Let's pray for God's blessing now in our time in his word. Gracious Lord and God, we thank you for giving us the words of eternal life and Holy Scripture. May we receive the truth of this passage with faith and love laid up on our hearts and practice it in our lives. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Please take your Bibles and turn to Nehemiah chapter 9 verses 1 through 21 is our scripture reading and sermon text for this morning. Nehemiah chapter nine, verses one to 21, which is really just the first half of this great national prayer of confession of sin and extolling the grace and mercy of God in the face of it. Nehemiah chapter nine, verses one through 21. This is God's Word. Now on the 24th day of this month, the sons of Israel assembled with fasting and sackcloth and with dirt upon them. The descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. While they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day. And for another fourth, they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. Now on the Levites' platform stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shabaniah, Bani, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani, and they cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God. Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shabaniah, Pethahiah, said, Arise, bless the Lord your God forever and ever. Oh, may your glorious name be blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down before you. You are the Lord God who chose Abram and brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you and made a covenant with him to give him the land of the Canaanite, of the Hittite, and the Amorite, of the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it to his descendants. And you have fulfilled your promise, for you are righteous. You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the Red Sea. Then you performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants, and all the people of his land. For you knew that they acted arrogantly toward them, and made a name for yourself as it is this day. You divided the sea before them, so they passed through the mists of the sea on dry ground, and their pursuers you hurled into the depths like a stone into raging waters. And with a pillar of cloud you led them by day, and with a pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they were to go. Then you came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. So you made known to them your holy Sabbath and laid down for them commandments, statutes, and law through your servant Moses. You provided bread from heaven for them for their hunger. You brought forth water from a rock for them for their thirst. And you told them to enter in order to possess the land which you swore to give them. But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly. They became stubborn and would not listen to your commandments. They refused to listen and did not remember your wondrous deeds which you had performed among them. So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness, and you did not forsake them. Even when they made for themselves a calf of molten metal and said, this is your God who brought you up from Egypt and committed great blasphemies, you and your great compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not leave them by day to guide them on their way, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way in which they were to go. You gave your good spirit to instruct them. Your manna you did not withhold from their mouth, and you gave them water for their thirst. Indeed, 40 years you provided for them in the wilderness, and they were not in want. Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell. May God bless the reading of his holy word. One of the greatest hymns ever written is the church's one foundation. And the opening verse captures not just Nehemiah chapter 9's glorious recounting of God's faithfulness in the face of his people's stubborn sinfulness, but it really captures the whole of human history after the fall. Listen to it. The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is his new creation by water and the word. From heaven, he came and sought her to be his holy bride. With his own blood, he bought her and for her life, he died. Jesus promised in Matthew 16, 18, that the gates of hell will not prevail. against the church, the holy people of God that he is building in this world. The gates of hell will not prevail against this church. The Westminster Confession of Faith, the chapter of the church, chapter 25, paragraph five says, the purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error, and some have so degraded as to become no churches of Christ but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, there shall always be a church on earth to worship God according to His will. In the Christian church, we have heroes, and rightly so. We look back to the great men and women of God of the past. We look to great men and women of God today for sources of inspiration, as examples of people who stood their ground for righteousness. who endured afflictions for the cause of the truth, who accomplished great works in theology and Bible exposition in the face of error, and whose churchmanship was a great example of godliness and piety. What we all recognize deep in our souls, however, is that at any given moment in time, the people of God are just as dependent upon God's faithfulness, His strength, His power, and His will as Israel was when they were in Egyptian slavery. No matter how much we may look to be thriving or prospering, it is always the same. There is a complete dependence upon the power and the will of God. It was the church of Laodicea. They thought we don't need anything anymore. And Jesus dictated this letter to them and said, because you say I am rich, have become wealthy and have need of nothing. And do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesalve that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, therefore be zealous and repent." And although Jesus said that to that church and really lowered the boom on them in that letter, they're still a church. They still existed as the people of God. They were still His beloved. The whole of Testament is a revelation of God's law and his gospel. It's a revelation of God's justice and his mercy. These historical sections of God's word, like Nehemiah, that we've been reading and studying here very carefully, they are there, as 1 Corinthians 10 says, to become our examples. These stories, these historical events that we've been reading about in Nehemiah, they were written for our admonition. We are supposed to learn from this. so that anyone who thinks they stand will take heed lest he fall." When you see the great people of God fall, when you see what looked to be so great and wonderful suddenly die, and people fall on their faces and sin, if you think you stand, take heed lest you fall. We have churches that preach, teach, and love the gospel. Why are there still churches that preach, teach, and love the gospel in the world? Because God wills it. That's the only reason. God lifts his hand for a moment, they would disappear. Like that. Gone. We have brothers and sisters, we have friends in the Lord and our churches for the same reason. Only one reason. Because God wills it. Because it glorifies his name. Because he wants it to be that way. How much do we take one another for granted? How much do we take our fellowship for granted? We take the institution of the church for granted. We take the Lord's Supper for granted, the Bible for granted. We take these blessings for granted far too much. And in this passage, we're going to see that the church's existence, its ongoing life in the world, its presence and its future depends upon the power and the faithfulness of God. God's the initiator and the sustainer. He's the redeemer and the sanctifier of his church. As that hymn said so eloquently, in fact, there was recently published a wonderful collection of essays and a really big book on limited atonement, on particular redemption. And the title of the book is, From Heaven He Came and Sought Her. Because that's what Jesus did. From heaven he came to get his church, to redeem them and save them, and to bring them to heaven. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died." And we come now to that which Nehemiah had prayed for. Remember way back in Nehemiah chapter one, Nehemiah hears the report from his own brother. Hanani comes back and says, the place is a mess. The walls are broken down. The people are in reproach. I mean, really what he's telling him, there's no worship going on there. The people are scattered and Nehemiah can't stand it. And he weeps and cries for days and fasts. And he prayed this prayer. Remember Nehemiah 1.8. Remember, I pray, the word that you commanded your servant Moses saying, and here he's quoting from Deuteronomy. If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. Pretty amazing, isn't it? Because Nehemiah was scattered among the nations. He lived in Babylon and then Persia. He says, you said you'd scatter us among the nations, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, then some of you who were cast out the farthest part of heaven, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. Well, here they are gathered to the place that God chose as a dwelling for his name. So what's the time to do? It's time to own our sin and to trust and extol in the mercy of God. This is what he'd been working for. This is what he wouldn't let the bad guys take him off of. This is why he didn't talk to the progressives and the liberals in town, because he wanted to get to this. He didn't want to be distracted from it. Nehemiah, he's special. He needs to be listed up there with one of the greats of the Old Testament, because he knew how to deal with dogs and pigs. He knew how to deal with the bad guys. This is what he was praying for, a collective national returning to God to keep his commandments and do them. God has been so gracious, so kind, so patient with them. And here stands a multitude of people, more than 42,000 people are there. But you know what? That's a mere fraction of what came out of Egypt. It was about 2 million people. They're reduced to just over 42,000 now. They're broken by their sin, they're crushed by it. They've been listening to the law of Moses and they've been crying and weeping and they were sent home, go have a good meal, chill out for a while, and then they come back. They're ready to renew their vows, to keep God's commandments, to rest upon his unfailing faithfulness, his mercy, his grace in the new and vital way. So let's walk through the passage. I've given you a six point outline there. If I had gone through the whole passage, it would have been a 17 point outline. When I took preaching in seminary, the guy that taught the class made us read sermons by Puritans that had 23 points in them. He said, if any of you guys ever say 19thly in a sermon, I'm going to kill you. So this is a six point sermon. Okay, verse one. Now on the 24th day of this month, the sons of Israel assembled with fasting and sackcloth and with dirt upon them. Okay, so stop here. A lot of ink has been spilled trying to figure out which specific festival or feast was this. But I think the best solution here is just to point out what this one commentator said. The best solution is to regard this assembly as something unique, which happened on that occasion under special circumstances. They'd heard the law of Moses, it had done its work, it had convicted them of their sin, it had called them all up short in their sin. They're weeping. In the previous chapter that we saw, Nehemiah chapter eight, Ezra and Nehemiah together, they send the people home, go eat some really good food. I know he tells them, go eat the fat, drink the sweets. Okay, so it's not like, you know, a rice cake. It's go have something really good and tasty. It really is amazing how wise and godly these men were, Nehemiah and Ezra both. They know that people are beaten down, they know they're exhausted. Getting some rest, getting some good food under one's belt, it can do a lot to calm one down. Rest and refreshment with good food is a good recipe for mental health to be sure. But it's also a tangible manifestation of the goodness of God. You know, sometimes we eat. We eat food and we drink just to get it out of the way or just to make the stomach rumblings go away. But when we have very good food or very, very tasty food, our favorite foods, our favorite drinks, when we taste them, we can't help but be thankful for the benevolence of God, the goodness of God. Go eat the fat, drink the sweet and make sure everybody gets some, they told them after they were weeping and crying out and felt so bad about their sin. But now they're back and they're still feeling bad about their sin. They've got sackcloth on, which was a coarse, rough fabric that people would wear as a sign of repentance and mourning. And they also had dirt on their heads. And that was a sign of human frailty. You know, we were made from the dirt, from the dust of the ground, the dust we shall all return one day. And the word of God, when God breaks people in their sin and grants them true repentance, though, we need to remember this. He never leaves them broken on the ground. And the law of God does that work and crushes the people of God and their sin. He then shows them his grace and shows them my grace is greater than this. You need not worry. I'm not going to destroy you. He shows them what he showed Moses on Mount Sinai so long ago. Remember Exodus 34, the Lord passed before Moses who's in the cleft of the rock and proclaimed the Lord Yahweh, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. When the plow of repentance cuts through the fallowed ground of the people's hearts, the Holy Spirit then sows the gospel seeds there and gives hope and gives grace, and those seeds will grow there. The law renders us hopeless and lost and brings that truth home to us with relentless force. But then the sweetness of the free grace of God in Christ is brought to bear upon us. God gives us confidence. He gives us hope and an expectation. that his loving mercy and his forgiveness is eternal and that they are unbreakable. Look at verse two. The descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. Now, what is this talking about here? This was for the church only. This was only for the church. So they gathered people of God. So non-believers, the foreigners around them, they were not invited to this. They were not part of this. Look at verses three and four. And while they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the Lord, their God, for a fourth of the day. And for another fourth, they confessed and worshiped the Lord, their God. Now on the Levi's platform stood Yeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bani, Sherabiah, Bani, and Kanani. And they cried with a loud voice to the Lord, their God. This is a protracted worship service. Would you all be okay? I mean, my scripture reading last week, I actually pulled up the sermon audio. That scripture reading took 11 minutes, but it wasn't a fourth of the day. Okay, so they read lots of scripture, lots of preaching, lots of teaching here, lots of confession of sin and lots of worship. I think they were seeing Psalms and it was a wonderful time for them. Now look at verses five and following, next point of the sermon here, five and six. Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kavme, Obani, Hasheb, Neah, Sherabiah, Hodiah, Shabaniah, and Pethahiah said, arise, bless the Lord your God forever and ever. Oh, may your glorious name be blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and the heavenly host bows down before you. Isn't this a remarkable place to start? When they start telling the whole story, they start where? Genesis 1.1, creation. You know what? Failure to glorify God and to thank Him for creating us and giving us our lives is basic to the reason that God has wrath against the human race. We fail to be thankful that we exist. We don't thank God for our lives, for the world, for the wonders without number that are all around us. It's spiritual treason for the special creations of God, the images of God, to fail to glorify and thank God. Remember that from Romans 1? They neither glorified God nor were thankful that he made them, but they went off and worshiped the creation. They did all these abominable acts, but they didn't glorify and thank God. So what are they gonna do here as an entire nation of repentant people? Thank you, God, for creating us. and creating the world. We belong to you. We are your special creation. It's so basic to being an image of God. Every day we should thank God for our lives. Thank you for my life. Thank you for the food I eat. Thank you for the wonders that are all around me. We praise God for the sun, the moon, the stars, the galaxies, the seas, the grass, the birds, His infinite, eternal, and unchangeable being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Thank God for Him. You look at the moon at night. I have a wonderful book in my library called Our Created Moon. You know, without the moon, all life as we know it would cease to exist. If the tides don't come in and out, doesn't oxygenate the water, the plants underwater that create the oxygen that we breathe, all life as we know it would die if the moon wasn't there. Also the earth would wobble and there would be unending storms and tsunamis and everything would die. God created this just nice, perfect balance, atmosphere, just enough heat gets out to keep us cool, enough heat is kept in to keep us from freezing to death. We should be shouting God's praises all day, every day. It's amazing what he made. We're so used to it, we don't think anything of it. You look at a bird, that's a bird. Birds are unbelievable creatures. You know, you look at those jets, you know, the Tri-Cities Airport, I see them take off and they fly around. I mean, a jet can't come and slow down and perch on a branch in a tree. I mean, they look like birds, but they don't act like them at all. We can't imitate what God did in nature at all. When Adam opened his eyes and experienced his very first moments of consciousness, can you imagine that moment? God forms him out of the dust of the ground and he realizes he's alive. What would he have done? He probably would have said, look at verses five and six. May your glorious name be blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down before you. We should run down our streets yelling that every morning. and then they'll put us in padded rooms, I guess. That would have been Adam's first unfallen righteous instinct, to open his eyes to see God, perfect communion, unbroken fellowship, to just worship and praise him. Unbridled joyous praise to God for his life, for the world of wonders all around him. When the people of God pass from death to life, we have to return to this basic facet of our existence, to worship and praise God that we exist, that we have life, that the world we live in is glorious and it shows God's goodness and His wisdom and His power. This is the perfect place to begin, Genesis 1, 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. So that's where they start, this national confession. You are the God, the sole God, the only God, you made everything. You made us and you made everything. And we bless and extol your name for it. Look at verses seven and eight. You are the Lord God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you and made a covenant with him to give him the land of the Canaanite, of the Hittite, and the Amorite, of the Perizzite, the Jebusite, the Girgashite, to give it to his descendants. And you have fulfilled your promise for you are righteous. You know, it's an amazing thing to see. All the firefight, I was listening to a podcast yesterday, all these people today in evangelical churches deny that God unconditionally elects who he's gonna save. You're looking at it right here. It's a given in theology of God's people that God unconditionally elects who he's gonna save. You see verse seven, you are the Lord God who chose Abram. Not you're the Lord God that Abram used his free will to choose. You chose him. Who is Abram? He was just a run-of-the-mill idolater. Who is his father, Terah? A run-of-the-mill idolater. What did God decide to do? Oh, you, right there, you. You go over there, and I'm gonna make you a great nation, and of your descendants, I'm gonna save the world. Unconditional election. Abram didn't do anything. He wasn't on his way to a Bible study. There wasn't even Bibles back then. He didn't choose God. God chose him. You chose Abram. God set his love and mercy on Abram. God promised Abram and his descendants the land of Canaan, and he made good on that promise. But the spiritual import of what he tells them, even Abraham himself did understand. He understood that when he told him in Genesis 12, the first time God ever spoke to Abram, and you, all the families of the earth will be blessed, Abraham knew that is about the Messiah, the Savior. One of my descendants is gonna be the one that saves all the families of the earth. And all believers in Jesus Christ to this very day, we are the children of Abraham, of that promise. Even Abraham's non-physical descendants, if they repented and believed and they were circumcised with their households, they would join the church. Just like today, someone repents and believes that their household is baptized, they join the church. God always fulfills his promises because he is righteous. You see the last phrase of verse eight. Why did God do all that? Because he's righteous. What does that have to do with why he did it? Because he promised he would. He swore that he would. And because he's righteous, he always does what he promises to do. Now this approach to their corporate confession of sin, it's a perfect approach. These Levites, these guys here, these are special teachers. These are really good priests in the Old Testament. They begin with creation at the beginning, and then they walk through the highlights of God's redemptive plan throughout the rest of history, all the way up to the present moment. And what they are acknowledging here is the works and power and might of God. Not anything that they did, not anything their fathers did. In fact, the only thing they mentioned about their fathers really is their sin, is the ways they failed. And yet God's covenant presses on. The people of God fail, but God won't let them go. God will not forsake them. Look at verses nine through 12. You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the Red Sea. Then you performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly toward them and made a name for yourself as it is this day. You divided the sea before them, so they passed through the mists of the sea on the dry ground, and their pursuers you hurled into the depths like a stone into raging waters. And with a pillar of cloud you led them by day, and with a pillar of fire by night to light for them the way in which they were to go." So what's next? The Exodus. The grand picture of the salvation of the church. God destroyed all of Egypt's main deities. Every one of those plagues was aimed at one of the Egyptians' primary deities. The god of the Nile. Well, he's dead. He's dead in his blood. The God of fertility, frogs. Well, there's mountains of dead frogs everywhere. So much for that God. The God of cattle, dead. The sun God, dead in darkness. The firstborn son of Pharaoh, supposedly a descendant of the gods himself, dead in the plague of the Passover. What was God doing with all this? Making a name for himself. You know, that's the most important thing in the whole universe. My comfort is not relevant to that. God's making a name for himself is the most important thing that there is. It's more important than my life, your life, your marriage, your children. It's more important than anything in the whole universe. God making a name for himself. That's what he is most zealous for, to make a name for himself, the glory of his name. And that's why it's such a serious thing when we tell the world, I am a Christian. I'm a Christian, and as such, I represent the glory of that name. of the God who despoiled the Egyptians and killed all their gods. That's why sin is so serious. It's not so much that we incur the penalty of sin or that we get in trouble for sin, it's that we make God look bad. It's that we bring disrepute to the glory of his name that we represent. We blaspheme that name. Remember when we studied oaths and vows? Who do we swear by? None but God, we swear by the dreadful, terrible name of God and call him to witness. That's why taking oaths is so serious. Paul leveled the charge against the Jews in Romans chapter two, verse 24. He says to the Jews, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Citing Isaiah 52, five. When David played the fool and committed adultery and lied and schemed and ultimately murdered Uriah and several others to get what he wanted, God took the life of their child as discipline against David. But ultimately, what was that discipline for? Was it for the adultery? No. Was it for the lying? Was it for the murder? No. Nathan said this in 2 Samuel 12, 14, however, because by this deed, you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. I'm gonna take the life of that child. A child that's been born to you will surely die. Because David, you represent me in this world. The name that I have made for myself, you've drugged through a sewer. And so I'm gonna take your child's life as disciplinary action against you for that. Sanctity of the name of God, that great and awesome, merciful, loving, and terrible name is to be guarded with the utmost care at all times by God's people. Why does God lead us in the path of righteousness? You know, that Psalm we all can probably recite from memory. You lead me in the path of righteousness for what? For your namesake. Not so I'm happy or comfy. It's for his namesake. For your namesake. When God's people sinned, they would plead for God's forgiveness like this. Psalm 25, 11. For your namesake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity. For your namesake. When the people of Israel sinned and God brought oppressors to punish them, they cried out for help and for mercy, Psalm 106,8. Nevertheless, he saved them for his namesake, that he might make his mighty power known. Why does God save sinners such as us, Ephesians 1,6? To the praise of the glory of his grace. The glorification of the name of God is what is behind everything that comes to pass. All those plagues in Egypt, they glorified God, they made his name great. Remember the people of Jericho? Remember the people of Jericho when Israel shows up on their doorstep? They're terrified, why? Because they knew the God of these people, what he had done there in Egypt. Remember when the Philistines got control of the Ark? And the Ark was brought into Ekron, into that Philistine city, and they put it in the temple of Dagon. Remember what Dagon does every morning? A face plant into the ground. Okay, in front of the Ark. And then the Philistine Lords say, and the priests of Philistia say, you should send this back. This is the God that destroyed Egypt. They still know about it. God had made his name great. The nations around Israel, in some ways they feared Yahweh more than Israel itself did. God detests pride among men. Arrogance in the face of man is something God sees as an abomination. You know what that means? Pride, that means pride is put in the same category as sodomy, sexual deviance. Sinful pride is pure evil. Pride, sinful pride, thinking a little too highly of ourselves. Listen to the way scripture describes what's gonna happen with that. Isaiah 2.11, the lofty looks of men shall be humbled and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. You see, there's probably never been a nation more arrogant than ancient Egypt. Probably no empire ever lasted as long as ancient Egypt did. No empire was ever as wealthy, as well-fed, well-dressed, and no empire ever accomplished as much as they did in terms of their building projects. I mean, this is a nation that was flanked by hundreds of miles of deserts on both sides and the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and they expanded very far into the south of Africa as well. And what happened to Egypt? An old man with a stick who couldn't talk very well, no army, no skills, no weapons, no battles, destroyed them completely. Only God did it. And so who gets the glory for that? God alone, and these Levites after extolling creation, and you chose Abram, and you heard the cry of our fathers in Egypt, and you destroyed Egypt and made a name for yourself. There's never been a people more helpless. They had no leaders, no army, no weapons, nothing. God made a name for himself because only God could have brought them out. What a picture that is of our own salvation, is it not? Slaves of sin, dead in sin, Jesus comes and brings us out into the promised land. Point number five, verse 13 and 14. Verse 13, then you came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. Verse 14, so you made known to them your holy Sabbath and laid down for them commandments, statutes and law through your servant Moses. You know, the law of God is written on the heart of every man, every human being, but it's distorted, it's suppressed, it's corrupted by sin. And it was very gracious on God's part to give His people an uncorrupted, crystal clear revelation of His righteous will and what it is that He requires of us in His law. That law was to be the people of Israel's wisdom in the sight of the nations. Remember that great passage in Deuteronomy chapter four? The nations around you will see the law and they'll see the way you're governed. And we'll say, what great nation is there like this, that has their God so near to them and has such righteous laws. We are to be set apart from the world and that we love and we obey that law ourselves. The darkened minds that we once had, they have to be enlightened from on high, born again from on high. And the way we think about everything has to be transformed. So dear ones, congregation, you've got to be a Bible reader. We live in a culture of soundbites and images that has an attention span of a gnat. We have got to be Bible readers and be transformed in the way we think about everything, by the word. The law of God's a blessing, it shows us our sin, it drives us to seek justification before God and salvation from the righteous wrath of God by someone entirely outside of us, by Christ. And once we are saved, the law then becomes the primary means by which we express and show our gratitude. We show our gratitude to God by keeping his law. Verse 15 through 17a. You provided bread from heaven for them, for their hunger. You brought forth water from a rock for them, for their thirst. And you told them to enter in order to possess the land which you swore to give them. But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly. They became stubborn and would not listen to your commandments. They refused to listen and did not remember your wondrous deeds which you had performed among them. So they became stubborn. and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. So the people grumbled, they complained for food and water, how quickly they had forgotten the misery of their lives in Egypt. It's an amazing part of that whole story of the Exodus. They wanted to go back to Egypt. They appointed a leader, take us back to Egypt. And their thinking was this deep. Well, the food was a little better there. They acted arrogantly, stubbornly. They wouldn't listen to God's commandments. They didn't remember the plagues and how God protected them while he single-handedly destroyed their oppressors and their enemies. They forgot the beatings and the humiliation, make bricks without straw, the murder of their kids. Aren't we similar? Aren't we similar in our Christian lives? We who have been delivered from slavery to sin, and from the guilt and trouble it brought to us, and yet we're often tempted to go back. Go back to Egypt. Go back to bondage. Go back to the life from which you were delivered. That rebellious principle is still there in our hearts, pulling on us. It's okay, it's not that bad. It won't hurt you. And on and on our foolish reasoning goes in our hearts. And here the gathered people of God in Nehemiah are remembering their forefathers' sinful stubbornness. In that stubborn rebellion, they see themselves. And I wanna encourage all of us, don't ever look down at people that you see in the Old Testament. We are so much the same. And next they extol the graciousness and the compassionate heart of God. God had every reason to destroy them, every reason to cast them aside, to discard and be done with them. His covenant promise and his unfailing love, however, will not allow it. Please remember, dear congregation, God takes no pleasure in the afflictions he brings upon you and me. They're for his glory, for our good, but the pain that we feel in them, God takes no pleasure in that at all. There's a wonderful passage in the book of Judges that explains this well. And Judges, the whole book of Judges, when I think about the book of Judges, Judges is like someone doing a nosedive. Israel just does a nosedive into sin. And God raises up oppressors, and then they cry out for deliverance, and God gives them a judge. You know, Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, the whole gang, all of them. And then they go back to it again, and they cry out, and God saves them. And then they go back to sin again, and God raises up oppressors again. So I forget how many cycles of that we're in here in Judges 10, but listen, God says, you have forsaken me and served other gods. Therefore, I will deliver you no more. Go and cry to the gods you've chosen. Go to your sins, Christians in Tennessee. Go to your sins and see if they'll deliver you. Go to the gods that you love so much and see if they will give you relief. God says, go cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them deliver you in your time of distress. And the children of Israel said to the Lord, we have sinned. Do to us whatever seems best to you. Only deliver us this day, we pray. Deliver us for the 25th time, we pray. So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. Now listen, listen to the inspired text here. And his soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel. God couldn't stand it. He loved those people so much. Even us, when we're so pig-headed in our sin and just keep wanting to go back to Egypt, go back to the leeks and onions and making bricks without straw. We want to go back to it. And then he afflicts you and disciplines you. He gets to where he just can't endure it anymore. He loves you so much. You just can't stand to see you suffer anymore. The trials brought to God's people, they're always to bring us closer to him. Please don't ever doubt that. I know people are going through major trials right now in our church, huge things. Please believe him. It's just to bring you closer to him. He wants you to have a stronger assurance, a closer, more intimate walk with him. That's their purpose. God feels compassion for his own. That's one of the most wonderful things about Jesus in the gospels. He felt compassion for people. He was moved with it. He wept over what he saw. He saw people suffering. He saw the sheep without a shepherd. When he saw their disease, their hunger, their grief, their loss, their bereavement, their tears, their blindness, their unbelief, mistreatment. Israel sinned and sinned, grumbled and complained. And they talked about going back to Egypt, which what would they go back to? There's nothing left. Everything's dead. Everything's destroyed. There's nothing to eat there. The hail consumed everything that the locusts left behind. Why would they go back? God allowed them to hunger and thirst in the wilderness, but he always had compassion on them when he afflicted them in their sin. He gave them food, he gave them water and protected them from their enemies while he was disappointing them. It's the same with us now. The whole history of Israel, the whole history of God's people on earth, from the fall of man until right now, shows what Nehemiah 17b through the rest of our passage spells out beautifully. Look at verse 17b, the second half of verse 17. This reminds me of Ephesians 2.4. But God, listen, 17b, but you are a God of forgiveness. Some of your translations say you are God ready to pardon. You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness, and you did not forsake them. What a verse of God-breathed scripture for mankind to reflect on. The struggle for assurance, you know, that many true believers have, you know, that they ought to have more assurance than they do, but they struggle and they struggle and they struggle. That can be consuming. It can be so discouraging. I just want to encourage you, if you are one of those people that has struggled mightily to arrive at a place where you're sure God loves you, you're sure you're one of his people, you're redeemed, God is so fundamentally different from us in how he forgives. I think we assume he's like us in the way he forgives. He's not like us. He's so different from us in how he shows grace and compassion. He's different from us in how slow he is to anger. and how much he abounds in loving kindness, in steadfast faithfulness. He is forgiving, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in covenant faithfulness and loving kindness. Why? Because of the oath that he swore to Abram. And we're gonna look at that in closing here in just a moment. But look at verse 18 to 21 here to close out our passage. Even when they made for themselves a calf of molten metal, and said, this is your God who brought you up out of Egypt and committed great blasphemies. You and your great compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not leave them by day to guide them on their way, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way in which they were to go. You gave your good spirit to instruct them. Your manna you did not withhold from their mouth, and you gave them water for their thirst. Indeed, 40 years you provided for them in the wilderness, and they were not in want. Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell. What is that telling us? God finishes what he starts. Those he promised to save will be saved, no matter how much they try not to be. When Abram lied about Sarah being his sister instead of his wife, even though he should have trusted God, God did not forsake him. When Sarah laughed at God, When God told her, you're gonna have a son next year this time, she laughed at him. And then God said, why did you laugh? And then she lied. I didn't laugh. God did not forsake her. When David engaged in adultery, lying, murder, God disciplined him, but did not forsake him. When Isaac tried to give the blessing to Esau, even though he knew it was supposed to go to Jacob, God did not forsake him. Although Peter sinned so boldly, so in your face against Jesus by denying with divine oaths and curses and swearing, invoking the name of God, I swear by the divine name, I don't know who you're talking about. Jesus did not forsake him. Israel, which is the community of faith on earth. They made a golden calf and worshiped it while Moses was on Mount Sinai, receiving the 10 commandments. And it's such an iconic moment in world history and in redemptive history. Moses comes down the mountain and God tells him, Moses, your people that you brought out of Egypt have committed a great sin. I'm surprised Moses didn't say, I thought they were your people. You brought out of Egypt. And what does Moses do? He smashes the Ten Commandments. It's iconic because what does that show? As soon as they were inscribed, they were broken. It's the same with us. He smashes those tablets, those good tablets. They were holy, righteous, just, and good, just laws, inscribed by the finger of God, instantly broken. The law always brings about wrath. Those same 10 commandments, when held up against any human being in this room, including the most sanctified Christian on earth, they inflict their dreadful and their eternal curse upon us. So I asked, how then, if God is just and righteous, and He must and will punish sin, how can He be so patient and compassionate, forgiving and faithful to those who righteously deserve His wrath, His damnation, and His judicial condemnation to hell? How can He do that? Christ. Why does God never, ever, ever leave or forsake those that He affectionately calls, justifies, and adopts? Christ. Why does God show us compassion when we deserve judgment? Christ. Why does God love us when he ought to hate us? Christ. Why is heaven everlasting our expectation and not hell? Christ. Why is he a God of forgiveness and not wrath and judgment toward us? Christ. Romans 8, 32. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword What's his point? Separation from the love of Christ is in every way impossible. It's impossible, can't happen. Those whom God foreknew or loved in eternity past, he will love forever. No matter what they do, he will always love them. That sounds dangerous, doesn't it? That's what Pelagius said to Augustine. That's what Abelard said to Anselm. That's what the Arminians said to the Reformed. It's what Rome said to the Reformation. And it's what people say to us today. You can't tell people that. No matter what you do, God will still love you. People are gonna, they're gonna live like dogs. They're gonna live like pigs. No, they won't. You know why they won't? It's impossible. They can't. Because God changes their hearts. God changes their hearts. May it never be. God causes us to long for holiness. These Levites, they're doing a great job teaching here. They're doing exactly what they were supposed to do. They're giving the sense of what they read from the law of Moses. They retell the whole story and they emphasize sin and grace, the law and the gospel, the judgment of God and the mercy of God. And the people were crushed by the Holy Spirit, convicting them of their sins and their failure before God. But notice how the Levites here are such good teachers. They see the law has done its work. So now they're pointing people to what? The mercy of God. Remember who he is. He is forgiving and gracious. Remember everything he said to Moses. I am long suffering and compassionate, forgiving iniquity. I am ready to pardon. All you need to do is repent and believe in me. See verse 19 there? Even when His people made a gold calf and committed great blasphemies, they grumbled, they complained, they wanted to go back to Egypt, they commit spiritual adultery. Verse 19, see it? You and your great compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness. I want to ask you a question. Why is God like that? Because it glorifies His name. It glorifies His name. God swore a self-cursing oath. to do it, and that's why he does it. I want you to turn your Bible to Genesis 15 real quick in closing. Genesis 15, look at verse one. I want you to see this passage. Sorry, we're running a little bit long. Genesis 15, verse one. Listen, remember God told Abraham, you're gonna have a son. Abraham's already too old. Sarah's already too old. And year after year after year after year is still going by. And Abraham's wondering, okay, this is getting harder by the year here. Look at verse one. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you. Your reward shall be very great. Abram said, oh Lord God, what will you give me since I'm childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram says, since you have given me no offspring, one born in my house is my heir. Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this man shall not be your heir, but one who will come forth from your own body. He shall be your heir. And he took him outside and said, now look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. Then he believed in the Lord and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. And there's Abraham's justification. And he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land to possess it. He said, O Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it? So he said to him, bring me a three-year-old heifer and a three-year-old female goat and a three-year-old ram and a turtle dove and a young pigeon. Then he brought all these things to him and cut them in two and laid each half opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds. Okay, stop there. This would have been a grisly mess. Can you imagine cutting a cow, a three-year-old cow in half and cutting a goat in half and then lining up these bloody vile pieces of animals in a row across from each other like this? Look at verse 11. The birds of prey came down on the carcasses and Abram drove them away. Now, when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. And God said to Abram, know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. But I will also judge the nation whom they serve and afterward, they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age. Then, in the fourth generation, they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete." Now, verse 17 is key. See it? "'It came about when the sun had set that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch, which passed between the pieces.'" In the ancient Near East, when two parties would make covenants and make oaths with each other, they would do this. They would cut large animals in half and put them in a row. And they would link elbows with each other. And they would walk through the severed halves of the pieces. And what they were doing by that was saying, if I fail to keep up my end of the bargain, may the fate of these animals fall on me. May I be divided asunder. Does Abraham pass between the pieces? Where's Abraham when this is happening? He's asleep over there. God passes through by himself. If God doesn't bring this to pass, he'll cease to exist. He'll be divided asunder. Dear ones, that's why we can have assurance. That's why we have assurance. God swears to do this. 2 Timothy 2.13. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. Jesus said his very food was to do the will of his father who sent him. He said that this is the will of the father who sent me, of all he has given me, I will lose none. And that's why he does not forsake us, no matter how much we sin or how much we fail. We're debtors to grace because we are saved by grace, we are kept by grace, preserved by grace, and grace and grace alone will lead us home. People of God in Nehemiah chapter nine were sad and they were weeping over their sin. But what the passage says to them, it also says to us. God's loving kindness, his mercy and his grace are greater, infinitely greater than all our sin. Let's pray. Gracious Lord and God, we are debtors to your grace and we bless your name for your faithfulness to your church. We're part of it. solely and only because of this self-maladictory oath you swore. Help us, Lord, to worship you with our whole heart in gratitude for your amazing grace. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.