Okay, this evening we're going
to try to bring our message from Nehemiah chapter 5. Nehemiah chapter 5. I'm entitling
the message from the last verse in this chapter, verse 19. Nehemiah
5, verse 19. And here's a phrase that caught
my eye as I read through this. Think upon me, my God, for good. Think upon me, my God, for good,
according to all that I have done for this people. Now this book of Nehemiah ends
with this similar prayer. The last verse in Nehemiah 13,
31 says this, Remember me, O my God, for good. Remember me. Oh my God, for good. Also in
Nehemiah 13, 22, he prays this way, Remember me, O God, concerning
this also, and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy. Now isn't that our prayer? Lord,
spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy. I often think of
Jeremiah's lamentation in Lamentation 3, It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed because His compassion do not fail. They're
new every morning. But also when I think about that
statement, remember me for good, according to the greatness of
thy mercy, I thought about this. Wasn't that the prayer of the
dying thief upon the cross? In his last moments upon the
earth when he cried unto the Lord, Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom." That was a cry of mercy, was
it not? That's our cry. And the Lord did remember him,
and the Lord did save him by his grace, and the Lord did show
mercy unto him. For the Lord said to that dying
repentant thief, this day you'll be with me in glory. Now, I want to be remembered
that way. I want to take my place before
the throne of God as a mercy beggar, knowing that the Lord
does delight to show mercy to sinners. Is not this our continual
prayer to the Lord? Lord, leave us not to ourselves. Lord, remember me for good. Remember
me for salvation in Christ. Have mercy upon me, not because
I'm deserving, but because you're merciful. Remember, have mercy
upon me for Christ's sake. Again, we think of the publican
prayer unto God, remember? Lord, have mercy upon me, the
sinner. And the Lord said, that man went
down to his house justified. Justified. Aren't you glad the
Lord delights to show mercy? Now remember, as we study the
book of God, The message is always about the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Wherever we look in the Word
of God, Old Testament or New, whatever book, whatever chapter,
we're always looking for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's always there. It's always there. In the Book
of God, the message is all about the Lord Jesus Christ, His person,
His work, who He is, and what He has done. And the message
is how God saves sinners in Christ. The Old Testament and the New
Testament, therefore, they have the same message, don't they?
They have the same message. It's all about the blessed Savior. Salvation is of the Lord. Someone
said, and I remember hearing this years and years ago, thirty
years ago, someone said the Old Testament is Christ in type and
picture and promise. And we see Him that way, don't
we? Personal types, providential types, instituted types, whatsoever
written aforetime was written for our learning, that we might
see Christ. The Old Testament is Christ in
type, picture, and promise. And the Old Testament is the
New Testament concealed, right? And then in the New Testament,
we see the Old Testament in Christ revealed unto us, don't we? Our
Lord said in Luke 24, He said unto them, These are the words
which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all
things must be fulfilled, which are written in the Law of Moses,
and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms. And the Lord said, They're
all about concerning Me. Then He opened their understanding.
Oh, the Lord may open our understanding and enlighten our understanding. The book of Ezra, and the book
of Nehemiah are no different. It's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. This message of the book is all
about Christ and his people and how the Lord Jesus Christ blesses
them according to his sovereign will, power, and purpose. We see many times mentioned throughout
the scripture The deliverance from Egyptian bondage, 400 years,
how God redeemed them and delivered them. 400 years of bondage and
God sent them out. And then the deliverance from
the Babylonian captivity, which lasted 70 years, but both of
those tell us how God, by Christ, has delivered His people. He has delivered us from the
captivity of Satan, from the curse of the law, and that's
what both those deliverances picture, from the captivity of
Satan, from the curse of the law, from the bondage of sin,
salvation we know is, as it's taught in the Word of God, salvation
is of the Lord, His will, His purpose, His grace. We know that
the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the beginning, and He is the
end, He is the alpha, and He is the omega. Salvation begins
with Him, is accomplished by Him, and it will always be in
Him eternally. Now, with that introduction,
let me give you this outline. In verses 1 through 5, we see
the rightful complaint to the people against the abuses of
their own family. Now remember what these people
have been through. They've been through 70 years
of captivity. And by the decree of the King
Cyrus, they were set free. And yet when they came back to
the land, those who had the advantage over the poor were taking advantage
of them. And then the second thing, verse
6 to verse 13, we see the holy anger of Nehemiah. We see his
wise rebuke, his true counsel to reform those abuses, and then
the action that he takes to remedy this situation. And then thirdly,
In verse 14 down to verse 19, we see Nehemiah's noble example
of charity and compassion. Those other governors before
him, they took from the people, but Nehemiah ministered to them. He did so in love and tenderness
toward His people. Remember we read in Nehemiah
2 verse 10 that He came to seek the welfare of the children of
Israel. You remember that? Turn back
over there. Nehemiah chapter 2 verse 10. Many of them were grieved when
they heard that he was come, a man to seek the welfare of
the children of Israel. He came to seek their welfare,
not to take from them. He came to give. Now what is
that a picture of? It's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ, is it not? to give unto us all spiritual
blessing. Christ came to minister unto
us. He came to seek and to say the
law. He came seeking our welfare to
the glory of God. We read a moment ago in Matthew
20, 28, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister. but to minister to his people,
and to give his life a ransom for many, or the many. Call his name Jesus, he shall
save his people from their sin. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I lay it down, I lay it down
of myself and I take it up again, this commandment have I received
of my father. Now if we look at verses 1 down
to verse 5, look at verse 1, Nehemiah 5 verse 1, there was
a great cry of the people and of their brethren and of their
wives against the brethren, the Jews. Family squabble, if you
will. We see the rightful complaint
of the people against abuses of their own family, their own
people. Hard times and hard hearts made
the poor people miserable in Jerusalem. They were mistreated
by their own flesh and blood. The rich were taking advantage
of these poor, poor sinners. You see, Man left to himself
is nothing but a greedy, greedy creature always seeking to take
advantage of others, and it was no different in this case. Corn
was scarce because of the drought. They couldn't feed their families.
The Lord sent this drought among them, the taxes were high, as
it says in verse 4, there were also that said, we've borrowed
money for the king's tribute, we have mortgaged our houses,
we've mortgaged our lands, and yet now our flesh is the flesh
of our brethren and our children as their children and lo, We
bring into bondage our sons and daughters to be servants, and
some of our daughters are brought into bondage, under bondage already,
neither is it in our power to redeem them. For other men have
our lands and our Now, how sad is this? How sad is this? If there's any time they should
have pulled together as one and been generous and loving and
kind and rebuilding the temple and rebuilding the wall and establishing
the worship service around the blood sacrifice, this should
have been the time. But it wasn't. They mortgaged
some of them their land, they gave their children to bondage
to pay their debts, and as it says there, The last part of verse 5, neither
is it in our power to redeem them. They could not buy their
children out of servitude. Now, they were doing what they
were doing totally contrary to what the Word of God had written. Leviticus 25, 25, If thy brother
be waxen poor, and hath sold away his possessions, and if
any of his kin come to redeem it, then he shall redeem it,
that which his brother had sold. But these people weren't able
to do so. It reminded me of this story.
Here's people who have sold their children into bondage to pay
off their debt or to get some money. Now that would be a sad
thing to do, wouldn't it? Imagine doing that to one of
your children, putting him in servitude to pay your bills and
then you tried to redeem him from that bondage and you weren't
able to do so. Boy, that would grieve your heart,
wouldn't it? But it reminded me of this story. Remember the
story of Naomi and Ruth? how they had lost everything,
how Elimelech had died, Naomi's husband, and how they had lost
everything and they came back to Jerusalem totally destitute,
and how there was one near kin who had the right to redeem,
who was willing to redeem, had power to redeem, and he was a
near kinsman who could do so if it pleased him to do so. Well, you remember the story
of Boaz The kinsman-redeemer who was type and picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ, remember he bought Alemalech's inheritance
and with that Naomi and Ruth. And is not this our story as
well? We were sold into the bondage
of sin and slavery in debt to God's law and justice In bondage
to the law of God, we were not able to redeem ourselves. We
were not able to pay our sin debt. We'd mortgaged our inheritance
away in Adam, ruined by the fall, ruined by sin. We were held in
captivity to sin and Satan, and it's not in our power or will
or ability to redeem ourselves. Not at all. But what happened? Our kinsman-redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ, came. He is our mighty Boaz. He came
to rescue us. He came to redeem us with His
own precious blood. He came to redeem us lock, stock,
and barrel, our person and our inheritance. He satisfied the
law of God for us. He paid our debt and set us free. That's the good news of the gospel.
We're not redeemed with the corruptible thing, but with the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know several things about
the kinsmen redeemer who had to be near kin like Boaz was. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
our near kinsman. He's called bone of our bone
and flesh of our flesh. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us and we beheld his glory. Boaz also had to be a willing
redeemer. And certainly that is true of
the Lord Jesus Christ, is it not? He came to willingly redeem
us. Well, this is a faithful saying,
and worthy of all acceptation, that the Lord Jesus Christ came
to save sinners. And He did so willingly. The
Lord Jesus Christ is not only near kin to us, a willing Redeemer,
but Christ is also the able Redeemer, able to save to the uttermost.
He has all power to save such as we are. Think how desperate
our condition is. Sold in the slave and bondage,
but it goes further than that, dead in sin. Thank God He's able
to raise us up from the dead, able to save us by His grace,
able to redeem us, and He paid the price of our redemption.
He paid the full price of our redemption and obtained for us
eternal redemption, not with the blood of bulls and goats,
but with His own precious blood. What a Redeemer we have. We're not able to redeem. Oh,
but we have one that is. As Boaz married Ruth, and Boaz
became head and husband to Ruth, even so the Lord has taken us
to be His bride, His wife, to love us forever. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We read
in Ephesians 5 that He loved the church. How much did He love
His church? Hearing His love, not that we
loved God, but that He loved us. He laid down His life for
us. He loved the church and gave
Himself for it. His church. His people. We studied in Romans 7. dead to the law by the body of
Christ, that we should be married to another who is raised up from
the dead. We are married to Christ. I was
reading today, I was looking this up, and I couldn't remember
where it was, but in Revelation 21 verse 9, the bride, the church,
is called the Lamb's wife. And that's who we are. We are
the Lamb's wife. We are the bride. The one who
was chosen by the Lord, given to Him, and completely redeemed. He became the surety. He became
responsible for our debt as our King and Redeemer. And oh, He
paid it in full, didn't He? Set us free. Now we're married
to Him forever. Now, here's the second thing.
In verse 6 down through verse 13. We see Nehemiah's rightful
holy anger, his wise rebuke, his true counsel to reform and
to rebuke those who were misusing and mistreating the people. Look
at verse 6. And I was very angry when I heard
their cry and these words. Then I consulted with myself. I rebuked the nobles and the
rulers and said unto them, you exact usury or interest, every
one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against
them and said unto them, we after our ability have redeemed our
brethren, the Jews, which were sold under the heathen." Talking
about those in Babylonian captivity. When Cyrus had the decree to
set the Jews free, there were some who were sold to the heathen
in bondage and servitude that had to be redeemed out, bought
out of that servitude, were sold unto the heathen. And will you
even sell your brethren? These brethren have already been
redeemed. Now will you put them back under
bondage again? Or shall they be sold unto us?
Then they held their peace and found nothing to answer. Why? They were guilty. They knew
it. They'd been caught. Also I said
it's not good that you do. Ought you not to walk in the
fear of our God? because the reproach of our enemies,
the heathen, our enemies, and likewise my brethren, my servants,
my exact of them, money and corn, I pray you, leave off this usury. Restore, I pray you, to them,
even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their houses, and
give them back 100% of everything, the corn, the wine, the oil,
that you exact of them. And they said, we will restore. We will require nothing of them.
So will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priest and
took an oath to them that they should do according to promise.
I shook my lap, that is my garment, and said, so God shake out every
man from his house, from his labor, that performeth not this
promise. Even thus be he shaken out and emptied. And all the
congregation said, Amen, Amen. And they praised the Lord, and
the people did according to their promise. Now, Nehemiah's rightful
and holy anger against them, what these people were doing,
taking money from them, taking their land, taking their houses,
taking and taking and taking, was not according to the law
of God. We read in Exodus 22, 25, where
it says, that they were to watch over
the poor, that they were to protect the poor. If you lend to the
poor, take no usury, take no interest of them. The Lord is
always about protecting His people, His poor people, watching over
them and watching out for them. You remember the Lord said, all
you who are laboring and heavy laden, come unto Me. Ho, everyone
that's thirsty, come unto Me. The Lord is always looking out
for His poor people. We read in the book of Psalms
many times, Psalm 40, Psalm 70, Psalm 74, David said, often,
I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thanks upon me. Nehemiah was angry over their
sin. Verse 6, I was very angry when
I heard their cry and the abuses that they were suffering. His
anger was holy anger, and rightly so. And we read in Scripture,
God is angry with the wicked every day. His anger, not like
our anger, His anger, holy anger. God judges the righteous and
God is angry with the wicked every day, and rightly so. God
too holy to look upon sin with favor. BMI takes wise counsel
what should and can be done. Notice a phrase in verse 7. This
is interesting how this is said here. Verse 7, I consulted with
myself. Or the marginal reference has
my heart consulted in me. And I rebuked the nobles, the
rulers, and said, You exact usury, every one of his brethren, I
said, a great assembly against them. Nehemiah takes wise counsel
what should be done. He says, my heart, my heart,
and it could be rendered this way, my heart reigned over me. The Lord gave him in his heart
what to do. Like as before, turn back to
Nehemiah 2. Nehemiah 2, verse 12. And I rose in the night, I and
some few men with me, neither told I any man what my God had
put in my heart to do at Jerusalem, neither was there any beast with
me save the beast that I rode upon." God had put in his heart
what to do. And God upon this occasion had
put in his heart what to do. God gave him wisdom, how to act,
what to say, what to do. It reminds me of this. Even so, the Lord Jesus Christ,
in the eternal covenant of grace, and the wise counsel of God,
determined to take wise counsel to set us free. That's what Nehemiah
is doing here. He's taking wise counsel to set
these people free. And that's what the Lord has
done for us in that eternal covenant of grace. Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified the Lord of glory. Nehemiah makes a strong and valid
argument in verse 8. We, after our ability, notice
what he says here. We, after our ability, have redeemed
our brethren the Jews which were sold unto the heathen." Heathen. After our ability, we have redeemed
our brethren who have been slaved to the Babylonians, and now you
seek to set them back in bondage again. Evidently, some who were
in Babylon, who were in personal servitude to a particular master,
had to be brought or had to be bought before he could be set
free. even though Cyrus had decreed
the people must be set free. And we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ came to redeem us and to deliver us and to set us free. And I want to pick up this phrase
here and use it in reference to the gospel after our ability
have redeemed our brethren." We are redeemed according to
the Lord's ability, and that's what that's a picture and type
of. We have been redeemed according to the Lord's ability, not ours. He has done so according to His
ability, redeemed us wonderfully, fully, eternally by His choice. He said, you've not chosen me,
but I've chosen you. We are redeemed and delivered
by His will, not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. We are redeemed according to
His ability. He has redeemed our brethren,
the Jews. There's a particular redemption.
He laid down His life for the sheep. by His will, by His power. Father had given me power over
all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many as the
Father hath given to me. And then certainly we have to
say that we're redeemed by His sacrifice, as I've said earlier.
Those who God in Christ has redeemed and set free from the bondage
of the law should not be put back under that bondage again. He set us free. Now, that's a
picture of what we have right here. These people had already
been bought out from their servitude and then these Jews went about
to put them back in bondage. And we see that going about in
religious circles today, trying to put believers who have been
set free by the grace of God, and to bring them back under
the bondage of the law. Wasn't that the problem there
in the churches in Galatia, where those Jews came and said, well,
Christ is okay, but you've got to do the law. Christ is okay,
but you've got to be circumcised. Peter stood up and said, we believe
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that we shall be
saved. Many like the Pharisees seek
to put men back under their control, back under their bondage after
Christ has already set us free. The last part of verse 8 says,
Then held they their peace and found nothing What could they
say? They had nothing to answer. They were guilty. They were guilty
before God. This is exactly the place the
Lord brings us when convicted and convinced of our sin before
God, we're guilty. Guilty. And it's not so much
as what we have done, guilty by the fact of who we are. We
are sinful before God. We say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Nehemiah urges them what
to do, not by threats or the thunders of the law, but rather
out of love for the brethren. He said, you ought to walk in
the fear of God, not to bring reproach upon these people, not
to take advantage of them and to oppress one another. You should
forgive one another. And verse 10, he says, I pray
you, I beg you, leave off. Leave this off. Just leave it
off. It's not good. It's not for God's
glory, not for the good of the people. Just let it go. And then
he says in verse 11, restore, I pray you, everything you have
taken from them 100%. Their land, their corn, their
wine, their oil. And we have in the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ, he's restored everything unto us and much more. where sin abounded, grace hath
much, much more abound. Restore unto the poor people
what you have wrongfully taken of them. Reminded me of this
story of Zacchaeus, remember? Zacchaeus, he was a publican
who was doing what? taking money from the poor and
misusing the poor. And when the Lord crossed His
path and said, ìThis day salvation has come to your house,î you
remember what Zacchaeus said? He said, ìI will restore fourfold.î
If Iíve taken anything wrong, and surely he did, he said, ìIím
going to restore all.î But much more than that, we see a type
and picture of what the Lord has done for us. He's restored
all things and much more. We have much more than what Adam
had. Adam had the righteousness of Adam. We have the righteousness
of Christ. Adam had a potential to fall.
We have a potential. We don't have any potential to
fall. We have eternal salvation in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And they said, we will restore
them, verse 12, the people answered. It is truly more blessed to give
and to forgive others than to exact usury of them being ungrateful
and unthankful. And here's the point. To those
who the Lord has shown mercy, you know what? They're merciful. Those who have
experienced the grace of God, they're gracious to others. Those
who have been forgiven of God, What are they delighted to do?
To love one another and to forgive one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, has forgiven us. A forgiving and generous heart. Nehemiah called for the priest
to witness his promise and the people said, and Nehemiah puts
them on notice before God, if they fail to own the promise,
God will shake you out, God will empty you. And all the people
said, Last part of verse 13, they said, Amen. And they praised
the Lord. And the people did according
to their promise. They said, Amen. They praised
the Lord. I trust that they truly did so. And from what is said there,
and the people did according to the promise. They did as they
promised. Let us not just say that we'll
honor the Lord by our attitude, our actions, our walk, and our
talk, but may God give us grace to do so unto His glory. I was looking for a verse earlier
and I couldn't find it, but somewhere in 1st or 2nd Corinthians it
says, Whatsoever you do, do it all, to the glory of God." Whatever
it is, whatever it is, do it all to the glory of God. Now,
we've got a few minutes left. The third thing is verse 14 down
to verse 19, Nehemiah's noble example of charity, love, and
tenderness toward his people. Remember, he came to seek the
welfare of the children of Israel. And in this we see a type and
picture of our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 14.
Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor
in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the At
the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that is
twelve years, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the
governor, but the former governors that had been before me, they
were chargeable unto people, and I have taken of them bread
and wine and forty shekels of silver, yea, even their servants
bear rule over them, but so did not I because I feared the Lord."
Nehemiah believed God would sustain him, bless him, and take care
of him. And I did so because I feared
the Lord. You know, fearing the Lord is
seen by reverencing the Lord and believing the Lord. I think
of that time when Abraham took Isaac up on the mountain and
laid him out to sacrifice his son. And he raised back his arm
with that knife and was going to take the boy's life. And God
said, now I know that you fear the Lord. Now I know that you
believe Me. by fearing the Lord. And that's
how it's known. Holy and reverent is His name,
and we do fear the Lord, not as slavish here, but out of love
and respect and gratitude. Nehemiah came to seek the welfare
of the people. He did not come to take advantage
of them, and how much more does that speak of the Lord Jesus
Christ? And then it says, verse 16, "...Yea,
also I continued in the work on this wall, neither bought
we any land. Of all My servants were gathered
there unto the work." He was always about working on that
wall. establishing those gates, doing
everything He did to the glory of God and to the furtherance
of this work that God gave Him to do. We continued to work on
the wall, always mindful of the work of the Lord that the Lord
had given to Him. Now, what does that sound like? What does that sound familiar
of or like? The Lord Jesus Christ was always
about doing the work of the Lord. Many times He said, My meat is
to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work. All My servants were gathered
there unto the work. The Lord Jesus Christ has always
been about perfectly doing the will and work of the Father in
accomplishing our salvation. He came to seek our welfare,
didn't He? And He saves us by His grace.
It was generous. Think about this. You remember
when Nehemiah, where he was when he left? Babylon and came down
to Jerusalem. Remember where he was? He was
in the king's palace, wasn't he? He was a king's servant. It was generous for Nehemiah
to leave the palace of the king of Persia and to come as a servant
there to reconstruct the wall. But think of the Lord of glory
leaving the splendor of heaven to come to redeem us by his blood. Now, Nehemiah took a real travel
from 500 mile travel from Babylon to Jerusalem, but how much further
the Lord of glory came. infinite grace, infinite mercy,
matchless, unequaled by anyone, the Lord Jesus Christ manifested
in the flesh. Even the Son of Man came not
be ministered unto but to minister and to give His life a ransom
for many, thee many people. Now think about this. Who being
in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with
God? but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Wherefore God also with highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven,
and things in the earth, and things under the earth, and that
every tongue should confess that He is Lord, that He is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. And then we read this in Hebrews
12, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the author and
finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him
endured the cross, despising the shame, And I sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God. Look at verse 19, Nehemiah
5 verse 19. Think upon me, my God, for good. Now, read this verse not only
considering Nehemiah, but the Lord Jesus Christ. Think upon
me, my God, for good according to all that I have done for thy
people." He's done it all. He's done it all for us. These
are not only the words of Nehemiah, but more importantly, of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Father is well pleased with
the Son and all that He has done for us. And He's completed all
of our salvation. He said, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. He is well pleased for His righteousness
sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. And the blessedness of the gospel
is this. Not only is God well pleased
with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, But God is well pleased
with those in Him. We are accepted in the Beloved,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Think upon Me, my God, for good.
There's none good but God. Think upon Me, my God, for Christ. According to all that He has
done for the people. We can read it that way. and
make reference to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We'll
make God bless you and bless his word to your heart.