Morning, everybody. It's good
to see you all again. If you would turn over to Nehemiah
chapter one. Nehemiah chapter one. One of the minor prophets in
there. It helps me when I'm looking
through the Old Testament, and especially when I pick up in
chapter one of one of these Old Testament books, to understand
kind of where in history we're picking up in. It helps me, maybe
it'll help you. So I did some digging. And so
in Nehemiah here, where we're picking up where we meet him,
back in about 586 BC, the Babylonians came through and they conquered
Judah, took the place over. That was under Nebuchadnezzar.
And when they did, they completely and utterly leveled Jerusalem.
They went through there and they destroyed the temple. and they
destroyed the walls of Jerusalem, all the people were taken captive
or held captive there, completely and utterly conquered them. And
after that, after Nebuchadnezzar, you get a series of leadership
changes over the next about 70 years. And finally, at the end
there, you end up with Cyrus. He's a Persian. Now, Cyrus was
prophesied of by Isaiah. And the prophecy was that Cyrus
would be raised up, that he would be benevolent to the Jews, and
he would restore Jerusalem. And that's exactly what happens.
Cyrus sends the Jews back to Jerusalem. He says, go back and
you build the temple. And that's where you get the Book of Ezra.
Book of Ezra is all about the Jews being sent back to Jerusalem
to rebuild that temple. And then some 70 years after
that, you pick up with Nehemiah. Now, he's serving under King
Artaxerxes. He's a Persian as well. He's
also benevolent to the Jews. And he goes and he is compelled
by the Lord to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Under
Ezra, the temple was rebuilt. Nehemiah wants to go rebuild
the walls. So that's where we're picking
up. Nehemiah, he is serving under King Artaxerxes. Now, what I
want to do is read through this once, and so we understand what's
going on here. Nehemiah, and this is a very
powerful type of crash, we'll go back, we'll see if we can
see our Savior in all this. So pick up just there in verse
one. The words of Nehemiah, the son
of Hacaliah, and it came to pass in the month of Chislet, that's
the ninth month, in the 20th year, as I was in Shush in the
palace, that Hananiah, one of my brethren, came, he and certain
men of Judah, And I asked them concerning the Jews that had
escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem."
Now, what we'll find out at the end of this chapter is that Nehemiah
holds a special place with the king. He's what's called the
king's cupbearer. You say, what does a cupbearer
do? It's pretty simple. The king wants wine. The cupbearer
pours the wine. He hands it to the king. And
now that may sound like a place of slavery, a place of low importance. It wasn't. This is a very special
place. It's a place of prominence. It's a place of glory. This is
a place of honor with the king. He sits at the king's right hand.
And what he is, he's an advisor. So very few people get to be
in the king's court and to be part of the king's court. Only
people the king trusts. And they're there, yes, to pour
the wine, but also when Artaxerxes has to make a decision, he turns
to Nehemiah and says, what do you think? What should we do?
So this is a position of honor. This is a position of influence
and power. And from this position of prominence
and power and influence, Nehemiah asked this question. What about
my people? What has become of my people? Let's find out. Look down at
verse three. And they said unto me, the remnant
that are left of the captivity there in the province, are in
great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is
broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. From this position of power and
influence and glory and honor, Nehemiah asks, what is the status
of my people? And the voice answers back, not
good. They're afflicted. They're a
reproach, which means a complete disgrace, and all their walls
are burnt down. And what that means is they're
defenseless. They're defenseless against their enemies. Their
enemies can just have at them all day long and there's nothing
they can do about it. Now, this makes Nehemiah distraught. He's
gonna do something about this. Pick up in verse four. And it came to pass when I heard
these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days
and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. You think
Nehemiah loved his people? He had some love for his countrymen,
didn't he? He hears this status, this affliction, this disgrace,
this defenseless state, and he falls down and he mourns and
he cries. Why? Because he loved these people.
And he's gonna do something about this. He's gonna turn to the
God of heaven. Now, when we read his prayer,
what I want you to notice is this. He prays as a we. When he prays, he praises an
us. Two times in here, he's going to say, we did this, we did this. He is the representative of his
people and he is praying as a we. Pick up in verse five. And said, I beseech thee, O Lord,
God of heaven, the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant
and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments. Let thine ear now be attentive.
and thine eyes upon me, that thou mayest hear the prayer of
thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for
the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children
of Israel, don't miss this, which we have sinned against thee. Both I and my Father's house
have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly
against thee. and have not kept the commandments,
nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandest thy servant
Moses. Nehemiah goes before the Lord
and he lays out the status. Here's where we're at. We have
sinned and it's against you and we have no excuse. He speaks as a representative
of his people. We did this. We sinned against you. We have
no excuse. Now, Nehemiah's gonna make a
petition for mercy. Let's see what he comes up with,
look at verse eight. He begs for mercy and he begins
with this word. Remember, he's not asking the Lord to show mercy
based on something that will happen. He's asking the Lord
to show mercy based on something that has already happened. Go
back, verse eight. Remember, I beseech thee, the
word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, if ye
transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations. But
if you turn unto me and keep my commandments and do them,
though they were of you cast out unto the uttermost parts
of heaven, yet will I gather them from thence and will bring
them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. What grounds does he come on
for mercy? Lord, remember. Remember what?
Remember the covenant you made. You made a covenant with Moses.
Remember you said, If you go away from me, I'll scatter you.
But if you return, if you turn to me, I'll get you back. Wherever
you're at, I'll come and I'll draw you back. He's saying, Lord,
you said that. You made that covenant. Now,
Lord, do what you said you would do and honor your covenant. What grounds does Nehemiah come
on for mercy? Remember your covenant. He's
got another grounds here. Look at verse 10. Now these are
thy servants and thy people. Listen to this. Whom thou hast. That is a past tense word, hast
redeemed by thy great power and by thy strong hand. He's saying this, Lord show mercy
because of the covenant. Remember your covenant, honor
your covenant. And here's the kicker. Don't
look to anything in the future. Don't look to anything we might
do. Don't look to anything they may do. You remember thou hast
redeemed these people. the price of redemption has already
been made. Don't look to the future, look
only to the past, to what you have done. Now, look at verse
11, these are the closing statements. Oh Lord, I beseech thee, let
now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and
to the prayer of thy servants. Now listen to this, this is a
peculiar statement. Who desire to fear thy name. I pondered
that for a while. That's about as far as we can
go sometimes, isn't it? Lord, I desire to hear your name.
I desire to believe on Jesus Christ. I desire to love you. I desire to grow in grace. How
to do that, I find not. But I desire, that's about as
far as we get sometimes. This is what Paul said. He said,
to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is
good, I find not. That's about as far as we can
get sometimes. I desire to fear your name. Now, where is Christ in all this? It's a very simple illustration.
Verses one through four, you have Nehemiah, and where is he?
He's serving in the king's court. He has a position of glory. This
is a position of honor. This is a position of prominence
and influence with the king. Do you think Nehemiah had any
needs? He had no needs. He was in the king's court. He
lacked absolutely nothing. Was there any need of happiness
or fellowship? No, he had the king. Just as
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit before time ever
began had each other in perfect communion, having absolutely
no needs. And from this position of honor
and power and glory and prominence, Christ asked this question, what
will be the status of my people? What about them. He loves his
people, doesn't he? He loves his elect. He says,
I've loved you with an everlasting love. You know what that means?
That's a love that didn't have any beginning and will never
have an end. An eternal love. That's something
we can't wrap our minds around. But if you're a believer, you're
eternal. You've always been one in Christ and always been loved
by Christ. And from that position of power
and prominence, he asks, What will be the status of my people? What about them? And the voice
answers back, it's not good. Absolutely not good. They're
afflicted, going to be afflicted. They're going to be a disgrace.
They'll be absolutely defenseless. And you know, if you're a believer,
that's exactly how you would describe yourself. Afflicted, disgraced,
and defenseless. I looked up those words, that
word affliction. It kinda makes it sound like
he's saying, well, we're being bullied up upon, things like that. That's
not what the word means. When it's used here, you know
what it means? It literally means evil. That is the direct meaning. It's evil, afflicted evil. And you know, the scripture has
a whole lot to say about us being evil. It picks up with Genesis
6-5. God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only what? evil and continuate, always. I think it's interesting the
scripture picks up with this and it doesn't even go into the outward
works yet, the outward demeanor of man. It simply starts with
what's inside, the imaginations of the thoughts of the heart,
the root of the problem, the motives, the intentions, the
will. What is it? It is only evil and
that continuate. And then John talks about the
works. John 3.19, he says, and this is the condemnation, that
light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather
than light. Why? Because their deeds were
evil. Because the fountain is bad,
because the root is bad, the heart, that means everything
I do, everything I say, the very breath that comes out of my mouth,
it's evil, because it comes from this evil, wicked nature I was
born with. And then later on, you have Matthew
7.11, where the Lord is speaking to his disciples. And he says
this, he says, if you then being evil. Now don't think for a second
when the Lord saves a man in his experience and he gives that
new nature, that new man, that holy man, that that old man goes
anywhere. That old sinful nature, it stays
right there, and it's just lively as ever. And we're not going
to put him down until the day that we die. Yes, there's a new
man there, a new man who believes the gospel, who believes on Christ.
There's a new man that's holy, and unblameable, and unapprovable.
But that old man is still there. You then, looking at his disciples,
some converted men, being evil. What am I? Until the very day
I die. Evil. That's my name. And only
a believer can answer to this name. So if you read through
Isaiah, the first five books of Isaiah, you know we're in
the first five chapters, what you'll hear him say over and
over again is this, woe unto them, woe unto them, woe unto
them. Happens about six times, I think. And finally in Isaiah six, what
happens in Isaiah six? In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord. He saw Christ. And you know what
he said after that? Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. You see, it's only a man who
has been saved who has this new man, this holy man, who identifies
with this word evil, because it takes a new man to recognize
that old evil man. But let's take some comfort here
in this word. That was a downer up to this point. Let's take
some comfort here. Luke 635, the Lord says, but
love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing
again. And your reward shall be great,
and ye shall be the children of the highest. For he is kind
unto the unthankful and to the evil. That's what that scripture
says. If you identify with this word,
this is me, I am evil. Is that too harsh of a word?
No, it is not. It is not too harsh of a word
that describes me to the T. If you are one of these that
is evil, Christ is kind to you. Christ died for evil men and
women. He's a savior of sinners. These
people were afflicted and reproach. Reproach means a disgrace. When
you're talking about disgrace, what that means is this, You
had a place of promise, a place that was good, a place of honor,
and you've fallen from that position. What happened in Adam? Well,
we were made in the likeness of God. That's what scripture
says. Adam was made upright and innocent. He had much honor. And then he
disobeyed God and he fell. And when he did, we all became
a disgrace before God. Then he says this. He says, their
walls are torn down. They're absolutely defenseless. Their enemies can have at them
anytime they want. Who's my enemy? And who's your
enemy? We got a couple of them, folks.
My greatest enemy is this. It's me. It's my sins. And I'm
defenseless, I have no walls. I can't stop. Sin is what I do,
it is my name, it is my nature. I can't do anything about it.
I cannot make atonement for my sins. I can't make that up to
God. I can't come up with a righteousness before him. Absolutely and utterly
defenseless to do anything about my sin. And from eternity, Christ
says, what is the status of my people? They're afflicted, they're
evil, they're a disgrace, and they're defenseless. and he decided
to do something about it. I want you to turn over to chapter
two. This is Christ becoming our champion.
Look at verse one. And it came to pass in the month
of Nisan, in the 20th year of Artaxerxes, the king, that wine
was before him. And I took up the wine and gave
it unto the king. Now I had not been before time sad in his presence,
Wherefore, the king said unto me, why is thy countenance sad,
seeing that thou art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow
of horror. Then I was very sure afraid, and said unto the king,
let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance
be sad when the city, the place of my father's sepulchers, lieth
waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then
the king said unto me, for what dost thou make request? What
do you want, Nehemiah? Now look at these next words.
So I prayed to the God of heaven. Now, as we read on, what you're
gonna find is, Nehemiah doesn't stop talking to the king and
start praying to the Lord. That's not what happens here.
The Holy Spirit puts that in there, so we understand what
this illustration actually is. This is Christ speaking to his
father. He says, I prayed to the God of heaven. This is Christ
speaking to his father. His father says, what do you
want? For what are you making request? What is it that you
want? Look down at verse five. And I said unto the king, if
it pleased the king, if thy servant have found favor in thy sight,
that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my father's
sepulchers, that I may build it. They're afflicted, they're
a disgrace, they're absolutely defenseless. And king, if it
pleases you, If I please you, if it pleases you, send me. I
want to go rebuild Judah. That's Christ. And this is the
covenant of grace. It sounds exactly like this.
Remember Judah and Jacob? This is what Judah said to Jacob
concerning Benjamin. Send the lad with me and we will
rise and go that we may live and not die, both we and thou
and also our little ones. I will be surety for him of my
hand, shout that require of him. If I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. It's the exact same thing Nehemiah
is saying. They're afflicted, they're a disgrace, they're absolutely
defenseless. King, send me. Send me, I'll
be the surety. Send me king, I'll rebuild them. Put it all on me, put it on my
shoulders, I'll be the champion for them. It's the exact same
thought. And here's what I find very interesting. Every time
I've ever thought about the covenant of grace, that covenant between
the father and son before the world ever began, I've always
thought of it with the father approaching the son. And the
son taking the covenant on, taking on the responsibilities, yes,
in love for his people, but being duty-bound. You know, my father's
charging me with this. I must do these things. We're
given two illustrations here of that covenant of grace. In
both of them, the son approaches the father. I love these people. These are my people. I'm the
volunteer. I'm the champion. You send me.
Now, somebody says, what do you make of that? I think it makes
the sacrifice of our Savior that much sweeter. It's one thing
to be duty-bound, say, well, this is my responsibility, all
grit and bear. There's another thing to stand up and say, I
love these people. These are my people. I will not be without
them. Father, send me. I will be the
champion for these people. Now, verses one through four tells
us about the covenant which led to salvation. And verses six
through seven tells us how salvation was accomplished. Now, you remember
when Nehemiah is praying, he prays as a we. He prays as an
us. Now, here's two things you cannot
separate, impossible to separate. The concept of justification
and union with the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll never understand
the truthfulness, the reality of justification, unless we understand
union with Christ. Now, what is union with Christ?
Our Lord prayed for. Let's see what he had to say.
Turn over to John 17, please. Look at verse 20 of John 17.
This is Christ praying to his father. It says, neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through the
word. And what he's saying there is
I'm not just praying for my disciples. Father, I'm praying for everybody
who through their message, you intend to save. It's the same
message through the generations. The gospel is Christ over and
over and over again. Everybody who you intend to save
through that message, I pray for all of them. Those are my
elect people. Now, what does he want? Verse
21, that they all may be one as thou, Father, are in me and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me." He's saying, Father, you and
I are one. You are in me. I am in you. You know what that
means? It means they share attributes. The Father is holy. The Father
is righteous. The Father is immutable. Therefore,
how is the Christ? He's holy. He's righteous. He's
immutable. They're one. They're all in one. And here's what the Lord prays
for. He says, our people, I want them to be one in us. that they
may be holy and righteous and immutable, having all those characteristics
glorified in us. That's true union. And look down
at verse 23. This is what union leads to. I in them and thou in me, that
they may be perfect in one. This is how perfection is accomplished
for us through this union. We may be one with the Godhead,
with Christ, with his father. What does that mean if we are
all one? That means when Christ kept the
law, that means every member of the elect, every believer,
you actually kept the law in him. That means when Christ went
to the cross, when he died under the wrath of God for your sins,
you actually went to that cross. That's when you were punished.
That's when justice was meted out on you in Christ, in that
union. And when he was raised from the
dead, What does the resurrection signify? That he did what he
was sent to do, that he put away all the sins of all the elect.
You were raised in him. That's exactly what we confess
that we were bad people, isn't it? Now, everything that Christ
did, we did, but he was the doer of all of it. Now, that's the
best way I can possibly explain this union. Everything Christ
did, we did, but he was the doer of all of it. What was Nehemiah's
job? He was the cup bearer. You see,
somebody had to bear the cup. Somebody had to actually do salvation. Someone actually had to accomplish
it. Christ is the Father's cup bearer. You remember when he was in the
Garden of Gethsemane? Where did he pray? Oh my father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not
as I will, but as that will be done. What was in the cup? The
sins of the elect, that's what's in the cup. The wrath of God
for those sins was in the cup. The equivalent of an eternity
in hell, that's what was in that cup. That was what's in the cup.
Somebody had to drink that cup for the union, and Christ drank
it all. He went to that cross bearing
the sins of his people. He died under the wrath of God. He suffered
the equivalent of an eternity in hell times 10,000s and 10,000s
and 1,000s and 1,000s, and he rose up again victorious, and
all of us were resurrected in him, every member of that elect. Someone had to do salvation,
and he was the cupbearer. Now there's a story that bears
us out. Let's shed some light on this.
Turn over to Matthew chapter 20. Matthew chapter 20 and look at
verse 20. Then came to him, speaking of
Christ, the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshiping
him, she was sincere and desiring a certain thing of him. And he
said under her, what wilt thou? She saith unto him, grant that
these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the
other on thy left in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said,
you know not what you ask. Are you able to drink of the
cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with? They say unto him, we are able.
Now, these boys had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.
They never would have answered that. He's saying this, he's
saying, can you bear the sins of many? Can you suffer under
the wrath of God and be that sacrifice that actually consumes
the wrath and is not consumed by the wrath? Can you do that? Can you put away the sins of
many? Can you be resurrected again because you are the champion,
because you cannot fail, because you accomplish what my father
sent me to do? Can you do that, boys? If they
had known the question, they never would have answered the
way they answered. And you'd think the Lord would be harsh
with them, wouldn't you? He'd give them a stern rebuke. Let's
see what he says, down to verse 23. And he saith unto them, ye
shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with. He's saying, you boys have absolutely
no idea what you're talking about, but turns out you're right. You
are gonna keep the law in me. You are gonna go to cross in
me. You are gonna be resurrected in me. I'm the cupbearer, I'm
the one who's gonna do it, but you're in me, that means you
did it. You know what that means? That
means justification, folks, is real. That means every believer
is without sin before God. We really don't have any. Now
that's hard for us to understand because we still have this sinful,
evil nature, but with God there is no time. We truly are holy
and unblameable and unapprovable before him right now. That's
your status. If you're a believer right now,
all your hope is in Christ. You can't get any more pleasing
to the Father. It's because you're in Christ.
And He was your cupbearer. We'll stop there. It's a good
place to stop.