Nehemiah 9:4-15

⁴ The Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani—stood on the stairway of the Levites and cried out to the Lord their God with loud voices. ⁵ Then the leaders of the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah—called out to the people: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, for he lives from everlasting to everlasting!” Then they prayed:“May your glorious name be praised! May it be exalted above all blessing and praise! ⁶ “You alone are the Lord. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you. ⁷ “You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and renamed him Abraham. ⁸ When he had proved himself faithful, you made a covenant with him to give him and his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites. And you have done what you promised, for you are always true to your word. ⁹ “You saw the misery of our ancestors in Egypt, and you heard their cries from beside the Red Sea.^[c] 10 You displayed miraculous signs and wonders against Pharaoh, his officials, and all his people, for you knew how arrogantly they were treating our ancestors. You have a glorious reputation that has never been forgotten. ¹¹ You divided the sea for your people so they could walk through on dry land! And then you hurled their enemies into the depths of the sea. They sank like stones beneath the mighty waters. ¹² You led our ancestors by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night so that they could find their way. ¹³ “You came down at Mount Sinai and spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and instructions that were just, and decrees and commands that were good. ¹⁴ You instructed them concerning your holy Sabbath. And you commanded them, through Moses your servant, to obey all your commands, decrees, and instructions. ¹⁵ “You gave them bread from heaven when they were hungry and water from the rock when they were thirsty. You commanded them to go and take possession of the land you had sworn to give them.”

Not only did their confession accurately expresses their sorrow over sin but also their confidence in their Savior.  That is why we see the people not only confessing their sins but secondly:

2. Confessing their confidence in God.

Forgiveness frees us to focus on God not our guilt. Are you focused on the Father or your failures? As the people confessed their confidence in their Savior, they proclaimed the:

a. Greatness of God

Your view affects your voice, many of us are voicing failure and frustration instead of the Father. As we learned last week, they longed for the Word, listened to the Word, learned the Word, and lived the Word. And here we see that their longing for the Word had not subsided because verse 3 tells us that they spent three hours reading the Bible and then three hours in confession and worship. The order here is significant when we read the Word, we will see how far we fall short which leads to confession. But as we contemplate our sinfulness we will begin to understand more about God’s greatness. The Word brings both weeping and worship. It’s not just about confessing our sin but also confessing our confidence in the Savior. If you’re struggling with your faith today, it may well be because your view of God is too small or too narrow. David Wells, a theologian, refers to this view as the “weightlessness of God.” He writes that our sense of inadequacy or ineffectiveness can be traced to our limited understanding and experience of God: “God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, his grace too ordinary, his judgment too benign, his gospel too easy, and His Christ too common.” Look at verse 6, it is a clear statement of God’s greatness that is grounded in the opening verses of Genesis: “You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything and the multitudes of heaven worship you.” All you have to do to see the greatness of God is to look out and look up, creation cries out God’s glory: Psalm 19:1 clearly states: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” During the French Revolution, many people wanted to get rid of Christianity forever. On one clear night an atheist boastfully proclaimed his beliefs to a poor peasant: “Everything will be abolished churches, Bibles, and the clergy. Yes, even the word “God” itself! We shall remove everything that speaks of religion.” The peasant gave a quiet chuckle. The atheist wanted to know what the believer was laughing about. The peasant then pointed to the stars and replied, “I was just wondering how you’re going to manage to get all of those bright lights out of the sky!” Not only does creation proclaim the glory of God but so should the crown of His creation you and me. I am going to ask you to take out your phone and take a selfie then text it to yourself with this caption: Am I going to use my life to proclaim God’s greatness or my glory? Am I going to life my life for God’s glory or my greatness? Instead of starting with the greatness of God we tend to focus on what He will give and what we can get. God is replaced with greed and we worship Him not for who He is but for what we can get. Do you see God as great today? Or, is your God too small? We must glory in the incomparable magnificence of our grand God. Take a moment and thank God for His greatness.

Nehemiah 9:1-3

“On October 3 the people assembled again, and this time they fasted and dressed in burlap and sprinkled dust on their heads. ² Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners as they confessed their own sins and the sins of their ancestors. ³ They remained standing in place for three hours while the Book of the Law of the Lord their God was read aloud to them. Then for three more hours they confessed their sins and worshiped the Lord their God.”

As we come to chapter 9 we continue to see the shift from construction to consecration. But consecration starts with confession and it is here that we discover that God’s people not only recognize their sins but repent of their sins. Chapter 9 reveals the peoples first heart response to the reading of God’s Holy Word was that they:

1. Confessed their sin to God

As we learned last week, God’s people were told to stop mourning and start rejoicing. It’s now later in that same month, the “branch booths” or “tents of twigs” have been taken down. But God’s Word is still given central attention. God’s Word is not just a once a year ceremony but an everyday devotion. This time as they listen to the Word of God instead of responding with celebration, there was conviction, which included both an atmosphere of sorrow and an attitude of repentance. They were fasting, wearing sackcloth, and had put dust on their heads. These were outward signs of inward sorrow and a desire to repent and recommit their lives to God. Verse 2 tells us that they were not just sad about their sin, but they responded by separating themselves from those who would have a bad influence on them. As they heard the Bible read, they no doubt came across Leviticus 20:26: “You are to be holy to Me because I, the Lord, am holy, and have set you apart from the nations to be my own.”Israel’s history tells the tragic story of what happens when believers don’t make a break from the “world.” Some of us have become so comfortably complacent with the things of this world that we are no longer convicted by the Word. What about you are you getting so cozy with the things of the world that you are cuddling up with the carnal? God wants us to live holy lives that draw people to Him. Someone once said that separation without devotion to the Lord can become isolation, but devotion without separation is hypocrisy. Here were people who didn’t just hear with their heads but with their hearts. Listening to God through His word and then responding to Him in prayer should be twin aspects that are true in every believer’s life. There will never be spiritual growth without the regular cultivation of this dual privilege and discipline. It’s not just about hearing God but heeding God. When you compare the two chapters. In chapter 8, Ezra and Nehemiah comfort the afflicted and in chapter 9, the comfortable are afflicted. Joy and grief are two sides of the same coin. Interestingly, if you want to study three of the most powerful prayers ever written, they are all found in chapter 9 of Ezra, Daniel and Nehemiah. Nehemiah 9 records an extended prayer, which is in fact, the longest prayer in the Bible outside the Psalms. So, what about you, when was the last time you wept over the Word because it exposed the hardness of your heart? Many of us care more about our circumstances than we do about character. We look to the Word not for its ability to change us but to change our circumstances. But remember God is far more concerned with your holiness than your happiness. Yet when it comes to seeing sin many of us are overly sensitive to the sins of others and yet shockingly numb when it comes to self-sin. Why is it that we see the sins of others so clearly yet when it comes to our sin things suddenly get cloudy? I believe it’s because many of us have a fairness focus instead of a Father focus. Notice that they stood up and confessed, not only the sins of their fathers, but their own sins as well. There was a solidarity over sin. Here in chapter 9 the people got real with God, unlike Adam and Eve they stopped hiding and got honest about their hearts. Many of us are fearful that others will find out about our failures, so we fake it which leads to us not only becoming frauds but also forgoing true freedom. We end up have to live with the lies as we try to hide our hypocritical hearts. This leads to an even greater focus on the failures of others because the best way to hide your sin is to shine the spotlight on others. We end up in a vicious cycle, sensitive to the sins of others but callous to our own corruption. Between focusing on the sins of others and trying to fake our own righteousness there is little time or effort left to get real with God. Instead of being set free we become self-righteous, instead of becoming a proclaimer of truth we become a hypocrite, a Pharisee. Parents nothing will drive your kids faster and further from Christianity than a counterfeit Christian, but there is also nothing more magnetic than the honest heartfelt confession of a Christian. Why are we so fearful of getting honest about our sin because we have a perverted perspective of purity. We think that in hiding we can be holy, but the truth is we are just hypocrites. We also fail to recognize that confession cripples the devil because when we get honest with God there is no guilt. Forgiveness frees us where faking cages and cripples us. Look the Devil wants to keep you in dungeon of disgrace, shackled to your shame but confession offers us forgiveness and freedom. Instead of a cloudy conscience we can have a clear one. Secrete sin is Satan’s favorite playground. Today are you going to face your failure or keep faking it?