Threats to Spiritual Wholeness (Part 2 of 2)

Are you someone who keeps your New Year's resolutions or, like many of us, do you struggle to stay committed beyond the first couple weeks of January? Today on Truth for Life, we'll see how quickly the Israelites neglected commitments they had made to God in Nehemiah's absence, and we'll see his response when he returned to Jerusalem. Alistair Begg is teaching from the closing verses in the book of Nehemiah. The establishing of holy habits is not legalism. The establishing of holy habits and the establishing of kept promises is imperative to spiritual wholeness. When we married, we made a commitment to holy habits. When we married, we made a commitment to certain foundational promises. And the keeping of these promises is absolutely crucial to the well-being of the relationship which we enjoy with our spouse. Therefore, someone encouraging us to maintain such promises is in no way doing us a disservice, is in no way calling us into some kind of legalistic lifestyle, but is seeking, by their encouragement, to bring us into all the fullness and all the benefits of what that relationship might mean—in the same way. When we say that we will follow hard after Christ, when we commit ourselves to obeying fully all of his law, not so that we might be accepted by him, because we know that that could not be, but on account of the fact that we have been accepted by grace through faith and made righteous in his sight so that our commitment to the promises are not in order to gain acceptance but are on the basis of the fact that God in his mercy has reached down to us.

Now, the particular emphasis here we need be in no doubt about. It is simply this issue of what they were going to do on the Sabbath. And they had said, We are not going to monkey around with the Sabbath thing.

But the traders had come into town, they're up to their old tricks, presumably they began to say to one another, You know, there's no reason to be so strict in particular about this. After all, God knows that we have responsibilities. The Lord knows that we have children.

We have to buy them shoes. The Lord knows that it would be nice for us to have a little extension over here, and therefore we're not concerned about acts of mercy here. We're not talking about getting animals out of ditches. We're not talking about being involved in emergency surgery. We're just talking about deciding that we are not going to worship on the Lord's Day, because we've made a commitment to working on the Lord's Day, and on Sunday evenings that's when we do our ironing, and on Sunday evenings that's when we do the laundry, and on Sunday evenings that's when we do our thing. Now, I'm not talking about single moms here.

I'm just talking about people who decided that we would play around with this whole issue. Now, Amaya says, That's a bad mood. Look at the progression in verse 15. In these days I saw men in Judah, and they were trading wine presses on the Sabbath. At the end of verse 15 he says, I warned them, again selling food on that day.

And then there were some people from Tyre who were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise, and they were selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. So he went to the leaders of the people of Judah, the nobles of Judah, and he said to them, What's the wicked thing you're doing? You're going to walk up to people and say, You're doing wicked things. They're not going to really like you.

People don't like that. Don't tell me I'm doing wicked things. I don't like to know I'm doing wicked things. I just want to know I'm doing good things. Just tell me about good things, good things, good things. Well, now, Amaya says, You're doing a lot of good things, I'll tell you good things, but in the moment I'm telling you about some things that you shouldn't be doing. And one of them is this issue. So he rebuked them.

They didn't make him popular, but he wasn't concerned about being popular. And in verse 19, he took practical action, and he stationed some people there at the gates. And furthermore, I'll pop up onto the wall, because some of these merchants and sellers have been pitching their tent outside Jerusalem in the evenings, obviously hoping for a chance to make a border crossing or maybe to make some kind of clandestine trading. And so I'll get up on the wall, and as it says in verse 21, I warned them, and I said, Why did you spend the night by the wall?

If you do this again, I'll come down, and I'll thump you. Now, that doesn't go well with our caricature of the average servant of God. The average servant of God looks as though a good meal would scare him, looks as though he's never seen the sun in about forty years, he's white, somewhat emaciated, and he can't chew on hardly anything at all.

He has to suck toast for most of his days. And the people of God like those kind of people, by and large, and when someone comes out, as Nehemiah did, like a raging bull, the response is, Who in the world does this guy think he is? The answer is, he's the servant of God who will stand before God for what was going on in Jerusalem, and he'll give an answer for his leadership in Jerusalem. So if he comes in and says, Hey, it's up to you. You want to do this on the Sabbath? That's not a problem.

You want to do this in relationship to unfulfilled commitments? Hey, that's not a problem. You want to neglect the house of God?

That's not a problem. As long as I get my money, as long as I get my clothes, and as long as I can just go through life fairly okay, I don't really care. That's not leadership. That's just acquiescent hogwash. You wonder at the state of the church in America in our day. Look at the average commitment on the leadership's part.

It's committed to pleasing itself, committed to pleasing men, committed to the accolades of men, committed to being in the mainstream, committed to being prepared, thought well of by all the people around. Any dead fish can go with a downstream flow. Only living fish can swim against the stream.

And now Meyer stands out in his day as one who would swim against the stream. Now, the issue in terms of this promise is the promise to keep the Sabbath. Why is it so important? Well, let me tell you five reasons why it was so important, and actually, they're all applicable. I'm just gonna mention them, and I'm not going to expound them. The reason that this promise was so significant is, first of all, because Sabbath observance set the Jews apart as the people of God in a secularized and commercialized society. So if you want to take a note, set them apart.

That's it. Number one, it's important, because this day set them apart. Number two, by what they did on this day, they acknowledged the Lord as Creator, which the surrounding nations did not do, which the Ammonites and the Moabites and the Ashtodites did not do.

They worshiped other deities, but they did not worship the God Jehovah. And so they were not committed on a regular basis to say, We thank you, Father, that you are the Creator of the universe. And on this one day in the week, we pause and acknowledge this, that in six days you made the world and everything in them, and on the seventh day you rested. And we rest today in acknowledgment of your creatorship.

Thirdly, we by our resting today give you credit for all the blessings of the week that is gone. Fourthly, we give recognition to the fact that the spiritual dimensions of life are more significant, more urgent, than the material demands of life. And every time we do what everybody else does on the Lord's day, we miss the opportunity to make this wonderful point—that it is time well spent to take a complete twenty-four-hour period and to use it, saying, Spiritual things matter more than physical things. My Bible matters more than my newspaper. My soul matters more than my exercise. My family under God and their spiritual well-being matters more than my bank balance. My congregating with the people of God matters more than how high my grass is.

My singing in the choir matters more than whether my car is clean or dirty. And so we go through the process. And fifthly, it provided rest from their usual work, rest from their usual work, and recreation for their body and their souls. Now, let me just suggest to you that here, without trying to make a direct application from the Jewish context into our Christian day, let me at least say this to you. Consider each of these five things in relationship to the average Lord's day, and we are so far removed from this as for it to be absolutely incredible.

And yet at the same time, we are on the receiving end of all kinds of calls and all kinds of commands to unite so that we might show the world who we are and what we're for and what we believe in and what we're about—each of these things unquestionably significant, probably profitable, and likely necessary. But God must look from heaven and say, How in the world is it that you have to come up with five of your own and you neglect one of the ten that I gave you? I mean, I only gave you ten in the first place. You've knocked that down to nine.

And while allowing everybody to assume that the one out of the ten is irrelevant, you're then coming up with more of your own, so you've got it back up to fourteen or fifteen. And he says, If you want to be distinctive, I'll tell you what to do. Take a day and employ it in such a way as will mark you out as different in a commercialized and secularized society. Take a day that allows you to say to your family, to your neighbors, and your friends, God is the Creator. All of this earth stuff is bogus.

God is the Creator of the ends of the earth. And on the Lord's day, we declare that. Thirdly, we recognize that every good and perfect gift that we've enjoyed comes from his hand, and therefore we will rejoice in his provision. Fourthly, we want everyone to know that the spiritual dimension of our lives is more important than the physical.

And fifthly, we want the people to know that here is a provision of God for us, for our good. Now, the interesting thing is that Nehemiah got angry about this. He got real angry about it. And the reason he got angry was because he said, if you look down at verse 18, didn't your forefathers do the same things? And wasn't that why God brought all this calamity upon us and upon the city?

I mean, just think it out, he says. We started this deal off years ago trying to rebuild the broken-down walls. In the process of that, you made these commitments to the Lord. Now you're reneging on your commitments to the Lord, and the walls are going to start falling down again. Is that your Christian life today? Five years ago, ten years ago, you were baptized, you made these undying resolutions about what you were going to be, how you were going to be a part of the people of God here, how you were going to give your time and your resources and your gifts, and now you show up once in a blue moon? You show up once a day?

Sunday morning is your gig, and you're gone? What does that speak to concerning undying commitment? What indication is there to the watching world that this is something important to you? That's no different from another large percentage of North America. People have no problem with that. They don't care, in order to keep the culture a little stabilized, if thirty-five or forty million people go out and worship on a Sunday morning. There's nothing bizarre about that.

That's fairly acceptable. But when they invite you over for dinner, and you say, No, on the Lord's Day evening we're involved with our children, and we have an opportunity to teach a little choir, and we usually are part of worship, you say, Hey, get out of here! What's that about? It's about keeping promises. It's about being different. It's about radical Christianity. The last issue and the last threat is the threat of unholy marriages, twenty-three to thirty-one. Why is he so concerned about these people marrying other people? This is not a racial thing.

Don't let anybody teach you that. The issue here is not between races. The issue is a spiritual thing. The people had absorbed another culture. They'd begun to listen to the other culture. They had begun to marry with a culture. Consequently, their children didn't know who they were or what they were.

They began to grow up with the language of Ashdod. They did not know the language of God. Therefore, they couldn't read the book of God. If they couldn't read the book of God, then they couldn't do what God wanted them to do, and it would only take a couple of generations, and there'd be no Jewish nation at all. So, now, Maya is ticked.

I mean, ticked doesn't do it justice. Look at verse 25. I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of the men, and I pulled out their hair. They said, I'm not going to suffer for this.

As long as I'm the leader here, this is not going to happen, he says. And he says, if you've got any doubts, just think about Solomon. He was a big king. He had a lot of big deals. Nobody was admired more than Solomon, but he ended his days totally trivialized and trashed as a result of failing at this one point, because his heart became wedded to foreign women, and the foreign women turned his heart away from God, and he began to build altars to foreign deities, and although he had begun so well, he ended up so poorly.

Think about this. Where did many of the mainline churches start? They started with a total commitment to this book, to the deity of Jesus Christ, to the inerrancy of Scripture, to the absolute faithfulness of God's promises, to the certainty of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Now, what happened? Well, somebody got married with somebody else. Somebody got in bed with somebody else that they shouldn't. And they began to say, well, maybe that's not as important as it once was. Maybe that's not as significant.

Maybe people shouldn't be making a fuss about that. And gradually, as you watch the great declension, you discover that they are where they are today, not as a result of a dramatic, whole-scale disengagement of truth, but as a result of a slow leak and a slow bleed over the years down to where we are left with virtually nothing at all. And listen, and listen carefully. Parkside Church can go the exact same way within a generation. All you need are leaders who will not hold true to the Scriptures. All you need are leaders who want to be man-pleasers. All you need are leaders who are prepared to go with the flow and flush with the drift, and within a generation, this church will not be known because God has exalted above all things his name and his Word. It may be known for a lot of social things. It may be known for a lot of good things, but it will no longer be a player in the great economy of God. And when we apply it immediately to our own families, let's be honest, we cannot marry our children to pagans and have Christian homes from that.

You have pagan homes from that. God helping me, I'm not gonna end up as one of these guys who says, Oh, well, you know, there's just nothing you can do, you know. They just make their friends, and they do their things. No! No, I'm sorry.

Rubbish. I did it with my sisters. I told you before, I threw guys out my house for my sister's sake. Threw roses in the bin for my sister's sake. Why? Because I didn't want a stinking brother-in-law who was a pagan, selfishly. And I didn't want my sister setting up home with someone who would draw her away from Christ. And that's the issue here.

And that is a radical issue in our day, where tolerance is on the throne and truth has been dethroned. Therefore, if you speak to the issue of truth, people say, You're a crank! You're a crackpot! Next thing, you're gonna start beating people and pulling out their hairs. Maybe!

Maybe! Why? For the sake of eternity! For the sake of the kingdom!

In order that we might do God's work in God's way. This was so messed up that the high priest's grandson was married to Sanballat's daughter. That's how rotten the things were in the state of Israel. Who is it that says something is rotten in the state of Denmark? Is that Prince Hamlet? Then Nehemiah comes back to Jerusalem, and he says, Something is rotten in the state of Jerusalem.

Because you've got the leadership kowtowing to the day. Where are the Nehemiahs of our day? Where are the guys that are prepared to stand up and just take it on the chin, even though the whole world is against them? I love Athanasius. Athanasius, the whole world is against you. Athanasius says, Then I am against the whole world.

That's tough. But that, I think, is the issue to which many of us are going to be called before this decade is out. The new relationships in America are not being formed on the basis of denominationalism.

They are not running down old traditional lines. The new relationships are being formed on the basis of truth and error, light and darkness, a commitment to the promises, a commitment to the principles, a commitment to truth. And only those who are prepared to stand with Nehemiah will be able to stand on that day. It's a lovely re-finish to the book, isn't there, where it says—what does it say? So he goes nuts, and he does all these things, and then he purifies the priests. And then, in verse 31, he makes provision for the contributions of wood and the firstfruits, and then he prays.

A man committed to purity, a man committed to practicality, and a man committed to prayer. He said, We're gonna purify. We're gonna make sure there's enough wood and there's enough fruit and stuff in here. And then we're gonna do at the end of the book what we did at the beginning of the book. We're gonna get down on our knees, and we're gonna say, O God, we're not perfect.

We're far from it. O God, we're not all we should be. O God, we're having a hard time here in so many areas, but we want to ask that you will remember us with favor. May these studies stir our hearts and guide our lives for our good and for God's glory. Let us commit one another to God's care as we pray together. O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, we pray that from the example of Nehemiah we may draw strength.

From the poor example of the people we may distance ourselves. Save us from unhelpful associations, from unfulfilled commitments, from unkept promises, and from unholy marriages. Help us to know what it means to do God's work, God's way.

For God's glory we ask it. Amen. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. Today's message wraps up our study in the book of Nehemiah. I hope you've benefited from these practical and encouraging lessons. If you missed any of the messages, you can catch up online. All of Alistair's teaching can be streamed or downloaded or shared for free through the Truth for Life mobile app or on our website at truthforlife.org.

The complete three-volume study in the book of Nehemiah is available on a single USB at our cost of $5. Find it in our online store at truthforlife.org slash store. Now our offices are closed today so our team can be home celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday with their families.

We'll return on Monday. In the meantime, on this busiest shopping day of the year, if you're searching for Christmas presents for family or friends, let me encourage you to visit our online store. You will find spiritually uplifting gifts like the large print ESV Bible found in top grain leather. It's available at our cost of just $35. You'll also find both volumes one and two of the Truth for Life daily devotional which can be purchased for just $8 each. These are hardcover books with a year's worth of daily scripture readings accompanied by insights from Alistair. Look for the ESV Bible and the Truth for Life devotionals in our online store at truthforlife.org slash gifts and shipping in the U.S. is free. You know, we regularly hear from listeners who write to us to tell us how much the Truth for Life daily devotional has encouraged them in their faith.

In fact, we were thrilled to hear from Kimberly recently. She gave the devotional as a gift to her father-in-law. After reading it, he surrendered his life to Jesus.

He was baptized with his great grandchildren. What a great story. You never know how God will use a simple act like giving a book to someone to change a life. Kimberly was kind enough to send a video and shared this incredible story with us and said that we could share it with you. You'll find the video and other encouraging comments from your fellow listeners when you go to truthforlife.org slash stories. While you're on the website, check out Sinclair Ferguson's book, the book he's written for children called The Big Book of Questions and Answers About Jesus. This is designed to introduce young children to Jesus to answer their most common questions in a way that is fun and yet biblically accurate. Ask for your copy today when you give a donation to Truth for Life at truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapine. On Monday, we begin a series in 2nd and 3rd John to find out what it means to walk in truth. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.