Sermon Tone Analysis

Spiritual Decay

neh 13.

A well-known truth, one we have all experienced in our lives, is that things naturally gravitate toward decay and disorder, not efficiency and order.

If you own a home or car then you know this to be true.

A house or car, left uncared for and unattended, moves toward a state of disrepair, not beauty and peak performance.

The same applies to our physical bodies.

If we do not take care of our bodies/health then we become unhealthy and we break down even quicker.

What is true in the physical realm is also true in the spiritual realm.

We do not naturally gravitate toward Godliness and Christlikeness.

If we do not nurture our convictions and continue giving careful attention to our spiritual foundations they quickly deteriorate and find ourselves drifting toward spiritual decline, inefficiency and joylessness.

As the book of Nehemiah closes we do not have the privilege or satisfaction of enjoying a fairy-tale or Hallmark channel ending.

Instead, we see the relatively quick spiritual decline of God's people and crumbling of their spiritual foundations as convictions give way to compromise.

Nehemiah, after rebuilding the walls, leading the people into a time of spiritual renewal and helping them rediscover and restore their spiritual heritage and serving faithfully as their governor for 12 years has returned to serve the King in the capital city of Susa.

We do not know how long he was gone but we know he was gone long enough for spiritual decay to set it and the affects to become evident in the people.

We also find that enough time had passed for a generation to have been born and raised in the current climate so we may well assume that Nehemiah's absence may have been close to 20 years and as he returns to Jerusalem in this closing chapter of Nehemiah's ministry he discovers the only thing left standing were the walls, everything else had collapsed, the spiritual reforms were now the wreckage of a by-gone era.

J.I Packer said, ''Satan's constant attacks on the church (and I would add, our own sinful desires) and God's refusal to give up on the church, guarantee recurring disappointments alongside periodic encouragements...''

As we end this study we close with a warning against spiritual carelessness and some lessons on how to confront it.

illustration of drifting on the beach ....

Andy Stanley, in his book Visioneering, said when they were younger and the family would take trips to the beach, they would set up their stuff and then his dad would set up a boundary, usually some coconuts that would serve a marker so they could stay near mom and dad.

It was a safety zone.

Without a boundary/landmark they would not have known they were drifting because there was always a current pulling them away.

Andy Stanley, in his book Visioneering, said when they were younger and the family would take trips to the beach, they would set up their stuff and then his dad would set up a boundary, usually some coconuts that would serve a marker so they could stay near mom and dad.

It was a safety zone.

Without a boundary/landmark they would not have known they were drifting because there was always a current pulling them away.

Spiritually speaking, we all tend to drift and there are always undercurrents seeking to pull us away from our Heavenly Father.

One of the lessons we learn in this closing chapter is...

I We Must Guard Against Spiritual Drift

The under currents of life can easily pull us away from God and the boundaries of His blessing.

This is what happened to the people in Nehemiah's absence.

The Word of God was no longer central to their lives and they drifted beyond the boundaries of blessing and into the waters of discipline.

The absence of God's Word weakened the moral and spiritual fabric of the nation.

Tobiah, if you remember, was an Ammonite, who according to the first few verses of chapter 13, was not allowed to enter the assembly of God.

Not only that, early on we find that Tobiah was an enemy of God's people and tried to stop Nehemiah and the construction of the wall.

Now, he is not only living among the people but living in the Temple.

Tobiah, if you remember, was an Ammonite, who according to the first few verses of chapter 13, was not allowed to enter the assembly of God.

Not only that, early on we find that Tobiah was an enemy of God's people and tried to stop Nehemiah and the construction of the wall.

Now, he is not only living among the people but living in the Temple.

How did this happen?

Well, Tobiah was family.

He married into Eliashib's family and was a brother-in-law.

Eliashib, who was over the Temple chambers where they stored those things necessary for the priest to lead in worship and to support the priest, cleaned out the chambers and made an apartment for Tobiah and his family.

He took what was holy and used it for an unholy purpose because of a personal relationship.

One of the currents that can quickly pull us away from God and out of the boundary of blessings is our relationship with others.

Illustration

- We should not underestimate the power of personal relationships in our lives.

- I have seen churches that failed to reach their potential and drifted into irrelevance because the personal relationships (family or friends) became more important than church and her mission.

- I have seen people's faith shipwrecked because of relationships with those who were not concerned about faithfulness and obedience to God.

How did this room become available?

The verse said he prepared a ''large room for him, where formerly they put the grain offerings, the frankincense, the utensils and the tithes of grain, wine and oil prescribed for the Levites, the singers and the gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.''

Those rooms were not supposed to be empty.

They were supposed to be filled with all the resources necessary for the Levites to carry out their work in leading the people in worship and teaching the Word of God.

These things were not only necessary for worship but to sustain and provide for those responsible for leading the people spiritually.

The room became empty because the people quit giving.

They no longer brought their tithes and gifts to the Temple.

-Â I also discovered that the portions of the Levites had not been given them, so that the Levites and the singers who performed the service had gone away, each to his own field.

Because of that those responsible for leading the people could not afford to stay but had to leave and go work the farms and fields to provide for their families.

The room became empty because the people quit giving.

They no longer brought their tithes and gifts to the Temple.

Because of that those responsible for leading the people could not afford to stay but had to leave and go work the farms and fields to provide for their families.

This disobedience on the part of the people brought the ministry of the Temple and the Word to a screeching halt and they drifted even further beyond the boundaries of God's blessing.

Jesus said, ''No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and wealth.''

II We Must Protect the Lords Day

neh 13.15

Another commitment Israel had made in writing was to keep God’s laws regarding the Sabbath (10:31).

But when Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem he found that the people had also violated this promise.

They were working on the Sabbath as they did on the other days of the week.

They were treading grapes in the winepresses, and transporting the wine, along with grain … grapes, figs, and other merchandise, into Jerusalem to sell it.

They also were buying fish and other items from people of Tyre who resided in Jerusalem.

13:17–22.

Again Nehemiah met the problem with a rebuke and action (cf.

vv.

11–13).

In rebuking their Sabbath desecration (calling it a wicked thing; cf.

v. 7), he referred to a similar sin in Jeremiah’s day (cf. ) which God punished by the Exile (calamity).

Nehemiah had the city doors … shut on the Sabbath, beginning on Friday evening, with guards posted to see that merchandise was not brought in.

Even so, some merchants stayed all night outside the walls, perhaps hoping people would slip outside in the darkness to purchase their goods.

When Nehemiah heard of this, he threatened to use force against them.

Then he told the Levites (cf. ) to help guard the gates (cf.

7:1; 11:19).

Again (cf.

13:14) he asked God to help in this problem, showing mercy to him out of His great love (ḥeseḏ, “loyal love“).[1]

One of the lessons that we have talked about on Sunday mornings the past 4 weeks is that giving is a matter of the heart.

Our giving demonstrates where our heart really is and what we believe our treasure to be.

They had been pulled away by the current of greed/materialism.

We also see this in their changed attitude toward the Lord's Day.

Their day of worship became just another day of the week.

Our attendance and attitude when we attend are all indicators of where we are in our relationship with God.

They quit coming to church (so they quit giving) which meant they were not hearing the Word of God or spending time in worship of God and the drift away from God began.

Sin is never isolated.

It always affects more people than we realize.

It is always followed by more sin.

It opens the door to greater levels of disobedience and the subsequent consequences.

They lost their spiritual bearings because they placed personal relationships, money and the personal pursuits above God.

III WE Must Protect the families

neh 13.24

, -Â In those days I also saw that the Jews had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.

24Â As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them was able to speak the language of Judah, but the language of his own people... 28Â Even one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite...

Not only had God been abandoned in the public square (Temple and Sabbath) but in the home as well.

They had once again failed to protect their families.

- They gave their daughters and sons to marry the foreigners.

The issue was not ethnic or racial.

It was spiritual.