Join us today on Expository Truths as Pastor John Kyle delves deep into the poignant passages of Nehemiah 9, exploring the boundless mercy of God amidst Israel’s repeated disobedience. Through a meticulous exposition, Pastor Kyle uncovers how little compromises can tarnish future generations. The sermon elevates the powerful message of repentance and the urgent call to return to authentic worship. Discover the plea for a life that rejects spiritual apathy, and the compelling call for faithfulness, as we heed the lessons taught through Israel’s turbulent history.
Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we are called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know the truth when we know the word of God, which is precise, without error, powerful, and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Let’s join Pastor Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the book of Nehemiah, an incredible book showing us how God sovereignly used the faithfulness of Nehemiah to lead the people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in the midst of many mighty and powerful enemies.
SPEAKER 02 :
Please turn to me in your Bibles to Nehemiah 9, verses 26-31. Nehemiah 9… 26 through 31. Now remember, God led Nehemiah to go to Jerusalem and to rebuild the ruined walls of the city, which was an amazing task. But even more, God led Nehemiah to be the catalyst in bringing the people back to repentant faith in the living God. Now remember, after the wall was finished, the people gathered together in Jerusalem for the Feast of Trumpets. Two weeks later, they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. And then just a couple of days after that, the people again gathered together to observe a national day of repentance where they fasted, mourned, wore sackcloth, and put dust on their heads as they cried out to God to express their turning away from sin and to the Lord in heartfelt love and worship to Him. They then prayed. This prayer that we’ve been looking at in chapter 9 is a penitent prayer of confession that offers an incredible survey of Old Testament history. The prayer began by showing us some of the many reasons that we, the people of God, can and should praise Him. And look, even as the people rebelled against Him time and time and time again, look, God did not forsake His people. He truly is a God of amazing love, grace, mercy, kindness, and patience. Don’t we know it? Right? We continue to see this in the next part of this prayer. Let’s go ahead and look at that. Verse 26. He says, But after they had rest, they again did evil before you. Therefore you left them in the hand of their enemies so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they returned and cried out to you, you heard from heaven and many times you delivered them according to your mercies and testified against them that you might bring them back to your law. Yet they acted proudly. Continuing on, right? Yet they acted proudly and did not heed your commandments, but sinned against your judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. And they shrugged their shoulders, stiffened their necks, and would not hear. Yet for many years you had patience with them and testified against them by your spirit in your prophets. Yet they would not listen. Therefore, you gave them into the hands of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, see a pattern? In your great mercy… You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them. For you are God, gracious and merciful. Now here in this prayer we have moved all the way through Israel’s history. Showing us how good God is to his people. And we now come to the time of the judges. In the book of Judges there are seven cycles of sin that are sadly highlighted. The cycle goes like this. One, the people were disobedient. Two, God handed them over to their enemies who oppressed them. Three, the people finally cried out to God for help. And then four, God heard them and God delivered them. Well, these verses here in Nehemiah 9, verses 26-31 show us this cycle three different times. The cycle is seen in verses 26 and 27. It’s seen again in verse 28. And then it’s seen yet again in verses 29 through 31. In the context of Nehemiah chapter 9, the people of the day are in another one of these cycles. But here, the good news is that they are now crying out to God for deliverance. And their hope is that God will again come and deliver them. That’s why it’s good to remember the past. So long as remembering the past helps you to move ahead and to glorify the Lord, which is exactly what the people are doing in this prayer in Nehemiah chapter 9. So, this is a good warning for us. A very good warning. Don’t continue to rebel against God. And it’s also a great encouragement for us. God has been very gracious and merciful to a rebellious people in the past. So perhaps, that’s their thought, perhaps He will be gracious and merciful to us as we turn back to Him, which He will certainly do. Note these five truths as we look at this passage. First, note that the people pridefully sinned and rebelled against God. That’s been Israel’s history from the very beginning. But again, it was clearly highlighted, very clearly, in the book of Judges, which Nehemiah 9 is right here referring back to. God has been so very good to Israel numerous times over. But look how they responded. Verse 26 says that they disobeyed, meaning that they defied God. They also rebelled, which means that they renounced their allegiance to God. They also cast His law behind their backs, meaning that they couldn’t care less about God’s good decrees that were given to them for their own eternal benefit. And so they cast it aside. They threw it away. They stomped on it with anger and with hatred. They also killed the prophets whom were graciously sent by God. Don’t tell us the truth of God. Tell us lies that will make us feel better about ourselves and our sin. No? Okay, then we’re going to kill you. And they did. And then, look, they worked great provocations, blasphemies, abuses, and anguishes. Verse 28 says that they did evil. which means wickedness, immorality, and reprobate behavior. Verse 29 says that they acted proudly, arrogantly, insolently, and rebelliously. And then it says that they disobeyed, they sinned, and they shrugged their shoulders, which means that they were tenacious in their unwillingness to turn to God and to do the will of God. But instead, they stiffened their necks, which means that they… fiercely and they passionately hardened their hearts against god and then they refused to listen to him no we don’t want you we don’t care what you say we don’t care about you lord leave us alone we want to do things our way lord just just go away how do you think god feels about that It’s kind of like much of the world today and even in some of the church today. None of this is good. How did this happen? Well, again, Nehemiah is referring back to the time of the judges, and it’s in Judges chapter 1 that we discover that once the people had moved into the promised land by the mighty hand of God, which we looked at last time, look, Judges tells us that they didn’t fully obey God, and that’s a massive red flag. Instead of driving everyone out of the land, which they were commanded to do, they instead made covenants with the sinful people of the land. Not only that, but they didn’t tear down the pagan altars that were set up to false gods, which they were supposed to do. They were supposed to tear them down. And so, again, they didn’t fully obey the Word of God. Little compromises, see? Partial obedience. And while these compromises had serious effects on the people, they had even more serious effects on their children. As Judges 2.10 says, “…when all that generation had been gathered to their people…” Another generation arose after them that did not know the Lord, nor the work which He had done for Israel. You see that? See what’s going on? Little compromises by mom and dad. And look, the kids now don’t even know about the Lord. That’s a warning for us today, by the way, that if you want to really do spiritual harm to your children, all you have to do is compromise and play with sin and just partially obey the Lord in your own life. That’ll do the trick. No, we can’t save our children. But we do have a responsibility to teach them and to train them in the ways of the Lord. And that first comes from the example that we set for the good or for the bad. And we’re called to take heed to ourselves. And just as a second generation has a natural tendency to accept the status quo and to lose the vision of the first generation… How much more should we be radically committed to God so that this doesn’t happen to the generation that comes after us? One pastor said that there are three main reasons that the second generation, talking about the generation in Judges, after they entered into the Promised Land, the second generation failed once they entered the Promised Land. One, they were satisfied with the status quo. After Joshua led the people in victory, Joshua then gave orders to each of the tribes to take their territory from the Canaanites. The first generation conquered parts of Canaan, but left pockets of the enemy untouched. Then the second generation came along. Their reaction was, why bother? We have all the land that we would ever want. These Canaanites aren’t so bad. We can get along with them. And so they were content and they were comfortable with the status quo. And their parents left them that very bad example that had serious ramifications for them. Two. They failed because they took God’s blessing for granted and they didn’t acknowledge Him. R.C. Sproul said that God’s grace is amazing the first time you hear it, but sadly, it’s often not so amazing the second time and the third time and the fourth time. And that’s correct if we’re not constantly watching and praying and on guard. Spiritual amnesia is easy to happen if we’re not careful. And just as a church in Ephesus lost their first love, it can happen to anyone if we’re not watching and praying. And to be ungrateful about God’s grace isn’t only foolish, but it’s very spiritually dangerous. And we would all do well to never lose sight of what we once were, of what God has done for us when we least deserved it, and of what we have waiting. Nothing else is more important. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses is preaching to the children of Israel. And a common word in that book is the word remember. Why? Because it’s easy to forget. And when you forget, you’re in big trouble. Three, they failed because they neglected God’s Word that they had, the law of God. It’s astonishing to discover almost no reference to the study of Scripture in the book of Judges. What was so central in the book of Joshua is peripheral in Judges. The people had the Word of God in Judges, oh yes, but they chose to ignore it, and that is a fatal mistake. I mean, if the Word is the power of God for salvation, and if it’s living and active and powerful and sufficient, which it is, what does it mean when we put it down? The outcome is inevitable. You’re giving the Word of God to your children? Do you end the Word of God yourself? When you forget the Word of God, you’re in danger of forsaking the God of the Word. Take heed to yourself. And so, as we can see coming a mile away, the people rebelled. They forsook the Lord. They turned away from Him. Of course they did. That phrase, they did evil in the sight of the Lord, is a much repeated phrase in Judges. How much evil did they do? Well… Instead of serving the Lord, they began serving the Baals and the Ashtoreths, false pagan gods. The Baals were sex deities, and their worship of them involved not only bowing down before stone idols that they had created, but also engaging in obscene sexual practices. The Ashtoreths were figurines of various manifestations of Asherah, the Canaanite goddess of fertility and the consort of Baal. See, the Canaanite religion was based on the idea that you worship your God by behaving as your God behaves. The result was worship that was just sick and entirely the opposite of what the true worship of the one true God is about. And so the people were tolerant of that which God commanded them to destroy. They accepted what God called them to hate, and they compromised when God called them to wholehearted obedience. How did that happen? Well, it happened through little compromises. That’s how it always happens. One says, failure through compromise permeates every page of the book of Judges. All failure is due to compromise. We can never enjoy God’s promised rest for long if we tolerate only partially crushed sins to continue with us. If we make league with questionable things because they seem harmless, we shall soon find ourselves wedded to the desires of the flesh again and down from the heights to which God had lifted us. Failure through compromise. Oh, that Israel had heeded the message of this book. Oh, that a compromising church today never disregarded either. That’s right. Compromise, see, is easy. It’s very easy if we’re not careful. Little compromises in your life are what Satan loves. Don’t read your Bible today. Don’t pray today. Don’t go to church today. Tell a little lie. Give in today and don’t hate the sin you just committed. You’ve done good for a while. One little compromise isn’t going to hurt you. Don’t have your quiet time today. No, just skate by today. You’ll be all right. Date that non-Christian. Gossip just a little bit. Look at that picture that you shouldn’t look at. Go to that place you know Christ wouldn’t want you to go to. Just don’t be so radically committed to Christ today. And pretty soon, Satan has us right where he wants us. And it all starts with some very small things. compromises, very small ones, beware. Because if you’re not on guard, pretty soon you end up like they did. You end up like Israel. Disobeying, rebelling, casting God’s law behind your back because He cast God Himself behind your back, killing the prophets, hating biblical preachers, working great provocations, doing evil, acting proudly, shrugging your shoulders at God, stiffening our necks, and refusing to listen to Him and to His Holy Word. How do you think God feels about that? Nehemiah tells us, second look, God delivered them into the hands of their enemies. That’s what happened. Verses 27 and 28 and then 30. The book of Judges is a bit more specific about this by telling us that first, God became angry with his people. And then after that is when he delivered them over into the hands of their enemies. Angry? Angry. God getting angry? Angry. Yeah. One of God’s attributes is indeed anger. We struggle with that a little bit because when we get angry, it leads us into sin, but not so with God. God’s anger is holy. It is right. It doesn’t lead to anything sinful, but rather it’s in perfect harmony with all of God’s other perfect attributes. Note that God’s anger isn’t the petty anger of hurt feelings, but it’s a holy anger of a righteous response to sin. It’s the revulsion of a perfect God against evil, wickedness, and sinful rebellion. And it’s right for God, it’s absolutely right for God to have this attribute. Interesting that the Hebrew word for anger is the word nose or nostril. And the picture is of a nose flaring. And the anger of God just burning with a holy burning. See, this is real. And God takes sin very serious. Note that there are two groups of people that God is angry with. First, God is angry with non-Christians because they are ones who are in direct rebellion against Him daily, whether they realize that fact or not. Psalm 711 says that God is angry with the wicked every day because they are daily sinning against Him with utter disregard for who He is. But John, I thought you said that before that God has a general love for mankind, a common grace that He shows to mankind. Yeah, that’s right. He truly is an amazing God who is good and patient and forbearing, even to those who hate Him, even to those who rebel against Him. But please don’t mistake God’s patience and slowness to anger to mean that He isn’t angry at sin. that His anger isn’t burning against the wretched and sinful rebellion that’s going on all around us. Don’t make that mistake. And while God gives blessings and good days and good weather and beautiful scenery and health and other great things commonly to people who rebel against Him every day, that doesn’t mean that the time will come when God’s anger will not pour out against those who are forsaking Him because it will. And so, the reality is this. That without Christ to save you, you will face God’s anger and wrath against all your sin. And the end result, biblically speaking, will be eternity in hell. And that’s why you need Jesus to pay those wages, the wages of your sin, for you. That’s why you need to surrender to Jesus in repentant faith so God’s anger falls onto Christ and not onto you. But because God is holy, his anger is real. And he must punish sin. He will punish every sin. Hey, if you’re not a Christian here this morning, God is angry at you. And this is very serious. But I got good news for you. That’s when Jesus comes along and says, I am God the Son who became a man so I could become the believer’s substitute for sin. I died on a cross for all who believe so the wrath of God could fall onto me instead of onto you. Because of what I did for all who believe, you can now be clean, forgiven, declared right, and fit for heaven and have eternal life instead of eternal wrath. And so today Christ says, won’t you repent and believe in me for forgiveness and life? You don’t want God angry with you as a non-Christian today. Oh, no, you don’t. He hates sin. And in His holiness, righteousness, and justice, He must punish all sin. Surrender to Christ in repentant faith, and the punishment for your sin falls onto Christ. So how about surrendering to Christ today? Call on Him. Call on Him in repentant faith, and you will be saved. But look, we’re not off the hook here. God not only is angry with the wicked who reject and forsake Him, but God can also get angry with His own special people. This anger is different, of course, since this anger is for a moment and not continual, but it is real nonetheless. Even as a Christian, see, you can provoke God to anger when you rebel against Him, when you compromise, when you forsake Him, when you toy around with sin. And while God loves His people with an everlasting and unchangeable love, He also may be angry and displeased with them when they rebel. That happened to the children of Israel many times over where they grumbled and complained and rebelled. And what happened? God got angry. And He responded like we see in Judges as is highlighted here in Nehemiah 9. Also in Numbers chapter 12, Aaron and Miriam, people who love the Lord, sinfully complained against Moses and it made God angry. Moses himself made God angry when he put on a self-centered show for the children of Israel instead of simply obeying what God told him to do. It seems that Ananias and Sapphira were true Christians, but they both hypocritically lied and said, we sold our land for such and such an amount and we have given all the proceeds to the church, but they sold the land for more than that and they kept back some of the proceeds for themselves. God didn’t like it at all. How’d they end up? They died. Warning. Warning. Don’t provoke God. Don’t be like the children of Israel. Note that I’m saying this to scare us. Okay? Please understand that. I am. We could stand to have a bit more holy reverence for our God. So we’re not so prone to regard sin so lightly when it should be hated with passion. Hey, I don’t want God angry at me because I’m loving my sin more than Him. I need to take my sin more seriously and I need to take God more seriously. We in Christ tend to regard sin way too lightly because we’ve been forgiven of all our sin. Praise Him. But sin is still serious in the life of the Christian. Sin can no longer condemn us, no. But it can still affect us and those watching us. It can hinder us. It can sap our Christian joy. It can ruin our witness. It can hold us back. It can hurt our fellowship with God. It can do terrible harm still. And yes, unrepentant of, it can incite God’s anger, which will cause him to act. And so it’s wise for those of us who have been bought with a price to hate what God hates and to love what God loves. What about you? May God speak to our hearts today. And may we be filled with love and passion for Him in light of these great truths. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank You, Lord, so much for Your wonderful Word. Thank You for these warnings. Thank You for this prayer in Nehemiah chapter 9. And thank You for these warnings. Help us to learn from them. Help us, Lord, to take heed to ourselves. And I pray, Lord, that we would all see very clearly how desperate, utterly desperate we are for You day by day by day. May we look to You, cast off the sin, and seek Your face. Thank You for Your grace. Thank You for Your abundant mercy. Help us now. We love You and thank You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thanks for joining us for today’s exposition from the book of Nehemiah on expository truths with Dr. John Kyle. To find this and other sermons, visit expositorytruths.org. Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep, and reaching message of the gospel. Pastor John Kyle. Church of Vacaville, a seminary professor and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join for services at Faith Community Church Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s 707-451-2026. Or visit vacavillefaith.org.
