Join us on Expository Truths for a deep dive into the compelling story of Nehemiah. Dr. John Kyle sheds light on the prayer of repentance, the assurance of God’s promises, and the enduring love He extends to those who remain faithful. Discover how the lessons from Nehemiah’s leadership and prayer can transform your faith and guide you in living a life that glorifies God. Whether you’re new to the scriptures or a seasoned believer, this episode provides valuable insights into God’s covenants and His call for genuine repentance.
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.
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Please turn in your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 9, verses 32 through 38. Nehemiah 9. 32 through 38. Now remember, God led Nehemiah to go to Jerusalem and 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 their Lord God Almighty. They then prayed. This prayer that we’ve been looking at here 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 ways 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, which we clearly saw last time, look, God did not forsake His people. Amen? He did not forsake His people, for He truly is a God of amazing love, grace, mercy, kindness, and incredible patience. Look how the prayer ends, verse 32. Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and awesome God, who keeps covenant and mercy, do not let all the trouble seem small to you that has come upon us, our kings and our princes, our priests and our prophets, our fathers and on all your people from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day. However, you are just in all that has befallen us, for you have dealt faithfully, but we have done wickedly. Neither our kings nor our princes, our priests nor our fathers have kept your law, nor heeded your commandments and your testimonies with which you testified against them. For they have not served you in their kingdom, or in the many good things that you gave them, or in the large and rich land which you set before them, nor did they turn from their wicked works. We’re going to stop here for now. And here as we end this repentant prayer that… had been prepared and recited before all the people, we can observe six truths which give us great hope for ourselves when we ourselves have sinned and fallen and rebelled against the Lord. First is this, our God is awesome. Anybody? right? Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who keeps covenant and mercy, our God is awesome. The therefore here indicates a change in this prayer. See, the history of the children of Israel is now brought up to date. Here’s a good summary. God is merciful and good. We are rebellious and bad. Even so, God has never forsaken us. And so they have reviewed God’s past dealings, and now they’re going to implore God for His continued mercy and for His deliverance for them once again. They’re humble. They’re sincere. They aren’t making any excuses anymore. They aren’t trying to hide their sin or make it less than it really is. No, they see it clearly. And here, they are now casting themselves down at the feet of their merciful and good God. And that is very good. Now, therefore, our God, I love that. See, this is personal. He’s not just some far-off God. No, He is our God. He is my God. Yes, He’s the one true God. And yes, He’s the beloved Father of all of His saved people, but even more, He’s my God. He’s my deliverer, my Lord, my Savior, my God whom I love and whom I want to glorify in light of who He is and in light of all that He’s done for me. Yeah, this is very personal. God sees you. God knows you by name. He chose you to be His before the foundation of the world as His saved child. How you live matters to Him. He lives in you as a Christian. Yeah, this is very personal and intense love should then compel us to now live for His glory, our God, my God. Also, look, He is the great and the mighty and the awesome God. Anybody? Anybody? That’s who He is. The word great means to be great and remarkable in magnitude and in extent. That’s who our God is. The word mighty speaks of God’s strength, power, and ability. I mean, who can stop our God, the Lord God of all creation? The word awesome means to inspire awe, reverence, and fear in someone. Where the greatness and the might is so big that all you can do is see how small you are in comparison and then you just have to respond accordingly to that. See, our God is great and mighty and awesome. He’s to be revered, respected, and feared by us as children. And that reverential fear should drive us to then worship Him with fervor, to love deeply and intensely this amazing God of ours, and to earnestly desire to obey Him as our Lord, our Creator, and our only Savior. Here’s a thought. God is awesome. He’s majestic. He’s Lord. He’s creator. He’s all-powerful. He stands alone. No one remotely compares to Him. And we’re now going to make a bold request to Him. One that we have no right asking as we look back on our history. But we’re still going to humbly ask it because we know God’s character. And our God is a very good God. So, so very good. So we’re going to ask. See, that’s the idea. So we now come before Him knowing that this is both a privilege and an honor that shouldn’t be taken lightly, that shouldn’t be taken trivially. And the prayer continued after that. You’re our awesome God who keeps covenant and mercy. This harkens back to the prayer in chapter 1 where Nehemiah began the same way when he said this. I pray, Lord God of heaven, oh great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant and mercy with those who love you and observe your commandments. That’s the very same pattern going on there. Why? Because it puts everything into perspective, and it’s a great encouragement before they actually make their request. This is who our God is, and this is what He does. See, because He is perfect and because He never lies, then good news, He keeps His covenant. He keeps… all His promises to us, His people. Look, throughout the ages, God has made covenants with His people. God has promised many things to His people. And good news, again, He keeps all those promises. Now, the Hebrew word for covenant is the word bereath, and it speaks of a pledge, a promise, and a binding agreement between two parties. Covenant is a very important word in the Bible. It’s used over 280 times in the Old Testament and over 30 times in the New Testament. See, throughout the Bible, God is known as a covenant-making God who is faithful to keep all of His covenant promises. A way to help us understand a covenant is in marriage where two people, a man and a woman, pledge to be married for life. Faithful husbands keep their marriage covenant and faithful wives keep their marriage covenant. And while people today take this very lightly, they didn’t back then, not at all. See, in ancient times and also in Scripture, covenants were the foundation of society. But when you made a covenant with someone, you bound yourself to that promise. And your character, your integrity, and your reputation was all bound up in your loyalty to keep that covenant promise. Professor Keith Essex stated this, Let no one underestimate the importance and significance of a correct understanding of the divine covenants. It’s much more than an intellectual pursuit. They provide a most foundational theological anchor for understanding God’s working in human history. And he’s absolutely right. So this is important. Here’s a brief summary of the covenants of God. In the Noahic covenant, God showed his gracious mercy toward all mankind by promising to never again destroy the world with water. The sign of this covenant, this promise, is the rainbow. And when we see the rainbow, we can remember that God keeps His promises and that God is indeed a gracious God who shows His mercy and grace even after judgment. In the Abrahamic covenant, God made many promises to Abraham, including land, a great nation, Israel, and that all the people of the world would be blessed through Him, which is a clear reference to Christ. In the priestly covenant, God promised the perpetual priesthood in the line of Phinehas. In the Mosaic covenant, God revealed His holiness and the heinousness of sin. This included the Ten Commandments along with 600 other commandments, all revealing the need for the shedding of blood for the remission of sins, which is a perfect picture of people’s need for a Savior, Jesus Christ. In the Davidic covenant, God promised the perpetual reign of the descendants of David, ultimately fulfilled in the Messiah and in his eternal reign. And then in the new covenant, which we as Christians are now under, God evidences his continual pouring out of grace. The new covenant was promised in the Old Testament, specifically in Jeremiah 31, where God promised to forgive iniquity. How good is that? And to remember sin no more for all who believe, both Jew and Gentile. jesus instituted the new covenant during the last supper he sealed the covenant when he shed his blood on that cross and when we believe god says that he will give us his holy spirit who will then indwell us who will then seal us and who will guarantee the incredible promises from god for us that are yet to come and look God is a God who doesn’t just make promises, but He’s a God who keeps His promises, every single one of them. He’s also the God who is merciful to those who love Him and who keep His commandments. Talking about true believers, and don’t we know it? God is merciful. Anybody? The word for mercy is a Hebrew word, chesed. And it speaks of God’s unfailing love, kindness, goodness, and grace to us, His covenant children. So talk of Him and go to Him and present your requests to Him, all of your requests, and cast your cares on Him because He cares for you, even when you have failed Him, because He’s a merciful God. Those in Nehemiah 9 knew that and we know that. if we’ve been Christians for any length of time. He keeps His promises, and He’s a merciful God. Oh, so very merciful. And so the people are sure to tell God about God. Second, they ask, don’t let this trouble seem small. Verse 32b, don’t let all the trouble seem small before you that’s come upon us, our kings and our princes, our priests and our prophets, our fathers and on all your people from the day of the kings of Assyria up until this day. Now here, the people are recognizing that God’s judgment had been just and that they deserved punishment because their fathers and their leaders didn’t obey God. They also recognize and fully acknowledge that their past disloyalty and their present distress has affected every level of society. Kings, princes, leaders, priests, prophets, fathers, and everyone else, all your people. And that’s one of the agonizing things about sin. It spreads everywhere. And it spreads quickly. And as we saw last time, it infects one generation after another. Look, from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day. How long ago was that? Talking about the kings of Assyria. How long ago was that? It was more than three centuries before Nehemiah’s day. That’s a lot of sin. And that’s a lot of rebellion going on. or three centuries. But good news, the people are acknowledging that fact and they aren’t ignoring that fact. And so they recognize that from the times of the kings of Assyria, 300 years before, when the northern kingdom was chastised for its wretched disobedience, until today, the people could trace the disciplining hand of God. See, they recognized His sovereignty. They knew that the Lord allowed them to go through those experiences of intense pain so they would come back to Him. And they saw that these severe judgments were an expression of His universal sovereignty and tokens of His persistent love. See, their history wasn’t a series of disconnected political accidents and military failures. No, no. It was the work of God. in all of it they understood that they they see that and they aren’t rebellious but they are now sincerely turning to the lord and so they ask don’t let this trouble seem small before you that’s come upon us in other words lord please don’t let this be a small or minor thing before you see they want god to see their seriousness they want him to know that they are heartfelt and coming back to him They are truly repentant and they aren’t playing a game, but they aren’t taking this lightly like so many times before. And look, they know that when they truly go to God in heartfelt, humble repentance, He will certainly take it seriously. Right? Will He turn them away? Look, God doesn’t like games. They know that. So there’s no disguises here. There’s no masks. There’s no deceit. But instead, sin is exposed and God has begged to forgive and pour out His grace and mercy. And why would He see this as a small thing when they see it as a big thing and are heartfelt in what they are asking? Oh, that Christianity as a whole would learn from this. Away with the masks. Away with the lies about ourselves. Away with the hiding of sin. Because why should God take you seriously when you don’t even take yourself and your own faith seriously? The average Christian is in need of revival because we learn to live with as much as our conscience will allow, and our consciences have been seared. We sugarcoat our selfishness, we rationalize our rebellion, and we make excuses for our sin and our lack of obedience. As one said, we manage our sin, we do not repent and confess of our sin. And that’s true too much of the time. May it not be true with us. And as a whole, we have forgotten how heartbreaking and how grievous sin is in the life of a believer before our awesome Father in heaven and what it does to ourselves. Lord, help us to not forget that. Lord, help us to be like the people who are praying this prayer because what they’re praying and what they’re doing here is very, very good. Third, you are just and faithful. Isn’t that right? Verse 33, However, you’re just in all that’s befallen us, for you have dealt faithfully. This is good. Just means righteous, innocent, upright, and devout. Faithful means to be true, firm, good, and honorable. That’s our God. Look, all of God’s words are true and faithful. He cannot lie. God keeps His covenants. God is a rock of refuge because of His dependable firmness. He is right and He is true. He is perfectly reliable in every way. faithful see he alone is the perfect sum source and standard of that which is wholesome virtuous beneficial and beautiful God alone is absolute goodness he is perfect in all his ways and every single thing that he does is right and these people know that and they acknowledge that fact a lot of pain has befallen us And we know that God has brought that upon us and His good discipline upon us. But we know that it was the right thing for Him to do. And we know that He always does the right thing, no matter what, even when it’s painful. And even when we don’t understand it. That’s good to know, isn’t it? Why? Because if we truly know that and if we truly believe that, then we’re going to be able to endure and overcome and remain faithful when things around us look otherwise. Hey, when life is really hard… When life is really hard, it’s good to remember that God is just, right, good, and faithful. When bad things, really bad things happen to you, it’s good to remember that God is just, right, good, and faithful. When tragedy strikes, it’s good to remember… that God is just, right, good, and faithful. When all your friends let you down and other people treat you like garbage and you feel like you’re all alone, it’s good to remember that God is just, right, good, and faithful. And guess what? He will never let you down and you are never alone as His beloved child. So you can trust Him even when life and circumstances and troubles surround you and pain is your constant companion You can trust Him. Let this sink in today. God is just and faithful always. No matter what. Always. Please don’t let anything cause you to ever forget that. This is a biblical fact. Fourth, we are wicked. Verses 34 and 35. Neither our kings nor our princes, our priests nor our fathers have kept your law nor heeded your commandments and your testimonies with which you testified against them, for they have not served you in their kingdom or in the many good things that you gave them or in the large and rich land which you set before them, nor did they turn away from their wicked works. This is bad stuff going on. Now again, we see their humility and we see them acknowledging all the bad stuff. They’re acknowledging all their sin. We haven’t obeyed. Isn’t that serious? Why? Why? Because God’s people who love Him obey. Right? True believers obey. Love compels us to obey. True faith and obedience always go together because if you love the Lord, then you’re going to gladly obey the Lord as His willing, loving servant. Obedience literally means to listen under with attentiveness and to respond positively to that which is heard. And that’s what true believers do. The Bible is very clear about that. And while we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, look, all who are truly saved will indeed grow in obedience to their good and faithful God. Deuteronomy 13.4 You shall walk… After the Lord your God and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice, you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. In Jeremiah 7.23, God said, Obey My voice and I will be your God. and you shall be my people. God’s people obey. Romans 1.5 says, through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. The saved obey. And Romans 6.27 says it like this, but God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. So you were delivered, and then you obeyed because that’s how it works. speak lord for your servant hears that’s the true believer’s motto like king david said i made haste and delayed not to keep god’s commandments why because god’s people love him and obedience pleases him see obedience proves who we are and whose we are so question how clear are you today one of the failures of israel throughout their history is that they didn’t obey the lord From the top down, they haven’t kept the law of God, they haven’t obeyed the Lord, they haven’t served Him, they haven’t turned from their wicked ways, which are all things that should mark the people of God. Who are we? We are the lovers of God. What do we do? We honor Him. We worship Him. We obey Him. We serve Him. We seek to glorify Him with our lives by pursuing Him and by loving what He loves and by hating what He hates. But they haven’t been doing that at all. And confessing that sin… It’s a very good response. Repentance means to change your mind, to be converted, and to turn around. Biblically, repentance means a turning away from your sin and a turning to the Lord in living faith. Now, some people think that repentance means to feel sorry about your sin. But many people feel sorry about their sin and they never truly repent. Why? Because true repentance is something that changes your behavior. It’s something that changes your direction. It’s not just stopping our wickedness, but turning away from it and turning to the Lord. Therefore, true repentance is a godly sorrow for sin, an internal repugnance to the ugliness of sin, followed by the actual forsaking of that sin. One preacher says it like this. True repentance has intellectual, emotional, and volitional ramifications. The intellectual element of repentance is a change of view, a recognition of sin as involving personal guilt, defilement, and helplessness. The emotional element is a change of feeling, manifesting itself in sorrow for sin committed against a holy God. And then the volitional element is a change of purpose, an inward turning away from sin and a disposition to seek pardon and cleansing. That’s right. And God loves that when true repentance happens in the life of a person. Do you need to repent today? Listen to this. There’s sin in the camp. There’s treason today. Is it in me? Is it in me? There’s cause in our ranks for defeat and delay. Is it, O Lord, in me? Something of selfishness, garments of gold. Something of hindrance in young or in old. Something why God doth his blessing withhold. Is it, O Lord, in me? Is it in me? Is it in me? Is it, O Lord, in me?
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Thanks for joining us for today’s exposition from the Book of Nehemiah on Expository Truths with Dr. John Kott. dot 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 is the preaching pastor at faith community 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.
