Text: Nehemiah 9:1-37, Title: Return to Contrition, Date/Place: NRBC, 12/2/07, PM
A. Opening illustration: Mackenzie wanting to go the Dinosaur museum, and us not really having time, and hoping that she would forget, but three-year olds have surprisingly one-track minds over long periods…
B. Background to passage: The Israelites are riding the wave of revival. In chapter eight, the Word was read, and the Feast was celebrated. In chapter nine we see confession, and in chapter ten we see a renewal of the covenant. If you recall three weeks ago on the first day of the month they began to weep at the reading of the Word of God. But Nehemiah and the other leaders told them to rejoice and not to weep. But as any truly God-inspired revival would do, it came back. Three weeks later, after the Feast of Tabernacles, the reading of the Word still brought forth a time of contrition, confession, and repentance.
C. Main thought: in the text we see three aspects of their confession to God
A. The faithfulness of God (v. 5-15)
1. Even though they were confessing their sin, their prayer was very God-centered. Notice all the things that God did in these verses. He is the subject of every sentence in this portion. And what is exalted about Him is primarily his faithfulness. All God’s mighty acts on behalf of his people are recounted. And even after verse 16, when the people’s failures are spoken of, God still forgives and keeps His covenant, verse 17-21. Verses 27-28 and 31 sum it up nicely. God’s faithfulness endures to all generations, regardless of the failure of His people, God never forsakes, and always keeps His promises exactly like He said. And these truly brokenhearted people rejoice at the endurance and faithfulness of their God.
2. Ps 119:90, Ex 34:6-7, 2 Tim 2:13, Jer 3:1-15, 2 Cor 2:14,
3. Illustration: Don Leno the boss of the sharks losing his cool with Sykes and telling him he is “out,” “Our worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace.” –Jerry Bridges, words to Farther Than Your Grace Can Reach, tell about the time that I was struggling with a particular sin, and after having committed it again, I found myself praying for forgiveness, acknowledging that God would probably not forgive, or at least not anytime soon, but then He spoke, and said I don’t work that way,
4. Don’t glorify sin in your testimony. Talk about what He did for you. But isn’t it good to know that nothing can make God forsake His covenant with you. You cannot sin bad enough for God to say you and done, out. Now, let me make a warning about presumptuous sin. Explain how scripture does not allow for forgiveness basic on willful rebellion. But that how God is an unending source of mercy and forgiveness to those who stumble and are repentant. God never goes back on His Word, never walks out, never forsakes, never leaves, never sleeps, and always causes us to triumph through Christ. Church, we must never get weary of picking up the brethren who are truly warring against sin but faltering. We must strive for the same know of persistent loving-kindness. Oh how many times God should have forsaken us
B. Farther Than Your Grace Can Reach
C. I lie awake at night and wonder/How You can still put up with me
I know I push You to the limits/Or so it seems
And I start each day with good intentions/Then fail You in a thousand ways
But still You keep forgiving me/Of the same mistakes
CHORUS:
No fault, no wrong, no dark of night/Can hide me from Your eyes
And I cannot fall or fly/Farther than Your grace can reach
I know You’ve heard this prayer I’m praying/What I’ve done and where I’ve been
And Lord I don’t deserve Your mercy/But once again You say
God bless us all the weak and weary/Captives of our flesh and blood
Our only freedom is the refuge/Of Your love
The treachery of the people (v. 16-31)
1. There is a very clear transition from touting the works of a merciful God, to explaining the failures of His covenant people. Remember that is the effect of the hearing of the law, to know where we have failed. Walk down through the text explaining all the direct rebellion of the Israelites. The people in their prayer or lament, are acknowledging their sins, and the sins of their fathers. They understood corporate guilt. And they realized their history of rebellion, and were honest about it.
2. Rom 7:15-25, 1 Cor 10:12, James 5:16,
3. Illustration: lyrics to Prone to Wonder, and verse to Come Thou Fount, imagine a family member who is caught in the trap of drugs or alcohol, and after much help from the family falls again, then more money, more borrowed stuff, more debt, he comes again to ask for help, he again takes every break and every resource and abuses it for his addiction, that is what we are like to God. “Confession is good for the soul”
4. Do not short-circuit the front half of the gospel. We are all sinners, and we have failed God on so many occasions it would be pointless to count. We must tell, and we must believe that we are sinners by nature and by choice, and must be forgiven and freed from that. But before people get saved, they must get lost. If we are to ever see real revival, we must make confession a more regular part of our lives. Rarely do we take adequate responsibility about sin in our lives, let alone openly confess our faults before another. But this is the way that God ordained for us to deal with sin. Don’t pray wholesale prayers, be specific. Spend time contemplating how you have failed. We must be wary of our propensity to backslide! None of us are beyond stumbling. Israel had many good years took (Joshua’s day, early David, early Solomon, Josiah), and yet, failed to maintain devotion. This is one reason we should never look or act self-righteously at those caught in sin.
D. A fresh surrender (v. 36-37)
1. There is a mark difference between acknowledging your sin and being sorry for it and willing to change it. And the children of Israel were really ready to surrender. They said that they harbor no ill feelings, for God was just in all that He did, and that today that were handing the reigns of their lives over to Him. The word used here should be translated slaves, as they were not retaining their own rights about determining the direction of the lives. Then they said in the last verse that they were in great distress. They were in a crisis, which is a time when lots of things can happen spiritually in a person’s life. And of course only time will determine the genuineness of one’s spiritual commitments.
2. Luke 6:46,
3. Illustration: A man entered a bar, bought a glass of beer and then immediately threw it into the bartender’s face. Quickly grabbing a napkin, he helped the bartender dry his face while he apologized with great remorse. "I’m so sorry," he said. "I have this compulsion to do this. I fight it, but I don’t know what to do about it." "You had better do something about your problem," the bartender replied. "You can be sure I’ll remember you and will never serve you another drink until you get help." It was months before the man faced the bartender again. When he asked for a beer, the bartender refused. Then the man explained that he had been seeing a psychiatrist and that his problem was solved. Convinced it was now okay to serve him, the bartender poured him a drink. The man took the glass and splashed the beer into the barkeeper’s astonished face. "I thought you were cured," the shocked bartender screamed. "I am," said the man. "I still do it, but I don’t feel guilty about it anymore." Talk about the replacement of “surrender” with “rededicate” during our invitation, “Indeed, an honest and humble acknowledgment of the hopeless evil of our flesh, even after the new birth, is the first step to holiness. To speak quite plainly, some of us are not leading holy lives for the simple reason that we have too high an opinion of ourselves.” -Stott
4. We you confess your faults, it needs to be with the intention of turning from that sin, and being prepared to go another way home. When we confess Jesus as Lord, we are saying that He now sits on the throne of my life. We are saying that whatever He wants I’ll do. We are saying that His priorities and evaluations trump mine. And our life of continual sanctification is simply a series of surrenders to His Lordship. There are some of you today that God has been dealing with your hearts about making a fresh surrender. There are some things you need to put down, friends to forsake, and directions to reconsider.
A. Closing illustration: “I was weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when I heard the voice of children from a neighboring house chanting, "take up and read; take up and read." I could not remember ever having heard the like, so checking the torrent of my tears, I arose, interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book and read the first chapter I should find. Eagerly then I returned to the place where I had laid the volume of the apostle. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: "Not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not is strife and envy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts." No further would I read, nor did I need to. For instantly at the end of this sentence, it seemed as if a light of serenity infused into my heart and all the darkness of doubt vanished away.” –St. Augustine
B. Next week, we will talk about the covenant that they made with God, and what they agreed to do.
C. Question and Answer
Additional Notes
• Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
