Restored Glory

David Helton

Deep Creek Baptist Church

Restoration: Our Ruins His Restoration • Sermon • Submitted 8 months ago • Presented 8 months ago

Nehemiah 9

Prayer

Repentance

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Verses 1-5 show us the Israelites grief for their sin and their desire for repentance. Through their prayer we see that they base their repentance not on their deeds but God’s actions toward them despite their rebellion.

They depended on God’s righteousness towards them despite their wickedness.

Since God is both Good and Great, and Gracious, we can experience forgiveness.

God forgives us because He wants to glorify His name

We can depend on God because he glorifies himself through his great, good, and gracious acts

The first part of this prayer finds the people crying out to God for redemption and forgiveness.

By praising God....

The Greatness of God shown through His Power

Nehemiah 9:32 “32 “Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day.”

Several other verses about His great Mercy...

The Power of God as Creator. (6)

Nehemiah 9:5 “ “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.”

This is a quick summary of Genesis 1–2. God made everything that is.

There is nothing that God has not made.

Praising God begins with acknowledging that He alone deserves credit for this fantastic world.

This world is stunning.

There are leaves that fall every year that are more beautiful than anything that humans could produce or engineer on our own, and we treat them like trash.

We look at them like they’re a bother.

And those trees appear to die,

and then they come back to life.

Remarkable! And that’s just one little piece of this world.

This world is miraculous, and God deserves praise for every aspect of it.

The people are about to confess their sins.

Confessing sin begins with the recognition that we are both accountable and obligated to the Creator.

He made us; that makes us accountable to Him.

I would propose that the modern mythology of naturalistic evolution—Darwinism, materialism, all that mythological explanation of where the world came from—is all an elaborate dodge of accountability.

It’s all an attempt to remove man’s responsibility to his Creator.

There is one living and true God who made you,

and you are accountable to Him.

Do you praise God for His power in creation?

Do you recognize your obligation to the One who made you and sustains you?

Could human creativity invent the song of the birds?

Human creativity and engineering cannot give life to what it builds.

Only God can give life. Praise Him!

We are accountable to God and we can depend upon God because He created us and sustains us.

But God is not this all powerful God, he is also a personal God.

He is not just transcendent but he is also immanent, He can be known, loved and communicated with.

He i snot just Great but He is Good.

The Goodness of God shown through his Provision

Nehemiah 9:25 “25 And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.”

Nehemiah 9.35 “35 Even in their own kingdom, and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works.”

This entire chapter emphasizes all that God has given to his people. The Hebrew word nātan (“give”) is used fifteen times it speaks of his goodness through His provision for His people.

1 God’s presence and guidance (vv. 12, 19)

2. Instruction (vv. 13–14, 20)

3. Food and water (vv. 15, 20–21)

4. Patience, forgiveness, and compassion (vv. 16–19)

5. God’s Spirit to instruct them (v. 20)

6. Clothing (v. 21)

7. Land (v. 22)

8. Strength of numbers (v. 23)

9. Victories in battle (v. 24)

10. Fortified cities, homes, and abundance (v. 25)

Neh 9:13 “13 You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments,”

In Exod 20:1–23 God gave the gift of the Commandments.

They are not simply negative commands

but rather are instructions on how to live the godly life.

No more important gift is known in the Old Testament.

God is not an impersonal force but a personal God who communicates with human beings.

The God of the Bible acts in history and has spoken,

revealing to his people

who he is,

what he does,

and what his will is. .

The Jews did not see the laws as a burden or something negative but as a gift of God to guide his people in forming a just and good society.

As Jesus said, the basis of the law is to love God and love our neighbor (Mark 12:28–34; cf. Matt 5:17–20).

The other laws are corollaries of these.

We still need specific norms to know God’s will in particular areas of life.T

he law proves that we need God’s grace.

But after being reconciled with God through his grace in Christ,

we desire to do God’s will.

The law, encapsulated in the Ten Commandments, indicates what his will is in the important areas of life.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus showed the relevance of God’s eternal law for life under the new covenant (Matt 5–7).

God Gave them a basis which they can live in harmony with Him and with each other.

Neh 9:15“15 You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.”

Neh 9:20 “20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.”

Neh 9:21 “21 Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.”

“Bread from heaven” is a reference to the manna given to the children of Israel during the journey from Egypt to Canaan (Exod 16:4–8).

This expression is used in poetic descriptions such as Pss 78:24; 105:40. The concept appears in John 6:22–40 and Rev 2:17.

The teaching is that God provides for his people’s daily needs.

The conquest of the land was to be God’s work,

but the people had to believe and take initiative.

initiative based on faith was required but was lacking on that occasion.

Real faith motivates one to do God’s will.

God provided them a land as well as food in their travels. They wanted for nothing physically or spiritually.

Neh 9:25 “25 And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.”

The point of this passage is God’s abundant provision for Israel so that they delighted or “reveled in [his] great goodness.”

However, Israel took all their prosperity for granted and disobeyed God’s commands,

which according to the following verses is rebellion.

The gifts of God are the result of the grace of God.

Any gift of grace is a good gift,

because it is the exact opposite of what we deserve.

The people deserved punishment, --- but instead they received pardon.

The people deserved judgment, — but instead they received joy.

They were guilty, — but God was gracious.

I have often heard people say, "God is not fair," and they are exactly right, because God is not fair, He is just.

If He was fair, we'd all be sinners with no hope of salvation,

condemned to hell forever and ever.

The temptation for many believers is to forget or doubt God’s great goodness when we find ourselves in a tight spot.

However, it is when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances that it is crucial we remember God’s great goodness.

Many years ago I heard this statement, and it has stuck with me and served to encourage me throughout the years: “Never forget in the darkness what God has shown you to be true in the light.”

The God who has been faithfully good to us in the past is the same God who is faithfully good to his children in the present and forevermore.

He is Great and Good as well as Gracious

The Graciousness of God shown through His Patience

The argument made through the historical review is that this is how things have gone:

• God is good to Israel.

• Israel sins.

• God shows mercy.

One of the great mysteries about God is the reality of the simultaneous coexistence of his righteous judgment and merciful compassion.

When the Israelites time and time again respond to God’s great goodness with rebellion and disobedience,

he repeatedly disciplines them but at the same time repetitively shows them mercy and compassion.

we see this mystery throughout this prayer...

Disobedience

Nehemiah 9:16-17 “16 “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.

Forgiveness, Mercy, Grace

But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.”

Then

Disobedience

Nehemiah 9:18-19 “18 Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies,

Forgiveness, Mercy, Grace

19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.”

Forgiveness, Mercy, Grace

Then

Israel's Disobedience

Nehemiah 9: 26-27 “26 “Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies.

God’s Punishes Israel

27 Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer.

Forgiveness, Mercy, Grace

And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies.”

Then

Israel's Disobedience

Nehemiah 9:29 “29 And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey.”

God was longsuffering

Neh 9:30 “30 Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear.

Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.”

Forgiveness, Mercy, Grace

Neh 9:31 “31 Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.”

Then

Forgiveness, Mercy, Grace

Nehemiah 9:33 “33 Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully

Israel's Disobedience

and we have acted wickedly.”

Then

Forgiveness, Mercy, Grace

Neh 9:35 “35 Even in their own kingdom, and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them,

Israel's Disobedience

they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works.”

God’s patience with them is incomprehensible.

All along he is attentive to them,

even though they deserve God’s punishment.

He provided them despite their rebellion.

God judges them and at the same time he has compassion on them.

The very time they do not deserve it he has mercy and grace on them.

God is gracious despite THEIR guilt.

That God is the same God as today.

He is gracious despite OUR Guilt????

APPLICATION

God’s abundant mercy is primarily given to us, to glorify Himself.

God’s name and glory is the foremost reason why he redeems, why he forgives, why he bestows grace and mercy.

Our salvation is secondary.

Again God’s primary reason in being merciful to Israel and to us is not because he wanted us saved, it was for his glory.

He accomplished the furtherance of His name through redemption, thorough salvation.

He was primary, we were secondary.

The prayer states that God performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and the Egyptians to make a name for Himself

Nehemiah 9:10 “10 and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day.”

This reflects Exodus 9:16, where the Lord says concerning Pharaoh,

Ex 9.16 “16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”

Paul cites that verse in Romans 9 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh

Romans 9:17 “17 , “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.””

and then goes on to assert God’s sovereignty by saying

Romans 9:18 “18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.”

He does not say, as many would like the verse to say, “He has mercy on whoever trusts in Christ, and He hardens all those who reject Christ.”

Rather, Paul puts the reason for God’s giving or withholding mercy solely on God’s good pleasure, and not at all on anything in man.

Why did God predestine us in love to be His sons?

Ephesians 1:4–5 (ESV)

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

Eph 1:6 “6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”

Eph 1:12 “12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.”

Eph 1:14 “14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

That the glory of His grace might be praised (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14).

Why did God create a people for Himself?

Isa 43.7 “7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.””

He created and chose His people “for my glory”

Not because they deserved it.

Not because they chose Him

But because he wanted to show the world His glory through His people.

Why did He make from one lump vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor?

Romans 9:22-23 “22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—”

God even shows his glory through His wrath , not just His love.

Salvation (God’s mercy and Grace) is not primarily man-centered;

it is primarily God-centered.

It is not mainly to make us feel good;

it is mainly to make God look good.

Westminster Shorter Catechism

Q: What is the chief end of man? A: Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

1 Corinthians 10:31: “31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Our lives are to be God centered not man centered

God is the most God-centered person in the universe.

“God’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy His glory forever - John Piper

God’s abundant Mercy is always undeserved.

Israel’s history shows us that they never deserved God’s mercy and grace but they recieved despite their sin.

God gives us His mercy despite our sin.

We are failures…but You are God!

We have sinned....but You are God!

We have blown it over and over again…but You are God!

Now perhaps you may be thinking right now;

“Pastor Dave, I wish I could believe all of this, but you don’t know all that I have done.

If you knew me, really knew me, knew my deep dark secrets.

You would change your tune.

You would know that God could never forgive me.”

You know what, you’re right.

There are things about you, There are things about me that are pretty bad.

But can I tell you what I do know?

I know that nothing you or I have done has escaped the eyes of God

and there is no place in His Word where He says “My forgiveness is available to everyone except those who do_________.” In fact,

I’d like to share with you one particular individual from the historical narrative of Scripture.

This guys name was Manasseh, and he was one of the kings of Judah before King Nebuchadnezzar overthrew the Nation.

Manasseh - 2 Chronicles 33:1–9 Page 452

Manasseh Reigns in Judah

33 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.” 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 7 And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever, 8 and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses.” 9 Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

Now, for anyone here who thinks that what they have done exceeds God’s ability to forgive,

can I ask you a question? How do you stack up with Manasseh?

How many children have you sacrificed to idols.

I’d like to pause here for a moment, because we are in a different era now,

and while sacrificing to idols isn’t something we see in this era,

but abortion takes place a lot.

That is the modern day equivalent.

and while abortion is a terrible thing, it does not move beyond the power of God’s forgiveness.

Historians tell us how this took place. One of the gods Manasseh worshipped was a god named Moloch.

I am pretty sure I have talked about him in the past.

But what would happen with Moloch is, people would bring their children to be sacrificed to this false god.

This was a god who had a head like a bull with outstretched arms.

His arms were carved out so they could cradle a small child or baby.

Beneath the surface, where the people could not see, there were coals that were so hot that Moloch’s arms and hands became white hot.

Parents would bring their children and place them into his hands.

This is what Manasseh was doing.

On top of that, how many of you have heard of Isaiah the prophet?

Well some historians tell us that Manasseh had Isaiah the prophet sawn in 2 with a wood saw because Isaiah prophesied against him.

So, Yes, maybe you have done some pretty bad things, but something tells me you still compare favorably to Manasseh.

Yet despite the wickedness of Manasseh, we read in

2 Chronicles 33:12-13 “12 And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13 He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.”

If God can forgive Manasseh, he can forgive you as well, but you have to do what Manasseh did, you have to humble yourself before Him and seek His forgiveness.

We learn in God’s Word to us that:

God’s abundant mercy is freely offered through Christ

Of course, the greatest display of the simultaneous coexistence of God’s righteous judgment and merciful compassion is at Golgotha through the Son of David.

It was there the Lord Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God, God’s righteous judgment of sin. Yet at the same time, God showed his mercy and compassion on sinners. It is the great exchange. The righteous Son of God became sin for us, so that we who are sinners might become the righteousness of God through faith in the person and work of Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:21).

Unlike the kings and priests before him, Jesus is the King and Priest who faithfully obeyed his heavenly Father. It is this risen Son of David who now shepherds a people who were once his enemies.