We're going to be reading from Nehemiah chapter 12 from verses 44 through to chapter 13 and verses 3. I think it's worth just taking a few moments just to reflect and have a quick recap of some of the key features of the book up until this point. Just like Wayne mentioned this morning, chapters 1 through 7, the focus there is on Nehemiah returning from Persia where he was in exile and returning to the city of Jerusalem. And, of course, being instrumental in the reestablishment of the city walls, using and mobilizing the people of God who were still in Jerusalem to rebuild the walls. And then upon the completion of the physical project of the walls, they then started to turn their attention towards the people of God, to disciple and to mentor them. At the end of the day, that's what it was really all about. It wasn't about the city wall. That was part of the project towards the greater end which of course was God's people and the witness of God's people to the surrounding nations. And then something rather remarkable happens. In chapter eight of Nehemiah, a genuine revival breaks out. As the people are gathered together, Ezra is reading the word and he's explaining the word. And the Holy Spirit descends in power. The Holy Spirit takes the word of God as it is read and applies it to the hearts and they are brought to a place of humility and contriteness before the God of infinite glory. And this is followed by great rejoicing, this celebration, this thanksgiving. But the rejoicing is always about remembering God's grace. That's going to be a key phrase that I want us to have a look at in the course of this evening's message. The spiritual revival caused them to remember, which brought the rejoicing and was instrumental in the ongoing reforms that God brought by his word. That's what we're going to see in our text as we look at this passage this evening. So before we read from Nehemiah, let's ask the Lord once again for his help. So let's bow our heads, shall we? Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it's by your spirit that you have given it to us. We now ask you, please, Lord, would you prepare our hearts and minds, open it up to us, And Lord, apply it to our hearts. You know the individual needs, you know the corporate need of this community. Father, do the work by your grace, we pray. And show us Jesus Christ, we ask in his name, amen. Nehemiah chapter 12, reading from verses 44 through to chapter 13, verses three. This is the word of God. On that day, men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the first fruits, and the tithes, to gather into them the portions required by the law for the priests and for the Levites, according to the fields of the towns, for Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered. And they performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon. For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there were directors of the singers, and there were songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. And all Israel, in the days of Zerubbabel, in the days of Nehemiah, gave the daily portions for the singers and the gatekeepers, and they set apart that which was for the Levites, and the Levites set apart that which was for the sons of Aaron. On that day they read the book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God. For they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. Yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. As soon as the people heard the law, They separated from Israel all those of foreign descent." Just up into there. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word this evening. One of the things that chapter 12 teaches and reminds us is that, just like one pastor said, is that every generation stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before them. Every generation stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. Now, I'm not looking at that from a secular perspective, but in the church, we must be mindful that there are people that have gone before us that God has used and hence has brought the gospel to us and intersected our lives at a particular time in our lives. Now, as you look at Nehemiah chapter 12, Did you notice how Nehemiah, throughout the text, he's deliberately anchoring the people to their past? Remember I said that remembering is very important? That's exactly what Nehemiah is doing here. Let me give you one example, and this you'll need to go and read when you go home, but in chapter 12 and the first 26 verses, we didn't read that, he mentions a slew of names. And they're all people of a previous generation that were no longer with them, and yet they were instrumental in beginning the work that was being continued in the time of Nehemiah. And so you remember, back in chapter 12, we are told about Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the first to return from exile with a group of people, and they were mandated to go back and to begin the project of the altar and the temple. That started in 536 BC. 21 years later, in 515 BC, we're told that they completed the temple. In other words, the temple was ready for God's people to be gathered together to worship and for the sacrificial system to start functioning, if I can put it in that terminology once again. And it's only 70 years after the completion of the temple that Nehemiah and his group finishes the city walls. So once again, there's a building on the previous work that had been done in the days of Zerubbabel. Now please notice how Nehemiah, he traces in chapter 12 from verses 1, he traces the lineage of Zerubbabel and Jeshua, the political and the religious leaders. And that's in verses 1 through 9. In verses 10 and 11 of chapter 12, he shows how Jeshua's successors are Jehoiakim and Eliashep. And then from verses 12 through 26, He traces the lists of priests and the Levites. What's he doing here? He's anchoring the present generation and reminding them of how God was at work in a previous generation that has brought them to the place where they are right now. Part of what Nehemiah is doing is showing the faithfulness of God. You remember from this morning that there was a word of hope in Hosea. Well, the word of hope was that God would roar and His people would return. And God was using one generation and He was using the second generation to complete the task. How important it is for us to remember. The Bible implores us time and time again to remember Remember your God. Remember all that he has done. Remember all the promises that he has set out in his word. Remember all the faithful in the church that have gone before you, through whom the Lord reserved and advanced the gospel to impact you and to impact me in the course of time at some time or another. In accordance with God's appointment, we desperately need, we're living in an age which writes off history. We desperately need to remember how God has worked sovereignly through responsible human beings down through the ages to accomplish his work of redemption. So I just want us to trace a little bit of history here. Remember for 2,000 years before Christ, there's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We're just mentioning some of those names even this evening. There's Moses, and there's Aaron, and there's Joshua. There's Ruth, and David, and Ezra, and Nehemiah. And all of those personalities, all those characters are part of this great plan whereby God is moving all events to the pivotal point, Matthew chapter one, where Jesus Christ would be born and take on human flesh. And it would be the fulfillment as he lays down his life of the covenant of redemption that extends all the way back to the beginnings and before the foundation of the world. Do you see how integral everything is? There's not one little mistake in God's plan as He works out history and as He moves all events to show forth His glory. And then we need to remember the faithfulness of God over the last 2,000 years of church history as well. There's the apostles. They were instrumentally used by God to advance the gospel into the region of Asia and India and North Africa, and every single one of them would be martyred for their faith and their stance for the gospel within the first century. Every single one of them would be martyred. Then we have the early church fathers. We've got Ignatius and Polycarp that give us beautiful testimonies of how they affirm and uphold the writings and the teachings of what we now have as the New Testament. They themselves were martyred. What about the church in late antiquity, Augustine and the Cappadocian fathers? They are beautifully able and equipped by God to help us to understand how do you explain the Trinity, one God in three persons, and the intersection of those three persons in this one Godhead. It's the phrase circumincessio is the phrase that they use to explain that. And from that time frame, we also have the Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed and the Nicene Creed. And we still say that in the church today in the 21st century. What about the medieval church? Great expansion into Europe and into Britain. The Middle Ages, we have Bernard of Clairvaux and Thomas Akempis. They've come to be known in the 21st century as the Puritans of the Middle Ages. Beautiful the way they're actually able to take the doctrine and the biblical theology and be able to apply it to the practical living out of the Christian faith. We also have Anselm and Thomas Aquinas, one of the great minds that was given to the church. And then you have the Renaissance church. The Renaissance Church. The Renaissance Church. A season of great corruption in the life of the Christian Church. And yet, in the midst of this corruption, there were little lights, John Wycliffe and John Huss, these pre-Reformation figures that God used to keep the gospel going. And then, of course, you've got the Reformation, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, Cranmer and Ridley. It's a reminder, remember, remember, remember. I say this regularly. back at first prayers to a number of the Sunday school classes that I teach, if you're not reading church history, your Christian walk is deficient. And I don't say that in a manner that's meant to harm anyone, but I want to encourage you, pick up something with regards to church history and see how God has been working, and His fingerprints are all over the place, from one generation to the next generation to the next generation. Then there's the period of the Protestant scholastics, and it was during this season that we have the Westminster Confession of Faith and the catechisms come out of that period. Then we have the 17th century Puritans and the 18th century Great Awakening with Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. And it's from the ministry of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield that we actually have the advancement of the modern missionary movement, whereby the gospel went out to a plurality of countries that had never been touched by the gospel before. People that were burdened to lay down their lives for the cause and for the sake of the gospel. And then, of course, in our 20th century, just less than a few, well, 20, 30 years ago, we had Lloyd-Jones and J.I. Packer and many others. Friends, it all reminds us of the mercy and the kindness of God to build the church, to cleanse repentant sinners, to use repentant sinners, and then to faithfully preserve the gospel from generation to generation to generation. And that's partly what we see here in this passage. The reason for the celebrations and the thanksgiving and the joyful rejoicing is because they were remembering all that God had done and that he had been faithful to bring them back. And hence, their hearts were stirred and moved and renewed with that renewed knowledge. But let me say this as well, and then we'll get to the two points for this evening. This is the introduction. Are you worried yet? There are short points, so don't worry. Let me say this, gathered worship, the reason that we gather is not just simply for fellowship. It's to be gathered so that we may sing as one voice to worship the one who's seated on the throne. But our gathered worship is so that we may be equipped and we may be prepared for scattered worship. The reason you come together is to be renewed week in, week out, so that God equips us by his spirit, with his word, so that when we go out into the regular routines of Monday through Saturday, his word is on our lips. And we're asking, Lord, lead us by your spirit, so that my life may be a living witness and testimony to you as the living God. So this evening, what I want us to do is I want us to consider two points that emerge from the text. The first one is this, I want us to see how Chapter 12, 44 through 47 speaks of sacrificial giving. And I want us to then to consider chapter 13, the first three verses, and consider in light of sacrificial living, sacrificial giving and sacrificial living, and see this as two points of ongoing reform that was happening in the days of Nehemiah. And of course, that is relevant to us even to this day. So firstly, Let's consider the first area of reform, sacrificial giving. We see it in chapter 12, verses 44 through 47. And of course, the passage opens up with that phrase in verses 44, on that day. In other words, no sooner had the community finished in gathered worship in the dedication of the wall that they would instinctively begin to have their heart cut and they respond to God in what can only be called the fruit of their scattered worship. In other words, the labors of their daily life, they bring back and they offer it up into the hands of God for the worship, as part of the worship and to the temple activities. This sacrificial giving that is spoken of in these verses begins the same day as the dedication service itself, but it certainly did not end on that day. This was part of the reformation that God was doing in the lives of Israel at the time. He was reforming them to that which was always part of the institution and the life of the church, but had been lost somewhere along the line. Now, why is that important? Why is it important that this little detail about giving in order to support the priests and the Levites, why is that so vitally important? Well, I think we need to remember that for far too long, the Jews had neglected to take care of the priests and the Levites and actually pay any attention to the temple activities and the vital importance of that. As they continued to wander off in their idolatrous and their pagan ways, as they brought in the activities of the surrounding nations, so in actual fact, they saw less and less importance in the temple activities, in the temple and the priests and the Levites. And of course, that landed up with them landing off in exile. And in exile, guess what? They are no longer in the very place where God is understood to be present. They were severed from the place where God met with his people. Sometimes it's only when we are actually removed from God's people that we realize the treasure that God gives in the community of the faith. And that's what's partly what had taken place in the nation of Israel. But with the revival and with the ongoing work of the Spirit through the Word, change was taking place. No longer did they see the Levites and the temple as a burden, but they actually saw it as a blessing. They saw it as the means of grace that God had given to the covenant community in order to meet with them, to strengthen them, and to prepare them for what lay ahead. Look at the second part of verses 44. which says, for Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered. That was not something that had taken place for many, many decades. This was a reform. This was a change as God was ministering to their hearts and in their lives. Now friends, as they bring their contributions, As they bring their first fruits and as they bring their tithes, they are essentially fulfilling what they covenanted to do before God back in chapter 10. You can go and read that for yourself. Now, the reason that's worth mentioning is because too often in times of revival, in times of renewal, people who have had the affections and their emotions touched are very quick to say, God, I will do this for you or God, I will do that for you. They will give verbal assent to obedience. But as soon as that season is over or as soon as they walk out the door, it's very quickly forgotten. But that's not what's taking place here. They made a covenant to the Lord their God back in chapter 10. These things we will do. And as God takes his word and applies it, we begin to see how that covenant was being fulfilled and was being worked out in their lives. And ultimately, it was part of the reformation of worship that was taking place. This reform in giving that we read about here is merely a physical, responsive act of obedience within the greater service of the worship service. It's part of the greater worship service. So, verses 45, we read about the priests and the Levites who performed the service of God and the service of purification. In other words, they recognized, those who were present recognized that the priests and the Levites were instrumental in the work that was involved in leading the people in prayer. That it was the Levites and the priests who were instrumental in leading the people in the sacrifices and in the understanding of the implications of the sacrifices. That through the shedding of blood there is forgiveness of sins. It's atonement. They needed to be taught these truths once again. It was the priests and the Levites who were instrumental in leading the people in the reading of God's word and of course in the teaching and the preaching of God's word. Verses 45 and 46, we're told that the singers and the gatekeepers faithfully ministered through their songs of praise and thanksgiving. You see, all of this, which was part of the history of the nation of Israel that God had instructed them to do, they had forgotten. And this was being reformed into the community itself. And it was designed, every part of it was designed to reorientate their gaze from the things of this world so that they may gaze upon the beauty and the majesty of the one who is enthroned in heaven, and that they would gaze upon the home that is being prepared for them. It's only when we forget about this world that we're simply walking through it. We're like a mist. And we gaze upon him who is rock solid, is certain. And as we gaze upon the home that is being prepared for us, that we find meaning and purpose in this life. Don't forget that, brothers and sisters. One further detail, because again, I love the way Nehemiah, he anchors what they're doing at the temple to Israel's past. Look at the text. Don't you love the way he anchors the tradition of music and song? He anchors it to David and Asaph. The giving that is part of the temple activities, he anchors it to the days of Zerubbabel. And then the sacrifices of the Levites, he anchors also to the sons of Aaron. In other words, this goes back. This is not some new invention that God is bringing for his people. This has always been a part of what we've done. Remember. All of this reminds us, and this is where it's a little bit closer to home, All of this reminds us that we do not get to pick and choose how we deem God ought to be worshiped. Scripture is very clear. It gives us the elements of worship that are involved, where the Creator sets out the parameters of how we as creatures are to worship Him as the Creator. If it's not in Scripture, it's not to be included in the ordinary worship of God in the community as we gather. Of course, many of you will know it's called the Regulative Principle of Worship. And the Regulative Principle of Worship includes the singing of God's Word, the reading of God's Word, the praying of God's Word, the teaching, explanation, or preaching of God's Word. And then you've got the visible signs of God's Word, that is of baptism and the Lord's Supper. And even the giving is the surrendering of our lives. It's the surrendering of the things that have been entrusted to us as part of our worship of God. It's all part of what God has ordained for us in terms of our worship of Him. And please notice, when you look at those elements of worship, it engages our whole being. You notice that? Our voices are involved. Our hearing is involved, our sight is involved, our head and our heart is involved, our affections and our will as it is stirred by the preaching of God's Word to exalt and to lift up the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let me say this in closing, this first point. In worship, we taste of the grace and mercy of God. And the natural response as we taste of the grace and the mercy of God is that we respond with thankfulness and we respond with joyful giving. in order that the ministry may be sustained. But we don't just respond with sacrificial giving, do we? We also respond with sacrificial living. It's obedience in our lives. And that brings me to the second point. And we see this in chapter 13, verses 1 through 3, sacrificial living. It's the second area of reform that is taking place. Again, in chapter 13, verses 1, I don't know what it says in the New American Standard, but in the ESV, It's translated as, on that day. Now, most conservative commentators will say that that phrase, on that day, doesn't mean exactly the same as the phrase, on that day, in verses 44 of chapter 12. It has a different time frame reference. Most of the commentators will say that the implication in chapter 13 is that it represents around that time. In other words, they've gathered for the dedication of the wall. They've gathered to worship God. They've gathered, and they're sacrificially giving on that day and from that time forward. But around that time, they keep on coming back to sit under the reading of the Word and to be cut to the heart by the Word and by the teaching of the Word. That's the implication of chapter 13, verses 1 through 3. In other words, the Word had caught their hearts and their minds and their imagination once again. They had been so impacted by what God had done through the reading and the explanation through Ezra that they wanted more and more and more of it. Let me apply that very quickly. It's not in my notes. Are you spending time daily reading God's Word? Are you taking time I don't know how many of you follow the McChain Bible reading notes, but are you simply reading so you can actually check off that box, or are you taking time to read and to slow down and meditate and pray back portions of God's Word so that those promises and those truths actually really seep down deep into our hearts and into our souls? That there's true change that takes place as the Holy Spirit takes His Word and plants it deep within us. Don't rush through the reading of God's Word. It's not an exercise to get to the end. It's an exercise that God may use it to transform us and make us more like His beloved Son. Now, as we read chapter 13, verses 1 through 3, we encounter the phrase, no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God. That's a direct quote from Deuteronomy chapter 23, verses 3 through 5. And it's a reminder, as this is being read, of how vitally important this would have been to those who were listening. Let's read verses 2 again. Let me read from halfway through. No, verses 2. For they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. Yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. Now the question that obviously needs to be answered, what's going on here? At this point, this is the historical backdrop which can be found in Numbers chapters 22 through chapters 25. The occasion is obviously Balaam and his donkey, that's what's mentioned there in verses two. Israel is on their way to the promised land. And in order to get to the promised land, they need to cut through the land of Moab. And so the Israelites go to the Moabites and they say, look, can we just have permission to pass through your land and get to the land that the Lord our God has given to us? We won't touch your animals. We don't want your food. We won't cause any fighting. We will behave ourselves. We just want to walk through and get to where we need to get. And we all know what happened. The Moabites turned around and said, nope, we don't want you passing through our land. For some reason, and of course it goes back to the historical backdrop in Leviticus, and in numbers themselves, but the Moabites and their neighbors, the Ammonites, hated God and hated God's people. And they wanted nothing to do with the Israelites. In fact, if you look back over the history of Israel and Judah and their relation with the Moabites and the Ammonites, there was almost this animosity where the Moabites and the Ammonites would try as best as they can to take the attention away from their worship of God. In other words, to bring in the idols and to bring about various other pagan practices, to try and become a distraction. And so God puts this prohibition in place that no Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly. And it's as they hear this portion of the word being read on this day, that the people realize their disobedience towards the Lord. And what's interesting is that they immediately respond by taking the first steps to not intermarry from that day forward. That's exactly what the word of God is designed to do. When it cuts the heart, we have the option to disobey and continue in our ways, or we have the option to obey to repent to turn away from that which we were doing in order that we may be a people who desire to live in accordance with obedience to the Lord our God. All we need to remember is that this was not a racial or a cultural prohibition. Please don't misunderstand that. This is a prohibition that God put in place for the protection, the religious protection of his own people. He knew that they would be attracted to the idolatry and the ways of the surrounding kingdoms. I mean, you just look at your own lives. How attractive are the things of the world? It's so easy to be attracted and to become ensnared and before long to take our attention and our gaze off the Lord our God. And so here's something that God puts in place to protect his people. in order that it may be pure worship. Now, one other thing that I need to mention, and that is simply this. If and when a person of foreign descent is willing to believe, and when they worship and accept the ways of Yahweh, then they are included and they're incorporated into the community of faith. Ruth is obviously a prime example, was mentioned in our reading. Ruth was a Moabites, all right? But she came to the point where she herself embraced and she worshiped Yahweh saying, your people are my people and your God is my God. And she was actually part of the lineage that brought forth the Messiah himself. And so this wasn't exclusionary, it was about those who were committed to worship the living God, to worship Yahweh. Now the beautiful thing that ought to strike us, as you look at a passage like this, is that when they realize their sin, They turn from it. There's no question. They turn from it. They repent. And friends, that's what we're called to do. I've already mentioned this, but that's what God calls us to do. Whenever God exposes our rebellion and our sinful inclinations, we must turn and gaze upon Him and rest and rely upon Him. Keep coming back to the word. Read the word regularly. Allow that to be your true north, so to speak. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Allow that truth to seep down deep in order to bring the change that God has ordained and that he's doing. Friends, these changes in Israel, their sacrificial giving that we see at the end of chapter 12 and their sacrificial living at the beginning of chapter 13, that did not happen out of their own cleverness or out of their own doing. If they were left to their own ways, they would have continued in the path that they would have been on prior to the reforming and the work of the Spirit. They wouldn't have experienced the renewal and the revival that took place back in chapter eight. It is the grace of God as the Spirit works by applying the word to revive and to reform both their lives, and that's how He works in us. It says we beseech Him. God, be at work in my heart. Use your word and transform me that I may see more of Christ. So let me say this in closing. It's the word and it is the spirit. More particularly, it's the spirit at work through the word, applying that to our lives that ultimately brings forth thanksgiving and rejoicing in our hearts and in the community. It's the Spirit through the Word that brings personal and corporate reformation as God allows us to remember, as we read, to reflect, to rediscover, to repent, and to rejoice. And ultimately that brings us to where it must lead us, and that is that as we remember and reflect, we must always be remembering and reflecting upon the sacrificial giving as God gives and lays down His own Son, as He takes on human flesh. Take time regularly to remember what God has done in His Son, Jesus Christ. Reflect upon the person and the work of the Lamb that was slain. And then secondly, Remember and reflect in the sacrificial living of Jesus Christ that he humbled himself taking on human flesh all the way even to the point of death, death on the cross. Sacrificial giving and sacrificial living is not just a call for reformation for us. It's meant to be a pointer to the one that is the ultimate representation of sacrificial giving and sacrificial living, and that's the lamb that was slain. And it's in him that we rest and we find strength for each new day. My prayer is simply that the Lord would continue to renew and to reform and to revive you individually, but corporately, that this congregation would continue to bear the marks of the witness of Jesus Christ and be that lamp on the hill to the surrounding community here in Yazoo City. May God bless that to each of your hearts. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, once again, we rejoice and we give you thanks for your great grace and mercy to us, that you have shown us Jesus Christ, you've shown us our sin, and you've given us the faith to repent and to believe. Father, what a merciful God you are. We worship you. Father, we do pray that as we've looked at these two aspects of sacrificial giving and sacrificial living, Help us always to remember, to remember those who have come before us, but particularly to remember the Messiah, that in His work and in His being, He is the ultimate representation of what it means to live a life in obedience to the Father. Father, help us by Your Spirit to know Him more, to love Him more, and to grow in our knowledge of him, that the glory and the praise and the honor might be his and his alone. And we pray this in Jesus' name.