Nehemiah 13-Finishing Well.
Notes
Transcript
Handout
This morning we will be looking at Nehemiah chapter 13 and if all goes well, we should finish the story of Nehemiah this morning. I hope you all have enjoyed our journey through this Book as much as I have as I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Go ahead and turn there and we will take the time to look through it shortly. You will find it on page 517 if you are using the pew Bibles.
Honestly, I have times I think God would make a lousy Hollywood producer. Now, bear with me for a moment, I am in no way putting the all perfect, all knowing, all powerful all sufficient God of the Universe down, but let me tell you why I made my earlier statement. The reason I think He would make a lousy Hollywood producer is how different portions of Scripture end. To a large degree, outside of the Book of Revelation, so many portions of Scripture don’t have that “Happily ever after” ending. I mean think about it for a moment, had He been a Hollywood producer the Book of Exodus would have ended shortly after the parting of the Red Sea. God would have parted the Red Sea and the Nation would have immediately marched to the Promised Land and the Canaanites would have surrendered, the Israelites certainly wouldn’t have wandered for 40 years in the wilderness until virtually everyone present at the parting of the Red Sea had died! Had God been a Hollywood producer, the Book of 1st Samuel would have ended shortly after David, the shepherd boy, killed the giant, King Saul would have acquiesced his throne to David then and there. David would have never sinned with Bathsheba and had her husband, Uriah murdered. And the Book of Nehemiah would have ended at the end of chapter 12 with the great celebration on the Walls of Jerusalem with the phrase “And the Nation of Israel remained faithful to the Lord their God, Who enabled them to rebuild the Walls of Jerusalem in 52 days, for the rest of their days.” But God’s desire has never been to be a Hollywood producer. Instead, on the pages of Scripture we see character after character, warts and all, but we also see something else, we see God’s patience and God’s forgiveness displayed time and time again. I have to be honest with you, I love this about Scripture, because I mess up on a daily basis, and I have learned through the flawed characters of Scripture a couple of important truths, 1. God does not force me to do what He wants me to do. And 2nd. God does not give up on me but patiently waits for my repentance and return to Him over and over again.
With this as an introduction, let’s look at the passage, I will be reading the first 9 verses of chapter 13. Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
“13 On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2 for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent.
4 Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, 5 prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests. 6 While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king 7 and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. 8 And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. 9 Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.”
Please be seated. Next Slides
When the Cats Away the Mice Will Play! Neh. 13:1-10
When the Cats Away the Mice Will Play! Neh. 13:1-10
The events taking place in chapter 13 do not take place immediately after the great celebration on the wall that we looked at last Sunday. Based on what we read in verse 6, at least 12 years has gone by, my guess is it would be closer that 15-20 years. You’ll see why I say that as we move forward. You may recall from when we started our study, that when Nehemiah received permission to leave Susa to go to Jerusalem, he had to set a time table for his return to the palace. That time period was 12 years. Being a man of integrity, Nehemiah returned to Persia 12 years later. He stayed there for what was likely a few years and then received permission to go back to Jerusalem, which is where we are in this mornings passage. We find out in chapter 13 that while Nehemiah was back in Persia, many in the Nation of Judah turned their backs on the reforms Nehemiah had established, thus the title of this slide. No sooner does he return that the people gather at the temple for the reading of God’s Word. Now, we do not know for sure if they had continued the reading of God’s Word in the Temple while Nehemiah had been gone, but my guess is, based on what we read in chapter 13 that this practice had stopped.
As we read through the first few verses a couple things become clear early on. To begin with, their reading opened their eyes to some sin that had taken place among the people, including of all people the High Priest himself. That sin was marrying or giving in marriage to someone who was not devoted to the God of Israel. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, this was not a racial prohibition it was a religious prohibition. God, in giving this command, knew that if the people intermarried with people that did not love God, they would soon be persuaded to either stop their worship of God or at a minimum worship other gods also. Nehemiah makes this clear by bringing up Solomon in verse 26. Solomon married women from outside of that Nation of Israel and before long he literally had temples to their gods built in and around Jerusalem. If Solomon could compromise in his devotion to God, none of us are safe if we marry someone who is not fully devoted to God.
Eliashib, the High Priest, had done the same thing with both Tobiah (verse 4) and Sanballat (verse 28). We don’t know exactly how he is related to Tobiah, but we see that he allowed his son to marry the daughter of Sanballat. He went overboard in his compromise to the point where we see in verse 5 that he had literally allowed this wicked man who had been an enemy of the Nation of Judah to set up an apartment inside the Temple of God.
Look at the 3 ways Nehemiah deals with this sin in verses 7 and 8. “7 and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. 8 And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. 9 Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.”
The first thing we see Nehemiah do is: Next Slides
He Calls it What It Is. Vs. 7
He doesn’t sugar coat it, doesn’t label it a mistake or try to rationalize what happened. In verse 6 he emphatically states; “I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done”. He calls it what it is. The sooner you and I learn to do this when we recognize sin in our life the better off we will be. Truthfully, we will never completely deal with it in a godly way until we recognize sin for what it is.
The next thing Nehemiah does to deal with it is: Next Slides
He Cleaned House. Vs. 8 & 9
In verse 8 we read; “And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber.”
When it came to sin, Nehemiah didn’t mess around, he didn’t waste any time, he dealt with it right there on the spot.
You know if you go the the Doctor and he runs some tests and you find out you have cancer, you waste no time, you want that cancer removed as soon as possible. Yet often times when it come to sin in our lives, we are in no hurry to deal with it, we kinda hang on to it for a while. We need to follow the lead of Nehemiah, we need to Clean House.
By the way, did you happen to notice what we don’t see Nehemiah doing here? It isn’t spelled out clearly for us, but it is a habit we see Nehemiah doing over and over again in the Book of Nehemiah that is strangely absent here.
We don’t see Nehemiah stop to pray, at least not yet.
Any guesses on why? Because he didn’t need to pray. He knew that what Eliashib was doing was a clear violation of Scripture, he didn’t need to have a prayer meeting to know what to do.
So, what is the lesson here for us? If there is a clear area of sin in my life, if there is a clear area of sin in your life, now notice I said clear area of sin, there may be areas where we may not be certain are a violation of Scripture, those we handle with prayer and council from Godly individuals God has placed into our lives. But when it is a clear area of sin, we rarely need to pray about it, we need to stop it! We may need to seek the face of God later for direction on how to handle the results of our sin, but the first thing we need to do is to stop.
Let me give you some examples.
If you are a student and you have a huge test in class and you didn’t put in the time you should have to study for the test. And let’s say in the desk next to you is someone that pretty much aces every test. You don’t have to pray and ask for God’s guidance on whether or not you should cheat.
If your in the middle of a big project at work and are not sure you’re going to get it done in time and think, “You know, if I fudge the numbers a little bit here and cut a couple corners there and most likely no one will even notice, I can get this thing done in time.” You do’t need to pray and seek the face of God, you need to do the right thing, even if it means working overtime to get it done.
If you are in a relationship that you know is not pleasing to God. You don’t need to spend the next week praying to God for direction on what to do. You need to end the relationship now.
Once we have stopped the sin, then we go to God in prayer for what to do next.
The next thing we see Nehemiah do here is:
He Replaces The Garbage With The Good. Vs. 9
As we read on we see; “and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.”
It isn’t enough to just get rid of the garbage in our lives, we also need to start doing the things of God. That is where the Spiritual Disciplines we looked at last year come into play. As we confess our sin to God, as we stop doing those things that we know are displeasing to God, we then need to establish good Godly habits that will strengthen us in our relationship to God and lesson the chances we fall right back into sin.
As you go through the rest of Nehemiah 13, you will find Nehemiah using the same 3 things to deal with sin in the Nation each time he was faced with the failures of the people.
He does add one thing to his to do list in dealing with sin that I don’t want us to miss. We see it in verse 22: Next Slides
He Sets Up Accountability. Vs. 22
“Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy.”
You know we are not meant to handle the pressures of this life as a believer alone. We need other individuals who have our same love for God, to come alongside us in our walk with Christ. Nehemiah recognized this truth so he had the Levites come alongside the people to hold them accountable. We need to do the same thing. If you do not have an accountability partner, you need to get one. Someone you meet with regularly that helps you grown in your relationship with God. Someone you give permission to ask you the tough questions, face to face, eye to eye. Someone you give permission to take your phone of other electronic devise at any time to see what you have been up to.
I would like to close out Nehemiah with the: Next Slide
A Tale of Two Men.
Pam and I have DirecTV, one of the features of DirecTV is a thing called Guide. You push the Guide button and you can see what is currently on. You can also scroll through up or down to see all the available channels. I was doing that the other day and one particular program showed up on the list, it was simply titled “Billy Graham Crusade”.
Billy Graham
Here we are, now more than 2 years after Billy moves to his mansion in heaven and still he is touching lives with the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The deepest desire of Billy Grahams life was to proclaim God’s Word in both word and deed. His proclamation through the word we are pretty much all familiar with, but he was also very careful to protect both himself and others from the appearance of wrong and he went to great lengths to do so. For instance, have any of you heard of “The Billy Graham Rule”? “The Billy Graham Rule” started in 1948 when Billy Graham together with Cliff Barrows, Grady Wilson and George Beverly Shea were doing a Crusade in Modesto, CA. He resolved to "avoid any situation that would have even the appearance of compromise or suspicion". The accountability agreement covered not only their interactions with women, but also commitments to integrity with respect to:
Finances
Their interactions with local churches and
Publicity.
From that time onward, Graham made a point of not traveling, meeting, or eating alone with a woman other than his wife Ruth. Graham biographer Grant Wacker observed that "Over the years Graham received intense media scrutiny, but hardly anyone accused him of violating any of those four principles."
By Graham's own admission, though, he was not an absolutist in the application of the rule that now bears his name: his autobiography relates a lunch meeting with Hillary Clinton that he initially refused on the grounds that he does not eat alone with women other than his wife, but she persuaded him that they could have a private conversation in a public dining room.
Billy Graham was a man of integrity throughout his entire public ministry. Billy had one particular prayer he prayed almost every day, especially in the last decades as he began to get older. This is that prayer;
“Lord, let me not today destroy in my life what You have taken all these decades to pour in with Your grace and Your mercy!”
The life of integrity Billy lived over the years landed him in the top 10 of Gallup's list of most admired men and women a record 61 times. Just so you will know how significant this is, this is an annual poll that has been conducted once each year since 1948. So, of the 71 times it has been conducted, he has been on the list all but 10 years! The closest to him is Ronald Reagan with 31 times.
Billy Graham is the first man in the tale of 2 men, now let me give you the 2nd man. His name is Jim Bakker.
Jim Bakker
Jim Bakker was a famous televangelist in the 70’s and 80’s. He hosted a very popular Christian program called the PTL Club for well over a decade and even built a Christian Amusement Theme park that attracted close to 6 million people annually, only topped by Disney World and Disney Land. This began to come top an end in 1987. I won’t go into the details of what Bakker did, but in the end he wound up in a prison cell. I’d like to read something he wrote just over 2 years ago about an encounter he had while in prison.
"When I was in that prison, the lowest day probably up to that moment in the prison, I was sick," said Bakker. "I had pneumonia. I never once laid in my bunk in my cell and did not do my job. I cleaned toilets for five years. Every day. I would not lay in the bed, even though I felt like I was dying."
"That morning I cleaned my toilets," he said. "I had my shoes that had holes in the toes. They were my toilet shoes."
"The guard called me. They say 'Bakker.' They never say 'Jim.' 'Bakker you have a visitor.' And I said, 'It's not visiting day.' I didn't know who it was. I didn't know what it was. He said, 'You need to go to the warden's office right now.' I said, 'O God help me. I'm in trouble,'" he recalled.
He shared, "I had on my old clothes. I had on my wrinkled, toilet cleaning clothes, not my visiting my family clothes. There's two different sets of clothes you had."
"My hair was disheveled," he said. "My clothes were disheveled. I was sick with pneumonia. I looked like a man that had been sleeping under a bridge for years. So I walked over to the warden's office across the prison yard and I stood out there."
He continued, "Somebody came out of the office and they said, 'Bakker you have a visitor.' I said, 'It's not visiting day, who's here?' He says, 'Has nobody told you? Billy Graham is here.' He said, 'Do you want to see him?' I looked down at my shoes with my toes hanging out and my wrinkled clothes and I was sick. I looked bad. And "I thought, awe I don't want him to see me looking like this. But he came so I had to go out."
"I walked into the room and the warden was there, assistant wardens. Everybody wanted to see Billy Graham. But when I walked in all I could see is this six foot something man and I'm a five foot something guy. And I walked in. He threw his arms around me," Baker said tearfully. "And he held me and he said, 'Jim I love you.'"
"How could anybody love me looking like that? I had been disgraced to the world. And a man who on the radio a day before I heard, this is what I heard: 'Billy Graham voted as one of the top three most respected men in the world.' And here he is in my prison. Holding me in his arms. Telling me that he loved me. And I didn't feel loved very much anymore."
Bakker isn't the only prisoner Billy Graham visited. In fact, his casket was made by prisoners who received the gospel from him while serving time in Angola prison.”
Our tale of 2 men is of a man who Finished well, and another who loved himself and his wealth more than his God. Truthfully, the jury is still out on whether Jim Bakker finishes well, but I pray he does. But there is little doubt that Billy Graham heard the words “Well Done” when he saw Jesus face to Face.
Let’s close in prayer.