Text: Nehemiah 9:38-10:39, Title: Sealing the Deal, Date/Place: NRBC, 12/23/07, PM
A. Opening illustration: talk about that conversation that James Boice had with his psychiatrist friend about why people have a lot of counseling but rarely any real change—Boice Comm p. 106
B. Background to passage: If you remember from three weeks ago, the post-exilic Israelites under the command of Nehemiah have miraculously rebuilt the city walls in 52 days. Then they began laying the groundwork for revival in seven, and revival came in eight with the reading of the Law of God, and rededication of the fathers. Then revival carried on with a great corporate confession and repentance. Now is the time for action. Following their confession the people make a fresh commitment to God not only in general terms, but with specific things that they are vowing to uphold. Things which they felt had led to their chastisement in Babylon. The list of names contains government leaders, priests, Levites, family heads, and “all the rest.” They cut and sealed an agreement expressing their desire and determination to change their ways with God’s help and support.
C. Main thought: in the text we will look at the three main commitments made during this revival
A. Honoring the Lord through marriage (v. 30)
1. In Exodus 34:12-16, God forbids marriage with the peoples of the land. However, the people of Israel had been doing it ever since they entered into the land. Samson, David, Solomon, Ahab, just to name a few. But let’s clarify, the purpose of this prohibition is not a racial concern, for some mixed ethnic marriages were blessed of God—Moses, Boaz, etc. The purpose was to keep the faith pure. The family is the main vehicle of passing on the faith to future generations. And to marry outside the faith was to invite compromise, apostasy, and hindrance to the faith into one’s home. So they promised not to do that.
2. Eph 5:22-35, 2 Cor 6:14-16,
3. Illustration: the discussion we had the other night at the Christmas Party for Don/Charles’ class about mixed marriages, tell about Scott and Lanie’s marriage that I would not do, tell about compromises that result in beliefs that are not shared, the statistics about broken marriages are taking their toll on the number of children and grandchildren apostatizing from the faith, story about the church who disciplined a member because of her engagement to an unbeliever,
4. Christians cannot forsake the family as the most basic unit and also expect to pass on the faith to future generations. Marriage is important, and we won’t go on about that too much, for the state of marriage inside the church of Jesus Christ is pathetic. This is one of the reasons that our churches are relatively devoid of young couples, because we have married our daughters and sons to non-believers. The question I usually get is “what do you think about mixed marriages” but there is little concern about faith. First, we have failed in raising children that do not care about whether or not their spouse is a believer, and secondly we have failed in taking a stand ourselves. Listen, young men and ladies, and parents, if you come to me and say, “Pastor, will you marry us.” And… You will get the same marriage policy that everyone else has. But worse is the decision to try to live a life like that. You are signing your kids’ spiritual death certificates barring a miracle from God in a home with half-faith. And don’t bring home someone that is kinda Christian, but one who is sold out for Christ. And parents, even if you have not led by example continue to instill the proper take on things like this. But she will get mad at me, well so be it! Maybe you will save her a divorce or two or three. We must strive to make our own marriages and the marriages of our children reflect Christ for the kingdom’s sake.
B. Honoring the Lord on the Sabbath (v. 31)
1. Their next commitment was to reprioritize the Sabbath and how they worship. And it is not so much about how they worship, or the fact that they had quit worshipping, but their attitude had become very casual. They were treating the day set aside for worship irreverently. They had been living like the world. They were supposed to treat the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship, but they treated it like any other day, even though they probably still went to the synagogue. So they made a specific commitment make sure that the Lord was honored, by their doing what they were commanded to do.
2. Rom 14:6,
3. Illustration: like the Muslim month of Ramadan for repentance and all that jazz, the prayer request the other night about true hunger for the Word, because some and come or just not come, the article on the Lord’s Day from the BF & M has continually shrunk taking out the phrase about refraining from worldly amusements and secular employment, blue laws are continuing to be erased off the books,
4. It’s true that NT believers like us are not under the law, but under grace. And the command to keep the Sabbath is the only one not repeated in the NT. But it is generally accepted, and attested to in Scripture that Christians were to observe a day of worship, albeit not in a legalistic sort of fashion. And I don’t think there should have to be blue laws, and I don’t intend to give you a list of the things that you can do on Sunday or not do. That’s really not the point. The point is “how do you approach Sundays?” Do you take appropriate steps in your preparation for it to assure that it becomes a day of worship and that God is exalted and honored and glorified in it? The real issue at hand for us is priority. Do you prioritize church and worshipping Jesus on Sunday? Do you avoid other Sunday plans that conflict with church? Is church only important when its convenient? Your children and grandchildren will get the message loud and clear, and it will undermine anything else you teach them. And we can gripe about the sports teams playing on Sundays and Wednesdays, but the reason they do it, is because they know that we will send our children. What if everyone came on every Sunday well-rested, SS lesson reviewed, pastor’s sermon passage studied, bible in hand, heart fixed upon the duty of attributing honor and worth to the Son!
C. Honoring the Lord with finances (v. 32, 35, 37, 39)
1. Pretty much the rest of the chapter deals with their new commitment to honor the Lord with giving. They agree to give at special offerings, from their businesses and farms, from their family income (tithes), and toward the priests necessities. This indicates that this practice had long been in decline.
2. Matt 23:23, Pro 3:9, Luke 16:11, Mal 3:10,
3. Illustration: conversation with a church treasurer that I had about several prominent members of the church not giving at all, according to Barna only 6% of born-again Christians tithed their income in 2002, CP giving per church is down around 2-3% per church in the SBC, "If this is your tithe, where are the other nine fish?" At this, the boy beamed and said, "Oh, they’re still back in the river. I’m going back to catch them now." A few years back, a Galveston church had a Tithing Demonstration Sunday for its members. On a designated Sunday everyone was asked to give a tithe of one week’s salary. They urged everyone … whether or not they usually tithed … to give a tithe that one time. As you could imagine, the offering that Sunday was the largest ever given. In fact, it was 6 times the usual offering.
4. Again I realize that we are not under the law, although I believe that tithing and giving of special offerings is affirmed by Jesus. And the 10% known as the tithe was just the starting point. Some estimates place the total giving by Israelite families to be around 22% annually. Truth is that we are a giving church. But also, I don’t know for sure, but we are likely to have a large portion of our attendees that give nothing or sparingly, not really considering a tithe. The NT commands us to give regularly, in proportion to our income, sacrificially, and cheerfully. So when you do your budgets (spending plans are a good way to ensure that you honor Christ with your money) figure in tithes and special offerings. God promises to bless those that honor him with their incomes. There are several fine ministries designed to help you do this. We have people willing to sit down with you and help you put into place biblical financial principles beginning with tithing.
A. Closing illustration: Dr John Hammett, the Systematic Theology Prof at SEBTS and author of Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches used Neh 10 as a model for how churches should go about a covenant renewal ceremony, arguing that returning to active use of covenants, accountability, and discipline will increase our corporate strength, please Christ, warn lost church members, and better our witness.
B. Questions and Answers
