Nehemiah 13 A Warning for Diligence

This is our final week studying the book of Nehemiah where we have been looking at how God invites us to join him in his work to make disciples and glorify his name.

Throughout Nehemiah God has been working to bring his people out of exile and to restore them to be a light to the nations as witness that God saves sinners.

And to do this, God raised up Nehemiah who led the people of Israel to rebuild the walls surrounding Jerusalem so that it could once again be God’s holy city which held his holy temple where glory and honor were offered to him in the worship of his people.

What I’ve hoped you’ve seen is that the book of Nehemiah is bigger than just rebuilding a wall. It is about how God was building up his people to show the world that he is the faithful God slow to anger and abounding steadfast in love who gives salvation to all who trust in him.

In this book God had led his people to rebuild walls chapter 6, and moved from restoring Jerusalem after the exile to restoring his people themselves throughout the rest of the book. And in chapter 10 God’s people recommit themselves to live according to the covenant that God had made with Israel years earlier under Moses.

In this covenant, they committed to be God’s holy people who worshiped him alone on the condition that if they failed to do so, God rip them out of the land and take them into exile all over again.

Then, after recommitting to live for the Lord, 10% of the people moved back into Jerusalem in chapter 12 and the people celebrated all God had done by worshiping him in chapter 12.

It is interesting that

Finally, last week in Josh taught us how God’s people moved from this to worship God in celebration. It seemed like Nehemiah’s work was finally complete, and God’s people were once again restored to usher in the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ, who would come to die for the sins of his people and reign over them as their holy King.

But, then we come to . And in a book that recounts triumph after triumph, it appears that Nehemiah closes his book not with a bang but with a whimper.

Instead of ending the book in chapter 12 where God’s people are worshiping and all seems right in the world, Nehemiah continues the story where God’s people are tempted to renounce the covenant they had made and Israel’s status as a light to the nations is once again on shaky ground.

And what I want you to see today is that Nehemiah does this intentionally. He ends his book not with a triumph but with a warning.

Nehemiah wants all God’s people who read this book to see clearly that if they are not diligent to live by faith, then they will drift into sin.

That is the big idea of this sermon. That we must live with diligence in our faith so that we can give God the glory due His name and be a light to the nations so that more people might repent and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.

Now what do I mean by saying we must be diligent to live by faith. Diligence is a word that you are almost undoubtedly familiar with but might not know exactly what it means.

It carries with it this idea of steadiness, earnestness. A synonym might be painstaking. its this idea of intense care or concern.

So when I say that we must be diligent to live by faith, I’m saying that we must be committed to and make every effort to not just proclaim Christ with our lips, but to live for him in every area of our lives loving him from our heart.

And this is crucial for us as we follow Jesus because, as we are going to see today, if we fail to live with diligence where we take care to live by faith then we will always drift farther and farther towards sin and idolatry.

That is because sin is what comes naturally to us. In Christ we are all a new creation. God has given us new hearts and new desires to worship him. However, until we die or Christ returns, we will struggle with our sinful flesh. That is the sinful part of us that is insatiable in its desire to feast on sin and we are called to put it to death by God’s grace.

Holiness is something that God works in us by grace through sanctification where we grow to live by faith and walk in the new self, but this only happens as we are diligent to follow the Spirit’s leading as he shows us how to live for Christ instead of ourselves.

And what you are going to see in as Israel drifts towards sin, they go back on every promise they made in chapter 10.

In renewing the covenant they promised to worship God alone by not marrying foreign pagans, worship God as King by honoring the Sabbath, and to make worship a priority by supplying all the needs for the temple.

In Chapter 10 Israel committed themselves to live as God’s holy people and be a light to the nations of God’s salvation by doing three things.

They promised to worship God alone by not marrying the pagans of the surrounding nations because this would tempt the people of Israel to worship their false gods and abandon the Living God of Israel.

They promised to worship God as King by honoring the Sabbath as a weekly reminder that God had chosen them as his holy people by his grace so they could rest from their works.

And finally they promised to make worship a priority by supplying all the needs for the priests and the levites who led the people in worship at the Temple and supplying all the ministry of the temple in sacrifices offered to the Lord.

And is an inversion of each and every one of these covenant promises.

He charges them with profaning the Sabbath,

and he charges them with compromising their faith by marrying these foreign pagans.

This chapter is about the danger of growing lax in our faith which can lead to God’s name being dishonored before a watching world.

God’s people must be diligent to live by faith, and make their faith their highest priority, or they will drift into sin.

Nehemiah begins his warning On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2 for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent.

On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2 for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent.

Now what does Nehemiah mean by “On that day?” What day are we talking about here?

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

I will tell you that there is debate as to when verses 1-3 actually happened. But at the end of the day, the precise chronological time does not change the meaning of the passage so there is some freedom to disagree here.

Some commentators say that this happened at the worship celebration in chapter 12. However, I think that because verse 4 says “Now before this” Nehemiah is saying that verse 4 and following all happened before this event in verses 1-3.

Also because “On that day” can also be translated, “In that day,” or “In that age.” So it is better to understand this verse as “During the time Nehemiah was doing these things.”

So what Nehemiah is doing is saying, "Ultimately, the people of Israel separated themselves from their pagan neighbors. But before all this, God’s people had once again returned to their sin.”

Now keep in mind that this would not have included people who converted to Judaism to worship the One True God alone such as the Moabite name Ruth who became a Jew, married a man named Boaz, and was the great-grandmother to King David, the ancestor of Jesus.

But I think Nehemiah organizes this chapter this way to highlight his warning against apostasy, that is the abandonment of the faith, that he gives in the rest of the chapter.

And this is shocking because all the disobedience we are going to see took place only a few short years after had restored Israel from their disgrace and the people celebrated the Lord that amazing worship festival in chapter 12.

Now keep in mind that this would not have included people who converted to Judaism to worship the One True God alone such as the Moabite name Ruth who became a Jew, married a man named Boaz, and was the great-grandmother to King David, the ancestor of Jesus.

Nehemiah wants to close his book warning us how easy it is to fall into apostasy, that is the abandonment of the faith.

Nehemiah is saying "Ultimately, the people of Israel separated themselves from their pagan neighbors, but this needed to be done only a few years after celebrating that amazing worship festival in chapter 12. Look how quickly God’s people drifted towards their old sin.” He wants to close his book warning us how easy it is to fall into apostasy.

After that amazing revival that began back in with the reading of God’s Word, it did not take long for Israel to go back on their covenantal commitments and compromise their faith by allowing foreigners to live among God’s people and even some of the Jews married these foreign pagans.

And Nehemiah highlights this sin as opposed to honoring the Sabbath or maintaining temple worship because this is what led the people of Israel into exile in the first place. It was their compromise with the world around them that led them to forsake God and worship the idols of these nations.

And the Ammonites and the Moabites were particularly atrocious because both of these nations descended from Lot’s incestuous relationship with this two daughters and these nations tried to hire the false prophet Balaam to curse Israel on their way to the Promised Land from Egypt instead of blessing Israel by providing for them food and water as told in the book of Numbers.

So organizing the last chapter of the book this way Nehemiah is saying, “In my time, I led the people to separate from their pagan neighbors, thus protecting them from worshiping the idols of these people and facing God’s judgement once again.

But even though I turned them back towards the Lord, look how quickly they drifted towards this sin after all the amazing things God for them in redeeming them.”

And he describes this turning back in verses 4-29 in a way of saying, “Take care lest this same thing happen in your day. Be diligent to live by faith or you too may drift away from the Lord and into sin.”

Then in the rest of chapter 13, Nehemiah describes exactly how this happened. He shows how Israel abandoned covenant promises and how he had to once again lead the people to recommit themselves to the Lord.

And as we study this passage today, it is my hope that we see how we must be diligent to live by faith in three key areas so that God’s name would continue to be honored in us and we would be kept from sin.

Then, in the rest of chapter 13, Nehemiah describes how Israel lost their fervor to keep the covenant they made in chapter 10 and this shows usthree areas in which we must diligently watch ourselves to make sure we continue following the Lord so that he is worshiped and we can proclaim his salvation to

Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, 5 prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.

So there was a priest in the temple named Eliashib. And Eliashib was in charge of taking care of the chambers where the frankincense and vessels that were used in worship were stored as well as the tithes and offerings that were to be given to the Levites and the priests so that they could focus on ministering to the people.

But Eliashib was bad at his job and he had allowed Tobiah to live in one of these chambers.

This was the same Tobiah, the Ammonite Servant, who had opposed Nehemiah at every turn with Sanballat and Geshem the Arab and tried to stop God’s people from rebuilding the wall even threatening to come and make war on Jerusalem.

And Eliashib allowed Tobiah to live in the Temple Court because he was evidently related to him.

This also explains why in , Tobiah was able to have such an influence with the nobles of Judah. He was manipulating

So what you have is a priest who allows a room in the temple to be evacuated of the things used to worship God all so an idolatrous enemy of God can take up residence in God’s own house!

How did Nehemiah let this happen? He tells us.

While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king 7 and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.

All of this, and what follows in chapter 13 happens while Nehemiah was away from Jerusalem.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

You’ll recall how in chapter 1, Nehemiah started the book by saying it was the 20th year of Artaxerxes. And in , Nehemiah requested to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls which Artaxerxes said “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” Implying a temporary leave of absence to restore Jerusalem.

So in the 20th year, or 445 BC, Nehemiah traveled to Jerusalem and ruled as governor for 12 years. And at the end of those 12 years, in the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, Nehemiah had to return to Persia.

After being there for “some time” he asked to return to Jerusalem. We don’t know exactly how long this was, but it was likely 3-9 years placing the events of chapter 13 around 430-424 BC.

Regardless the exact amount of time, in Nehemiah’s absence after just 3-9 years, Jerusalem drifted into disobedience, and Nehemiah discovered the evil Eliashib had done upon his return.

And here’s how Nehemiah responded.

And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. 9 Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.

Nehemiah comes in, and foreshadowing the zeal Jesus himself would show when God’s Temple is profaned, grows angry and throws Tobiah out.

Then, after he threw Tobiah out of the temple, he cleansed, or purified, the chambers in order to make them fit to once again hold the holy things used to worship the Lord, and he has the chambers restocked.

And apparently, while Nehemiah was doing this, he makes another horrific discovery. Not only had they allowed an idolatrous enemy to take up residence in the Temple Court, but during Nehemiah’s absence, the people of Israel had all but abandoned worshiping God in the temple.

I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field. 11 So I confronted the officials and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their stations.

While he was gone, the Levites and singers who helped organize and led worship in the temple were not given contributions from the people so that they could earn their living through their ministry.

Because of this, they had to abandon their ministry and go back to their farms in order to make a living.

And with the leaders of the temple gone, the people were not being led to worship God. They had neglected their commitment to make worship a priority from .

So Nehemiah confronts the officials saying “Why is the house of God forsaken?” and gathers the Levites and singers and puts them back to work.

Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses. 13 And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan the son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers. 14 Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service.

12 Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses. 13 And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan the son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers. 14 Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service.

I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field. 11 So I confronted the officials and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their stations. 12 Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses. 13 And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan the son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers. 14 Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service

After Nehemiah regathers the Levites and singers, the people of Israel again provide what is needed to support the worship of the Temple.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

But Nehemiah doesn’t leave it to chance, so what he does is set up some trustworthy men to make sure that the Levites and singers were supplied with what was needed so that they could continue serving the people.

And he closes this section by praying that God would remember him and all the work that he did.

As with all of Nehemiah’s prayers, this isn’t self serving. He is not saying, God, look how good I am!

Instead, his prayer springs from Nehemiah’s love for the Lord. By asking God to remember him, he is appealing to God for his help. Nehemiah is committing himself and his work to lead the people into God’s hands.

Now what does this section have to say to us? We as Christians today must be diligent to make worship the sole focus of our lives.

God has saved us to live for him and not for ourselves.

Therefore, if we are going to glorify God and be a light to the nations, we must constantly make every effort to live wholeheartedly for Christ.

Paul says all of our life, everything we ever do, should be done for Christ in thankfulness to God.

This is what it means to live a worshipful life.

Speaking to the Samaritan Woman, Jesus said True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

II. Diligence in Obedience

true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The question then is how? Paul told us in verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

When Jesus says that true worshipers “will worship” it is better to say that they “must worship.” In other words, Jesus is not talking about the kind of worship that God prefers. He is talking about the only kind of worship that God accepts, namely worship offered in spirit and in truth.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

If you want to worship God, then his word must permeate every area of your life. It must be the authority by which you live every day and walk every step.

The word “spirit” does not refer to the Holy Spirit as in Christians will worship in or by the Spirit which is true. What Jesus means here is that to truly worship, a person cannot simply conform to external religious rituals (that is outwardly). Instead, true worship begins inwardly (that is in the spirit) with the proper heart attitude towards the Lord.

Basically, God does not want your religious works of sacrifice, he wants your heart.

God’s word is given to us to equip us for every good work as Paul says in and tells us everything we need to know for life and godliness according to .

Not only that, but true worshipers of God will also worship in truth. This means that our worship must be consistent with Scripture and centered on the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.

So how do we allow the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly? I think there are two disciplines we must make a priority in order for us to worship God.

If you want to worship God, then his word must permeate every area of your life. It must be the authority by which you live every day and walk every step.

If you want to worship God, then his Word must permeate every area of your life. It must be the authority by which you live every day and walk every step.

God’s Word is given to us to equip us for every good work as Paul says in and tells us everything we need to know for life and godliness according to .

God’s word is given to us to equip us for every good work as Paul says in and tells us everything we need to know for life and godliness according to .

It reveals the truth about who God is and how he has saved us in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ so that we can be forgiven of our sins to worship Him alone.

We must be diligent to make worshiping God in spirit and in truth the priority of every activity of our life so that we can obey And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Gather with other saints to study the Scriptures.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

God has saved us by his grace to transform us from sinners into worshipers and Christians must make every effort to worship God in spirit and in truth by worshiping the Lord from the heart and honoring God’s Word by living according to God’s word.

That happens here on Sundays as we gather to sing God’s word, hear God’s word preached, and enjoy the benefits of the gospel in the Lord’s Supper.

We must be diligent in our worship.

It also happens as we gather informally in small groups or over coffee to talk about God’s word and what it has to say for our lives.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

If God’s name is going to be glorified in us, we must not only be diligent in our worship, but also diligent in our obedience to the Lord.

We study the Scriptures personally. In other words, we read our Bibles so that we can know what God’s Word says it means to worship him

And as God’s Word dwells in us, we are guided by it to live a life of true worship.

ss

6 In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. 16 Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself!

In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. 16 Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! 17 Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? 18 Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”

The second part of the covenant the people of Israel made with the Lord was to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

If you’ll remember, we said how the Sabbath was the sign of the covenant.

It was the symbol that reminded Israel every week that God was their Creator and Redeemer because he had chosen them and declared them holy just like he declared the 7th day of Creation holy.

So when Israel kept the Sabbath, it was a tangible way in which they were proclaiming that God was their King.

Likewise when the broke the Sabbath by working on that day, it showed that they had little regard for the Lord and that they had actually thrown off God’s lordship over them.

If keeping the Sabbath was a sign of God’s love in choosing his people, then breaking the Sabbath was The people’s sign of their rebellion against the Lord.

And when Nehemiah gets back to Jerusalem, not only does he have to deal with Tobiah living in the Temple chambers and worship being neglected, he also sees the people of Judah doing work on the Sabbath day.

They are treading wine presses, carrying huge loads, and even buying and selling goods.

If that wasn’t bad enough, they were even allowing foreigners called the Tyrians into the city on the Sabbath to sell as well.

So what does Nehemiah do? He confronts the leaders of the people.

Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? 18 Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”

He says, “Why are you so ambivalent about the evil you are committing by breaking the Sabbath?

What might seem arbitrary is actually a huge deal. By breaking the Sabbath the people of God were committing great evil by their disobedience. And yet, they seemed to show little concern about it.

In chapter 10, they explicitly promised that if any foreign person brought in goods to sell on the Sabbath, they would not buy from them. But now, just a few years later, all their promises have fallen flat.

And here is the danger. If the Jews have rejected the Sabbath, that meant they have rejected the Lord as their Creator and Redeemer.

One consistent rebuke of the OT Prophets before the exile is how God’s people had profaned the Sabbath. This is because breaking the Sabbath was the tangible proof of other spiritual issues.

If God’s people were dishonoring the Lord by dishonoring the Sabbath, surely the worship of false gods was not far behind.

That’s why Nehemiah reminds them of why they were in exile in the first place. He said, “Did not your fathers act in this way?”

Haven’t you already seen how this plays out? If you do not obey the Lord he will bring us back into exile! But here you are bringing more wrath on Israel because you dishonor the sign of the covenant. Basically, he is charging Israel with spitting on the relationship they have with the One True God!

After confronting the leaders, Nehemiah takes practical steps to guard Israel’s obedience to keep the Sabbath.

As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day. 20 Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice.

As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day. 20 Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. 21 But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. 22 Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.

21 But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. 22 Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.

So Nehemiah starts closing the gates during the Sabbath to prevent people from coming in to do business.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

He even set up some of his servants and some Levites as guards to make sure no one snuck in in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.

But then the merchants came to Jerusalem anyway. Because even though they could no longer sell on the Sabbath, they could still get a jump on everyone else by camping outside the city perhaps even tempt Israel to come out to them even on the Sabbath day.

But when they showed up Nehemiah threatened them saying “If you come back here, I will lay hands on you.” Meaning, if they did not move themselves, Nehemiah and his men were going to come down and move them by force.

Then Nehemiah prayed again to the Lord asking God to remember him appealing for his help in keeping the people faithful to the Lord.

The principle this teaches the church today is that we must be diligent to obey God and not give in to sin.

For the Jews, breaking the Sabbath was tantamount to screaming from the mountaintops “God is not Lord!” and when Christians compromise with their sin, allowing it to fester in their lives they are functionally confessing that Jesus is not the Lord of their life.

Again, remember that this is not too many years after they had renewed the covenant in , and yet here they are breaking one of its core commitments

They had grown lax in their obedience to the Lord. They were so comfortable disobeying the Lord that they were doing everyday chores that could easily be done other days.

For the church today, we must not grow lax in our obedience to the Lord’s commands because to do so defames Christ and the gospel.

When Christians refuse to put their sin to death because they value it more than loving the Lord, they proclaim to the world that God is not worthy of all devotion and worship.

It says that God is a liar. That our acts of Sin are not the works of death that God made them out to be. They are completely acceptable and even desirable.

What’s more, when a Christian continues to live in unrepentant sin, they proclaim that Jesus’ perfect sinless life, substitutionary death, and his bodily resurrection was not enough to change hearts and save us from the slavery of sin.

For a Christian to look at their sin as something common or acceptable is a strong indicator that they might not know Christ at all but have given a false profession of faith.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

When we allow sin to reign in our life, it drives us away from the living God.

But the good news of the gospel is that God paid for every one of our sins in Christ when we put our faith in him so that as long as it is called, “today” we are able to repent of our sin and turn towards grace.

And Christians must repent because if they don’t they run the risk of being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

What this means is that we can become hard to the things of God that the life and joy God secured for us in Christ can bounce off a callused heart so that we are robbed by our sin of experiencing the joy of our salvation.

And the author of Hebrews says that repentance is to be the pattern of life for the Christian for we have come to share in Christ. If we are truly in Christ, there is no option to hold on to our sins and follow Jesus. If we truly share in Christ salvation, we must die to ourselves and be diligent to live for him.

That is why the author says if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Now this is not saying that you can lose your salvation. Some false teachers will twist these words to say if you do not obey Christ enough, you will not be saved.

That is religion. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. we contribute nothing to our salvation.

But when we talk about apostasy, or abandoning the faith and our need to be diligent against it, I’m not saying that you need to do x amount to remain in the faith.

What the author is saying is that the way we know we have truly come to share in Christ in the first place is by holding our original confidence firm to the end.

In other words, those that are not in Christ will not hold their confidence firm to the end because their confidence is not in Christ’s saving work for them, but in their own works which will always fail.

Someone who commits apostasy does not show that you can lose your salvation. We cannot lose by our sin what we did not gain by our righteousness. If someone commits apostasy and walks away from Christ, it shows that they were not a part of Christ to begin with.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

How do we go about doing this. How do we take care so that we are not hardened by our sin?

The answer is by heeding the Word of God. By not just hearing God’s Word, but putting it to action by faith. By living it out.

The author of Hebrews continuing this same idea says, Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

If we want to remain diligent against our disobedience so that we can honor Christ, his Word must expose our sin so that we may respond to that conviction with repentance.

In this passage, Paul is working against a belief that if we are saved by grace then why not just keep on sinning? After all, does it really matter if God is going to forgive it anyway?

And what Paul says is that kind of thinking, the kind of thinking where we are completely comfortable with a little bit of sin in our life and we refuse to repent of it, is antithetical to the gospel. How can we who died to sin still live in it? It is not possible.

When we put our faith in Christ and are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that is a proclamation that we have died to our sin with Christ,

And when we are brought out of the water it symbolizes how we are raised to walk in the newness of life for Christ’s glory.

And this all happens not by your effort to try to obey God enough. It happens because Christ obeyed on your behalf, paid your penalty sin and now lives in you through the Spirit to empower you to die to sin.

The issue is that many Christians live in their old self. To them, their old self, though dead

This is precisely what Paul meant in I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

We Christians need to learn what it means to die to ourselves and allow christ to live in and through us by faith.

Dear Christian. Have you truly considered yourself dead to sin or is it still an option for you? Is it still acceptable to you?

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

When you are tempted with sin, to run from the Lord in disobedience, do you consider yourself dead to that sin?

I think what is so sad for many Christians is that they see the gospel as the message that only forgives them of their sin. Friends, yes the gospel forgives all your sin, but it also frees you from the bondage of sin! And if you want to be free of your sin you must listen to Paul who said So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Where in your life have you become complacent with your sin? Where has your sin become tame and acceptable to you? Where have you lost the diligence, the fervency to honor Christ and to love him by putting your sin to death by the Spirit’s power?

Heed the warning of Nehemiah and be diligent to put it to death because failing to do so may show that you don’t know Christ and his gospel at all and you will wander into eternity towards judgement.

Heed the warning of Nehemiah and be diligent to put it to death because failing to do so may show that you don’t know Christ at all and you will wander off into apostasy and judgement.

We must be diligent in our obedience to the Lord because of his love for us.

Number 3. If we are going to honor the name of Christ not only must we be diligent in our worship and obedience, we must also be diligent in our holiness as God’s people set apart to worship him alone.

If we are going to honor the name of Christ not only must we be diligent in our worship and obedience, we must also be diligent in our holiness as God’s people.

In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. 25 And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair.

This is by far the greatest threat to Israel. This is the exact thing that led Israel into rampant idolatry which led to them ripped from the Promised Land and taken into exile.

And here, because of the people’s lack of diligence to keep their covenant commitment to not marry foreign pagans during Nehemiah’s absence, they are on the path towards judgement once again.

The children not being able to speak the language of Judah was not only a symptom of Israel’s disobedience, but it was also a threat. The Word of God was written in Hebrew, and if future generations did not know the language of God’s Word, then it was guaranteed that they would worship pagan gods and abandon the God of the Bible.

Seeing this threat, Nehemiah confronts the people and curses them, beats, them and pulls out their hair.

Now this most likely is not describing a fit of rage where Nehemiah went off the handle.

When it says he cursed them, its not like he is hurling expletives. He is calling down the curses of the covenant upon them..Then when he beats them and pulls out their hair, these are actions of formal punishment to rebuke and publically shame those who married pagans and warn all Israel against such a practice.

And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. 27 Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”

Here Nehemiah makes them recommit to the oath of the covenant, and he compels them with a warning from history why they cannot allow themselves to weaken the demands of this commitment.

The example Nehemiah uses to warn them is King Solomon. Now Solomon was the son of King David and he was wiser and wealthier than any other king that has ever existed because God had blessed him. He even built the first temple where God was worshiped.

However, even this man who was so wise and beloved by God, allowed himself to marry foreign women who turned his heart away from the Lord which paved the way for a host of kings who followed him to lead Israel into idolatry and therefore exile.

Nehemiah’s point is if someone as wise and honored as Solomon was led into sin because he married foreign women, what chance did the people of Israel possibly have to do the same thing and remain committed to the Lord?

And this issue went to the highest levels of Jerusalem.

And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me. 29 Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.

So you have the grandson of Eliashib the high priest (who is a different Eliashib than earlier in the chapter because the High Priest would not have been in charge of chambers), and this grandson is married to the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, another one of Nehemiah’s, and therefore God’s, enemies!

This example shows the spiritual reality of the people. They were on the brink of abandoning the Word of God because prohibited any high priest from marrying a foreigner.

Now this grandson of Eliashib was not the high priest yet, but anyone in the high-priestly lineage could become the High Priest of all Israel. Therefore, in a generation or two, the High Priest himself may be leading the people into idolatry!

So Nehemiah chased him away which means that Nehemiah expelled him from the Jewish religious community. He kicked him out of God’s people .

Then again he prays that the Lord will remember him and help him to lead the people of Israel to establish a faithful priesthood to continue faithful worship to the Lord.

The danger here was that Israel was allowing foreign people who worshiped false gods to creep into God’s own people potentially bringing their idolatry with them to lead Israel astray from true worship.

What this means for us today is that the church must be diligent against false teaching that tries to creep into God’s people to lead them to abandon the Lord and spurn his holiness.

You see. False teachers creep into the church, not be proclaiming outright heresies, but by twisting the Word of God towards their own ends.

They say things that sound vaguely Christian, but really are teachings from hell that have completely abandoned God’s Word.

We don’t have time to discuss all the ways the church today is being attacked by false teachers so allow me to briefly share two that I believe in our cultural context we need to be on guard against false teaching.

First is the belief that because we are saved by grace, then there is no need for obedience in the Christian life. This describes what is known as cultural Christianity, nominal Christianity, Bible Belt Christianity, where seeker sensitive churches dilute the gospel so much that Jesus is made nothing more than your good buddy instead Lord and Savior.

This kind of Christianity is how people are able to call themselves Christians without actually being a disciple of Christ where there is an expectation that their salvation will show itself in their obedience to God’s Word.

It really is just a form of an ancient heresy called Antinomianism which says there is no moral imperative for Christians. that we don’t have to obey God because we are saved by grace.

As we’ve seen earlier this belief is not in line with the Christian faith because Christians are called to put their sin to death and to live holy lives.

The other form of false teaching that is readily accepted in our area is Charismatic Christianity. Charismatics assert that tongues and prophecies are still alive and active today. That God continues to speak and give new revelations for his church through these sign gifts.

And so they promote false teaching by boldly proclaiming they heard a word from the Lord even if its not in line with what Scripture says.

And they hide this false teaching under emotionally-driven worship experiences and the guise of the Spirit, even though it is not the Holy Spirit by whom the make such bold prophecies.

If you reject their teaching that God does not give Christians new revelation today, they say it is because you do not know the Holy Spirit like they do. That they have special access to the Spirit that if you just had enough faith you would be able to prophesy and work miracles just like them. And your lack of faith indicates you do not have a heart that desires to worship the Lord live a life that is sold out life for him.

Again, there is nothing new under the sun, and this is really just a form of one of the first heresies that attacked Christianity called Gnosticism which said that in order to know God you must gain access to a secret knowledge.

We as a church affirm that God continues to speak today, we just believe that God speaks through his Word because Scripture is completely sufficient to tell us everything we need to know for life and godliness.

Both of these teachings are heavily prevalent in our area and we must be on guard so as to remain faithful to the Lord no matter how Christian they might sound.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

Just like Israel, we live among false teachers and ideologies who seek to lead us to follow after the gods of this world. But we must be diligent to not follow teaching that suits our passions but only the teaching that is in accordance with the Word of God.

We must be diligent to be God’s holy people and worship him in truth.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

As we’ve looked at how Israel abandoned the covenant and Nehemiah’s efforts to correct the people of God, we have seen how we must remain diligent in our faith so that God’s name is honored. As we close out this book, let us not forget that the way we must strive, the way we remain diligent to remain faithful to the Lord is only by God’s grace.

Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work; 31 and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.

Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work; 31 and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Remember me, O my God, for good.

Nehemiah closes his book with a prayer. He recounts to God how he did everything he could to keep God’s people be faithful and that he had done his best to fulfill everything the Lord had put into his heart to do.

What I want you to see is when Nehemiah worked to lead and correct the people and call them to repentance, God was showing his gracious love to Israel

God was showing his people that he was not going to give up on them despite all their sin against him.

How kind and gracious God is. He brought these people back from exile, help them become a holy nation once again, only for them to live for their same old sins just a few years later. And yet, God did not say, “You know what I’m done.” But he sent Nehemiah back from Persia a second time to redeem his people and draw them to himself.

And just like God did not give up on them, God will not give up on you.

What we have been talking about this morning is that we must be diligent to live for the Lord so that we will not fall away into apostasy.

To commit apostasy is to abandon the faith. It is to walk away from Christ and stop following him.

But if Nehemiah is warning us against apostasy, doesn’t that mean we can rebel against the Lord so much that God does eventually give up on us and we lose our salvation?

Let me be explicitly clear. When someone commits apostasy they do not lose their salvation.

Some people will twist the Bible’s warnings against apostasy into a works based gospel where you have to do enough to remain in God’s grace.

But the Bible is clear, we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. We do not earn our salvation by works, therefore, we cannot lose our salvation by works.

If someone commits apostasy and abandons the faith it shows that they were never a part of Christ to begin with.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

So if this is true. If we are once saved always saved, if we cannot lose our salvation, why should we care about the Bible’s warnings against apostasy? Aren’t those warnings for false Christians?

The Bible warns us against apostasy for two reasons:

So those that are deceived about their salvation may be shown their deception and repent

So Christians would be compelled to fight daily for a life of faith to ensure they are in Christ.

One of the ways you know you are saved, you know whether or not you are a false Christian, is if you persevere in the faith to the end.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Now that if is not teaching a conditional salvation. It is saying that the way we know we have come to share in Christ is by the evidence of holding our original confidence firm to the end.

Apostasy happens the same way today as it happened in Nehemiah 13.

First, people stop making worship the sole focus of their life.

Then, because they no longer need to worship God, they don’t need to honor him as Lord paving the way for disobedience.

And finally, if they don’t need to obey God, then that means they can worship other Gods and live for sin which leads people to completely abandon the faith.

We are called to be diligent in our worship, obedience an holiness so that we may past the test of faith.

And by going along with this progression they show that they never truly believed the gospel in the first place.

The warnings against apostasy are given to allow those that profess to follow Christ to test themselves to make sure they are not deceived about their salvation, and if they are to show them their need truly repent and be saved.

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Paul says we need to examine our way of life and test ourselves to see whether we are truly in Christ. And the only way to do this is to be diligent to persevere to worship God alone and obey him.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

This is one of my greatest fears as a pastor. People that profess Christ are actually able to deceive themselves about their own salvation.

We ask is

Over the past few weeks it has struck me how many false teachers have led so many to make false professions of faith.

I want to warn you of how easy it is to fall into of apostasy like Nehemiah wanted to warn his readers so that you will be pressed to look at your life and test whether your life actually reflects a life of faith, and if it doesn’t to repent of your sin, trust in Christ and renew your fervor to follow the Lord in order to pass the test!

My greatest fear is that you would sit under my ministry and the ministry of this church completely deceived about your salvation thinking you are bound for heaven all while you are skipping off to hell.

But those of us that are saved, we can have a great confidence in the Lord to keep us faithful till the end because Jesus promised, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 10:28–29..

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Jesus promises that when he saves us, he also keeps us by his grace. We need only to keep our eyes on him in trusting faith.

So how do we guard against apostasy? How do make sure we are able to pass the test and prove that we share in Christ and can never be snatched out of his hand?

The answer is by adhering to God’s Word.

God’s Word tells us the truth so that we can steer clear of false teaching that only serves our passions.

God’s Word reveals our sin so that we can repent of our sin and follow Christ.

God’s Word shows us who God is so that we can worship Him alone through the gospel of Jesus.

Do you want to remain faithful to the Lord? Do you want to live a life that glorifies his name? Then you must feast on God’s Word. As Christ said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

The people of Israel were being tempted towards apostasy in all the ways they were going back on the covenant.

Today, people are tempted towards apostasy

I want you to see the progression of how apostasy happens. First …THESE ARE WHAT WE NEED TO WATCH OURSELVES FOR

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart,

When we allow sin to reign in our life, it drives us away from the living God.

That means you need to be at church to hear the Word preached and respond in worship with God’s people.

That you need to read God’s Word for yourself so that you can live it out.

That you need to talk about God’s word in your home, in your Community Group, with your friends.

The Word of God must be the rule by which you live all your life.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

In ; God tells his people if we are going to remain faithful to him and not run after other gods, then we must have his Word permeate every are of our life always guiding us in its truth.

When we allow sin to reign in our life, it drives us away from the living God.

But the good news of the gospel is that God paid for every one of our sins in Christ when we put our faith in him so that as long as it is called, “today” we are able to repent of our sin and turn towards grace.

; 9 Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them... You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

May we honor God’s Word so that we can persevere in the faith and worship him alone.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

But the good news of the gospel is that God paid for every one of our sins in Christ when we put our faith in him so that as long as it is called, “today” we are able to repent of our sin and turn towards grace.

And Christians must repent because if they don’t they run the risk of being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

What this means is that we can become hard to the things of God that the life and joy God secured for us in Christ can bounce off a callused heart so that we are robbed by our sin of experiencing the joy of our salvation.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.