Our scripture lesson this morning is Nehemiah chapter 10, verses 1 to 31. I'll just be reading the chapter 10, verse 1, and then 28 to 31. Now on the sealed document were the names of Nehemiah. Now the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the sailors, the temple servants, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the land to the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, all those who had knowledge and understanding, are joining with their kinsmen, their nobles, and are taking on themselves a curse and an oath to walk in God's law, which was given through Moses, God's servant, and to keep and to observe all the commandments of God our Lord and His ordinances and His statutes, and that we will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land, or take their daughters for our sons. As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath day or a holy day, and we will forego the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt." You may be seated. May God add his blessing to that fine reading and sacred text. John, are you heartbroken that you didn't read verses 2 through 30? Or 27? Well, never fear, they will be read later today. Now, we last week, and I understand I know some of us were traveling and not well last week and you're here today and you weren't aware, but we did finish up chapter 9 where the great Levitical prayer of covenant renewal was consummated and finished. and obviously brought to that wonderful conclusion. Now today is the result of that. It's more or less putting it into practice what they had committed to. And we'll see the glorious ramifications of that for us today. But before we do, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the fact that you've always been a God of covenant renewal. Only for your church and those that by grace you would bring to her. And so we do pray, Father, that the gospel of grace would shout forth today and draw sinners unto you. And also for those in the body of Christ, that they would be built up in their most holy faith. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, as I mentioned, last Sunday we noted that covenant renewal has two basic parts to it. One is a sort of punctiliar event where from time to time the church will repent of some known sin or the sins of previous generations and confess those and bring them to God. And that's basically what we see here. But then flowing out of that becomes a weekly Sabbath church worship of God in Christ, covenant renewal, which we do every Sunday and all the saints do as well as they join us in heaven and on earth who are gathered around the throne of grace and the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the continual work of grace of covenant renewal. Today we're going to bring it even closer to home by making covenant renewal our own. It's always easier to speak in generalities or to pontificate about what people are to do or be, and that's all people, and that's easy to do. But it's much more important for us to take the truths of our professed Christianity, our professed religion, our professed true religion, and apply them ourselves first and foremost to our own hearts, and then to our church, and then to our families, and then to our workplaces, neighborhoods, city, county, state, nation, and world. Now on this Lord's Day in which we celebrate the Lord's Supper, let us renew our covenant with the Holy Trinity and grow in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, making it our goal today to be faithful Christians, covenanted with Christ and His Church. We're going to study Nehemiah chapter 10, verses 1 through 31. The title of the sermon, as you can see there, is Making Covenant Renewal Our Own. If you're fairly new or you're not familiar, there is an outline provided if you wish to use it. Consider with me the doctrine. Credible covenant renewal is always official, personal, and practical. In other words, contra much false religion of the day, it is never a matter of one's own private interpretation of religion, and it is neither so abstract that it never affects real people and the things they do. It's actually very practical, as we will soon see. Credible covenant renewal is always official, personal, and practical. It is never nebulous or unclear. N-E-B-U-L-O-U-S. Children basically means unclear, fuzzy, cloudy, uncertain, so indistinct that anybody can make anything out of it that they want. It's not that way at all. the stipulations of God's covenant of grace which he began in the Garden of Eden after the fall of man in Adam's sin in which we were all cast into despair, despondency, sin, destruction, rebellion against God. That covenant has always been thoroughly lucid. In other words, very clear. What is it? That sinners have a saving relationship with God not through their works, not through the law, not through their own self, not through their own religion, but through faith in Jesus Christ, the one who would come, the one, in our case, who has come. This gospel faith would be received through preaching, the foolishness of preaching. that is despised by the world, confused to some people, but clear to the saints. They hear the gospel preached and they receive it, Lord's Day to Lord's Day, because we forget it throughout the week. We start to think, oh, I need to work my way, I need to satisfy God on my own merits. It's just our natural, sinful, default gravity position to come back to that. We need to hear it preached. Then, Faith, which is separate from works and law, nonetheless acts. In other words, living faith does things, acts. And what God's Holy Spirit does is He will join a redeemed soul to His adoption and place them in the body of Christ so that they become living, active members of the body of Christ. And then as members of the body of Christ, first and foremost important, do what you're doing right here. Gather on the Lord's Day to worship, to hear the preached word, to take the Lord's Supper, to be encouraged, to be supplied, edified to be given what we need for the week ahead. And then we repent, we grow in our understanding of the Word of God in the context of the community of the body of Christ. We encourage each other, we edify each other through the week, we teach each other, we use our gifts, we employ our various skills that God has given us to build up the body of Christ. That's in a nutshell what we're talking about. Credible covenant renewal is always official, personal, and practical. It's never nebulous or unclear, but it is always measurable and accountable. Now, based on what we just said here in point A above, how might we biblically measure, if you will, our own faith and the professed faith of others, which is the role of the eldership in the church. And how might we keep account of ourselves and those under our care, depending on where we are in terms of covenant commitments, as per, say, an elder's covenant commitment to guard the sheep, to protect and shepherd the flock of God. Are the professing believers formally joined, as we'll see in this text, to the local and faithful church? In other words, are their names listed as a result of their baptisms? I mean, real people, real names, real ink, real paper, reality, tangible, palpable, objective, real. Do those who are, do they keep their covenant promises? Which those who take the supper and are admitted to the table give those five vows that we take? Are we keeping them by grace? Are we in church on the Lord's day? Are we free from public scandal and reproach that would stain the name of Jesus and the reputation of his church? These are the basic ways which individual Christians and the churches to which they are joined can and do measurably, objectively, biblically evaluate as to whether or not souls are in right standing or on the right path with regard to sanctification. So Christianity is not so fuzzy and nebulous and ethereal and personal, in the long sense of the word, as many would profess it. Down to earth, real, objective, real people, flesh and blood. Credible covenant renewal is always official, personal, and practical. Now from the text, note with me three spiritual steps to making covenant renewal our own, verses 1 to 31, Nehemiah chapter 10. These are practical precepts that God has provided his church in all ages, not just the old covenant, not just the new, both, but which have largely, sadly, been lost through heresy, ignorance, and or poor instruction and poor leadership. Now let's consider these three spiritual steps to making covenant renewal our own. First, we put our names where our mouths are, verses 1-27. Now those who place their seal on the document were Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hekeliah and Zedekiah, Sariah, Azariah, Jeremiah, Paschur, Amariah, Melchizedek, Hathish, Shabaniah, Malak, Haram, Merimoth, Obadiah, Daniel, Ginnathon, Baruch, Meshulam, Abijah, Midjamim, Meaziah, Bilgai, and Shemiah. These were the priests, the Levites, Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Benue of the sons of Hinnadad and Cadmiel. Their brethren Shebaniah, Hodijah, Kalita, Peliah, Hanan, Micah, Rehob, Hashabiah, Zachar, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, Hodijah, Danai, and Benueh. The leaders of the people, Parash, Pahath, Moab, Elam, Zatu, Bani, Buni, Asgad, Bebi, Adonijah, Bigbi, Adon, Eder, Hezekiah, Azur, Hudijah, Hashem, Bezai, Hereth, Anathoth, Nebi, Magpiash, Meshulam, Hezer, Meshuzbul, Zadok, Jeduah, Teletiah, Hanan, Aniah, Hoshiah, Hananiah, Hashib, Halohash, Pilhah, Shobek, Reham, Hashadnah, Measeah, Ahijah, Hanan, Anan, Malachiram, and Bayana. Now see, this is done with about four practice sessions. And I was not going to foist that on poor dear Elder John. Why did I take the time to read that long list? I haven't even counted how many names are listed there. For a purpose, to show us that the eternal word of God, eternally codified in the Holy Scripture written, records real people whose names are really on rolls. Actually, if you want, you can go back here and look on the window, we have rolls listed. Now, that list is not completely up to date, and Mark Ritz took care of that, my mistake there. But the real people on real rolls, and we should take the biblical lists seriously. It doesn't mean that we always have to read all of them all the time, but we should take them seriously, just like we take our names listed under authority, objective covenant, just as seriously. Primary this was. It starts at the top. Nehemiah is listed as the governor in verse 1a. And then from verses 1b through 8 we have the priests listed. And then verses 9 through 13 we have the Levites. And then the leaders of the people in verses 14 through 27. All of them put their names to this covenant renewal, even as we have done, who are in that state here today, renewing our covenant with the Lord, if you will, in holy worship. Very practical. Putting our names where our mouths are, the first step. Then, the second spiritual step, taking covenant renewal, our faith leads us to some serious theological thinking, verses 28 and 29. Now the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Nephilim, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone who had knowledge and understanding, these joined with their brethren, their nobles, in other words, these people listed, and entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God, to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God and his ordinances and his statutes. So we have a serious thing going on here. People are saying, chapter 9, lots of sins chronicled. Sins confessed, bewailed, bemoaned. grieved, confessed, repented of, and now there's a commitment to walk in the law of God. But here's something you must understand. That principle of covenant renewal seen in verses 28 and 29 is established on a more preliminary and important foundation. And that foundation happened before. It's Christ, the one to whom they would look, faith in him and repentance toward him based on their confessions of sin in chapter 9. Now, on that basis, in fact, how do we know that? Because they would never have come to even regret those sins, confess them, repent of them, or even mention them if God's grace had not first come to them, drawing them to themselves. So gospel had become the foundation on which now they want to walk faithfully in the law of God, so faithfully that they put a curse on those who won't. So faithfully that they're going to make some very difficult, pragmatic changes in their lives that we'll note in a little while. So this commitment to walk in the law of the Lord is not by their own It's not by their own attempt to just be strong, to make a resolution, a new year. Oh, we really botched it up in the past, let's just do the best we can. No. This commitment is done in the power of gospel grace. And that's what we need to recognize too. Really, this is a good example of John Calvin's third use of the law. Remember that John Calvin had the beautiful three uses of the law. And the third one was that the law becomes for the gospel Christian and the church a guide for sanctification, to know how God would have the saints live in this world. We just read the Ten Commandments. Sure, we haven't kept them, we're reminded of our faults, but that is still our desire. Our zeal is to walk with Christ in honor and pleasing to Him. Not out of a slavish devotion, but out of childlike love for a Father that we are completely devoted to. And that is the beauty here. And in this realm, which we read in verses 28 and 29, young and old Christian minds start to get developed. Those with understanding start to grasp and grapple with the practical issues of life. Oh, we have young people growing up, and they want to get married. Should we just give them to the richest? pagan over here who offers marriage, a hand of marriage or something. No, there's going to be very rigid covenant stipulations laid down where the people of God make real tangible changes from what had plagued them and their predecessors in years past. As the Christian mind has developed, the question has become, well, what does the law of God say? After all, they're saying we're going to walk in the law of Moses. What does it say? So we need priests, and we need clergy, and we need Levites, and we need education, and we need church education so that people understand it. Remember, Ezra himself had come. Apparently, interesting, he's not listed here, he's probably finished with this part of the ministry here, maybe gone somewhere else, but the point is that he had come to teach God's Word to the people of God in the first place. And, not only that, how is it to be kept? It's one thing to know what the Word of God says, but how do we keep it? They might even say, well, even our fathers who failed so miserably, they knew they weren't supposed to do those things. Or they knew they were supposed to do other things they failed to. How do we keep it? And that's again the principle of gospel grace. Keeping it by the principle of faith leading to love which flows into obedience. And joyful and cheerful obedience at that. Remember that Jesus said that the law of God is synopsized or put together in two basic tenets. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. And the way we progress in that or any other sanctification is by faith leading to growing devotion to our Father, which we'll examine now in a little more particular. Three spiritual steps. First, we put our names where our mouths are. We don't stand aloof from the body of Christ and look down on people because they're not as good as us and they're not good enough for us. No, we get right in there with them. Young, old, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, every class, race, ethnicity is part of this body. We get involved with people. We mingle with them. We actually put our names where our mouths are. Then faith leads to some serious theological thinking. Finally, our love for God results in tangible and real obedience. Verses 30 and 31. We would not give our daughters as wives to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons. If the peoples of the land bought wares or any grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we would not buy it from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. and we would forego the seventh year's produce and the exacting of every debt. Now these two verses are very interesting and intriguing because if you know the history of Ezra and Nehemiah, keeping in mind that originally in the Hebrew canon of the Old Testament, Ezra and Nehemiah was one book, not two separate books, and we see Ezra in the book of Nehemiah. If you know the history One of the most perennial troubling problems they had was the sin of intermarriage with pagans, with the peoples around them. In fact, that's going to be dealt with later yet. We're getting close to the end. We'll see it again. We saw it at the end of Ezra, that part of Ezra Nehemiah. And it was a real problem and now they tackle it and note they start there with that one. A felt relevant, personal, family, down and dirty problem. It wasn't some distant sin that nobody really is into. No, it isn't really relevant. No, it's a very, very pertinent one that they begin with, and that is the taking of pagan wives. And they say, we're not going to do that. We're not going to give our daughters to the heathen, and we're not going to take their daughters into the covenant, which is a very important stipulation. And of course you know 2 Corinthians says the same thing, don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers, etc. What does light have to do with darkness, etc.? And you young people, it's good for you to apply that to your lives as well as you look ahead. And then after that, the people, the church there, addresses the inevitable temptation of doing business on the Sabbath day. Now that Jerusalem has the wall around it, and it's getting on its feet, and businesses are being established, houses are being built, the temple is being used in the proper form, the priests and Levites are there, there's protection, there's security. Now there's going to be a real temptation when the Gentiles show up on old Saturday, the old covenant Sabbath day, and knock on the doors of Jerusalem. Hey, do you guys want to buy these cows or these loaves of bread or these sheep or whatever it is they're They're peddling, which is totally legitimate on the other six days, but they say, no, we're going to preemptively stop that as well. We're not going to do business with them on the Sabbath day. We're not going to break that commandment, which we just read today as well in the law of God. And then they make two other interesting commitments as well. in verse 31. One is to observe the seventh year Sabbath of the farmed land. Remember if you know your Old Testament you know in Leviticus chapter 25 verse 4 it is said that every seventh year the old covenant Jewish farmers were to let the land lie fallow and not be farmed. It was probably a brilliant principle even today. And then they'd have enough food stored up by God's grace. And you'll recall that part of the reason they had to spend so many years in Babylonian exile was because it had to account for all those sevens that they had failed to give the Sabbath rest to the farmed land. And now they're saying, we're going to do that too. So notice how they're making their religion higher than their pocketbook. They're making these preemptive strikes against the temptation to compromise later. And they're saying, look, we're not going to do that. We've seen the failure and what that's brought on to our past generations, our fathers, and we don't want that. And then, lastly, they keep a commitment that they made way back in Nehemiah chapter 5, if you might recall if you were here. that in Nehemiah 5, there was this problem of the exacting of every debt from one Jewish believer to another person in the covenant, which was really causing the poorer brothers to be very destitute. And Nehemiah says, look, you've got to stop doing that. Grace needs to abound. And they did. And here they're saying, we're going to keep that commitment, too. There is here, please note, a comprehensiveness and a specificity to their professed willingness to obey God. So it's something that's measurable and it's accountable. But it isn't some nebulous sort of, oh God, I love you and I hope I do everything right for you. But it's like, I'm really going to do this. I'm setting that Sabbath day aside. It's a special holy day. We're not doing business. And by the way, that's still the principle today. The only difference is it's not Saturday. It's Sunday. You can do all the business you want on Saturday, but not Sunday. And they also put these other wonderful safeguards in as well. None of this based on law, but on grace. It's all based on grace. The grace of the gospel. Look what God has done for us. He's returned us back here to this land. He's put favor in the minds of these pagan kings. We are here now. We are back there. We ought to be thankful. Let's return our devotion to God by showing it in sincere, cheerful, promised obedience. And we do the same thing. when we are the church and live as the people of God, chosen and beloved throughout the week as well as we come off the Mount of the Lord on the Lord's Day. Credible covenant renewal is always official, personal, and practical. We've seen three spiritual steps to making covenant renewal our own. Finally, in a little more application, learn Why the faithful church should teach covenant renewal? Is all this material in the book of Nehemiah extraneous and superfluous? In other words, children, is it just really there but of no real use to us? Is that what the Bible is to us? Or is it relevant? Are the principles universal and applicable in every era and in both covenants, old and new? Well, the answer is they are, and so discover with me why the faithful church should teach covenant renewal, because otherwise Christ's sheep are confused and robbed of their inheritance. When people don't know who they are, what they're to do, whether or not they belong to God, let alone his church, when they don't know why they're on the earth in the first place, it's no wonder So many people, and I'm not just talking about unbelievers and pagans and people that don't care, which are obviously in this category, but even some who would care are aimless, purposeless, and miserable. We need to know who we are, that we belong, and why we're here. And that is not possible without the principles of covenant renewal. It doesn't matter how much zeal you have, how much passion you have, how much energy you have, it will not work. One cannot keep one's perspective clear or zeal alive as a believer without weekly, Lord's Day, covenant renewal. And perhaps on occasion that other type of covenant renewal as well, where we see a problem, we come to the consensus, we announce it and confess it and repent of it and move on in the grace of God. Worse than that, for people who are Christ's sheep, but are ignorant of his riches that they are to enjoy in this world in Jesus, the pearl of great price, they're robbed of their blessing. Please don't misunderstand me ever. When I say things based on the Word of God and its teaching like we're seeing here very clearly in Nehemiah today, which applies to us today, I'm not in any way hinting at all that there aren't genuine, sincere people of God who are truly saved and going to heaven, but they are robbed because they have not been well led. They haven't been well shepherded. And this is one of the reasons we need to pray that God would raise up faithful pastors and elders and deacons and churches so that the people of God can enjoy the full riches. Now, still, we're going to have trouble here. It's going to be difficult, but that's why we need it more. The end of our lives is Jesus. The end of our lives is knowing him. And being where He is, being in His house, being among His people, worshiping Him and taking it out, that's the end of our lives. That is heaven. Heaven is simply where He is. And He is the end and goal of our existence. Therefore, let us, dears, adopt this attitude. Let us be thankful, faithful, humble, and helpful. As we, by grace, seek to bring the biblical gospel of Jesus, our Savior, and His grace to the whole world around us, in every realm and sphere and place that God would place us. Why the faithful church should teach covenant renewal? Because otherwise Christ's sheep are confused and robbed of their inheritance, and worse, our Savior does not get the glory he deserves. Why did Jesus die? Well, we should all know the answer to that. To save sinners. More specifically, he died to save his church, which he loves. Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Ephesians chapter 5. How much glory do you think Christ Jesus would get when the church in the world is hardly identifiable and cannot be distinguished from the rest of the world? And when those who might even be members thereof don't know it? floating around in some cloud of half-knowledge, being robbed of the glorious riches of Jesus, the assurance of his love, the benefits of his atonement, the proclamation of absolution upon their sins, the participation in the gospel being preached, correcting them, bringing them back to the truth, the word of God, but also the table of the Lord. Therefore let us here today do as they did in Nehemiah's time back in chapter 10 only let us do with more confidence than they did because now we have the full light of The gospel in its entirety because Jesus has come the final revelation of God He has been incarnated. He's died. He's risen. He reigns at the father's right hand Let us like them believe in Jesus Christ as our only righteousness, so we don't have any other Period. Zero. As our only atonement, let us love God as a natural childlike response to what he's done for us in cheerful obedience from the heart and from the sufficiency of his means of grace brokered through his body, the gospel and the ministry. Making Covenant Renewal our own turns it from being just an academic exercise to weekly communion with Jesus and the body of Christ. Let's be thankful for that. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for Covenant Renewal and for the opportunity we have to join with these brethren whose names are listed here, who were listed some 2,500 years ago. And they, the ones who were faithful by grace, are still with us right here worshiping you around the throne on this Sabbath day, the risen Christ. We thank you for them. But more than that, we thank you for Jesus, the one they worshiped, the one we worship, the only object of every true saint's praise and adoration. We thank you, Father, for what that led to, the commitments that were made, and the sincerity of them, and what we'll see, Lord willing, even next week in the balance of chapter 10. And we pray that we might also have such a firm commitment to the God of heaven, the God of the church, the God of worship, and the God of the Lord's day. For we give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen.