pure, and you belong to me. As I have died, I have died to pay the debt of your death. But I didn't just die, I rose again from the dead. Why? So that his life becomes our life. and that He, in His future, or I guess for Him it would be His reality right now, He is that restored, not just spirit, but He is one who's been restored in body. He is the first fruits of the resurrection. And as He has received this body where there is no more sorrow, there is no more pain, there is no more temptation, all of that will be given to us in the new creation as well. So that what's behind the mask forever will match what is on the mask Friends this is a gift that God gives to us and it can only happen by the one who came from the right hand of the king, who came with all his wealth, who came with all his power, with all his glory, but in his compassion would take all that burden onto himself. So what does that mean for us who are the hypocrites? What does that mean for those of us who had not lived up to the glory of God? We are the ones who have been forgiven much. And when we understand the depths of our depravity, when we understand the fear of the Lord as we should, the deeper our fear of the Lord was, the greater our love for the Lord will be now. Because as much as we have been forgiven, now we become the ones who are able to forgive the debts of those who are around us. Friends, let's pray and thank God for what he's done. Lord, thank you for loving us, even though we are guilty of sins that deserve the judgment of the nobles in those days, who took advantage of those who were in poverty, taking their homes, their livelihoods, their children for personal gain. It's sick, it's twisted, it's evil, We are guilty of evils of many kind and even the smallest of them is treason in your sight. And yet you are one who is unlike anyone else. You took traitors and made us your children. Help us to know just how beautiful this gift is. that we would live gratefully, joyfully for you. And as the world looks at us and they see that we carry a worth and a value that does not rightly belong to the faith that is behind it, let them say, your God is good. I want him to be my God as well. Lord, we pray this in Jesus' name.