Sometimes during the messages,
as some of you will know, in preparation can be painful and
sometimes the Lord sort of burdens you with things that sometimes
it takes weeks for the burden to grow and grow and then you
actually get to church and get to finally have some light on
the subject and you become burdened and the only way to unburden
yourself again is to speak it out. So tonight I just really
want to look at four words in Nehemiah chapter 10 verse 28. But I was just going to look
at, as we saw last week, the people prayed this amazing prayer
in Nehemiah chapter 9 where they start by talking about who God
is, how he's completely independent and above all creation. They
talk about him creating and sustaining everything. They talk about his
electing, choosing love, his calling out Abraham. It's fascinating
how throughout the scriptures and especially in the Old Testament,
people are drawn back to the picture of Abraham. And those
who are of faith are the faith children of Abraham. They went
on and they talked about their history then, didn't they? The
great history of them being taken as a people by God's hand out
of Egypt. And then again and again you
actually have the contrast of God's character, His merciful
and gracious and he's a God who is ready to pardon. As I keep
reminding myself and reminding you, one of the great tragedies
of the fall is that we lost sight We lost sight of the goodness
of God and we lost sight of the character of God. He's a God
who is ready to pardon. He's gracious and merciful and
He's manifold mercies. And these people did as we have
done. They rebelled and God was gracious. They rebelled and God was gracious. They rebelled and God was gracious.
They rebelled and God was just. and faithful and he honoured
his promises. And at the end of chapter 9 they
actually conclude this prayer. And they talk about themselves
being people who are in great distress. They are now slaves. Slaves in the land that God had
given to Abraham. Slaves in the land that God had
promised was going to be a land of milk and honey. And it's still
producing remarkably. It yields as much increase unto
the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins. They have dominion over our bodies,
over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. And because of all this, because
of all that has gone on, because of all that's happened, They
say, we make a sure covenant and write it and our princes,
Levites and priests seal onto it. Now those that sealed were
Nehemiah the Tercitor, which just means Nehemiah the Governor,
and then it has a list down to the end of verse 27 of all of
those people. and the rest of the people, verse
28, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the
Nethahims, and they that had separated themselves from the
peoples of the land. I think that means that people
from outside of the Jewish nation had come and become one with
the Jews. They had separated themselves
from the people of the lands under the law of God, their wives,
their sons, their daughters, everyone having knowledge and
having understanding. And they claimed, they clung
to their brethren, their nobles, and then these words, extraordinary
words, and entered into a curse. and into an oath to walk in God's
law which was given by Moses the servant of God and to observe
and do all the commandments of the Lord our God and His judgments
and statutes." So they did two remarkable things. They made
a sure covenant and they entered into a curse. And the idea of
entering into a curse is like the covenant that Abraham cut
and people of those days cut. When you signed a deal, when
you made an agreement with someone, what you did is you cut a sheep
in half or a cow in half and you laid one half over there
and another half over there and then you walked with that person,
as you cut the covenant, you walk between the two halves of
those beasts with all of that smell and all of that blood and
all of what that figured. And you were saying, as you walked
through there, you were saying, I deserve this. I deserve this
to happen to me if I break the covenant. These people, it's an extraordinary
statement, isn't it? They entered into service. Here are these people in Jerusalem. this congregation, they were
aware of two amazing things, weren't they? They were aware
that God had gathered them together. He'd honoured his promises. He's honoured his promises by
magnifying his name. In his promise keeping he reveals
his character of mercy and justice and grace. What had they done
to earn this place that they were in? What have they done
in Babylon? What have they done prior to
Babylon? What have they done since they
got back from Babylon? To be a people gathered together. They were gathered together because
of God's grace and God revealed His holiness and they were separated
and they were separated and joined together. And they were aware,
as they stood there as slaves in this land, in this hastily
built wall behind them, this temple around them, but a desolate
city. They were aware of the fact that
they had sinned, and they had sinned grievously, and so had
all the people who had gone before them. And in verse 36 of chapter
9, they say to God, they look, look at us, we are slaves, look
at us. We are people who were in bondage
to Egypt, in bondage to Babylon, and now we are here as slaves
of Babylon. So the questions that I had is
why. The first one is why did they
write this covenant? Why did they set a seal to this
deal? In chapter 8 you have that remarkable
situation where the law is read and the people are weeping and
they are told not to weep any longer because the joy of the
Lord is your strength. They are gathered by God to celebrate
God's goodness. And in chapter 12 you actually
have these people, this amazing picture of the two companies
of Israel with the singers going ahead of them and they go around
on either part of the wall, these great companies and they have
a celebration. And they are told, and it's said
by God, that the Lord had given them joy. But here in these two
chapters we have these people who are in distress. The law
of God has been read out to them. And here they are, praying to
God and in distress. I just wanted to spend a little
bit of time, if you can spare the time with me, just to go
back and have a look at why they did write this covenant. I wanted
to briefly look at why they wrote the covenant. I briefly wanted
to have a look at what it was for them to enter the curse.
And I want to have a look at what all this says about the
Gospel. So the reason they entered into
a covenant. When they went into the land,
they were divided into two halves, the people of Israel, and one
half of the nation of Israel were on Mount Ebal and the other
half was on a mountain with a valley in between, and half of them
would pronounce the blessings and half of them would pronounce
the curses. They actually made an agreement,
and Moses made them make another agreement, another covenant.
as it were, a reiteration of the Sinai Covenant that Moses,
before they went in, and once they went in, they then stood
on these mountains. And you can read about it in
Deuteronomy 26. But at the end of it, At the end of Chapter 26 they
are told, in all of these curses, is, Cursed be he that confirms
not all the words of this law to do them, and all the people
shall say Amen. So it was part of their obligation
under the law, the law bound them tight. We turn over the page to chapter
28 and it talks about all the blessings that will come upon
them. For the Lord shall establish
thee a holy people unto himself as he has sworn unto you, if
you shall keep the commandments of the Lord thy God and walk
in his ways. And all the people of the earth
shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord and shall
be afraid of you." Just contrast these things with where they're
at at the moment. and down in verse 20 of that
same chapter it talks about the curses. And the Lord shall send
upon you cursing, vexation and rebuke in all that thou settest
thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed and for until
thou perish quickly because of the wickedness of your doing
whereby you have forsaken Me. The Lord had promised, He had
promised that they, in verse 25, shall cause them to be smitten
before your enemies. You shall go out in one way against
them. You will go out as an army of
one, and you will flee in seven ways before them, and shall be
removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And the Lord, verse 36, shall
bring you and your king, which you have set over you, unto a
nation which neither you nor your fathers have known. And
there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone. And you shall
become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the nations
where the Lord shall lead you." These are the words that were
read out to these people during this time. And all these curses, verse 45,
shall come upon you and shall pursue you and overtake you,
till you be destroyed, because you have hearkened not to the
voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his
statutes which he has commanded you. and they shall be upon you
for a sign and a wonder and upon your seed forever, because you
didn't serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and with gladness
of heart and abundance of all things. Therefore you shall serve
your enemies which the Lord shall send against you in hunger and
in thirst and in nakedness and in want of all things, and He
shall put a yoke of iron upon your neck until He has destroyed
you. And the Lord shall bring a nation
against you from afar, from the end of the earth as swift as
the eagle flies, a nation whose tongue you shall not understand,
a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person
of old or show favour to the young. And he shall eat the fruit
of your cattle and the fruit of your land until you be destroyed, And such is what they were reading
out. They were living out, these people
were living out the faithful promises of God. And here we
are, few in number, in verse 62 of chapter 28. And you shall
be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven
for a multitude. A thousand years before this,
two million of them came out of Egypt, it seems. And here
they are reduced from two million, a thousand years of breathing
in the land of milk and honey, and they are reduced to 42,000.
You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars
of heaven for multitude, because you would not obey the voice
of the Lord your God." And here they are making a promise to
obey it again. It's remarkable. And it shall come to pass that
as the Lord rejoiced over you to do good and to multiply you,
so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring
you to nothing, and you shall be plucked off from the land
where you go to possess it. And the Lord shall scatter you
among all people, from one end of the earth even to the other,
and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your
fathers have known, even wood and stone. And among these nations
shall you find no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot have
rest, but the Lord shall give you there a trembling heart and
failing of eyes and sorrow of mind. So these are the words, chapter
29, these are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded
Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab
beside the covenant which he made with them at Horeb. So they're
actually there called upon As they write this covenant and
sign this and seal their names to it, they are actually just
doing what God had commanded them to do. It is remarkable. You can read the
rest of Chapter 29 and you will be amazed. In chapter 30 the
Lord makes a great promise which is now fulfilled before them. They're wonderful chapters to
read, these last chapters of Deuteronomy. It's just remarkable,
Moses' last words to these people. And it shall come to pass When
all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which
I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among
all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you." And
so all of what has happened to them is just the fulfilment of
God's promises and purposes. You might remember what God said
to Adam in the garden. He didn't say, you might not
eat of the fruit of the tree. He says, when you do, these things
will come upon you. To the people of Israel, He said,
when you do these things, these things will come upon you. The point, of course, is that
God is faithful and His Word is true. Just read on in verse
2. And shall return unto the Lord
your God and shall obey His voice according to all that I command
you in this day, you and your children with all your heart. and with all your soul, then
the Lord your God will turn your captivity and have compassion
on you and will return and gather you from all the nations where
the Lord your God has scattered you. And if any of you be driven
out to the outermost parts of heaven. From there will the Lord
your God gather you." You can't get outside of God's gathering
hand. And from there He will fetch
you. And the Lord your God will bring
you into the land which your father has possessed and you
shall possess it. and He will do good to you and multiply you
above your fathers, and the Lord your God will circumcise your
heart and the heart of your seed, to love the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your soul, that you may live." What
a great promise. And we will find in the next
chapter that these things were to be read in verse 10, command
them saying, at the end of every seven years, in the solemnity
of the year of Lee, in the feast release, in the feast of the
tabernacles which they just had. So when you ask what did they
read in those times when Ezra stood on that platform and these
people read for three hours a day and they read and they read and
they read again, one of the things we know they did read is the
last chapters of Deuteronomy. Just remarkable. When all Israel
come to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He
shall choose, and you shall read this law before all Israel in
their hearing. So the question was, why did
these people, why did they write a covenant? Well there are several
reasons why they wrote a covenant. Firstly, they were already in
one. They were in a covenant at Mount Sinai and all of those
people, in a sense, were there represented by Nation Israel. They were already in a covenant.
They were in a covenant at Mount Sinai. They were in that covenant
that God had made and made them reiterate at Moab. They were
just, in a sense, by writing this piece of paper and sealing
it, they were just confirming what already was. Also, they were people who were
under the law. See this covenant of works. Nation
Israel was in a covenant agreement with God. And the covenant agreement
is do this and live. Disobey and you will be cursed. And this covenant of works as
we'll see as we go through the rest of Chapter 10 later on.
This covenant of works with Nation Israel was about national and
domestic blessings. Blessings on their houses, blessings
on their fields. We look as Nehemiah did and we
look as these people did in their prayer. They looked beyond these
things that were around them and they looked again and again
back to another covenant. They looked back to God in eternity. They looked back to that eternal
covenant. So when we read our Bibles it's
good to remember It is good to remember out of all of those
scriptures, and I think it's one of the reasons why people
are so confused, is that when you read the Bible from Exodus
chapter 20 until John chapter 19 verse 30, all of that part
of the Bible, is about Nation Israel under
a covenant of works. The covenant that we all in our
flesh think that we're under, isn't it? That if I do something,
God is going to respond with blessings, and if I disobey,
God is going to clobber me. But the reason this nation was
there, gathered in Jerusalem at this time, is that before
this covenant was made, before this covenant that was the Mosaic
covenant was made, which was a covenant between God and man,
there was another covenant made called the Eternal Covenant,
the covenant of peace, the covenant of grace, the everlasting covenant,
the covenant that had no beginning, the covenant that has no end. Why did God persevere with nation
Israel? Why did He persevere with people
who spent 1500 years being wickedly disobedient to Him all day long? He persevered with them because
he had another covenant with a man called Abraham. But before
that covenant, there was another covenant made between God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and all of the
children that God the Father had given to the Lord Jesus.
Why is this earth still rolling around? Why is God putting up
with the sins of this world? Because the everlasting covenant
demands that until the last of the Lord Jesus, pride is complete. She is born, she is converted,
and she is right for heaven. There will come a day when God
will stop all of this. But this everlasting covenant
is what keeps things going. And religion keeps saying to
us, do this and live. And this everlasting covenant
is a covenant that we have seen in Nehemiah. What have they done? Again, what have they done in
Babylon to deserve being brought back to their land? They've done
nothing. What did they do when they got
back there? They had to be flogged and cajoled, even though Cyrus
had given them all the money to build a temple. They dropped
tools to the flesh and they went off and they built themselves
fancy houses. They even in those days would
get ivory and cut it thinly and they plastered the outside of
their houses with ivory so they wouldn't even have to paint them.
They were building these nice fine houses and God's house was
in disrepute. They didn't even have to pay
the money. Nehemiah didn't need the money to build the temple.
Artaxerxes was rich enough, there was enough money, but still these
people acted in disobedience. But I just want to point out
the second thing that I want to talk to you about is this whole
business that's in chapter 29. They signed this deal, they sealed
it, from the best of them, Nehemiah, the priests, you can read that
list of names there, high priests and all others, and the rest
of the people. And they separated themselves,
they joined their brethren, and then they say this remarkable
thing when it comes to making a covenant with God. In verse
29, they entered into a curse. We are told these days, aren't
we, as I was taught at Bible College, the law sends you to
the Lord Jesus. The law shows you how bad you
are, and it sends you to the Lord Jesus, and then the Lord
Jesus sends you back to the law for you to get yourself right
with God. Do this and live." But these men, led by the Holy
Spirit, knew what they were entering into. They knew what this agreement
was about. You know if you know yourself. How often do you make agreements? How often do you make a deal,
say, I'm going to do it, I'm going to do this? How often do
we make those agreements and how rarely do they ever come
to pass? Some people have stronger wills
than others. All of us are in the same situation. And sadly when you read the rest
of Nehemiah, you find that even though Nehemiah signed this agreement,
and there were all the leaders of the people, blessed, separated,
provided for by God in the most remarkable way, protected. And they'd seen him in 52 days
build a wall right round a city like Jerusalem. And even the
enemies in chapter 6 say, this is not the work of men. These
guys picked up the stones, but this wall is here because God
did it. They had seen the remarkable
way God had brought them all out. had seen again and again. And in Chapter 13, Nehemiah turns
his back, just for a few minutes almost, pops over to Babylon
and when he comes back, what does he find these same people
doing here? You can read about it in Chapter
13. They talk here about all the first fruits that they have
to gather and there's a special room in the temple where they
put all these first fruits. The high priest, had chucked
out all the first fruits and who had he put in there? He put
Tobiah, the enemy of God's people, had residents in the temple and
all of these first fruits that these people here had promised
were thrown out. They make a promise about Sabbath
keeping. Nehemiah turns his back and in no time at all, not only
are the Jews doing a bit of trade on the Sabbath, but they've got
their mates in there doing trade on the Sabbath. See what are
they doing? When they make a promise to God,
these people know better than the theologians and the religious
people of our day. They realise that they are entering
into a curse. Now we know, we know from our
scriptures and we know from our own hearts that mankind is already
in a cursed state, a cursed state outside of the garden. And these people now are in even
a greater curse, aren't they? They are in a cursed state under
the law of God. They're actually saying, we will
do this and if we do it, God will respond. They're also saying
that if we don't do it, God will respond. The very law which for
these people, as they signed this under the direction of Nehemiah,
was a humbling, humbling thing, and brought us to the dust, had
become something that they were proud of. 400 years later, the
people who diligently kept this law were the very same people
who thought they kept this law. were the very same people who
manipulated and deceitfully contrived with even their enemies and with
the Romans to kill the Lord Jesus. A man can do nothing but sin. Sin is what we are and sin is
what we do. And sin is what we do because
of what's in our hearts. At least these men had the honesty
and the conviction to say that they are entering into a curse. And yet we read today in our
confession of faith about how we are to go back to the moral
law Just let me read something from the Baptist Confession of
Faith. The moral law ever binds to obedience, everyone. justified people as well as others,
not only out of regard for the matter contained in it, but also
out of respect for the authority of God the Creator who gave the
law. Nor does Christ in the Gospel
dissolve this law in any way, but He considerably strengthens
our obligation to obey it. There you are. You're not only
about Sinai, but you're even more obligated than the people
at Sinai were. Talk about Sabbath keeping. These
people were encouraged and they wrote a promise to keep Sabbath.
You listen to what we say today. Just listen to this. Put your
hand up if you've actually done it. The Sabbath is kept holy
to the Lord by those who after necessary preparation of their
hearts So that means you start preparing your heart sometime
during the week and prior to Sunday. Somehow they've managed
to organise the Sabbath to be Sunday rather than Saturday,
but anyway. But you've actually got to prepare your heart and
the prior arranging of your common affairs, you arrange all of your
cooking and you arrange all of your other activities. Observe
all day, this is what you're supposed to do on Sunday, a holy
rest. from their own works. Not only
a holy rest from your own works, Beth Day, a holy rest from your
own words, a holy rest from your own thoughts. Isn't that lovely?
Isn't that sweet? their own thoughts about their
worldly employment and recreation. Isn't that remarkable? And give themselves over to the
public and private acts of worship for the whole time and to the
carrying out of duties of necessity and mercy. I remember Clay Curtis
was rebuked by someone walking down his street when he was mowing
his lawns on the Sabbath. And the fellow said to Clay,
aren't you resting on the Sabbath? And Clay turned to him and said,
no I'm not, I'm resting in the Sabbath. The Lord Jesus is the
Sabbath. Who's kept the law? Who's kept
the law? There is one who's kept the law,
isn't there? There's only one. We think that
we can go to law to save us from going to sin. We think that if
we go back and look at ourselves and look at God's holy law and
look and look and study it and know it and apply it to ourselves,
then out will pop that holy Sabbath living that we've just read about.
What does Paul say in Romans 6? What a wonderful place for
him to talk about a bit of works. reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed under sin, but alive under God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, that you
should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield your members as
instruments of unrighteousness under sin, but yield yourselves
to God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness under God." There you are. Why? For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you are not under law but under grace. You are not under law but under
grace. How did we get to the under grace
and not under law? You see there is a real cursiveness
isn't there? There is a real cursedness that
came into this world at the fall of Adam. There is a real cursedness
that came into this world when the law was there to magnify
sin and to make it worse. And there's a real curse that
multitudes, billions, are living in now and will live in forever. How do you get free? These people
knew that they were entering into a curse. How do you save
yourself from entering into a curse? How could Nehemiah save himself
from entering into the curse that he knew he was signing and
he was sealing? You see, the law is a curse. God requires really simple things
from all of us, doesn't he? He just requires perfect holiness
100% of the time. No excuses. That's all he requires,
isn't it? It's really simple. That's what
he said to Adam in the garden. He has said the same to the rest
of humanity forever. The law just makes it harder. Holiness is what's required.
God's holiness, not man's holiness. Let's read Galatians and think
about what an amazing thing it is. See Christ has redeemed us
from the curse of the law. The curse of the law. And how did he do it, Galatians
3.13? Being made a curse for us. Isn't that remarkable? The only
escape. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. The only escape for Nehemiah
and he knew it. The only escape for those who
were God's children amongst those people here, the only possible
means of escape, having entered into a curse, was for someone
else to enter into that exact same curse. One of the things that's so hard,
isn't it, is that we become familiar with holy things. We become familiar
with talking about sin. We live in it like fish live
in the sea and we don't see its problems anymore. And we talk
about the Lord Jesus and He becomes an object rather than a person. And it's so easy to even say
those words and to read them and even to in some sense believe
them, but for them not to impact us the way Paul intended that
they impact us. See Paul knew what it was like
to live under the law. He knew that when you woke up
in the morning you were obligated and he knew that every moment
of every day you were obligated to do it and remarkably The biggest
problem and the biggest problem today doesn't come from those
who know they can't do it and who confess like Nehemiah that
he's entering into a curse. But the biggest problem today
is those who think they can do it. in some small way. I'm not as bad as Hitler. I didn't
kill as many people as Pol Pot. I haven't been as corrupt as
Eddie Arbeed. There are these wicked people
out there, and I'm not quite like them. May God show us what sin is. May God show us what holiness
is. We'll only ever see it at the
cross of the Lord Jesus. See, Paul goes through this letter
of Galatians and again and again he reminds people of the cursedness
of what it was, for these people to be bound. See, we are people
who need deliverance from that curse. For as many who are of
the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all the things written in
the book of the law to have done them, it really says. And you
can't divide them up. James 2.10 says if you break
one law, one tiny little law, one tiny little jot and tittle
from that law, you have broken the whole lot. It's like a beautiful
vase. Once it's cracked, it's ruined
forever. You can't put it back together
again. There is a cursedness. We need
deliverance. In Galatians 1 Paul talks about
his need to be delivered from this present evil world. We need deliverance in verse
8 and 9 of chapter 1 from a perverted false gospel. We need deliverance
from bondage. These people like us are people
who are in bondage until Christ sets us free. And we know that
that bondage is a growing bondage, it's a yeast, a cancerous yeast. We know that when Peter started
doing a little bit of works, how incredibly pervasive and
how incredibly powerful it is. If I do some works and brag about
them, Even if I do some works and don't brag about them, but
make sure you know about them." Barnabas. Barnabas was led astray
by Peter and a whole crowd with him. Legalists win the numbers
game always. No flesh is going to be justified
by the works of the law. And if righteousness comes, if
right standing before God comes by the law, then Christ is dead
in vain. There is one door of escape. There is one person who brings
freedom. brings a bewitching upon people. They think they actually do it.
They think that they are righteous and they are bewitched, says
Paul. As I read, they are under a curse.
And the Lord Jesus became a curse for us. He bore that curse that
Nehemiah spoke of there. And what did He do it? Why did
He do it? What was the result of it? That
the blessing of... It's wonderful, isn't it? The
blessing of Abraham. Abraham's blessing comes through
pure sovereign grace. What was Abraham? He was an idolater
in Babylon. What did Abraham do to earn anything
with God? Absolutely nothing. What did
God give to Abraham? He just gave him promises, I
will do this, I will do this, I will do this, I will bless
you and you will be a blessing. That the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. We have no blessing. We have no blessing in this world
apart from Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith, the faithfulness of the Lord
Jesus. The faithfulness of the Lord
Jesus brings the promise of the Spirit and we apprehend it, we
become aware of it by faith. Again and again the New Testament
says that you go back to the law and you go back to Nehemiah
10.29, you go back and enter into a curse, you go back and
seek to meet God with something in your hands, you go back to
a cursed situation. Isn't it great that these men
were honest? Isn't it great that the Holy
Spirit led them to see what they are entering into? They are under
obligation But marvellously as we see in Chapter 12 and as we
saw in Chapter 8, marvellously in the midst of that depravity,
in the midst of that captivity, in the midst of that weakness,
in the midst of that yoke of bondage, the Lord sends deliverance. He sends deliverance because
He'll have mercy on whom He'll have mercy. Blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." May that blessing
come upon us. May we be protected from thinking
that anything that we do is anything that earns any merit with God.
And may He force us, may He force us to see that we live by grace,
we are saved by sovereign grace, we are saved because of the work
of the Lord Jesus and nothing that we have ever done. May we
know that works, works is entering a curse. Let's pray.