I'm gonna read the portion of scripture that we are gonna be studying tonight, not the whole chapter, but a good portion of it. So if you'd like to follow along with me, there's a Bible in the rack in front of you. And if you don't have a Bible at all, like you don't own one, that Bible is our gift to you. If you do, you can look up Nehemiah chapter 13, and we're gonna read verses one to 14 together. This is Nehemiah chapter 13, verses one to 14. And God says to us, on that day they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God. For they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. Yet our God turned the curse into blessing. As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent. Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests. While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem. For in the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliaship had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I gave orders and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God with the grain offering and the frankincense. I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them. So the Levites and the singers who did the work had fled each to his field. So I confronted the officials and said, why is the house of God forsaken? and I gathered them together and set them in their stations. Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses, and I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shalamiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Padiah of the Levites, and as their assistants, Hanan the son of Zakur, son of Mataniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers. Remember me, oh my God, concerning this. And do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for an opportunity to to finish up the series, The Restoration Project from Nehemiah. And we're thankful, God, that because you chose to send your son to live and die and rise in our place, that we've been restored to you and now to your people, and we get to spend forever with you and enjoy you and be satisfied in you and tell other people about you. And so I pray tonight as your word is opened and we get to hear what you have to say to us, I pray that you would speak powerfully and mightily through your servant, Mike. May your words be spoken and not his own. May your spirit control him and fill him and use him and guide him. And may you get the glory for us. May our hearts be opened to what you have to say to us. And may we, by your grace, leave changed people who are ready to serve and love and continue to worship you with our lives. And it's all because of what your son's done in our place that we ask these things of you. Amen. Thank you, Josh. Good evening. We're going to finish up Nehemiah tonight. And I got the best chapter to preach on in this whole series. I don't know how that happened, but there's a lot of cool stuff in Nehemiah 13. And there's a ton of application. And so my challenge tonight is to not get so mired down in some of that application that it doesn't flow. And so I'm sure tomorrow morning, the rest of the pastors will tell me whether or not I pulled that off. So we'll see. A little bit earlier, we sang a song that said, I'm getting back to the heart of worship. It's all about you, Jesus. And in some ways, I feel like Nehemiah 13 is that. Nehemiah 13 is a chapter in which you see our Creator on display, and you see our Creator, the Creator God, wanting to show the people, this is righteousness, this is perfection, this is holiness, this is what I expect. And yet, as we know, humanly speaking, we can't attain that. And so therefore, we see Christ in Nehemiah, just like we do all of the rest of the Bible. It all points to that righteousness being fulfilled through Jesus Christ and through his work on the cross. And so that's what this chapter is about tonight. There is an outline. I think it's probably going to be showing up. If it's not, I'll be saying it anyways. I don't know if it is going to be showing up. Do we have the outline? Okay, well, I'll just tell you what it is. So, tonight's outline, I'll just give you a quick synopsis. It's the restoration of the people in verses 1 through 29, Nehemiah 13, 1 through 29. And then at the very end, it's the request of Nehemiah. And in between there, we have separation from the Ammonites and the Moabites. We have support of the Levites, sacredness of the Sabbath, and the sanctity of proper marriage. And I've titled this, The Righteous Requirement of the Law. And so the big idea is God's holiness demands our righteousness. God's glory is displayed through our obedience. And what we have to do is go back just a little bit. to where Chris left off a couple weeks ago. And that is in chapter 12. Because the very first part of 13 says, on that day. And so you have to say, OK, what day is that? Well, we're still on that same day when, as you recall, the choirs were going around the walls and they were meeting. And there was this fantastic, great celebration going on. And I'm going to read just a couple of those verses. Chapter 12, verse 38. The other choir of those who gave thanks went to the north, and I followed them with half of the people on the wall above the tower of the ovens to the broad wall. and above the gate of Ephraim, and by the gate of Yeshona, and by the fish gate, and the tower of Hananel, and the tower of the hundred to the sheep gate. And they came to a halt at the gate of the guard. So both choirs of those who gave thanks stood in the house of God, and I and half of the officials with me, and the priests," and there's a whole bunch of names, I'm not going to read them, Down to verse 43. This was a fantastic celebration. 70 years they hadn't been able to do this and they and they have the walls built and the choirs are assembled and they are praising God and they're worshiping and they're giving thanks to their creator and it says it could be heard a far away off now how many of you have ever been to a Giants game a Few of you how many of you have ever gone to buy garlic fries when something really great happens? I and you can hear the noise from a far away off, right? You go in, you buy garlic fries, and all of a sudden you hear the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd, and you're going, what's going on in there? And you hurry back, but you have to stand in line because you got to get your garlic fries. And the noise of this celebration could be heard a far away off. And this is the day that we're talking about. So that's just a little bit of history on that. This is the day that verse 13 starts with. There's a quote that I want to share with you. General William Booth of the Salvation Army said this. He says, I want you young men always to bear in mind that it is in the nature of a fire to go out. You must keep it stirred and fed and the ashes removed. And that's exactly what I feel Nehemiah did in chapter 13 for Israel. He stirred with worship, he fed with scripture, and he removed the ashes of sin. And that's important that we do that because a fire does want to go out. And because we're human, we constantly, constantly have to be looking at our savior and our creator and worshiping him and reading scripture and seeing what he has for us and removing the ashes. And one day, praise the Lord, we will be perfectly glorified and we will be in heaven and we will be worshiping. We won't be removing ashes anymore. And that'll be a great day. So I want to start off in chapter 13, verse 1. And basically, we've got the reading of God's word. It says, and on that day, they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God. For they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. Yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. So we have this great worship service going on. They're on the wall, there's a lot of noise, there's clapping, there's singing, there's, I'm not gonna do the little chant that Chris did, because I don't know how to do that, but that singing that they were doing, it was all there, the celebration was there, and then they stop, and what do they do? They open up God's word, and they read God's word to the people. And worship, when you worship your creator, you are ready to receive God's word. And that's what they did here, and they were ready. And so they read this, and they read, No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation. This is Deuteronomy 23, 3 and 4. This is what they read. Deuteronomy 23, 3 and 4. No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation. None of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam, the son of Boer from Pithor of Mesopotamia, to curse you." Now, if you're familiar with the story of Balaam, and I'm not going to go all the way through it, but the kids just learned this a couple of weeks ago in Sunday school, Balak was the king of the Moabites. And here come the Israelites, and they've been wandering in the wilderness. And they're coming along, and the king Balak kind of looks out and says, my, that's a lot of people. And if they keep coming this way, they're going to just trample us, and they're going to take our land. And so he thought, I know what I'll do. I'm going to phone up my good friend, the prophet for prophet, Balaam. And the reason I say the prophet for prophet is because Balaam, basically, you could hire him to curse people and you could hire him to bless people. And then you put the money in his pocket. And so King Balaam goes to Balaam and says, would you please come curse these people because look at all of them. And long story short, Balaam says, I'll get back to you on that. God comes to him and says, I don't want you to curse the people. Then Balak says, but I'll promise you riches, and I'll give you whatever you want. And Balaam kind of says, well, OK, but I'm only going to do what God tells me to do. And you know this part of the story. He gets on his donkey, right? And he starts to head out. And as he's going, an angel of the Lord stops in front of him with this huge sword. The donkey sees this, Balaam does not. And so he can't figure out why his donkey is going off the road, and he strikes his donkey. He's angry, right? And then the donkey goes in the vineyard and presses his foot against the wall, and it hurts his foot, and he's mad at that, and he strikes the donkey again. And then the donkey just lays down, because the donkey can see the angel of the Lord, but Balaam can't. And the donkey lays down. And so Balaam strikes the donkey again, and the donkey turns to Balaam, and God gives it words to speak, and he says, why are you hitting me? Now here's the interesting part. Balaam spoke back to the donkey. Kind of weird. But Balaam said, well, you made me so mad, you made me look like a fool. Right? And so he's talking to the donkey, and the donkey's saying, don't you see the angel? And then Balaam's eyes were open, right? And he sees the angel, and the angel says, you can go on ahead, but I only want you to tell them what I tell you. So he goes, and King Balak says, look at all those people out there. Curse them. And Balaam says, how can I curse when God hasn't cursed? And so King Baelic goes to another spot and says, come over here, maybe you need another view. And he looks at other people and says, look at this view. Curse them. And Baelic says, I can't do that. And he blesses them. And so King Baelic's like, No, come over here. Maybe there's a better view over here. And he takes him to the third place. He goes, look at all these people. Please curse them. And Balaam says, you don't get it. I can't curse who God hasn't cursed. And he blessed them. And finally, the fourth time, Balaam says, look, if you can't curse them, would you please just be quiet and don't say anything? And that's when Balaam said, I see a star coming out of the house of Jacob. I see a scepter coming out of the house of Jacob. I perceive it a far way off, not now, but it's there. And by the way, Balak, he says the Moabites are gonna get mowed down. And so here he has this prophecy, and we all know that the prophecy was the Messiah, right? He was talking about the Messiah that was coming, and he says Moab's gonna get mowed down, and Balak was so mad he went away. And the thing is, they're reading this, and the people knew that. So in this very first verse, and we'll go faster than this, I promise. But I wanted to give you a little bit of background. In this first verse, that's what they're reading, and they're understanding, wow, and we have Ammonites and Moabites living in our midst. And when we came out of Egypt, they didn't meet us with bread and water. They cursed us. In fact, they hired Balaam to curse us. And all of a sudden, after worshipping and after listening to the reading of God's word, they come across this, and then they did what every pastor's dream is. This happens to Chris every single Sunday. They did what the scripture said. Every Sunday, right Chris? They read it, they were ready for it, they embraced it, and they did it. Let's go over to Nehemiah 3. It says, as soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent. They did it. When you read scripture, when you pay attention to it, when you're ready to obey it, it will teach us how to live. It will show us who God is. It talks about the gospel in Jesus. It talks about the truths of life. And it's so important, and that's why we call this Santa Rosa Bible Church. Because the scripture is so important. It was then, and it is now, because it's God's word. Look at verse four. Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions to the priests." What you have here is a man, Eliashib, who's the high priest. And he becomes partners with this man, Tobiah. Now y'all remember who Tobiah is from earlier scripture on this. Tobiah was not a good guy. He opposed Israel. He opposed the building of the wall. He was not a nice man. And Eliashib is basically saying, come on in to the temple. and I'll make you a place where you can live. And what we're going to do is we're going to take all of the offerings, the vessels of offering and worship, and the grain, and all the things that we use to worship our Creator, and we're going to set those aside, and we're going to make room for this darkness right inside the temple. The Israelites respond in action by reading God's word. But then, dun-dun-dun-dun, there is a darkness that covers the priesthood. That was my best movie trailer voice I could do. So you see what's happening is that they're obeying, but then in scripture it says, this is what's really happening. Eliashib is allowing this to happen. He's putting this guy in there and you take a place where there should be light and you put in this darkness and it's not good. Now, you all know that darkness is simply the absence of light, right? I can remember when I was a kid, I was camping with the Graves family, with Pastor Graves. And he took Jeff and I to this place called the Lava Tubes in Burney. And it's a place where there's a cave and you can go down in there and you take your flashlights and you walk through these caves. And when you get down in there, you turn the flashlight off and it is completely, completely pitch black. And Pastor Graves liked to have a little bit of fun once in a while. Not often, but once in a while. And so there was this side room kind of a cave and we went in there and we turned our flashlights off and he's giggling and laughing and telling Jeff and I what the plans are going to be and we're going to scare people. Okay. And so we can see these flashlights coming along and he has this great big giant bright lantern of a flashlight and all of a sudden Jeff and I are sitting there and he turns on his flashlight and he starts running at these people making a train sound. And you're in the middle of this cave, right? And so he's making this train sound and he's running and sure, you know, the light brightened up the whole cave and they probably only for a split second thought it was a train. But if you can imagine that, pretty interesting. Well, the lightness is shown in the cave, and when there is no light, there is absolute darkness. Having a light in the darkness is a good thing. Back in the days before electricity, a tight-fisted old farmer was taking his hired man to task for carrying a lighted lantern when he went to call on his best girl. Why, he exclaimed, when I went a-courting, I never carried one of them things. I always went in the dark. Yes, the hired man said, Riley, and look what you ended up with. I know that wasn't nice. But light is a good thing. And what we have here is an absence of light. Eliashib was honored to be allied with Tobiah. His greatest honor should have been his greatest disgrace. He should have been ashamed. Look in Nehemiah, back to Nehemiah 2.10. I just want to show you real quick. If I can find it myself. Well, I'll just go off my notes instead of reading it, because it says in Nehemiah 2.10, He says, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel. That was Tobiah. It was very displeasing to them. In 2.19, it says, they mocked us and despised us. In Nehemiah 4.8, all of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it. That was Tobiah. So what did Elisha do in verse five? He prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandments to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests. And then verse six. While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I went to the king, and after some time I asked leave of the king, and came to Jerusalem. And I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God." The high priest cleared out the storehouse. He went to Ikea or whatever their equivalent was. He made a great condo for Tobiah. Tobiah was invited anytime. He always knew he had a great little flat in the big city. The key is the storehouse for the things of the Lord were no longer being used for the service of the Lord. The thing that they were supposed to be doing to worship their creator, they brought in sin, they brought in darkness. And we can look at that and we can say, I can't believe he did that. I can't believe they were, if you will, spitting in the face of God that way to say, We don't want to worship anymore, God. We want to have Tobiah come in here. I can't believe, we would say, I can't believe God didn't strike them down for that, right? I can't believe God looked down at that in his own temple, where the things of worship were leaving, that he didn't strike them down. And yet, I wonder, what about us? And don't we do that on a daily basis with our temple? Allowing sin to come into our hearts and taking up residence is a death sentence When this church and Hopefully by the grace of God this won't ever happen but if this church went away from preaching the Word of God if this church went away from evangelism and discipleship and fellowship and building spiritual friendships and We would be taking the storehouse, if you will, for worship, and we'd be letting the darkness come in, and it would no longer be used for the purpose that God had intended it to be. And that would be a dangerous situation. I'll read for you, this is a story, some of you may have heard this. It's a pretty familiar illustration, but it fits so well, I thought that I would go ahead and read it. It's about a lighthouse. It says many years ago there was a little village on a rocky seacoast where storms often battered and seas were ever treacherous. Many ships were driven onto the rocks by the storms and the lives of many sailors were lost because of the raging seas. One day the people decided among themselves that they should establish a lighthouse. and a life-saving station on a little peninsula on the coast to warn ships away from the rocks and to save the lives of those who were cast into the icy waters. They approached the government, began to secure the necessary funds for their project, and soon they set forth and built a tower and set a beacon in it. They organized a lookout system, and they bought boats and learned how to man them, and soon they were in business, the business of saving lives. One day someone suggested that since they all spent so much time at the lighthouse that they should gather there occasionally and enjoy good fellowship. And soon they began to get together at first infrequently and then often more at the lighthouse. Next it was decided that if they were going to spend so much time there, they must make the place more comfortable. So arrangements were made to heat the lighthouse. The gray walls were painted a brilliant white. Some of the walls were paneled. Rugs were put on the floors to disguise the bare concrete. A fine kitchen was installed with a handsome stove. And generally speaking, the lighthouse became a nice place to spend your time waiting for the alarm to be sounded. Everything about the lighthouse was made comfortable and nice the lighthouse soon became the center of life in the little town that grew up around it one night A fierce storm blew in, as storms had blown in for years. Many ships were tossed on the jagged rocks, and the men at the lighthouse spent long hours picking sailors from the bitter, cold, icy waters and taking them to the lighthouse, where they were fed and provided with dry clothing. This had happened many times over the years, but this time, after the storm subsided and the sailors had all left the lighthouse, there were some men who were angry. It seems the storm had made them leave the comfort of the lighthouse and go out into the wet, dangerous seas. And they got cold, very cold. The sailors, when they were delivered to the lighthouse, they soiled the carpets. The kitchen was a mess, not to mention the stove. After a brief meeting, it was decided that sailors, when they were brought to the lighthouse, should be taken to the basement, not to the nice upper areas. Sometime later, another storm blew in. And only one half of the men went out in the boats, and again, picked sailors from the frigid waters. This time the ship, which had broken apart on the rocks, was from another nation, and the men who manned her spoke another language. They dressed differently, and even worse, they were of a different color. After this storm, a few more men joined those who refused to enter the sea. After some debate, it was finally decided that the beacon would be kept lit, but the rescue work would be discontinued. A small group disagreed, however, and went down the coast a short distance and started a new lighthouse. This small group decided that they should establish the biggest life-saving station in the Little Peninsula, and so they did. Every day they warned ships and sometimes attempted to save lives from the icy water. Fame of the new lighthouse grew, and the lighthouse back up the bay eventually turned out its beacon. The coastline on that bay is now dotted with once great lighthouses. Only one is still lit. The others are clubs, used only for getting together and enjoying life while the seas rage on. And by the way, the small group running the new lighthouse were those once rescued from the raging seas." And I know that's a long illustration, but I wanted to read it because it so poignantly captures what's happening here. What God had intended for the temple, for there to be worship, was no longer the case, and the temple had lost its purpose. And I pray that Santa Rosa Bible Church does not become that. And by the grace of God, I don't think it will, as long as we keep preaching the word, worshiping, discipling, evangelizing. But it's a good reminder from scripture, even from this scripture. Let's go on to verses six and seven. While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem. For in the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I went to the king. And after some time, I asked leave of the king and came to Jerusalem. And I then discovered the evil that Elisha had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. Sin entered when Nehemiah was gone. Matthew 13 25 is the parable of the weeds and it says while his men were sleeping the enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. Sin finds an occasion when one falls asleep at the wheel and when righteousness is not present. When did they build the golden calf and who was missing. Moses. Sin will enter when prayer and Bible study are not present. James 4, 7 says, draw near to God and resist the devil. It's such an important application, if you will, from this one verse that when Nehemiah was gone, the sin entered. And it's just a reminder that we have to be diligent about that. We have to have our hearts tuned towards Jesus. We have to be vigilant about that because sin so easily can creep in. We're gonna go ahead and just move on to verse eight. It says this, and I was very angry, this is Nehemiah, and I was very angry and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. I love that verse. Nehemiah was angry at this sin that he saw, and he decided to do something about it. Now, I have to ask you a question. When was the last time that you were actually angry at sin? And was it something like abortion or human trafficking or something like that that really got you riled up and you were angry about sin? When was the last time that we were angry over sin because it reflected poorly on the glory of God. It reflected poorly on our Savior. When was the last time we looked at sin and saw it for its disgustingness and its grossness and just was angry at it like Nehemiah was? Nehemiah saw what was going on. He basically said, I was angry. I took all of his stuff and I chucked it out. So I like Nehemiah for that. He's a man of action. He sees a problem, he sees the sin, and he says, you know what? We're going to get rid of all of that. We're just going to chuck it right out. Now why was Nehemiah so upset? There could be a couple of reasons. Because rooms in the courts of the temple of God were being occupied by a man who was not only a pagan, but who also had a history of actively opposing God's work in the days of Nehemiah. Could have been that. It could have been because it reflected so badly on Eliashib, the man who was a spiritual leader in Israel. Maybe because it made Nehemiah question the lasting value of the spiritual revival he witnessed when he was last in Jerusalem. I don't know, but I have a feeling that ultimately, Nehemiah was so angered and so bothered simply because It reflected on God's glory. It reflected poorly on God's glory. So Nehemiah gathered up to buy his stuff, and he threw him out. Nehemiah's a very matter-of-fact guy. He's a get-it-done kind of guy. He says, I was displeased, so out in the street it goes. Nehemiah is much like Jesus when he cleansed the temple from those who profaned it. Remember in Matthew chapter 21, verses 12 and 13, he said, and Jesus entered the temple, drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. You'd think that when Eliashib desecrated the temple like that, that God would have rained fire down on him from heaven, taking care of the problem, but he didn't. Back in Nehemiah chapter nine, it talks about the history of Israel. And at the very end of verse 17, it says that God is slow to anger. And even though all of that was happening, God was slow to anger down. God knew at that time when this was happening, God knew that his own son was going to need to come back and cleanse the temple again. God knew that this was going to get worse again, and God knew that his very own son was going to walk those same streets. God knew that his own son was going to have a cross put on his shoulders, and he was going to be beaten, and he was going to walk through these streets with the generations following from these people, and he was going to walk through the streets and people were going to spit on him. And they were going to mock him. And they were going to pull out his beard. And they were going to beat him. And God knew that his son was going to walk these streets and eventually go out of the streets and go to Golgotha, and he was going to be hung up on a cross for these generations to make fun of and to mock. And God knew that one day his son was going to take care of the problem, take care of the sin by dying on the cross. He knew that his son was going to be the one who was going to save the world. These men at this time were profaning the temple. And instead of God raining down fire on them, he was patient and he was long-suffering. And he knew that one day his son would walk these same streets and that his son would take care of this for all mankind for all eternity. We'll get verse 9 Says then I gave orders and they cleansed the chambers and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God with the grain offering and the frankincense Nehemiah gives orders to cleanse the chamber. He says we have to have worship We have to get back on track here and he cleanses the and he cleanses the the chambers he brought back the vessels for the house of God with the grain offering and so You see the first reform. He cleared out the temple. He reformed the people. And he said, we are going to worship our creator. Let's take care of this now. And then in verse 10. I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers who did the work had fled each to his field. So I confronted the officials and said, why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together and set them in their stations." The next thing he does is he sees that the Levites are out in the field trying to make a living because they couldn't make a living at the temple anymore because the people were forsaking the house of God. And who did he confront? And I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them so that the Levites and the singers who did the work had fled east to his field. So I confronted the, not the people for not giving, since I confronted the officials and said, why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together, set them in their stations. Then, once they were in their stations, once they were doing the work of ministry, then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses. And I appointed as treasurers over those storehouses Shalamiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, Padaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant, Hanan the son of Zechor, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers." And then he says in verse 14, remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God. and for his service." He has a very interesting prayer here. He did not say, reward me, oh my God, concerning this, and publish my works for all to see. Nehemiah simply said, remember me, not reward me. And he said, do not wipe out my good deeds. He didn't say, publish them for everybody to see. See, Nehemiah was looking to God for approval, not to men. Nehemiah didn't get on a megaphone and say to everybody, you're welcome. Thanks for noticing everybody. I'm doing a good job here. He just said, remember me. Don't wipe out my good deeds. Look at verses 15 and 16. So he restored the Levites. Verses 15, in those days I saw in Judah people treading wine presses on the Sabbath and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on that day when they sold food. Tyrrhenians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah in Jerusalem itself. So, as he's looking out and he's seeing what people are doing, they were buying and selling on the Sabbath. Now, at the root, this was a problem of priorities. There's nothing wrong with buying and selling, only when our desire to buy and sell, to make money or to spend money, becomes more important to us than honoring God. And that's what was happening. They were supposed to set aside the Sabbath to honor God and to worship God. Starting to maybe see a pattern here. They were supposed to be worshiping their creator, and instead they were taking it as an opportunity to buy and sell. Totally materialistic. Totally self-centered, right? The Sabbath means to cease, desist, or rest. Psalm 46.10. It happens to be my favorite verse. I quote it a lot. I tell all the little wanted kids all the time. God wants you to be still and to know that he's God. Cease striving. Know that he's God. And really what it's saying is, just stop once in a while. And focus. And focus on your Creator. And I think because of this culture we live in, We're constantly bombarded with stimula, right? And we're constantly active. I can tell you from my own family, between sports, between ministry, between Shaley's Nordquist dancing, between working in the yard, between just sitting down as a family to eat dinner, between all of these different things, life gets really, really, really busy. And every once in a while, there's a tendency for somebody to say, you know what? I got an idea. Let's go away for the weekend. We'll go water skiing instead of going to church. And I'm not saying that that's wrong all the time. What I'm saying is you have to rest. You have to stop. You have to look at your creator. And the problem is a lot of people who, I'll say it this way, are former attenders of church started out by saying, we just need quality family time. We need boats, and we need barbecues. Right? And so they go out on the weekend, and they need their family time. So there are boats and there are barbecues. And before you know it, that becomes the pattern, and that becomes what they worship. And after a while, in staff meeting, we go, where are the so-and-sos? Well, they're just kind of gone. And it's because people take their eye off their creator. And if we would just learn to make it a priority to come to church, to wake up in the morning, I know 8.45 is early, but you know what? So what? And we come out and we worship our creator. And that's what we're supposed to do. And that's what, That's, I think, the application that we can pull out of this right here. They were supposed to be having a Sabbath and instead they were buying and selling, right? Exodus 34, 21 says this, six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. Now, do you think plowing and harvest were important to the people of that day? Absolutely. If you don't harvest, you don't eat. You can't barter with people. If you don't plow, you can't plant, which means you can't grow the crops, and you can't harvest, and you can't eat. You can't barter with people. It was really important. But God says, take the Sabbath. Be still. Know that I am God, right? There's the first violation of the Sabbath. They occurred shortly after the command was given in Numbers 15. A man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath. They arrested him and prayed about what to do. Numbers 15, 35 and 36. Then the Lord said to Moses, the man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp. So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Think God took it serious? I think so. This was a clear indication that the people of Israel were putting making and spending money before glorifying God. Let's look at the next couple of verses, 17 and 18. Then I confronted, who? The people. Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, what is this evil thing that you are doing profaning the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers act in this way? And did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath day. So he confronted them and he said, what kind of evil is this, right? What kind of evil thing are you doing profaning the Sabbath day? And then he gives him a little tidbit. He says, don't you remember that our forefathers did this and it didn't turn out too well for them? Right? He's basically saying, you're insane. Because the definition of insanity is what? Doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, the same thing, and expecting what? Different results. So he's saying to them, we've been down this road. Let's keep the Sabbath, let's keep it holy. And verse 19, as soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day. Verse 20, then the merchants and the sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. But I warned them and said to them, why do you lodge outside the wall? This is my favorite part, I think. If you do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time on, they didn't come on the Sabbath. Nehemiah was an absolute man of action. He's looking at the people. You can just see him up on the wall, and he's kind of looking over. He says, why are you guys camped outside there? Because we're not really interested in your wares and your goods and all that right now. And oh, by the way, if you don't go away and if you come back again, in modern terms, he says, I'm gonna come down there and beat you up. He says, I will lay hands on you. From that time on, they did not come on the Sabbath day. He was a man of action. I've often thought it would be interesting if on Saturday night we had a group of people who prayed for those dear saints who were not going to show up on Sunday morning because of some lame excuse. And if we prayed for God to thwart their plans, right, it would be interesting, wouldn't it? Or what if we sent out two or three of our elders to show up at their picnic and kick sand on their picnic basket and throw them in their car and say, would you please come to church? Now, we're not gonna do that, I don't think, are we, Chris? Okay. Probably not a good idea, but I've often wondered, oh, John, you're going to, okay. I've often wondered, because we can pray for God to thwart the plans of the people, right? Yes? Okay, say something. Absolutely. You magnify Jesus Christ, your pews will be filled and brimming with people because they want to hear about the Savior. And I came here tonight to see how your church was with speaking about Jesus. And I'm hearing the same condemnation of that sad-sleeping church. And I was a member for 40 years. How can He love me? How can He love each of you? He wants to save you. And just believe on Him. Well, stay for a little longer because we're just talking about the Sabbath and Nehemiah and... Okay. I mean, I was so condemned. And not because I didn't believe the Sabbath. I checked it perfectly. And I had a lot of pride. And I thought I was so holy. And everybody in our church thought we were better than all the Sunday people. And now I don't do that. I rest in Jesus, I read the Bible, and I sing praises in my house. Well, let me read a paragraph that I have here in my notes that might help you. I wrote this in my notes. It said, the New Testament makes it clear we are not under the law of the Sabbath. In the same sense, Israel was under the old covenant. Colossians 2, 16 and 17 says, these are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. but we are certainly under the same obligation to make honoring God more important. Absolutely, thank you. And I happen to agree with her. It should be all about Jesus. As we're going through the scripture here, we do see an application now. And the application is make worshiping God. Does anybody wanna meet her out there and explain it a little bit? Eric, thank you. We wanna make sure that when we come together that the emphasis is on worshiping our Savior and worshiping God. And I think that's the application of this right here. Let's go back over to, where was I now? What verse are we on? Verse 19, as soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut. So he says, I'm going to help you out to obey. I'm going to help you do all these things. Verse 20, the merchants and the sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside. And then he says, I'm going to lay hands on you. And from that time on, they didn't come. Then I commanded the Levites, verse 22, that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, oh my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love. Verse 23, in those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab, and half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take oath in the name of God saying, you shall not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. He goes right into the sanctity of marriage and he starts talking about how that these people were intermarrying with the non-chosen, right? They were intermarrying and what was happening is they were saying the children can't even speak the language of Judah. And my response to that is, well, of course they couldn't because they were at home being raised by the foreign moms. And there's another application here. That is, how do we expect that we can participate, live in the world, be entertained by it, do the things of the world, and not become worldly? I heard an illustration once, I think it was Justin that I heard it from, Justin Willis, and he said, you take a white glove and you stick it in the mud? The white glove doesn't make the mud glovey. Right? What happens? The white glove becomes muddy. And I think there's an application for that right there. And then in verse 26, he talks about Solomon. He says, Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women? And so he takes this other area and he's saying, we can't do this. We can't have the sin mixed in here. And so he's trying to get across the point of them that we can't do all this because the righteous requirement of the law says no. And just like Then they had failures. There was history all throughout the Old Testament of obedience and disobedience and revival and failed revival. And there was history of honoring God and dishonoring God. And what we know about all of that and the greatest thing in the entire world is that we know that our God and Savior, our Lord and creator is patient with us, praise the Lord. And what we know is that all of that happens so that we can see that and say, you mean we can't do it on our own? See, because the vows, the promises, the covenants, the commitments, we can do all that, but then if we rely in that to help us, The focus is on us and what we're doing. And so we need to understand that the entire message of the Bible, and particularly right here, I think, is that you can't do it on your own. He's saying you need to get rid of the Ammonites and the Moabites. You need to make sure that the Levites are coming in. You need to get the people kicked out of the temple. They need to be kicked out of the temple, Tobiah. He's saying we need to do all of these things, and yet, Were they perfectly going to fulfill that? They weren't. Verse 28, And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib, the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me. And he says, Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. And he's looking at this sons of Jehoiada, the son of Elisha, the high priest who was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Now, you remember who Sanballat was, right? And basically what he's saying is, you have the high priest whose grandson married the daughter of Sanballat, and he's so disgusted with that, he says, he chased him from me. And then he says, remember them, oh my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. Verse 30, thus I cleansed them from everything foreign and I established the duties of the priests and Levites each in his work. And I provided for the wood offering and appointed times and for the first fruits. Remember me. Oh my god for good He cleansed them from everything for him He established the duties of the priests and Levites each in his work and they provided for the wood offering at appointed times and for the firstfruits Remember me. Oh my god for good and Nehemiah wraps up chapter 13 after all of these reforms and he basically says exactly what the thief on the cross said by the way said remember me and He didn't say reward me. He said, remember me. And it was enough for Nehemiah to know that God looked on him with kindness. And I feel like, I feel like that's what we need to do. I feel like we need to understand that the only thing we need We have the requirements of the law. The only thing that we need is Jesus and Jesus alone. And the only thing we need to remember is we need to worship our God and our Creator. We need to be in the scriptures like they were, and then we need to respond to it, and we need to respond in obedience. And we need to understand that the entire scope of the Bible and the entire scope of scriptures is pointing back to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we can worship Him. And as the songs that we sang already, coming back to the heart of worship, it's all about you, Jesus. And even back then, when they were going through all of this, they were gonna fail again, but you know what? It was all about the redemption that was coming. It was all about the promised Savior who was going to come and was gonna rescue us. And so we close Nehemiah 13 with him just doing the simple praises, remember me, oh my God, for good. And we know that some of these things stuck because 400 years later, Jesus actually had to say, oh, now you're doing it way too much. You've gone overboard. You know, yeah, you're keeping the laws pretty good and you're keeping a lot that you made up and you're keeping, you know, a lot of these things, but I'm I'm it Jesus said, you know, I'm it. I am the way I am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to the father but by me. And if we could just remember that. Let's go ahead and close in prayer. God, thank you for. your scripture, thank you for your word. And Lord, I would even pray that in my stumbling and bumbling through this, Lord, I pray that you would be honored and glorified. I pray that there would be some truth that could be pulled out of this. Lord help us to make it all about you. Help us to worship now as we close the service in spirit and in truth and give you all the praise and all the glory. And we pray this in your name. Amen. This message has been brought to you by the Santa Rosa Bible Church. Our purpose is to lift up the Lord by living out the word, loving one another, and leading others to Christ. Be sure to visit us on the web at www.srbible.org or come visit us in person at 4575 Badger Road, Santa Rosa, California 95409. You can also give us a call at 707-538-2385.