Mid-Week Check-In for September 11th, 2024

 I have started a new vlog on Rumble to serve as a mid-week check-in as we begin our new series of sermons from the Gospel of John. You can view the vlog here:

https://rumble.com/v5ep17x-mid-week-check-in.-the-gospel-of-john-an-introduction.html

John-So That You May Believe, The Gospel Of John Part 01 Various Passages "Background And Introduction"

 September 8^th, 2024

From The Series: John- So That You May Believe

Part 01 Background and Introduction

The Gospel of John

Mountain View Evangelical Missionary Church

This morning I thought I might begin with a quote”

“Proverbs 24:16 says, “No matter how often an honest man falls, he always gets up again” (TEV). The first person to invent the wheel only discovered what God had already designed, for the Lord created things in circles. The stars and planets are round, they move in orbital circuits, and life, as a result, moves in cycles. Every one hundred years, we have a new century; every 365 days, we have a new year; every 24 hours we have a new day; every 60 minutes we have a new hour. God created the potential for new beginnings into the very design of our universe.

And for good reason. Every hero of Scripture needed new beginnings: Adam and Eve after they ate the forbidden fruit, needed a new beginning; Moses after he killed the Egyptian, needed a new beginning; David after his adulterous relationship, needed a new beginning; Elijah after an emotional breakdown in the desert, needed a new beginning; the disciples after Good Friday…, needed a new beginning.

And maybe you.^[1]” End Quote.

Those who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour have the ultimate “New Beginning” and that is we are made new in Christ. Our rebirth into Jesus after salvation is the most important “New Beginning” that we can ever experience. I was thinking of new beginnings because here we are at the beginning of a new ministry year. We can tell that things are starting back again because the bulletin is full again with the various ministries here at the church.

We are starting a new book series this morning as we will begin a journey together through the Gospel of John. Another new beginning. I was going through some papers last week and found my Baptismal Certificate. Well, the Baptism that I find the most significant anyway. You see, some of us learn faster than others, and I was actually baptized three times in my life.

As an infant, I was Baptized in the Presbyterian Church that was located at the end of the driveway of my grandparents' home in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Next, at 12 years of age, I was Baptized into the Roman Catholic Church after completing my catechism classes and as a family, we attended a Catholic church for a period of time.

Finally, in 2005, I had my final and proper Baptism, my Believer’s Baptism, after I finally understood who Jesus Christ was and what He had done for me. That last Baptism took because I first received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This August, I will celebrate 20 years as a Baptized Believer, but this Easter is my 20^th anniversary as a follower of Jesus. As an aside, if you have not been baptized yet, and would like to take that wonderful step on your walk with Jesus, come and talk to me after the service and we can discuss it and you can have a new beginning.

As important as new beginnings are, there is something that I feel is even more important than new beginnings: the maturing process. Ironically, we will begin our look at the Gospel of John with a quote from the Book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 6:1-3 says the following, “¹ Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, ² instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And God permitting, we will do so.”

I mention this passage from Hebrews this morning because I want us to keep this question in mind as we go through the Gospel of John together, “Am I maturing in my walk with Jesus?” As you sit here this morning, ask yourself “Have I grown as a Christian, or do I still believe the same things I did as a baby Christian?” “Am I still committing the same sins and seeking forgiveness for them time after time?”

In the third chapter of his first letter to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul chastised the believers there for being still on the milk of the Word and not yet progressing onto the solid food or onto the “meat” as the King James Version puts it. Paul accused them of still being "infants in Christ" despite having some of the best teachers pass through that church. There is a certain obligation that each of us has as believers to mature in Jesus. This is work that we need to do. No one can do this work of maturing for us.

I have had a few people come to me and accuse me of not feeding them. I have heard “I’m not being fed by your teaching”. Friends, it’s not my job to feed you, unless you are a baby Christian. A shepherd feeds the lambs or rather makes sure the lambs are being fed, but a shepherd doesn’t feed the mature sheep. The shepherd leads them to where they can find the food to dine on, but the shepherd doesn’t feed the flock. If you are mature in Christ, it is your job to feed yourself, to get off the milk and on to the solid food as Paul encourages.

What is my job, is to shepherd you. To tend to the flock. To move them along to greener pastures. To make sure the flock is growing, both in numbers and in maturity. My job is to make sure we are on the right path and to protect you from the wolves of false teachings and non-biblical ideas.

With that in mind, I would like you to consider two other questions this week to meditate on. Ask yourself, “Have I evolved my personal theology over the years?” and, “Am I teachable to what the Bible is saying to me?”. Let me explain…

A big part of the maturing process is taking time to examine your personal theology from time to time. What do I mean by “personal theology”? If we are serious Christians we should all have a personal theology. A personal theology is what you believe about the secondary issues regarding the Christian faith. What is your eschatology? What do you believe about the end times and the sequence of events leading up to it? What do you believe about salvation and who initiates it? How do you explain the presence of evil in the world and who is responsible for it? Have you determined these things for yourself or are you clinging to something someone told you in the past? Perhaps from your distant past? Are you still clinging to something that a professor told you in Bible College but you haven’t examined that belief critically since then?

Have your views changed as you have read through your Bible from year to year? Is the Holy Spirit revealing anything new to you this year? If not, why not? Are you teachable to what the Bible is saying to you? This boils down to a worldview issue. A worldview is a lens that we use to filter through all the information that is thrown at us each day. Our worldview allows us to reject information we disagree with and accept information that we agree with. The problem is, that over time, the lenses of our worldview can become dirty and clogged and we inadvertently reject useful new information because the filter is too full to let the good new stuff through.

A useful habit to develop is to stop every once in a while and take time to examine our worldview and check the filters to see if we are rejecting useful new information. We may also have to adjust our worldview if we find ourselves absorbing too much worldly information that flies in the face of biblical teaching.

When I became a believer 19 years ago, I had to make some major changes to my worldview. I had to examine how I felt and thought about what books I read, what music I listened to, what movies I watched, and even what video games I was playing. I had to make sure that my worldview was being adjusted to what the Bible taught and not be so concerned with what the world taught. I needed a new rudder for my ship. A new compass and map to chart the course of my life. I needed a new direction, a new goal, a new beginning.

I also needed to return to the map and make sure that I was still on course and that I have not been blown off course by the winds of culture, or politics, or new teachers, or even old beliefs. My compass is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and my map is God's Word.

Two other necessary tools for the Christian to keep the filters of your worldview clean is discernment and discipleship. Discernment is like a muscle, it needs to be used in order for it to become stronger. Discernment is the filtering of good and bad information. You do not have to rely on your own wisdom to develop discernment. As a believer, you should have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit tp guide you and to open up the meaning of God’s Word for you. You also have the Bible. If you come across some teaching that is not found in the Bible, then as a Christian you should be very wary of accepting it, if not outright rejecting it. I won’t spend a lot of time on details but, subjects like abortion, drug use, same-sex marriage, and medically assisted suicide are all acceptable if not encouraged by both the legal, political, and cultural systems of our day, yet each of them run contrary to what the Bible teaches. But it is so easy to have our worldview blinded by all that culture throws at us and fail to see what God is saying about these subjects.

My encouragement to you is this: take some time this week, or the next couple of weeks and think about the three questions posed at the end of this blog and examine your walk with Christ, check your current worldview, and examine your heart to see what you are clinging to and see if is it truly biblical?

Ok, let’s look at the Gospel of John and this morning we are going to do an overview of the book and what the background is before we begin our deep dive in the coming weeks. I’m going to warn you, that we may get into some deep waters in the coming days, so if you are still paddling around in the shallow end, you may want to bring some water wings or a life jacket. I promise not to drown you in information, but I might give you a bit of a nudge into deeper waters than you are currently comfortable swimming in. Let’s open our Bible together and look at a few selected verses this morning from the Gospel of John.

If you did not bring your Bible this morning, you should find one underneath one of the chairs in the row in front of you. The Gospel of John, chapter 1 will be found on page 860 of the pew bible. If you do not have a bible at home, please take that bible with you as a gift from Mountain View Church. We feel that it is vitally important that you have easy access to God’s Word.

Three things we will cover this morning regarding the Gospel of John are:

1) Purpose: To prove that Jesus is the Son of God.

2) People: Jesus, God, and John the Apostle. The three main people that the Book of John revolves around are Jesus, God the Father and the Apostle John. Interestingly, the Apostle John is never mentioned by name in the book. The only time the author uses the name “John” is referring to John the Baptist or “Peter son of John”. This is one of the strongest arguments for the authorship of the Apostle John. The author is never clearly identified, and this was a common tactic among authors at that time. We will talk more about this in a bit.

3) Payoff: Man’s reconciliation with God.

Over the coming weeks, I would like us to keep in mind these three points of the book. The main purpose of the Gospel of John is to prove conclusively that Jesus is the Son of God and that all who believe in Him will have eternal life. Each of the four Gospels has a different purpose and audience in mind. The other three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels. They are called synoptic because they share similar content, order, and statements.

John is different. As a matter of fact, over 90% of the Gospel is original. The originality is not just in what it contains, but also in what it omits. John chooses not to record the genealogy of Jesus, nor will you find a birth account of Jesus in this Gospel. John doesn’t talk about the childhood, temptation, or even the transfiguration of Jesus in spite of being one of only three people to witness it.

It would be tempting to say that John doesn’t talk about the humanity of Jesus, but the humanity of Christ is very evident in the Gospel. Look at John, chapter 1, verse 14, “¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John chooses an interesting word here in this passage. The Word became “flesh”. Flesh, not “man”. Even when John is speaking about Jesus taking on human form, John is still emphasizing the divine nature of Jesus. “We have seen His glory” is a reference to the transfiguration of Jesus recorded in the synoptics, and it truly was a magnificent and miraculous event, but John simply makes an oblique reference to it here. Why do you think that is?

I think it is because John’s Gospel was the last of the four to be written. It was probably written between 85 and 90 AD. 20 to 30 years after the last of the synoptics were written. I don’t think John was interested in repeating events of Jesus’ ministry that had been spoken of by the other Apostles.

Other things have occurred since then that should be addressed. Think about that. This Gospel would have been written after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple by the Roman army. John would have been aware that the last of Jesus’ prophecies had been fulfilled, the destruction of the Temple. Something that none of the religious leaders of that time thought would have been possible.

I also think that is why John does not contain any of the parables of Jesus. John instead spends his time speaking of the miracles of Jesus and John lists 8 of them, which John refers to as signs, rather than miracles. John sees these acts as signs of Jesus’ divinity, power, and authority as given by God the Father. Of the eight major signs mentioned by John, six of them are unique to his Gospel. I say eight major signs because all the commentaries only list eight signs but I think there is at least one more sign listed in the book.

Turn with me to John 18:6, or page 878 of the Pew Bible. John 18, 4 to 6 are referring to the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. John is the only one who records what happens to the detachment of soldiers who accompanied the religious leaders who sought to arrest Jesus. John 18:4 says, “⁴ Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”

⁵ “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.

“I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) ⁶ When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.” With the words, “I am he” an entire detachment of soldiers fell to the ground. I fail to see how that isn’t considered a miracle or a sign of Jesus’ divinity.

Speaking of the words, “I am”. Jesus uses this phrase 9 other times in very significant ways in the Gospel of John. Ways in which, Jesus is clearly pointing back to His divine nature. Jesus refers to himself as the Bread of Life, He says, “I am the Light of the World” twice. “I am the Gate”. “I am the Good Shepherd”. “I am the Resurrection and the Life”. Perhaps the most famous, is “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. And, finally, “I am the True Vine”. Watch for each of those passages and the deeper examinations of each of those statements when we get to them as we progress through the book.

The final point I’ll make about the purpose of the book The Gospel of John is the original intended audience. There are two main theories as to who the audience could have been. The first is those influenced by Hellenistic thought both believers and non-believers. Hellenistic thought is still prevalent today and it refers to the influences of Greek thought and philosophies. Greek writers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle and the philosophies that grew out of their teachings. We will dive deeper into that next week when we examine the choice by John of the word “Logos” in next week’s message.

We can see philosophy interfering with the Biblical Worldview of certain individuals today such as Dr. Jordan Petersen. I’ve been watching Dr. Petersen’s faith journey for a few years now and I find it fascinating and maddening at the same time. I can see how his training in psychology is interfering with his flat-out acceptance of Jesus as Divine Saviour and Lord. Dr. Petersen keeps examining and reading the Biblical accounts through His psychology worldview lens first. Jordan most frequently explains the biblical record as a “collective record of man’s consciousness” rather than the “revealed Word of God”. This gives Jordan permission to accept the things he is comfortable with and reject those things that make him uncomfortable by relegating them to the musings of man rather than the teachings of God.

So, those are the Hellenistic thinkers. The second theory of the original audience is those who were being influenced by the Judaisers and those who wanted to hang onto the traditions of Judaism while accepting the teachings of Jesus. We still have this group with us today, we refer to them as Messianic Jews. They accept Jesus as Saviour while still maintaining their Jewish heritage and traditions to a greater or lesser extent depending on the individual.

The relevant fact for both of these audiences and one of the main things that keeps the Gospel of John so relevant today is that both new Christians and searching non-Christians find what they are looking for in this Gospel. Because of His divinity, Jesus is a more acceptable character in this Gospel. That is why this book is recommended as preferred reading today for those who have just come to Christ, to help them understand who Jesus is, and it is equally relevant for those seeking answers to what the Bible says about Jesus, and what Christianity is all about. Our free little booklet “The Story That Matters” which we encourage you to hand out is based on the Gospel of John.

The next point I want us to move onto this morning is the three main persons who this book revolves around. All four of the Gospels are indeed biographies of Jesus Christ. They are eyewitness accounts of the earthly ministry of Jesus of Nazareth while he walked the earth. They are more than that though. The thing that makes them more than just biographies or eyewitness accounts, is the fact that they are eyewitness accounts written at a time when other eyewitnesses were still alive to refute them. The Gospels are not books that were written 100 or 200 years after Jesus died when there were no other eyewitnesses available to refute what they had written. This is an important fact that speaks to the authenticity of these accounts. We don’t see volume after volume of other books “telling the true story of Jesus of Nazareth”.

Don’t skip over this too quickly, it is something that you can use to reinforce your faith and as a point of defence when someone accuses the Bible of being a book of myths. For example, if I were to write an autobiography claiming that I was the next Billy Graham and that my preaching style was so fabulous that I was able to travel around the province selling out stadiums with people dying to hear me preach. If I was foolish enough to print that while I was still alive and you were still alive, it would be easy to refute what I claimed in the book by simply coming and talking with one of you who could say, “Billy Graham, more like Billy goat. That guy only ever brayed in front of thirty people at the little country church known as Mountain View”. It might be a little harsh, but it would be true. You would be the contemporary eyewitnesses who could refute my claims of stadium-filled glory with the reality of a country-church sanctuary. We don’t see these types of counter-claims with the Gospels. I’m not aware of volumes of contemporary books claiming that Jesus was a fictional character. There are some of those books out there, but they were written sometime after all the eyewitnesses had died.

So, Jesus is of prime importance in the Gospels, but so is God the Father. It is dangerous to exclude the other members of the Trinity when we are reading the Gospels. God the Father is present throughout the Gospels and it is from the Father and the Holy Spirit that Jesus draws His authority and strength from which to act while He is engaged in His earthly ministry. Jesus never acted alone. That is why we see frequent mention of Jesus being engaged in prayer with the Father. One of the most beautiful examples of this behaviour is recorded in chapter 17 of the Gospel of John when Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane for the final time and Jesus is praying the High Priestly Prayer to the Father. Jesus prays first for himself, then for His disciples who are there in the Garden with him, and finally for all the believers who would come after Jesus and the 12.

I am looking forward to discovering the beauty of that prayer with you, especially when we juxtapose that prayer with what the Romans and religious leaders were about to do to Jesus. So, we see that God the Father plays a prominent role in the gospel.

I also want us to pay attention to what is happening to the man John as we progress through his book. I want us to track how John progressed from fisherman to disciple, to Apostle, to Evangelist, and finally to author and revelator of God’s Word to God’s people. The Bible traces a beautiful example for us of the maturing of John in his walk with Jesus. I’m not saying that we will all evolve into evangelists or revelators of God’s Word. I doubt any of us will progress to the latter. At least I hope none of us will start writing a new version of the Book of Revelation, for the canon is closed and complete, but we should all be maturing and growing in our faith while we are here on earth. And, we all can share what we are learning with others.

Our final point this morning that I wish us to pay attention to as we go through this book together in the coming weeks is the common climax to all the Gospels: the Payoff: Man’s reconciliation with God. Our greatest gift and the primary purpose of Jesus’s earthly ministry is the reconciliation of mankind with God.

Through His patience, long-suffering, and mercy, the Father has made a way for wicked and rebellious people to come back into a right relationship and enjoy the benefits of this union with Him. We must never forget that this is not the case for everyone. The Bible is not universalist in its teachings. A couple of weeks ago we sang the Hymn, “When We All Get To Heaven”, friends I must warn you that not “everyone is “getting to Heaven”. The “All” in that hymn refers only to fellow believers in Jesus Christ.

I know I keep hammering on this point, but I don’t want us to ever forget that there will be another destination for those who don’t know Jesus. We cannot afford to sleepwalk through this world comfortable in our salvation while ignoring the plight of those around us.

If we were on a plane together and I knew the plane was about to crash and I had two parachutes and you didn’t have one, what kind of a person would I be if I didn’t share my parachute with you? Or, what if while I standing up here looking out over your alert and smiling faces, I saw a grizzly bear sniffing around the back door beside Robert? What if I noticed that the bear was beginning to feel trapped and was getting agitated and looked like he might crash through that door any second? What kind of person would I be if I didn’t shout out a warning to Robert about the bear? How loving would I truly be if I just stood up here and thought, “Boy I sure hope Robert opens his eyes to the danger that is right outside his door”. “I mean, I’m OK, I’ve got a side door here where I can get outside and to my car and away before that bear is done with Robert. I’m OK, but he’s hooped if he doesn’t wake up”. What kind of a friend would I be? How loving am I being really?

So, here’s the scoop. We are about to learn that some two thousand years ago, Jesus, who was God and is God, thought that we were important enough for Him to enter into His own Creation and to add flesh to His Divine Being. Not like putting on a costume or assuming a meat-puppet, but through a once-in-all-of-Creation event, This Jesus who Was and is and ever will be God, added human flesh, added humanity to His Divinity. The Divinity didn’t make Him less than a human being, and His humanity didn’t make Him less Divine. He was fully god and fully man at the same time.

The really amazing thing about this event is that Jesus didn’t arrive on clouds with trumpets accompanied by angels, that’s reserved when He comes back. No, instead Jesus decides to enter into His own Creation through the womb of a virgin girl in the Palestinian region of the dry, desert area of the world. An area of the world that was suffering under the brutal foreign rule of the Roman Empire. An Empire that dealt with the worst of its criminals by nailing them to a wooden cross stuck in the ground until they died an excruciating death of asphyxiation. Oh, and did I mention that they often beat these criminals within an inch of their lives to hasten the whole process?

This was a terrible end for the worst of criminals, but how much more unfair and unjust would it be if it were to happen to an innocent man? Add to that awfulness, what if said man was more than just innocent, what if he was to have lived a faultless life, never having wronged or harmed anyone? As a matter of fact, what if he never did anything but help other people by feeding them, freeing them from demons, and healing them of physical ailments? What if this innocent man was able to make the lame walk, restore sight to the blind, bring people, including children, back from the dead and return them to their loved ones?

What if that guy was nailed to a Roman Cross? But wait there’s more. What if that innocent, helping, healing guy had to take the punishment that was due me for my sins? For my sins and your sins? For our sins and the sins of those who were killing Him that day? For our sins, and their sins, and the punishment for all the sins of all those who came before Him and for all those who would come after Him and after us even?

How amazed are you that God entered into His Creation through the womb of a virgin, lived a perfect and blameless life, and was tortured, killed, and punished by both men and God so that we could live a blessed life while we are here on earth and then spend an eternity with this God in the next life continuing to be blessed?

What would you pay for this privilege? What if I told you that today, and today only it is a bargain? What if I told you that I have secured a special deal with the distributor of this product and today only, we are forgiving the down payment normally required for such a precious gift and that we have only a few reserved spots left in our payment plan of 0% interest and no monthly payments.

That’s right friends, you can get in on this friends and family discount of no down payments, no interest, and no monthly payments to receive your special gift called Grace which is an eternity spent in a place with streets of gold and free food and shelter for life.

If you could get all your friends and family in on this deal, how many would you tell today? I know it sounds too good to be true, but I have a book full of promises here and a book full of testimonies and eyewitness accounts proclaiming the authenticity of this deal. Heck, I even know people who have died trying to tell others about this special offer. None of our competitors can even come close to our reward program that we have. If you try one of the other guys, you have to read the small print, because you are going to have to work forever to get anything close to what I’m offering for free today.

I know a guy, who knows a guy, who is willing to take this other guy’s payment for you! Friends, if haven’t accepted this deal yet, don’t delay, do it today. Sure, it doesn’t mean that this life will be a bed of roses for you, but you will have someone to help carry the load when things get tough and if you follow the plan outlined in our handbook, I guarantee you will see an improvement, or at the very least, a lessening of your cares.

Don’t fall for the promises of the imposters, it only leads to lies and heartaches.

Can you think of someone who could use this Good News?

CONCLUSION

No great illustrations this week and no pithy quotes. Just a plea from your pastor to go and tell someone the Good News of the Gospel this week. That is your application for this sermon: share the Gospel with someone. Come back, heck bring them here with you, in seven days when we begin to dive into the evangelistic Gospel of John.  

I’ll simply close with this Doxology:

²⁴ “The Lord bless you and keep you;

²⁵ may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

²⁶ may the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."

Go in peace, you are dismissed.

Please join us downstairs for coffee and treats.

Pastor Paul’s Points:

1) Purpose: To prove that Jesus is the Son of God.

2) People: Jesus, God, and John the Apostle.

3) Payoff: Man’s reconciliation with God.

Questions to meditate on this week:

1.     Have I matured in my walk with Jesus?

2.     Have I evolved my personal theology over the years?

3.     Am I teachable to what the Bible is saying to me?

 

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^[1] Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 449.

Mountain View Prayer Night September 3rd, 2024

 MVEMC Prayer Night Date, September 3^rd,2024

Tonight, we are praying over two topics. Topic one is offering praise to the Lord for the new people He has brought to our church over the past year. The Lord is at work in our church! Topic two is a request to the Lord for Him to bring young families with young children so that we may continue the Lord's work for another generation.

Instructions: Read the suggested passage offered (or, if you are praying at home and the Holy Spirit brings a different passage to mind, use that passage) in the various translations listed under it. Pay attention to the different English words used by the multiple translators. After reading the translations offer up your praise and prayers to the Lord. Take your time moving on to the next prayer. Wait for a short time in silence listening for anything that the Holy Spirit may say to you. Take this prayer time as an opportunity to grow closer to Jesus in your prayer time.

Topic One: Praise to God for New People Coming

Passage One: Psalm 118:28-29

²⁸ You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you. ²⁹ Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. NIV

²⁸   You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. ²⁹  Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! ESV

²⁸ You are my God, and I give thanks to You; You are my God, I exalt You. ²⁹ Give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good; For His lovingkindness endures forever. LSB

²⁸ You are my God, and I will give you thanks. You are my God; I will exalt you. ²⁹ Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his faithful love endures forever. CSB

²⁸ You are my God, and I will praise you! You are my God, and I will exalt you! ²⁹ Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. NLT

Passage Two: Matthew 7:7-8

  ⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.  NIV

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ESV

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. LSB

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.  CSB

⁷ “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. NLT

 

Topic Two: Asking for New Families

Passage One: Psalm 145:1

¹ I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. NIV

¹    I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. ESV

¹ I will exalt You, my God, O King, And I will bless Your name forever and ever. LSB

¹ I exalt you, my God the King, and bless your name forever and ever. CSB

¹ I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. NLT

 

Passage Two: Jeremiah 24:7

⁷ I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. NIV

⁷ I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. ESV

⁷ ‘I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am Yahweh; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart. LSB

⁷ I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God because they will return to me with all their heart. CSB

⁷ I will give them hearts that recognize me as the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me wholeheartedly. NLT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When God Rebuilds... Ezra/Nehemiah Part 29 Nehemiah 9 "A Recognition of God's Attributes and Actions"

 Date: September 1^st, 2024

From The Series: When God Rebuilds…

Part 29 A Recognition of God’s Attributes and Actions

Nehemiah 9

Mountain View Evangelical Missionary Church

Last week we examined when the faithful gathered in Jerusalem and listened to the Word of God spoken over them and the people of God responded. They responded in an emotional way, first by weeping and then by joy. The people resumed a long-lost observance, a feast and a week-long celebration to remind them of the salvation of their people by God from the Egyptians. A celebration that the people of Yahweh had forgotten to observe for over 800 years. A celebration that was a command from God directly to His people so that they would not forget what He had accomplished for them. Yet… they had forgotten.

I originally selected a different passage for this morning’s message, but I just couldn’t skip over the wisdom contained in the ninth chapter of the Book of Nehemiah. Don’t misunderstand me, I think every chapter of the Bible contains God’s Wisdom and it is a gift to us from our Creator. If the Lord sees fit to grant me enough time to do so, I would love to go through each passage of the Bible in as much detail as we have been going through the passages that we had in the past year.

But, as Job writes in the 14^th Chapter of his Book, “⁵ A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.” Psalm 139:16 lets us know that these days are determined even before we are born, “¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” So, I will have to be content with the days and hours that the Lord has determined for me and make the most of the gift that He has given me.

The passage that I eventually settled on for our last look at the Book of Nehemiah together, is the ninth chapter of the Book. Please join me in opening you Bibles or turning on your devices to the ninth chapter of the Book of Nehemiah.

If you did not bring your Bible this morning, you should find one underneath one of the chairs in the row in front of you. Nehemiah chapter 9 will be found on page 390 of the pew bible. If you do not have a bible at home, please take that bible with you as a gift from Mountain View Church. We feel that it is vitally important that you have easy access to God’s Word. And God’s Word says…

I want you to reach down and strap yourself in for this morning’s message because we are going to cover some ground this morning. There is a special insert for the bulletin this morning that highlights everything that we will be covering, and you can see from the list that we will not have a lot of time to spend on any one attribute, so we'll be looking at this chapter through three different lenses.

First, we will examine this chapter by paying attention to the unchanging attributes of God through the history of His dealing with His people. We will look at all the attributes listed in the passage, not just the ones that paint our God in the best possible light in an attempt to avoid offending anyone.

Second, we will skip back through the verses concentrating on the inconsistent response of God’s people and their attributes as exhibited toward a Holy and merciful God. Lest we think too lowly about our predecessors in the faith and too highly of ourselves. We will take a few minutes to see if we are any different today. We will examine together if we are a nation under God’s judgment just as Israel was in the days of the Assyrians and Babylonians. Our nation may not be occupied by foreign armies, but are we any less enslaved than the Jewish people were in the days of the Bible?

Finally, we will weigh the attributes of each party, and then ask the question: Whom should we put our trust in for our eternal salvation?

Look with me at Nehemiah Chapter Nine starting at verse one. And God’s Word says, “¹ On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. ² Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. ³ They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God. ⁴ Standing on the stairs of the Levites were Jeshua (Yesh-U-ah), Bani (Bay-nigh), Kadmiel (Kad-meal), Shebaniah (Sheb-ah-Nigh-ah), Bunni (Bunn-eye), Sherebiah (Cher-ah-Bye-ah), Bani (Bay-nigh) and Kenani (KEN-ah-nigh). They cried out with loud voices to the Lord their God. ⁵ And the Levites—Jeshua (Yesh-U-ah), Kadmiel (Kad-meal), Bani (Bay-nigh), Hashabneiah (Hash-ab-Knee-Ah), Sherebiah (Cher-ah-Bye-ah), Hodiah (Hoe-DIE-ah), Shebaniah (Sheb-ah-Nigh-ah) and Pethahiah (Peth-A-High-ah)—said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.” Stop right there for a moment.

We see from the date listed that we are still in the midst of the celebrations from the High Holy Month in the Hebrew Religious calendar. Many of these celebrations had been lost for over eight hundred years, which was long before Assyrian or Babylonian captivity. That means, all on their own, the Jewish people had begun to drift from the teachings of God.

We just sang those words before corporate prayer time from that great hymn, “Let Thy goodness like a fetter, Bind my wand'ring heart to thee; Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal it. Seal it for Thy courts above.” How many of you were singing those words in earnest recognizing how weak we are when we try to cling to Jesus using only our strength? I sincerely sing those words for I recognize how easily my attention is turned from the Lord by the temptations of the world and the desire for approval from men.

After being convicted by the reading of the Law by Ezra, we see the Israelites return to Jerusalem fasting, wearing sackcloth, and sprinkling dust on their heads. These were all open signs of confession and repentance. They were still seeking forgiveness from the LORD for the sins that were in their lives.

They are trying. We read that they separated themselves from the foreigners in their midst and stood patiently listening to the public reading of God’s Word. They stood for hours, then the crowd broke out in spontaneous confession of sin and open worshipping of the LORD.

Then the Levites who were standing, began to give instructions to the people gathered in Jerusalem. They opened with “Stand and praise the LORD your God” naming god with the name that He told His people. “Stand and praise Yahweh your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.”

Here we see the first attribute of God listed: everlasting. This is a state of existence without beginning or end, beyond the confines of time and space. In Christian theology, it is often associated with the eternal nature of God and the everlasting existence of the soul after death.

According to the Bible, God is not only everlasting, He is unchanging. Malachi 3:6 says, “I am the Lord, I change not.” Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus is the same “yesterday, today, and forever.” When everything else shifts and changes, you and I are still standing on a solid, unchanging foundation. Hebrews 7:24 says, But He [Jesus], because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.

Let’s read on and see what other attributes we can discover about God. I’m going to rely heavily on definitions from Bible dictionaries to explain some of these words.

“Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. ⁶ You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.” Look at the attributes listed here. In addition to being everlasting, or eternal, God is said to be Glorious. He must be Glorious if He has a glorious name.

As well as being glorious, God is to be exalted. Exalted is used in both the Old and New Testaments. One set of original terms means “to become or to declare great.” God shows himself great through his acts; our faith recognizes and affirms his greatness and exalts him by praising him for what he has done and for who he is. This is why our worship on Sunday morning is so critical. We are exalting God, recognizing His greatness through song to bring Him praise.[i]

Another set of biblical words that we translate as “exalt” means “to lift up, or raise,” or “to be high.” It is appropriate that God be exalted, for he is great and lifted up. Think Jesus on the cross here. Jesus was lifted up on the Cross, this is why we exalt or sing adoration songs about Jesus. It is not appropriate for mere human beings to exalt themselves. Isaiah 2:17 warns us, “The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, and idols will totally disappear”.

Verse 6 speaks about Yahweh as Creator and life-giver. There’s no room for Darwinian Theory of Evolution here friends. At least not the macroevolution of one species to another species as Darwin proposed. There is microevolution within a species. Changes that Darwin observed in the finches while he was in the Galapagos Islands. An observation which led to a huge leap in logic without any proof yet has become accepted as truth by many in the world. As mankind’s knowledge increases, Darwin has become somewhat of an embarrassment to the scientific community. So, God’s attributes of Creator and life-giver are recognized by the Levites here in the text.

Verse seven makes it clear that Yahweh chose man. “⁷ “You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham.” Abraham was not searching for a new god or even a new place of residence when Yahweh revealed Himself to Abram.

Look at verse 8, “⁸ You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous.” Now, I want to warn you of a common mistake here, do not read into this text that Yahweh chose Abram because Yahweh found his heart faithful. According to Joshua 24:2, Abram was raised in a pagan home and did not know Yahweh. “² Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.” So Yahweh chose Abram because Yahweh wanted to. Plain and simple. We will see in a few verses that we are chosen by God because of His mercy

So, Yahweh, “⁸ You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him” and God went on to, “keep your promise because you are righteous.” The Father is a covenant maker and a promise keeper.

Look with me at verse 9, “⁹ “You saw the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea.” This verse explains that God sees our sufferings and hears our pleas for mercy or assistance. But keep this in mind friends, just because He sees and hears our pleadings does not mean the Father is under any obligation to grant our requests. The Father hears and answers all of the prayers of the Believers. Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes the answer is no, and sometimes the answer is not now. We serve a sovereign God who does not answer to us. We answer to Him. When we get to mankind’s attributes, we will see how easy it is for us to forget that point.

Verses 10 and 11 demonstrate the power of our God. “¹⁰ You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day. ¹¹ You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters.” We see that God is powerful enough to control and command nature. God is “supernatural” He exists outside the laws of Nature. He is the Creator, He wrote the Laws of Nature, but He is not bound by the Laws of Nature. When the Son, Jesus walked the earth we saw that He too had command of the seas and the winds. Jesus walked on water and calmed a raging storm with three little words, “Quiet! Be Still!” Jesus is more than Creator and controller of the Universe, Colossians 1:16 & 17 tells us, “¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him, all things hold together.” No wonder Jesus can command nature, He holds it together. Never forget the supernatural attributes of God. Unbelievers are ruled by science and man’s theories. If it is not explained by a theory or Law, then they refuse to acknowledge that it can exist.

Now, look at the end of verse 11. This is going to be difficult for some to accept. “You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters.” If you do not have a full and robust view of who God is in all of His attributes you will find this difficult to accept. God punishes His enemies, and not just the God of the Old Testament. Remember the first attribute we looked at this morning: God is everlasting and alongside that attribute, we discovered that God is unchanging. The Jesus of the Cross is the Jesus of the Red Sea. The Jesus that fed the five thousand, is the Jesus that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. This is why it is critical to keep a complete view, a biblical view of who God is in your mind at all times.

Moving on to verse 12 we see God is a leader and protector. “¹² By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take.”

Have you caught on to what the Levites are doing with those assembled in Jerusalem? The Levites are reminding the Israelites of their history with Yahweh and all that He has done for them. The Levites are reminding the faithful of how God watched over them in their days in the wilderness. They will move on from this time in a few verses, but they are reminding the people once again, why they observed the festival that they had just wrapped up, The Festival of Booths.

Verses 13 to 15 reveal four more attributes of God. Look with me, “¹³ “You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. ¹⁴ You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. ¹⁵ In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them.”

We see that God is the Law Giver, and if He is the Law Giver then He must be Just and Righteous. We also see that Yahweh was self-revealing to His people. Yahweh revealed Himself to Abram and to several others in the Book of Genesis all the way up to this episode with Moses. The Levites also reminded the Israelites that it was Yahweh who provided food and water for them while they were in the desert.

Look at verse 16 to see how the people responded to God’s generosity, “¹⁶ “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands.” We will come back to this in a bit.

Continuing with God’s attributes in verse 17, “¹⁷ They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them,” Stop there for a second. Look at the attributes revealed in this verse, God is forgiving, God is Gracious, God is compassionate, He is slow to anger, God is abounding in Love and He is loyal even when His people do something idolatrous.

Verse 18, “¹⁸ even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.” While their earthly leader Moses was away for a few days in communion with their rescuing, protecting and providing Father in Heaven, Those who just a short time previous had been chased by Egyptians decided to gather some gold and make an idol and give the still-warm golden-calf credit for their rescue. But more on this in a bit.

Despite those actions, look at how their true God reacted. Verse 19, “¹⁹ “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take.” Because of His character, Yahweh remained compassionate towards those in the wilderness. God did not abandon them, instead, He remained their leader and protector.

Look with me at verses 20 and 21. “²⁰ You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. ²¹ For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.” We see God portrayed as an instructor, provider, as being generous and also as a sustainer not just of their goods and clothing, but also as the sustainer of their bodies as they spent the required time in the wilderness.

Let’s look at a larger chunk of text. In verses 22 to 25, we will see God illustrated as a Kingdom Maker, a Giver of Children, a Guide for His people, and a provider and protector. “²² “You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan. ²³ You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their parents to enter and possess. ²⁴ Their children went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you gave the Canaanites into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. ²⁵ They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness.”

 

In verse 26, the Levites contrast God’s faithfulness with man’s seemingly inability to remain faithful at all, “²⁶ “But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies.” Here’s the shocker! The Levites are talking about God’s Chosen People. Those who knew Him best and most intimately, but we will come back to this in a bit.

Verse 27 once again shows that in His love for us, He is willing to allow us to suffer and endure hardship to bring us back to Him. “²⁷ So you delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed, they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.” You know, I have heard atheists and Muslims try to paint the Christian God as an egomaniac and a child abuser for inflicting suffering on mankind. First, there is a false premise in this question. God did not inflict suffering on mankind. Man, inflicted suffering on mankind. All God had to do was remove His restraining hand from the wicked hearts of men and the suffering was unleashed.

Second, let me ask you, parents, were you child abusers when you disciplined your children when they did wrong? No, you disciplined your children so they would learn not to repeat undesirable actions. Did your children enjoy it at the time? I doubt it. But did they learn and become better human beings? I bet they did.

In verse 27 we saw the Father as a Punisher, but we also saw the other side of God. We saw Him listening to the cries of His children for mercy and He acted with compassion and became our rescuer once more. Are we starting to see a pattern here?

Verse 28 repeats the cycle, “²⁸ But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion, you delivered them time after time.” The Hebrew word that we translate as “abandoned” here in English does not have the same sense of permanence that we think of when we read it. In the Hebrew the word doesn’t mean “abandoned” as in left for good, but rather it has a temporary sense of being left behind. We see that because, while it is true that God handed them over to their enemies for a time (think Babylonian captivity here), God once again listened, and He rescued His people from their punishment.

Look at the next paragraph with me. Verses 29 to 31 teach that God acted as an adviser, a herald or one who warns others. We will see His patience once again, then He hands His people over to the enemies once more. But He does not leave them there, for His Mercy, Loyalty, and Graciousness causes the Father to once more recover His disobedient children. “²⁹ “You warned them in order to turn them back to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, of which you said, ‘The person who obeys them will live by them.’ Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. ³⁰ For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you warned them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. ³¹ But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.” Let me ask you, are you like the Israelites? When you have come out the other side of a rough patch in your life, do you exalt God like the Levites are doing in this passage? Do you praise Him for the deliverance that He has bestowed upon you?

Moving on. In this next paragraph, the Levites are really going to pile on the superlatives regarding God. See if you can catch them all, “³² “Now therefore, our God, the great God, mighty and awesome, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes—the hardship that has come on us, on our kings and leaders, on our priests and prophets, on our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. ³³ In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly. ³⁴ Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our ancestors did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the statutes you warned them to keep. ³⁵ Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.” Did you catch them all? Verse 32, God is Great, Mighty, Awesome, a Covenant Keeper, Loving, Sympathetic and aware of what His children are enduring. In verse 33 we see God portrayed as Unchanging, Righteous, and faithful. In verse 34 God is once again a herald and one who warns His children. Finally in verse 35 we the Father as a provider of great goodness and a protector.

Wrapping up the chapter, in verses 36 and 37 we see the lament about the present condition of the people, but the Levites are honest enough to acknowledge that it was the pattern of disobedience that led them to where they were. “³⁶ “But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors so they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. ³⁷ Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.” God is once again presented as a Provider.

Verse 38 is another of the unfortunate chapter and verse breaks here because it is obvious that verse 38 belongs to chapter 10.

I left this slide on the screen this whole time because I wanted you to see the complete list of God’s attributes mentioned in this chapter. What a list it is indeed. The list of Man’s Attributes is far less impressive. I hope you were paying attention as we went through the first time. But let’s do a quick recap.

Let’s now return to the list of man’s attributes. I won’t reread the scripture verses, frankly, I don’t think my ego could take it. But, let’s go down the list here and I will point out in what verse it is mentioned. Two things: one, we are going to see a pattern here, a repeating pattern. I hope you have noticed it already. Second, keep in mind that we are talking about God’s own people here. Did you notice that the Lord is not concerned with the punishment of the actions of the pagan nations here?

Verse 10 speaks about the arrogance of the Israelites shortly after being delivered from bondage in Egypt. Then again in verse 16, they were described as being arrogant, stiff-necked, and disobedient while they were still in the desert. In the desert when they could look over and see the presence of God as a pillar of smoke during the day and a pillar of flame every night. They could see God there in their presence while He was providing food and water every day and verse 17 goes on to point out they were stubborn, forgetful and rebellious.

Worse yet, in verse 18, while still in the clear presence of the God who delivered them, the Israelites add to their terrible behaviour by becoming idolatrous blasphemers by creating a Golden Calf and claiming it as their God who delivered them.

Years later, when His people turned away from being led by their God and demanded that they be given a King to rule over them, that was the point when their slavery began, and things really started to slide. Verse 26 recounts how during this period of human rulers, keep in mind they were still supposed to be people of God at this point, they became disobedient, rebellious, they turned away from God, they killed God’s messengers, the Prophets, and they were blasphemous once more. Not a particularly proud period of human history.

In the paragraph containing verses 28 to 31, where we see that the Father turned them over to their enemies, they were evildoers, arrogant, disobedient, sinners, stubborn, stiff-necked, which is another way of saying they were prideful and refused to bend the neck or the knee to God. They were listed as ignoring God in two verses and ignoring His warnings.

In verse 33 they were called wicked, verse 34 again we see them ignoring God, they were lawbreakers as well as command and statute breakers. Finally, in verses 36 and 37 they were called delusional slaves, sinners, slaves and distressed. That is not a list to be proud of.

Now, be honest with yourself and look around our country today and ask each other, are we really any different today? As sophisticated as we are told that we have become in this modern society, are we really any different from the Israelites of biblical times? Aren’t we still arrogant, prideful, disobedient, stubborn, forgetful, rebellious, idolatrous, blasphemers, wicked sinners, and modern slaves to an economic system and taxation from the government? Granted, we no longer kill God’s messengers, at least not in this part of the world, be we frequently ignore them and dismiss their teachings when they challenge us too much. Things have not changed in the world because mankind has not changed. We are the problem in the world.

Now the answer is not depopulation as some globalists are proposing. The answer is Jesus. My intent this morning is not to beat up on you, but to simply point out our need for a saviour. Mankind cannot fix this mess apart from Jesus. We need Him to replace our hearts of stone with new hearts of flesh and to give us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to guide us and empower us on our walk with Jesus.

Looking at these two lists of attributes as described in this chapter this morning, who should you trust for your salvation? Mankind and man-made religions devised by wicked sinners, or should we trust in an unchanging, everlasting, loving, patient, God who is righteous, merciful and just? We should be praising the Father every day that we are living in this period of Grace and we are not living out the punishment we deserve as a nation for how we have turned away from God.

CONCLUSION

Well, this sermon marks the one-year anniversary of my becoming pastor at Mountain View Evangelical Missionary Church. The first Sunday in September marks the first sermon I gave here as pastor. This is the week that we wrap up our study through Ezra and Nehemiah and next week we will begin the Gospel of John with a message detailing the background and context of the Book. I wish we had more time to finish the Book of Nehemiah together, but alas, we must move on.

You would do my heart a world of good, if, in the coming week, you found time to do the homework mentioned in the bulletin. The people were in a joyful state. Sadly, it wouldn’t last, and Mankind’s Nature would win out and God’s People would once again begin to drift away from Him. But that would be OK because now all the pieces were in place and the stage would soon be set for the arrival of the Messiah, the Saviour, God Himself who would add humanity to His divinity in a unique once-in-all of Creation event that would bring about a reconciliation of man back to God. A journey we will begin next week.

However, if you have not yet placed your faith in the saving and completed work of Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour you do not have to wait. The work that Jesus did on that Roman Cross some two thousand years ago was a work of reconciliation. A work that was meant to bring His wicked rebellious people back into a right relationship with the Father. We cannot earn this work and we have read the we certainly don’t deserve this gift we call Grace.

You know the great preacher John Bunyon was on the streets of London one day sometime in the mid-1600’s and he was exhorting his fellow countrymen to come to Jesus, to accept Him as their Saviour. One man asked, “What can I bring, I have nothing to offer this Jesus in exchange for this gift.” Bunyon replied, “You can bring your sins friend. Bring your sins to Jesus and He will bear them for you.” If you are here this morning and have nit yet done that, then please come speak with me after the service. If you have a friend or family member who has not yet accepted Jesus consider taking one of these booklets to them and talking about it with them. If that is too much for you to do, simply invite them to come to church with you one Sunday. Next Sunday might be the perfect day because we are starting the new series where we will be examining the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

Verse	God’s Attributes	Man’s Attributes
5	Everlasting/ Glorious & Exalted
6	Creator & Life-Giver
7	God Chooses Man
8	Covenant Maker/ Promise Keeper/ Righteous
9	Sees Us & Hears Us
10	Powerful/ Controls Nature	Arrogant
11	Command Nature/ Punishes Enemies
12	Leader/ Protector
13	Law Giver/ Just & Righteous
14	Self-Revealing to His People
15	Provider
16		Arrogant/ Stiff-Necked/ Disobedient
17	Forgiving/ Gracious/ Compassionate/ Slow to Anger/ Abounding in Love/ Loyal	Stubborn/ Forgetful/ Rebellious
18		Idolatrous/ Blasphemous
19	Compassionate/ Leader/ Protector
20	Instructor/ Generous
21	Sustainer
22	Kingdom Maker
23	Giver of Children/ Guide
24	Provider/ Protector
26		Disobedient/ Rebellious/ Turned Away from God/ Killer of God’s Messengers/ Blasphemers
Verse	God’s Attributes	Man’s Attributes
27	Punisher/ Listening/ Compassionate/ Rescuer
28	Hand Them Over to Their Enemies/ Listener/ Rescuer	Evildoers
29	Adviser/ One Who Warns	Arrogant/ Disobedient/ Sinner/ Stubborn/ Stiff-Necked/ Ignoring God
30	Patient/ Herald/ Gave Them Over	Ignoring God’s Warnings
31	Merciful/ Loyal/ Gracious
32	Great/ Mighty/ Awesome/ Covenant Keeper/ Loving Sympathetic/ Aware
33	Unchanging/ Righteous/ Faithful/	Wicked
34	Herald/ One Who Warns	Ignoring of God/ Lawbreakers/ Command and Statute Breakers
35	Provider/ Protector	Ungrateful/ Stubborn
36		Delusional Slaves
37	Provider	Sinners/ Slaves/ Distressed

 

Pastor Paul’s Points:

1) God’s Attributes

2) Man’s Attributes

3) Who should you place your salvation in?

Homework:

a.     Read Chapter 10 and see how the people rededicated themselves to the observance of God’s Law.

b.     Read Chapter 11 and see how God blessed the efforts of those faithful in Jerusalem by bringing new people.

c.      Read Nehemiah 12:27-47 to see how the Israelites celebrated the completion and rededication of the wall with praise and worship.

d.     Read Nehemiah 13:1-9 to read about the fate of Tobiah.

e.     Three times in Chapter 13, Nehemiah asks God to remember him.

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[i] Lawrence O. Richards, New International Encyclopedia of Bible Words: Based on the NIV and the NASB, Zondervan’s Understand the Bible Reference Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 255–256.