Iran, Israel, and Nehemiah

“Confession”

Nehemiah 9

 

 

Bible prophecy continues to unfold in real time. You can’t make this stuff up.

“Persia” in Scripture became Iran just 90 years ago. It has always been a central hotbed in the Biblical narrative. For most of history it included the land which is now Iraq. (Think Mesopotamia, Babylon, Euphrates, etc.) That greater region is both the cradle and the grave of all civilization. Eden, Babel, and Nineveh were all in these borders, as was Noah and most of the humanity of his time. The events of Esther and Nehemiah took place here. It’s where Michael the archangel defeated the “Prince of Persia” in Daniel 10:13.

You would think that most red blooded Americans would be happy with this move, as I am, but don’t be surprised when many will reveal that they are on the wrong side of this issue.

Likewise, most would think that the enemy would be dejected and defeated by this move, however, don’t be surprised at the fact that this will fan their flames. They actually think this is fulfilling their own false prophecies concerning the end of the world and they will rise up and give their lives for their cause.

Ultimately, God is on the throne and in full control, moving all the pieces according to His perfect will.

 

If you were in Jerusalem at this time in our text you would have seen and heard some very unusual things.  Like people in the streets crying out to God, confessing their sins with weeping, openly, publicly, without shame.  You would have seen people wearing sackcloth, a very uncomfortable burlap type material, as a symbol of their humility and repentance.  You would see them pick up dirt and literally throw it upon their own heads.  These were customs in Bible days when people would get serious about getting right with God.

 

When we get right with God we bring the glory to God that He so richly deserves, and we will be blessed the way He wants to bless us. 

 

ill.--many pulpits today proclaim how God wants to bless us, but they leave out the fact that we are the limiting factor that stays His hand from being able to bless us more.  Nehemiah 9 will prove that He will bless us more when we get right with Him.  God does business with those who mean business!

 

Confession leads to Consecration, and ultimately to Celebration.

 

When we turn away from God he pours out judgment, but when we turn to Him He pours out blessing after blessing!

 

The devil knows that, so he will do all he can to keep you from getting right with God.  If you're not saved, get saved, get right with God, and don't let the devil get you off track.  If you're saved but not right, get right.

John 10:10
... I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

But don't expect to find the abundant life if you're not willing to get right with God!

1 Peter 1:8
... yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

But don't expect to find joy unspeakable if you're not willing to get right with God!

 

We cannot have a half hearted, fence riding, weak-kneed, watered down, anemic approach to our Christianity and expect to find God's best for our lives!

 

Here's the beginning of a great revival, it starts with...

 

Confession.

vv. 5-38 is their prayer...the longest in the Bible.  In it they recount the story of their history and how God would bless them, they would forget and sin, He would judge them, and they would repent and return to more blessings.  And those who forget the past are destined to repeat it.

 

You should read it on your own.  It's proof positive of this verse...

2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

We will never get to the celebration until we start w/ the confession.  Sin will come between you and God, rob you of your joy and your song.

 

Here's 3 basics you'll find in their prayer of confession-Israel's God, Guilt, and Grace...

• Israel's God.

It's a God centered prayer.  If you took all the references to God out of this prayer it would suddenly be very, very short.  Too many of our prayers today are man centered.  All about what we want and not about what God wants.

 

Real confession is based on the character and nature of God. 

 

We see in their prayer that their God is a glorious God. 

Middle of v. 5

        Everything the devil does ends in misery...everything God does ends in glory!  We are saved by grace and it ends in glory.  Jesus died on the cross, but He rose in glory.  He had a glorious birth, a virgin birth.  He had a glorious life, a perfect life, never sinning in thought, word, or deed.  He had a glorious death, a sacrificial death, for the sins of the entire world.  He had a glorious resurrection, bursting out of that tomb like a heavenly beam of light!  And make no mistake, He'll be glorious in His return to earth.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

What a glorious day that will be!

 

Their confession was based on the character and nature of God.  And only a glorious God can provide the kind of forgiveness that is needed by people like these in our text, and these in the pews!  It will be a glorious forgiveness, a glorious mercy, a glorious grace, and a glorious eternal love they will receive, and we can too!

 

We see in their prayer that their God is a powerful God. 

v. 6          This is about creation.  Throughout the Bible God reminds us of His creation.  He points us back to the first verse of the Bible and reminds us of how it all started.  And we need some reminding today! 

 

Our world is trying to kill God w/ a big bang but it won't work.  And the concept of billions of years is trying to erase the 6,000 year Bible history.  We're desperately looking for some connection to monkeys when we should be reconnecting w/ our Maker!  We're still searching for little green men that aren't there...but if we'd just open our eyes we could look into the face of the extra terrestrial Who created us and we could return to Him and be welcomed into His home beyond the stars!

 

---

Somewhere in outer space, God has prepared a place

for those who trust Him and obey.

Jesus will come again, and tho' we don't know when

the countdown's getting lower every day!

 

10 and 9, 8 and 7, 6 and 5 and 4 ... call upon the Savior while you may.

3 and 2, coming thru the clouds in bright array

The countdown's getting lower every day!

---

 

It's wonderful to know as we pray to our Father in Heaven that He's the same God Who created everything in the beginning.  Or else, why pray to Him?

 

ill.—consider the speed of light.  Light is booking it at 186,000 miles every second.  And yet the closest star to our solar system is 4 light years away.  Voyager was launched nearly 50 years ago and is moving away at 38k mph.  And yet in 50 years it hasn’t even traveled one light day yet!  Our galaxy is 100,000 light years across [if our sun was the size of a white blood cell our galaxy would be as wide as the US!], and is just one of hundreds of millions of galaxies.  Don't you know we serve a great big, powerful God!  And that same God of creation is powerfully big in grace and mercy that we need.

 

Middle of v. 17, "...but thou art..."

v. 31        Grace and Mercy - grace is getting something good you don't deserve.  Mercy is not getting something bad which you do deserve.

ill.--a policeman pulls you over doing 90 in a 55.  You explain how you were hungry and were heading to the drive thru.  Then you beg and plead and he agrees not to give you a ticket.  That's mercy.  But what if now he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a $20 bill and says, dinner is on me!  That's grace.  [it's also unlikely!]

 

As sinners we deserve hell, and don't deserve heaven...so thank God for His great grace and mercy!

 

Their God is glorious, and powerful...

We see in their prayer that their God is a caring God. 

v. 9          God hears when we cry.  He didn't just create the universe and abandon it.  He is personally involved in the affairs of His creation.

Matthew 10:29
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

He personally conducts a funeral for each disease filled fowl who falls, how much more does He care for us!

Psalm 147:9
He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.

Psalm 147:4
He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

Luke 12:7
But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. [some of you make it easier] Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

He's the exact opposite of what Bette Midler said He was in her song, "From a Distance."  No, he is here, close by, and personally involved.  He knows the deepest needs of your heart and wants to help if you'll let Him.

 

He's a caring God.  He cares about big things and even when you've just misplaced your glasses and can't see to find where you put them [on your head!]

 

glorious, powerful, caring...

We see in their prayer that their God is a trustworthy God. 

v. 15        The end of the verse is all about a promise God had made to them, and He kept that promise.  Jews are being persecuted by Palestinians...it's wrong, wrong, wrong!  That's God's people's land!  And our trustworthy God is going to end that war someday soon, and we're gonna have a front row seat!

 

Titus 1:2
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

What has God promised us regarding confession?

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Isaiah 1:18
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

1 John 1:7
... the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

 

What a mighty God we serve!

Glorious, powerful, caring, trustworthy.

 

He's worth confessing to.  Just come and tell Him like it is.  That's what confess means.  "To say the same thing."  Con = with and fess = to speak [fess up!]

 

And be specific.  Count your many sins...name them one by one.  And it will surprise you what YOU have done!

 

Tell the truth.  He already knows the truth, He's just waiting for you to admit it and return to Him.  You're agreeing with God instead of offering excuses, alibis...or just ignoring the situation and sweeping it under the rug.  It's facing the music!

 

And that confession will lead to consecration, and celebration!

 

Israel's God is glorious, powerful, caring, and trustworthy.

 

Now notice-

• Israel's guilt.

...notice the use of the conjunctions but, yet, and nevertheless.

 

v. 16-but

v. 19-yet

v. 26-nevertheless

v. 28-but

v. 31-nevertheless

 

These conjunctions show the contrast between God's goodness and Israel's guilt / Between God's salvation and Israel's sin / Between God's faithfulness and Israel's failure.

 

"God, you've been good to us, BUT, we've spit in your face."

 

Let's not be too quick to judge Israel for this, because many of us treat the Lord the same way.

 

ill.--a little girl would hug her baby doll, and look at it as if expecting a response...again and again.  Finally she went to her mom and said, "There's something wrong with this baby doll.  I love her and love her and love her, and she never loves me back!" 

        I think God must feel the same way.

 

They are confessing their guilt!

 

• Israel's grace.

They received grace from God when they confessed.  They deserved judgment but in mercy God forgave them.  Then He gives them blessing after blessing after blessing!

 

16 times in this chapter the word 'give' or 'gave' is used.  It's talking about God's grace.

v. 8          God gave them a land they did not deserve. 

v. 13        God gave them His Word and guidance.

v. 20        The Holy Spirit!  And bread and water in the wilderness to boot!  And it wasn't a reward for their goodness...it was in spite of their griping!  That's grace.

v. 24        Victory over their enemies.

v. 27        Saviours = judges and leaders to help them.

 

None of this did they deserve.  It was all gifts of grace.

 

God is so good!  And His goodness is leading them to repentance.

Romans 2:4
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

In context Paul is also talking about Israel, and talking to us today.  In America we've been given the greatest land, the greatest law, and some of the greatest leaders of all of human history.  Why are we spitting in the face of the God who has given us all of this?

 

God's first choice is to use goodness to lead us to Him, but if we insist, He will use judgment to bring us back to Him in repentance.

 

If you're saved but not right w/ God--stop and think about how good God has been to you in giving you salvation.  That alone is worthy of our undivided loyalty.  But beyond that He's given us the Holy Spirit to help us thru this life.

John 16:7
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

Not only has God given you salvation and His Spirit, but another gift that keeps on giving...

*Constant daily forgiveness if we confess*

Lamentations 3:23
[The Lord's mercies] are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

 

Iran, Israel, and Nehemiah, pt. 2

"Consecration and Celebration"

Nehemiah 10-12

 

 

Chapter 9 was all about confession as the people got right with God. 

ill.--one day a lady approached CH Spurgeon and asked for prayer for her problem with exaggeration.  He said, sure, I'll pray for you to get the victory over lying.  She was offended and said, I'm no liar!  He replied, lady, you'll never get the victory until you call it what it is.

 

And true confession leads to consecration and celebration.

 

The last verse of chapter 9 leads us to this transition...

v. 38        'seal unto it'

After their prayer of confession, they literally write out on paper the steps they are gonna take and how they're gonna live in response.  And they sign their names to it.

 

Chapter 10 lists 84 leaders who sign it.  Look at the first one...

v. 1          Nehemiah is the governor, and he signs first, setting the example.

 

It's one thing to cry out in repentance at the altar and feel deep regrets and cry tears, but it's another thing to get up and change...which is TRUE repentance.

 

ill.--a man always ended his public prayers with "Lord, clean the cobwebs out of my life."  But his life never changed.  Week after week he prayed that prayer.  One other member got tired of hearing it so the next time the man prayed for the Lord to clean the cobwebs out of my life the member added, "And Lord, please kill the spider!"

 

These people in our text are committed to getting to the bottom of their problems and really doing business with God.  They put it in writing and signed their names!

 

3 aspects of their consecration:

 

1.     The application of the Word.

They've heard the Scripture and it was convicting, and now they want to obey it.

James 1:22
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

There's no point to coming service after service if you aren't going to apply it.  Why read the Bible if not open to change?

 

• They applied the Word to their marriages.

 

v. 30        We are not gonna be unequally yoked together. 

 

God knew an unequal yoke would lead to constant conflict.

Jews couldn't eat pork, but the Gentiles could.

They would fight over money, because the Jews had to give 3 tithes:  a temple tax, the firstfruits, and what we call the tithe today.

 

Constant conflict would lead to occasional compromise.  The believer would get tired of fighting over whether they go to church or the lake today, and would eventually give in and compromise.

 

Then comes complete conformity, where the believer abandons their faith.

 

These are the same reasons your NT says not to marry an unbeliever.

2 Corinthians 6:14-15
¹⁴ Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
¹⁵ And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

1 Corinthians 7:39
The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

 

How many times has a young lady told me she's gonna marry a guy and "I'm gonna get him saved"?

 

That's unscriptural.  Never does God recommend marriage as a mission field.  And that's unwise.  Most of the time the believer doesn't pull the unbeliever up, but the other way around.  We all know some exception, but realize they are just that...an exception, not the rule.

 

ill.--it's much easier to make hot water cold than cold water hot.  It's much easier to pull someone down than to pull someone up.

 

• They applied the Word to Sabbath keeping.

 

v. 31        We're gonna keep God's day holy.

 

And they signed their names to it!

 

• They applied the Word to their giving.

 

v. 32        'the house of our God' is used 9 times in this passage.

v. 35, 37

 

Every great revival renews interest in the house of God, and in giving to it.  When someone says they have had revival but it doesn't bring them back to church something is wrong.  And if it hasn't reached your wallet it hasn't reached your heart.  Jesus said it.  [where your treasure is...]

 

the application of the Word...

 

2.     The occupation of the city.

We must let our light shine where God puts us.

Go to chapter 11...

v. 1          Once the walls were built Nehemiah had to deal w/ another problem.  There weren't enough Jews living inside the walls.  Many lived in villages just outside the city. 

 

Nehemiah needed more Jews to protect the city, and also to be witnesses to the many Gentiles around the area.

 

He asked for volunteers, and then drafted more as needed.  One in ten needed to come to town, sell their house and move!  Can you imagine the church split we'd have today!

 

v. 2          These volunteered.  Every church has both groups.  Those who volunteer and those whom we have to twist their arm.  Which receives the bigger blessing?  The former, so let's take a lesson.  God’s no beggar!  But He’s worthy!  So look for a tough job in the church, not just an easy one.  Get dirty, do for Jesus what no one wants to do!

 

Consecration means making tough changes, and doing hard things.

 

3.     The delegation of the people.

The work of the future is built on the work of the past.

Chapter 12 tells about people who came before them and laid the foundation they are now building on.

v. 1          Zerubbabel had led a first wave to return and rebuild the temple.  They sacrificed and should not be forgotten.

 

What would be here at this location if not for those who came before us?

 

Now, the celebration!

 

v. 27        A party's gettin' started!  Notice the emphasis on joyful praise in the remainder of this chapter.

 

Singing is mentioned 8 times, thanksgiving 6 times, rejoicing 7 times, musical instruments 3 times.  They organized 2 separate choirs, one led by Ezra and the other by Nehemiah.  They marched around the wall, one went clockwise and the other counter wise.  They met in the middle.

 

It wasn't quiet or solemn.  It was a celebration.  Church doesn't have to be boring.  Most churches begin at 11 o'clock sharp and end at 12 o'clock dull!  It doesn't have to be that way.

 

Some criticize us for clapping after a special or a baptism.  Listen, these are times for celebration!

 

I'm glad to be a part of a church where Jesus Christ is celebrated!

 

v. 43        You could hear this celebration for miles!  This was the shout heard round the world.  It was a holy hootenanny, and I'm sure some were even doing the Baptist boogie!

 

Confession leads to consecration and celebration!  When we get right w/ God we cannot help but celebrate and rejoice.  It's time God's people got back to singing on the wall!