Sermons

Well, good morning. It's a privilege to be with you this morning. It is always good to gather with the Lord's people on the Lord's Day with Bible in hand. I must confess to you before we start that when Andrew asked me to preach this passage a while ago, I was a little bitter.

Eighty-four names in the first 27 verses. I thought, how am I going to pronounce all these names? My mom knew to give me a one-syllable English name. I even texted Andrew and I said, wow, I've always wanted to preach a passage on names. You know, I have had the opportunity over the years to assign Andrew a lot of passages when he preached here before he became our pastor. And I can honestly say I never gave him a passage like this. I know that many of you have been praying for me. Obviously, I need your prayers.

And then we got to Nehemiah 7, and Andrew had to pronounce over a hundred names. And I thought, okay, that's fair. Maybe not all these things are against me. Maybe it is the same. Please pray for me. And then I thought, is it really the same? I said, I don't know if you've realized, but Andrew isn't exactly from these parts.

And there's times, and I'm so glad that he's here, but there's times where he says things and it takes me a minute to figure out what he's talking about. Sometimes he'll ask us to go to the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah. And I look at Marilyn to see where she's flipping in the Bible. And then I think, oh, I'm going to be that elder that has to flip to the front of the Bible to the table of contents to find this book in the Old Testament that I've never read.

Have I mentioned that I need your prayers? I jest; this is a great chapter. We come to Nehemiah chapter 10, and I think that as we dig into this chapter, zoom in, zoom out, I think that you'll see that it has great application for both you and me, specifically if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are able to stand for a while, I would like for you to stand. I think it would be appropriate if we started with a prayer, and then I'm going to read our verses.

(Prayer) Dear Heavenly Father, what a joyous occasion it is to be gathered with your people on a Sunday morning, and more importantly, gathered to worship you, to thank you for who you are and what you have done.

And Lord, we see in this passage again that you are our great God of salvation, that you have drawn your people to yourself. You have done that through the preaching of your word. You have done that through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and renewing the heart. Lord, you have given your people some understanding through the illuminating of the Holy Spirit to who you are and what you have done. And in all this, Lord, we see a comparison of who we are and what we have done. And Lord, you have saved us, saved your people in spite of that. So, we come this morning to worship you, to give you the glory. I pray, Lord, that you would help us even this hour, that you would take us deeper, that you would draw us that we would see in this passage the obedience of the faithful. To you be the glory we pray in Christ's name, amen.

I am actually going to start in Nehemiah 9:38. We're gonna read all of Nehemiah 10. In the Hebrew Bible, Nehemiah chapter 10 starts with this last verse in Nehemiah 9, because it all fits together. It's the same event. So, start with me in Nehemiah 9, verse 38.

(Scripture reading) "Now because of all this we are making an agreement in writing; And on the sealed document are the names of our leaders, our Levites and our priests.

(Nehemiah 10:1) Now on the sealed document were the names of: Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah, Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah. These were the priests. And the Levites: Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel; also, their brothers Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Bani, Beninu. The leaders of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

(verse 28) Now the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons and their daughters, all those who had knowledge and understanding, are joining with their kinsmen, their nobles, and are taking on themselves a curse and an oath to walk in God's law, which was given through Moses, God's servant, and to keep and to observe all the commandments of God our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes; and that we will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or a holy day; and we will forego the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.

We also placed ourselves under obligation to contribute yearly one third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: for the showbread, for the continual grain offering, for the continual burnt offering, the sabbaths, the new moon, for the appointed times, for the holy things and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God.

Likewise we cast lots for the supply of wood among the priests, the Levites and the people so that they might bring it to the house of our God, according to our fathers' households, at fixed times annually, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law; and that they might bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all the fruit of every tree to the house of the Lord annually, and bring to the house of our God the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks as it is written in the law, for the priests who are ministering in the house of our God. We will also bring the first of our dough, our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the new wine and the oil to the priests at the chambers of the house of our God, and the tithe of our ground to the Levites, for the Levites are they who receive the tithes in all the rural towns. The priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes, and the Levites shall bring up the tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse. For the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of the grain, the new wine and the oil to the chambers; there are the utensils of the sanctuary, the priests who are ministering, the gatekeepers and the singers. Thus, we will not neglect the house of our God."

You may be seated.

If we zoom out for just a minute and consider another document that was signed, we just celebrated as a nation 250 years of independence. Independence from British tyranny, as it were, in the Declaration of Independence. And when your mind goes to that time in the Declaration of Independence, your mind probably thinks of men like Thomas Jefferson, maybe Benjamin Franklin. The scene was Philadelphia. The date was July 4, 1776. It was the Second Continental Congress. And when those 56 delegates of the Second Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on that day, they knew that what they were doing would be considered high treason against King George III and Great Britain.

They knew that the punishment for high treason was death by hanging. They knew what the consequences of signing this document was, that in a sense, their lives hung in the balance. And when we consider what was done and how this nation was founded, it’s astounding to think of the bravery and the courage that these men had to stand up to King George and the British Army. It's an awesome thing to consider. There was a real weight of consequence when they signed this document. If the British had prevailed, they would have been signing their own death warrant. But these men had the intestinal fortitude to risk everything in what they believed in.

And when you consider their attitude and what they did, it has shaped much of American history, and it still affects us today. The Declaration of Independence ends with these words. And for support of the declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortune, and our sacred honor.

Legend is, probably not true, that John Hancock, who was the president of the Second Continental Congress, signed the document so large with his signature that he wanted King George to be able to see his name without even putting on his glasses. The weight of this document was great. It is a great moment in American history. It's not in the Bible.

And as we consider that, when we take that same thought, what we have before us today is the signing of another document. And I would say to you of even greater significance, because the significance of this document is spiritual. The consequence is eternal. The quest was not self-governance. The weight of this document is one of spiritual nature.

There is a solemnness, there is a weight to this document because it is a document that is made committing to the ultimate authority, the ultimate king, God Himself. And that's where we find ourselves this morning in Nehemiah 10. I think this chapter breaks down into three sections.

It starts in Nehemiah 9:38 and it goes all the way down to Nehemiah 10.29. And I've called this first section, The Signers of the Covenant. We have a list of names here. We're not familiar with these names. These names are difficult for us. It's hard for us to relate because we don't know these names. But these are significant names.

These are names that should be very significant to us because these are the names of the faithful, those who desire to be faithful to God. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, your name could be on this list. The first two names are given are the leaders, the political leaders, the civil leaders. We have the religious leaders. We have the priests, the Levites, and the families who pledge to follow the Lord and pledge to be obedient to Him.

It reminds me of that scene in Joshua. Joshua has led the people into the land. He's about to die, it's Joshua chapter 24, and to paraphrase Joshua, at the very end of his life, he says, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and truth, put away the gods that you had beyond the river and in Egypt, choose today whom you will serve, the God of your fathers or the God of the Amorites who live in this land. And then he makes this statement that makes the hair on your arm stand up. It makes your jaw drop. It's one of those wow moments. He says, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That's what these men are doing.

These 84 names that I just read represent many more than 84 people. Some of these names are individuals, but some of these names are family names. It would have included family members not named, it would have included wives, children, everyone who signed up to be obedient to the Lord. Look at Nehemiah 10 verse 28. All those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the land to the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters.

These are the people that are represented. All those who had knowledge and understanding. That's a very important verse, phrase. All those who had knowledge and understanding. I think we have to ask ourselves the question, what did they have...what did they understand? What did they have knowledge of? When we understand what this little phrase is, I believe it unlocks the meaning of this passage, and it unlocks the application for you and me.

Two weeks ago. Andrew preached on Nehemiah 8. And he used two words in that sermon, that very good sermon. He used the words reformation and revival. And when you consider Nehemiah's chapter 8, Chapter 9 that Kent preached last week and the one we're looking at this week, 10, it gives us the three great movements of reformation or revival.

These movements, if I can use that word, are all from God. It is God stirring the hearts of His people. It's the divine initiative where God draws His people to Himself. Ultimately, reformation and revival are from the Lord. It is Him being gracious to His people. God is the one that causes these things. God is the one who allows Himself to be discovered, or in this case with the people, to be rediscovered.

Go back to chapter 8, Nehemiah 8, verse 1. The first movement, first what must happen for revival and reformation is the preaching of God's Word and for them the rediscovery of God's Word. They would have read from the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible.

The first movement of reformation and revival is the preaching of God's Word,

Nehemiah 8:1 "And all the people gathered as one man at the square, which was in front of the water gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it before the square. which was in front of the water gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand, and all the people were attentive to the book of the law. When they saw Ezra open the book, the people stood."

It's so wonderful. It's so simple, but yet it's so powerful. It was simply the reading of God's Word. It's His design. It's God's design of how He draws His people to Himself. It's the most important thing. Everything else that is done pales in comparison. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, "the primary task of the church and of the Christian preacher is preaching the Word of God." That's what Ezra did.

God's Word is effective. It can change the hardest of hearts. God's Word and the gospel is the means by which He saves His people. God's Word is His message about His Son to a world that has no hope. Nothing else is needed. Ezra stood up, read God's Word, and wow, what did it accomplish? Another thing must happen when God's Word is read, when God's Word is preached. It must be understood. Look at verse 2 again.

Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of the men, women, and all who could listen with understanding." Here's that important phrase that was in chapter 10, verse 28 and 29. The ESV translates this, all who could understand what they heard.

What a blessing and what a gift from God. It's the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit. that you and I would hear God's Word and we would understand it. Look at verse 3, and he read from it before the square which was in front of the water gate from early in the morning until midday in the presence of the men and women. Those who could understand and all the people were attentive to the book of the law. God's Word is preached. God's Word then must be understood.

Only God can orchestrate this. He's the one that spiritually enlightens the mind. He's the first cause that a divine initiative and reformation and in revival, Warren Wiersbe in his commentary on Nehemiah said, God's word must be understood before it can enter the heart and release its life-changing power.

That's great. It's great because it's true. God's Word is living and active. It strikes a chord in the believer's heart. It penetrates all the way to the soul of man. If you remember the rest of this chapter, what happens, the people, after Ezra did this, they kept coming back to the reading of God's Word, to the teaching of God's Word. There was a hunger for God's Word. God's Word kept being read.

God's Word must be read, it must be understood, and then God's Word has its result. It unfolded in what Kent preached last week. Go to Nehemiah 9, verse 1. The second movement in reformation and revival is the repentance for sin. God's Word is read; God's Word is understood. The second movement in Reformation and revival is repentance for sin. Look at Nehemiah 9, 1 through 3.

"Now, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, three weeks later. The sons of Israel assembled with fasting and sackcloth with dirt upon them. The descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquity of their fathers. While they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law their God for a fourth day, for a fourth of the day, and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God."

The reading of God's Word when it is understood leads to repentance and the worship of God. That's what happens. That's the cause and the effect. When man sees that God has revealed Himself in His Word, man considers who God is, what He has done in the past, and he soon realizes that he personally has fallen short of what God requires. Kent talked about this last week. It's the picture of an archer. who's aimed at a target. The target is righteousness, and he misses the target. He misses the target completely. When God's Word is read and understood, God is revealed in His Word who He is, what He has done, and by comparison and contrast, man is revealed. in His Word. God's Word is read, God's Word is understood, then God's Word has its result, repentance.

And I would tell you this, that true repentance desires a change. True repentance desires a change on how life has been lived to that point. True repentance desires a change from a life of sin that's been against God to a life desiring obedience to God. God's Word is read, God's Word is understood, it leads to repentance. True repentance desires a change.

It desires to be obedient to the Lord, and that's our third movement in Reformation and Revival. It's what we're studying in chapter 10. The third movement of reformation and revival is obedience to the Lord. The end result of preaching God's Word is the worship of God, certainly salvation, but it ends with obedience in seeking to live a life that God has ordained His people to live. God's Word is preached, it's understood, it leads to repentance, and repentance leads to obedience, and that's what the Christian life should look like.

That's what these 84 names represented. That's what's happening in Nehemiah chapter 10. I don't know if you realize what we just did, but when you look at Nehemiah 8, 9 and 10, We see a living embodiment of what faith is. We see in each one of these chapters the three parts of faith in the classical definition of faith.

Faith is first, knowing the gospel, the Word of God preached and understood. It happened in Nehemiah 8. Faith is second, agreeing with the gospel. Its mental agreement seen in the repentance of Nehemiah 9. The people heard God's Word, they agreed, they applied it to their lives, and the result is they realized that they had fallen short of the glory of God and they repented. Faith third is trust and obedience as seen in this covenant of obedience, this oath of obedience that the people sign here in Nehemiah 10.

These people of understanding, these 84 names, as distant as it is, as difficult as these verses are to apply to our lives, these are the great movements of revival and reformation. It's the components of faith. You and I should be able to see our lives in this passage. That brings us full circle back to Nehemiah 10:28.

Look at Nehemiah 10:28 "and the rest of the people, and the priests, and the Levites, and the gatekeepers, and the singers, and the temple servants, and all those who had separated themselves from the people, peoples of the land, to the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all those who had knowledge and understanding (there it is,) are joining with their kinsmen, their nobles, in taking on themselves a curse and an oath to walk in God's law, which was given through Moses, God's servant, and to keep and to observe all the commandments of God our Lord and His ordinances and His statues."

These people hear God's word, they understand God's word, they repent, and it does not stop there. No, they desire to go and keep and observe God's Word, His law.

True repentance seeks real change. The same thing cannot continue to happen. Let me say it this way. Biblical repentance that does not produce...repentance that does not produce a change is not biblical repentance. Biblical repentance is turning from sin, turning from a life characterized by sin, and following in obedience the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance, faith, true repentance, true faith has the result of the desire of obedience. Think of James, James' epistle, James 1:22. He instructs those that are listening to him, prove yourselves to be doers of the Word, not merely hearers who delude themselves.

I don't know in your offices, at your workplace, if this has ever happened to you. You're working, somebody knocks, comes into your cubicle, whatever the situation is, and they said, hey, I got a problem. You go, okay. You put your work aside and you listen. And they say, I need your advice on this problem. And you go, okay. Is this a situation? I understand the situation. Yes. I said, this is my advice for you and your problem. That's great. That's the best advice I've ever received. They leave. You go on your work. You go to the water cooler. You go to the restroom. Fifteen minutes later, you're down the hall and you hear the same person telling the same problem in somebody else's office or somebody else's cubicle.

There's no desire for change. They want to wallow in their situation, and they want everybody to know their situation. You and I can do stupid things, and we can be filled with remorse, and we can be sorry that we did it, but unless we desire to change, it's not biblical repentance. In the adult Sunday school class, we've often quoted this verse where Jesus says in Matthew 7, 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. That's what these people were doing. They're making an oath of obedience because of their faith, their true faith, their saving faith because they know their faith is seen in what they do and not what they say.

Abraham's faith was proved to be authentic. His obedience to God was proved to be authentic. He believed God in Genesis 15, 6. God told him to offer up his son Isaac in Genesis 22. He did. He said, now I know that you fear God. That was the test of his faith, the test of his obedience. These people were willing to make a covenant with God, taking upon themselves a curse and an oath to be obedient to God's law, to observe all the commandments of the Lord our God and His ordinances and His statutes. If they failed in their obedience, they were calling for a curse to come down upon them. That's got weight. That's strong.

Ezra had been reading from the Pentateuch. He had been reading from what we would call the first five books of the Bible. When he was reading and teaching for those weeks, maybe he read Deuteronomy 29 where the people entered a covenant with the Lord.

Maybe he read Deuteronomy 30 where Moses said, in Deuteronomy 30 starting in verse 15, see I have set before you life and prosperity and death and adversity and that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set life and death, the blessing and the curse, so choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him."

That's what they were doing. That is a weight. What a solemn occasion, signing, putting a signet. on an oath of obedience to the Righteous One, the Almighty, the ultimate God Himself. These are the signers of the covenant. Second section, the separation for the covenant. It's verses 30 and 31. The separation for the covenant. Verse 30.

"And we will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. As for the people of the land who bring their wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath day or a holy day. And we will forgo the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt."

One of the purposes of the law that God had given Moses for the nation Israel was to keep them separate from the other nations, to keep them separate unto the Lord, separate and undefiled, separate and holy. When you read through the first five books of the Bible, this law goes beyond the Ten Commandments. It included their diet, their clothes, the days that they could work, how and when they worshiped the Lord. It defined their relationships with each other. It defined marriage. It defined the sanctity of life. And it defined their relationship and how they were to approach God.

Verse 30 goes back about not giving daughters or taking daughters from the people of the land. It goes back to Exodus 34, 16. And in Exodus 34, 16, they are told not to do this so that they would not play the harlot with the gods of these foreign women. God knew that if they married foreign women, that the foreign women would bring in their deity and that they would bend the hearts of the people, the men, towards these gods. The Lord was trying to protect them. Think of Solomon. That was Solomon's downfall. That was what happened at the end of the last portion of Solomon's life.

It's recorded in 1 Kings 11.4, for when Solomon was old, his wives, His foreign wives turned his heart away after other gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God as the heart of David his father had been.

So, the Lord had given them a prohibition. Don't take foreign women. Don't give your daughters to foreign men. You will play the harlot with other gods. It happened to Solomon, and you think, okay, but there's even a greater thing. This was their very own experience. This is how Ezra 10 ends. Go back with me to Ezra 10, just 13, 15 years prior. This was their problem. This is what they had done. This is how they had defiled themselves.

Ezra 10 verse 1, "Now while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women, and children gathered to him from Israel, for the people wept bitterly. Shekiniah, the son of Jehiel, the son of Elam said to Ezra, we have been unfaithful to our God and we have married foreign women from the people of the land, yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this." They saw all the reformation that the Lord had been using, Ezra and then now Nehemiah. Verse 3, "so now let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and their children according to the counsel of our Lord and those who tremble at the commandment of our God and let it be done according to the law." So, in Nehemiah 10, the prohibition, it had direct impact on them because they had violated this command.

Let me say this, there's a lot that could be said about this. Sexual purity was not the practice of the other nations. The nations that were surrounding Israel did not know or practice sexual purity. It's not what the Lord had called his people to. There is a sermon here for the believer.

We don't have time but let me give you the cliff notes. If you're a believer and you're single and the Spirit of God resides in you, you are not to yoke yourself, marry an unbeliever. Your life will be miserable. You will only have the superficial and the physical in common. You will never connect on a spiritual level because you both don't have the Spirit of God.

If you need to see the sermon notes on that, go to 2 Corinthians 6.14.

Verse 31, they were to keep the Sabbath. Not only were they to keep the Sabbaths from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, they were to give the land a Sabbath rest every seven years. The Sabbath was given for Israel to rest. It was given to Israel for the worship of God, for the surrounding nations. Saturday, let's just call it that, Saturday was just another day to do business. They brought their wares. They brought their grain into the town. The Israelites were to rest. They were not to do any work. They were to worship the Lord.

As believers, you and I today, we have the Lord's Day, Sunday. We have the day that the church meets, the resurrection that celebrates the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the Lord's Day to worship the Lord. We have the Lord's Day to gather as His people. And as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ is our Sabbath rest. He is the one that we rest in. He is the one that has paid for the sins of His people that we don't have to earn our way to heaven, which we couldn't have done even if we tried. Not only that, the principles of the Sabbath still apply to us, you and I, today. I don't know if you realize this, but when God created you, He did not create you to work 24-7. the body needs rest. So, he told them, he commanded them to keep the Sabbath.

They were also to give the land a rest every seven years. So, what this meant was they were to plant, they were to sow, they were to reap, they were to gather for six years in a row. And on that seventh year, they weren't to plant, they weren't to sow, and they weren't to reap. And the Lord had told them that, you look at this from the outside and, okay, I got how we're going to eat for six years, what's going to happen in the seventh year? How are we going to sustain ourselves? And the Lord said in Leviticus 25, 21, that if they trusted in Him, if they kept His statutes and His judgments, that they would reap a crop in the sixth year that would last three years until the next harvest was brought in.

It was the Lord providing, the Lord was their provision. He had provided for them for forty years in the... Kent read about it, in the desert. Their sandals didn't wear out, their feet didn't swell, and yet every morning the manna was on the ground save the Sabbath. This was calling the people to trust in the Lord. This was calling the people to have faith in the Lord for their provision.

You and I, that should be our position today. Everything that you have, everything that you are comes from the Lord. And at best, you’re a temporary steward of it because when you die and go to heaven, you're not taking it with you. The Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Do we thank Him for what we have done, for what He has done? The Lord had called the people out of the world in Nehemiah's day, and He still does that for believers today.

If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are to be in the world but not of the world. You are to be different from those who are in the world. The believer is separated unto the Lord. The believer is to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I are to live life by faith. You and I are to be ones that are seeking to be obedient to the Lord.

The believer is not playing by the same rules that the world is playing in this game of life. We're of a different...we have a different citizenship. We're of a different kingdom. We have a different spirit. We have a different future. We're called to be people of faith; we're called to be obedient to the Lord. Separation for the covenant, third point. The service and support of the covenant.

It's listed in Nehemiah 30:10, 32 through 39. These verses focus on the worship of God and the obligations of the people in this worship.

The focal point of this worship was the temple in Jerusalem, and it included all the service that was needed at the temple and support that was needed to maintain the temple. If you reread this section of Scripture multiple times, two things become evident, and they're pertinent to us. First, the temple, specifically called the house of our God, or the house of the Lord, is mentioned nine times in these verses. Over and over again, the house of our God is where God chose to dwell with Israel.

The focal point of worship was the temple because the focal point of worship is worshiping the one that chose to dwell there, and that's God Himself. The focal point of worship is God Himself. The worship of God is personal, it's individual, and it's corporate. The worship of God is personal, it's individual, it's corporate.

The word we and our, O-U-R, are used at least twenty-two times in these verses. This oath that they were making, this covenant that they were making was personal. God saves individuals, He saves us one at a time, He renews the heart, and He brings us together corporately in the body of Christ. We've said it often. Luke said it in his prayer this...or in the announcements this morning when he was talking about the ministry fair. We've all...if we're believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we've all been gifted with spiritual gifts from God, that we are to use in the body of Christ, that we are to use in the building of the kingdom. It's the purpose for which God has saved us besides being in Him with glory forever in heaven. He saved you. He left you here. Why?

The body only works properly if each and every one of us believers plays the role that we've been called to play. Some of us are a foot, a hand, a mouth, an ear, an arm. The body doesn't work properly unless we're all exercising the gifts that God has given us. The worship of God is personal, it's individual, and it is to be corporate.

This list that we have gives us the list of obligations of the people. The temple tax, the offerings, the wood for the burnt offerings, the first fruit, dedication of the firstborn, the tithes, all these things are in accord with God's Word. All these things is how God has set forth in His Word that He is to be worshiped. The Lord God sets the terms by which sinful man, redeemed man approaches Him. And for you and I, it's through the Lord Jesus Christ, His righteousness, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I want to read these verses one more time, starting in verse 32. And I want you to be thinking of this corporate nature, this personal nature, who God is, we, our, the house of our God, the house of the Lord, starting in verse 32. This was the oath that they put themselves under.

We also placed ourselves under obligation. to contribute yearly one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God, for the showbread, for the continual grain offering, for the continual burnt offering, for the Sabbaths, the new moons, for the appointed times, for the holy things, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God. Likewise, we cast lots for the supply of wood among the priests and the Levites and the people so that we might bring it to the house of our God according to our Father's households at fixed times annually to burn on the altar of the Lord our God as it is written in the law, that they might bring the firstfruits of our ground. and the firstfruits of all the fruit of every tree to the house of the Lord annually, and to bring to the house of our God the firstborn of our sons and our cattle and the firstborns of our herds and our flocks as it is written in the law for the priest who are ministering in the house of our God. We are also to bring the first of our dough, our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the new wine and the oil to the priest at the chambers of the house of our God, and the tithes of our ground to the Levites, for the Levites are they who will receive the tithes in all the rural towns. The priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes, and the Levites shall bring up the tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse, For the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of the grain, the new wine, the oil to the chambers.

There are the utensils of the sanctuary, the priests who are ministering, the gatekeepers, the singers.

Thus, we will not neglect the house of our God." I don't want to get lost in these details. You might be thinking, okay, that's great. How does that apply to me? How does that apply today in the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ? The Lord Jesus Christ ushered in a new covenant in his blood.

He paid for all the sins of his people at the cross. It was there at the cross where the believer's sin is exchanged. It was put on the Lord Jesus Christ. He bore the wrath of God for it. In exchange, He gave us His righteousness, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that when we stand before the Father, He doesn't see us. He sees the righteousness. We're acceptable because of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I would say to you that if you're here this morning and you're a believer, it is only because and all of because of what God has done for you. You have been bought and paid for. Let me say it again.

All you have and all you are is from the Lord. And if all we are and all we have is from the Lord, and if he has bought us with the blood of his son, do we not owe the triune God everything? It's His. It is amazing that He used Ezra, Nehemiah, men in this church to preach His Word, to do His bidding, that He would build His kingdom. Your time, your talents, your treasures, they're all the Lord's. If you're a believer, you're indwelt by God the Son. He deserves all the worship, all the praise, and all the glory. And you and I are not. We are to do this individually. We're to do this personally. We are not to forsake the gathering together in His name.

The Lord Jesus Christ said in John 14:15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments." The believer is to approach the Father in the Son through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's the service and the support of the covenant. This list, this difficult list that we read, it's the list of the faithful. It's all those who have believed, they have understood, and with everything in their being, they're striving to be obedient to the Lord.

They were willing to sign this oath that a curse would come down upon them if they were not obedient to the Lord. And the question that I have for you and I, would your name be on that list? Would you have been one of those people in Nehemiah 10 that would have signed this list of obedience?

If the answer is yes, all praise belongs to him. Praise him for what he has done. Praise him that you heard God's word, you understood God's word, You repented and He gave you the ability to trust and be obedient. If the answer is no, I pray that He would change your heart with the reading of this word, that He would apply the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit and change your hard heart as only He can do.

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