As we've been studying through the book of Nehemiah, what we're
we're learning is that there is a mighty difference between
being emotionally stirred towards something and actually
changing. You know, there's often a token
thing that people will say things with their mouth and with
their lips, but it's not until that their lives back that up
and, and actions follow from that, that speak do we start to
see and sense there's transformation taking place.
You can be moved by a powerful sermon.
You can come away from hearing that and go, wow, my, my
heartstrings were tugged and my mind was engaged.
But unless there's an active desire to obey and to live that
out, to be deeply convicted by that Scripture and, you know,
weep with repentance, unless that turns into some kind of a
concrete commitment, then there's no real change in the
long run. That's exactly where we meet our
characters, the people of Israel in Nehemiah chapter 10, after
the walls have been rebuilt in record time.
You remember that's taken some 52 days when Nehemiah encouraged
everybody to put their hand to, to labour, that the walls have
gone up to surround and protect the people of Jerusalem
physically. There's now a spiritual
awakening that's taking place in chapter 8.
The word of God, it seems, was rediscovered for them and they
read and they read and they read and it was explained clearly to
them as it was taught, and they understood the meaning.
And then they realised as a consequence of that, of how far
away from God's commands they had drifted as these people.
So they started to observe some festivals and feasts that they
should have been observing in this month.
And, and God is doing a work in the midst of the people.
And there's been both sorrow and joy out of that.
Chapter 9 Last week we saw that they confessed sin, and
generational sin at that, going all the way back in times past
into their ancestors, and how as a people they had turned away
from God unto idols again and again and again.
And yet they're astounded by God's faithfulness in and
through it. They carried that all the way
through from the creation story into Exodus.
And probably as they're reading through the Pentateuch, the
first five books of the Bible, and, and then on into other
parts of, of God's Word, that they're starting to see the
history of the people of Israel through the judges and through
the kings of, of this cycle of turning to God and then away
from God and, and God bringing them back and him always being
faithful to his covenant. And now in chapter 10, they take
this decisive step that we'll read and they put their
repentance into writing. And verse 38 of Chapter 9
describes it as a binding agreement, a sure covenant that
has been there before them. And they seal it.
They mark it, they stamp it, they sign it.
And there's 84 names that are mentioned for us in Nehemiah
chapter 10 that are recorded from Nehemiah the governor, down
to the heads of the families and to anybody who could understand
what they were doing in that moment.
I'll sign it. This is this is me.
I'm in agreement with this covenant.
And this didn't end in just emotional impulse.
Yeah, this will be a wonderful thing to do.
But it was a deliberate and costly consecration taking place
here that we're about to read off.
You see, what's happening is they're being changed again as
God's people. And the main idea out of
Nehemiah chapter 10 for us tonight, and if you're taking
notes, it'll be up on the screen, is that when God and his
word grips our heart, it produces a covenant commitment
that should reshape everyday life.
And so true revival, we've been learning is not just about
tears, It's not just about emotions, but it is structural,
it's practical. And, and often times we'll see
some painful obedience that comes through that touches every
sphere of life, family time, all of our priorities, certainly our
resources, and it covers every aspect of our life and living.
I think in our day, people feel this void of of what's called
covenant commitment. We'll see this term come up
again and I hope to explain it throughout the course of the
chapter. Covenant or vows.
And we make vows in our day and age.
Certainly the marriage ceremony comes to mind, and we'll see how
it fits so aptly with this passage.
But Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame once claimed that Facebook
could fill the gap left by, and he said, declining churches and
community groups in society. So he claimed that using AI and
algorithms that they could suggest meaningful communities
for people to be a part of and help billions of people join
them. But you and I know that social
media only offers this disembodied individualistic
connection to said groups, right?
It's always on your terms with easy outs.
You can unfriend people, unfollow people, and if you're a
bit afraid to do that, you can just mute them.
But it cannot replace face to face, covenant bound life.
And that is what we're reading of here in Nehemiah.
And that is what we experience as a part of the body of
believers that is the Church of Jesus Christ.
Nehemiah 10 shows us the real thing that a covenant
relationship is about a binding relationship with God and one
another that makes us family. So that's what sits underneath
this. And as I said, I hope to explain
this a little further as we go along.
Tonight, we'll go through three kind of key phases in chapter
10. Number one, we see that there's
a resolved submission to God's word #2A renewed separation in
daily living. And thirdly, A reordered
stewardship of their life and resources.
So let's move through the text carefully.
Let it challenge our minds, let it stir within us our affections
and ultimately call us to action.
Go back with me into Chapter 9, into verse 38.
Let's read. And it says I'm reading again
the new King James Version. And because of all this, we make
a sure covenant, a binding agreement, and write it.
Our leaders, our Levites and our priests seal it.
So before we move on, let's let's see who it is that signs
on the dotted line, so to speak, puts their name to this
contract. Now verse 1, chapter 10, those
who placed their seal on the document were Nehemiah the
governor, the son of Hakalaya and Zedekiah.
Verse 2, this list of names, Soraya, Azariah, Jeremiah, and
on through verse one are the civil leaders, Nehemiah, he's
the governor. He's the one that this book is
named after. And he's, yes, politically in
charge, but he's taking care of all of the civil aspects.
But it's flowing on into the religious, spiritual sphere of
life and living for them there. And it was followed in verses 2
to 8 by the listing of the names there of the priesthood.
Interestingly, Ezra we've read of him having been the scribe
who was part of the the priestly lineage that was reading out the
scriptures. And his name would be included
in his family line, which is the first name mentioned in verse 2.
Soraya, that was his family line, kind of like his surname,
if you would like to see it as that.
And then in verses 9 through to 13 are the Levites of the tribe
of Levi, who were all part of the responsibility of
encouraging the people to worship God and adhering to His
commands and structures. And then the heads of the
families as you cast your eyes over it from verse 14 to 27, I
mentioned that. Are the names there that we read
off. And then move ahead now to verse
28. It says now the rest of the
people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the
singers, the nethanim, they were the temple servants and all
those who had separated themselves from the peoples of
the lands to what? To the law of God, their wives,
their sons and their daughters. And I've underlined this,
everyone who had knowledge and understanding, basically, if you
understood at this time what was going on, all that had happened
in the past weeks and you had intelligence in mind and, and
understood what was taking place and you could sign and make your
mark, then you were involved in this commitment to this covenant
agreement that they made. Again, the leaders going first,
setting the tone, being the example.
This is what we're going to do as a people, as followers of
God. And then everyone joins in this
collective collaboration of commitment and a desire to
follow the Lord, a submission to God's Word.
Ultimately, the repeated we throughout the chapter
underscores what we're seeing in this unified, unified
responsibility. In other words, what they were
saying to one another as witnesses.
By putting my name to this, you'll hold me accountable.
I'll hold you accountable. You are a witness to my
commitment to these promises that we'll read off here.
And it was public. It was before all, and there was
this obligation one to another that now you're witnesses to our
commitment to these holy lives of service, separation under
God. So this vow in verse 29, it
captures the heart of what is going on.
It says these joined with their brethren, their nobles, and
entered into a curse and an oath to what?
Walk in God's law, which was given by Moses, the servant of
God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our
Lord and his ordinances and his statutes.
There is again a resolved submission to God's word.
That's what we've just read in verse 29 and they invoke a, a
curse on themselves that if they fail, and it kind of echoes what
we read of in, in the book of Numbers in chapter 30, verse 2.
And, and what Ecclesiastes 5 verse 4 tells us that when we
make a vow to God, it's serious business.
It's not something flippant, not something to take lightly.
It's not just like a, you know, a promise that you make
tokenists. Yeah, I'll, I'll be at the footy
game or whatever. No, this is serious now that
they're committing to and it's not about legalism or a desire
to return to earning God's favour.
That's not what's underneath this.
I think we can say that because Chapter 9 has already released
God's mercy in a way where most likely they had celebrated the
festival of the Day of Atonement, where where sin had
been dealt with and taken care of.
And so this covenant now is one of grateful obedience that stems
out of God's grace and forgiveness 1st that comes upon
them so that now they're going, we cannot help but obey God's
commands and what he has shown us in his word.
And it says that they commit to all the commandments.
There's no selective obedience. They haven't written in the
contract. Well, we'll agree to this
commandment God, but we're not doing that bit out of, you know,
Leviticus chapter 20, Numbers, you know, 11/12/13.
We're OK with that. But you can scrap out Numbers
15. We're not going to do that.
No, they hadn't placed themselves over God's Word as
authority, but they submitted themselves under the authority
of God's Word. I think sometimes we can do that
now day and age when it comes to God's Word, we have some
selective obedience going on. We, we trim out the
uncomfortable parts as we might say it, and we, we pick out what
suits us and sometimes we sit over it rather than sitting
under it in submission. We need to be people who are
submitted to God's Word and what he has revealed in the Scripture
and not just admiring it, but surrendering to it.
And that's where revival always begins, by the way, lives that
are surrendered to God's Word and the authority of it.
Now, sometimes we can read a passage like this and we can be
looking at, you know, well, that's Old Testament and, and
covenants and vows and things that they did back then.
But are we bound to them today is the question, you know, as
New Testament believers. And sometimes people think that,
well, you know, I, I'm under the new covenant and there's a, a
New Testament, a new agreement. And what about that that we're a
part of. So let me try and explain a
covenant a little bit here and understand it as more than just
a promise, but see it as a binding relationship, a binding
commitment based on vows that make people now as close as
family. It's a good way to understand it
and think of marriage in that sense.
Vows are spoken and in the Christian marriage ceremony,
it's that threefold chord of of God.
And some have described the marriage commitment and the
ceremony attached to that as being seen as as like a triangle
with God at the top and the husband and the wife at the
bottom. The interesting thing about that
and understanding that binding connection one to another and
and on to God is that the closer that both get to God, what
happens automatically is the closer both get to each other.
There's that important connection there because what
happens in the marriage relationship is this two people
of totally different DNA who aren't family, who aren't
connected, who are separate. And now in that covenant
relationship of marriage and the vows said one to another become
what a new family bound together and share that.
And this is what's wrapped up in this whole covenant here.
And so vows spoken in a marriage relationship are spoken not just
about current present love, but they are promises of future
faithfulness and commitment, one to another, of God joining and
holding us together with those vows, and then of the people
gathered being witnesses to that.
That's why when vows are said in marriage, they're not whispered
to each other. They're not just written and
passed as notes 1 to another, but they're audibly spoken out
loud so that anybody in the congregation can go and say
10-15 years later, hey, I was there at your wedding as a
witness to you saying those vows.
What's changed? It's a, it's a testimony, It's a
public declaration of the binding relationship that is
taking place in that covenant agreement.
And so we likewise in our faith today, we have similar and very
important public declarations that are like these, these
covenants, sort of vow, ceremony, baptism is 1 Communion
is another. These public markers of what is
taking place of declarations of obedience under God.
Not to be legalistic about them and not to be binding ourselves
in an oppressive sense about them, but as shows of a desire
of serious surrender under God, as indicators of this, that we
are now the family of God. So the covenant and the vows
going on here are significant displays of a binding
relationship that is based on submission and surrender to
God's word. And So what might this look like
practically for you and I tonight?
So we just consider those verses.
It might be that God in his Word, and maybe as we've been
going through the book of Nehemiah, that God's Word has
been convicting you about a habit or about a relationship or
a priority, and you've been a bit similar to Saul this
morning, being prodded by God through His Word.
Tonight is the night to surrender and to submit.
Don't delay. Make a commitment.
God I I vow to follow and start small if needed, be it daily
time in the Scripture and see it not as a duty but as a delight.
Oh God, you have done so much for me and I see it in Your Word
and I experience in my life and I cannot help but respond in
committing to you in this way. For them, they were submitted to
God's Word as authoritative and they had a resolved submission
to it and it flowed on. In verses 30 to 31, we see that
there's a separation that takes place because God's Word has
been revealing some things to them, but now they go, well, we
need to put in place some changes in our lives because of
what God's Word says. So there's a renewed separation
and it flows onto their daily living, targeted promises that
we'll see in a minute. Read out addressing where Israel
as a people had repeatedly fallen over their history as
followers of God and these reforms show us that a head
knowledge of Scripture is now moving down into heart level
change and then hands on obedience.
And the first promise we see is in verse 30.
It's a faithfulness in marriage. We would and here's one of the
things that they agree in this contract, in this binding
agreement. We would not give our daughters
as wives to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters
for our sons. I want you to understand that
this isn't racism here, this declaration.
It's not about ethnicity either. As we read through the
scriptures, we see the likes of Moses who had married Akushite,
an Ethiopian. Rahab and and Ruth were Moabites
who had been allowed and brought in to the people of Israel and
were welcomed. What the concern is as you read
through the scriptures is a spiritual level.
See the marriage relationship as I described it.
This binding together of of two separate individuals now
becoming one family had a whole lot to do with shared worship
and gods. And so it went into the the
realm of worship and history would prove the danger of this.
As we read through what the Old Testament describes, I think of
the likes of Solomon and his foreign wives who it says that
led him astray as he began to worship these false gods and
idols before God Almighty. And we see Ahab's marriage as an
example to Jezebel, as an example of how it turned a whole
nation of Israel at the time towards worship of Baal.
Then later, interestingly, in Nehemiah 13, the last chapter of
this book, Nehemiah comes back and there's an entire group that
have married foreign women and their children have lost the
Hebrew language and cannot even read the Scriptures.
So the principle that they adhere to is one that we covered
to great lengths when we studied through the book of Second
Corinthians. You remember that the
application there in chapter 6 verse 14 where it says do not be
unequally yoked. With unbelievers and we looked
at that and you can go back to that study of what that means
and looks like for Christian singles and and dating and
looking for prospective, you know, husband and wife and how
the significance isn't just about being compatible.
And you know, I, I, I like her and him for for their looks or
for their personality or for their job or for their potential
and so on. But it is about the spiritual,
that shared spiritual trajectory.
We considered what the Bible said on that.
I just wanted to remind you of that.
And we also looked at what that means for those who are already
married to unbelievers. Now, first Peter chapter 3 tells
that you're to be a witness in that marriage relationship and
allow God to do the work on the unsafe partner.
But the goal for all of that in US and for them is what God's
heart is, and that is that He desires our closest
relationships on Him. That's what sits beneath this
first promise of theirs, faithfulness in marriage.
The second promise honouring God with time.
In the first part of verse 31, if the peoples of the land, it
says wrought wares, they're selling anything that they've
made or that they've grown and they do so on the Sabbath day,
which is their Saturday, then it says we would not buy it from
them on the Sabbath. Remember that the Sabbath was to
be a holy day. It was the 7th day of of the
week, and it was the day when God rested from creation.
And it was marked in the, the calendar of the Jewish structure
in the week as a day of rest and a day of observance and worship
of God hardwired into the structure of how that they were
to function. And so for them to say that no
matter the merchants that come on the day, no matter the wares
that they're selling, no matter how good it looks or how much we
need it, we will not buy on the Sabbath.
It will be a wholly separated day as unto the Lord.
It was to be a day of worship, a day of rest.
It was to be a witness to surrounding nations that on this
day, no, we, we are honouring God.
And it was a declaration of obedience and surrender and
submission to him. Would this decision cost them
financially? Absolutely.
Would it require trust that God would take care of them if they
didn't work on that day, if they didn't take, you know, care of
the the normal, ordinary needs of every other day on that
seventh? Yes, it would.
But they, you see, were willing to lose profit, maybe even to
preserve the priority of worship and focus on God.
Now, today we gather on a Sunday.
We don't gather on the Saturday and we're not bound to the
Mosaic Sabbath as is written here in the rules that we see in
the Old Testament. For Christ is our rest.
Mark chapter 2, verse 27. You can go to Galatians chapter
4, verse 10. Even Paul speaks of this in in
Romans 14. But the principle endures today.
And what is the principle? All our time belongs to God.
Every day is a holy day. All days are Sabbaths devoted
unto him. And so all of our, our, our
week. And if every week is structured,
then without worship, we are saying something about our
ultimate allegiance. You know, in our 24/7 world,
this could mean like tonight, what we're doing, making the
Lord's Day special. I will come and I'll worship and
I'll, and I'll sit and I'll open God's word and I'll make it a
priority to be in, in the House of God with the people of God
and, and honour him with, with my worship in song and honour
him in, in my worship of giving with my tithes and offerings
and, and honour him in, in being a part of the body.
And, and during the day, You know, I'm, I'm going to skip my
work emails. That can wait till Monday.
I'll take a rest and a break from that.
I'll, I'll rest physically, you know, the lawns looking like it
needs a mow, but that can, that can happen Monday after work.
No worries about that and you know, maybe this day I'll serve
others and make that a priority to really just make this a day
that is particularly set aside to honour the Lord in Jesus said
this, that the Sabbath was made for men and not man for the
Sabbath. And so I see the Sabbath as as
like the woodsman who sharpened his axe during breaks and
outworked the non stop chopper resting in the Lord renews
effectiveness. Have you not found that to take
that time to come apart into the Lord before you come apart in
the world and fall apart? And this was their second
promise. The third promise is in the
second part of verse 31, to trust God with security.
And it flows on out of this Sabbath and moves on into
something called the Sabbath year.
And it says that we would forgo the 7th year's produce and the
exacting of every debt. You see, what was to happen was
that they were committed under God's law that Moses had given
to them to work until the land every six years and in the 7th
year to let it rest. And you know what that Sabbath
year, that 7th year meant was that they were trusting in God
to supply all their needs for that 7th year when they wouldn't
be tilling and, and working the soil and even beyond into the
first year of the next cycle as they would await the planting
and and await the harvest of that first seed.
So it's really trusting God for a good year and a half.
And most likely what they reinstituted was probably the
year of Jubilee as well. If you read that, that there
were these 7 Sabbaths of years that they were to honour.
And so 49 years. And then in the 50th year was
the year of Jubilee when they were to absolve any debts and
they talk about that and set free anybody who is in servitude
unto another and return land that it may be been bought off
or set aside as collateral against debts owed.
And, and all of that was to return in the 50th year.
So if you were to honour in that sense, you're not only dealing
with the 7th year of the Sabbath, but then the Jubilee on
top of that, you could be looking at two years of having
to trust in God to supply and meet your needs while you're not
working and tilling the land. And in an agrarian society, that
is the ultimate display of trust in God for your security.
Imagine being the provider in the family and freaking out how
we're going to make those bills and how we're going to pay and
take care of it. What are you going to do?
God help God, we need you to take care of us in these six
years and and look after us in the 7th and then wow, Jubilee's
coming around the corner. That means a couple of years
where I've got to trust in you to supply and meet our needs.
Jesus in Matthew chapter 6 gave us a wonderful modern
application of this. He said to the crowd gathered
who were no doubt freaking out and wondering.
And he said, don't worry about what you'll wear.
Don't worry about where you'll get your food from.
But Matthew chapter 6, verse 33 says what?
Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And then all these things, your Father in heaven, he'll take
care of you in that. And so that's that security,
that's that trust, that's that promise that we have now as as
believers today that we can go, you know what?
I'm going to trust God that no, we're seeking first his Kingdom
and his righteousness and honouring his ways.
I don't know how he's going to do it, but he's promised to take
care of us and he'll look after and meet that need.
So they make this promise as a part of it, trusting God with
their security. And I think that confronts us
and reminds us tonight of this in our lives, to trust in the
Lord and his faithfulness. So they make these promises.
Through these promises, they renew their separation from,
from worldly compromise and, and they're desiring to protect
faith, purity. And now thirdly and lastly,
verses 32 to 39, there's this reordered stewardship that's
going on in their life and, and the resources that they have.
It's the longest section of this chapter.
It's their commitment to the House of God.
It's the temple and that phrase, the House of God.
It repeats 9 times throughout the passage.
So another vow that they offer here is support for God's work.
Verse 32. Also, we made ordinances, or we
promised. We assume the responsibility of
doing what to exact from ourselves yearly 1/3 of a shekel
for the service of the House of our God.
Verse 33 For the showbread, for the regular grain offering, for
the regular burnt offering of the Sabbaths, the new moons, and
the set feasts, for the holy things, for the sin offerings to
make atonement for Israel, and all the work of the House of our
God. Verse 34 We cast lots among the
priests, the Levites, and the people, for bringing the wood
offering into the House of our God, according to our Father's
houses at the appointed times, year by year, to burn on the
altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law, and we
made ordinances. Verse 35 To bring the first
fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all fruit of all
our trees year by year to the House of the Lord to bring the
first born of our sons and our cattle, as it is written in the
law and the first born now in in that bringing of the first born
is that they would offer a a monetary substitute for the
first born of each household. In that sense there and it is
written the first born of our herds and our flocks to the
House of our God to the priests who minister in the House of our
God. Verse 37 to bring the first
fruits of our dough, our offerings, the fruit from all
kinds of trees, the new wine and oil to the priests to the
storerooms of the House of our God and to bring the tyres of
our land to the Levites. For the Levites should receive
the tithes in all our farming communities.
That was their, their remuneration, their salary of
not having a tribe allotment in the land, that the other tribes
were to support and take care of the Levites to be able to
function in the the priestly service in the temple, and so
on. Verse 38.
And the priest, the descendant of Aaron, shall be with the
Levites when the Levites receive tithes.
And the Levites shall bring up a tenth of the tithes to the House
of our God, to the rooms of the storehouse for the children of
Israel. And the children of Levi shall
bring the offering of the grain, verse 39, of the new wine and
the oil to the store rooms where the articles of the sanctuary
are, where the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers
and the singers are. And then says, And we will not
neglect the House of our God. So they again offer and commit
to supporting God's work in the land.
They promise a yearly temple tax.
Verse 32, wood for the altar, the amount of sacrifices that
are part of worship. Think of how much wood is needed
and required for that of the first fruits.
Verse 35, the first born offerings, verse 36, the tithes
for the Levites, verse 3738, and all of it concludes in verse 39.
We will not neglect the House of our God.
And in this commitment we see that their giving had certain
characteristics to it, a responsibility that they said.
We'll assume that we read that verse 32 and verse 35.
It was obedient to what was revealed in God's law.
It was systematic. So there was an order and a
regularity to it, not an ad hoc kind of randomness to it.
It was proportionate according to the blessing that they had.
It was sacrificial. The first fruits weren't
leftovers, comprehensive crops, animals, sons, I mean, the list
of things that were identified there as what they would give
and honour unto the Lord are very prescribed in their
generosity. And so they understood this
fundamental truth that guides our lives in this area of giving
today. Everything belongs to God.
We are His stewards of that. So this stewardship flows out
from that, that family covenant agreement bound together in
relationship with God because we are God's people and we have a
covenant that he has made with us.
We share the same DNA. Now, God, our heavenly Father,
is a generous, giving God. And so it stands to reason that
we as his family adopt that attribute, that characteristic
of being generous and of being givers.
And God works now through US, his people, as his stewards, to
use the resources that he has given to us to bless others and
to not neglect the House of God, to glorify him in there.
Now tithing in the Old Testament is is commanded.
Malachi tells us that under the new covenant.
We looked at that also in our study through Second
Corinthians, and what guides us is that now it flows from grace,
not compulsion, not manipulation, but cheerful
generosity, that each man be convinced, it says, and give in
accordance with that. And all of this for them and for
you and I, revolves around this. We will not neglect, we will not
neglect the Temple. Understand that it stood at the
centre of Israel's spiritual life and so supporting it meant
that they were prioritising God's presence among them,
supporting those who serviced it, who helped in the worship
going on in the temple, providing for the people and the
sacrifices. There was how they were
determined to not neglect God in this way.
Now a lot we've been reading in Nehemiah at the beginning had
been supplied by the Persian government already.
Remember that Nehemiah had requested that Artaxerxes, you
know, king, could you supply this, that and the other and he
agreed. But now Nehemiah is very
understanding that government supply runs out pretty quick and
that for the worship of God's people, you know, the Persian
government's not committed to the worship of God in Jerusalem,
that it needs to be that the people of God commit to
establishing and continuing the worship of God in that place.
They determined to ensure that they were not neglecting the
worship of God. Now, for you and I, tonight and
today, the church is not a building, but a people.
And yet ministry still requires provision.
God's work gets accomplished through the resources that God
provides. Imagine the children's ministry.
Here we have workers, but no resources, no curriculum, no
pens, no pencils, no tables, no chairs.
Just how effective might that be in ministering to the children?
Imagine the worship team, some skilled musicians and singers,
but no sound system for them to bless God and to worship him and
to honour him. And so God's resources provide a
way to supply God's people what is necessary to do God's work.
And God uses God's people to provide those resources.
Money is never merely financial, though it reveals allegiance.
Jesus said where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also. And here it seems to indicate to
us that they reordered their budgets because revival was
reordering their hearts. I think Nehemiah chapter 10 to
be a beautiful chapter, but also sobering in many ways.
Because if you keep reading the book and you know anything about
Israel's history, you discover something painful that they did
not keep their covenant perfectly.
As I entered that already, chapter 13, Nehemiah goes away
for a little bit and comes back and there's all sorts of things
taking place that indicate the breaking of this very covenant
agreement. And that's why Nehemiah chapter
10 points beyond itself in the book of Jeremiah chapter 31, God
promised this. He said a new covenant will
come, one that is not written merely on stones or parchment,
but on hearts. So Jesus at the Last Supper
said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood that I give
to you. Under the old covenant, the
people pledge, will obey, but they broke it.
But under the new covenant, Jesus said it is finished.
And so now our obedience, any vows, any commitment, any desire
to serve God, it's not about earning favour from God.
It comes from grace and flows out from it.
We do not succeed because we make promises to God.
Ever made a promise to God and broken it literally that day?
And so we succeed. Because of this, we trust the
promises of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Theologian Alec Mottier writes when his people could not rise
to the height of his standards. The Lord does not lower his
standards to match their ability.
He transforms his people. That is why you must be born
again. There needs to be a change in
your life. You can't do it in your own
strength. The people of Israel prove it
again and again. And yet grace does not produce
passivity in our lives. We don't just sit there and go,
well, you know, God does everything, but it should
produce devotion in our hearts and lives in response to that.
Our response is covenant commitment to him and his
people, ongoing, relational, sacrificial.
We are the family of God, after all, bound by grace to act like
the family of God, to reflect him, his character, his
attributes, to show that on to other people, to obey him, to
minister together. So here's the immediate
application, I think, for this. Where has God's Word been
convicting you? What specific obedience have you
delayed? What areas of life need covenant
clarity? Is it submission to Scripture?
Is it a relationship that needs guarding?
Is it time reordered around worship, finances brought under
stewardship, a step of trust unto God that you've delayed and
pushed back and postponed? Nehemiah 10 ends with this
declaration. We will not neglect the House of
our God. You know what?
Because of Christ, here's what we're told in the New Testament,
that we are now that house. No, you're not That you are the
temple of the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us so let us say
not to earn his smile and favour, but because we already
have it. Let's say God take my life, take
my relationships, take my resources, take my time all for
Jesus, I surrender. Let's pray Lord, thank you for
your word tonight. Help us in that.
And as we see an example of people who commit and make a
covenant, renew vows, and they're they're determined and
in all of their strength and might they try to adhere to it,
but ultimately we know that they cannot.
That's why Jesus, you came and you brought a new covenant and
new agreement and you have done all of the work.
And because of your finished work, we respond to that because
of now your grace upon us. May we out of devotion,
surrender and submit to you and and reflect that we are bound to
you as family. We share your DNA, that we're a
part of what you have begun and what you're going to finish in
and through us. Let us see it as a privilege to
be used by you and to serve for your purposes.
May it come out of a desire of love to serve you and honour you
all the days of our lives. I pray for any here tonight who
need to know your peace, who need to know the reality of you.
May you reveal that to them in a mighty powerful way.
These things we pray and ask in Jesus name.
God's people said Amen.