Work in our Hearts: Renewing the Covenant

Intro

Opening  Illustration: How many of you are still keeping your new year’s resolutions? How many of you made it more than a week or two? Need a time of renewal - recommit to what matters

Marriage vow renewal

Some dislike saying, “I already made the commitment”

If something changes, I’ll let you know

But something powerful about recommitting to the covenant, especially after a period of trial

Scripture Reading

Nehemiah 9:38 ESV

“Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests.

Nehemiah 10:28–31 ESV

“The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes. We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we will forego the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.

Nehemiah 10:39 ESV

For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our God.”

The Objective - Recommit via covenant

Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing (9:38)

Because of all what?

Everything Pastor Ken has discussed in the last few weeks of Nehemiah

God’s work through his Word that leads his people to worship and confession

All bring to an inflection point

Where do we go from here?

As the people seek to comprehend the grace that had been shown to them in spite of - and even through - their sin and exile, it was not sufficient to merely confess past sin

They needed to commit to walking in obedience and holiness in the future

So they make a covenant to their God

All the people join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse an an oath to walk in God's Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes (10:29).

The people are making a covenant to walk in obedience before the law of the Lord

The People - Representing all the people

Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests. On the seals are the names of Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, Zedekiah... (9:38-10:1a)

84 people sign this covenant coming from 3 groups of people

Civilian leadership

Nehemiah the governor

Zedekiah, his number two

Spiritual leadership

These are the priests (10:8)

And the Levites (10:9)

Second we have the spiritual leadership of the priests and Levites

Heads of families

The chiefs of the people (10:14)

Theological concept we refer to as federal headship

Head of family - in this case called the chiefs of the people - represent their whole families

The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding (10:28)

You have here, by name and by symbol, all the people of the covenant

The Obligations of the Covenant - Repentance through obedience

On the structure of covenants

Biblical covenants modeled after treaties from the Ancient Near East between a conquering king and the conquered people

King would extend some benevolence, such as the protection of his army against invading armies

King would expect some loyalty - obedience - in return

These obligations often came in the form of paying taxes, not rebelling against his as king, etc.

Biblical covenants were similar

Go back to the 10 Commandments

They do not start with “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20:3).

They start with “I am the the Lord your God who led you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Ex 20:2).

As Pastor Ken said last week, revival is breaking out

At the reading of God’s Word, people are convicted of sin and confess their sin

Listen to question 87 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism

What is repentance unto life?

Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.

That is, as the people committed to, as we saw in verse 29, walking in God’s law and observing and doing all the commandments of the Lord, they were not only recognizing their past failure to obey, but promising to seek to obey in the future

Repentance is a turning from sin and a turning to God

What this obedience is not

It is not seeking the Lord’s favor or a striving to make God like us

What this obedience is

It is a response to God’s favor

The whole book of Nehemiah has recounted God’s faithfulness to lead people back to Jerusalem after the exile, the restore the wall, to protect them

He has already done all that

And now the people are committing to walk in obedience into the future

Christian obedience is a response to grace, not a way to make God give you his grace

Christian obedience is a living out of God’s favor, not a way to earn God’s favor

The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his countenance upon you, and smile sweetly

Have you ever considered what it means that God smiles sweetly when he looks at you?

Because there is the strength to obey as our God smiles upon us

People promise obedience in 3 main areas here

These are not new commands, but the law of Moses restored and recommitted to

Family

We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons (10:30).

This is, quite honestly, part of how they got into this mess, right?

Solomon married hundreds of woman - and in particular, foreign, pagan women who brought their false religions into the midst of the people of God

Sabbath

And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we will forego the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt (10:31).

Sabbath rest yet to come

We as Christians can model rest for a harried world because of the promise of rest from our God

Tithes and Offerings

Nehemiah 10:32–39 ESV

“We also take on ourselves the obligation to give yearly a third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: for the showbread, the regular grain offering, the regular burnt offering, the Sabbaths, the new moons, the appointed feasts, the holy things, and the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. We, the priests, the Levites, and the people, have likewise cast lots for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our fathers’ houses, at times appointed, year by year, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the Law. We obligate ourselves to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord; also to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, as it is written in the Law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks; and to bring the first of our dough, and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labor. And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes. And the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse. For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our God.”

In this passage we have

template tax

wood offerings

sin offerings

first fruits of the ground

first fruits of the cattle

and first fruits of their sons!

People were recommitting to give and give generously!

Covenant Keeper

You may hear the obedience required of the covenant and think, "I can't do that"

And you know what? You'd be right - you can't

God has faithfully kept his end of every covenant he made with humanity

And we, that is humanity, has, quite successfully and thoroughly, disobeyed the requirements of every covenant we ever made with God

So no, you can't

But here is the great promise of the gospel - Jesus did

We have a federal head who has kept the obligations of the covenant - fully, complete, without fail

Everywhere we failed, he succeeded

So just as we see this idea of federal headship here in Nehemiah where the heads of families signed the covenant on behalf of their family, we have one - Jesus  - who represents all of us

Here the great words of Romans 5:15-21

Romans 5:15–21 ESV

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Application - Covenant renewal for us

What does covenant renewal look like for us?

PCA Membership Q3 - "Do you now resolve and promise in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ?"

When someone becomes a member of our church, we ask this question

But notice what I think is the key phrase here - “in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit"

It is not by your might, your power, your strength, your abilities, your conviction, your efforts that you can walk in God’s Law

It is only by the grace of the Holy Spirit

Lord’s Supper

Every month we celebrate the Lord’s Supper

That meal is an opportunity for covenant renewal

for you to confess with God that he is holy and that you are not

for you to confess that he has shown you his favor

Pray