MPC, 25th June 2000.Nehemiah 8-9 - Real Repentance
Phil Campbell MPC, 25th June 2000.
Let me tell you about two genuine cases that appeared in court not too long ago. Both to do with driving offences.
Number 1. Near Gosford in NSW, a man is pulled over by the police for driving at 191 kilometers per hour. And he's breath tested. And his blood alcohol reading is four times the legal limit. He's charged. And then released on bail. Four hours later, the same guy is pulled over again. And breath tested. And the result's exactly the same. Zero point 2. Four times the legal limit.
Case Number 2. A 23 year old man is in court charged with manslaughter and culpable driving. Trying to overtake in a tight spot, he's run into an oncoming car and killed a 37 year old woman and her 16 year old daughter.
But the judge said one thing in his favour. And the interesting thing is, so did the relatives of the people who were killed. That they've been struck by his GENUINE REMORSE.
Case number 1. Someone who's got no idea of what they've done. And they do it all over again. Case number 2. Someone face to face with the terrible burden of guilt. Full of remorse. Who the judge says is highly unlikely to ever do the same sort of thing again. And I want to say to you, there's all the difference in the world, isn't there, between those two attitudes.
The difference between TRUE REPENTANCE. Where there's a real change of behaviour. And EMPTY WORDS.
And as we come to the book of Nehemiah and we look at the people of Israel, that's the question we've got to have in our minds. Because here's a whole nation that's gone off the rails. And the time has come to put things right. And REPENT. And we're going to see them doing it. But all the time we need to keep asking the question, is there going to be a REAL CHANGE OF BEHAVIOUR? Or is it all just EMPTY WORDS? Hard to tell at the start.
Because you can see at the start of chapter 9, things are looking GOOD. "On the 24th day of the month, they're gathered together, they're fasting and wearing sackcloth with dust on their heads. And it says in verse 2, they stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers."
They're owning up to everything their forefathers have done wrong. Because they're at a point where they've come face to face with the LAW GOD GAVE TO ISRAEL back at the beginning. And they can see the way they've failed.
And you can see that in chapter 8. Now a lot of people these days reckon church services are too long and too boring if they go over 59 and a half minutes. And I happen to be one of them. But get a load of this. Here's a church service that starts at daybreak. And it's still going at noon.
Measure it by our calendar, and it's the first of July; right about exactly this time of the year. And everyone's here in Jerusalem. The walls are been rebuilt, the people are back in their little towns around the city, and there's a huge gathering in the main square.
And can you see, there's a real sense of UNITY. Chapter 8 verse 1 says the people assembled AS ONE MAN. And as you read through the passage, you see the same phrase over and over again. ALL THE PEOPLE. All the people. And they're here for one reason. United. To hear the Word of God.
Ezra the Scribe brings out the book of the Law of Moses, and he stands up on this huge wooden stage at daybreak, and he starts reading. The book of Genesis. The book of Exodus. The book of Leviticus. The book of Numbers. It's half past nine. The book of Deuteronomy. It's eleven o'clock. The book of Joshua. And on he goes. The LAW THEY WERE GIVEN BEFORE THEY CAME INTO THE LAND. The blessing if they kept it. The curse if they didn't.
And it says there in verse 3 Ezra read it from daybreak til noon. And not only that. ALL THE PEOPLE LISTENED. They listened attentively to the book of the law. Because they knew it was the WORD OF GOD.
And it says in verse 6, Ezra PRAISED THE LORD, the great God; and ALL THE PEOPLE lifted their hands and responded, "Amen, Amen!" Then they bowed down and worshipped the lord with their faces to the ground."
And then there's more. The Levites - and you can see their names recorded in verse 7 - they start INSTRUCTING people in the law, spelling it out, explaining it so all the people can understand it.
Verse 8 says "They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it CLEAR, and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read."
And it all sinks in. And it's an interesting thing, you can see in verse 9 that when they understand it, the people are cut to the heart. And they mourn and weep. Because they know how far they've strayed. The law they've just been hearing, the law of Moses... it's exactly what the nation of Israel DIDN'T DO. All the commands. All the regulations. All the warnings of what would happen if they disobeyed... they'd IGNORED IT ALL. And now, they're SORRY. And it looks like a case of GENUINE REMORSE.
But at this point, Nehemiah stops them. Because it's the first of July, and according to the law they've been reading, the first of July's a very special day. The day they celebrate the way God first brought them out of captivity in Egypt all those hundreds of years ago. The day they celebrate the way Moses stood up to Pharoah. And led them out through the Red Sea. And they camped in the wilderness in little huts.
Now at Easter, we have Easter Eggs. And at Christmas, we have Christmas trees. But to celebrate the Festival of Booths, the book of Leviticus says the Israelites had to go out and get tree branches. And bring them back, and make little lean-to cubby houses. And camp in them. As a reminder of those days in the wilderness.
And so you can see in verse 16, that's exactly what they do. "So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves booths on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God, and in the square by the Water Gate and the one by the gate of Ephraim."
Try to imagine the scene. These little leafy huts scattered all round Jerusalem. And people camping in them. Celebrating with good food and good drinks. And it says in verse 17, the whole company who'd come back from the exile built the booths and lived in them. And there'd never been anything like it since the days of Joshua. Those hundreds of years before. Because it's like the same thing all over again. God's brought them BACK to the promised land. They'd been exiled. AND NOW THEY'RE BACK AGAIN. Back to square one. Ready for a fresh start.
CHAPTER 9 - LEARNING FROM HISTORY
You know, there's an old saying. If you don't learn from history, you're doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again. And in chapter 9, you can see there's another great gathering. It's three weeks later. And you can see in verse 1 they're fasting and wearing sackcloth and ashes. Signs of REPENTANCE. Signs of REMORSE. They've separated themselves from foreigners, it says in verse 2, and they're ready to get serious about being the people of God. It says "Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They STOOD IN THEIR PLACES AND CONFESSED THEIR SINS and the wickedness of their fathers."
Because they've heard the Words of God's law read to them. And they know they've blown it. And from verse 6 onwards, it's like a summary of the history of Israel. A summary of the bible so far. Starting from creation in verse 6. Follow it down the page. Just like the banner they made in Kidzbiz. God's promises to Abraham in verse 7. Then the Slavery in Egypt. If you run your eye down the page you can see it's all traced out. Moses leading them through the Red Sea in verse 9. And it's all part of one very long prayer of confession to God that lists all the great things God has done for them. And the way they responded. By spitting in God's face.
Have a look at verse 16. God blessed them. He's brought them out of slavery in Egypt. "But they, our forefathers became arrogant and stiff necked." Like a horse that couldn't be bridled. "And they didn't obey your commands."
That's what the Israelites were like. Chosen by God to be Holy. Given God's law, like no other nation on earth. And they respond with DISOBEDIENCE. Time after time. And still God didn't give up on them. He persevered. Verse 19. "Because of your great compassion you didn't abandon them in the desert." God sticks to his promise. And verse 22 spells out how God gave them kingdoms and nations, how their numbers grew, how they became a great and mighty nation. Just like he'd promised.
They were blessed. But verse 26 says it again. BUT. But they were disobedient. And rebelled against you. And they put your law behind their backs. These previous generations of Israel. This is a prayer of repentance. And behind it all, I guess they're saying, THAT WAS OUR ANCESTORS. But WE... we're going to be different.
And on it goes. Verse 28. Again. Verse 29. Same thing. "You warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands." Every time things are going well, the same thing happens. They get arrogant. They disobey. And when God sends trouble, they turn back. And he forgives them. And things go well. So they get arrogant. And they disobey. Over and over again. The more God blesses them, the more he forgives, the worse they get.
And chapter 9 spells it all out. In detail. As the people confess the terrible track record of their forefathers.
But this time, they say, it's going to be different. This time, we're going to get it right. This time we're back in the promised land, we've rebuilt the walls; this time, we're going to be obedient.
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Well, that's where we're going to leave it this week. And when we pick up again after a few weeks break, we're going to see how they go.
Because so far it looks like a good case of REMORSE. They're all there in their sackcloth and ashes, and they're confessing where they went wrong. Which is a great start.
But the interesting thing is, the Bible says God's more interested in REPENTANCE than just remorse. Remorse means FEELING BAD FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE WRONG. But REPENTANCE means actually TURNING AWAY FROM IT. Turning around.
And whether you look in the Old Testament or the New, the message is exactly the same. If you want to be right with God, START WITH GENUINE REPENTANCE. Turning away from your sin.
In fact, it's just about the first thing Jesus ever said. The Kingdom of God is near. REPENT and believe the Good News." Mark chapter 1.
Which doesn't just mean FEEL A BIT SORRY. It means TURN AROUND. Stop running your own life your own way. And TURN BACK TO GOD. And line yourself up with HIS WILL. Instead of your own.
It's the starting point in becoming a Christian. Stop following yourself. Start following Jesus.
And yet so many people miss it. And never really get the point.
Catholics get it mixed up with what they call CONFESSION.
I saw a while back someone's come up with a WEB SITE on the Internet that can replace the priest in the confessional. You just type in your sins and it prints out a list of hail mary's for you to say.
And let me tell you, for all it's worth they might as well do it that way. Like one girl I heard of, her name was Jane. She was going to be a bridesmaid at a nuptial mass. A catholic wedding. Which meant she had to go to CONFESSION before the wedding.
And someone asked her afterwards, well, what did you confess? And she said, "oh, I just said "I thought some bad thoughts about someone and I told a few lies. It was just the first thing that came into my head."
Which totally misses the point, when the fact is, her biggest sin was that she spent her life totally and completely ignoring God.
You can go to confession every day of your life. And there's no real repentance at all. Because repentance means coming to terms with the fact you've been running your own life your own way. Admitting you've rebelled against God. And turning around. And living in a whole new direction. Acts chapter 26 verse 20 says this. And it's a message for you and me. Paul's in court. He's talking to King Agrippa. And here's how he sums up what he's on about. First to those in Damascus, he says, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should REPENT AND TURN TO GOD... and prove their repentance by their deeds."
That's the challenge. Next time we're going to look at the rest of Nehemiah, and we're going to see the people of Israel FAILED. But what about YOU?
Let me ask you... if you've repented, if you've turned to God... is there any evidence in the way you're living? Is there any evidence AT ALL that God's the one who's calling the shots? Or are you just quietly keeping on with those same little sins. The ones you LIKE SO MUCH?
And you get so good at making excuses, don't you? Everyone's a LITTLE bit dishonest. Or, it's not just ME... everyone nicks stuff from work. Or gee, if you don't LIE a little bit in business, you'd go broke. Or everyone cheats in their marriage a little bit. EVERYONE gossips a little bit. I mean, there are all the excuses in the world. But if you've REALLY repented, if you've really turned to God... you need to show it by how you live. And PROVE it - by your deeds.