One Holy Passion
Nehemiah 9,10
May 20, 2001
¡§Amazed!"
David Wells, in his book God in the Wasteland, laments the weakness of contemporary evangelical Christianity, and traces it to our shallow understanding of the person of God. He says that the problem is
¡§that God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, His grace is too ordinary, His judgment is too benign, His gospel is too easy, His Christ is too common.¡¨
It is as though we have marginalized God, domesticating Him to serve our purposes. His greatness awes us less than it ought; His power we give lip service to but fail to appropriate for daily living. His grace we take for granted, and we are something less than amazed by it.
This was not the case with the people in Jerusalem, though, at least not when we come to Nehemiah 9. The miracle of the wall was not the only miracle in this book, as we have seen, and in chapter 8 we have been challenged by the response of the people to God¡¦s Word. Chapter 9 builds upon this, as the people, on the day after dismantling their ramshackle booths, gather for a day of solemn assembly, not on the actual Day of Atonement, but in a setting similar in some respects. The people gather to focus themselves upon adoring God, reflecting on His true nature, His awesome works in history, His amazing grace despite the habitual nature of their sin.
Let¡¦s stand together as we read God¡¦s Word today. (PRAYER)
May I repeat something I said two weeks ago, and reiterated last week? In the Christian experience, grief and gladness are never far apart if we are to live in the right balance. We are not created to live in mourning over sin; God wants us to live rejoicing in His salvation. But the path to real rejoicing goes through the valley of sorrow over sin! Here we find the people entering the valley of sorrow over sin¡Xand taking a God-pleasing response to their sin. I want to speak today about the nature of true repentance as we see it taking place in Nehemiah 9.
The Nature of True Repentance
I. It is prompted by the Word and work of God.
I will spend only a brief moment here, because this has been the focus of our previous studies together. It bears being said again, though, in this confused age in which we want to make much of man and seemingly little of God: God¡¦s Word has done its work of convicting minds and hearts, and God¡¦s Spirit has done His work to bring this about. The focus of chapter 8 has been God¡¦s Word to the people; the focus of this chapter continues this theme but with greater emphasis upon the people¡¦s response. We are not going to be able to understand God¡¦s character nor realize the depth of our sin so that we can respond as these people did unless and until the Word of God works in our minds and the Spirit of God challenges our hearts. The people didn¡¦t just have some vague feeling of dis-ease; they clearly saw how they had failed God because they learned what His Law said about His nature and about their own failure.
II. It is characterized by genuine sorrow.
Fasting is not a ¡§fun¡¨ activity. One doesn¡¦t fast as a means of enjoyment, generally speaking, because God has wired us to experience hunger and thirst, and after a time, of course, it hurts! Nehemiah tells us that the people fasted, and dressed in sackcloth, which was a goat-hair garment which irritated the skin severely. The hungry mourner would sit on the ground in this itchy, irritating clothing and pick up the gray ash and reddish-brown earth and sprinkle on his head. Sounds like fun, huh? Of course not. This confession time was not a light/momentary thing. It was the serious recognition of the fact that we are steeped in sin, dominated by it, and as such abased before a holy God. Isaiah 6:1-5 gives us an insight into what it is like to stand in the presence of a holy God. We read in Luke 5 of Peter¡¦s encounter with Jesus and his reaction of shame at his own sinfulness in the presence of God Incarnate. Contrast this with a well-known contemporary preacher who described Jesus as coming and speaking with him as he shaved in the morning. Just kept right on shaving and had a little talk with Jesus! Fill in your own expression of disgust here.
Here¡¦s a fair question for us today: to what trouble do I go to demonstrate the seriousness with which I take my own sin, and the sorrow I feel over its existence? What do I call ¡§repentance¡¨? As we continue in our study today, keep that question in your mind. These people had a custom, a tradition, if you will¡Xand there is certainly nothing wrong with tradition¡Xthat they would physically demonstrate their understanding of the gravity of their sin and their sorrow for it by wearing itchy, uncomfortable clothes, heaping dirt on their heads, and going hungry. I¡¦m not suggesting that we physically do that¡Xbut I am saying that when we understand our sin and God¡¦s holiness, we can¡¦t treat our sin as some little light inconvenience.
III. It faces the ugly truth of sin head-on.
Verse 2 says that they ¡§stood and confessed their sins, and the sins of their forefathers.¡¨ And when we look at the prayer that forms the bulk of this chapter, we see that they did not take some broad-brush approach to confessing sin. Interestingly, they lumped themselves together with their forefathers, identifying with the sins that they had not personally committed. I think that they did this for at least a couple of reasons.
First, they wanted to acknowledge before God that they agreed with the fact that what their ancestors had done was indeed sinful. I am not personally responsible for slavery in this country, for instance; I have not held any slaves, nor would I. But I have no qualm whatsoever about agreeing with the fact that slavery was and egregious evil which characterized this country in centuries past, and that racism, while clearly on the wane, is still found far too pervasively in this country, even among some who would call themselves ¡§Christians¡¨. I am sorry for these national sins, and I agree that they are terrible wrongs.
But second, and perhaps even more importantly, they were recognizing their own propensity for the same kind of evil existing within them as well. Back to the slavery illustration: I¡¦ve never held slaves, but I can identify with the propensity to value others as less than myself. I can understand what it is like to want to selfishly use others to gain advantage for myself. I can identify with the propensity to classify some as more- or less-worthy than others. I can understand the fear of people who are different, and how we might sinfully allow one¡¦s physical appearance to dictate in a sinful way the respect with which we might treat that person. And by the way, don¡¦t sit there looking so smug¡Xyou can identify too with everything I¡¦ve just said, if you have much honesty about you! The same elements which are present in the fallenness of others is present within myself as well. The people in Jerusalem recognized this, I think, and thus identified with their ancestors.
Thus, in this prayer, we see them making a veritable laundry list of their sins and the sins of others. They begin, in verses 16-17, listing their sins, and time and again, they confess their own proclivity for evil. They confess to sins of
Arrogance
Stubbornness
Lack of teachability
Ingratitude
Blasphemy
Idolatry
Profanity
Forgetting the Law
Murdering the prophets
Unwillingness to learn from past mistakes
And many others. Notice that theirs is not a vague, general confession of sin. This is not a mere ¡§forgive us our debts¡¨. ¡§Oh, but didn¡¦t Jesus tell us to pray, ¡¥Forgive us our debts¡¦?¡¨ Well, yes, but what He was giving us was a model, a template, by which to pray, letting us know what good praying encompasses, part of which is the confession of sin. He was not merely suggesting a cursory ¡§Lord, forgive me of my sin¡¨ which takes no time to contemplate the depth of that sin. One of the worst songs written in years played some time ago on popular radio stations; I hear it from time to time. The chorus went something like this: ¡§whatever I did, whatever I said, I didn¡¦t mean it, I just want you back with me.¡¨ Awful, just awful. ¡§Whatever it was, let¡¦s just get to the ¡¥getting you back¡¦ part.¡¨ Yet as vacuous as that song is, as banal as its supposed apology, I¡¦m afraid that some of us want to approach God in confession the same way. In fact, I¡¦m afraid that that might be the norm for many of us! I don¡¦t want to look at the ugly reality of my sin, of how it offends a holy God, of how it mars me in every way and to the core of my being, of how I am not the person others think me to be, because I alone know how I really think, and act, and speak, at all times. I don¡¦t want to really compare the standard of goodness I¡¦ve personally developed¡Xand with which I usually compare myself quite favorably¡Xwith God¡¦s righteous standard. And so I try to merrily skip past that part, excusing, in effect, my sin with a ¡§Lord, whatever I did, whatever I said, I didn¡¦t mean it, I just want your presence back with me.¡¨ Real repentance faces the ugly truth head-on.
IV. It acknowledges the unworthiness that sin produces.
This is a corollary to the above which comes through more between the lines than it does overtly in this passage, but which must be briefly mentioned. Repentance acknowledges that, because of my sin, I am not deserving of anything good from the hand of God. You can¡¦t read this chapter, with the repeated failings of the people and the repeated forgiveness of the grace of God, without the sense of surprise that God would be the kind of deity Who would deign to forgive sin over and over again. We certainly don¡¦t act that way, as a matter of course! And the natural understanding that we take from this is that God is utterly unlike us in His willingness to extend grace to the undeserving, and we see ourselves as unworthy of such favor as a result. Again, let us please be done with any nonsense about what we ¡§deserve¡¨ or how we¡¦re ¡§OK¡¨ or whatever. We deserve nothing from the hand of God, yet He richly lavishes His grace upon us.
V. It throws itself upon the amazing grace of God.
I want to take a bit before I talk about the grace of God and include a point which ought to have been a major point in the outline, but wasn¡¦t, but I¡¦m going to treat it like one now, which is this:
Real repentance acknowledges the true character and nature of God. It focuses not only on His grace, which we¡¦ll talk about in a moment, but on the totality of His character. In verse 5, the leaders called upon the people to ¡§stand up and praise the Lord¡¨. As we sing in our song, it is ¡§all about¡¨ Him; it is His Name which is glorious, and must be exalted. His Name is not to be said or referred to without the proper reverence attached to it. We would likely do well¡Xand it might surprise you to hear me say this¡Xto speak the Name of God with less frequency rather than more, especially if we have acquired the sorry habit of speaking it without thinking about it. Of course we never use the Name of God as a swear word, or as a by-word, and I hope we never get into the sad habit of using terms like ¡§Oh, Lordy¡¨, because He is not the ¡§Lordy¡¨. ¡§Oh, but when I say that, Pastor, I¡¦m not really thinking of God.¡¨ That would be my point exactly!
And then, in this prayer, the list of God¡¦s attributes goes on and on. An astute preacher (not the kind you have) could likely preach on this chapter for a year and go nowhere else, so rich is the wealth of truth about God and His character contained in this passage. I will only address these briefly. We see God in verses 7-8 as being sovereign, Who chooses us lest we get the idea that we have the good sense in our lostness to somehow choose Him. We see Him sovereignly working in history to accomplish His fore-ordained purpose. And we see Him to be One Who, on the basis of His righteous nature, can be counted upon to keep each promise He makes.
In verses 9-10, we see God as One Who is attentive and responsive to us, an incredible truth when you really think about it. He is One Who deals justly, Who will reward men for their actions, and Who in doing so will bring glory not to those men who do well, but to His own Name, for He delights in doing so.
In verses 11-12, we see God as One Who provides for the needs of His own, leading them and protecting them. In verses 13-15, we understand God to be One Who deigns to communicate with us, as One Who cares enough for His own glory and our well-being that He establishes the guidelines and boundaries for our living which will both help us and bring Him glory. We see Him rewarding His own as His sovereign choice by providing to meet their needs even though they had not worked to provide for those needs.
Then beginning in verse 16, we see the alternation of two themes: the sinfulness of Israel throughout its history, and the character of God. Among His characteristics described in these verses are His:
„X Forgiveness of sinners
„X Grace
„X Compassion
„X Slowness to anger
„X Love and kindness
„X Patience
„X Guidance
„X Provision for needs both material (such as food, water, and clothing), and in other ways, such as military strength and a land prepared and ready for them. We see His
„X Deliverance into the hands of oppressors for the purpose of discipline. Stop right here for a moment: God was showing His ultimate love for His people by disciplining His erring children; the Bible reminds us that ¡§Whom the Lord loves, He chastens.¡¨ We see also His
„X Open ears to their cries for help, and finally His
„X Sending of deliverers again and again, to deliver them from oppressors (read about this in the book of Judges).
One more thing: He just keeps doing it again and again, showing us that He is long-suffering. And this really leads us to this major point, which again is the fact that repentance throws itself upon the amazing grace of God.
Over and over and over again this prayer records words that can be boiled down to something like this: ¡§we messed up big-time, and yet in Your grace You forgave us and restored us.¡¨ God¡¦s grace keeps on forgiving, and it never meets a lost cause, a hopeless case, one who has used up his sin quota and finds himself on the outside looking in. That¡¦s why it¡¦s amazing. Think of the wonderful grace of Jesus:
„X It can meet a woman caught in the act of adultery, a sinner dead-to-rights, the scorn of the religious community, and look that woman in the eye and say, ¡§I don¡¦t condemn you.¡¨
„X It can see a man who has squandered his life and inheritance on riotous living, reeking of the pigpen and destitute, and run to embrace the prodigal.
„X It can meet a woman at a well, a woman with a past and a reputation, and offer her everything she ever could have wished for, water that quenches the deepest thirst she could ever have.
„X It can look at a condemned man hanging beside Him on a cross, just minutes from hell, and say to that man, ¡§Later on today, we¡¦ll have a reunion¡Xin paradise!¡¨
The people of Jerusalem were a people who knew their own sorry history, but they also knew the gracious hand of God which reached down time and again to restore and to heal. His grace accomplished it. And you know what else that incredible, unfathomable, unparalleled, amazing grace can do? It can
„X Reach out to that person who has made a total wreck of her life and say, ¡§Come to me, you who are weary, and I will give you rest.¡¨
„X Take that prodigal in its arms say, ¡§Go, get the fattest calf we have, we¡¦re having a party, for my son was lost, but now he¡¦s come home!¡¨
„X Look at you and me, who have made promises to God and broken them, who have thought and acted like we were not the children of God that we are by faith in Jesus, and offer us forgiveness¡Xagain!
Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin, how shall my tongue describe it, where shall its praise begin? Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free, for the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me! Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt! Yonder on Calvary¡¦s mount outpoured, there, where the blood of the Lamb was spilt! He left His Father¡¦s throne above, so free, so infinite His grace; emptied Himself, of all but love, and bled for Adam¡¦s helpless race. ¡¥Tis mercy all, immense and free, for oh, my God, it found out me! Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost, but now I¡¦m found, was blind, but now I see!!!
VI. It determines to walk a new path by the grace of God.
Grace is free, but it isn¡¦t cheap, in that it cost Jesus His very life, and it isn¡¦t cheap in that it calls its own to a life of sacrificial living. Salvation is both free and very costly, then, at the same time. The same Jesus Who told a wretched rebel and a thief on a cross beside Him that He¡¦d see him in paradise in a few minutes also advised those who would follow Him to sit down and count the cost. That same Jesus Who said to the woman, ¡§neither do I condemn you¡¨ also said to her, ¡§Go and sin no more.¡¨
There was a preparation for this prayer in verse 2; the people understood that they had to deal with some issues before they came to God asking for forgiveness. These words of confession involved more than empty words divorced from decisive action; to the contrary, they took some difficult steps. The rubber really meets the road when we determine to step away from our sin.
These people understood that when grace has been so freely and amazingly extended, the only response of gratitude that is fitting is for one¡¦s life to be changed completely by that grace. And to continue a theme begun weeks ago in this series, again we see the balance between the work of God and the willingness of the people. Chapter 10, which we will not be covering, outlines the details of the covenant they make with God in verse 38. In it, they bind themselves to some very specific promises, including
„X Taking an oath to keep God¡¦s Law
„X A commitment not to intermarry with foreigners, so as to be like the other nations
„X A determination to keep the Sabbath holy
„X A commitment to keep the Sabbath-year requirement outlined in Exodus 23
„X Contribution to the house of God, and a determination not to neglect its upkeep
„X Tithing the first-fruits of all that was theirs
„X The dedication of their first-born children, and indeed to give God the first and best of all that was theirs
All of these things took place because they gained a clear understanding of just Who this God was Whom they served, and Who had chosen them. And this takes us back to the David Wells quote with which we began this morning; allow me to read it again. He said that the problem with the modern evangelical church is
¡§that God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, His grace is too ordinary, His judgment is too benign, His gospel is too easy, His Christ is too common.¡¨
Surely Wells is right. But we know the cure. It is in
gaining a firm understanding of God¡¦s Word, thereby knowing His nature and promises;
saying ¡§yes¡¨ to the Holy Spirit of God every time He prompts you to grow in obedience to God; and
reveling in the amazing grace of God which takes us wretched sinners and makes of us people who are ushered into the very presence of God through Jesus Christ!
