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Well, good morning, church family. It's great to be back with you as always. Would you open your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 9? Nehemiah chapter 9. Hopefully you are all familiar with this, uh with where it is in your Bible, but if you reach Psalms, turn left, and then you will get there shortly. It's in the latter history section of our Bible, and we are coming toward the end. We only have a few chapters left in the book of Nehemiah. I was just talking about this recently, but these two books, Ezra and Nehemiah, again, certainly meant to be read together, have been some of the most beneficial books for me to just preach through. I've been so surprised at how the Spirit has used these chapters, not to just shape my own life, but hopefully yours as well. It's been a blessing, and I hope it's been a blessing for you. In Nehemiah 9, this worship service that we saw begin in chapter 8 continues, right? So last week, this great worship service where they request the word to be brought out. They ask that Ezra reads the word, and then the Levites not only read it, but translate it and teach it and explain it to the people. That being, again, most likely the first five books, the Pentateuch or the Law that they read and delighted in and worshiped God. So again, that worship continues into chapter nine. But more importantly, if you remember last week, we saw that this worship service finds its fulfillment in Jesus, who is the word who took on flesh for us. All of the elements there we see to its fullest in Jesus. And in chapter 9, though the worship continues, the Levites shift. In poetic fashion, in this really this chapter-long prayer, share the story of Israel up to this point. All to showcase the character of God. That is their focus throughout this entire chapter. The Levites are teaching the people of Israel about their God by sharing their history. Because yes, you can learn about God by what he has done. Not just the description of them of him, but what has he done. You can learn about God through history. So we're going to see that this morning. So it is a longer chunk. I'd encourage you all to follow along. It'll be, it should be up on the screen in front of you. Yes, there we go. On the twenty-fourth day of this month, the Israelites assembled. They were fasting, wearing sackcloth, and had put dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors. While they stood in their places, they read from the book of the law of the Lord, their God, for a fourth of the day, and spent another fourth of the day in confession and worship to the Lord their God. Jeshua, Bani, Kodmiel, Shemiah, Buni, Sherbiah, Bani, and Shennai stood on the raised platform built for the Levites and cried out loudly to the Lord their God. Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashaboniah, Sherubiah, Hodiah, Shemiah, and Pathahiah said, Stand up, blessed be the Lord God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You, Lord, are the only God. You created the heavens, the highest heavens, with all their stars, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and the stars in heaven worship you. You, the Lord, our God, who or the God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and changed his name to Abraham. You found his heart faithful in your sight, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebushites, and Gergeshites, to give it to his descendants. You have fulfilled your promise, for you are righteous. You saw the oppression of our ancestors in Egypt, and heard their cry at the Red Sea. You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his officials and all the peoples of his land, for you knew how arrogantly they treated our ancestors. You made a name for yourself that endures to this day. You divided the sea before them, and they crossed through it on dry ground. You hurled their pursuers into the depths like a stone into raging water. You led them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night, to illuminate the way they should go. You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke to them from heaven. You gave impartial ordinances, reliable instructions, and good statutes and commands. You revealed your holy Sabbath to them, and gave them commands, statutes, and instruction through your servant Moses. You provided bread from heaven for their hunger. You brought them water from the rock for their thirst. You told them to go and possess the land you had sworn to them. But our ancestors acted arrogantly. They became stiff-necked and did not listen to your commands. They refused to listen, and did not remember your wonders you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and appointed a leader to return their s to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. You did not abandon them. Even after they had cast an image of the calf for themselves and said, This is your God who brought you out of Egypt, and they had committed terrible blasphemies, you did not abandon them in the wilderness because of your great compassion. During the day the pillar of cloud never turned away from them, guiding them on their journey, and during the night the pillar of fire illuminated the way they should go. You sent your good spirit to instruct them, you did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. You provided for them in the wilderness for forty years, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell. You gave them kingdoms and peoples, and established boundaries for them. They took possession of the land of King Sihon and Heshbon and the land of King Og of Basham. You multiplied their descendants like the stars in the sky, and brought them the land you told their ancestors to go in and possess. So their poss uh descendants went in and possessed the land. You subdued the Canaanites who inhabited the land before them, and handed their kings and surrounding peoples over to them to do as they pleased with them. They captured fortified cities and fertile land, and took possession of well-supplied houses, cisterns cut out of rock, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. They ate, were filled, became prosperous, and delighted in your great goodness. But they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They flung your law behind their backs and killed your prophets, who warned them in order to turn back to you. They committed terrible blasphemies, so you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them. In their time of distress, they cried out to you and heard you, and you heard from heaven, in your abundant compassion, you gave them deliverers who rescued them from the power of their enemies. But as soon as they had relief, they did again what was evil in your sight. So you abandoned them by the power of their enemies, who dominated them. When they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven and rescued them many times in your compassion. You warned them to turn back to your law, but they acted arrogantly and would not obey your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, which a person will live by if he does them. They stubbornly resisted, stiffened their necks, and would not obey. You were patient with them for many years, and your spirit warned them through your prophets, but they would not listen. Therefore you handed them over to the surrounding peoples. However, in your abundant compassion you did not destroy or abandon them, for you are a gracious and compassionate God. So now our God, the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God, who keeps his gracious covenant, do not view lightly all the hardships that have afflicted us. Our kings and leaders, our priests and prophets, our ancestors, and all of your people from the days of the Assyrian kings until today. You are righteous concerning all that has happened to us, because you have acted faithfully while we have acted wickedly. Our kings, leaders, priests, ancestors did not obey your law or listen to your commands and warnings you gave them. When they were in their kingdom with your abundant goodness that you gave them, and in the spacious and fertile land you set before them, they would not serve you or turn from their wicked ways. Here we are today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors, so they could enjoy its fruit and goodness. Here we are, slaves in it. Its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please. We are in great distress. I'm actually going to do verse 38 next week with chapter 10. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We simply ask this morning that you would reveal your word to your church by your Spirit. I pray all of these things for Christ's name's sake. Amen. I do this rarely, but you'd be shocked how many MBA illustrations I could use in my sermons. But I refrain, but I do have one this morning. Obviously, well, not obviously, I don't know if some of y'all watch basketball or not, or even care remotely about it, but I unfortunately do, and the playoffs are coming up very, very soon. But there's something that that that has stood out to me this season. There is a a time in an NBA game that's called clutch time, not crunch time, but clutch time. And that is specifically has to be the last five minutes of a game, both fourth quarter or overtime. And the game has to be within five points. So it's close and it's almost over. That's what clutch time refers to. And if you don't know uh SGA, who's the star guard obviously for the Oklahoma City Thunder, he has been the best clutch player by a long shot this season. So again, I this is mainly for me. But if just just some stats for you. So his scoring, he's averaging 6.5 points per game on 67% true shooting in the clutch with 175 total clutch points. He is unbeaten as of March 31st. He had not missed a shot in the fourth quarter or overtime. 42 total points on 11 for 11 shooting, which is outrageous. He leads the NBA in total clutch points with 175, and he has plus 93 in clutch time minutes, meaning that the Thunder, when Shea's on the court in clutch time, outscore their opponents by 93 points. His 6.5 clutch points per game is the highest since play-by-play tracking. That's three decades of basketball. Curtis and I went to a Thunder game recently and we were talking about this, literally walking into PACOM Center. We were like, it is unbelievable that I can have full confidence walking into a close game and know that Shea is on my team and he's gonna win the game. And literally that night against the Pistons, he hits a game-winning stepback three that was waived off for an offensive foul, which I'm not gonna talk about today, but would have won the game. Like it was it was unbelievable because we were just talking about how reliable he is, and then we'd go in there and witness it happen that same evening. I know that is trivial, but I mention all of this because the Levites in our passage who are trying to teach Israel about their God have the same confidence, but on an infinitely higher scale for God. They know that God will show up for them no matter the circumstance. They know that God will provide for them, they know that God will keep them because he has done it time and time again. He has proven himself to his people over and over. That's what the Levites want the people of Israel to understand. And that is also what we are to understand this morning. The main idea if you take nothing else away. God is faithful even when we are not. Simple as that. God is faithful even when we are not faithful. That is the dominant theme throughout Ezra and Nehemiah, that God is faithful despite our sin and rebellion. If it were not for God's faithfulness, the nation of Israel would not be in this position. They would not be back in the land God promised to them. If God was not faithful, we wouldn't have this church because God wouldn't be building his kingdom. He's not faithful to it. If God were not faithful, we would not have salvation. There's nothing to trust in if God is not faithful. But God is faithful. His promises are true, his promises are sure, his salvation is sure. And in our text, the Levites don't just remind Israel how great he is, but they show it. They prove how great he is, because this is really a prayer. They don't just show, again, that he is faithful, they show why. And to do it, they walk through the history of Israel briefly, but the history of Israel up to this point. And in our text, I'm going to highlight five truths about the character of God that we can hold on to today. Before I get into them, in verses one through four, you see these people repenting. They're worshiping and confessing their sin at the same time. I think we often view those as two different things. Your confession is your worship. I just want to call that out. Because they have encountered the Word of God, they listen to the Word of God, they recognize their sinfulness. So the worship continues now through confession. That's why they're wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. They recognize how utterly useless they are before God in their sin. And that's where the Levites step in. Because you can stay there, just depressed about your own sinfulness, about your own wickedness, about the rebellion of your past, but you are not to stay there because God is faithful. He doesn't leave you there. So the Levites continue worship now through sharing the story. And the first truth we see is that God is transcendent. Firstly, God is transcendent. You really see this in verses four through six, or really five through six, I should say. The Levites' prayer begins as all of our prayers ought to, a recognition of who God is. I'm going to reread verses five through six again. Then the Levites, Jeshua, Cadmiel, Bani, Hashabaniah, Shereh, Hodiah, Shemaniah, and Pathiah said, Stand up. Again, people were sad, they were depressed about their sin. Stand up. Blessed be the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You, Lord, are the only God. You created the heavens, the highest heavens with all their stars, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and all the stars of heaven worship you. I apologize if the text is small. Again, they begin with exaltation. God is utterly transcendent. Because the praise recognizes who God is. Blessed be his name, blessing, praise, and exaltation be given to God. He is to be lifted up. I think often these church platitudes, blessing, praise, exalt God, they can be taken for granted. We become desensitized to these words, at least I do often. But when you worship, giving praise and blessing to God, you are lifting him up. That is what exaltation means. You are lifting him up. Obviously, not literally, as we know, in your hearts, in your minds, in your whole self, you are lifting God up. He is being magnified in your life. After all, that is the chief job of the Christian is to magnify God, to lift him up. And the Levites begin their prayer in such a way: confession to lifting God up. But next they say, why? Why is God to be exalted? Why is he above all praise, all blessing? Because, verse 6, you Lord, are the only God. They could have stopped there. And that would have been true. You created the heavens, the highest heavens with all their stars, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and all the stars in heaven worship you. I encountered an interesting argument, I guess, for atheism the other day, which was that, well, you actually can relate to me because you don't believe in 99% of the other gods that are out there. I just believe in one less God. The difference is though, well, first of all, there's a big difference between believing in one God versus zero. So that's beside the point. But secondly, the God of the Bible is different than the other gods out there. Utterly transcendent. He is the first uncaused cause, the thing that set everything you see in motion. It is not that I'm choosing not to believe in some God of lightning or thunder or of a certain aspect of creation. It is the utterly transcendent, other than holy God. Unlike anything else. I hope you've been paying attention, at least I have, to the Artemis II mission over these past couple of weeks. It's kind of been hard not to pay attention to it for me. Again, that is an explore exploration mission to the moon. So they actually went the farthest any human has ever gone from Earth. They were looped around the moon, so they got to see the dark side of the moon, which was unbelievable to me. And the pictures have been like utterly mind-blowing. The fact that we can just see that blows my mind. I actually have some pictures I'm going to put up on the screen because the crew captured just unbelievable photographs of the moon, of the galaxy, of space. It's been incredible. And it's fun to see people's reactions to these pictures too. Because it's a lot harder to deny your creator when you look at pictures like that. When you see the stars, when you see the creation, its fullest extent, when you see the earth from so far away, you get a tiny, tiny glimpse at how God sees the universe, just a small picture. That he is utterly other than. That's what our God has created. The universe points to himself, and the stars worship him. He is the creator of everything we see, so far above what we can imagine, so utterly other than, in a way we will never truly fathom. Let your prayers then begin with a recognition of who God is. Just utterly other than. Recognize him for what he has done and who he is. After all, when Jesus commands us to pray, what does he say? Matthew 6, verse 9, pray then like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your name be made holy. Recognize God for who he is. That is the beginning of your prayer. You begin with an understanding of who you are and who God is. Praise God that he is transcendent. Because if he were like me, he would not be God. But he is not like me. Secondly, though, the second truth about God we see in this text is that God is our provider. God is our provider. After recognizing God's worthiness, they recognize God's provision. And to do this, he walks through their history, beginning all the way back with Abram, before he was even Abraham. After all, that is where the history of Israel began. Remember, Israel had been exiled from the promised land for about 200 years. We learned last chapter that some of them didn't even speak Hebrew. The law had to be translated, most likely into Aramaic. It's quite likely then that some of these Israelites who had been in captivity for so long had not even heard these stories before. It's highly likely. They didn't have the scriptures. If no one was sharing verbally the stories with them, they didn't have them. I think we often take the history of the Bible for granted. We hear it from infants, if you grow up in the church. Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you. So let's just praise the Lord. Let's all praise the Lord. Like we sing that from childhood. We just know that to be true. Having the scriptures in our language, in multiple translations that we can understand. But for most of Israelite history, they were passed down verbally. It was in oral culture. They shared stories. If no one's there to share the story with you, you didn't have the story. If someone isn't able to do that, you don't know them. That's exactly what the Levites are doing here, reminding Israel of God's promises and specifically God's provision for his people. He looks out for his people. He begins by reminding them of the Abrahamic covenant, again, the promise that God would, as we see here, give the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Gergeshites to give it to his descendants. Abraham is old and doesn't have descendants yet, but he's promising he will, and they will inherit a land. So did it happen? It did. They say, next, you have fulfilled your promise, for you are righteous. I love this sentence. I could just preach this single sentence, which maybe for the sake of time, some of y'all would prefer that, but I'm not doing that this morning. You have fulfilled your promise for you are righteous. The Israelites in this text are living proof that God is faithful. Like actual proof that God fulfills his promises because they have inherited the land. They are descendants of Abraham. And despite exile and their sin, they still have the land. God is faithful. They were a fulfillment of that very same promise. Like that would be unbelievable to hear. You're hearing the story of Abraham give a promise or get a promise from God that he would inherit a land, and you are living proof. You are the fulfillment of that promise. Think of the Israelites here. That would have been an awesome thing to realize. But notice the reason. The reason the Levites say God fulfilled his promise. They say, You have fulfilled your promise, for you are righteous. This is something that I want you to understand this morning: that God's attributes are so connected to what he does and to his other attributes that they cannot be separated. God is righteous. Therefore, God is faithful. Therefore, his promises are sure and true. Therefore, he acts upon his promises because he's righteous. Do you see the logic of the Levites here? It is not as though God is faithful in this moment and then does something different and then he's righteous in this moment and then just in this moment and then vengeful in this moment. He is all of those things at all times perfectly unchanging. He does not display different attributes at different times. Sometimes he's this, sometimes he's that. He is his attributes all time, perfectly and unchangingly. God is what he does. The Levites understand this, that his righteousness is directly tied to his faithfulness and his provision. Therefore, you are a fulfillment of the promise because God is righteous. Not once in this story do the Levites pat Israelites on the back. Quite the opposite, in fact. Quite the opposite. They understand that God is the primary actor in the story of Israel, not the Israelites. He is the one who's doing all of this. Verses 9 through 15, they remind Israel of the story of the Exodus. That God didn't just rescue them from slavery, but that he did it through ten miraculous plagues, that he brought them to the Red Sea and split it so they could walk on dry ground. But then after they were pursued, he drowned the Egyptians, like he provided literally everything they needed. Then he goes into this story of the wilderness, which because of their own rebellion they had to wander, not because of God, but he still provided for them. He gave them manna, water, he didn't let their clothes wear out, he didn't let their feet swell. He establishes another covenant, the Mosaic covenant. He gives the law, he makes holiness possible despite the rebellion. Like not only did he guide them, he gave them physically everything they needed. And even then, they complained, but we will talk about that in a second. Like, what do these stories reveal? Why are they sharing this? Certainly there could be so much to say here. But they reveal that God is our provider, he is providential, he cares for his people, he will not let them go. Think of the encouragement behind these stories, listening. The Israelites listening to these stories, having returned from exile. It's one thing to hear a story, it's another thing to be a part of that story. That's what the Israelites are experiencing here. And guess what? If you are in Christ, you are also a part of God's story. How has he provided for us? Not just physically, but he has sent his son, not just to fulfill the law, but to take our sin with him and bury it in the grave. Praise God for his provision because he has provided a way out of our sin when that is the last thing that we deserved. When you think of all the ways God has provided for you, which I know you in this room, they are many. Think firstly of what he has provided in Jesus, which also shows exactly what we see next. Thirdly, God is our provider, but thirdly, God is merciful. God is merciful. Here we see the Levites share the dark side of the story. Allow me to reread verses 16 through 25. But our ancestors acted arrogantly. They became stiff-necked and did not listen to your commands. They refused to listen and did not remember your wonders you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. That is the Shema in Israel. Here, O Israel, our God is one. And then they say this all throughout the Old Testament. Slow to anger, abounding in faithful love. You see that all the time tied to God's covenant. Anyway, and did not abandon them. Verse 18. Even after they had cast an image of a calf for themselves and said, This is your God who brought you out of Egypt, and they had committed terrible blasphemies, you did not abandon them in the wilderness because of your great compassion. During the day, the pillar of cloud never turned away from them, guiding them on their journey. And during the night the pillar of fire illuminated the way that they should go. You sent your good spirit to instruct them, for you did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. You provided for them in the wilderness for forty years, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell. You gave them kingdoms and peoples and established boundaries for them. They took possession of the land of King Sihon of Heshbon and the land of King Og of Bashan. You multiplied their descendants like the stars in the sky, brought them to the land you told their ancestors to go in and possess. So their descendants went in and possessed the land. You subdued the Canaanites, who inhabited the land before them, and handed their kings and surrounding peoples over to them to do with as they to do as they pleased with them. They captured fortified cities and fertile land, took possession of well-supplied houses, cisterns cut out of rock, vineyards, olive groves, fruit trees in abundance. They ate, were filled, became prosperous, and delighted in your great goodness. It's crazy that verse 25 ends that way when you read verse 16. But our ancestors acted arrogantly, they became sticknephed, did not listen, they refused to listen, appointed leaders to go back to slavery, but they became prosperous, they ate and were filled, they inherited a land. That doesn't follow. But our God is merciful. Despite the rebellion of the Israelites, despite everything that God had done for them, actually, despite all they had seen, despite all that God had promised to them, they didn't listen. They forgot, they rebelled, they turned away. They reference the story of the Israelites who on multiple occasions cried out, asking to return to Egypt. They did this all the time throughout the wilderness, specifically before they see the Egyptians when they get to the Red Sea, and they're like, we need to go back. Better that we die there than die here. There's multiple instances of them crying out, complaining that God had not provided all that they needed. They also reference the story of the golden calf, which that one's wild to me. You are just rescued out of Egypt, you're just brought forth on dry land through a river, and you get to the other side, you make it to Mount Sinai, it's great. There's a pillar of fire, there's a cloud of smoke, you're being guided. Moses goes up to get the law, and as soon as he comes down, what does he see? Idolatry, a golden calf. Because they had made God into what they pictured him to be. This is, again, you see this multiple instances referenced in the Old Testament. But this is why we read the second commandment, Exodus 20, 4 through 6. God specifically says, Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens, or above the earth, or below, or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow and worship to them and do not serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the Father's iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who have who hate me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands. I think we can often misunderstand the second commandment, or at least don't understand all of its aspects. Because certainly, idolatry is the focus here. Do not bow down to something other than God. But also don't try to make something God is not. Don't put him in a box. Don't make him into a golden calf. Because the problem with the Israelites is they were making the golden calf into what they thought God was. They said, This is the God who has rescued us from Egypt. Absolutely, it is not. And that's what they worshiped. God is not something that can be comprehended. He's not someone that can be condensed or cast into an image. He is utterly different. They were worshiping something that was not God immediately after they were brought out of Egypt. All of that aside, look what God does. Look again at the goodness of God in these verses. Because this is bad enough. But I'm just going to read some of the things God from this text. You did not abandon them in the wilderness because of your great compassion. You never turned away from them. You sent your good spirit to instruct them. You guided them. You gave them kingdoms and peoples. You multiplied their descendants. They ate, were filled, and became prosperous. That's just some of the things that God did immediately after their rebellion. Despite their sin. Praise God for his mercy. Praise God that he also deals with us in mercy. But don't forget, don't miss that God's mercy is directly tied to God's faithfulness. He is faithful to his promises despite our rebellion or our lacking. So if God were not to follow through, he would not be faithful. But God is merciful, therefore he is faithful. And I can flip that around. God is faithful, therefore he is merciful. This is true with our salvation, by the way. Christ secures our salvation despite our own sin and despite our past. All of that is true. You don't deserve salvation, yet you have it. But don't let yourself think that God allows sin to go unpunished, or that because of his mercy, sin is just simply not dealt with. Because we see the second part of this next. Fourthly, God is just. God is merciful, but also God is just. This is verses 26 through 31. Allow me to reread these. But they were dis We just read this. But they were disobedient and rebelled against you. Again, they flung your law behind their backs and killed your prophets who warned them in order to turn back to you. They committed terrible blasphemies. So, previously he was merciful, but 27, so you handed them over to their enemies who oppressed them. In their time of distress, they cried out to you, you heard from heaven, and in your abundant compassion you gave them deliverers who rescued them from the power of their enemies. But as soon as they had relief, they again did what was evil in your sight. So you abandoned them to the power of their enemies, who dominated them. When they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven and rescued them many times in your compassion. You warned them to turn back, but they acted arrogantly, and would not obey your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, which a person will live by if he does them. They stubbornly resisted, stiffened their necks, and would not obey. You were patient with them for many years, and your spirit warned them through your prophets, but they would not listen. Therefore, you handed them over to the surrounding peoples. However, in your abundant compassion, you did not destroy them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and compassionate God. Do you see his justice and mercy working together here? Both at the same time. Again, people look at the Old Testament and they're like, Well, God clearly is xenophobic. He hates these nations but loves Israel. No, he hated Israel on occasion as well. When they acted arrogantly, he punished them, the same as he punished other nations. Now we're getting closer to the timeline of Ezra and Nehemiah. The Levites remind the Israelites how they were sent into exile in the first place because of their rebellion. It's not that they had just forgot about God or, oh, I'm too busy to read my Bible today. But they were disobedient and rebelled against you, flung your law behind their backs, and killed your prophets who warned them. They didn't just forget the law, they disregarded the law. They didn't just not listen to the prophets, they killed them. This is why we see Jesus in the parable the rich man in Lazarus, verse 31. But he told them, If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded if someone rises from the dead. Do you remember that parable? The rich man is eating, he's wealthy here on earth. Lazarus is begging for scraps. They both die. Lazarus is in heaven with Abraham. The rich man is not. He is in hell in torment. And he looks up and he sees Lazarus, who's having a great time. And he doesn't even speak to Lazarus. He speaks to Abraham and he says, Hey, tell Lazarus to come and give me relief. He's still commanding and bossing Lazarus around. And then after Abraham's like, he can't go down there. This is a great chasm. I can't, he can't pass from here to there. And he's like, well, fine. Then tell him to go to my family, and when they see a dead man rise, they'll definitely believe. And then Jesus teaches us that is not how people believe. They have the law, they have the prophets, they have the commands of Moses. That's what they need. The word of God. If they see a dead man rise, they will not believe. Israel is a perfect picture of that. They had all of the miracles of God, and yet rebellion after rebellion after rebellion. So God doesn't let their sin go unpunished. He punishes them, he sends them into exile. He has other nations capture them. He flips it. Again, you notice this land directly tied to how well Israel's doing. When they're doing great, they're in the land. When they're not, they're not in the land. God does not let sin go unpunished. If he did, he would not be God. He would not be just. So I want to ask you two questions. Just think to yourself. Two questions. Are you sinful? That one's easy, I hope. Yes. Now, if you are sinful, how is God just in forgiving you? Why do you have salvation? That's right, brother. Because Christ didn't just die arbitrarily, he took your sin on himself and killed it on the cross. And then when he was buried, it was buried with him, and when he raised, it stayed buried. Because God is not just looking over your sin, he dealt with it at the cross. That is his justice. This is why the Bible says Isaiah 53, 10. Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand the Lord's pleasure will be accomplished. How was God pleased to crush his son? Because he took our sin. That was sin being nailed to the cross. He was punished on our behalf. God did deal with your sin on the cross. He is just. God is just and sin will not go unpunished. And if you're here and you have not placed your faith in Christ, you will bear that punishment. But fifthly and finally, one more element the Levites highlight in this prayer. God is faithful. God is faithful. I'm going to read 32 through the end of the chapter. Well, through verse 37, excuse me. So now our God, the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant, do not view lightly all the hardships that have afflicted us. Our kings and leaders, our priests and prophets, our ancestors, and all your people, from the days of the Assyrian kings until today. You are righteous concerning all that has happened to us, because you have acted faithfully, while we have acted wickedly. Our kings, leaders, priests, and ancestors did not obey your law or listen to your commands and warnings you gave them. When they were in their kingdom with your abundant goodness that you gave them, and the spacious and fertile land you set before them, they would not serve you or turn from their wicked ways. Here we are today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors, so they could enjoy its fruit and its goodness. Here we are, slaves in it. Its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please. We are in great distress. They cry out to God in their distress. And you might wonder, how are they in distress? They've just returned back to the promised land and rebuilt Jerusalem. They're back home. You'd be right, they are back home, but they're not free. Again, at this point on through the Old Testament, Israel is never the dominating power in the region. Ever. Not again. They say that they're serving as slaves in their own land, serving the rulers above them. Remember, the Persians, while largely being quite friendly with them, are still in power. They're still serving another nation. They're still under the threat from other nations who hate them. But look where the Levites turn to. They know and they call out that God is faithful. He will not abandon his people. Just he has shown time and time and time and time again. He is faithful. Because God's providence, his provision, his mercy, his justice, they are all seen to its fullest extent in God's promises. Like, do you know why God was so patient with Israel? Do you know why he would rescue them time and time again, despite their rebellion? Because one day a man was coming, a seed of Eve, to crush the head of the serpent. Do not read the Old Testament and forget that Jesus is coming. It's all about him. The very first covenant in the Bible, promise that God makes, is about Jesus. Genesis 3, 15. He is speaking to the serpent who just tempted Adam and Eve. I will put enmity between you and the woman. And between your offspring, that is a singular Hebrew word, and her offspring. He singular shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. God knew Jesus was the plan all along. He was never a backup. He was never a just in case this doesn't go well. Jesus was always the goal. And you see that in the Old Testament. God's faithfulness is always tied to his covenantal promises. He is faithful to something. And all of the covenants of Israel find their fulfillment in Jesus. Understanding that truth is also how God's people live to the fullest. When you understand that God is faithful, it will help you make decisions. It helps you in times of stress and times of need. It helps you in times of joy because you understand all of it is from God. He is faithful because he has proved himself time and time again. So before we close, we've seen who God is, we've seen what he's done, we've seen who Israel was. But here's what I want us to understand: that Israel's story here is your story too. I think that's what I've been most impressed about with Ezra Nehemiah. At least that's what God has put on me, that I am just these people here. I am up and down, I'm doing good one day and doing bad the other, but God is the constant. He is unchanging, he is faithful. God has been faithful, we have not. God has provided for us and we have wandered away. God has shown mercy and we have rebelled. God has been just and our sins demand judgment. So the question is, how can a sinful people stand before a holy and faithful God? It's not found in EMI 9, it's found in Jesus. Because everything we see in this chapter is mercy, is justice, is faithfulness. All of God's attributes are on display on the cross. All of them. Because at the cross, his justice is satisfied. He deals with sin, his mercy is poured out. He's simultaneously dealing with sin and forgiving sin. God's faithfulness is also fulfilled. The promise, all the way back from Genesis 3. Jesus takes the punishment we deserve so we can receive the faithfulness we never earned. So if you are here and you have not believed in that gospel message, placed your faith in Christ Jesus, do it this morning. Find forgiveness in Christ Jesus. And if you are here and you have believed, I'm gonna leave you with an attitude and an action. The attitude I, at least I need from this text, is just thankful that we serve a God so great. I just forget this. I'm gonna be honest with you. It's very easy to get in the routine of church. Very easy. I know I'm preaching to the choir here. It's very easy to get just just through the motions of church. But we are serving the creator of heaven and earth. When we do this, as many or as little of us are here, we are serving the creator of the universe. So transcendent, so merciful, so just so faithful. So just be thankful that we serve a God so great. But the action, and this is gonna look different for Each of you. But remind yourself that God is faithful. I'm going to be honest, I don't know how this looks for you. Perhaps it's a prayer. More dedicated scripture time, something as simple as that. Maybe it's a lifestyle change. Maybe it's just a sticky note on your mirror in the morning saying, hey, reminder, God is faithful. It's not going to make your day worse, I'll tell you that. Just remind yourself of the faithfulness of our God. We're going to have a time as we always do to respond. I'll have a prayer prompt up on the screen. If you don't know what to pray, that's what that is there for. You do not have to pray that. When you're ready, when you have responded, by the way, we still have what we had from Easter. If you want to just do a sticky note and put it in the box in front of the cross, just feel free, absolutely do that. But just pray, respond how God would have you respond. When you're ready, we ask again, this is for believers who have been baptized as believers in good standing with a local church in order to participate. But when you're ready and you check those boxes, come and partake of the elements together. And I think Preston will lead us in that later. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we again thank you for your word and we thank you for the story of Israel. We thank you that we see ourselves, meaning we just see sinful people. But most importantly, we see you in these stories. We see your faithfulness, we see your goodness, we see your kindness, your justice, your mercy, all of those things we see in what you do. And we thank you that all of that finds its fulfillment in Jesus. That we have access to you and all that you are through Christ, through the cross, through faith in Him. So please guide us this morning by your Spirit. If we have not open our eyes to receive the gospel, take out our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. And if we have placed our faith, if we are truly yours, I ask that you would guide us this week by your spirit to remember your faithfulness and to act like you're faithful. And we pray all of these things by your Spirit's power for Christ's name's sake. Amen.