Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Illustration -

Backsliding | Someone Once Said …

• No one is so empty as the man who has stopped walking with God and doesn’t know it.—Jerry

White*

• Backsliding starts in such a subtle way that most of us are not aware of it, and many of us may be backslidden and may not realize it.—Theodore

H. Epp*

• We must not just take it for granted that we are in touch with God.

Joseph and Mary lost a whole day of fellowship with Jesus because they “supposed him to be in the company.”

They took for granted something of which they should have made sure.

“He [Samson] wist not that the Lord had departed from him” (Judges 16:20).

He was out of touch with God and did not know it.—J.

Oswald Sanders*

• Samson’s last chapter was a sad story of binding, blinding, and grinding.—Vance

Havner*

• Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.—Hebrews

2:1

• The captain gives earnest heed to the charts lest he drift unconsciously shorewards!—F.

W. Boreham*

* Jerry White, The Power of Commitment (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1985), 55.

* Theodore H. Epp, The Backsliding Christian (Lincoln, NE: Back to the Bible, 1956), 7.

* J. Oswald Sanders, The Best That I Can Be (Robesonia, PA: OMF Books, 1984), 37.

* Vance Havner, In Times Like These (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1969), 37.

* F. W. Boreham, Shadows On the Wall (New York: Abingdon Press, 1922), 41. [Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, electronic ed.

(Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 41.]

Relapsing fever - infectious disease characterized by recurring fever symptoms; caused by spirochetes ...transmitted by lice ...and by ticks ...; sudden onset with violent febrile symptoms, which persist for about a week in cases contracted from lice and for a shorter time when tick-transmitted; the attack ends with a crisis with profuse sweating, after which patient is fairly well until, about a week later, symptoms return; penicillin and other antibiotics have proved effective against the disease.

[“Relapsing Fever,” Compton’s Encyclopedia (Chicago, IL: Compton’s Encyclopedia, 2015).]

Spiritually speaking Nehemiah encountered the truth that "all have sinned..." mankind has been infected with sin, and is ever prone until glory to relapse and return to its own demise (i.e.

dogs & pigs).

Does this mean we just give up, and stay in the pigpen?

Never!

Nehemiah, having established them already in God's Word, now upon his return calls them afresh and anew to separate from the world and unto God.

Notice these particulars concerning his course of action:

I.

The Bible Is Given Prominence (Neh.

13:1-3)

A. Nehemiah's Second Return:

1.

His visits as recorded:

“And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return?

So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.”

(Nehemiah 2:6, KJV 1900)

“But in all this time was not I at Jerusalem: for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon came I unto the king, and after certain days obtained I leave of the king:” (Nehemiah 13:6, KJV 1900)

2. The Timing of His Second Visit - 433 BC

a.

He would never have let these things occur

b.

He comes back to clean house

c.

Probably several years after previous Governorship

Years ago, Oswald Chambers wrote, “Today the world has taken so many things out of the church, and the church has taken so many things out of the world, that it is difficult to know where you are” (The Servant As His Lord, p. 17).

“Today the world has so infiltrated the church,” said Vance Havner, “that we are more beset by traitors within than by foes without.

Satan is not fighting churches—he is joining them.”

[Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Determined, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 141–142.]

B. Public Reading of the Scriptures:

1. Exposed a problem of the remnant

2. Take them through the book

C. The Remnant Challenged to Separation

1.

On that day= not temple dedication

2. Tobiah- Ammonite

AMMONITES [AM muhn ites] — a nomadic race descended from Ben–Ammi, Lot’s son, who became enemies of the people of Israel during their later history.

During the days of the Exodus, the Israelites were instructed by God not to associate with the Ammonites (Deut.

23:3).

No reason is given in the Bible for such hostility, but the rift between the two peoples continued across several centuries.

In the days of the judges, Eglon, king of Moab, enlisted the aid of the Ammonites in taking Jericho from the Hebrew people (Judg.

3:13).

In Saul’s time, Nahash, the Ammonite king, attacked Jabesh Gilead.

Saul responded to the call for help and saved the people of Jabesh Gilead from being captured by Nahash (1 Sam.

11:1–11).

Later in the history of the Israelites, Ammonites were among the armies allied against King Jehoshaphat; God caused confusion among them, and they destroyed themselves (2 Chr.

20:1–23).

The prophets of the Old Testament often pronounced God’s judgment against the Ammonites (Jer.

9:26; Amos 1:13–15).

Archaeological evidence suggests that Ammonite civilization continued from about 1200 b.c. to 600 b.c.

[Ronald F. Youngblood, F. F. Bruce, and R. K. Harrison, Thomas Nelson Publishers, eds., Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1995).]

As a co-conspirator with Sanballat and other, Tobiah sought to thwart Nehemiah’s administration first by insinuating his insurrection against the Persian overlords (2:19), and then by public ridicule of the restoration program (4:1–3).

When these measures failed to deter Nehemiah, Tobiah was among those who planned military raids against Jerusalem to disrupt the rebuilding of the city walls and to dishearten the builders (4:7–9).

When these raids also failed to [accomplish] their purpose, Tobiah plotted—again unsuccessfully—to lure Nehemiah out of the city in order to assassinate him (6:1–3).

Later Sanballat and Tobiah hired a prophet (and apparently incited others of the prophetic corps) to speak false oracles to Nehemiah in order to lure him into committing a ritual transgression (6:10–14), thereby discrediting himself.

Since Nehemiah was probably a eunuch and was certainly a layman, it would have been unlawful for him to enter the temple (Lev.

21:17–24; Dt. 23:1); even to flee to the altar to seek asylum would have been unlawful under the circumstances (cf.

Fensham, p. 204).

Finally, in league with certain Jewish nobles, Tobiah staged a letter-writing campaign to enhance his own position and frighten Nehemiah (6:18f.).

Nehemiah’s unmitigated opposition to Tobiah and his allies may be attributed to both religious and political motivations.

Nehemiah’s religious reforms (9:1–5; 13:15–22), his concern about personal sin (6:13), his appointment of godly officials (7:1f), his expulsion of Tobiah from the temple chambers and subsequent purification of those rooms (13:4–9), and his unshakable faith in God (2:20; 4:9; etc.) all indicate his seriousness about maintaining the purity of the temple cult.

For this reason he conceded Tobiah and the others no legal or religious authority in Jerusalem (2:20).

[A.

E. Hill, “Tobiah,” ed.

Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (Wm.

B. Eerdmans, 1979–1988), 865.]

3. Infiltration into the temple

4. Reflection on the Numbers passage

“And Moab was sore afraid of the people, because they were many: and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.

And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field.

And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time.

He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me: Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.”

(Numbers 22:3–6, KJV 1900)

5. Eliashib is a compromiser

II.

Nehemiah Expels Tobiah (Neh.

13:4-9)

A. Eliashib's Guilt

1.

He knew better

2. Cf.

Leaven in the lump

3. Allowed him a place in the storehouse

B. Eliashib's Evil Alliance

III.