author: Ryan Hayden Take your Bibles with me and turn to Nehemiah 13. Nehemiah 13. We are going to finish out this book tonight, and talk about the last chapter.

As you are turning there, let me give you a quick summary of the book.

Before this book, Zerubbabel and Ezra had led groups of jews back to Israel from captivity in Persia. It took them about 70 years, but they rebuilt the Temple. But the city itself was in ruins.

Nehemiah was the king of Persia's personal cupbearer and a faithful jew. He heard news from his brother about the state of Jerusalem and it broke his heart. He started a prayer meeting and prayed that God would use him to help rebuild Jerusalem.

Despite the fact that his boss, Artaxerxes, the most powerful man in the world, was officially opposed to rebuilding Jerusalem, Nehemiah asked him if he could go and rebuild the walls. Surprisingly, Artazerxes granted Nehemiah his request and gave him the supplies he needed to do it. So Nehemiah gathered a group to go back to Israel and rebuild Jerusalem.

When they got there, there was much opposition to rebuilding the city from the local canaanites who had lived there for a long time. But Nehemiah inspired the jews, and despite the opposition they rebuilt the walls in record time.

Then, after the walls were rebuilt, Ezra the scribe led the nation in a national revival, where the people pledged to God that they would:

• put away their foreign wives
• respect the sabbath
• give for the upkeep of the priests, levites and singers.

Finally, after all of this, the city was still underpopulated, so Nehemiah did a lottery and 1 out of every 10 jewish families pledged to move into the city to rebuild the city.

Then they had a big worship and music service that went around the walls and ended at the Temple.

That's as far as we have come and that is the main body of this book. We only have one chapter left, and it is kind of a sad epilogue.

You see, Nehemiah got sent away. He had to go back to Persia to serve King Artaxerxes, and he was probably gone for 10-12 years. Chapter 13 tells the story of what happened when he got back, 12 years after this great revival.

Let's go ahead and read the whole chapter.

[!bible] Nehemiah 13:1-31 - KJV

1. On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; and therein was found written, that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever;
2. Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them: howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing.
3. Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude.
4. And before this, Eliashib the priest, having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God, was allied unto Tobiah:
5. And he had prepared for him a great chamber, where aforetime they laid the meat offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the corn, the new wine, and the oil, which was commanded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters; and the offerings of the priests.
6. But in all this time was not I at Jerusalem: for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon came I unto the king, and after certain days obtained I leave of the king:
7. And I came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah, in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.
8. And it grieved me sore: therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber.
9. Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers: and thither brought I again the vessels of the house of God, with the meat offering and the frankincense.
10. And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them: for the Levites and the singers, that did the work, were fled every one to his field.
11. Then contended I with the rulers, and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together, and set them in their place.
12. Then brought all Judah the tithe of the corn and the new wine and the oil unto the treasuries.
13. And I made treasurers over the treasuries, Shelemiah the priest, and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah: and next to them was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah: for they were counted faithful, and their office was to distribute unto their brethren.
14. Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof.
15. In those days saw I in Judah some treading winepresses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals.
16. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.
17. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day?
18. Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath.
19. And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day.
20. So the merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice.
21. Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the sabbath.
22. And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the sabbath day. Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy.
23. In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:
24. And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.
25. And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.
26. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.
27. Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives?
28. And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son in law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me.
29. Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.
30. Thus cleansed I them from all strangers, and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, every one in his business;
31. And for the wood offering, at times appointed, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.

Now, I want to teach a quick message on this passage tonight, and as I do, I plan on explicating what was going on here in this story.

As I do, I want to give you three points of application. So let's pray and we will jump into this.

author: Ryan Hayden

The first point I want to give you tonight as we consider this story is...

1. Beware of our tendency to backsliding.

When we last left off in this story, Jerusalem had just seen a big revival. They had made these promises to God that they would put away their pagan wives and not marry anymore. They promised they would respect the sabbath and that they would give tithes and offerings to support the priests, levites and singers.

But then Nehemiah went away, and when he got back 10-12 years later, every single thing they promised was gone. It was like the great revival we read about in chapters 8-10 never happened.

It was really, really sad. You can see four different things that the jews did here as they backslide, and I think they are four things we need to watch out for because all of them lead to backsliding in our own lives.

1. they got close to the world.

There was a mixed multitude among them that grew in influence. These were people who were not fully jews and that didn't fully follow God.

The first thing they had to do was to put these people out of the Temple. They had to serperate from these foreigners.

But that was only half the problem, because the High Priest, a man named Eliashib, had formed an alliance with Tobiah - as in Sanballat and Tobiah - one of the leaders of the people who opposed Nehemiah in building the wall.

Tobiah was not a jew. He was not a part of God's people. He shouldn't have been anywhere near the Temple. But Eliashib the high priest actually made Tobiah what seems to be an apartment inside the Temple. He actually took one of the rooms of the Temple, which was supposed to house the offerings, and made it an apartment for one of Israel's enemies.

This is unbelievable. I don't know what Tobiah was doing there, but I have a feeling it wasn't good. Most likely, he was probably acting as some kind of mob boss, stealing from the offerings. It was crooked as could be.

And so the first thing we see in their backsliding is they let the world in. They let wordliness creep in among God's people and then the world took over and abused God's people.

There is a reason why the New Testament says things like:

[!bible] 1 John 2:15 - KJV 15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

And

[!bible] James 4:4 - KJV 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Because you cannot serve God and be close to the world. They just do not go together.

Now, you have to be in the world. Nehemiah, as the King's Cup Bearer, was certainly in the world. But the world cannot get in you.

And so, as backsliding happens, Christians tend to get closer and closer to the world, until the world comes in and has a place in the in church - and I think we can see that happening in many churches today.

The second thing that happened as they backslid is...

2. The people stopped supporting God's work.

The people had covenanted that they would support the Levites and the Priests and the Singers. But when those men came into get their God-appointed living, their was nothing there. So they had to go out and work in the fields.

The work of God stopped because people stopped supporting God's work.

And when God's people backslide, usually one of the signs is that people stop giving to support God's work. People stop making the support of God's work a priority.

Again, supporting the work is a New Testament principle. 1 Corinthians 16 2 says:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 16:2 - KJV 2. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.

Paul wrote in several places about the need to support the work of the ministry with our finances.

[!bible] Galatians 6:6 - KJV 6. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.

It is a sign of a backslidden heart that doesn't value the word of God when giving to support this work is no longer a priority for people and when the giving stops.

A third sign of backsliding we see in Nehemiah 13 is

3. They stopped respecting the Sabbath

In Nehemiah 10 they promised to observe the sabbath, but when Nehemiah got back, the people were buying and selling again on the Sabbath, and there were heathen sellers in the markets.

So they had gone back to not observing the sabbath day and keeping it holy.

Now, in the New Testament, the Sabbath is a little different. We aren't under the same Sabbath commands as the old testament - but we are still commanded to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

And when church attendance is no longer important, when it is no longer a priority in your life, that is a sign of backsliding. And it has to be dealt with.

There is a fourth sign of backsliding we can learn in this chapter and that is...

4. They married pagan women

They were marrying the people God had commanded them not to marry. They were marrying out of the faith, and it got so bad that their children couldn't even speak Hebrew.

This was so pervasive that one of the chief priest's grandsons was married to the daughter of Sanballat (who with Tobiah had opposed Nehemiah's work.)

So I think we can see in this chapter how we have a tendency to backslide, and when we do we tend to get wordly, stop giving, stop going to church and eventually marry out of the faith and walk away from God ourselves.

So the first point is "Beware of our tendency to backslide."

The second thing we see in this story that we can learn from is...

2. Recognize the need for godly leadership.

So Nehemiah came back to Jersualem, and he saw all of this, but he didn't take it passively. He didn't just watch and say "Oh, my, how bad it has gotten. Kid's these days..."

No! He sprung into action. Look at a few things Nehemiah teaches us about godly leadership here:

1. Godly leadership confronts what is wrong.

Nehemiah goes into the Temple and into Tobiah's little apartment there and he throws the stuff out. He is very angry, righteously angry at what Tobiah is doing there.

If that sounds harsh to you - it's not harsh, it's Christ like. Remember what Jesus did in the Temple when people were buying and selling as they shouldn't and oppressing people. He made a chord and turned over tables.

When Nehemiah found out that the offerings weren't being taken up, he contended with the rulers about it. When he found out people were buying and selling on the Sabbath day - he had the gates locked so the non-jews couldn't come in, and when they camped out outside the gate, he threatened them if they didn't go away.

When he heard that people were marrying pagans again, he contronted them and even tore their beards - he reminded them of Solomon's sin and the great pain it caused.

And when he realized that the High Priest's grandson had married Sanballat's daughter - he expelled him for forsaking the priesthood.

This is not a man who was afraid of confrontation. Sometimes, confrontation needs to happen. Sometimes, a godly leader needs to confront what is wrong. That's what Nehemiah did here.

A second thing this chapter teaches us about godly leadership

2. Godly leadership takes decisive action, even if it is unpopular.

Consider this - everything the jews were doing:

• Cozying up to the world.
• Abusing the sabbath day
• Stopping the tithe.
• Marrying the heathens. All of it they were doing because they wanted to do it. The leaders and everyone were doing it. These were popular things to do.

But just because something is popular doesn't mean that it is right. And just because a leader is doing something that is unpopular, doesn't mean that he is wrong.

Nehemiah had this authority to use - he had this authority to stand between the people and the things they wanted that would destroy them. And if that meant he was unpopular, so be it.

Godly leadership isn't done by licking your finger and seeing which ways the winds are blowing. It is about doing the right thing, especially when the right thing is unpopular. Nehemiah shows us that.

A thirds thing Nehemiah shows us about godly leadership is...

3. Godly leadership sets things aright.

Nehemiah's leadership was not just destructive, it was constructive. He didn't just point out what was wrong, he helped fix it. He setup the tithes again. He setup the storehouse again. He put the right people in charge of worship again. He put the right people in charge of manning the sabbath gates again. He set things aright.

I often think about Titus 1:5, where the apostle Paul said to the pastor Titus:

[!bible] Titus 1:5 - KJV 5. For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:

That is a big part of leadership: setting in order the things that are wanting. Nehemiah exemplifies this.

So he confronted what was wrong, he did things even when they were unpopular, he setup things to do right. The fourth thing Nehemiah teaches us about godly leadership in this chapter is...

4. Godly leadership acts for the eyes of God.

Look at verse 14:

[!bible] Nehemiah 13:14 - KJV 14. Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof.

The last half of verse 22:

[!bible] Nehemiah 13:22 - KJV 22....Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy.

And look at verse 29:

[!bible] Nehemiah 13:29 - KJV 29. Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.

and the last words of this chapter are again:

remember me, o my God.

Nehemiah shows us here that He was doing what he was doing to serve God - and he knew he would give an account to God someday for how he served. How he led. He knew that ultimately, it isn't the polls that matter, but the approval of God.

Listen, dad - you are going to give an account for how you led your home. Deacon, you are going to give an account for how you exercised your office. I will give an account for how I pastored our church.

What matters most isn't what people think it is what God thinks. Sometimes as a leader, you have to make a hard decision because it is what God wants you to do.

So we have seen in this chapter the tendency to backslide and we have seen the need for godly leadership, there is one more thing I want to talk about quickly and I'm done.

This chapter teaches us...

3. No amount of rules and promises will make us holy.

I think what happened in Nehemiah 10 is the greatest I think what happened in Nehemiah 10 is the greatest revival in the whole Old Testament. The people promised to God—and they did it sincerely—that they would obey. They swore to put away foreign wives, keep the Sabbath, and support the temple. But it didn’t even last 15 years. And I think the reason is because rules and promises can’t really make us holy. We need the holiness that is given to us by Christ. We need the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

We need Christ.

The New Testament is very different from the Old Testament. God is writing His law not in a bunch of rules for us to swear to, but in the tables of our hearts. The prophet Jeremiah promised this new covenant, where God would change us from the inside out:

[!bible] Jeremiah 31:33 - KJV 33. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

That’s what Jesus accomplished on the cross. When He died for our sins and rose again, He made a way for us to be forgiven and to receive His righteousness. We don’t have to try to keep rules in our own strength. Jesus gives us His holiness as a gift when we trust Him as our Savior.

And then, when we’re saved, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us. He’s the one who gives us the power to say no to the world, to prioritize God’s work, to stay faithful in church, and to walk with God every day. The apostle Paul said it like this:

[!bible] Galatians 5:16 - KJV 16. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

In Nehemiah 13, the people tried to keep their promises, but their hearts drifted. They needed what we have today—a Savior who transforms us and a Spirit who empowers us. Without Christ, we’re just like the Jews in this chapter, making promises we can’t keep and falling back into sin.

So what does this mean for us tonight? If you’re here and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, you need to come to Him. Admit you’re a sinner, believe Jesus died for you and rose again, and ask Him to save you. He’ll give you a new heart and make you holy before God. That’s the only way to start this Christian life.

And if you’re saved, don’t rely on your own rules or willpower to stay faithful. You’ll end up backsliding just like these folks did. Instead, lean on the Holy Spirit every day. Pray for His strength. Read God’s Word to let Him speak to your heart. Stay close to Jesus, because He’s the one who keeps you holy.

Let me ask you tonight: Are you trying to live for God in your own strength, or are you trusting Christ and walking in the Spirit? Nehemiah 13 shows us we can’t do it alone. We need Jesus.