Sometimes I'm driving along and I see a car accident and I say to myself regularly… This is
what I say to myself when I see those things. I say, “That could be me.” When I'm driving in the
snow and I'm driving down the road and I see someone in the ditch, I say to myself, “That could
be me. I need to be careful how I drive.” If I'm driving too fast, or maybe I'm distracted in my
driving, or not paying attention the way I should, I could end up in that same place. Now there
are some wrecks that take place in life, not because of our own fault, just things happen in life.
Someone hits you and it’s not just your negligence. But today, we're going to talk about those
ones that we are responsible for. The things that we do kind of end ourselves in the ditch or in
worse and oncoming traffic. those challenges that we face in our lives that we need to be warned
about. And so I think that as we look at the different challenges in life that people are
experiencing, we say, “That could be me,” because it could be. It’s only by God's grace that
we're not homeless or we're not in a situation that's very dire and difficult. It could be me.
So today as we go to the book of Nehemiah, we're going to see a principle that's true throughout
the Bible. It's the drifting principle is what I call it. The tendency that all of our hearts have to
drift away from the Lord and from the lines that He's created on the road. We drift outside of
those lines and we find ourselves in danger. It's the drifting principle that takes place. We all
need to be warned. We all need to be aware of that. In fact, today, the verse I want to read when
we stand together in a moment is a verse from the book of Isaiah that describes the drifting
principle.
In fact, why don't you stand with me? I want you to read this verse with me. So you’re going to
have to read from the screens here so we're all on the same version of the Bible here. Isaiah 53:6.
Would you please read this with me in unison? Isaiah 53:6. All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us
all. This verse was written 300 years before Nehemiah. Isaiah is the prophet who gives the
clearest definition of the Messiah coming and His purpose and His work. It describes the gospel
right here in this verse. Let's read it again together. Isaiah 53:6 – All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity
of us all.
You may be seated.
Well, we're at the end of the book. Now last week we talked about the end of chapter 12 and we
saw how the celebration took place. They're basically done with the whole story. Chapter 13 is
like an appendix because what happens we're going to see is that Nehemiah goes back to Persia.
He goes back home now. And he must be gone for…we don't know exactly, but it must be ten to
twenty years the way that things happen in the story. You'll see. You can guess how many years.
But it looks like ten to twenty years he's away and then he comes back to Jerusalem and he finds
that people have drifted. He finds that the revival that took place that we enjoyed so much in
chapter 10 and we saw encouraged in 11 and 12,. Now in chapter 13 he's got to go back and
make some corrections in life. We're going to see three scenes that take place in Nehemiah 13,
three areas that we experience. I would suggest that each of us need to look at those and say,
“That could be me. I need to be careful here.” What are those compromises that the people made
that led them astray?
Nehemiah 13. Let's look at the first one. Starting in verse 1 it says this. Now we're jumping into
the passage here, and we're going to go back and see that Nehemiah has gone and now he's
coming back. But now he starts in verse 1 – On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the
hearing of the people. You know, if you're going to get yourself straightened out, if you're going
to stay on the right path, you're going to go back and read the word. Because when you read the
word, God speaks to us through it.
And it was found… I just want to stop there because the word found is an important one. Because
when you go to God's word, you're going to find something. Because God's word is living and
active. That means what you found yesterday is going to be different than what you find today.
That's just the nature of God's word. It's not just an ancient book that is old. It is a book that's
living and active. It's the word of God. And God wants to speak to us. And so they found
something. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the
assembly of God, 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.
This is a story that takes place in the book of Numbers. You can go read it. It's kind of an
interesting story, where the Israelites are on their way to the promised land, to the Jordan River,
and they have to pass through Moab and Ammon. But those people were resistant. They wouldn't
give them any food even when they tried to purchase food from them. They said no. They
resisted. In fact, they wanted to curse God's people, so they hired a prophet, Balaam, and wanted
to pay him money to curse the Israelites. But God says no, no, no, you can't do that. And so the
interesting story is there in Numbers, it's the story of the donkey speaking to Balaam. So it is a
very interesting story. You might want to take a look at that. But I don't want to go into that
today. I just want you to know that's the background to what's happening. God says don't let
those people creep into your lives. Don't allow them to influence you in your life.
As soon as the people heard the law, they separated. Interesting word again – separate. We’ve
seen that already that separation is the key to our identity. We all must participate in the world.
That is we're involved in the world, but we don't allow the world to determine our identity. And
so they separated from Israel all those of foreign decent.
Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house… The
chambers were the place where they stored all the stuff they needed in order to do worship in the
temple. Eliashib, the priest, was in charge of those chambers, appointed over the chambers of the
house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah. You must be saying to yourself, “Tobiah?
Isn't he that guy that was attacking Israel as they were trying to build the walls?” Yes, it's the
same guy. And now Eliashib the priest is related by marriage somehow to Tobiah. Oh man.
We're already getting into trouble here.
This is what Eliashib does. Look at this. He 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. Oh, my goodness. So the Eliashib the priest says, here, we'll just
clean out this chamber where we have all of the things for the Lord and we'll let you live here.
I just want to tell you, whenever you or I open up a chamber in our hearts and say, “We’ll let a
little sin come in here into our lives. We’ll let a little worldliness come in here. We're going to
participate in worldliness in our lives,” as soon as we allow that to take place, we are in serious
danger. It could be us that fall into the same trap, same compromise that Eliashib finds himself in
in this difficult place. This difficult passage.
Verse 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. So he went back to Persia. And after some time…
We don’t know how long the some time is, but a lot happens here in order for the some time to be
probably ten to twenty years. We don’t know exactly. After some time, I asked leave of the king
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.
Notice his response. Because what you're going to see is that Nehemiah is vicious with sin. In
fact, there are several times in the Bible we see some rather extreme activity of God's people
when it comes to sin. This is an example of that. Nehemiah says – I was very angry, and I threw
all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. 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. I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them,
so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field. That's what
happens when you allow some of the world to get into a chamber of your heart, it pushes out
some of the godliness that God wants you to have.
So I confronted the officials and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them
together and set them in their stations. Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and
oil into the storehouses. And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest,
Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan the son of Zaccur, son
of Mattaniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their
brothers.
And then Nehemiah makes this statement, a very interesting statement that we're going to see
repeated three times. It's the statement that says – Remember me. I think what Nehemiah’s saying
when he says remember me, he says, “Lord, we don't want to go into exile again. We don't want
to have a crash or a wreck in our lives. We don't want that. Lord, would you please remember me
on behalf of these people and show mercy?” And Nehemiah says these words: Remember me, O
my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of
my God and for his service. His focus is on his good deeds, which are good that he does. And so
he said, “Lord, remember my good deeds.” God is going to remember the people, but it's not
because of their good deeds. God has a different plan that we're going to talk about today in just
a few minutes.
Well, let's just analyze what we just read. Because this is the first of the compromises that we see
of the three scenes. This is the one where we talk about participation with the world instead of
separating from it. Participation in the world took place. Notice how it takes place with Tobiah
involved in this. Because what happened was their convictions that they had were mediated or
changed because of relationship. And this is how it happens in our lives. You might now say, “I
believe abortion is wrong because the Bible reveals that life begins at conception. Abortion is
definitely wrong.” But then someone you love and care for gets pregnant, a young person, and
you say, “Oh man, her whole life now is going to be changed and altered from what it could be.
She's going to be a single mom. Maybe in this case...” And so somehow experience starts to
change our conviction. Our convictions must be based on God's word, not on experience. But it's
the experience that sometimes cause us to become soft with sin, soft in our convictions. We have
to be careful about that.
The same thing is true in the whole issue of homosexuality. We know as we look at scripture, it's
pretty clear if you honestly look at the Bible, that the Bible says that homosexuality is wrong.
But then you know someone, a friend, a relative, who makes an argument for themselves and
how they're gay. And you say, “Well, you know, maybe that isn't what the Bible really means.”
And so we start to change our theology based on relationship. We’ve got to be very careful with
that.
It even happens with our own anger. Sometimes we get angry. It's one of the biggest dangers that
we can find in a person's life is anger. Because an angry person creates tension continually in
life. It's just a hard place to be. But an angry person generally says, “In this case, I'm right.”
Because angry people tend to be right. They're always right. That's why they're angry. In this
case, I'm angry, my anger is justified.
So do you see what we do? We take the convictions that we see in God's word, and we start
turning them around because of our own experience. And that's what's dangerous.
Now in each one of these compromises, I put a Bible verse from Psalm 119. Young people,
Psalm 119 is the greatest passage of scripture for young people. It has 178 verses. It would be
good to memorize all 178 of them. It's just a great passage of scripture that just helps us stay on
the right path. I've taken some verses out of Psalm 119 to illustrate that.
Here's what verse 109 says – I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law.
There's this sense that, okay, I want to hold my life carefully in your hands, Lord, but I'm never
going to forget your law. It's going to be my standard for life. But I am going to live my life
carefully. But I'm going to hold God's word as my standard, my authority in life. Compromise
#1: Participation with the world.
Let's look at the second scene. In those days I saw in Judah people treading wine presses on the
Sabbath. Oh no. He's looking around going, what's going on? This is the Sabbath. You guys are
making wine, treading grapes on the Sabbath? And bringing in heaps of grain and loading them
on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into
Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. Tyrians also,
who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the
people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! The exclamation point there is in the translation, not in the
original, but I understand why the exclamation point is there. Can you believe it? I'm sure
Nehemiah is going, “What?! Can you believe it? These people are neglecting the spiritual part of
their lives and they've allowed their business lives to creep into this, and now their schedule is
even affected by this. Oh, this is bad.”
Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are
doing, profaning the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God
bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Didn’t you see the wreck down the road just a little
while back? Didn’t you see that terrible wreck with all those people that were in it? That could
be you. That’s what he’s saying her. Look back. Did you forget about that and you’re acting this
way? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”
As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that
the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath.
And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the
Sabbath day. Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once
or twice. This is what happens. If you start being vicious with sin in your own life and you say,
“I'm not going to let sin be there. I’m going to get rid of it,” just outside the gates, the
temptations will be there. They will not go away right away. As you try to do the right thing, you
know that you're not going to take that other drink because you are an alcoholic and you say,
“No, I'm not going to do that,” the temptation is going to be right there. Right outside the city
gates. We must be vicious with the sin in our lives.
But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I
will lay hands on you.” Whoa, this guy's get vicious here. And sometimes we look at those
passages, “Oh, Nehemiah is such an unkind guy.”
Now, I don't want you to be vicious with somebody else's sin. That's what we tend to do. “Oh,
my husband, I'm going to be vicious with his sin,” or “my wife, oh boy, she's got a lot of sin and
I'm going to be vicious with it.” No. We want to be vicious with our own sin and deal with the
things in our own heart. That's what we need to do.
And he's going to lay hands on you. He says – From that time on they did not come on the
Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard
the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. Then he says these words again. To close this scene he
says – Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of
your steadfast love.
If you have your workbook with you, you can circle that word steadfast love. That's the word
chesed. That's the word we've talked about before. The covenant faithfulness of God. Lord, we're
going to rely on your covenant faithfulness to protect us here. Lord, you are great. Remember me,
he says.
Well, this is the second compromise, the stopping of spiritual feeding. The first compromise,
remember, is participation with the world, allowing the world to get a chamber in our hearts. The
second compromise is the stopping of the spiritual feeding that we need. We all must pursue this
feeding of God in our own lives. You can't rely on yesterday's faith; you've got to have a new
faith. It's like the manna in the Old Testament. Every day you go out and get new manna. You
can't get manna for tomorrow. You have to get manna for today, except on the one day you could
get manna for tomorrow, for the Sabbath day. Every day we have to get more manna.
Jesus says in His prayer – Give us this day our daily bread. It’s something we need every day. If
we start to rely on yesterday's mana, it starts to get stale in our lives. If you're a young person and
you're relying on the salvation experience you had several years ago, and you're saying, “Yeah,
I'm saved,” and that's what you're relying on, you haven't brought faith in your next
developmental stage, then you're going to say, “Oh, I've grown out of my faith.” That's
dangerous. It can happen to anyone. We must keep our faith fresh. That God's mercies are new
every month. No. God's mercies are new every morning. Every day we're coming and
experiencing God's grace in this special way. That we're doing what Psalm 119:112 says. I
incline my heart to perform your statutes, for ever, to the end. Incline. Not recline. Incline. That
is to lean into. To lean into. I'm going to lean into God statutes. I want to trust in His statutes
because I want to stay within the lines. You see, God's word provides the lines in the road so we
can stay in the right path. And that's what he's describing here. I'm going to incline my heart to
perform your statutes, for ever, to the end. That's Compromise #2. Scene #2.
Now let's go to Scene #3. In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod,
Ammon, and Moab. And here’s what happens when you start messing with marriage and God's
design for marriage: It not only affects you, it affects the children. And half of their children
spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the
language of each people. You see, this is what happens when you will you don't follow God's
plan for marriage or you don't follow God's plan in life. Then the kids don't know how to speak
the language. They don't know how to understand God. They don't understand what it means to
trust God. It affects the children as well. So Nehemiah just is frustrated with all of this, as we're
going to see.
And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. (Wow.
Hmm. I’ll have to keep notes of this for church discipline.) And I made them take an oath in the
name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters
for your sons or for yourselves. I want you to see here the viscous response to sin. Because we
need to say to ourselves, “That could be me.” We need to get rid of the sin in our lives. We say,
“I’m not going to allow anything. I'm not even get close to sin in my life. I don't want to be
drifting across into the other lane.”
You know, I really don't like that sound when you start going on a freeway, you start going to the
side of the road [sound effect]. I hate that sound. It's so distracting. But I'm glad it's there to
remind me. Sometimes that happens in our lives. We start feeling some challenges in
relationships, or finances, or even our emotions, or personal lives. It's the [sound effect]. We go,
“Ooh I don't like that,” and it's the motivation to get back into the lines. What do we need to do?
We need to go back to God's word and see what He has to say.
Well, he's giving an illustration now of Solomon. Solomon was such a great guy. That's what
Nehemiah is going to say here. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women?
Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God
made him king over all Israel. Here’s a great guy. I wonder what happened in Solomon's heart or
his mind that allowed him to say, “You know what, a little bit won't hurt.” Pretty soon he has
1,000 wives, concubines. “A little bit won't hurt. What’s wrong with it? I can handle this. I
deserve a break today.” Solomon. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. The Bible
tells us that at the end of Solomon's life that his wives led his heart astray to serve other gods.
Wow, that's what happens. It doesn't happen suddenly. It often happens slowly in our lives. We
drift outside until we find ourselves in the ditch. Shall we then listen to you and do all this great
evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?
And one of the sons of Jehoiada (get this), the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law
of Sanballat the Horonite. Do you remember Sanballat? He was with Tobiah, the ones who were
attacking Israel. And somehow they’ve invited the enemy into their camp. Oh man. This is such
a sad place for them. This indulgence that they have that somehow allows them to indulge in sin
outside of the prescription of God. Be careful. It could be me.
Therefore I chased him from me. Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the
priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. Thus I cleansed them from
everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work; and I
provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Then he says this final
statement. He says – Remember me, O my God, for good.
And that word good, you can circle that. That's the word tov that we've seen. It's beauty. Tov is
such a remarkable word to describe how good God is, how good His fruit is for our lives. It's the
goodness of God. Remember me, O my God, for good.
So it’s this third compromise that we're seeing is that they're indulging in personal sin. And when
you start to say, “Oh, I can handle this,” and you start indulging in some form of sin, it starts to
creep in and you start drifting out of the lines on your way to being in the ditch. We’ve got to be
careful.
So I chose Psalm 119:11, which says – I have stored up (or I have hidden) your word in my
heart, that I might not sin against you. See, it's God's word that keeps us on the straight path so
we don't find ourselves in trouble. But we have to hold God's word as our authority to say I'm
going to submit myself to God's word. I'm not going to put God's word down here and decide
which parts of it I'm going to obey. I'm going to obey everything in God's word.
If we take the three compromises we see them this way. Compromise #1 is this participation with
the world. Be careful; it could be you in the ditch. Compromise #2: Stop the spiritual feeding. Be
careful; it could be me in the ditch. Compromise #3: Indulging in personal sin. Be careful; it
could be us in the ditch.
And that's why Psalm 119:105 talks about the freeway, talks about the line, the path. He says –
Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path. It's God's word that provides the direction
for us. It gives us the lines that we can live in, that we go toward. It's designed for us so we won't
find ourselves in the ditches of life. That we're following the Lord and we're obeying Him
according to his word.
Well, I want to look at those three times he says remember me just for a moment as we close this
book out today. But it becomes very stark for us to see those words remember me when you see
where we are in the Bible in the Old Testament. I'm going to put up a slide here of all of the
books of the Old Testament in kind of a graphic form. You may not be able to see all of them,
but you can see here that that one there is Nehemiah. Can you see that? Do you see Nehemiah at
the end? Over here we have all of this is the chronological account of the books of the Bible. Up
here we have all of the prophets, where they fit in. And then down here we have the psalms and
other wisdom literature and some other books. But here's Nehemiah. And notice right here, this
is the end of the Old Testament with those words remember me three times. Remember me.
Remember me.
And it's going to be 400 silent years and then we have Matthew 1 is going to come on the scene.
And it says – And this is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. And chapter 2 says – This is
the account of how Jesus Christ was born. And so we have the story unfolding in these first four
books, the gospel of Jesus Christ, to answer the call of the remember me from the Old Testament.
Because God has a plan. And the plan is not works. The plan is the work of Jesus Christ. That
Jesus Christ died on the cross for us that we could appreciate Him, we could experience Him.
So when Nehemiah cries out these words, remember me, God's answer is I have remembered you
and I've sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for you because you have a tendency to drift. That
all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has
laid on him the iniquity of us all. It is the gospel message that Nehemiah was waiting for and he
needed and that we need in our lives. It's the gospel message that gives us the ability, the power
through the Holy Spirit to stay on the road, on the path to follow God's prescription in His word.
That is the design that God has. And that's why we love Jesus so much. He is the answer to the
remember me problem that we have of continual failure in the Old Testament. Jesus says I died
for your sins. Not just your past sins, but your present sins, your future sins. I've died for all of
those sins so that you can be freed from the penalty of sin. The presence of sin that is still around
and the power of sin is something you're going to have to wrestle with, but the penalty of sin is
taken care of through Jesus Christ.
So it's very interesting then if you take that same word remember when Jesus then was
celebrating the last supper with His disciples. He said to them – This bread… He broke it and
said – This is my body broken for you. And he says – Take this in remembrance of me.
Remember. In remembrance of me. There's this remembering that God does of us, but we also
need to remember because we tend to forget.
Let’s take a moment and meditate on the Lord, meditate on what He’s saying to you. Cleanse
your heart this morning, confess your sins to the Lord, and ask Him to speak to you this morning
as we come before the table here.
