A Broken Covenant Will Have Accountability

Nehemiah 13:1-29

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Intro - I said when I started this sermon series that I was excited to preach chapter thirteen. I had an incomplete understanding of the chapter. The reason many preachers dislike preaching chapter thirteen is if study it out, and if the preacher addresses the issues found in chapter thirteen it requires people to address very uncomfortable social issues. No you have to consider the context of when the text was written and the realities that God’s people lived in. Yet when you preach it honestly you have to make hard determinations regarding application into twenty twenty six. Yet have you ever studied for a test, and the day of the test you realize you had gotten the points of the material, but missed the point the common thread of it. Yesterday I was in this place. I was almost there, but had missed the point. I had wrote the message, but I didn’t have peace about it. And so I continued to pray over it. This morning while doing security, a conversation I had with Pastor came back to me. He had said focus on the common thread of the text. The common thread and point of the message being Covenant Faithfulness. About how God’s people had made a covenant with God in chapter ten. That they would keep the temple pure, that they would observe the sabbath, and that they would not intermarry within the peoples in the land. And so as we look at the text and consider how it applies to our lives. Lets keep in mind two vitally important things. One that we serve a GOOD God! A God who desires the very best for those that belong to Him. Who desires that we live a life that would glorify him. The second we need to keep in mind is Jesus is that God. The grace and mercy you and I were forgiven of sins is the same God that forgave sins in the Old Testament. It was under a different covenant, a different promise. But it is the same faith.

Transition - Saying that we see three hard subjects that are addressed by Nehemiah in chapter thirteen. One that Nehemiah cleansed the Temple. Two that He Enforced the Sabbath, and Finally that He Cleansed the People.

The Back brief Vs 1-3 - And so as we look at Chapter thirteen we should understand that at some point after chapter twelve Nehemiah had gone back to Babylon to report back on what he was sent to do. He had served his term as governor for twelve years, and he is gone from Jerusalem for about a year. And in that time mistakes were made. Sin occured on the part of the people. In Verses 1-3 Nehemiah states that the word of God was read. He establishes why he did what we read about in the following verses after verse three. Nehemiah is referencing Deuteronomy 23:3-6. He’s pointing out that the people made some pretty massive mistakes, and states how he deals with them. And so he asks God to acknowledge that He deals with them as sort of a plea to not bring judgement on the people again.

Transition - And so Nehemiah comes back to city he helped rebuild. Back to the Temple finding it being made unclean from Sin. Were gonna talk about that here in a minute.

Cleanses The Temple Vs 4-14 - The first thing we should notice is that Eliashib the High priest of the temple who had been in on the rebuilding process from the very beginning had started conspiring with the enemies of God. Vs four says that he was allied with Tobiah. That name Tobiah is important. Along with Sanballat, Tobiah had stood in direct defiance against the rebuilding of the city. Nehemiah is pointing out this is a direct violation of the covenant they made with God as documented in Nehemiah 10:28. God’s high priest had compromised his position with a known enemy of God. Tobiah had conspired to kill Nehemiah as referenced in Nehemiah 6:1-2. Lets not mince words here, Tobiah desired to Kill the worker of the one True God. And so in Vs 7 Eliashib the High Priest the one supposed to be protecting the sanctuary of God. Keeping the things of God Holy. Allows the enemy of God to take up residence in a chamber of the temple. We see that the chamber that was given to Tobiah to use, was the chamber where the offerings to God had been stored. Possibly the same chamber that in Chapter eleven was noted as needed to hold the great tithes and offerings from the people. In the time that Nehemiah was gone however the people had stopped bringing their tithes and offerings. The Priests still needing to eat. Still needing to feed their families. They left the temple and returned to fields. Less than a year later the temple of God was being used as a place the enemies of God would worship false Gods. This was WRONG in every single way imaginable. No rationale person who had read God’s law would say, yea this is ok. The one true was God being required to share his space with a false God. Jehovah doesn’t share anything with demons! Understand this principle applies in the same to our life today. If you have brought something that is not of God into your house. That is sinful. You have allowed sin into your home willingly. Whether it is in secret, and you believe only you know about it, God knows. Whether that thing is music, video games, television or movies. People should be included into that list as well. If someone has identified themselves as an enemy of God by the words and life choices. Moms/Dads in this room tonight you are inviting things that are not of God into your home. That’s not a fun thing preach. It wouldn’t be a comfortable thing to try and implement into a home. But this is what is going on Chapter thirteen, and it was wrong. Note how in Vs fourteen Nehemiah calls on God to remember him. READ Nehemiah 13:14. Pastor and I were talking about this verse specifically. That It kind of has a self serving feel to it. Pay attention right now this is important. The people of God aren’t even a generation out of slavery in Babylon. Not one generation has passed to inhabit the city. They have barely secured themselves in the city, and they are already violating God’s commandments. Doing the very things that brought God’s Holy righteous judgement on the people not long before. Nehemiah is saying in Vs fourteen. Please Lord God. If you are about to pour down your righteous anger and wrath. Please see that I was not apart of this! Spare me if it be your will that I might continue to live a life that is glorifying to you Father God.

Transition - And so acknowledging that certain things start to compromise when you allow sin into your life, and into your heart. Some of the first things to be compromised is giving to God what is His, and then as a close second to making comprises in your time that is His.

Enforces the Sabbath Vs 15-22 - It is somewhat comical that Nehemiah grounds the Israelites essentially… Its funny cause its true. READ Nehemiah 13:19. Nehemiah closes and locks the gates he helped rebuild a year prior, and posts his men at the gates to serve as guards. Teens, sometimes grown ups need discipline enforced in their lives too. The people had decided there was too much disadvantage to missing out on the time they would miss in their business. Well this is a problem, because in chapter ten we READ Nehemiah 10:31-33. In part I understand this. There is always work to be done on my property. There is never a time where I can say man theres nothing to work or fix in my home. I don’t even have very many animals to take care of. Business owners are in an even greater disposition in this way. They have to choose to put aside opportunities. This is what was going on in Jerusalem in chapter thirteen. God’s people saw the business opportunities they were missing out observing the Sabbath. Selling to Gentiles in the area was a significant part of their business. And so the people decided in their heart that they desired the things of this world more so than the things of God. More than their time with God on His day. They doubted that God could provide what they needed every other day of the week. If you really heard that just now. That should hit home a little bit friends. Most of my adult life I have worked Sunday’s in various jobs. At times it wasn’t in my control and I made that rationalization. That was the shift I was assigned. Can I tell you your still making a choice in that moment. I’m gonna be completely honest with everyone here tonight. It feels extremely hypocritical of me to stand in front of you tonight and say that. With the full knowledge that Im about to miss several Sundays in a row. Yes I’m in the Air Force and am at the wym of the US government. Yet I have willingly signed my name several times over the past seventeen years knowing this would be the case. I will say an interesting thing happened in my finances when I surrendered that part of my life over to Jesus. You see last year when I was killing my self going back and forth working in Portland. In that theoretically during that time I was making more money than I have ever made in my adult life, but I knew I wasn’t living within God’s will for my life. I remember a conversation I had not long after I started working up their regularly. I had traded a job at Target. For a better paying job. One I would work less. I said, It’s hard to turn down a job opportunity where I’m gonna make more money and only work half the month. I knew I was making a choice regarding my family. Making a choice regarding relationship with Jesus as my provider. You see I had taken control of my finances from God and decided to be in control of them. I made the choice and said within my heart I could do better than God. That sounds so incredibly stupid when I say it out loud. But when I made a choice to give that part of my life to Jesus. When I chose to follow Jesus allow him to take control of that part of my life all of a sudden my finances came into order. All of a sudden things were provided for my family and I where I still cant fully define how. Jim Elliot once said, “ He is no fool that gives away what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot loose”. And so Nehemiah makes a decision in regards to temple worship. He says, NO this will stop. God’s people will observe the Sabbath. The Sabbath isn’t a requirement for us as followers of Jesus. Understand though you are making choice when you place any other thing in a place of higher priority than observing the day that Jesus conquered death. The resurrection makes everything else in the Bible exciting. Because Jesus not staying dead we have new life. We show up on Sunday at church because God deserves it. Why Christian? Because Jesus is worthy of that worship, of that sacrifice! And Nehemiah calls the Levite Priests from working the fields to the temple and puts them in their place at the temple. Ready to receive the peoples offerings to God.

Transition - Ok wheww! Two down, one to go. Lets remind ourselves about a couple things first before we move on as I stated at the beginning of this message. One that we serve a King in Heaven that is also God. Who is good. Not just good though, but good beyond our ability to fully understand and describe. A God that has a most perfect plan that supersedes all others. And second that the grace and mercy of Jesus gives, is one hundred percent undeserved. I Micah Boyll do not deserve any part of Jesus. And so that the God and King of Heaven would desire to even look at me at different times in my life that would be described as unholy, and undesirable at best is unfathomable. Ok so lets keep these things in mind as we look at these next six verses. We see that Nehemiah cleanses the people.

Cleanses the People Vs 23-29 - The third thing Nehemiah saw when he returned to Jerusalem was that the Israelites had married the sons and daughters of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab. And so we see the third problem Nehemiah finds. That God’s people had broken their covenant with God, as they pledged to do in Nehemiah 10:28-30. This is significant because these specific peoples were the descendants of the children that came about from the incestuous affair that occured from Lot and his daughters. But who their great grandparents where wasn’t the issue. There was a lifestyle of practicing sin that was the issue. The defiance of Jehovah as King, and the one true God. Not being of Jewish faith, these people wouldn’t had the ability to speak and read Hebrew. And therefore wouldn’t have been able to read the law. They wouldn’t be able to know to teach the their children to follow and trust in the one true God. This wasn’t a racial or cultural issue. It was a heart issue. Sin that hadn’t been accounted for by faith in the Messiah. How do we know this? How do we know that someone identified in Deuteronomy twenty three was would still be able to have relationship and have sins accounted for by faith? Regardless of the people group they identified with? READ Ruth 1:16. Ruth is noted as a Moabite woman. She had worshipped false God’s her whole life. Her sin account was significant. Yet her faith saved her. Ruth had a saving faith in the one true God. And repentance occured. The definition of repentance is relevant to this conversation. The greek word metania meaning a fundamental “change of mind” or transformation of the heart. It is a complete one hundred eighty degree turn in a life. Abandoning a destructive or self focused path and actively realigning your life with God. Renewing your mind in accordance with the Mind of Jesus. This is the type of repentance that occured in the heart of Ruth. There probably isn’t anyone that is questioning this interpretation of saving faith. Either consciously or unconsciously anyone who has a different opinion would to make their argument that the great great grandma ma of Jesus shouldn’t be allowed to forgiveness of sins? Shouldn’t be allowed to be apart of the Kingdom of God. That Ruth wouldn’t be instantly in the eyes of God a most loved and adored daughter of the God most High under Old Testament Law and and saving faith? Like I’m not tryin have that conversation with Jesus like ever. New Testament/ Old Testament people are saved by faith, and counted as children of God. Saying this, God cares about men and women being equally yoked in the faith. Your a team. I am so very thankful for my wife, that I have a partner in the ministry. But more importantly in life. I can guarantee each and every man feels the same way in this room. Yet this is not what was going on in Nehemiah chapter thirteen. False gods were being worshipped in the room intended for tithes and offerings to God. The point is, in regards to sin and sin issues. The solution to EVERY SIN is always repentance and obedience to the King that we all pledged ourselves to follow. This is how God’s people had found forgiveness of sin in previous chapters of Nehemiah, and this is how we should continue to teach our children. That every other way is a path of destruction. Every other path or life that doesn’t have Jesus as the defining person in your life will only lead to an eternal separation from God in the end.

Closing - Many preachers don’t like preaching on Nehemiah chapter thirteen because it requires people to consider sin in their life. The unresolved kind. Chapter thirteen is hard to hear for the same reasons why Jesus was rejected and crucified. Its not the kind of chapter that gives people warm and fuzzy types of feelings. Considering the text, I think Nehemiah would tell the modern day Christian many of the same things He wrote about. That it’s important to keep the things that belong to God Holy. That it is important to observe and remember Sunday. That it belongs to God. And that as a team Husbands and wives should be a team in the pursuit of holiness in a life lived for Jesus.

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