During Jesus’ ministry, as I mentioned earlier, one of the things that his disciples struggled with often, as well as the people who were around with them, is they failed to see that the real problem man has is a heart issue. It’s not broken bones, it’s not disease, it’s not corrupt governments, but it’s our relationship with God and our rebellious hearts. Jesus came to transform our lives and to make us new creatures in Him.
And those of you who have come to know the Lord as your Savior, there’s a difference in your heart. Things are different now. The perspective of your life is different.
The things you see are different. As we’re looking at the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah was broken way back in chapter 1 as he heard what was happening in Jerusalem. The walls were still down.
The city was in shambles. The temple was being rebuilt by Ezra. But the real problem that Nehemiah had was his heart for the people.
What is happening to the people? And the walls need to be rebuilt. But the real issue was the heart. As you look at the way that the book of Nehemiah is laid out, the first couple chapters deal with Nehemiah’s calling of God.
How Nehemiah had been called by the Lord for a specific purpose, and that was to go to Jerusalem to be the one that would be the leader that would cause the walls to be rebuilt and would stand to point the people to the Lord. The next few chapters deal with the rebuilding of the walls. It tells how it happened.
It talks about how Nehemiah had laid out the plan on how the walls would be rebuilt. It talks about the various ways that Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem came against Nehemiah, tried to discourage him and prevent him from rebuilding the walls. And it talks about the challenges that he faced, both from external, from Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem, as well as internal, from some of his own leaders in Jerusalem, as well as the temptations that were being placed before him to give it up and quit doing it.
Yet we saw that in record time, Nehemiah had the walls rebuilt in 52 days. Now the walls have been rebuilt. The gates have been hung.
The people have been given the responsibilities that those who are the gatekeepers and the watchers on the wall, the Levites that are to lead and have read Ezra, who’s read the Scripture of one of the priests. And then we see that the Levites were come and instructed to teach the people what the Scriptures meant. And after this had happened, and go back to chapter 8 and beginning at verse 9, you see the response of the people.
And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.
They were weeping and they’re being told, Don’t weep.
This is a holy day. God has come and met you. You who had forgotten His Word.
You who didn’t understand His Word. The Lord has come and met you today. This is a holy day.
And he goes on and he tells them, Then he said unto them, Go your way and eat the fat and drink the sweet and send the portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy unto the Lord. Neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
And this is what we need to understand. We live in a day where there is all kinds of wickedness around us. All kinds of uncertainty.
And one of the sad things is that God’s people have forgotten their relationship with God. And that it’s a holy relationship. And the joy of the Lord is our strength.
We are to walk in His strength, in His power, in His joy, even in the midst of turmoil. Now, the people had seen a mighty thing happen. The walls of Jerusalem rebuilt in 52 days when it had been nothing but rubble when Nehemiah had arrived.
There was still a lot to be done. The city, the houses within the city, lie in ruins for the most part. People had to be encouraged to come back and move back to Jerusalem and live there.
Because if you stop and think, this had been a city that had been utterly destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s army. And was just being put back together first by Ezra in the temple and now Nehemiah in the walls. And yet the people still didn’t have life as normal as it had been.
And then when they heard the Word of God read, they began to weep. Because they understood their own situation. But the Lord wanted them to look at Him, the One who can transform the heart.
And so He says, the joy of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites stilled all the people saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy, neither be ye grieved. And the people went their way to eat and to drink and to send their portions and to make great mirth.
Because they had understood the words that were declared unto them. Now I want you to understand, they had not known the Word of God because it had not been being taught properly. The whole reason they had been taken away into captivity, those of you who have been studying with us on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday nights, you will know why they were taken away into captivity.
It was 70 years prior to this when they came back. And you see that the reason that they had been taken away into captivity is that they were worshipping false gods. They weren’t worshipping the Lord the way that God instructed them to.
They didn’t understand who God was because they were willing to worship pieces of wood that they had carved and covered with gold and silver and put clothes on. And they prayed to those pieces of wood. And those pieces of wood, which couldn’t speak, couldn’t hear, couldn’t talk, couldn’t touch, were supposed to somehow answer their prayers and deliver them from their troubles.
And they had forgotten the true and the living God. And that’s why they were taken away into captivity. And now when they came back, they were coming back and they were just hearing again, once again, the Word of God taught to them.
And the joy that they were hearing and who God was, was to fill their hearts with joy. And all the people went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great mirth because they had all understood the words that were declared unto them.
And the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people and the priests and the Levites unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the law, to be able to understand.And they found written in the law, which the Lord had commanded by Moses, the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month.
They were supposed to be celebrating the feast of the tabernacles. Now, if you’re Jewish, you would have an understanding even today of the feast of the tabernacles.
If you’re not Jewish, you may not have an understanding. The feast of the tabernacles was to be celebrated once a year. And it was to be a feast for all of Israel was to gather in Jerusalem.
And it was established to remind the people of when they tabernacled with the Lord in the wilderness. And they were to put up tents like they had been living in when their forefathers had wandered through the desert with Moses on the way to the promised land. And it was to be a remembrance of when God was with them and He went before them as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
And His presence was known and seen. And it was to be reminded that the same God that was with the forefathers in the desert was still alive today. And they were to be remembering that and to remember to tabernacle that He would be with them.
But it also had something even greater. It was looking forward to the day where the Lord would come and once again, in a very unique and specific way to fulfill His promises, tabernacle with His people. Jesus came and took on the form of a man.
He was God who took on the form of a man. And He became a man that He could dwell amongst us, that He could be the one who would be our Redeemer. He who was without sin became sin for us.
And He dwelt and tabernacled with us at that time. But, He was rejected and despised. And they crucified Him.
Which was foretold in Scriptures, what it said had to be done. Because Jesus, the Word of God said that unless there was a shedding of blood, there could be no forgiveness of sin. Because that’s how serious sin is.
And the blood that was shed so that forgiveness could be attained was the blood of Jesus at Calvary. And like I said, He who was without sin became sin for us at Calvary and took our sin upon Himself and paid the penalty. And then, as the Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, He was crucified according to the Scriptures.
He was buried according to the Scriptures. And He rose again from the dead according to the Scriptures. And it’s a reality because there were witnesses all around.
There have been many men throughout history that have tried to disprove the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ and they have not been able to do it. Because it was a historical event that occurred and in that event, the forgiveness was maintained and given for the sins of the whole world. All we had to do was receive that forgiveness.
The tabernacling that they were to do was a foretelling of all of that. But there’s coming even a greater tabernacle day because it says that the Lord shall return with His ten thousands of saints and establish His kingdom upon this earth. And He shall rule and reign from the throne of David in the city of Jerusalem for a thousand years.
And after that shall come the new heavens and the new earth. As they’re seeing this and they’re reading the law, they realize that they have a tabernacle. And it says, as they’re reading this, it says, So the people went forth, and in verse 15, And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount and fetch olive branches and pine branches and myrtle branches and palm branches and branches of thick trees to make booths, as it is written.
And so they’re telling it to every Jew that is throughout the whole land. And they’re saying, Come to the temple mount and this will be done. So the people went forth and brought them and made themselves booths, every one upon his roof of his house and in their courts, in the courts of the house of God and in the street at the water gate and the street of the gate of Ephraim.
And the congregations of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths and sat under the booths. For since the days of Yeshua, the son of Nun, unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.
Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book the law of God and they kept the feast seven days. And on the eighth day was a solemn assembly according unto the manner. And so for seven days, they remember tabernacling with the Lord in the wilderness.
And on the eighth day, there was to be a solemn assembly. Now all the people had gathered from all the Jewish people from throughout the nation of Israel. It’s the first time that they’d done that since Joshua had gathered all the people together.
They’d had the feast of tabernacles since then, but not all the people had come. No, they were there. And as they come to the solemn assembly, all of a sudden, the heart is really addressed.
Now on the twenty and fourth day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with feasting and with sackcloths and the earth upon them. I want you to see some things there.’ As they begin to hear the word of God again, as they’ve been remembering tabernacling with the Lord in the wilderness, that their fathers did, all of a sudden, their hearts are being touched.
And when the heart is touched, there’s a transformation of character. I want you to see that their actions changed, their clothes changed, and their attitudes changed. It says that in verse 1 of chapter 9, they assembled with fasting.
Fasting was done, and is done, so that you can think upon and concentrate upon the Lord. Their thoughts began to change. It says they put on sackcloth.
Sackcloth is a symbol of repentance. It’s a symbol of understanding your need. And they put ashes upon themselves, realizing that apart from God, there is no life.
So their attitudes changed, their thought life changed, their clothes changed, their actions changed. And then it says, and the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins and iniquities of their fathers. Why would they have to separate themselves from all strangers? Well, throughout the whole building of the walls, one of the things that’s been happening is you’ve had the strangers all around there.
Sandalek, Geshem, Tobiah. They were not Jewish. As a matter of fact, they were of the enemies of Israel.
And yet, we see that they had infiltrated into the city of Jerusalem. Later on, at the end of the book, you see that they’d even intermarried with some of the Jewish people. And the Lord had specifically said that these people were to be a people unto themselves.
How does this apply to Christians today? Because we are told that we’re in the world, but we’re not to be of it. The separation that occurs in our lives is, you can’t move out of your neighborhood, you can’t quit your job, you can’t do that, but you’re not to be of the world.
This was a sign that there was something different about Israel at this time that was happening.
They were separating themselves from the world, and they were focusing on God. I want you to understand, I think one of the greatest needs that we have as Christians today is to take our eyes off of the fact that the world is our help and place them back on God as our Redeemer, Savior, and King. And we’re to be separated from worldly attitudes, worldly actions, and worldly ideas.
Because the joy of the Lord is our strength, not the things of the world. And as they come and they separate themselves, they set those that are not of them outside the city. And then he goes on and he says, what happened? And they stood up in their place and they read the book of the law of the Lord of their God.
And one fourth part of the day, and another fourth part of the day, they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God. I want you to see three things. Number one, study.
Number two, confession, which is examination of your heart to see what you’re doing that’s not right. And third, worship. Do we really know how to worship the Lord? Because that’s what they were doing.
They were coming and they were reading God’s word, they were seeing what it said, it convicted them in their hearts, they confessed what God was revealing in their hearts, and then they worshipped God. To worship means you’re saying God is worthy. God is worthy of who he is and he’s worthy of our praise.
He’s worthy of our thanksgiving. He’s worthy of our acclamation. Worshiping is not having steam come out of the back of the platform and have the pastor walk out from the steam.
Worshiping is not necessarily having a professional band or worship team up in front to lead the singing. Worship begins with an attitude of the heart. You know, when Jesus was walking on the earth, one of the times he healed ten lepers.
He healed them. Nine didn’t come back. One came back.
And the one that came back thanked him and praised him for what had been done. He worshipped, if you look at Abraham, worshipped the Lord. And the worship began with a heart of thanksgiving and praise.
When he was asked by God to take Isaac up to Mount Moriah and there to sacrifice him, and the whole time Isaac’s saying, where’s the lamb? And Abraham’s saying, God will provide. And if you can imagine, they leave the servants and Isaac and Abraham go on by themselves. And Isaac is carrying the wood that is to be the pyre of the sacrifice.
And where’s the lamb? They get to the top of the mountain and Abraham sets the wood on the altar and tells Isaac to lie on the wood. Where’s the lamb? God will provide. And just as Abraham takes the knife, all of a sudden the Lord stops him and says, there’s the ram.
And there was a ram in the thicket and Abraham sacrificed the ram. Abraham worshipped the Lord in thanksgiving and praise because he trusted God and believed His Word and that He’d provide the lamb. And the thing is, our worship should be a focus of the fact that God provided the lamb.
Jesus came… Now, it’s interesting, I was listening to another message that a man brought and he was talking about the fact that… When I read scripture, he says, I don’t think that really Satan knew who Jesus was specifically until he was proclaimed by John the Baptist at his baptism because he said, whether you disagree or agree, he killed all the babies in death with him that were under two because he didn’t know specifically which one it was. You don’t hear much of anything of Jesus’ life from the time that they come back from Egypt and they go back up to Nazareth and had Satan known that he was up in Nazareth, why wouldn’t he have gone up there and attempted to kill him there? But you don’t hear anything about that. But where all of a sudden Satan comes against Jesus really big time is when John proclaims, as Jesus is coming, behold the Lamb of God that comes to take away the sins of the world.
You know, Satan’s not omniscient. We like to give Satan more authority and power than he possesses because there’s only one that is all-knowing, there’s only one that is all-powerful and that is the Lord. And it’s in Him we trust.
And as the people are reading about that, and we don’t have time this morning, I challenge you to read the rest of chapter 9 because what they do is they read all the accounts that have happened in their history, that are given in Scripture. And I’ll just share some of the things that they read. They read about Abraham being called out of Ur of the Chaldees and to come to a land that he knew nothing about and that that land would be promised to him.
And Abraham came by faith. And then they talk about the fact that they remember about what happened when they went into the land of Egypt and how that they came and miraculously were delivered out of Egypt by the power of God, by miracles that God performed. And the plagues upon Egypt and the spreading of the Dead Sea and the deliverance from Pharaoh and all that the people of Israel did was mumble and grumble and complain.
And then they got out into the desert and they needed food and God gave them manna from heaven and water from rocks. And all they did was mumble and grumble and complain. And they came to the promised land and they were ready to enter in.
And they sent the twelve spies and ten came back and they gave an evil report. They said, they are giants in the land. They’ll destroy us.
And two men gave a good report and said, it is just as the Lord said, the land is flowing with milk and honey and God will be the one that gives it to us. And the majority mumbled and grumbled and complained. And then they came into the promised land at the time of Joshua.
And they saw the hand of God deliver them time and time again. And what they would do is they would turn and they’d build their idols and they’d build their false gods and they’d mumble and grumble and complain. And as they’re reading this, God’s breaking their hearts.
Look at all that God had done for them. And all they could do was mumble and grumble and complain. How much has God done for us? We are not to be mumblers and grumblers and complainers.
But rather, we are to allow our hearts to be broken and we are to allow the joy of the Lord to be our strength. What does the world have to offer?