SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah chapter 1 is a a new book, and in a sense it's an old book.
SPEAKER_00: In the Latin Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible, Nehemiah and Ezra are one book.
SPEAKER_00: It's likely in the uh the Jewish writings that they were always one book, much like our Bible splits 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah uh were likely initially one book and then um split for various reasons that don't concern us.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we jump into Nehemiah tonight, we're really picking up where we left off uh a year ago or so in the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: And but nevertheless, it's got its own heading, and so I'm excited to jump into this new book as I prayed earlier.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh foreign people, a foreign place, a foreign time, uh, but it's a familiar story.
SPEAKER_00: Um my wife and I back uh early on in our marriage started watching 24 when it was uh brand new out that TV show.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you can make the sound in your head, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I've lost the ability, praise God, to remember that theme song.
SPEAKER_00: So don't remind me of it later, because then it'll take another you know 15 years to drive that out of me.
SPEAKER_00: But this is before back, you know, young children, back in the day before Netflix, in order to watch a show like this, you had to like watch it you know, an episode at a time as it was released.
SPEAKER_00: You had to wait every week for this.
SPEAKER_00: It was kind of a a big deal back then.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we made it through, I think, a couple seasons, and it was on the third season where we realized something that was not uh conducive to our watching uh this show anymore, which was that the seasons seemed to follow the exact same plot as each other.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice when you watch the show?
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking, you know, 10 years ago, jog your mind, 14 years ago, whenever.
SPEAKER_00: They followed the same plot as each other.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same villain, the same even the hidden recording.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, come on, at least come up with a new plot device, please.
SPEAKER_00: And so it got too predictable, and we left.
SPEAKER_00: And there's lots of TV shows that are even like that.
SPEAKER_00: It is lazy writing.
SPEAKER_00: You know, once you watch like four or five episodes of your favorite crime drama, you realize it's following the exact same formula.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the third character you meet.
SPEAKER_00: That's the one who did it every time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, unless it's if there's ever a random Christian in one of those shows, they always make the random Christian the guilty guy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you've realized that too.
SPEAKER_00: But apart from that, they follow the same pattern and it gets pretty disappointing.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Nehemiah, as I mentioned, it's a new book, but it is the same story we have seen before.
SPEAKER_00: That in a sense, there is nothing new to the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: Much of the Old Testament follows the same plot trajectory from even if you're familiar with Genesis, you've seen this story before where God calls people, he sets them aside.
SPEAKER_00: They believe in him by faith, he gives them their promise, and they step forward into what he's into the land that they've given them, into the promised land that they've given them, and then they sin and God judges them for their sin, and then they lose the land.
SPEAKER_00: This happens in Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: This happens in Exodus, like twice in Exodus, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: And this happens in the book of Judges, although they don't ultimately get exiled in the book of Judges.
SPEAKER_00: You see the same cycle play out over and over and over again, even in the book of Judges.
SPEAKER_00: You see it in the whole trajectory in the kings through Samuel, and then ultimately David himself getting expelled for his sin from the promised land, and he's restored, and then Solomon leads a civil war, and they get expelled from the land, and then they return after the exile.
SPEAKER_00: That's the same story we're seeing taking place here.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that under Solomon, the nation of Israel, it was twelve tribes divided after Solomon's death.
SPEAKER_00: It's split into open civil war, ten tribes in the north and two tribes in the south.
SPEAKER_00: The ten tribes in the north were exiled in the seventh century before Christ, 750 plus years before Christ, they lost the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: They were exiled.
SPEAKER_00: It was a couple hundred years later that the southern tribes, Jerusalem, that area, Judah, Benjamin, they also were expelled from the Promised Land.
SPEAKER_00: They were evicted from God's land because they never honored the Sabbath years.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't keep the God had told them to release their slaves every 50 years for the year of Jubilee.
SPEAKER_00: They rest their land on every Sabbath year.
SPEAKER_00: They never did these kind of things.
SPEAKER_00: And so God judged them for the seventy sets of seven that they were in the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: They would receive that series of judgment from them.
SPEAKER_00: They lost the lands, they were exiled from their land, they were scattered into Assyria, is where the north went, and the south went off into Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually Babylon fell to Persia, and Daniel, who had risen in the ranks in Babylon, continued rising in Persia and was a voice of influence and defended the Jews in the exile.
SPEAKER_00: But during this time, the book of Daniel, the Jews are not in the Promised Lands.
SPEAKER_00: They're not in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They've been exiled.
SPEAKER_00: And so Daniel, the story of the Old Testament, shifts from Jerusalem and goes out to Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: And then when Babylon falls to Persia, it focuses on Persia.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel was, when he fades away, he promises at the end of Daniel's life, he promises that the years Jeremiah had decreed for their judgment were coming to an end, and Israel would be allowed to re-enter the promised land when Cyrus, the Persian king, gives the go-ahead.
SPEAKER_00: And that happens in the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: Cyrus announces that the Jews can begin to return to the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: So to give you a scope here, we're talking about 550 years before Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So 550 years before Christ, Israel had not been in the land for decades, a generation or two had gone by without being in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: There's still a long time, 500 plus years before Jesus is born.
SPEAKER_00: In that window there, the Jews start to trickle back into the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: There's different returns that are led.
SPEAKER_00: We looked at those in the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: Ezra chapter 1 through 6 is the first return that happens in about 530 BC.
SPEAKER_00: They start working on the temple about 515 BC.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.
SPEAKER_00: They start rebuilding it.
SPEAKER_00: There's a break in the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: There's a break right after Ezra chapter 6, and that's where the book of Esther fits in.
SPEAKER_00: And we just finished looking at that on Sunday night.
SPEAKER_00: Esther takes place right in that little window right there, again, about 500 years before Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We jump back in the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: We finish off the book of Ezra, Ezra 7th or 10.
SPEAKER_00: Ezra leads the Jews back to the Promised Land.
SPEAKER_00: The temple work is complete.
SPEAKER_00: And that brings us up to around 450 BC.
SPEAKER_00: So 450 years before Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Israel has been in some respect back in the promised land for more or less 50 years.
SPEAKER_00: They have their temple built back up.
SPEAKER_00: They're speaking their language back in the land.
SPEAKER_00: They even have priests back in the land.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that part in the book of Ezra where they're looking for frantically for priests.
SPEAKER_00: They finally get priests back in the land, and then the book of Ezra comes to a close.
SPEAKER_00: So you would think that all would be well in Israel land at this point.
SPEAKER_00: The temple is back, the priests are back, they are celebrating Passover again in the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: So this is good.
SPEAKER_00: And then the book of Nehemiah picks up.
SPEAKER_00: There's already foreshadowing of things going wrong, by the way, if you remember how the book of Ezra ended.
SPEAKER_00: It did not end with happiness at the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Ezra ended with them intermarrying the foreign women, exactly what they did back in the book of Numbers, back in the original wandering through the wilderness, exactly what Solomon did back in 1 Kings.
SPEAKER_00: They're repeating the same folly they've done before.
SPEAKER_00: So you're already seeing this is the same story.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I have seen this before.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to end well, and of course it's not going to end well.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 1 of Nehemiah, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah.
SPEAKER_00: Now it happened in the month of Shalev in the 12th, 20th year.
SPEAKER_00: I was in Susa at the citadel.
SPEAKER_00: Now Susa is one of the two capitals of the Persian Empire.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, it was the Medio-Persian Empire.
SPEAKER_00: They had two different capital cities.
SPEAKER_00: One was their winter capital, one was their summer capital.
SPEAKER_00: And that was that was just how the Persian emperors rolled.
SPEAKER_00: And they liked Susa for the winter.
SPEAKER_00: This is the winter era.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of this is documented by extra-biblical sources.
SPEAKER_00: This book is taking place, it says the 20th year here, but it's taking place in 445 BC.
SPEAKER_00: This is documented in secular sources, but it fits with the chronology here.
SPEAKER_00: So 445 years before Christ is when this happens.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah is in Susa in the citadel or the castle, the fortress.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the Persian Empire and the Persian Empire was the largest empire in the world at this time.
SPEAKER_00: They were rivaling Greece.
SPEAKER_00: They already had wars with Greece.
SPEAKER_00: This is after the book of Ezra, Ezra, after the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_00: This is where Nehemiah steps in.
SPEAKER_00: And he is there in the citadel.
SPEAKER_00: Hanani, one of my brothers, and we're going to see Hanani again later.
SPEAKER_00: Brother here doesn't just mean Jew.
SPEAKER_00: It means his actual brother, his younger brother, we'll find out, came with certain men from Judah.
SPEAKER_00: So Nehemiah, we don't know this yet, but he's in a position of influence in Susa in the Persian Empire.
SPEAKER_00: And he's a Jew, and he has a Jewish brother who was back in the promised land, back with the Jews in Judah.
SPEAKER_00: And he's come back.
SPEAKER_00: This is a world without telegrams.
SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't even be easy to send Nehemiah a letter back then because that would be the official discourse.
SPEAKER_00: It'd have to go into the records.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in the American government, we have kind of the Freedom of Information Act kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: There's a government record.
SPEAKER_00: You, you know, it has to be kept and all that.
SPEAKER_00: You read biographies of more recent presidents, and they talk about telling their staff to limit emails, knowing that every email they'll send will be sent out.
SPEAKER_00: You know, President Obama, a bunch of his staff switched to Google Chat to try to avoid that, and then a bunch of the Google Chat records got released and Freedom of Information Act kind of things.
SPEAKER_00: President Trump just used Twitter, and it was all I guess it was his shortcut.
SPEAKER_00: They had the same thing here, where any letter that would have been sent to Nehemiah would be a public record from the king's citadel.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's not a lot of communication, especially if you wanted to send something sensitive.
SPEAKER_00: All the messengers, all the people that run to and fro with the letters, and the Persians had a very uh intricate system of this.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about that in the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_00: They all worked for the king.
SPEAKER_00: You know, so the king is the king is the emperor is not going to allow secret messages sent from one of your advisor's brothers in a potentially a hostile city to the advisor without him knowing about it.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's no real good way to communicate.
SPEAKER_00: Well, when this happens, Hananiah comes and visits Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah asked them, Hananiah and the certain men from Judah, asked them, what's happening in Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_00: What's happening with the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile?
SPEAKER_00: And notice even the language Nehemiah is using for the Jews that are back.
SPEAKER_00: He's describing them as having escaped from Persia.
SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt here that Nehemiah's heart is with his people back in Israel, back in Jerusalem, back in the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: He's in a position of influence.
SPEAKER_00: He can't go, he can't be with the Israelites, but his heart is there, even to the point where he refers to those who have made it back to Jerusalem as having escaped.
SPEAKER_00: They've survived the exile.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to know what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: And they said that they here is his brother and their friends.
SPEAKER_00: The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile, they are in great trouble and shame.
SPEAKER_00: And this is likely the purpose of their visit.
SPEAKER_00: The wall of Jerusalem is broken down.
SPEAKER_00: Its gates are destroyed by fire.
SPEAKER_00: Things are bad in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: This is probably not the news, we'll see from Nehemiah's response, not the news he was expecting.
SPEAKER_00: The last dispatch he would have received was probably good news.
SPEAKER_00: It was optimistic.
SPEAKER_00: But now he hears that this is actually bad.
SPEAKER_00: The wall has fallen.
SPEAKER_00: The wall is critical for Israel's preservation, to guard the temple.
SPEAKER_00: If they're going to put gold and the instruments they use for worship back in the temple, they need to be able to defend it.
SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem itself is a very defendable city.
SPEAKER_00: It's isolated in the mountains.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do a sneak attack on Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: That would be impossible.
SPEAKER_00: Your only way to approach would be either from the Mediterranean Sea or from the Dead Sea.
SPEAKER_00: You come in from Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: You would have a day's notice at least that an army is coming.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, you need walls because if an army does come, you're going to need to be able to defend the city.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why would an army come if it's all protected by the Persian Empire?
SPEAKER_00: And this is where you have to be a little bit familiar with the dynamics, the religious dynamics of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: There were the Samaritans that did not like the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a big feature in the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, they wanted to partner with the Jews in building the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And the Jews said no.
SPEAKER_00: They said, You have no part with us.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Samaritans sent lies about the Jews to the Persian emperor, saying, These people are conspiring against you.
SPEAKER_00: They're conspiring.
SPEAKER_00: That was a big feature in the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: And so they need defense.
SPEAKER_00: The people around them could attack, and the Persian Empire would not be able to defend them.
SPEAKER_00: For there to be any hope of Israel existing with Jerusalem as its capital, with some kind of distinct ethnic identity, distinct language, distinct religion and worship, which is what God had called them to have, to bring the Messiah into the world, they would need the wall.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, the wall is destroyed and Israel is put to shame.
SPEAKER_00: The wall of Jerusalem is broken down.
SPEAKER_00: And the word shame there is critical in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Like this is not an okay scenario.
SPEAKER_00: These are God's people.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's one thing if your crazy neighbor's yard is overgrown and there's, you know, abandoned cars in front of it.
SPEAKER_00: But it's another thing if it's the mayor's yard that's overgrown and with abandoned cars in the yard.
SPEAKER_00: Like it makes your city look bad, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, at least mow the grass once a year, kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's this attitude here.
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing if some random city over there, if if if Beth Seda, if it's overgrown and its walls are tumbled down, who cares?
SPEAKER_00: But Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_00: These are God's people.
SPEAKER_00: They tied their identity and their prosperity so much to Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: If Yahweh is real, won't he take care of his people?
SPEAKER_00: That's the question.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's Israel saying, We believe in the true God, not the Persian deities, not these own local deities.
SPEAKER_00: We don't believe in them, not the Greek pantheon that's starting to come in.
SPEAKER_00: We don't believe in those gods.
SPEAKER_00: We believe in Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: And the nations look around and say, okay, where's evidence of your Yahweh?
SPEAKER_00: Your temple looks like a yard sale.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like a flea market.
SPEAKER_00: You can't even have a garage door on.
SPEAKER_00: Your wall is in shambles.
SPEAKER_00: And so the people are put to shame.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 137, verse 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skills.
SPEAKER_00: Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth.
SPEAKER_00: If I don't remember you, if I don't set Jerusalem above my highest joy, that's a psalm Nehemiah would know.
SPEAKER_00: If I forget Jerusalem, may I forget the ability to speak.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to know what's happening there, and he finds out the worst news he could have: that it is in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: His people are in trouble, his temple is in trouble, and they are in open shame.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why are things bad in Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_00: There's approximate answers, and there's bigger answers.
SPEAKER_00: You start to get to the real answer.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, the realest answer is that God is sovereign, and the proximate answer is that they haven't built the gate yet.
SPEAKER_00: But why not?
SPEAKER_00: All the middle part is where the real fun is.
SPEAKER_00: Why hadn't they built the wall yet?
SPEAKER_00: Well, they didn't have the work ethic.
SPEAKER_00: Haggai ran into that in the book of Haggai.
SPEAKER_00: They were too concerned about building their own houses than building God's place.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have a leader.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have somebody who was a good enough leader to motivate them to build the wall.
SPEAKER_00: They had Ezra, certainly, and Ezra was pouring himself into preaching the word to the people, but they had nobody from the political side of things that could motivate them and exercise that kind of political leadership on a mass scale to motivate them to actually work.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't blessed with that kind of person.
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
SPEAKER_00: Because they were in sin.
SPEAKER_00: They were in sin, they were marrying foreign women.
SPEAKER_00: They were repeating the same practices that got them exiled to begin with.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah knows this.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's so interesting about Nehemiah 1, the way he responds to this news, is Nehemiah breaks down.
SPEAKER_00: It says in verse 4, I set heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the kind of person Nehemiah is.
SPEAKER_00: He is broken to his core over the news of God's people in open shame.
SPEAKER_00: He's repenting.
SPEAKER_00: Now did Nehemiah sin here?
SPEAKER_00: Well, certainly he's a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: He comes from Adam.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly his people have sinned.
SPEAKER_00: His brother and his friends are all in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: We see this, of course, so he has connection to them.
SPEAKER_00: And nevertheless, Nehemiah repents about this sin, and he's going to repent for the rest of this chapter, is him repenting from his sin.
SPEAKER_00: Even though it wasn't his own personal sin.
SPEAKER_00: Again, Nehemiah was sinful.
SPEAKER_00: He had a sin nature, of course.
SPEAKER_00: He's from Adam, his family had sin and all this.
SPEAKER_00: But Nehemiah is in a position of influence, and so he takes ownership of this.
SPEAKER_00: He responds to this as I think the best modern analogy to this would be as a father who finds sin that is tolerating and running rampant in his family.
SPEAKER_00: How should the father respond when he finds his children in a certain kind of sin?
SPEAKER_00: With an excuse like, oh, it wasn't me that sinned.
SPEAKER_00: Or with a brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, this sin is happening right here with the people I love.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly the latter.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah is, I think, a powerful model for that.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to take that and give us an outline as we go through it this morning, how to repent.
SPEAKER_00: Because Nehemiah, this is one lesson you can get from Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: You can get this lesson from just about every chapter of Nehemiah, honestly, but I want to draw it out of Nehemiah chapter 1, how to repent.
SPEAKER_00: And I think I've got five reasons here.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, five reasons.
SPEAKER_00: There are five steps here, or five components of biblical repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And before we get to this list, let me just say why this is so important.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a lot of false repentance, there's a lot of worldly repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly repentance is making an external confession of sins, but not being broken over sin.
SPEAKER_00: And worldly repentance may even have tears on the outside, but it doesn't actually lead to any kind of change.
SPEAKER_00: There's a worldly sorrow from people who don't like the situation they're in.
SPEAKER_00: There's a worldly sorrow from people that just get in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: You know, as you recognize you recognize that.
SPEAKER_00: If you're speeding and you get pulled over, you have worldly sorrow, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, I am so sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot believe that I was doing that.
SPEAKER_00: 15 over?
SPEAKER_00: That's incredible.
SPEAKER_00: I am the guiltiest, vilest sinner ever.
SPEAKER_00: I repent immediately.
SPEAKER_00: That's worldly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And you know it's worldly sorrow because 15 minutes later you will be driving the exact same speed again.
SPEAKER_00: That's worldly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow leads to hell when it comes to sin.
SPEAKER_00: It leads to hell when it comes to spiritual things.
SPEAKER_00: And there are lots of people who are deluded about their relationship with the Lord because they have not actually repented of their sins in a biblical way.
SPEAKER_00: They've experienced worldly sorrow about their sins.
SPEAKER_00: At a human, superficial level, they are sorry about their sins.
SPEAKER_00: But they have never been reconciled to God through faith.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a huge outline here.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let this just be one outline that's on the screen for you at a moment in your life at some Sunday evening service.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to really think through this outline as we go through it, because this is huge.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have this experience in your life, it's worth asking yourself if you have a right relationship with the Lord, if you've had your sins forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Have you really been made right with the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Of course you can have an external kind of repentance and not be right with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, you can be at church and not be a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, do you have these marks of repentance in your life?
SPEAKER_00: This is a step for how to repent.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here tonight and you're not a believer, look at this list as we go through it.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here tonight and you're not a believer, look at this list and understand this is what is required.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Lord demands of us as we come to him in faith.
SPEAKER_00: So first, mourning.
SPEAKER_00: Mourning for sin.
SPEAKER_00: And you see this right away in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: We looked at it for a second already.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah heard these words, immediately sat down and wept.
SPEAKER_00: Right away.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as he heard these words, he's down on the ground, he's weeping, he's mourning.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not just like the oh, I'm sorry, I feel bad about this.
SPEAKER_00: Notice it says he mourned for days.
SPEAKER_00: He continued fasting and praying.
SPEAKER_00: Before the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: This is real repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Sitting down, meaning he's lost his his pride.
SPEAKER_00: Fasting, meaning that he's training his body here to pursue the Lord over himself, over his own physical desires.
SPEAKER_00: He's set food aside because how can he eat when the his own people are in disrepair?
SPEAKER_00: He's weeping over his sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me be clear.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that unless you've sat down on the ground for days and fasted and wept that you're not a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, our culture doesn't err in that direction.
SPEAKER_00: Our culture errs in the other direction of, hey, I did something bad and I feel bad about it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, parenting, you have this experience all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You can see through kids true and false repentance instantly and parenting, can't you?
SPEAKER_00: With like, you know, I'm sorry I poked you in the eye.
SPEAKER_00: Would I said I was sorry?
SPEAKER_00: I'm detecting a lack of authenticity.
SPEAKER_00: Verse, you can see when one child sins against another and they feel broken about it, they they're they're crying about it as much as the person who was hurt because they actually do feel bad about it.
SPEAKER_00: And then apply that to spiritual things.
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to see with children, but can you see it with yourself and your own sin?
SPEAKER_00: Do you are you ever broken over your sin?
SPEAKER_00: This is sort of the the entry card, the entry fee to Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: To come to Christ, you have to have this experience.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be broken over your sin.
SPEAKER_00: If you're raised in a non-Christian home living for the Lord, maybe it's not going to be a prolonged period of mourning like this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Every person is different.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're raised away from the gospel, there has to be a moment where you are confronted with your sin, you're convicted by your sin, and you recognize that your sin is against God and it hurts you.
SPEAKER_00: You recognize that God is holy and you are not, and it has to have an effect on you.
SPEAKER_00: Not an effect like, oh, it's a good thing I heard about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let's move on with this.
SPEAKER_00: No, linger a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Take a step back and wait a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Wait in your brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: Wait for a little bit in where you've encountered your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Wait and realize how you sinned against God and what that actually means.
SPEAKER_00: That God is holy, He's exalted above us, He's perfect and He's loving and He cares for us, and our sin is against Him.
SPEAKER_00: That has to affect you.
SPEAKER_00: Spend some time there.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus means.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who mourn.
SPEAKER_00: For they shall see God.
SPEAKER_00: Without the mourning over sin, there is no of the seeing of God.
SPEAKER_00: There is no gateway into glory without the brokenness over sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I mean by it's sort of an entry right into Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: This is what's confessed in every baptism that I was a sinner and I'm dying to that under the water.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm rising in new life again.
SPEAKER_00: This is why I mean it's an kind of the entry key.
SPEAKER_00: It's the basic entrance to Christianity, is you recognizing you're a sinner and you being broken.
SPEAKER_00: This, by the way, is one of the reasons that we are Baptistic and not infant Baptists.
SPEAKER_00: You're not born with this kind of mourning over sin.
SPEAKER_00: A baby may mourn over a lot of things, but his sin ain't one of them.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're raised in a Christian home, you grew up in a Christian home, and you have to have an encounter where at some point in your life you realize, you are become aware that you are in actual fact a sinner against God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Nehemiah has.
SPEAKER_00: He has this experience right here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying this is a conversion experience, I'm saying this is a painting of what real repentance looks like.
SPEAKER_00: And it begins with mourning.
SPEAKER_00: This lasted in verse 3 for days, and then in verse 4 for nights.
SPEAKER_00: And it goes on and on.
SPEAKER_00: Well, first, mourning.
SPEAKER_00: Second, remembering.
SPEAKER_00: Remembering, specifically remembering who God is, remembering who our sin is against.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I mean by remembering, remembering what kind of God we're dealing with.
SPEAKER_00: And we encounter this in verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah spends days mourning and weeping and then opens his mouth in verse 5 and says, Oh Yahweh, the right-away, first word out of his mouth is addressing God by his covenant name.
SPEAKER_00: O Yahweh, God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The exile may have been for decades, it may have been a century plus since the Israelites were back in the land with a functioning temple.
SPEAKER_00: But Nehemiah remembers God's covenant name and addresses him as such.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Yahweh, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's addressing God.
SPEAKER_00: God is not learning about his identity from Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that?
SPEAKER_00: This is for Nehemiah's benefit.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah is reminding God of who God is, not because God has forgotten who he is, but because Nehemiah is reminding himself.
SPEAKER_00: God, you are holy, you are exalted, you keep your covenant.
SPEAKER_00: We'll look more to the covenant in a few minutes, but your steadfast love, which is another expression for covenant love, Hesed, this covenant love that is covenant-keeping and sacrificial.
SPEAKER_00: That's who God is.
SPEAKER_00: He's the great and awesome God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It says the phrase God of heaven is He's the God of the angels, He's the God of the sky, He's the God of the universe, not just the God of this earth, that would be massive enough to as it is, not just the God of Jerusalem or Israel or of Persia or of the earth, but the God of earth and of all of heaven, of all of the angels, of all created things, and he is great and awesome.
SPEAKER_00: He inspires awe in those who encounter with him, particularly through those who are in covenant relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: Because God expresses to them his covenant steadfast love with those who love him.
SPEAKER_00: This is a reciprocal covenant.
SPEAKER_00: God sets his love on people and they love him back.
SPEAKER_00: And it expresses themselves in keeping God's commandments, it says at the end of verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Let your ear be attentive, let your eyes be open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night, he says, for the people of Israel, your servants.
SPEAKER_00: So this is what he does.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he's not teaching God about who God is.
SPEAKER_00: He's not reminding God, hey God, open up your ear, because that's not, that can't possibly be how prayer works.
SPEAKER_00: God listen to me, because if God's not listening, he's not going to hear you.
SPEAKER_00: You follow that?
SPEAKER_00: It's not a volume issue.
SPEAKER_00: God inclined your ear to me and God hears you.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, oh, look, that's how it works in our, you know, in our human communication.
SPEAKER_00: If I see somebody in down the hallway and they're turning around the hallway and they don't see me, I can shout their name and now they'll hear me and now we can talk.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not how prayer is, because God is not moving down the hallway away from you, and your voice is what gets his attention.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is spirit and he's exalted above his creation, your voice in that sense, the volume doesn't reach him.
SPEAKER_00: This is huge to understand why you can pray in your heart or why you can pray in your mind, because it's not the sound that reaches God.
SPEAKER_00: God hears the thoughts and intentions of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Nehemiah says, Incline your ear to me, he is reminding himself that God is actually listening.
SPEAKER_00: Actually listening to his prayers.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see Nehemiah pray a lot in this book.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just love this little window into his confidence that God has an attentive ear.
SPEAKER_00: He has eyes open.
SPEAKER_00: And we know God doesn't have physical ears or physical eyes, but it's it's idioms here that God is hearing what I need, his eyes are on me, looking at me.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah notes that the secret parts of his thoughts are open before God, that his life is lived in front of God.
SPEAKER_00: To hear the prayer of your servant that I am praying before you.
SPEAKER_00: Day and night he's pouring up this prayer, and he knows God hears all of it.
SPEAKER_00: So remember what kind of God you're dealing with.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that it's a God who hears you and a God who sees you, a God who is holy.
SPEAKER_00: That should increase your fear about your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Also a God who's forgiving, and that should draw you near to him.
SPEAKER_00: This is the eminent transcendent dichotomy we talked about this morning.
SPEAKER_00: That God is holy and exalted and so transcends you, and yet God's eyes are on you and his ear is towards you, and so he is near you.
SPEAKER_00: This is the nature of the God you're talking to.
SPEAKER_00: So in repentance, you remember that.
SPEAKER_00: In repentance, you're mourning over your sin, you're broken over your sin because you know who you sinned against.
SPEAKER_00: Your sin is against a holy and exalted and pure God, the God who's aware of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: When you're confessing and repenting of your sin, you're not bringing new sins to his attention as if he didn't know about them.
SPEAKER_00: And this sometimes in our sinful hearts and imaginations is something that keeps us from repenting.
SPEAKER_00: We think, I don't want to bring this sin to God's attention.
SPEAKER_00: But believe you me, God is aware of that sin.
SPEAKER_00: He knows about it.
SPEAKER_00: So remember who you're dealing with.
SPEAKER_00: A covenant-keeping God who has love for his people, and that love reciprocates in obedience back.
SPEAKER_00: And so sin is a violation of that basic contract between God and man.
SPEAKER_00: That's who you're praying to.
SPEAKER_00: Well, first, mourn over your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Second, remember the God you're sinning against.
SPEAKER_00: Third, confess that sin to God.
SPEAKER_00: And this is picks up in verse six.
SPEAKER_00: You have to actually confess your sin to God.
SPEAKER_00: In the second part of verse six, I'm praying day and night.
SPEAKER_00: Confessing, he says, the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you.
SPEAKER_00: Even I and my father's house have sins, Nehemiah says.
SPEAKER_00: He's confessing the sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now he doesn't get more specific about the sin here for us in Scripture, but certainly we don't have all of Nehemiah's prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that, right?
SPEAKER_00: He was praying for days and nights on end.
SPEAKER_00: This would take one and a half minutes to read out loud.
SPEAKER_00: So we don't have the full content of his prayer.
SPEAKER_00: But what the Holy Spirit inspires here is enough to direct us to this idea that you have to actually confess your sins.
SPEAKER_00: You're articulating what your sins are.
SPEAKER_00: As Nehemiah says, like I and my father's household have sinned.
SPEAKER_00: Confessing your sin means to call your sin what God calls your sin.
SPEAKER_00: If your sin is lust, call it lust.
SPEAKER_00: If your sin is greed or pride, call it greed or pride.
SPEAKER_00: If your sin is anger or hatred, call it anger and hatred.
SPEAKER_00: Identify your sin by the words the Bible uses and use those words back to God.
SPEAKER_00: We're so good at minimizing our sin just in the language we use about it.
SPEAKER_00: Even calling your sin a struggle.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Struggle is not a terrible word if it means you're actually fighting your sin.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I guess that's a good word if you're in the fight.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes I I fear we use words like that just to minimize sin.
SPEAKER_00: You know, go back to the encounter with the traffic officer again.
SPEAKER_00: You know why I pulled you over?
SPEAKER_00: Was I going a little fast?
SPEAKER_00: A little fast.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what you just did there?
SPEAKER_00: Don't be like that with God.
SPEAKER_00: Did I sin a little bit?
SPEAKER_00: Use words that the Bible uses to describe your conduct and use those words back to God.
SPEAKER_00: All sin is against God, remember all sin.
SPEAKER_00: Even David, when he committed adultery and murder, and Nathan confronts him, remember the first words out of David's mouth?
SPEAKER_00: It was against God that I sinned.
SPEAKER_00: It was against Uriah that he sinned for sure, and Bathsheba and his men, his soldiers that fought so violently.
SPEAKER_00: It was against Joab that he sinned.
SPEAKER_00: He sinned against so many people in that narrative.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he cuts through it all, 2 Samuel 12, and says, It was against God that I sinned.
SPEAKER_00: It was against him.
SPEAKER_00: This is part of confession.
SPEAKER_00: Recognizing that you've sinned generally, and Nehemiah recognizes that I and my father's household have sinned.
SPEAKER_00: Generally, he sinned, as I mentioned earlier, because he's from Adam.
SPEAKER_00: Generally, he sinned because his family is filled with sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Generally he sinned because the Israelites are doing sinful things and he's an Israelite.
SPEAKER_00: But specifically, you have to get down to the specific level.
SPEAKER_00: How have you sinned against God?
SPEAKER_00: If you don't get there, you can't have a right relationship with God unless you're confessing your sins.
SPEAKER_00: Not minimizing your sins, not dismissing them, but identifying them, articulating them, and bringing them before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine teaching a Sunday school class to a bunch of kids and you're you're laboring the point about what it means to have forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: That God takes your sins and he nails them to the cross of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And your sins are forgiven because Jesus bore the punishment for them.
SPEAKER_00: He died on the cross bearing the wrath of God for your sins.
SPEAKER_00: And now you have the potential to be forgiven, and all you have to do to receive forgiveness is to believe the gospel message, believe that Jesus died in your place, and call out to God and confess your sins to God, believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again, and confess that and accept Jesus into your heart kind of language, and you plead with the kids to do this.
SPEAKER_00: And then you ask this question So what is required of you first to have your sins forgiven?
SPEAKER_00: And think of what I just said.
SPEAKER_00: Faith in Jesus, his death and resurrection, confession.
SPEAKER_00: But this is an answer that's so simple that it takes a little kid to get it right.
SPEAKER_00: But the first thing that's required for you to have forgiveness is that you commit sin.
SPEAKER_00: In that sense, sin is the first step towards forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: And so don't dodge confession to God of your sin and just jump to these other ones and meditate on the beauty of his covenant and mourn over the fact you're a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: Actually get to the point where you confess your sins to him, because without confession, you cannot have forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: This is why John picks this up in 1 John and says, listen, if you are faithful, if you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive your sins.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever says they have no sins is a liar.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't have sins forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: If you say you have no sins, it's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: If being a Christian is to have a right relationship with God, because your sins are forgiven, and you're saying I don't have sins, you can't possibly be a Christian because you're missing the most basic ingredient of forgiveness, which is your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Fourthly.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen mourning over sin, remembering the kind of God we've sinned against, confessing our sin to God.
SPEAKER_00: Fourthly, is the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah has hinted at it earlier: the God in his very makeup and God's identity, he's a covenant-making God.
SPEAKER_00: But now here in verse 8, we have something even more specific.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, moving from general to specific.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples.
SPEAKER_00: But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place I've chosen and make my name dwell there.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to leave your finger here.
SPEAKER_00: We got time before kickoff still, and flip over to Leviticus 26.
SPEAKER_00: I mean Nehemiah says, Remember this, and so let's remember it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, let's do more than remember it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go look at it.
SPEAKER_00: Leviticus 26.
SPEAKER_00: Starting in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: And this is I mean, this is not a happy chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Leviticus 26, page 105 in the P Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: If you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, if your soul abhors my rules, this is Leviticus 26, 14, so that you will not do all my commandments and you break my covenant, then I will do this to you, God says.
SPEAKER_00: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease, with fever that consumes the eyes, and makes your heart ache.
SPEAKER_00: As you sow your seed in vain, your enemies will eat it.
SPEAKER_00: I'll make it so you're you're growing nice crops out there.
SPEAKER_00: You know, your seeds doing all kinds of work, just getting eaten by your enemies.
SPEAKER_00: I'll set my face against you.
SPEAKER_00: This is God talking.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be set against you, and you'll be struck down before your enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Those who hate you will rule you, you will flee when no one pursues you.
SPEAKER_00: In spite of this, you still won't listen to me, God says.
SPEAKER_00: And then I will discipline you again, sevenfold for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Clearly prophetic here about the exile when God does just that.
SPEAKER_00: I will break the pride of your power, I will make the heavens like iron and the earth like bronze.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you won't get rain, and nothing's gonna grow, and your strength will be spent in vain, for your land won't grow anything.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21 If you walk contrary to me and don't listen to me, I will continue striking you sevenfold for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: I will let loose the wild beasts against you, they'll bereave you of your children, they'll destroy your livestock, they'll make you few in number, your roads will be deserted, and if by this discipline you're still not turned to me, but walk contrary to me, I will also walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.
SPEAKER_00: I'll bring the sword upon you, I'll execute vengeance for the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: If you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you will be delivered in the hand of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: When I break your supply of bread, ten women will bake bread in a single oven, and they'll dole it out, and your bread will go by way, and you will eat it and not be satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: This is really described in the Book of Haggai, too.
SPEAKER_00: They live this out.
SPEAKER_00: In spite of all this, verse 27, you walk contrary to me, I will walk contrary to you in a fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You will eat the flesh of your sons, you will eat the flesh of your daughters, I will destroy your high places, I will cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you, and I will lay your cities to waste, and I will make your sanctuaries desolate, I will not smell your pleasing aromas, meaning your sacrifices and your worship.
SPEAKER_00: I myself will devastate the land, your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it.
SPEAKER_00: I will scatter you among the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is all what happened.
SPEAKER_00: Remember verse 34.
SPEAKER_00: Then the land will enjoy its Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: So this all happened, and Ezra and Nehemiah are coming after this.
SPEAKER_00: The land enjoyed its Sabbaths.
SPEAKER_00: It will sit there and it'll rest.
SPEAKER_00: But verse 36, as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts to the lands that are enemies.
SPEAKER_00: The sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight.
SPEAKER_00: The sound of a leaf blowing the wind, they'll all scatter.
SPEAKER_00: No one's pursuing them and they'll run away.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 37, they'll stumble over one another as to escape the sword, even though no one is chasing them.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the build-up here.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you believe that, you can go flick back to Nehemiah the now.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe that, if you believe that's true, and that if the people are rebelling against God, God's gonna do that to them, and then God does that to them, and then God brings them back into the land, and now you hear that they're doing that again, and you still believe that it's true.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand how you're gonna respond?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be crushed, like Nehemiah is.
SPEAKER_00: This is the main point here in Nehemiah's prayer that God has punished his people once for these sins, and he will do it again.
SPEAKER_00: This is an important part of confession.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you recognize, as the book of Hebrews says, when you believe the gospel and then you sin openly against God, you're trampling underfoot the very covenant of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: All sin is against God, and sin in light of the covenant is even worse.
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing when non-believers sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's entirely more extreme when believers sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so part of confession is remembering that, remembering who you're sinning against, calling it what he calls it, and putting yourself in the place in the covenant and recognizing that God will punish people who sin.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a new covenant reality, too, of course.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ, your sins are forgiven from you, but when you go on willfully sinning and willfully disobeying, Paul says you're trampling underfoot the covenant of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: So, fourth, remember the covenant, and finally, fifth, receive forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Receive forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: This is where this is all building.
SPEAKER_00: Even we dodged out of Leviticus a little bit earlier.
SPEAKER_00: If you would have kept going, the next paragraph in Leviticus says, and when you confess your sins, I'll forgive them.
SPEAKER_00: I'll receive you back.
SPEAKER_00: But we could switch from Leviticus back to Nehemiah, because Nehemiah is going to say the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9, if you return to me and you keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them back to the place.
SPEAKER_00: There's this promise here that God will restore Israel when they seek forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10, they're your servants and your people.
SPEAKER_00: Now Nehemiah is switching from first person to third person here.
SPEAKER_00: They are your servants, God.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling God, these people back in Jerusalem, they're yours.
SPEAKER_00: They're your people.
SPEAKER_00: You've redeemed them by your great power and your strong hand.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name.
SPEAKER_00: Give success to your servant today.
SPEAKER_00: Grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk more about that ending when we get back to Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: But for now, notice that Nehemiah closes his prayer by saying, Listen, God, you've got to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: Here I am begging.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive.
SPEAKER_00: You forgive because that's the kind of God you are.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah reminds God of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: God, you have redeemed them.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
SPEAKER_00: God, you redeemed them.
SPEAKER_00: You purchased them.
SPEAKER_00: With the death of the firstborn, you bought them out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: With the parting of the Red Sea, you sealed them in the wilderness by feeding them all the time.
SPEAKER_00: In the wilderness, you provided their needs.
SPEAKER_00: You brought them into the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: God, you have in a very real way redeemed them.
SPEAKER_00: This is a real reality that's even more true for us because Jesus is our redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: He died on the cross for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: Our sins, the record of our sins, have been nailed to the cross where he was crucified.
SPEAKER_00: He is our redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible commands us to receive the remission of sins.
SPEAKER_00: Even the old covenant had promises of blessing and restoration.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Kings 8.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon says, Listen, God, I know my people will sin and they'll be punished, but when they are sin and when they're punished, and when you exile them, because Solomon knows Leviticus 26, when you exile them and they're in the foreign land, they'll confess their sins and they'll turn and they'll pray to you.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon says, Please forgive them.
SPEAKER_00: Receive them back.
SPEAKER_00: This is the context from 2 Chronicles chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: It is not an election verse.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: It's this context, repenting from your sin.
SPEAKER_00: If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.
SPEAKER_00: This is a verse that is teaching that when God's people repent, when they confess their sins, God remembers that he is their redeemer and he removes their sins from them.
SPEAKER_00: They go from the camp of the curses to the camp of the blessings.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is still a New Testament reality.
SPEAKER_00: John 16, verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: Until now you've asked nothing in my name, Jesus says, Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.
SPEAKER_00: Specifically, 1 John 1 9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive them and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: That's the promise.
SPEAKER_00: When you confess your sins to God, he hears your confession and he forgives you.
SPEAKER_00: And he forgives you.
SPEAKER_00: So forgiveness is yours for the taking.
SPEAKER_00: It was harder for Nehemiah because Nehemiah is calling God the Redeemer of Israel, pointing back to the Exodus, knowing that since the Exodus, there's been all of these consequences, all of the covenant curses have happened to them and they're going to happen again to them.
SPEAKER_00: In a sense, it's easier for us because, in a real sense, Jesus is our Redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: Our sins were paid for by Christ on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: There's no more wrath God can pour out on us for our sins because he poured them out on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So practically, what does this look like for you?
SPEAKER_00: That you see sin in your life and you go through this list.
SPEAKER_00: You are broken over your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You recognize how wrong your sin is.
SPEAKER_00: You remember the kind of God that you're dealing with.
SPEAKER_00: Your sin is against him, and God's aware of it, and he's holy, and it's offensive to him.
SPEAKER_00: So you confess it to him, you call it what it is.
SPEAKER_00: You remember that you are a participant in the new covenant, that Jesus Christ has died for your sins and has atoned for your sins in his death.
SPEAKER_00: And so you confess your sins to God and you receive forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean you get saved every time you confess your sins, of course not, any more than Peter had to take a bath before he could have the Last Supper.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need a bath, Jesus tells him.
SPEAKER_00: You just need to wash your feet.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where we are as well.
SPEAKER_00: We sin in this world and we cry out to the Lord for forgiveness and he restores us.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of this chapter here, if you're reading Nehemiah for the first time, you don't know who Nehemiah is.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know the significance of the story.
SPEAKER_00: It's written in a very beautiful literary way here.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of tension here because you don't know who Nehemiah is.
SPEAKER_00: You know he's in the citadel in Susa.
SPEAKER_00: That's all you got for him right now.
SPEAKER_00: And now at the end of the prayer, something happens.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of his prayer, he says, And give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
SPEAKER_00: Who is the this man?
SPEAKER_00: And what success is Nehemiah in Susa gonna have with the wall?
SPEAKER_00: Is that what we're still talking about?
SPEAKER_00: The wall that's a very strange way to end that prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_00: And then you just get the little cliffhanger at the end of Nehemiah 1.
SPEAKER_00: This is a little cliffhanger to make sure you come back in March.
SPEAKER_00: Now, he says, I was cupbearer to the king.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, hello.
SPEAKER_00: Cutbearer to this king.
SPEAKER_00: This king had Esther as his stepmom.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's got a Jew as his right-hand man.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're thankful that you place your people in the right spots through history.
SPEAKER_00: So do your will, and we look forward in the months to come to see how this plays out in Nehemiah's life.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray for anyone here tonight who has never truly been broken over their sin.
SPEAKER_00: Who's never truly confessed their sin to you.
SPEAKER_00: I pray tonight they would confess their sin.
SPEAKER_00: Tonight they would be broken over their sin.
SPEAKER_00: I think of believers throughout the ages who wrestled with their salvation, grappling in their minds.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking even of a biography of Ann Judson I read recently, how she was confronted with her sin and just stayed wrestling with it for weeks before she felt like she could seek forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: That's so different than the way we often approach you.
SPEAKER_00: So Lord, I pray for real sobriety in our hearts about sin.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for those that are here tonight.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that they would have an attitude of confession towards you, of brokenness over their sin, of joy, Lord, that our sins are forgiven in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We aren't like Nehemiah wondering where the Savior will come, wondering what city the Savior can come to, even.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking at all this in the rearview mirror.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: He's taken our sins.
SPEAKER_00: And so now we have joy.
SPEAKER_00: But I pray for those here tonight.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that as they confess their sins, they would find joy in their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: They would find joy in the forgiveness that you offer.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray for anyone here tonight who's never confessed their sins to you.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that tonight their hearts would be turned towards you.
SPEAKER_00: Tonight they would believe the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Tonight they would have their sins forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you would do that work in their hearts, and I ask us in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to meet you personally at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our service times and other church information is on our website at ibc.church.
SPEAKER_00: If you want information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been an encouragement to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord bless you.