As we saw on Sunday, this is
a remarkable worship gathering and at the end of verse The chapter 8, the last verse
in 18, it talks about this sacred assembly, a holy assembly, assembly
of separated people, and they were there according to the prescribed
manner, as David found out when he brought the ark back to Uzuz,
great cost. honour God according to the due
order. So these are this separated,
this redeemed people and in chapter 9 we have this remarkable prayer.
And the prayer begins, as all things begin, with God and His
character. And on Sunday we looked at this
God who is blessed forever and ever. Blessed be your glorious
name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. And I just wanted briefly this
evening just to have a look at the next three verses. Thou, even thou art Lord alone. Thou hast made heaven, the heaven
of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth, and all things that
are therein, the seas, and all that is therein. and Thou preservest
them all and the highest of heaven worships Thee. Thou art the Lord,
the God. the Lord, the God, who didst
choose Abram, and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees,
and gave him the name Abraham, thou foundest his heart faithful
before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of
the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites,
the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed,
and thou hast performed thy words, for thou art righteous. So we looked on Sunday at the
character of God, and now we look at the character of God
as displayed in the things that God does. It is remarkable, isn't it, when
we think how much evidence God has given us upon which to base
our faith. What a remarkable amount of evidence. What a remarkable history we
have laid out before us. Six thousand plus years of history. And people think that that history
finished when the Lord Jesus rose or when Acts of the Apostles
finished. But in fact, the last 2,000 years
have been just as much a testimony to God's faithfulness to his
word. And at the end of the day, at
the end of the day, what do we have? as the anchor for our souls. How will it be with our souls
in the swelling of the Jordan when we cross from this world
into the next? The thing that we have, the only
thing that we have is a word from God. But what an amazing
word from God it is. It's a word from God that is
confirmed in history and all of that history is a word from
God that displays His glory. Displays His glory in the way
He saves His people. It's a word spoken by God. It's a word that He causes His
people to understand because He's promised to be the teacher
of His people. It's a word fulfilled. It's a
word of promise. It's the word of hope. It's a
word that defines reality. Not our thoughts, not this world,
but God's word is light. It is a word, of course, which
points and shows us the true word. It's a word confirmed,
confirmed in history, in type, as the Lord Jesus came and all
the promises of God are yes and amen in Him. He is the prophet. He is the priest. He is the king.
He is the sacrifice. He is the temple. He is the tabernacle. He is the dwelling place of God
amongst men and He is the dwelling place of His people with God. He is the mercy seat. He is the
law giver. He is the law keeper. He is the life here. He is life resurrected, he is
life eternal. And what a great way our passage
begins tonight. Thou, even thou, Nehemiah 9 verse
6, art Lord alone. He is the Lord and there is no
other. and how thankful we are that
there is just one God, and how amazing it is that this creation
has a God whose character is the one that we have revealed
before us. As he says in Isaiah, to whom
then will you liken me, or to whom shall I be equal, says the
Holy One. The holy one means the separate
one, the one only God. There is no other God. I am the
Lord, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another. And he does this, according to
Isaiah 43.10, that you may know and believe me and understand
that I am he. Before me there was no God formed,
nor shall there be after me." It's not as if there is a competition
as there is amongst the gods of Hinduism and the gods that
surrounded Nation Israel, our God sits alone on the throne
of this universe. And what does the next verse
say? He sits alone on that throne. Thou hast made heaven. the heavens of heavens with all
their host, the earth and all things therein, the sea and all
that is in them. You see, there's nothing in all
of creation that is not God's. He stamps mine over everything. He just speaks a word, doesn't
he? Light be, it says in the Hebrew. It's beautiful, isn't it, in
Genesis 1? Light be and light was. Stars be and stars were. Lift up your eyes on high and
see who has created these things, who brings out their host by
number. He calls them all by name. By the greatness of his might
and the strength of his power, not one is missing. They found one some years ago,
I think it's called the Crystal Star, and it is so big that if
it was where our sun is now, we would be inside. We would be inside the star. The radius of the star is 93
plus million miles. It is just remarkable, isn't
it? How do you make something that big? How does something
that big hang up there on nothing? How many did he make when he
brings out their host by number? We can't count them. We can't. We don't know. Science guesses,
doesn't it? And it talks of billions of billions. We don't know. He made them.
He made the heavens of heaven with all their hosts. He made
the earth and all things therein. He made the seas and all that
is in them. He made them and He controls
them. And the next part phrase says,
He preserves them all. and how does he preserve them?
In Hebrews 1.3, this Lord Jesus, this living word, he upholds
all things by the word of his power. The sun shines and the
wind blows and the stars shine because he preserves them. And how long is he going to preserve
them? He'll preserve them just for a time. He preserves them
as they are right now. But there will come a time, you
can read about it in 2 Peter 3. It says, for they willfully
forget those whose scoff at the Lord Jesus' words, scoff about
His promises of His coming. They willfully forget. It's a
deliberate, willful activity. As Romans 1 says, they suppress,
they hold down the truth. They willfully forget that by
the word of God, the heavens were of old, the earth and the
earth standing out of water and in water, by which the world
that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens
and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word. They are preserved by God, the
word. They are preserved by God, the
promise keeper. are reserved, they are preserved
and reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition
of ungodly men. The day of the Lord will come
as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with
a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works
that are in it will be burned up Therefore, since all these
things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to
be in holy conduct and godliness, looking forward and hastening
the coming day of the God, because of the heavens which will be
dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent
heat? Nevertheless, according to His
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness
dwells. How sad it is. when we, and no doubt you, find
our attachments to things that God has preserved for a time,
but has reserved for destruction. Oh, that he would cause us to
have our eyes fixed on eternal things. The host of heaven worships
you. He's talking about chiefly the
angels. And as you read about it in Revelation
4 and 5, they worship our God. They worship around that throne. They worship the lamb who was
slain. And then there is just this wonderful
description of God. Thou art the Lord. the Jehovah, capital L-O-R-D. You are the Lord, the God. There is no other. You are the Lord, the God. So we have a beautiful description
of God in His sovereignty. We have God in the solitariness
of His perfections in verse 5. This glorious name which is exalted
above all blessing and praise. He gives to all and in His reality
of His glory. He receives nothing, because
He is the first cause, and He is the giver of all. And now
creation is His, and the hosts of heaven worship Him. And now
we have his activities. This God is a God who has acted
in history. We are people who look to history,
don't we? I was talking to Isabel a couple
of days ago, and we had a long talk about the reality of our
faith. And our faith is actually based
on a word of God, but it's based on a historic reality, isn't
it? If you had been there 2,000 years ago, you would have seen
that man on a cross, hanging there, being mocked, bleeding,
dying, speaking amazing words of peace and comfort to that
thief, that repentant thief beside him. Hearing those words of that
centurion, surely this man was the Son of God. And if you'd
been there that afternoon, you would have seen Nicodemus and
Joseph of Arimathea take that body down and do all that they
could to honor it. And you would have seen it put
in that tomb and that stone rolled away. If you'd been there, you
would have seen Mary meet the Lord Jesus on that amazing resurrection
morning. If you'd been there for the next
six weeks, touch, you could walk with, you
could talk with, you could eat with, you could drink with. You
and 500 others could see the Lord Jesus. You could handle
the Word of Life. How does 1 John begin? It talks about this life was
manifested. We have seen and bear witness
and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father
and manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard, we declare
to you. You see, our faith is a historic
faith. And you cannot change history
It doesn't matter about our feelings or our emotions, and it doesn't
matter what the world says about it. It is just history, and it
is just true. But it's a wonderful history.
It's a wonderful history when it's revealed and comes alive
in the hearts of God's people. You see, God chose Abram, it
says. Out of all of the people of this
world, and out of all those nations around nation Israel, he went
to Babylon. and he went to Ur of the Chaldees. He went to the place in that
nation where they kept the sacred fire, and they worshipped that
sacred fire, and they called that sacred fire Ur. What a picture of fallen humanity. We'll worship anything, and we
will create gods of anything. Abraham was an idolater, just
like us, but he was chosen by God. He was chosen, and the choosing
of God is an active choosing, isn't it? You see what it says? You choose him, and you brought
him, and you gave him, and you found him, and you made him,
and you gave him. Let's just look at these things
briefly, because this is what God does. Abraham's the father
of the faithful. The faithful are chosen, chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. We are elect children. We are joined to the one who
is the elect. The Lord Jesus is the elect.
And we're brought forth out of the Chaldees, out of Ur. This gathered people, where had
they spent the last 70 years or more? They'd been in Babylon.
They'd come from earth. They were chosen people like
Abraham was a chosen person. And they're given a new name.
Colin and I were talking about the naming of God's people. The
called. The called are chosen. The called
are given new names. And the greatest name that we
are given is that we wear, the bride of Christ wears the name righteousness he names us and
we are given this new name the first name means father the second
name means father of many nations he gave him a name which has
a promise associated with it and you found his heart faithful
how did God find his heart faithful where did faith come from it's
a gift of God Of course God will find the things that he gives,
and he'll delight in him, and found his heart faithful before
him. What a great description of us.
What a great desire, isn't it, that God would find our hearts
faithful, he would make us faithful, and he'd find us faithful. just
honest, just trusting, just leaning, just relying upon Him who is
so faithful. And you made a covenant with
Him. In fact, the word aid can be
accurately translated, you made the covenant with Him. The covenant
made with Abraham is a covenant just to type a portrayal of the
covenant that God made with all of His people in His Son. I've typed out there for you
some of the first uses of the word covenant. And it's just
wonderful, isn't it, to think when we come to this covenant
with Abraham, just look who makes the covenant. The first mention
of covenants are with Noah. I will establish my covenant. Genesis 9.11, I will establish
my covenant with you. Verse 12, and he has a token
of this covenant. It's a token of a covenant, this bow that's
set in the clouds. 15, I will remember my covenant. 16, that I may remember the everlasting
covenant between God and every creature. It's a token When it
comes to Abraham, the same day the Lord made a covenant with
Abraham. He makes a covenant between me
and thee. Who is the party who is making
the promise? What's required of Abraham? What's
required of Abraham? What a wonderful thing. I establish
for Genesis 17, I will establish my covenant between me and thee
and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting
covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. This is my covenant. This is
the covenant. that God made with Abraham, a
covenant to bless him, a covenant to take him and to protect him,
a covenant to make him a great name, a covenant in which God
would get great glory for himself as he grows in his works faith
in Abraham. It's a covenant not just to Abraham
it's a covenant to this seed and the seed are children of
promise promised long before Abraham had the opportunity to
have children Isaac was named as his child,
long before Sarah became pregnant. To give it, he said, to his descendants. These descendants are, as Galatians
says, the faith children of Abraham. We are children of Abraham. He is the father of the faithful. And then he says, in verse 16
of verse 22, chapter 22 of Genesis, called to Abraham a second time
out of heaven and said, by myself I have sworn, says the Lord,
because you have done this thing, have not withheld your son. Blessing will I bless you, and
multiplying will I multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven
and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants
shall possess the gates of their enemies. And in your seed all
the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have
obeyed my voice." God's covenant is a covenant that He makes and
it's a covenant that works in the hearts of His people as He
reveals Himself to them as faithful. And Abraham took his son up on
that mountain. He had a promise from God. And he took that knife and in
a sense He really did slay Isaac and Hebrews 11 says that he received
him back from the dead. He received Isaac as it were
resurrected. And who was there? who was there
portrayed in that lamb, that substitute, the substitute for
Isaac, the one who Abraham had heard from and the one who Abraham
trusted, was the one who himself was the sacrifice, our Lord Jesus. And just look down at the last
part of verse 8. he's made this covenant, he's
chosen Abraham, he brought him, he gave him, he found him, he
made a covenant with him and he gave him the land and all
of this, all of this history is so that we would look to our
God and look to these words on the pages in front of us and
we would know that our God is faithful to his promises. What remarkable promises we have
laid out before us in the scriptures. A promise that we will not die. I promise that when we leave
our bodies behind, we meet the Lord Jesus and we are ushered
into Heaven's glories. For He will be there. He will
come and carry us to that place, and He'll wipe every tear from
our eyes, and we will rejoice. And then He'll come back again,
and there will be this amazing dissolution of this world, and
a remarkable resurrection. We have in the Scriptures the
most remarkable promises. What remarkable promises await
us What remarkable promises await this creation. They're promises
that you cannot hold on to, except by God revealing himself and
his faithfulness. And yet, the promises of the
future are just purely on the basis and our confidence is on
the basis of the fact that he has performed his words perfectly. Can you think of one instant
in history where God has not been perfectly faithful and perfectly
true? Can you think of one moment in
your life where you can possibly consider that God has not been
perfectly faithful to His promise. Just wait if you doubt. Wait
in hope and wait in faith and you will see that as Titus says,
we have the hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised
before the world began. God performs all His words, and
He does so because He is righteous. Let's just finish by reading
something of these promises in Hebrews chapter 6. And it's talking in Hebrews 6
about these promises that were promised to Abraham. Let's start in verse 10. For God is not unjust to forget
your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name,
in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister, and
we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the
full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become
sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit
the promises. For when God made a promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by
himself. saying, Surely blessing will
I bless you, and multiplying will I multiply you. And so after
he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For indeed
men swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for
them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show
more abundantly to the heirs a promise, the immutability of
his counsel, the unchangeableness of his counsel, confirmed it
by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible
for God to lie. It is impossible for God to lie
in his counsel. It's impossible for God to lie
in his oath. the two immutable things in which
it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation,
having fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that is set
before us. This hope we have as an anchor
for the soul, both sure and steadfast. and which enters the presence
behind the veil. We have an anchor for the soul. We throw it overboard and away
from ourselves, wait till it attaches to a rock that is immovable. We're the forerunner. entered
for us, even Jesus, having become a high priest forever according
to the order of Melchizedek. He's able to save to the uttermost
those who come to God through him. Since he always lives, this
high priest, He always lives to make a decision for us. Behold, brothers and sisters,
what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. Heirs of
promise. Heirs of God. Joint heirs with
Jesus Christ. What a great God. What a great
promise-making God we have. What a remarkable promise keeping
God we have. Let's pray.