Intro:

I believe that we are going to finish our study through Nehemiah today. I don’t know about you, but I have thoroughly enjoyed studying and sharing this Book with you.

As we made it to chapter 13 a few weeks ago, we noticed that the Nation of Israel had broken the vows they had made to God.

Nehemiah had been away from the City for about ten years and upon returning, basically had to start over with training the people in the ways of God.

However, this time, he does so a little more forcefully and I believe the reason for that is because.. now… the people should’ve known better.

This wasn’t their first time hearing the truth. These weren’t brand-new commands. They had already experienced the blessing of obedience and the consequences of rebellion.

Nehemiah expected more from them, not because he was being harsh, but because maturity brings accountability. They had been taught. They had been led. They had made promises. And when people who know better choose to turn away from what’s right, the correction naturally becomes more direct.

And it is the same for us today… Yes, God is patient and merciful, but He also expects growth. When we've been taught the truth—when we've seen His faithfulness, read His Word, and made our own commitments—He calls us to live with greater integrity.

Yes, Grace is always available, but God doesn’t overlook willful disobedience. Like Nehemiah, He may confront us strongly at times, not because He’s angry, but because He knows the best place for us to be… is in the center of His will for our lives.

As we close out this wonderful book today, I want you to know that God isn’t just calling us to have emotional moments of commitment or short bursts of obedience…

He’s calling us to be leaders that live lives of lasting faithfulness.… … That’s the challenge Nehemiah faced, and that’s the challenge that we face today: Will we be faithful not just in the beginning, not just in the middle, but all the way to the finish?

Faithful to the Finish

So, for one final time, at least from the Book of Nehemiah… would you stand…

(Read 13:15-31)

Meat:

Nehemiah is dealing with all of these different compromises that the nation of Israel has allowed to creep back into their lives—compromises in worship, in their relationships, in how they treat the Sabbath, and in how they honor God's house.

One by one, the standards they had once embraced had been lowered. What started as small allowances eventually grew into open disobedience.

And this can happen to us… remember, these were people who had been taught better, who had once stood up and publicly vowed to live differently. But slowly, quietly, they began settling—settling for convenience, settling for cultural acceptance, settling for comfort.

IF we are going to be faithful to the finish, then we have to realize that…

Faithful Leaders:

1. Don’t Settle for Less

Because when we settle for half-hearted devotion, when we allow just a little compromise to creep in… we miss out on the fullness of what God wants to do in and through us.

Nehemiah didn’t come back and say, “Well, at least they’re trying.” No—he saw that they had traded God’s best for something far less, and he called them back to something greater.

One of the lessons that we learned from this study is the fact that as godly leaders we must always be vigilant… we’ve got to keep our head on a swivel to keep an eye out for stumbling blocks that Satan puts in our path or in the path of the people that we lead, because Satan is just waiting for us to put our guard down in order to get us to settle for something less than what God desires for us.

We have to be very careful, because…

1.1 Compromise Feels Convenient

vv.15-16…

Nehemiah 13:15–16 “15 In those days I saw people in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them about the day on which they were selling provisions.

16 Men of Tyre dwelt there also, who brought in fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.”

At first glance, what Nehemiah sees here might not seem like a major issue—people working, trying to provide for their families, doing what needs to be done. But this wasn’t just about productivity.

If any part of the Law clearly set Israel apart from the pagan nations, it was their observance of the Sabbath as a holy day set aside for God… … AND one of the biggest reasons that God allowed them to be taken captive by Babylon, when Daniel was alive, was because of their refusal to keep the Sabbath Holy…

And here they are again… making the same compromise… … The people had started doing what felt practical. After all, there were grapes to crush, markets to open, goods to sell… … Life was busy. Work needed to get done. In their minds, they weren’t abandoning God—they were just adjusting things to fit their schedule.

But that’s how compromise often begins:… not with outright rebellion, but with a convenient excuse. They weren’t trying to be sinful—they were trying to be efficient. But in their desire for convenience, they compromised on their faithfulness.

What once felt off-limits—working on the Sabbath—now seemed normal. The line between right and wrong had been slowly erased, not by force, but by convenience.

And this is why I say… “don’t settle for less”… because, compromise rarely looks dangerous at first—it often looks reasonable. … I only missed one Sunday… I only lowered one standard… Just one conversation, one shortcut, one small exception.… We tell ourselves it’s not a big deal… but over time, those little compromises become our new normal.

As godly leaders we have to realize that just because something is common or convenient... doesn’t mean it’s godly. (repeat)…

In fact… Obedience will often feel inconvenient—it may cost us time, comfort, or opportunities… But faithfulness to God is always worth more than temporary gain.

Compromise feels convenient…

Faithful leaders don’t settle for less… we must…

1.2 Draw the Line

v.17…

Nehemiah 13:17 “Then I contended (here is this word contended again… we looked at this a couple of weeks ago in v.11, and stated that it would be better translated as “quarreled”… the leaders were arguing with Nehemiah, trying to justify the compromises they have made…)

Nehemiah quarreled with the nobles of Judah, and said to them, “What evil thing is this that you do, by which you profane the Sabbath day?”

When Nehemiah saw the people breaking the Sabbath, he didn’t just shake his head in disappointment—he confronted the issue. And where does he go??… straight to the leaders.

The nobles of Judah were supposed to be the ones upholding God’s standards, but instead, they were standing by while the people slipped into compromise… In fact, I would say that they were leading the charge of compromise…

My sanctified imagination says that the marriage between the family of the Priest and the family of Tobiah was probably the first intermarriage that lead to all of the rest… because if it is ok for our highest godly leader to do it, then I guess it is ok for us to do it as well!

Now, Nehemiah could have stayed quiet. He could have thought, “I’ve been gone for years—it’s not my place to come back and stir things up.” But here’s the thing… godly leaders don’t stay silent when truth is being ignored.

We must draw the line—even when it’s uncomfortable… Even when everyone else is okay with the compromises being made… Nehemiah understood that leadership isn’t about keeping the peace—it’s about keeping God’s standard.

And this is so important because if we, as godly leaders, don’t draw the line, the world will… And the world’s standard will always be lower than God’s Standard.

Remember, we are all leading someone… Whether you’re leading in your home, among friends, in your workplace, or in your youth group—people are watching your response to what’s godly and what’s worldly.

We must draw the line…

Also… Don’t settle for less…

1.3 Learn from the Past

As Nehemiah is quarreling with these leaders, look at what he says in v.18…

Nehemiah 13:18 “Did not your fathers do thus, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.””

Nehemiah doesn’t just rebuke their present behavior—he brings up their past. He reminds them: This is exactly what your ancestors did… don’t remember where that got us? The exile. The destruction of the temple. The shame of captivity. All of it was the result of turning away from God’s commands.

Nehemiah is basically saying, Have we already forgotten the pain that came from this kind of compromise?

It has been well said that “Forgetting the past is one of the fastest ways to repeat it.”

Any study on the Nation of Israel throughout the Old Testament and it becomes very clear that they had a history of spiritual amnesia. God would deliver them, they would rejoice, and then slowly drift right back into sin… It was a constant cycle of revival… and relapse.

We’ve all had those moments where we say, “I’ll never go back to that again…” But then time passes. The urgency fades. And before we know it, we’re flirting with the same habits, the same people,… the same patterns that once broke us.

That’s why faithfulness requires us to take sin seriously—not just once, but again and again. To stay alert. To stay humble. To stay dependent on God’s grace… and not settling for anything less…

Secondly… Faithful Leaders…

2. Reinforce What Matters

Yes, we point out the compromise, we draw the line, we encourage people to learn from the past… but what is our motivation?

When we tell our kids not to do something or that they probably shouldn’t be doing a particular activity… almost always… the first word out of their mouth is… … Why?… … and how do we like to respond??? … “Because I said so”…

Now, that answer might work in the moment—it might even stop the behavior—but it doesn’t always shape the heart… It doesn’t always help them understand why it matters.

And the truth is, if we want to raise strong believers—if we want to lead people well—we can’t stop at drawing lines. We have to reinforce the reason behind the line.

We need to reinforce what matters. We need to remind people—our kids, our family, our friends—that God's ways aren't about restriction, they're about protection. That His commands aren’t meant to ruin their fun, but to lead them into fullness of life.

And we reinforce what matters by…

2.1 Using Guardrails

Look at what Nehemiah does in v.19…

Nehemiah 13:19 “So it was, at the gates of Jerusalem, as it began to be dark before the Sabbath, that I commanded the gates to be shut, and charged that they must not be opened till after the Sabbath. Then I posted some of my servants at the gates, so that no burdens would be brought in on the Sabbath day.”

Nehemiah had already rebuked the people for breaking the Sabbath, but he didn’t stop at confrontation—he took action. He looked at the situation and asked, How can we prevent this from happening again? His answer? Shut the gates… Don’t even let the merchants in. Don’t wait until people are tempted—cut off access to the temptation before it ever gets through the door.

By closing the gates before sundown, Nehemiah removed the opportunity for compromise. He created a physical guardrail—a boundary that would help protect the people from falling back into the same sin.

Now there’s a principle that every godly leader would do well to know and follow… If it keeps leading you into sin, you need to close the gate.

If there's a person, a place, a pattern, or a platform that consistently pulls your heart away from God, don’t just pray about it—put up a guardrail.

Jesus says it this way in Matthew chapter 5…

Matthew 5:30 NASB95

30 “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you…

Yes, That sounds extreme—but it's not about mutilation, it's about elimination. Remove what’s leading you astray. Put distance between your soul and your stumbling blocks.

Because remaining faithful to the finish requires more than good intentions—it takes strong guardrails.

And then look at the next couple of verses…

Nehemiah 13:20–21 “Now the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. 21 Then I warned them, and said to them, “Why do you spend the night around the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you!” From that time on they came no more on the Sabbath.”

This is exactly how temptation works… it waits outside the gate, just hoping for a crack in your convictions… and as soon as you compromise just a little, it moves in fast and settles deep.

What started as “just once” becomes “just this season”. What you thought you could manage starts managing you… You tell yourself you’re still in control, but the truth is—you opened the gate, and now sin has a foothold.

Temptation doesn’t need a wide-open door. It just needs a sliver of space, a moment of weakness, a “maybe just this time.”… And once it gets in, it doesn’t leave quietly.

That’s why Scripture is so clear…

Romans 13:14 NASB95

14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

Don’t leave the gate cracked. Don’t give sin room to breathe… Use guardrails…

And then we reinforce what matters by making sure we…

2.2 Focus on Worship

Nehemiah 13:22 “And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should go and guard the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day. Remember me, my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of Your mercy!”

After setting up physical guardrails and closing the gates, Nehemiah does something even more important—he brings the Levites back into the picture. The spiritual leaders. The ones responsible for leading the people in worship and holiness.

He commands them to cleanse themselves and take up their post—not just as gatekeepers, but as guardians of worship. Their job wasn’t just to keep people out—it was to help lead people back in. Back into reverence. Back into right focus. Back into honoring God.

Remember, if you remove sin from your life, you have to fill that void with something or else it will just return even stronger than before…

This is where lasting faithfulness is forged: not just in rules, but in our relationship with God.

If you’re going to stay faithful to the finish, you can’t just resist temptation—you have to refill your soul with the presence and principles of God.

Number 3… Faithful Leaders…

3. Protect the Future

Nehemiah sees something dangerous happening again—this time, in the relationships of God’s people. Men were marrying foreign women who worshipped idols, and the result wasn’t cultural diversity—it was spiritual drift. Their families, their children, and ultimately their future were being pulled away from God.

We will go through this one, a little quicker that the last two, but before we read it, make sure you get this note…

3.1 Toleration Today, Destroys Tomorrow

And in the next several verses, we can see what Israel was tolerating and how that would destroy their future if Nehemiah wouldn’t have stepped in.

Nehemiah 13:23–27 “23 In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

They were tolerating Unequally Yoked Marriages. These women were from nations with pagan gods and no commitment to Israel’s covenant with Almighty God.

By marrying them, the men of Israel were opening the door to spiritual compromise—in their homes and in future generations… literally destroying the likelihood that any of their children would follow the One True God.

And it gets worse…

24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke according to the language of one or the other people.

The upcoming generation couldn't even speak the language of God’s people. This meant they couldn't read God’s Word, participate in worship, or understand the history of the Nation.

The compromise of one generation was leading to the confusion and ultimately the destruction of the next.

So what does Nehemiah do???

25 So I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves.

Some of you are hearing this and are starting to think that being a godly leader might not be all that bad… you are thinking of someone right now that could use a little spiritual guidance in the form of slap and a bit of hair pulling.…

Now, back in that culture, this was normal… if you tried that today, you will probably end up with a prison ministry… from inside the prison...

26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, who was beloved of his God; and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless pagan women caused even him to sin.

27 Should we then hear of your doing all this great evil, transgressing against our God by marrying pagan women?””

What were they tolerating??… … Open Rebellion.…

They knew God’s Word and His principles and yet they decided not to abide by them.

So many people today know God’s Principles and yet they refuse to abide by them and all it is doing is destroying their future and the future of those they lead.

If you tolerate disobedience today—especially in what influences your home, your children and your heart—it won’t just affect the present… it will destroy the future.

We must protect it!

And Finally… Faithful Leaders…

4. Finish with Integrity

Nehemiah's work is nearly done—but he doesn’t coast to the finish line. He doesn’t relax or look back on his accomplishments with pride. Instead, he’s still watching. Still correcting. Still cleaning house.

Nehemiah 13:28–31 “28 And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; therefore I drove him from me. 29 Remember them, my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. 30 Thus I cleansed them of everything pagan. I also assigned duties to the priests and the Levites, each to his service, 31 and to bringing the wood offering and the firstfruits at appointed times. Remember me, my God, for good!”

In these final verses, Nehemiah removes leaders who had compromised—those who had married into the very families that led Israel astray.

Nehemiah knew: one corrupt leader can influence the direction of an entire people and so he doesn’t just remove impurity—he reestablishes order and purpose.

He wants to make sure that the worship of god is guarded and not just restored…

And then he closes with one final, humble prayer…

“...Remember me, my God, for good!”

Nehemiah doesn’t list his accomplishments. He doesn’t boast. He doesn’t even ask people to remember him.

He simply asks God to remember—because His approval is all that matters.

This is humility. This is integrity.

Closing:

As we close the book of Nehemiah, we’re reminded that leadership is not just about building walls—it’s about building lives. It’s about standing for truth when others bend. It’s about guarding what matters most—not just with words, but with consistent, courageous action.

Nehemiah didn’t finish with a celebration… he finished with conviction. He stayed faithful even when others drifted. He confronted compromise, protected the future, and left behind a legacy not of perfection—but of integrity.

So here’s the question: Will that be said of us?

Will we be the kind of leaders—parents, mentors, friends, students, pastors—who finish strong?

Not perfect, but faithful.

Not always popular, but obedient.

Not content to just starting well… but determined to finish with integrity.

The story of Nehemiah ends with a prayer: “Remember me, my God, for good.” Let that be our prayer too.

Godly leadership doesn’t quit when things get hard. It doesn’t settle when culture shifts. And it doesn’t forget what matters most.

It finishes strong… because it walks closely with the One who called us.

Prayer