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you you you you Welcome to church this morning. I Trust that you're ready to sing some praises to the Lord, so let's turn to him number 459 459 and will begin my singing fairest Lord Jesus 4 5 9 fairest Lord Jesus And if you're able please stand 4 5 9 fairest Lord Jesus Oh my soul oh oh oh All right great singing I'm gonna ask brother Jason could you open or prayer? Together in your house, and we love you this morning I just pray Lord that you just be edified and blessed by our service and Lord praying to speak of pastor Kevin as it proves Your word this morning Lord, and we thank you Lord again in Jesus name Okay our next hymn is hymn number 180 180 I'm saying isn't the love of Jesus Something wonderful 180 isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful There will never be a sweet story, a story of the same as love divine Love that brought him from the realms of glory, just the same as sin for soul like mine This is the love of Jesus, something wonderful, wonderful, it is wonderful Oh, this is the love of Jesus, something wonderful, wonderful it is to me Boundless as the universe around me, reaching to the Father so away Save and keep in love, it was that found me, that is why my heart can truly say Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful, it is wonderful Oh, is the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful it is to me Love the other human completely, the love of God in Christ our heavenly being This will be my theme in every making, for everything in love of God will be Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful, wonderful Oh, this is the love of Jesus, something wonderful, wonderful it is to me Amen. Next hymn is hymn number 113. 113. 113. Wonderful piece, wonderful piece. 113 and then we'll have our Bible reading. Far away in the depths of my spirit tonight, grows a melody sweeter than some In the last two my strains it increasingly falls, hold my soul like an infinite calm This peace, wonderful peace, coming down from the Father above Sweep over my spirit, forever I pray, in leather the skillows of life What a treasure I have in this wonderful peace, buried deep in my heart of my soul So secure that no power can hide it away, while the years of eternity roll This peace, wonderful peace, coming down from the Father above Sweep over my spirit, forever I pray, in leather the skillows of life I am resting to my tenderness, wonderful peace, wrestles with me in Jesus' control For I'm kept from all danger by night and by day, and His glory is flood in my soul This peace, wonderful peace, coming down from the Father above Sweep over my spirit, forever I pray, in leather the skillows of life And it beings when I rise to that city of peace, where the author of peace I shall sing That watchful sound which no ransom will sing, in that heavenly kingdom shall ring This peace, wonderful peace, coming down from the Father above Sweep over my spirit, forever I pray, in leather the skillows of life I'm so lucky with that comfort for rest, marching round the rough pathway of time Make Jesus your friend and the shadows divine, go accept this peace, so sublime This peace, wonderful peace, coming down from the Father above Sweep over my spirit, forever I pray, in leather the skillows of life As we return to the book of Nehemiah, we are up to our last chapter in this book, Nehemiah chapter 13 And Brother Matthew is going to come up for the reading, Nehemiah chapter 13 Nehemiah chapter 13 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 forever Because they meant not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them Howbeit our God turned that curse into a blessing Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mix of altitude And before this, Elisha the priest, having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God, was allied unto Tobiah And he had prepared for him a great chamber, wherefore time 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 of the Levites And the singers, and the porters, and the offerings of the priests But in all this time was not I a Jerusalem, for I 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 And I came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil that Elisha did for Tobiah In preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God And it grieved me sore, therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber 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 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 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 Then brought all Judah, the tithes of the corn, and the new wine, and the oil unto the treasuries And I made treasurers over the treasuries, Shelamiah the priest, and Zadok the scribe And of the Levites, Padiah, and next to them was Hanan the son of Zechar, the son of Matania For they were counted faithful, and their office was to distribute unto the brethren 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 In those days saw I and Judah some treading wine presses 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 Their 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 Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them What evil thing is that ye do, and profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon the city? Yet he bringeth more breath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath 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 sat high at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath day So the merchants and the sellers of all kinds of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice 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 can they know more on the Sabbath And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves 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 In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab 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 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 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 woman cause his sin Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God, in marrying strange wives? And one of the sons of Jodah, the son of Elisha, the high priest, was son-in-law to send Balak the Horonite Therefore I chased them from me Remember them, O my God, because they had defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites Thus cleansed I, them from all strangers, and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, every one in his business And for the wood offering at times appointed, and for the first fruits, remember me, O my God, for good Let's pray. Dear God, thank you for this day, and for this word Please bless Placius Paul, as he preaches for us, and let us all listen. In Jesus' name, Amen Alright, amen, thank you for that So as I said, we are up to our last chapter in EMI 13, and it's so disappointing when we read this chapter Because leading up to chapter 13, everyone's excited, they've recommitted themselves to the old covenant They're saying, hey, we put ourselves back under the curse, etc. We're not going to intermingle with the heathen of the land, and we're going to take care of the house of God, and dedicating the walls I mean, it's so exciting, the last few chapters, then we get to chapter 13, and it ends on a downer So look at verse number 1, it says in EMI 13 verse 1, on that day, they read in the book of Moses, before I keep reading it It says on that day, and as you're reading through this, it might just seem like it's a continuation probably of what we just read in chapter number 12 But there is some time that has passed between Nehemiah 12 and 13, in fact, Nehemiah is not even on the scene He's disappeared, okay, well he hasn't disappeared, he's gone back to Persia, he's gone back to report to the king of Persia I'll show you that in a moment, and because he's done that, and he's been a great leader, he's been a blessing, he's been motivating people to get back in the Lord Hey, when you lose your leader for an extended period of time, things can go backwards, and we see this definitely take place here So let's continue there in verse number 1, it says 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 forever Now, if you can quickly just go to verse number 6 in the same chapter, I just want to show you that Nehemiah is not on the scene Verse number 6 says, but in all this time was not I at Jerusalem, okay For in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerci, king of Babylon, came I unto the king, and after certain days obtained I leave of the king So he's gone back to Persia, he's gone back to report, he's a governor, he reports back, you know they're under the authority of the power of that day And then he gets leave, he's able to return back to Jerusalem, and this is what takes place in this chapter And because, as I said, because Nehemiah's been away, things have gone backwards And so the title for the sermon this morning brethren is, when you drop your guard, when you drop your guard And it's not Nehemiah's fault, it's not like he intentionally wants to desert Jerusalem and the people and the work that's been done there He's got responsibilities, he's got to go back to the king of Persia to report And unfortunately there just weren't enough strong men to continue this positive trajectory that they were going And then when Nehemiah left, of course things have gone bad Now, I want us to take the lesson that we read here, that we see here in this chapter, and obviously apply it to our lives Because the Bible tells us in 1 Peter 5 verse 8, it says, be sober, be vigilant Be vigilant is to keep a vigil, to watch, hey be careful, be sober Because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour And so yeah, Nehemiah couldn't watch, couldn't physically watch, had to go back to Persia Hey, but for us, we're also commanded to watch, to be vigilant, because we have an adversary, we have the devil Who's roaring, walking about, roaring about like a lion, seeking whom he may devour And brethren, it's so true, you know, if we drop our guard, if we stop watching, if we don't be careful brethren Satan's going to find a foothold in our lives and can really tear it apart So we want to be careful and take the lessons that we see in this chapter Let's keep going to verse number 2 And by the way, we just said, okay, the Ammonite and the Moabite, these were other Canaanites They were not allowed to intermingle, they were not allowed to participate in the holy practices of the congregation and temple worship Verse number 2, because they met not, this is why they're not allowed Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water So there was a time when they needed sustenance, they needed bread, they needed water, they went to the Ammonites and the Moabites And they would not help them out, okay Not only that, it says, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them, how be it our God turned the curse into a blessing Now it came to pass, when they heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude So this is, it starts good, alright, we found out Ammonites, Moabites, we should not have anything to do with them In fact, the Moabites, they hired Balaam to curse us, alright, now if you remember the story In fact, Balaam tried to curse Israel, but God would not allow it, changed basically his mouth And he ended up blessing Israel, instead of cursing them But eventually, Balaam ends up with a plan of bringing heathen ladies into Israel And it ended up, a mixed multitude, people sleeping around, community fornication, etc. And of course, that process would lead people's hearts to turn against the Lord God And so God did not want the Ammonites or the Moabites involved in the temple worship, alright So yeah, okay, they read this in the Bible, they read this in the book of Moses Alright, we need to separate ourselves from these people But notice what happened before this, it says in verse number 4 And before this, it says Now that name should ring a bell, Tobiah, if we've been going through this series Remember, Sanballat and Tobiah were like the main enemies against Nehemiah, against the Jews Well the priest, hey, he's got a friendship with Tobiah, alright And we'll find, we'll keep going there, look at verse number 5 Look, these are things that are part of the temple worship, okay So inside the temple, there was a room that had the meat offerings, the frankincense and the vessels And the tides 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 So in the temple, okay, there's a room for all of these things All of these things for sacrifices, the tithes, the receiving of the offering, all of this so the Levites can sustain themselves Well, Elisha, the priest, takes that room and converts it, renovates it into a room for Tobiah Hey, Tobiah, you can come, hey, you as our enemy, you know, it wasn't an enemy to him But an enemy to Nehemiah, you can come and stay in this room, this big room We'll renovate it, we'll make it your place for you to stay when you come to visit us in Jerusalem Right there in the temple, alright Now, if you can please go to Nehemiah chapter, keep your finger there, go to Nehemiah chapter 2 Why is this important? Go to Nehemiah chapter 2, verse number 19 Why is it important that we mention this? Because in Nehemiah chapter 2, verse number 19 It says, Nehemiah 2, 19, it says And when Sanballat the Horonite, look at this, and Tobiah the servant, so we know Tobiah, the Ammonite Okay, and Gershom the Arabian herder, they laughed us to scorn and despised us Okay, so we learn that Tobias and Geshom as well here, they're enemies of Nehemiah, enemies of the Jew But Tobiah is what? An Ammonite Okay, and what did we read earlier in verse number 1, Nehemiah, you can go back there if you want Nehemiah 13, verse number 1, it says On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people, and therein was found written That the Ammonites and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God forever What have they done? They've taken the enemy, they've taken Tobiah, they've taken an Ammonite And not only is he mixed amongst the congregation of the people, but in the temple, they made a room for him Hey, come and stay with us, completely rejecting and the opposite of what God's word said in the book of Moses So you can see what's happening, alright, as Nehemiah's gone off, the enemies have crept in Now, what lesson can we take out of this? Well, number 1, you know, the house of God in the New Testament is the local church Okay, and again, for us it's New Life Baptist Church Now, what is church for? What is church for? I'll just quickly read to you from Ephesians 4-12 It says, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ Reverend Church, the congregation, it's for God's people, it's for the saved Again, it's for the perfecting of the saints, it's for those that are saved You know, Tobiah, he's not a saved man, he worships false gods And then he's decided, hey, can you make me a room or whatever agreement they made? He's gone into the house of God and he's dwelling in the place, he's living right there amongst the people And he's not saved, okay, he's got a false god And again, contrary to God's word, he's there in the midst What can we take out of this? Number 1, that we do not tailor church for the unsaved Church is for the saved, alright, you know, I don't come behind this pulpit preaching the gospel message every week, week in, week out You say, well we should preach the gospel, yeah we do, every week, the community is hearing the gospel Every week we're going out preaching the gospel to the lost, hey that's important But when it comes to God's house, it's to be tailored for the believers It's for you to grow, for you to mature, for you to gain knowledge in the word of God You know, we're not going to dumb down the preaching so we can reach the unsaved, no, it's for the perfecting of the saints Alright, again this is why we don't have a musical up here This is why we don't have a show and we don't have, you know, ladies dressed up in miniskirts dancing on this stage So we can just bring in the godless here And this is why we don't just have some bar and, you know, serve in some alcohol so we can just reach the alcoholics Look, church is not for the unsaved, it's for the saints And so the lesson we see here is that Tobiah wants to come and infiltrate You know, he wants to have an impact on the worship of God, of course it'll be a negative one Alright, so you know brethren, you know, again, ideas, how can we grow the church Let's never have a mindset, look, is it good to grow a church, is it good to have ideas to grow a church, of course it is But let us never have a mindset and say well we can grow the church by making this a place to serve the unbelievers Now are unbelievers able to come in here and be part of church and of course, you know, this is a public place You know, people are able to come and visit as they want But listen, if someone comes in that's unsaved, I'm not going to change their message and go well I was going to preach to the saved Now I better preach to the unsaved No, that's not how it's going to be Hey, but when the opportunity presents itself, we're going to give that person the gospel Hopefully they get saved and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ But again, church is for the saved You know, the children of God are the priority for the congregation And again, we look at this story, Nehemiah's gone off and they say well how can we bring in the lost How do we bring in the Tobiahs, you know, the enemies into the congregation And completely going against the word of God Now, I'll just quickly show you why, you know, Tobiah has actually been able to infiltrate the church If you can go to Nehemiah 6, just a reminder here, go to Nehemiah 6 and verse number 17 Nehemiah 6 and verse number 17 It says moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah And the letters of Tobiah came unto them So again, remember the nobles of the land, they just stayed, they're friendly with Tobiah Verse number 18, look at this For there were many in Judah sworn unto him So he had an allegiance, he had some loyalty in Judah Because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah, the son of Arar And his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshalem, the son of Berachiah Also they reported his good deeds before me and uttered my words to him And Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear So Tobiah had married one of the Jews, okay And his son had also married one of them, okay He had married into the Levites And so hey, you know, this is how I infiltrate I'm going to insert myself into the religious leaders, the Levites who serve in the house of God You know, these infiltrators, they just find a way to do it again What is the mistake that's taking place here? The priests, the people of God allow their children to marry non-believers, okay This is why Tobiah has such influence This is why he's able to, you know, let's just desert all this room that Nehemiah had set So Ezra, I should say, had set up for the people of God for taking care of the needs of the Levites And just make me a room there, you know And they gave into this You know, we've got to be careful that our children marry believers, okay It's going to cause problems, unforeseen problems that you can't realise at this point in time But let's keep going there in Nehemiah chapter 13 I just wanted to remind you why Tobiah has such influence Why he's able to get that room for himself Verse number 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 I mean, I feel bad for Nehemiah, he's going to come back and he's going to find out what's taking place I mean, he's worked so hard He's dedicated himself to the service of God Hey, you know, we can see he was not after money He wasn't earning as much as other governors in the past He just had a love for God, he just wanted to serve God's people He's going to come back and be disappointed Verse number 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 Alright, so we see again the infiltration And brethren, point number 1 that I have for you today That when you drop your guard, this is what's going to happen And anyway, I'm talking about church, but I'm also talking about our own personal lives When we drop our guard, enemies will infiltrate Enemies will infiltrate You know, there are people I have no doubt that want to infiltrate this church Okay, and lead us down a bad path Lead us away from preaching the Bible Lead us away from standing true to the commandments of God You know, when we're not watchful, when we're not vigilant brethren Enemies will infiltrate You know, I know of good churches Which should still be good churches But have been infiltrated by the enemy I know them, I've seen them I've been part of them I've seen people in the church And they hold prominent positions But they're not even saved Or they preach a false gospel You know, and they're not people of God And you just wonder how are you in the church How have you taken such a prominent position Why does that take place Because we drop our guard We're not watchful And brethren, this is so important Point number one is enemies will infiltrate When you drop your guard Now keep your finger there, please go to Jude verse 11 Let's go to Jude in the New Testament Jude, and the book of Jude was written To warn us against false prophets, false brethren That creep into churches Alright, look at Jude 11 Jude verse 11 Jude verse 11 says Woe unto them For they have gone in the way of Cain And ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward And perished in the gainsane of Corey So we know, just one thought there They ran greedily after the error of Balaam Hey, Balaam's already been mentioned there in Nehemiah 13 Okay, and we see that yes, some people You know, they just want to take on a position They want to be a prophet of God Hey, but they want to curse God's people Tobiah's got no business being in the house of God Okay, but he's infiltrated And he's been welcomed And they've fixed the room for him They've given him a prominent position And brethren, you know, sometimes false prophets Or false brethren, they just want a prominent position They're looking for a position Look at me, you know, I'm somebody I've made myself somebody, but you're not even saved People creep in like this And we have to be careful Drop down to verse number 16 in Jude Verse number 16 These people start to reveal themselves Because it says here in verse number 16 These are murmurers, complainers Brethren, when you're in church And someone just keeps complaining Someone just keeps murmuring Oh, the pastor keeps preaching this Oh, the building should be this or that Oh, we're not doing X, Y, and Z Oh, the people of God Oh, sister's son Oh, brother's son Such a horrible church You know, that should make you realise a few things I don't think we're dealing with a safe brother here Potentially I'm not saying safe people can't complain I'm just saying, like, that should, you know The book of Jude is written so we can be aware When we start to see these things develop You know, these are red flags that develop And you can start to identify people like this You know, let's keep going there It says murmurers, complainers Walking after their own lusts You know, they don't care about the word of God I just want to live life how I want to live I don't care what God's word says I'm just going to proceed and follow after my own desires Look, and their mouths speak of great, swirling words I mean, they know how to talk the talk Right? They just sound like Oh, man, look how majestic of a believer Christian you are Look at the great words that come out of your mouth Having men's persons And this is where you're going to be careful I've got to be careful of this as well Having men's persons in admiration Because of advantage So they flatter you Okay? They flatter you They say, oh, you're so great You're not like the rest of the church members You're, you know, you're such a great person And sometimes people come up, pastor, you know, that's a great preaching And I appreciate that when you say that But again, don't go overboard And don't be so careful I'm never going to say any compliments to pastor If I appreciate his sermon Don't take that approach Because then I think, like, no one likes me Hey, if I hear some good feedback That, hey, you learned something It's been a blessing to you Hey, I love that Because it gives me motivation to keep preaching I know that it's doing something, right? But at the same time, when someone just speaks flattery And I've had it said You're the only pastor in Australia that preaches the truth God, I don't think so Are you kidding me? I'm the only pastor in Australia That's crazy You know, when people say those things, you know, they're infiltrators They come in You know, and they're looking for prominence Or they might be looking for finance, financial gain Again, it says there Having men's persons in admiration because of advantage They're trying to take advantage of a church situation Okay And again, Tobiah's taking advantage I've got a position I've got a house I've got a place to stay And I'm sure, in the back of his mind He's thinking, this is really going to bother Nehemiah You know, I'm going to get back to Nehemiah When he comes back from Persia He's going to say, I've set a place I've set a base there In the temple of God Enemies will infiltrate Can you please turn to Romans 16 Turn to Romans 16, verse number 17 Romans 16, verse number 17 Look, when someone is clear And again, please be careful You know, Christians can be pretty wicked Did you know that? If you're a believer, you can be pretty wicked Whatever sins you've done before you got saved You know, as a believer, you can do those same sins again You know, you can be pretty wicked I'm not quick to just throw people under the bus I'm not quick to just call someone out A reprobate, or a false brother, or a false prophet You know, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt You know, and if I ever do something wrong Brethren, please give me the benefit of the doubt Because we're human beings, alright But we've just got to be careful You know, when we see the warning signs When we see the red flags When we see multiple of these things You know, so, what do we do? When we find that we've got false brethren Or there are false prophets in our midst What do we do? Well, Romans 16, verse 17 says Romans 16, 17 It says, Now I beseech you, brethren Mark them which cause divisions And offences contrary To the doctrine which ye have learned And avoid them They have nothing to do with them For they that are such Serve not our Lord Jesus Christ But their own belly And by good words Good words and fair speeches Deceive the hearts of the simple Brethren, have you ever been deceived by fair speeches? I know I have I know I've had people say nice things about me And I think, oh, that was good I've been deceived sometimes But you know, when we're deceived By these kinds of words The Bible says we're simple Hey, we need to learn Hey, all of us have the ability To be flattered And think, oh, that person thinks highly of me And then you're backstabbed Okay Hey, but then you learn for that process You learn for that process The next time You know, when someone speaks too much flattery When someone holds me up too much Has fair speeches Look how great of a Christian I am That should be now a red flag for us When, you know, when it's excessive When it's exaggerated You know, but it says to avoid them You know, if we have people in church like this You know, and they reveal themselves to be false They reveal themselves to be contrary Causing divisions Then we get them out of our church They're kicked out of church Alright, that's what we do We mark them We avoid them We have nothing to do with such people Now go back to Nehemiah 13 and verse number 8 Nehemiah 13 verse number 8 It says in verse number 8 It says in verse number 8 And he grieved me sore Yep, he's so angry Okay, that Tobiah's staying there Therefore, so what does he do? Therefore, I cast forth All the household stuff of Tobiah Out of the chamber Alright So he walks into Tobiah's room Gets all Tobiah's stuff And throws it out Alright He displaces him Because you're not staying here Tobiah You get out of here He kicks him Yeah, he marks him He avoids him He kicks him out of the congregation He kicks him out of the house of God That's exactly the right thing to do Okay Nehemiah does exactly what we even read about in the New Testament You know, casting such people out of the house of God Be careful Enemies will infiltrate when we drop our guard Look at verse number 9 Then I commanded And they cleansed the chambers They even start cleaning the whole place Okay We want no like We want no speck of Tobiah's dust even in this place Let's just clean up the whole place Alright Clean it up And thither again Sorry The Lord brought I again The vessels of the house of God With the meat offering and the frankincense Because we're going to bring this room back to the original plan For all the offerings The tithes All the stuff The offering You know All the things necessary For the worship of the house of God He brings it back But he does a major cleanse You know, he doesn't even want to buy his fingerprints in this place Okay So Nehemiah does the right thing But again Point number 1 brethren When you drop your guard Enemies will infiltrate Okay Let's go to point number 2 Verse number 10 And I perceived That the portions of the Levites Had not been given them So of course because This room had been changed He starts to realise He perceives He starts to contemplate Then that means If they've not been holding all the All the offerings and the tithes That must mean the Levites are going without That must be the natural Progression of such things Okay Had not been given them Look at this For the Levites And the singers That did the work Were fled everyone To his field So they all leave They're not being provided for anymore From the house of God So they go and they go and become farmers Okay They go and work the field Instead of working in the house of God They say look we can't provide for ourselves Okay This Tobias come in And he's taken over the place Alright So they just fled And they've gone to start You know You know Planting seeds Or raising animals Whatever they were doing For the land that they had Okay Let's keep going Verse number 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 Alright So Nehemiah has got to fix it all up again And we already saw One of the titles for the One of the chapters that I did for Nehemiah Was don't forsake the Lord's house And again it had to do with the lack of provisions And again this has taken place Nehemiah's gone And they no longer decide to take care of the needs Of the Levites And the singers The singers were also being paid A certain amount Being taken care of By the By what's being given The house of God So Again You know I've said it so many times But I don't care This is God's word This is what it says Alright You know When I talk about giving to God's house It makes me uncomfortable You know I'm not going to say that anymore When I preach on this topic I'm not going to say It makes me uncomfortable But I want you to know That it makes me uncomfortable Okay Cause I have no desire To strip you From everything you have And just live on your You know Your goodness Alright But we are commanded to give to the house of God Okay We are commanded to tithe Alright And I'm not going to apologise for that I'm not going to feel guilty about it Okay Because this is God's word Alright Point number two brethren Is when you drop your guard The provision to God's house will stop You will stop giving What you need to give Alright You might even stop giving completely When you drop your guard Okay Let's keep going there Verse number 12 It says Then brought all Judah The tithe of the corn And the new wine And the oil unto the treasury So they weren't doing it Okay And he's got to fix this He's bringing back the Levites He's bringing back the singers Hey we've got to provide for these people You know the house of God Is to worship the Lord It's to get the work of God done Verse number 13 And I made treasurers over the treasuries So now we're setting new appointments Hey I need Judah to be in charge of the money Okay Cause I don't want this to happen again You know basically it's Nehemiah's approach right Shalomai the priest and Zadok the scribe So he's naming the people here And of the Levites, Pedahiah And next to them was Hanun The son of Zuchar The son of Mataniah Why? For they were counted faithful And their office was to distribute unto their brethren So he puts people in charge Okay You know it's your responsibility to make sure The Levites, the singers, they're provided for So it sets these people in their place Now verse number 14 Is really interesting to me I'll just read it to you It says remember me oh my God Now this is the first of the three Remember me oh my Gods That you'll see in this chapter Remember me he says So he's doing all these things Now he prays to God Okay Nehemiah Remember me oh my God Concerning this Okay That he set this back in order And wiped not out my good deeds That I have done for the house of my God And for the offices thereof Now why is he praying to God In the midst of fixing all these things up And why is it always the same thing You know I wanted to name this sermon originally Remember me oh my God Okay But I thought of a different approach here Because it comes up three times And when we start looking at the rest of the chapter You'll see the reason he's doing this Is because there's obviously a push back There's obviously resistance You know Nehemiah's come in And he's changing it all over again I mean obviously people are not happy Tobiah's not happy Okay I mean the people that have set up this arrangement The people that had stopped providing for the Levites And the singers They're obviously not happy Nehemiah's really messing the place up for them But Nehemiah's just trying to get things right with God Obviously there are people turning against Nehemiah At this point And again when people turn against you You know where you go You go to the Lord Remember me oh my God Because God look I got people I'm just trying to do what's right Lord Can you keep You know please place your eyes upon me Lord there's resistance There are people pushing back You know there are people making accusations There are people trying to hurt me Lord Because remember me I'm considering this and wiping out my good deeds That I have done Because look I'm just trying to do what is right Lord I'm trying to do what is good So please keep that in mind Okay And what else is Look Sorry I'll just read Verse number 14 again Remember me oh my God I have not out my good deeds That I have done for the house of my God And for the offices thereof Nehemiah says look there are two good things that I'm doing Doing good things for the house of God And for the offices And brethren you know We learn a few things here Because he doesn't want his good works to be wiped out In that sense Okay Because don't forget every good service Every good deed that we do Okay As saved people We get rewarded for that You know we'll be blessed by the Lord God To be rewarded in heaven Laying up treasures in heaven And you know we've spoken many ways that we can Earn rewards for the Lord God But I want you to notice Two things that we can keep in mind here Hey the good deeds that you do in the house of God You're going to be rewarded for Alright So please you know If you can serve in this house If you can serve in this church Just find something to do And I appreciate everyone That does something You will be rewarded by God Okay God will remember the good deeds that you have done And you will be blessed for all eternity Guaranteed Okay Please you know If there's something that you see That you can just do Alright I use these examples But you know You can come up with whatever you want You know If you walk past And you see A piece of paper on the floor You see some rubbish on the floor Please don't take the view Oh which kid did that Ah There's a pool of other kids at it again Huh Look There's a good deed to be done There's rubbish on the floor I want rewards in heaven I can just pick that up and put it in the bin There are hymn books just laying around Hey I can pick up those hymn books And send them where they need to be Alright You know what Someone did not flush the toilet Hey you know what I'll just sit there and I'll just flush that toilet for them Whatever good deeds Brevin you do for this house For God's people You are going to be rewarded for Not only the good deeds that you do But it says And for the officers thereof You know In a New Testament Baptist Church We have two officers The office of a pastor And the office of a deacon Okay in this church We haven't got a deacon But we have a pastor You know the good that you do for me And you've done lots of good things for me I'm not saying do more good things I'm saying Whatever nice things that you have done for me And again a lot of people have done nice things for me You're going to be rewarded for that in heaven Do you know that Okay And so Nehemiah He cares for the officers in the house of God In the New Testament church of God The house of God There are two officers You know if you're able to do A good deed for your pastor Or when we have a deacon Or you're from another church And you have another pastor You know please be considerate For those that hold officers Because you will be rewarded for God By God For the good that you do for them Let's keep going there Verse number 15 Oh by the way The pushback The pushback You know the resistance You know Again what's he doing He goes look Bring back the tithes Bring back the given Of course there's going to be resistance to that You know how I told you I feel bad about it sometimes I feel like I don't know I just don't want to preach these things I think Nehemiah is feeling the same thing He's like well I got to tell you again Bring the tithes You know Take care of the needs of the people That work in the house of God You know And of course there's going to be resistance People don't want to necessarily give away You know From the hard-earned And give it to the house of God Or you know This is something that you do Not in the old man Because the old man doesn't want to Definitely doesn't want to do such things It has to come through the new man But Nehemiah He learned man You know If I preach on giving to the house of God There's going to be resistance People are going to push back People are going to think I'm just about the money Right But look These things need to be preached Okay It's in the word of God for a reason Let's keep going there Verse number 15 In those days So I in Judah Some treading wine presses on the Sabbath So what are they meant to do on the Sabbath They're meant to rest They're not meant to work They're not meant to work So he starts walking around Judah And he sees people making juice Making new wine Okay And bringing in sheaves So they're bringing in things into the city And laid in asses Okay They're using beasts of burden And also wine, grapes and figs And all manner of burdens Which they brought into Jerusalem On the Sabbath day Is that the right thing to do? No of course not Sabbath day was a day of rest And I testified against them And against them In the day wherein they sowed victuals Man this place has fallen apart Not only the house of God Now people in Judah You know they're just busy Working on the Sabbath day once again Okay They're not keeping the Sabbath I mean Nehemiah He's gone for just a I don't know how long Probably not that long Okay And they just They're doing the complete opposite Of what they said they would do Verse number 16 There dwelt men of Tyre also therein Which brought fish So the fishermen from Tyre They're coming in They're bringing fish on the Sabbath day Selling fish And all manner of ware And sowed on the Sabbath Unto the chin of Judah And in Jerusalem Look at verse number 17 And I contended with the nobles of Judah Not only does he have to set right The rulers in the house of God Now he's got to set right The political leaders there Okay The rulers of Judah And said unto them What evil thing is this That ye do And profane the Sabbath day Tell you what We're just spying and selling It's just an extra day And Nehemiah says Look it's a wicked thing It's an evil thing that you have done Profane the Sabbath day 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 profane the Sabbath He says look our forefathers did this They profane the Sabbath They did not keep the rest And God did the evil upon us That was the captivity into Babylon Don't you remember Alright Don't you remember We agreed to God That we would keep the Sabbath now We would not make the same mistakes As our forefathers Hey brethren They dropped their guard Isn't that what the title of the sermon was When you drop your guard Alright And if you can please go to Nehemiah chapter 10 Just keep your finger in Nehemiah 13 Go to Nehemiah 10 Just as a reminder Nehemiah chapter 10 Verse number 29 It blows my mind Because in Nehemiah 10 We saw that they recommitted themselves To the old covenant They said Yeah we're not going to Profane the Sabbath anymore Let's read it Verse number 29 Nehemiah 10 29 They claved to their brethren Their nobles And entered into a curse And into an oath To walk in God's law Which was given by Moses The servant of God And to observe Look at this And do all the commandments Of the Lord our God And his judgments and his statutes And that we would not give our daughters Unto the people of the land Nor take their daughters For our sons Look they said Look we will not allow our children To marry non-believers Verse 31 And if the people of the land Bring where Or any victuals On the Sabbath day To sell That we would not Buy it of them On the Sabbath Or on the Holy day And that we would leave The seventh year And the exaction Of every debt So they said Look even if people Try to sell to us On the Sabbath day We're not going to buy Anything from them But what do we see Nehemiah comes back And they're buying things From people You know from those That are selling On the Sabbath day Okay Now just a reminder What does the Sabbath represent? The Sabbath rest Represents our rest in Christ It represents our salvation That salvation is not by works Alright Six days they were allowed to labor Six days they were allowed to work But on the Sabbath they were to rest Because salvation is not by works Salvation is simply resting In what Christ has done for us So look profane in the Sabbath It's not about a day Or what was so special about the day The day represented salvation It represented the gospel message That salvation is not by works But by simply resting On the finished work of Jesus Christ And so by profane in the Sabbath What are they actually doing? They're profane The symbolism Of the free gospel message That is without works Think about that for a moment Okay It symbolizes That hey You're profane in the Sabbath You're profane in the gospel You're profane in salvation by grace Through faith and not by works I'm going to quickly read to you From Hebrews 4.4 You don't need to turn there Just Hebrews 4.4 It says For he spake in a certain place On the seventh day on this wise And God did rest on the seventh day From all his works Even God rested on the Sabbath That's why we have the Sabbath, right? And so the seventh day of course Is the Sabbath day And then it says in verse number 5 And in this place again They shall enter into my rest Seeing therefore it remaineth That some must enter therein And they to whom it was first preached Entered not in Because of unbelief So how do we enter into rest? By belief By believing You don't enter into rest If you don't believe Salvation is believing on Jesus Christ His death bear a resurrection That's it brethren We trust Christ and Christ alone Faith alone on Christ alone Is salvation So how do we bring this to What we're trying to learn When we drop our guard, brethren They drop their guard They profane the Sabbath But when we drop our guard The gospel will be profaned The gospel will be profaned If we drop our guard There are so many gospels Out there in this world There are even other gospel messages Even in independent fundamental Baptist churches Because why? Why does this happen? Because they let the enemies creep in They let people come in Preach in other gospels What other gospel, Pastor Kevin Has been preached in independent Fundamental Baptist churches When they pass It stands up behind the pulpit And says you've got to repent Of your sins to be saved That is another gospel Salvation is not how you clean up your life Should we repent of our sins? Of course we should But that's not how you get saved Should we get baptized? Of course we should get baptized We're a Baptist church But that's not how you get saved Should we go to church? Of course we should go to church But that's not how you get saved You get saved by resting on Christ His finished work It's not you cleaning up your life It's not you turning from sins Once you're saved Then go to church Then get baptized Then repent of your sins Clean up your life Live a holy life But none of those things Get you saved It's only Christ's finished work That gets you saved But I've seen it I've gone to church I've gone to independent Fundamental Baptist churches Where half the congregation understands Salvation is by faith alone On Christ alone And the other half says No, you've got to clean up your life No, you've got to repent of your sins No, you've got to repent of your sins And yet that phrase repent of your sins Does not even exist in your Bible It's not in your King James Bible Okay Now does the Bible mention repentance? Of course it does Repent ye and believe the gospel So go from not believing the gospel Repent from that And believe the gospel Trust Christ alone for salvation That is true salvation It is resting I mean could you imagine salvation being By repenting of your sins Could you imagine Alright Think about all the sins you struggle with Okay now you've got to overcome all those things Turn from all those sins to be saved Who can do it? That requires perfection We don't go to heaven because of our perfection We don't go to heaven because of our righteousness We go to heaven because of the perfection And righteousness of Christ Okay We receive the imputed righteousness of Christ When God looks at us as saved people He sees us through The righteousness of Jesus Christ That's salvation It's resting on what Christ has done for us Reverend when we drop our guard And again Look could it happen to this church? I feel like it can't But it's happened to other independent Baptist churches You know where the passage is not clear on salvation You know that they muddy the waters Because they want to appease two crowds They want to appease the saved Faith alone They want to appease the infiltrators No you've got to clean up your life to be saved Okay so they say things like Well you've got to stop going God's way No sorry you've got to stop going your way And start going God's way to be saved What does that even mean? What does that mean? Stop going your way and start going God's way Okay if my way was to trust in my works And now I need to go God's way Which is Jesus I'm the way the truth of life Then amen I agree with that Okay But it's so vague That even those that think you've got to turn from your sins to be saved Will say yeah you've got to stop sinning And keep the commandments to be saved Because he appeased that crowd as well And so it's just this grey message Cloudy message You're not even sure what to do to be saved anymore You know and man Why does this happen? It breaks my heart when I see it in independent Baptist churches It breaks my heart Okay but why did this happen? Because they dropped their guard Okay and the third like I said to you The third point that I have for you brethren in this chapter When you drop your guard the gospel will be profaned They profaned the Sabbath They mixed it with works Yeah that's what happens in churches They mix the gospel with works Okay and so we need to be careful We need to be vigilant about these things Look I tell you the truth As long as I'm the pastor of this church We're never going to have a false gospel creep into this church I promise you that Okay but am I always going to be the pastor of this church? I don't know Unless Jesus Christ comes back in my lifetime I guess I will Okay but we don't know We don't know what the future holds or how things develop You know We need to be careful about whoever we allow to preach behind this pulpit And if there is a future pastor of this church that won't be me We need to make sure that this person Is not someone that is profaning the gospel message Okay Nehemiah 13 verse number 19 Nehemiah 13 verse number 19 It says And it came to pass That when the gates of Jerusalem Were shut before the Sabbath So this is on Friday night I commanded that the gates should be shut I love Nehemiah Do you think he's making friends here? He's not making friends Okay And charged that they should be open till after the Sabbath Okay so you can open them on Sunday And some of my servants Set eye at the gates That there should be no burden Sorry that there should no burden Be brought in on the Sabbath day Nehemiah doesn't even Trust the keepers of the gates So he sends his own servants You guys keep watch Don't let these people open the gates So the merchants and sellers of all kind Of where Lodge without Jerusalem Once or twice So on the Sabbath they're like okay they'll definitely let us in So they just gotta camp out In front of the gates of Jerusalem Okay just waiting Nehemiah can't keep this up These people they want their products They want their products And we're definitely going to make sales We're definitely going to make a profit Out of these people on the Sabbath day It says verse number 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 Nehemiah has to threaten those people That they're trying to sell Hey you try this again I'm going to lay my hands on you I don't know if he's going to beat them up He's definitely going to arrest them or something So he says look you hang around here I'll take care of you I like Nehemiah He stands up for it right? He stands up for the word of God He threatens the merchants Verse number 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 This is the second time he says these words Remember me oh my God And again he's praying to God I can only see push back I can see definitely a resistance People turn against Nehemiah Come on Nehemiah it's not that bad You're hurting our prophets You're hurting our pockets Of course they're going to turn against Nehemiah So he goes back to God Remember me oh my God Please remember me Lord And spare me according to the greatness Of thy mercy Lord I need your mercy I need your help Alright so I love it because You see the strength of Nehemiah But you see the weakness of Nehemiah Like you see him against these people Against God's word he stands up But then when he's alone with God he just turns to God and prays God I need your strength I need your mercy Help me Lord okay because he's just a man He's just a normal man like you and I And again I love these stories I love them all the time because Sometimes we see great men of God And we think can we really live up to them Man look at the example they were Look how they stood for the Lord God Look at their great faith but then you see the great weakness And their great need And brethren the reason they're great people Is because they serve a great God The reason they did great works Is because they were strengthened by the hand of God It's not by their own flesh Nobody can do great things in their own flesh We need God's help we need his spirit We need his power to do great things So I hope you're encouraged by this you know Slowly not much you know with God's help You can do great things you can be bold And stand for his word So this is the second time Remember me And again why They profaned in the Sabbath And why you know Once the gospel has been compromised in a church It's very hard to fix It's very hard to fix okay And I have friends that are in churches That they recognise They say to me And they're my friend they don't call me pastor they just say Kevin They just say look I'm worried about my church This person that I thought was brother So he's not even saved And he's got this position and authority He's teaching in this capacity My pastor's saved but this man's not saved Or this man's saved but the assistant pastor's not saved Or the assistant pastor is saved but the pastor's not saved And the gospel the tracts we hand out They're confusing They don't teach it clearly They don't teach that it's all been paid by Christ They teach you got to play your part as well And you know And again some of these friends They've pushed back and they've met resistance You know there's been conflict There's been problems Arising and trying to clean up the gospel What did Nehemiah say to the Levites Clean yourselves We need to clean ourselves over this matter You know we're not going to profane in the Sabbath anymore It's so hard You know one of the main reasons we don't want the gospel to be profaned Or to be corrupted in this church Because once it is it's hard to clean There's going to be a push back There's going to be resistance These enemies they creep into churches And they take power and control for themselves So he goes to God God help me I need your help Can you please No actually I've got a passage here but I'm going to preach that in the afternoon So I don't want to double up Nehemiah 13 verse 23 Nehemiah 13 verse 23 Actually you know what I'll just read it to you Before we read Nehemiah Verse number 23 I was going to read to you from 2 Corinthians 11 2 Corinthians 11 I'll just read it to you Paul says to the church in Corinth But I fear, lest by any means As the serpent beguiled Eve Through his subtlety So your mind should be corrupted From the simplicity that is in Christ Simplest salvation is simple Trust Christ alone It's simple Paul is concerned He's fearful that the church is going to be corrupted By the devil By the serpent like Eve was corrupted Then he keeps going in verse number 4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus Whom ye have not preached Or if ye receive another spirit Which ye have not received Or another gospel Which ye have not accepted Ye might well bear with him Paul says to the Corinthian church You're so carnal, you're so babes in Christ That if someone comes and preaches another gospel You're going to put up with him Nehemiah says Look I walked away for a period of time And to buy our enemy He came into the congregation And you bear with him, you put up with him So false gospels brethren We can't allow them in our church We can't They come in brethren We let false brethren come in They start preaching another gospel Clean up your lives To be saved They start preaching that stuff It's almost too late The corruption is deep And it's hard to remove Nehemiah is trying to clean this place up No profane on the Sabbath No selling, no buying on the Sabbath And then he goes to God He's got to go to God for help There are enemies against him, there are people that are not liking What he's doing Alright, verse number 23, Nehemiah 13, 23 In those days also So this is a new problem that he finds now In those days also saw either Jews That had married wives of Ashdod Of Ammon and of Moab 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 Of each people So what do we see? Intermingling People allowing their children to marry Non-believers People that worship the false god To the point they can't even speak The children are the product of this marriage They can't even speak Hebrew Why is that important? Because at that time the scriptures were written in Hebrew If you wanted to know what God had to say You'd have to know the language You'd have to be able to read the scriptures They weren't able to speak even Hebrew They weren't able to speak in the language Of the people who worship false deities You can see what happens when you marry a non-believer As much as You might think You can sway your family To righteousness The non-believer is going to have a greater impact On your family life Okay Verse number 25, look how Nehemiah responds And I contended with them And cursed them And smote certain of them He strikes at them I mean Nehemiah is so angry about this Look And plucked off their hair Did he do it to all of them? Let me read that again And I contended with them and cursed them And smote certain of them So he didn't go around just punching up everybody That married a non-believer Just certain of them I'm assuming the certain are those that are pushing For this intermingled marriage Plucked off their hair And made them swear by God saying You shall not give your daughters Until their sons Nor take their daughters Until your sons Or for yourselves Please be careful young people We've got a lot of young people in our church Nothing wrong with dating Nothing wrong with trying to find someone That you want to marry one day Make sure they're a believer Please Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer Make sure they're a believer He's doing these things, right? But I'd like to do that That'd be nice Obviously I won't do such things But please, please be careful If Nehemiah was walking around, you'd be careful Let's keep going there Verse number 26 Actually that's point number 4 Point number 4 is when you drop your guard Your children will marry unbelievers They will make friendship with this lost world And verse number 26 Nehemiah says Not Solomon, king of Israel Sinned by these things Yet among many nations Was there no king like him Who was so beloved of his God And God made him king over all Israel Nevertheless Even him Did outlandish women cause to sin Even the great king Solomon The king of Israel was at his greatest At its peak With Solomon as king But even he Marrying, obviously many Lost women, they caused him to sin His heart was Drawn away from God And he made space for these false gods That his wives worshipped Alright, verse number 27 Shall we not then hearken unto you To do all this Great evil To transgress against our God In marrying strange wives And one of the sons of Joedah The son of Elishib the high priest Was son-in-law Look at this, to Sanballat The horror knight Therefore I chased him from me So what do we see, Sanballat was the other enemy right Sanballat and Tobiah Well Sanballat's son had married The daughter of Elishib The high priest I mean the guy with the highest position As the religious leader had given his daughter To an unsaved man Okay, you can see how badly things Have gone, okay I think again we see the example Of the religious leader, if he doesn't care About his kids marrying non-believers Then why would the rest of them do it Reverend I care, my kids, pay attention kids We've got to set some type of example Here brethren, you know My children, let's make sure The time for marriage will come You know we pray for these things You know God will help in this area of life You know, we find a believer You marry them I like this man, he's unsaved I like this girl, she's unsaved If you like him that much Give them the gospel Honestly, if you care for someone so much Get them saved Give them the gospel Let them hear that salvation Is simply resting on Christ Oh but if I tell them that they won't like me Good You don't want to be influenced By this unsaved world People that hate the Lord Make sure you yoke yourself up With believers So Tobiah had intermingled Married into the Levites Sanballat had married His children had married into You know, the high priest family And look what it says in verse 29 Remember them Oh my God, now Remember me? Now it says remember them Okay, oh my God Because they have defiled the priesthood And the covenant of the priesthood And of the Levites Alright, so as Nehemiah is praying to God He says remember me? For the good that I'm doing? Now it says Lord Remember them for the evil that they're doing Lord can you judge them? Can you do something? Can you step in? You know, so these people aren't victorious These people have stopped influencing The lives of others Verse number 30 Then cleansed I them from all strangers And appointed the wards of the priests And the Levites Everyone in his business He goes look, if you're going to serve in the house of God If you're going to serve in this capacity You've got to be a believer You've got to be one of the Jews Okay, anyone else? You're out Get out of the temple, get out of this place Verse number 31 And for the wood offering At times appointed And for the first fruits Remember me, oh my God, for good So this is the third, remember me Oh my God, for good Do you think he had a push back? Do you think he had a resistance? Telling people to stop marrying unbelievers? You know, of course he did Okay, but again, he's gone to God He says God remember me for the good that I'm doing And brethren, in conclusion Can you please go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 In conclusion, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 2 Corinthians chapter 5 And verse number 10 Again Nehemiah says Remember me and God, and remember them Okay Brethren You know, we are all called to serve the Lord God We're all called to be cleansed You know, we're all called to be To keep the gospel clean And not to intermingle And get married to non-believers You know, we're all called to be watchful and not allow False brethren to come into our church Okay But you know, we're all serving the Lord You know, we serve God in this house, we serve God in our families We serve God in our jobs And I want you to remember here in 2 Corinthians 5 10, 2 Corinthians 5 10 it says For we must all appear Before the judgment seat Of Christ And that everyone May receive the things done in his body According to that he have done Whether it be good Or bad Brethren, even though we are saved We are still going to one day stand before Jesus Christ, the judgment seat of Christ And we're going to be rewarded For what we have done in our body Hey, if we've done good, he's going to reward us That which is bad And again, bad is not sinful Okay, because our sins have been paid for by Christ It's already been judged in Jesus Christ We're not going to stand before God because of our sins Sins have been taken care of But bad in a sense is like Things that were not profitable Alright, things that have no eternal value You know, we're going to be judged for that And there's going to be no reward for that Hey, but for the good that we've done, we're going to be rewarded The reason I wanted to end on this Is that we are each going to stand before Christ One day, okay Nehemiah says, remember me Lord For the good that I have done And brethren, whatever you do for the Lord You know, focus on your service for God Alright Not on what other people are doing Well, I'm not going to serve God because Sister so and so You know, I'm not going to come to church because Brother so and so Brethren, forget Lord, remember them And Lord, remember me Brethren, you prioritize your service for God Regardless of what anyone else is doing You do that which is right Oh, but family so and so They don't care if the kids marry non-believers Well, don't worry about them Okay, you serve God You make sure that your children Know how important it is for them to find A safe spouse This is something the Lord's going to look down upon And bless them and reward them For doing that which is good You do that which is good Look, Nehemiah's come back from Persia He sees all the corruption I can understand why Nehemiah would just go I give up You guys want to be wicked, so be it He goes, you know what, I'm going to do what's good Nehemiah says I'm going to step in and where I can Where I can have an impact on I'm going to fix things for the good of God Brethren, even if this whole church becomes corrupted You keep serving Jesus Christ You serve him You're going to stand before him one day in judgment You know, so please focus on your service of God Not on what other people are doing Or what they're not doing Alright, let's end in a word of prayer Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for Nehemiah Lord, for the whole book Lord, great lessons that we can learn through this Lord, I thank you for Nehemiah's faithfulness, Lord And the fact that there were times that he was weak And struggling, Lord, and he turns to you For help and for God and for mercy And Lord, I just pray that We will do the same, Lord, that we will not do things In our own strength, Lord, that we will do it for The new man, that we will do it for the Holy Spirit of God And Lord, that we will be Strengthened by you, Lord, to Do great things for you Lord, help us not to be distracted by this world Help us not to be distracted when even our own Brethren, brother and sister, Lord, are doing things That are wrong, Lord, I pray you'd help us To just do that which is right, Lord, knowing Full well that we're going to stand before Jesus Christ one day And be rewarded for what we've done for him And Lord, just protect this church From false gospels, from false Jesus False spirit, Lord, and help us To continue to serve you all the days of our life We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen Alright, brethren Please take your hymnals and let's turn to hymn number 70 Let's end with Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? Hymn number 70 Will Jesus Find Us Watching? 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