Consistency is a hard thing. It is hard to be consistent in life, in just about every aspect of life.
It is hard to be consistent. It's hard to be consistently patient with children.
On this Father's Day, I feel that all the more, acutely.
I love my children, but I am a broken man that has great aspirations to be a patient, wise sage of a father
and how quickly it can descend into not that.
New Year's resolutions obviously come and go. Consistency seems to be the hardest thing to see out.
It's hard to be consistent. It's very, very difficult.
It also means that we can be awfully inconsistent in our spiritual lives.
It is hard to maintain a spiritual life on the best of days, let alone in a time when distractions are plenty,
when interests are divided, when goals can be conflicting.
How can we remain consistent as spiritual people that believe in the one true triune God?
We're in our second last week in Nehemiah.
Israel is finally being built up into a godly community once again.
They're finally understanding that rebuilding of the wall, in many respects,
is actually rebuilding of this covenant community, this people, this nation of Israel.
Last week in Nehemiah chapter 8, we read that the people, as they were consulting the scriptures,
they realized that there was this wonderful holiday that they haven't been keeping,
this holy week called the Festival of Booths or Sukkot.
This holy day, if you remember, holy week marked, it commemorated God's provision in the desert
when Israel was rescued from Egypt on their way to the Promised Land,
and God provided for them shelter and food and clothes and everything that they needed while they were wandering.
It was also, if you remember, a holiday that proclaimed this transient life,
and it ultimately pointed to the eternal life to come.
Suffice it to say, the people have had a wonderful week with God.
It's been a fantastic spiritual experience.
They're feeling like they are back in God's will.
They are riding high after 70 plus years of being in exile.
Things are starting to look up.
The people have enjoyed God's presence and each other.
They are starting to look like rebuilt people.
Will they be consistent, though?
The history of Israel, and we'll see this, although we won't read every last verse, it's a long chapter.
The history of Israel is, we are a part of God's family.
We're doing great.
Those other nations look kind of good.
I think we're going to go over to those other nations and fraternize.
You know, I think their God is actually better than our God.
Or maybe we'll adopt their God along with our God,
and eventually they forget their God completely,
and they're into all sorts of evil and idolatry,
and the community gets broken,
and then they cry out to God for salvation,
and God hears them,
and then they get re-established with God,
wash, rinse, repeat.
It's a pattern.
It's a cyclical brokenness that the people are falling into.
Will they remain consistent?
They've had this great experience.
Can they keep the good times going?
It's also a big question for us.
As Christians, or as those that identify as Christians,
we may have had a spiritual experience,
confessed our faith before God,
been on an awesome retreat 25 years ago,
had an awesome season of university or college
where our faith was strengthened,
or maybe we've come back to the faith,
and the consistency that comes afterwards is elusive.
It is really hard to be consistent with our faith,
with this spiritual life.
So, the question I put forward to you,
and I think that this text will help us to answer,
here's the question.
How can God's people live a consistent,
God-enjoying, God-glorifying life all their days?
How?
I think it's a really important question,
if you are to take your faith seriously.
So, Nehemiah chapter 9,
hopefully we'll answer this question,
and we'll look at three,
really four aspects,
but three big aspects of it,
that the text will help us to answer that question.
Nehemiah chapter 9 will help us to see
the importance of habitual and honest confession
as a key aspect of consistent spiritual life.
habitual and honest confession.
The second is worship of the wise and wonderful God,
the God whose glory abounds,
who is eternal,
who is also unique.
And then the last one,
this chapter 9,
will help us to reflect upon the past
as a means for security in the present
and hope for the future.
And that's specifically,
that past is how God has interacted with his people.
Really, it's understanding the biblical story,
the story of redemption.
That's key in all of this.
Finally,
and we'll touch on it at the end,
this faithful,
we'll see in Nehemiah chapter 9,
that there is a faithful commitment
to follow after the Lord
as the only true way.
And we'll see that at the very last verse,
in verse 38.
So why don't we jump into it?
If you have a Bible,
please follow along.
There should be some Bibles at the back
welcome table.
Feel free to grab one at any time
and follow along.
So, Nehemiah chapter 9,
starting in verse 1.
This is what it says.
Now, on the 24th day of this month,
the people of Israel were assembled
with fasting and in sackcloth
and with earth on their heads.
And the Israelites separated themselves
from all foreigners
and stood and confessed their sins
and the iniquities of their father.
And they stood up in their place
and read from the book of the law
of the Lord their God
for a quarter of the day,
for another quarter of it,
they made confession and worshipped
the Lord their God.
The people finished their feasting
on the 22nd of the month
in chapter 8.
This is happening on the 24th.
So maybe the 23rd,
I don't know,
they were taking down
their makeshift huts
because that was part of the celebration
of the Feast of Booths.
But all that to say is
what's happening here
is on the heels of that holiday.
It's coming immediately after.
The 22nd it ends,
the 23rd clean up,
the 24th,
I'm presuming it's clean up,
the 24th is what we see in chapter 9.
Right away sackcloth,
dirt on the head.
There's a mourning that is happening.
And it's interesting
because if you remember
at the beginning of chapter 8,
the people have read the word of God
and they are cut to the heart,
they are convicted of sin,
they are mourning.
And the Levites say,
listen, no, no, no, no,
it's time actually for feasting.
This isn't the time to fast and to mourn.
Except now,
this is the appropriate time
after the holiday.
We can note three important aspects
of this confession.
And it's a very important
kind of paradigm for us,
a structure for us
to understand confession.
We can notice three important things.
The first is that they confessed
humbly and honestly together.
There are times
that you cannot do
this Christian thing by yourself
and you are supported
by those around you.
And that's just,
that's the reality of it.
You're going to have really low times
and difficult times
and dry seasons.
That's not the time to pull away,
but to push forward,
trusting that we are a part
of something bigger than ourselves.
And there is, of course,
an individuality to our spirituality.
But there is also a corporate nature.
And here we are seeing the people
coming together as one
to confess their sins to one another.
And they're being humble about it.
We see that with the sackcloth,
with what they're wearing
as something that professes,
so to speak,
their attitude,
that expresses their reverence
and dedication to God.
And they are honest
with their confession.
I mean, it says right here
that they are being real
about their sins
and also the state
of their nation
that has led up to this point.
And we'll see that
in the verses to come.
They're being honest.
They're not trying to hide
their sins from Almighty God.
You know,
half the time
on Sunday mornings
we do something called
morning prayer.
Morning prayer is
a prayer service
that's in the Book of Common Prayer.
And we've adopted it
partly because
two weeks out of four
we share this space
and we have like
ten-ish minutes to set up.
And it's a bit of a scramble.
But morning prayer
is a beautiful thing
because it helps us
to come before God
in a very proper way.
In the opening bits
of morning prayer
it says this,
Dearly beloved,
the scripture moves us
in many different places
to acknowledge and confess
our many sins and wickedness.
and that,
and here's,
I have it bolded
on my paper here,
and that we should not
disassemble
nor cloak them
before the face
of Almighty God
our Heavenly Father.
In other words,
may we be honest with you
about who we are.
To not
give an excuse
for what we've done
as we confess our sins
to God.
To not try to take
the edge off
as if we could fool God
or do a partial confession
and He wouldn't know.
God knows everything.
I was talking to my dad,
my stepdad,
but I called my dad
yesterday
about the judgment of God.
I don't know how we got
into this on a Saturday morning.
But we're talking about
the judgment of God
and how we will stand
before God
and we will confess,
we will be without excuse,
there will be no appeal process,
there will be no nuance,
there will be no,
hey listen,
there are these circumstances,
you know,
you don't really understand,
but it was a tough time
in my life.
There will be no excuses
because God is all-knowing
but also completely just.
So when we confess our sins,
who are we confessing to?
The God who knows all,
but the God who is also
perfectly just.
And this is what's happening here
in our text.
They have a heart
that is reflecting
their inner life
and right now
this inner life
is just desperate
to be connected to God.
They're taking this humble approach,
they're being honest
with their confession.
Notice though,
there's this aspect
that might seem a bit
uncomfortable for us
in verse 2,
and the Israelites
separated themselves
from all foreigners.
Now listen,
we live in a very
tolerant society,
more or less.
The idea of
outsiders and insiders
isn't something we,
by and large,
we don't really enjoy
to talk about.
What's happening here,
I'll just say,
isn't an example
of Jewish supremacy.
It's not as though
the Israelites are,
they're discriminating
the other nations
around them.
But really what we see here
is that they're separating
themselves from foreigners
as, again,
an expression of their desire
for purity before the Lord.
So much of Israel's history
has been connecting
with other nations
and not influencing them
to follow the Lord,
but being influenced by them.
And here,
it is a symbolic act,
in a sense,
of saying that
we do not want
the ways of the other nations,
their gods,
their idols,
their goals,
their philosophies.
We want you.
We can say that
because God's heart
is actually not just
for the Israelites,
but it's for all people.
And it's not like
there's second-class
human beings,
especially when we understand
that all are made
in the image of God.
But here,
we have something,
a symbolic act
of just declaring
their complete desire
for connection
and dedication
and purity
towards Almighty God.
you're starting to see,
again,
a people
that are being rebuilt.
Their motives
are starting
to become pure.
Notice also
that their confession
is deeply connected
to God's Word.
We see that
as they,
sorry,
I just lost my spot.
We see that
as their confession
is a byproduct
of them opening up
the law of the Lord.
We see that in verse 3.
And they stood up
in their place
and read from the book
of the law
of the Lord their God
for a quarter of the day.
I'll pause really quickly there.
Confession
is
an important aspect
of the Christian life
as we encounter
God's Word.
And God's Word
shows us
areas of our lives
where sin is abounding.
So that grace
can abound all the more.
Romans 7,
the Apostle Paul says,
What then shall we say?
That the law
is sin?
By no means.
He's giving a whole
treatise on the law.
Yet,
if it had not been
for the law,
I would not have known sin
for I would have not
known what it is
to covet
if the law had said
you shall not covet.
As we encounter
God's Word,
we spend our lives
looking at it,
hearing it,
reading it,
studying it,
meditating on it.
It will start to form us
and shape us.
We will see areas
in our lives
that do not align
with God
and as we are
wishing to delight in Him
because He has delighted
in us,
we will see
that there's opportunities
for change.
By His strength,
we will change.
But it's by God's Word.
I have a buddy
who we were in
university together
and he was
atrocious
at studying
for midterms
and finals
and he had a final
the night before
but we wanted to go
to the pub
the night before
his final
or his midterm
and we had another friend
who was nursing a cold
and he said,
listen,
just cough in my face.
Like,
cough in my face
because if I get sick,
I'll go to Appletree,
I'll get a doctor's note
and it'll be legit
because I'm actually sick
and he did it.
I couldn't believe it.
He did it.
He went to Appletree,
got the doctor's note,
got his exam deferred
and he came back
very like a peacock,
like he gamed the system
and then our other friend said,
like,
you deceiving liar
just calls him out
in the biggest kind of way.
He goes,
what are you talking about?
He goes,
this is,
your heart is not towards the Lord.
It's finding a loophole.
What you've done is wrong
and my buddy
pushed back a ton
but went to God's Word
and in fact,
it's true.
He tried to deceive
and he took an L
on that midterm
and failed the course
but he did what was right.
He confessed.
I mean,
there's consequences to sin.
It's not like if we confess,
there's no consequences
but his conscience was clean.
God's Word does that.
It gets you,
in some ways,
it doesn't get you off the hook
but it allows you
to connect with the Lord
because the Lord is holy
and we are not
and we look to him
and we confess our sins
and we repent
and we start to walk in holiness.
It's a beautiful thing.
I believe I said this last week
but I'll say it again.
God's Word
both diagnoses the sickness
and treats the ailments.
It leads to health
and wholeness
and this is precisely
what is happening
with the Israelites
and what is that key marker
of spiritual health?
It's worship
and this is where we'll transition
into the next point
but before we do that,
look in verse 3 again with me
and notice this deep connection
between repentance and worship.
And they stood up in their place
and read from the book of the law
and the book of the law of the Lord,
their God,
for a quarter of the day.
For another quarter of it,
they made confession
and worshiped the Lord,
their God.
Confession must lead to worship.
We are getting right before the Lord
and the highest expression
of human life
is worshiping the one true God.
It's to understand
our deep need for Him
and then be connected to Him.
This is what we were made for.
So again,
how can God's people live
a consistent,
God-enjoying,
God-glorifying life
all of their days?
It's confession
but it's also worship.
So look with me,
verses 3 to 5.
We read verse 3
so why don't we start
in verse 4.
And the stairs of the Levites
stood,
the Levites,
I'm not going to try to do
what Will did just moments ago,
stood the Levites
and they cried with a loud voice
to the Lord,
their God.
Then some other Levites
said,
stand up
and bless the Lord,
your God,
from everlasting
to everlasting.
Blessed be your glorious name
which is exalted
above all blessing
and praise.
The people are instructed
by the Levites,
the spiritual leaders
of their community
to bless the Lord.
It's an interesting question.
I mean,
when the Lord blesses us
it's because there's a lack.
There is something
that we are lacking
that God gives us.
It is a blessing from Him.
If I see a brother
or sister in need
and I give them money,
I'm helping to reduce
the burden.
I'm taking away
from their lack.
I'm giving to them.
But if God lacks nothing,
how can we possibly bless God?
It's an interesting question.
It's all throughout the Bible
that we are called
to bless the Lord.
Are we lessening
a burden that God might have?
The answer is no.
Rather,
to bless the Lord
is an expression
of thankfulness
and awe towards Him.
What He has done,
who He is,
it is humbly recognizing God
as the creating,
covenant-making,
covenant-keeping,
just, merciful,
and loving God.
In short,
to bless God
is to rightly worship Him.
Two things stand out
about this blessing of God.
That is,
the first thing
is that He is everlasting.
It says right
in verse 5,
blessed be
your glorious name,
which is,
sorry,
a bit before.
Stand up and bless
the Lord your God
from everlasting
to everlasting,
that God is eternal.
And the people here,
they have a big vision of God.
God is not small.
And I'll put forward to you
that as much
as we are serious
about our condition,
where we are broken
and bent
and sinful people,
and as much
as we confess our sins
and throw ourselves
at the mercy of God,
we'll be in direct relation
to how big we see Him.
We will understand that,
my goodness,
I have no ability
to wash myself,
to clean myself,
to atone
for the wrongs
I have done.
But God can?
He must be huge.
He must be greater
than I could ever imagine,
and all of a sudden,
in a sense,
as we decrease,
He increases.
We can have a bigger vision
of God.
But there's something else.
There's also this uniqueness
about God.
It says it at the latter part
of verse 5,
Blessed be your glorious name,
which is exalted
above all blessing
and praise.
God is the only God.
And He's the greatest.
He is the King
of the cosmos.
He is the King
of earth.
Everything,
throughout the Psalter,
we'll spend some time
in the Psalter this summer,
we will see that God,
everything,
that has breath,
belongs to Him.
There is no King
better than Him.
Artaxerxes,
great King,
not God.
Caesar,
who will come?
Great Caesar,
not God.
Successive governments
here in Canada,
depending on where you fall
in the political spectrum,
great leaders,
not God.
There's our friends
that worship other gods
or subscribe to other
philosophies.
They might be really nice people
and maybe a part of their faith
helps inform that aspect.
But there's one God
and it's not their God.
And all of a sudden,
this aspect of worshiping God,
specifically His uniqueness,
might feel uncomfortable for us.
It's easier to affirm
in a pew on a Sunday
that God is the only God.
God,
it's easier to affirm
in a pew on a Sunday
than it is on a team's call
on a Tuesday
or on a Thursday
after a busy week
at playgroup
at the library
or with an adult child
who is spiritual
and not religious.
It is easier on Sunday
than in those situations
or whatever situations
that you might be going through
to affirm the uniqueness
and exclusivity
of the God of the Bible.
Now,
this is a tough one,
but it's a wonderful truth
and a necessary one,
even though it is controversial
for secular people
or people of different faiths
or even ourselves.
But again,
if God's Word
doesn't just diagnose the problem
but gives the solution
for the ailments,
then we need to remember
that God's truth
is the only truth.
And in a pluralistic society
like ours,
our city Ottawa
is very pluralistic,
the truth is bound
to cause offense
because of its audaciousness,
because of its bold affirmation.
But we proclaim truth
not because we are mean people
but because truth
will always lead to life,
lies will always lead to death.
It's an uncomfortable reality,
but it's true.
Pluralism cannot hold up
under the weight
of an eternal hope
because all roads
do not lead
to the same destination
because they do not lead
to the same God.
to proclaim this truth,
friends,
is an act of mercy
to those around us,
to our family,
to our friends.
Again,
there's ways to be winsome about it.
You're not going in there
on a soapbox
screaming at people.
There's ways to be winsome,
but it's still an act of mercy
to proclaim the uniqueness
and exclusivity of God.
It also helps us
to remember, too,
that God
is over everything,
which means
He's also
over all of my troubles
and all of the difficulties
I go through,
all of
my disappointments.
And because
He's also eternal,
it means that
all of the problems
that I have
are temporal,
and they might feel
like they're eternal,
but they're temporal.
And that this eternal God
who is over everything,
He has promised
that if I am in Him,
that blessings are mine
forevermore.
Disappointments that I have
will not last,
and ailments that I feel
are just fleeting.
It's a wonderful truth.
And this is what
they're worshipping God for.
They're proclaiming
His goodness.
The God who extends
mercy and grace
time and again
to wayward people
is the God we serve,
and there's no other God
that could do it
apart from Him.
So the Israelites
confess their sins,
they worship the Lord,
and then they reflect
on their history,
which is to say
they reflect on
God's Word,
God's redemption
throughout all of Scripture.
In a sense,
it's to
meditate on
and to consider
and to reflect upon
the biblical story.
This is another
key aspect
of what it means
to live a consistent
God-enjoying
and God-glorifying life.
Knowledge of God's Word.
I mean,
turn with me
verses 6 to 37.
We won't be reading
the whole thing.
I have it marked out
on a page here
a number of key points
I want to draw
to your attention.
But if you were to read
through all of this,
from verses 6 on,
we have a rehearsal
of all of redemptive history
from God creating
everything,
heaven and earth,
to their current moment,
from Abraham
to Egypt
to their wanderings
in the desert
to their time
in the promised land,
but playing around
with idols
and their exile.
And throughout
all of it,
the key bits
that I commend to you
when you go home
or later on today,
is to see how many times
within verses 6 to 37
God is described
as a merciful God
or a steadfast God
or a loving God
or a God that hears.
And then consider
how many times
throughout verses 6 to 37
Israel are wandering,
how they've left God,
how they've forsaken God,
how they have given
themselves over to idolatry,
how they have left God.
And time and again,
time and again,
it is the reality
of God's people
to drift,
to be inconsistent.
We can look at Israel,
the history of Israel,
and we can think,
man, stiff-necked people,
but friends,
we are God's people too.
And we, on one hand,
have been given
the Holy Spirit
if we have put our faith
and trust in Jesus
so that we can say no to sin,
but the flesh
and the world
and the devil
still rage
against our desire
to do good.
And we find ourselves
being identified
with the people of Israel
as well.
But back to God's mercy.
God is extending mercy
time and again,
time and again.
You read enough
of the Old Testament
and you even go through
these 31, 32 verses
and you think,
at what point
do people exhaust
the mercy of God?
Like, at what point
is enough enough?
How long is this
going to go on for?
It's exhausting.
You read it,
it's exhausting.
Do they not know
the history of their people?
And yet,
the mercy of God
is never exhaustive.
And in fact,
it continues on
and on and on
until it finds
its fulfillment,
the mercy of God
in Christ.
Where God gives himself,
the eternal God,
the unique God,
the God who created
heaven and earth,
all things in it,
who has existed
for all time,
he takes on human flesh
and pays the penalty
that we could never pay.
He conquers the enemy
we can never conquer.
So that
we can know him
and delight in him
and to live a consistent
God-delighting,
God-fearing
life with our God
and it's an act of mercy.
It's the fulfillment of mercy
and you start to see
that verses 6 to 37,
rehearsing this whole history,
it puts in our hearts
a longing for Christ,
a longing for us
to be done with sin
and a longing
for God's mercy
to finally take root
in our lives
so that we know him
and we walk with him
in a consistent way
because ultimately,
living a life
apart from God
might feel good,
might sound good,
might do good
for a season,
but it will never last
for eternity.
Talking to Christine
about a bit of this
last night,
we think,
I think,
I should always say that
because it's true,
I think,
you come to church,
you get charged up
for like wireless devices,
we get charged up,
we go on our week,
analogies break down,
but, you know,
be with me here.
We get charged up
and we go on our week
and we have enough juice
till next Sunday,
another spiritual experience,
another connecting
with God's people,
and it's great,
but it's better
to look at ourselves
like we are wired devices.
The second we unplug ourselves,
we unplug ourselves
from the source of love
and light and life
and we cannot exist
apart from it
because we are not made for that.
So to live a consistent life
is to live a life of life,
truly life,
to live a life of love,
true love,
to live a life of light,
true light,
and that is what
consistency will bring.
We can't do it ourselves,
we just,
we really can't.
We need the Lord's help for that.
So in verse 38,
and this is where I'll end,
another final key aspect
to being a consistent people
that enjoy God,
glorify God all their days
is something called covenant renewal.
Okay, stick with me here.
Verse 38,
and this is where
we'll start to wrap things up.
Verse 38 says this,
Because all of this,
we make a firm covenant in writing.
On the sealed document
are the names of our princes,
our Levites,
and our priests.
Chapter 10,
we'll go into those names
and the obligations of that covenant.
But it's essentially a covenant renewal.
God has made a covenant with his people.
God always keeps his covenant.
And what's remarkable of it
is because his people
never keep his covenant.
But,
when they come back to God
and they make a covenant,
they renew the covenant
in the sense of
just saying,
we,
you are our God,
we are your people,
we,
to this day,
this day and forever,
they're going to fall
in the future,
but,
but starting today,
we are back.
Like,
no more idolatry,
no more sin,
no more inconsistency.
We're back.
Please keep your end of the bargain
like you've done in the past,
your covenant.
We're going to do our best
to keep our,
our end.
And how does that work out
for us here?
Covenant renewal is,
is every Sunday
as we gather as God's people,
where we hear his word,
where we confess our sins,
where we worship him,
we gather as a solemn assembly,
we praise him
for what he has done,
what he will,
what he has done,
what he is doing,
what he will do,
and then we gather at his table.
Most weeks,
we gather at his table,
and it is a form of covenant renewal,
where we once again remember
what Christ has done
on the cross,
but we don't just remember,
we taste
what he has done.
We hear
the cracking of the bread,
symbolizing his body
broken for us.
We see the wine,
it's red,
our eyes
are reminded
that Jesus
poured actual blood
for us.
And we come to him
afresh
every week,
and we say,
I covenant
to be with you forever.
I have been wayward,
please forgive me
of my sins,
but it's me and you again.
It's us and you again.
And that's what covenant renewal is.
And it's a key aspect
of a consistent
Christian,
God-enjoying,
God-glorifying life
for all your days.
Church doesn't save people.
It certainly doesn't.
Christ saves people.
But to know Christ,
to love him,
to enjoy him,
to receive the benefits
of his death
on the cross,
his burial
and his resurrection,
we must gather together.
We must gather together
and like the Israelites
confess our sins,
we must gather together
like the Israelites
and worship God
for who he is
and what he has done.
We,
like the Israelites,
need to gather
and rehearse our history
to be students
of God's word
and then finally
to gather together
and as often
as we gather together
to renew the covenant
that he has made
that we will likely break
later on today
in some thought,
word or deed
but that when we come
back together
he is merciful,
he is loving,
he is kind,
he is slow to anger,
he is abounding
in steadfast love.
That is our God.
So friends,
let's live out
this consistent life together.
Not by our own strength
but by God's strength
and by the strength
he gives our community.
Let's pray.
Lord,
we thank you
for your people.
Lord,
we thank you
that we aren't
just called
to salvation
and then left
as
as independence
but we instead
are welcomed
into a family
where when one person
suffers
we actually all suffer
whether we know it or not.
So Lord,
let us be people
that covenant together
to go after you,
to be consistent
in our walk,
to enjoy you,
to fear you,
to live a life
that is worthy
of our calling.
Lord,
we ask for your strength.
We are bound
to break
our covenant
with you.
We are bound
to sin.
But Lord,
we don't put
our hope
in our keeping
of the covenant.
You put our hope
in your keeping
of the covenant.
Lord,
that your mercy
has been extended
to us
to the end
that your son,
God,
the son of God
died on our behalf.
If you didn't
withhold your son,
what else will you
withhold?
Nothing from us.
So Lord,
may we be people
that go after you.
Give us strength,
we ask in Christ's name.
Amen.