Nehemiah 9 — Nehemiah 8-9

0:06 Love that song. Love it. Why don't we open with a word of prayer? Heavenly Father, we indeed recognize this morning that the Lord is our salvation. There is no other name by which men can be saved except for that of Jesus Christ.

0:31 No other name. We praise you this morning, Lord. We pray that you're with us as we think about your word and that you would help us, Lord, to understand, consider what you would have for us and that our lives would not just be more informed but would be transformed as we go away from this place today. In Jesus' name, amen. I am thankful to be back here with you, and I would be remiss if I forgot to say hello from Carlin.

0:59 Specifically asked me to say hello, and so I'm getting that out of the way now so I don't forget. So Carlin says hello. We work on the same staff together at Emmaus Worldwide. I'll tell her hello right back. Thank you.

1:13 Will do. Yeah. And we're going to be taking a break from the study in Luke this morning. John gave me the option to either continue or to do something else, I wanted to do something else, something that's been on my heart for a little while this morning. So we'll be in in Nehemiah chapter nine.

1:29 Instead of Luke chapter nine, it'll be in Nehemiah chapter nine. And I wanted to start start out with something kind of funny I I once heard. D. L. Moody was asked, one time he asked someone to pray during a church service and the man began his prayer and was kind of just going on and on after ten minutes.

1:45 I don't know if anybody been to a prayer meeting where that sort of thing's taken place. And finally Mr. Moody stood up and said right during the middle or wherever it was in this guy's prayer, While our dear brother is finishing his praying, let's turn to number three forty two and sing together. I thought that was appropriate as we look at Nehemiah nine today because the bulk of this chapter is a prayer, and it's a long prayer. Now I don't think it's probably as long as the guy in Moody's story prayed, but it's a great model for us to study.

2:15 And if you think of the account of Nehemiah, of course, the most famous part of Nehemiah is probably found in chapter four when they go and they rebuild the wall. Right? Nehemiah's wall. Well, this comes after that. In context, we remember that Ezra, the scribe and prophet, returned to Jerusalem to assist Nehemiah with the edification of the wall and also to sanctify the people under the Lord.

2:42 And the word tells us that in chapter eight they gathered at the water gate and that's significant because this gate symbolizes the word of God. You can find that in Nehemiah three. And the people, we're told, basically had an appetite for God's word at this point, which is great and not so commonly found in the nation of Israel. But at this point, they did. So what did they do?

3:05 They asked Ezra to come to bring the word, to bring the book of the law and to preach it to them. So Ezra read the word and explained it for many hours and he was assisted by the Levites. Then chapter eight verse eight really pictures a perfect church gathering. The people all assembled to listen, the word was exalted, the preacher read and explained the word so that all the people, including the children, could understand it and the people wept at hearing the word of God. Overcome, probably for their sin and the fact that they had blown it and had not followed God's program as they should have.

3:47 But this was a day of rejoicing. They proclaimed the law throughout the land. The people obeyed what they were hearing at this Bible conference, if you will, and were told there was very great gladness. And it's remembered today as the Feast of Tabernacles. It was a mountaintop experience for the people.

4:04 Joy, gladness and rediscovering, as it were, God's Word. Have you ever experienced something like that? You ever been to, I don't know, a camp or a conference or some sort of event where Christians were gathered and there was just both repentance and joy at hearing the word of God? It's wonderful. And I think that was the case here.

4:29 And you can really tell that it was a true Bible conference because, well, not only are we told so, but because of the result. They looked in the mirror of God's word and they were upset by what they saw. They weren't like the man in James one. Of course, in James one, it describes the man who looks at himself in a mirror, walks away, and immediately forgets what he looks like. That's not what happened here.

4:52 They looked in the mirror and they're like, Oh, that's not good. And so they had some sort of renewed interest in God's word. They recognized that they had blown it as a people. And it seems as though at this point they're like saying, Okay, I'm ready to come home. I'm ready God.

5:09 We're done here. We want to come back to you. And when you come to the last verse of chapter eight, after the spiritual high of the Bible conference is over, the booths have been taken down. They move from jubilant praise to a posture of repentance. The end of chapter eight says this, But the eighth day there was a sacred assembly according to the prescribed manner.

5:52 There was a solemn assembly under King Hezekiah in two Chronicles 29. There was one under Joel in Joel chapter one. And then in Ezra nine, we also get the account of it here in Nehemiah nine is where we are today. And so one of the things they do in this solemn assembly is they pray, and they pray big time. And now thinking about prayer, can you imagine living the Christian life without prayer?

6:19 Just think about that. If there was no such thing as prayer. I mean, it's our way of communicating with a loving, hearing God. Isn't it a comfort when we're in distress? When our now two year old Bobo, Boaz, was born, he was born with a heart defect that brought my wife and I to our knees like nothing has done before.

6:45 And I can't imagine not having that comfort of prayer knowing that God could hear me. It's something that we do, we should be doing all the time, but we often do it even more fervently and more frequently when we're in distress. Amen? Yeah. And that's what we're going to see here today in Nehemiah nine.

7:06 But let's be clear about the distress when they prayed. Their distress is self imposed. They're at distress because of their own sin. Jump ahead with me really quick to chapter nine verse 37. Nine verse 37.

7:26 And it yields much increase to the kings you have set over us because of whose sins? Our sins. And they have dominion over our bodies and our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. In other words, God, you have put slave masters over us. Why?

7:42 Because we have blown it. Because of our own sin. What a thing to recognize. Have you ever been there before? Oh God, just...

7:49 I've done this to myself And you're holy and you're just and I'm getting what I deserve right now. And that's the place that we get to when we're broken. We understand His word and we recognize that we need to reconcile with God. And that's exactly where the Israelites are here. And I just wonder this morning if we can benefit from what they do and what they say in this chapter.

8:13 I think so. Let's look at it more closely. Verses one through five are the setup. So this is their prep for the prayer of repentance. So let's take a look at this together.

8:23 And I'm gonna do my best with these names here, people, but forgive me because they're they're weird and, not not at all easy for a native English speaker. So let's look at verses, yeah, one through five together. Now on the twenty fourth day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads. Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for one fourth of the day, and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God.

9:03 Then Jeshua, Bonnie, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Booni, Cherubiah, Bonnie Chennai stood at the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God. And the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bonnie, Hoshbaniah, Cherubiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethiah said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and all praise. Okay, we'll hold there for a minute. So verse one indicates that the Israelites gathered together on the twenty fourth day of the month.

9:41 They were fasting, they were wearing sackcloth, they were in a posture of repentance. And we see this a lot in the Old Testament. There are common signs of mourning, the sackcloth and ashes. Right? It's nothing new.

9:51 The tearing of the clothes, visible signs of readiness to get down to business here. And verse two shows us as they they go a step further here, and they separated themselves from those who were not of Israelite lineage. More or less they were looking to get right with God with God's people and separate themselves from the nations, which of course God wanted them to do all along. Right? As they had heard, the Bible read, maybe they came across Leviticus twenty twenty six, it says, And you shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

10:28 Israel's history tells us the tragic story of when believers in this world don't make a break from the world. That's a word for us too this morning, isn't it? I think it has precedence in the New Testament as well. Second Corinthians chapter six says, Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.

10:55 God's standard is holy perfection. It's holy perfection. And his plain instructions for both Israel and for us this morning is to stay away from evil, stay away from people who don't know God, who don't care about God, don't love God and that their hearts are bent on wickedness. You have to be holy as I am holy. Don't even go up and get close to the line.

11:18 Stay away from it. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you're double minded. James four.

11:30 Folks, sometimes we just got to remind ourselves that if we're part of the bride of Christ, we can't be married to the world. Now what does that look like for you? I don't know. I'm not going to stand up here and give a bunch of dos and don'ts. God's word doesn't even get that specific oftentimes.

11:47 But think about the choices you make, what you're consuming with your eyes, what you're listening to with your ears, who you're spending time with. You know, some of us kind of want two wives in a sense. We can sometimes get cozy with the world. We want to be God people too though. Was God okay with that?

12:07 Do we see that in Scripture? No, we don't. We have to remember one Peter two:nine tells us that, you are a chosen generation, royal priesthood, a holy nation. You are his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Don't go back to the darkness.

12:30 He's called you out of that. And in verse two here, back in Nehemiah nine, we also noticed they stood up and confessed not only the sins of their fathers, but their own sins as well. There was solidarity in the repentance here. And if you go back and you look at chapter eight, you find out well they couldn't wait to hear the word of God. And here's more of it in verse three.

12:52 We read that they spent a quarter of the day or about three hours reading the Bible and then another quarter of it in confession and worship. I think that's pretty awesome. Would you sign up for a conference like that? We're gonna pray and confess for three hours during this bible conference. Oh, is there no snack break or anything in the...

13:11 I mean, what can we do there? All right. I love the significance of what we see in verses here. When we read the word, God's word is a mirror. When we read it, we often find out how far short that we've come, and that's kind of the bad news.

13:30 Right? God's word is a mirror. Okay? Then once we contemplate that falling short or that sinfulness, we'll begin to understand the differences between us and God. God is great.

13:43 I am not. That's the reality of it. And as we recognize God's greatness, it should lead us to break out into worship. And verses four and five explain to us how they conducted the service. The Levites divided themselves basically into two groups.

14:22 It's this thing that's called an antiphonal chorus. Have you ever... Anybody who's a music person or or choir person, you've you've probably heard of an antiphonal chorus before. Have you ever been to a concert like that? Where half the choir is on one side of the room, the other half is on the other, And they sing...

14:36 It's much similar to that song we sang where the men and the women were kind of going back and forth. It's a lot of fun and it's beautiful to hear live. Kind of like medieval surround sound. Cool. And here we have this first group here.

14:50 It says, They called out with loud voices. Alright. And of course, cried out there in the original means they cried out. So that's what they did. That was a joke.

15:01 Sorry. And the second group focused on God's character as they sang. In fact, the rest of this chapter that we're going to see here gives us the words of this song that they sang, which was their prayer. It was cries of guilt followed by shouts of praise for God's greatness, His goodness, and His graciousness. And that's what we see from verse six through the end of verse 37.

15:22 They are crying out to God. And their cries were straight out of scripture. What an example. Have you ever prayed the scriptures? That's something I think we can do.

15:31 It's good when we pray not just do the, Oh God we need this and Oh Lord we'd like that and that's good. Want to do prayer where we're asking God for things but we need to also in our prayers remember what God has done. Remind yourself of who God is, what he's done for you, and that's what we see in this this prayer. And what they do is they pray basically back the history of Israel up to that point and the story of salvation. They summarized the entire Old Testament up to that point in one prayer.

16:04 Why would they do that? Why would we do something like that? Why would a guy like Stephen when he was being stoned to death or just before he was stoned to death do that? Well, they know that God doesn't act willy nilly in history. That's not how God acts.

16:20 He acts to bring himself glory, to make known his character, to make known his nature, to make himself known. And these oppressed, guilt ridden, God fearing Israelites at this point desperately needed to remind themselves that this God of the Old Testament who is a God who might be willing to rescue them once again. Once again. Is he not the kind of God who will do that? Yes or no?

16:50 Let's keep going and find out. Look at verse six with me. Verses six through 15, the Levites celebrate the greatness of God's power and righteousness and covenant keeping. So verse six, it starts off with the first half, first side of the chorus says, You alone are the Lord, that is you are Yahweh, and the God who exists without dependence, without competitor to you being. You have always been.

17:16 You absolutely are. You say, I am who I am, and there's not any other absolute being like you. And this is really a good starting point when we talk to God. You alone are the Lord. You've made the heavens.

17:28 The heaven of heavens with all their hosts. Getting real about who God is. And it's a reverent heart, a humble heart, a contrite heart that recognizes that. When we're in our pride and in our flesh and when we're thinking in sinful terms, think, well, is there a God even? Is he real?

17:51 I mean, did God really make everything in six days? I mean, surely there were some natural processes involved. I mean, come on. Is is God really all that they're saying he is in this in this bible? I think so.

18:06 And then at the end of verse six, the host of heaven worships you. Or as verse five said, his name and his glory are all exalted above all blessing and praise. And then in verse seven it goes on. It says, this is the God who chose Abram, brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, gave him the name of Abraham, made a covenant with him. Look what he did for Abraham.

18:29 Gave him his offspring a land. What land? Well if you skip down to verse 36 for a second, it says, Behold we are slaves this day in the land you gave to our fathers to enjoy. So here's the issue. In great powerful creator, sustainer, covenant keeping God, is He the kind of God that will rescue us from our sin and His judgment so that His covenant can continue to be fulfilled?

18:55 Yes or no? Well, one thing we know for sure is that God is righteous. Verse eight, near the end, says, You have performed your words, for you are righteous. So God is righteous. That is...

19:09 What is righteous? Well, it's that He always is and always does things that are right. That's what God does. Whatever else God may do, God is never wrong. That's one thing we can say.

19:22 Two Timothy tells us, If we are faithless, He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself. That's His righteousness. Well, what does this mean for the people here? Is He going to help them or what?

19:31 Is it salvation or judgment? Well, starting in verse nine, we're given the account of deliverance from Egypt and the wilderness wandering before the people. What did God do? At the end of verse nine, it says, He crushed the arrogance of Pharaoh, his gods, his army. Verse 11, He divided the sea.

19:50 Verse 12, he led them miraculously by day and night. Verses thirteen and fourteen, he spoke with them at Mount Sinai, gave them righteous rules, true laws, and good statutes to prevent them from getting into stuff they couldn't handle. Verse 15, He gave them bread from heaven and water from the rock and sent them to the land. Alright. So that sounds like a God who is going to come through.

20:29 You might ask yourself a question. This is what I think as look at this. Why would you pray a prayer where you focus over and over on your own sin and failure? Well, the answer is they need to know what God's like in those situations because this is the situation they're in now in Jerusalem with Nehemiah. They had blown it.

20:50 They came back to the land. God, are we going to be able to move forward together or are you done with us? So they're focusing on Israel's failures in the past to learn the stories of what God is like when Israel had done those past failures. So let's read these pairs as they come. Starting with with pair number one, and I'm way behind here.

21:11 Sorry about that. Israel's rebellion in verse 16, But they and our fathers acted proudly, hardened their necks, and did not heed your commandments. And then God's response at the end of verse 17, But you are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them. Pair number two, Israel's rebellion in verse 18. Even when they made a molded calf for themselves and said, this is your God that brought you up out of Egypt and worked great provocations.

21:46 God responds in verses 19 through 25, his response is there. It says, Yet in your manifold mercies you did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them on the road, nor the pillar of fire by night to show them light in the way they should go. Manna, water beat up the bad kings, the nations, brought them into the land, the land that was already pre stocked with houses and goodies and it goes on from there. So how's the record so far?

22:14 Is God a promise keeping God? Seems like it so far, even in the face of sin. Pair number three, verse 12. I'm sorry, verse 26 rather. Israel's rebellion.

22:27 Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their backs and killed your prophets who testified against them to turn them to yourself. And they worked once again great provocations. God's response in verse 27, therefore you delivered them the hands into their enemies who oppressed them. Okay. Well, and in the time of their trouble, after all this, when they cried to you, you heard from heaven and according to your abundant mercies, you gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies.

23:01 God is still batting a thousand. Pair number four verse 28. But after they had rest, they again did evil before you. Oh, man. God's response at the end of verse 28, therefore you left them in the hand of their enemies so they had dominion over them.

23:18 Again, God's response here wasn't their salvation, but it was a response of righteousness. It was judgment. But again, this wasn't the last word. We'll see that in a minute. They cried out and had mercy.

23:29 Pair number five verse 29. Yet they acted proudly and did not heed your commandments, but sinned against your judgment. God's response in the beginning of verse 30, Yet for many years you had patience with them. And the last pair, pair number six, verses thirty and thirty one. Israel's rebellion, yet they would not listen.

23:54 God's response, Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in your great mercy, you did not utterly consume them nor forsake them, for you are God, gracious and merciful. Time and time again, what is God's response to failure? Mercy. Now how did the Israelites respond here to their own reminder in this prayer of six fold failure and six fold mercy?

25:08 They prayed this prayer, had the solemn assembly. If you keep reading in Nehemiah 10, you'll see they signed a covenant with God. We all know that the history of the people of Israel from this point forward, of course, was one of faithfulness to Jehovah, separated from all the nations and their idols, strict observance of the law, and total acceptance of the Messiah. Right? No.

25:33 So what's the issue here? What is the lesson for us? Is the lesson look back on all the amazing mercies of God in Israel's history and then just in the hope of more mercy make a new resolution to obey God better? Well, there's a couple of problems with that, at least with that message. One is odds are not very good that you're going to do much better.

25:59 That Israel is even going to do much better. That it's going to get better for them or for you. A thousand years of failure and we're going to be the generation where the failure stops? Not great odds. Therefore, the hope is not great.

26:13 But there's another problem that's even worse. Look back at verse 33 with me. All the hardship, all the distress, all of the slavery to the foreigners, it's right. You deserve it. God has dealt righteously with Israel.

26:33 He has never not dealt righteously with Israel. It's right there in distress. God's judgments are righteous. So is it now this time God's saying, you know what? I'm done being mocked by you.

26:43 Your fickle allegiance to me. I'm slow to anger but a thousand years is long enough people. It's over. My judgment is complete. You're done.

26:53 You're not my people anymore. And so poof. Goodbye. Well we know he didn't do that either. They're still Jews.

27:04 And amazingly God's people will set their complete affection on Him one day in the future. They will. But there's something unresolved here in Nehemiah as we read this and really the entire Old Testament. There's something unresolved. First, at this point in the scriptures, God has not yet acted to prevent the disobedience that brings judgment.

27:31 So it keeps happening over and over. There's nothing to help the people. They're on their own. You've got the law. Do it.

27:38 Secondly, at this point in the scriptures in Nehemiah's day, God had not yet acted to finally satisfy his own perfect justness. We know that his righteous character will not allow for sin to go unpublished forever. And the reasons that these two problems here exist is that the story of the Levites told in this prayer, the story of the Israelites here isn't complete. It's not it's not done, is it? You can't fully know God from a story that's not fully told.

28:27 It is the new covenant of my blood. Luke chapter 22. And the promise of the new covenant is this, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you cause you to walk in my statutes. And by that spirit he will seal us for the day of redemption.

28:51 Ephesians one. Philippians one, He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. So God had not finally acted to prevent the disobedience which brings judgment so it keeps on happening. Jesus Christ nailed that to the cross. God has made provision for you.

29:11 Because of the savior Jesus Christ, we can have final and ultimate salvation. We don't have to be in this cycle of messing up forgiveness. Messing up forgiveness. Yeah. We're gonna blow it on occasion here.

29:23 But ultimately, we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Our position with God is secure. We don't have to wonder tomorrow morning when we wake up, am I gonna go to heaven because I told a little white lie yesterday. No. Jesus Christ has died to save your sins.

29:39 He's nailed them to the cross once and for all. And the day is coming, and this is exciting for me to think about, the day is surely coming when we will actually sin no more. Isn't that amazing? I can barely picture myself sinless. Can you?

30:00 It's an amazing thing to think about. Right now we're saved from the penalty of sin. Amen. But we're gonna be saved in the future from the very presence of it. It won't even be a part of the conversation.

30:13 So that's the remedy for the first problem. This endless cycle that we see in Nehemiah nine of of failure and mercy, failure and mercy, failure and mercy. Jesus sealed the new covenant by his blood. The day of failure will soon be over and until then, we're sealed by the holy spirit of promise and we get to fight the power of sin through his power, not our own hapless adherence to a set of rules. The story of Israel in Nehemiah nine also cries out for a revolution, resolution I should say, between God's righteousness and his mercy.

30:50 When we were reading those rebellion and response pairs there, I was thinking, Lord, how long are you gonna put up with this? I mean, here we go again. But what was one of them? It was like, yeah, yet they would not listen. Yet they acted proudly.

31:04 After they had rest, they did evil again. It's like, man, Lord, how long are you gonna put up with that? How could God pass over so much blasphemy and failure in Israel and still be just and righteous? God, don't you care about holiness? How could he pass over the defamation of his name so often in the sins of his people?

31:27 Well, we can now see having the whole story that the Old Testament, the program of blood of bulls and goats was not the ultimate vindication of God's righteousness. They were just pointers. And what did they point to? Go with me to Romans three, chapter three twenty four-twenty six. It's here on the screen too.

31:45 Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness because in His forbearance, what did God do? He passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time, meaning now, His righteousness, that He may be just and the justifier of the one who doesn't keep the law, not the one who sacrifices bulls and goats, but the one who has faith in Jesus Christ. This is the end of the story here that we didn't see in Nehemiah. God put His only begotten Son forth as a propitiation by His blood for us to receive by, as it says here, by faith in Jesus Christ. Because in His forbearance, meaning His graciousness, His patience, He passed over the sins previously committed.

32:45 He passed over former sins. Did God really do that? Oh yeah, this chapter today is exhibit A of that. Look at that. Failure, mercy, failure, mercy, failure, mercy.

32:55 How can this be and God also be righteous at the same time? Well the answer is that it's also the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God provided for Himself a sacrifice. Shedding the blood of the most valuable being in all the universe is God's way of saying, This is how much I hate your sin. Never think again that my mercy is cheap or that it ever conflicts with my righteousness or that I just winked away your sins.

33:27 Never think that. Once and for all, I have vindicated my righteousness because I sent my one and only son to die for you and shed his blood for you. And you can have that ultimate mercy if you trust in him. So two big unresolved issues here are now resolved. Big eternal consequences and they are resolved through Jesus Christ.

34:09 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. We know what God has done. The question becomes to you and to I this morning is, what are going to do with that information? Maybe as we read through that or we read earlier through that cycle of failure and mercy, failure and mercy, and maybe like like me, you thought about yourself, and maybe you'd like to get off that merry-go-round. Maybe you'd like to, like the Israelites did, maybe you'd like to come home too.

34:39 Do you need, like the Israelites did, to cry out to the living God who we've seen, proven in this passage that is so gracious? Do you need to make the salvation of God this morning yours truly? We know it's already accomplished in Jesus. We've seen that. But have you taken hold of that truth and by faith trusted in it?

35:03 Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe, all who are longing to see His face, will you this moment His grace receive. I think this prayer we read through this morning quickly is a great model for us. I think it's a great model for nations like Israel or The USA. I think it's a great model for assemblies. It's a great model for us as individuals.

35:30 Why? Well, if we look at it, what did they do here? What's kind of the breakdown of this chapter? Well, first thing they did was they got serious. I love the fact that you're going to have a day of prayer and fasting here.

35:42 I wish more assemblies would do that sort of thing. It shows, Hey, we want to get serious. We want to get down to business with God. If there's any sin in the camp, we want it dealt with. And so what did they do?

35:54 Well, set aside some time. They separated themselves out. They got real about who they were and about who God is. It's a good place to start. We need to hold up the mirror of God's Word and take a look.

36:06 And when we do we'll find verses that say things like, Well, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us. We'll see like the Israelites, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. Well, what else did they do?

36:20 Well, then they looked at the history of what God had done for them over their whole, you know, their nation's history up to that point. And what did that do? Well, it reminded them of his unfailing love, his mercy time and time again. And I think that's a word for you and I this morning. What has God done for you?

36:41 Well, we've covered that from a salvation standpoint. We know that Jesus Christ died to save sinners. Right? We know that. But think about your life too.

36:50 Do you need to count your many blessings like the song says? Name them one by one. See what God has done. Do you need to look at maybe some area in your life where you've crept a little too close to the line of the world or maybe even stepped into some sin even irregularly? Easy for me to say irregularly.

37:09 Maybe that's where you're at this morning. Maybe you've been walking around in the world and you've gotten a little dirty and you need to refresh. Not that you're unsaved, but maybe it's just a little cleanup. I'm sure there are people here that would love to pray with you today. And finally in verse 38, it says, the people made a binding agreement and put it into writing.

37:50 I just need you to know that and I'd like you to hold me accountable. Maybe you believe that Jesus has saved you from your sins, but you've never been baptized. You could take that step. Find one of the elders here today and pray. Maybe you need to go public with your faith in Jesus Christ.

38:08 One John one, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful, meaning He always does it, and He's just, meaning He has the authority to do it, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's faithful. He will never not cleanse you when you come to him in faith. Just like the Israelites, he's always faithful to forgive.

38:36 And he's just. He and he alone has the power to cleanse you. He's the only one that can. Let's pray. Lord, we are humbled and in awe by what you have done throughout the history of your people.

38:53 Time and time again, Lord, they did things to anger you, to offend you, to blatantly ignore you, and yet, Lord, you took them back. And you still, even now, the people of Israel are unrepentant and by and large have not accepted your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, their Messiah. And yet, Lord, we know in your word it tells us that you still have a plan for them. And one day truly every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. We ask for that day to hasten Lord.

39:31 In the meantime Lord, we pray for ourselves this morning and ask your forgiveness Lord on where we have come short, where we have not also followed you with our whole heart. We know that your standard is perfection and Lord, you know us. We're an imperfect people and can also be stiff necked. We thank you Lord that despite all that, even while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. We're so thankful that you did that.

39:57 We're thankful that our position in you is clear and we look forward to the day, Lord, when our presence with you renders sin no more. We bless your name and we pray Lord for the remainder of our afternoon together. In Jesus name, amen.