Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome again to Westtown Church. My name is Dwight. I'm one of the pastors here. If we've not had an opportunity to meet, or maybe we haven't spoken with each other in a while, I hope you will introduce yourself to me after the service today.

Speaker 1: 0:18

As a congregation we have in recent weeks been going through the book of Nehemiah. That describes how a man who lived 450 years before Jesus was born was used of God to help the Israelites who had been taken into captivity by foreign oppressors and are resettling into the promised land. How the Lord used him to help bring stability to their region by rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem, but also by working in their hearts to renew their love for the Lord. In the last couple of weeks we were in Nehemiah chapter 8, nehemiah chapter 9, where we saw how the Lord helped the people to hear the word again, his word again, and it led them to a great celebration of God's grace to them, of his mercy and his forgiveness. That also produced in them a desire to confess their sin from God and to turn away from that sin. And so this week we pick up with really the conclusion of that story. That answers the question how do we respond to God's mercy and grace at work in our lives, and one of the things that we see the people doing is that they begin in very practical ways in their lives to prioritize God's love for them and their love for God. And so we're going to read in just a few moments in Nehemiah chapter 10, how we might also make God's love the first or the priority within our lives. And the way in which we see this happening in Nehemiah chapter 10 is that it calls us to love the Lord first by keeping His commandments. And in Nehemiah chapter 9, we read in verse 38, because of all of this, we make a firm covenant.

Speaker 1: 2:20

In writing on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites and our priests. The next 27 verses are the signatures of all of those people. I'm not reading all these names. You might find in here a great baby name if you're looking in the market for one who wouldn't want to name their kid Magpias. But anyway, the purpose of me putting these names up here at this point is to demonstrate how people from each of those categories signed this national covenant. There were the governor, nehemiah, there were the priests, there were the Levites and there were the nobles that led the people in signing this document.

Speaker 1: 3:06

And then we pick up reading again in chapter 10, verse 28,. The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law that was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord, our Lord, and his rules and his statutes. Now, what are we to make of all of this? It sort of smacks our modern ears a little bit legalistic. Right, all of these people are now going to be these rule followers. What does all of this have to do with God's love, and how are we supposed to love God? Well, there are people who think that by following the rules and obeying God's law that we merit God's forgiveness to us in some degree or fashion. That's not what is happening here Now. The rules are the same, but the reasons for keeping them are completely different. It is not to earn God's forgiveness or favor to us, but as recipients of his grace and his favor and his love. We are keeping his commandments in a way that we can express our love and gratitude for his grace at work in our lives.

Speaker 1: 4:47

In Deuteronomy, the people of Israel are getting ready to enter the promised land. They have been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years because of their sin, and so Moses is preparing them and he repeats the law. Deuteronomy, the onomy is part of law, the Deuter-O is second. It's the second giving of the law, same as what happened in Mount Sinai. Now it's happening as the people of Israel getting ready to enter the promised land and after giving them the law, he says this about it. He calls the people. He says here oh Israel, the Lord, our God is the Lord. Pardon me. The Lord, our God, the Lord, is one.

Speaker 1: 5:30

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your might. Now, how are they to do that? How are they to love the Lord? And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise, obeying the commandments are our way of expressing our love and gratitude to God.

Speaker 1: 6:01

Jesus said the same thing in John, chapter 14, verse 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Now that may seem a little bit odd to us, right, sounds kind of transactional if you will. But if you think of the great love chapter in 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, love is patient, love is kind, where it's describing what love is, could you not express all of those as commandments Do not be impatient, do not be unkind. And when we look at the law, it is the same way that we can take those commandments and we can express them in terms of love, the ways in which we are going to practically love the Lord. And so when you read through Nehemiah, chapter 10, what comes through to us is that we love the Lord first in our lives by honoring Him with the life that he is entrusted to us. All of life that we live is to be lived in appreciation and gratitude for Him giving us life as our Creator and Him redeeming us as our Savior.

Speaker 1: 7:14

And in Nehemiah, chapter 10, verse 36, the people commit themselves to do these things that they're going to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our life and of our flocks. This goes back to the Exodus. In Exodus, chapter 13, when the people of Israel had come out of bondage, god required that they would consecrate the firstborn Israelite and all the firstborn of the cattle. They would offer a sacrifice to redeem it, and it was to remind the Israelites that their lives belong to God and they were to be used for His glory. So in Nehemiah, chapter 10, in response to the love that the people have received from God, they are committing to put God's love as the first priority in their lives. And then they mentioned some very specific ways that should occur, and we see that we are to love the Lord first in our relationships with each other and particularly within our family. We find this in chapter 10, verse 30, where it says that we will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons.

Speaker 1: 8:41

Now, what is being prohibited here? Are the people of faith marrying unbelievers? It's not anything to do with people of different races or different nations. The emphasis is here is that the people would not dilute their love for God by marrying people who did not follow after God himself. It was a problem that plagued the Israelites throughout their history. In fact, even the smartest man who ever lived, solomon. The scriptures describe that his heart was led astray by his unbelieving wives, and so, to guard themselves against repeating in that sin and not loving the Lord fully, they were going to love the Lord first in their relationships by saying that we are only going to marry other believers and we are only going to give our children to marry other believers as well.

Speaker 1: 9:46

You might think, well, that's sort of an Old Testament idea. Well, in the book of 2 Corinthians, paul says in chapter 6, verse 14, do not be unequally yoked, that is, do not marry unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Now maybe you're in a marriage where you are married to an unbeliever. What do you do in that case? Well, obviously you stay in your marriage, and there's going to be more of this. That's going to occur later in the book of Nehemiah. We all stumble and fall right.

Speaker 1: 10:25

The important thing is that, even when we are in situations that we have placed ourselves, that we continue to love the Lord in a way that he is the first priority. His love is the greatest, our love to Him is the most important. And, of course, there are other relationships the way that we have within our family and within our friends and our coworkers, the way in which we interact with them, the way in which we speak to them All of those things should be governed by God's love for us. So we love the Lord first through our relationships, particularly our family, and we also love the Lord first with our time. Time is a gift from God and typically we Americans, what we love to do is we love to pack our time chock-full. Every day is full of one thing or another and one activity or another, and we pal so much in that what we give to God is the leftovers in the margins of our already full schedules, rather than operating from the perspective that all of my time, my very life, belongs to God, and I should structure my life in such a way that I am honoring God with the use of my time.

Speaker 1: 11:52

And verse 31, the people state if the peoples of the land, bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell. We will not buy from them on the Sabbath day or a holy day, and we will forgo the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt. Now, of course, the Sabbath command included much more than just the use of time. The primary emphasis is on resting from our worldly work so that our souls and our spirits can find their rest in the Lord by devoting a day to Him, and I realize that there are Bible believing, jesus-loving Christians that fall into different sides on the whole issue of the Sabbath. Some say that was an Old Testament thing. It has an relevance for today, and there are others that say that it continues in the New Testament with the Lord's day, and we should set aside one day and seven that we're going to devote to the Lord. Now, wherever you fall on that position, of course, the truth remains that our time is given to us as a gift by God and we are to use it for His glory, and what should be of primary importance in our lives is the way in which we refresh our soul and God's grace. That requires us to voting time that we would spend with Him.

Speaker 1: 13:17

Many years ago there was a young man in our youth group whose dad had a business. And this young man in the youth group was really growing in his faith and he began to ask his dad hey dad, the Bible says that we shouldn't work on Sunday, but you do a lot of work on Sunday. Why do you do that, dad? And he started challenging his dad. And his dad came and talked to me and he said what do you teach in my kid in youth group? And I said well, that's another somebody else you can talk to them. But rather than passing the buck, he said to me I cannot possibly operate my business if I don't work on Sundays. And I said you know, too bad, there isn't some fast food chain that sells awesome chicken sandwiches that could instruct us here on whether or not we can actually operate a business and not work on Sunday. And I said to him you know, chick-fil-a, they estimate, loses $1 billion a year in revenue because they don't work on Sunday. Because the founder, truett Cathy, was a follower of Christ and wanted to honor the Lord in the way in which he operated his business. I think God would make a way for you if you didn't work on Sunday. But that's between you and the Lord, and so it is with us too.

Speaker 1: 14:39

How we use our time is between us and the Lord. But the question that we should ask ourselves is Lord, am I seeking your pleasure in the way that I'm using my time? How can I use my time that's going to reflect more fully my love for you? And with that hearted attitude, I believe that the Lord will lead us in the truth as to the way in which we should follow after him. It is interesting throughout church history that whenever there is an outpouring of the Spirit of God upon the church, where he is reanimating the people of God through his power, that there is an uptick, there is an increase. There is a wonderful rediscovery of the Lord today of setting aside one day and seven that we use for the honor of the Lord.

Speaker 1: 15:33

Jonathan Edwards, writing of the revival in 1734 in New England, says Our public assemblies became beautiful, the congregation was alive in God's service and everyone was intent on the public worship on the Sabbath. So we honor the Lord first in our relationships. We honor the Lord first and seeking to love Him first in the use of our time. The people in Nehemiah's day mentioned to us how we are to love the Lord first in corporate worship with other believers. Now, this parallels what we just said about the use of time in the Sabbath. You'll find this in verses 32 through 35, where the people were obligating themselves to pay the temple tax and they were also obligating themselves to make provision for the operation of the temple and like providing firewood and those kinds of things, and so one of the things that becomes prominent and important among the people is that they are committing themselves to reflect the priority of God's love in their lives and their love for the Lord by gathering with other believers to worship.

Speaker 1: 16:52

Now, since COVID, of course, people that tabulate these kinds of statistics tell us that 30% of the people who attended worship before the pandemic will never return to the church. It became an acceptable excuse for them not to come back, and some people continue to like to watch church services on the live stream and their bunny slippers and the robes on the tilt back and they don't see the importance of gathering together for worship, the sign that it gives to the world. Now, of course, there are legitimate uses of live streaming. Some people are sick, some people are infirm. I'm not dissing that altogether. It is a poor substitute for gathering together with other believers and giving a witness to the world and doing so, that we are prioritizing God's love when we gather for worship, and it's not just ourselves, it's with the community of believers. And sure, sometimes we might irritate each other, or sure sometimes we might offend one another, but those are even the opportunities whereby we might be able to express and grow in the love of God for each other. The writer of the book of Hebrews states it like this let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Speaker 1: 18:30

Now, of course, every family has to decide for themselves what this looks like in their household. And when our children were younger and they were involved in sports teams, it was that only when they started off, that only practice was held on Sunday. There were no games on Sunday. So we would go and talk to the coach and say, hey, we go to church on Sundays. We're not gonna be able to attend practice. And while that was not palatable to them, they tolerated it Well in one of the future years. The league began holding games on Sunday, and so then it would involve having to miss church if we were gonna participate in the public sports leagues.

Speaker 1: 19:19

And I know those kind of issues and pressures have only been escalated in recent times as fewer and fewer people actually attend church. And so, as a family, we talked about what is it that we're gonna do? How are we gonna address this issue? And we began by asking the question what is it that Lord wants us to do? How is God's love going to be the priority? As we make this decision and for our family, we decided that our kids would not participate in sports on Sunday if that meant that they were gonna have to miss church. And when we operate from the perspective of what is it that God is calling us to do, how can we express our love to God? That will help lead us and those very difficult decisions that families face and things that compete for their ability to worship the Lord together. And so may the Lord help us as we face many of those decisions, things like travel. What do you do when you travel? You can't be with your local church. When you're out of town, of course, you can, but hopefully part of your travel plans include that you're gonna attend a local place of worship or you're gonna find some means to worship together.

Speaker 1: 20:40

But there are many different ways that, between honoring the Lord with our time or honoring the Lord by committing to public worship, that we can express our love to the Lord. And also the passage mentions the way that the people respond is that they commit to love the Lord first with their money. And verses 39, excuse me 37 through 39, the people talk about the importance of the tithe and the various ways in which they are gonna honor the command of the tithe. They commit to bring the first of our dough or contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine, the oil, to the priest, to the chambers of the house of God and to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labor, and the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chamber of the Snorhouse For the people of Israel, and all the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine and oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priest who minister and the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our God.

Speaker 1: 22:02

Now the people are desiring, out of their love for God, to honor the Lord with the use of their money and their wealth and again, just like the Sabbath whether or not it continues in the Lord's day, there are Bible-believing, jesus-loving Christians that come down on two different sides of the issue of tithing. There are some who say that tithing was tied specifically to the Old Testament and it has no ongoing relevance for today. There are others who say that Jesus told the Pharisees that they should give a tenth of their kum'in and their ruin or other spices without having neglected the way to your matters of the law, and therefore it's still valid for today. But no matter what side of that issue you're on, when we move from the Old Testament to the New Testament and ethical issues, the ethical standard is always increased. It's not relaxed. Take, for instance, the commandment you should not commit adultery. In the New Testament, jesus says that we're guilty of committing adultery in our heart if we look upon somebody else lustfully, and so the same is given over with the issue of money.

Speaker 1: 23:18

The issue is not how much of what we have is ours to do with as we please. The issue isn't that we're to give 10 percent. The issue is we're to give 100 percent. All of our lives. All that we have is the Lord's. And the real issue should be how much can we legitimately keep to ourselves for our own maintenance and give the rest to be used for the Lord and His purposes? And again, every family is going to have to decide how they're going to be able to fulfill their expression of love towards God and the use of their money. But if we start from that perspective that all that we have is given to us by God, that all of it is to be used for His glory, and that we desire to resemble the Lord, who Himself is generous, and ask the Lord how much you would desire for us to give, I believe that God will honor that prayer and people can express their love to the Lord even in the use of their money and the way in which they give. Now, of course, there are some that struggle with the whole issue. Maybe they've overextended themselves. Maybe trying to give more generously is going to be a difficulty for them in the initial stages. Start off with very little and move up. But again, the purpose is how can we love the Lord and very practical ways in our lives?

Speaker 1: 24:53

The Israelites were addressing areas where they had failed previously marrying people of other faith, the way in which they dishonored the Sabbath, the way in which they had neglected the temple and the worship there and the giving of the tithes. And so they, as recipients of God's mercy and grace, are committing themselves not to repeat in those sins again, but to honor the Lord in very tangible ways within their lives. So you might be wondering how do we today respond to this whole idea of the people of Israel making a covenant and taking an oath that they're going to follow and obey the Lord? What are the practical implications for us? Do we do that today? Well, every time we take the Lord's supper, we are again thanking the Lord for the mercy that he's given us in Christ and we are committing to follow after Him and, hopefully, in some very real and tangible ways, we are expressing how we're going to grow and expressing our love to the Lord through obedience.

Speaker 1: 26:06

In addition to that, the whole concept of church membership really has its roots in these services of covenant renewal that take place among the Old Testament church and even carries over into the New Testament, where we read of the early church that they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship and to the prayers. So how does the concept of church membership work today for people that are following Jesus together? Now, can't you come to a church and participate in this worship and serve along with other believers without being a formal member of the church? Well, of course you can, but we feel that there are certain commitments that are worth making publicly and together, that we are going to express our love to the Lord as a body of believers. And so and it just so happens, it wasn't planned this way that I would be giving this sermon during the time that we're offering the belong class. But so be it. There's one class today, there's another on the 22nd, and then in a few weeks, you're going to see a group of people come up here and they're going to take certain vows of church membership. Now, when I conduct weddings, I often tell people that are sitting in the congregation as I am about to lead the couple through their marriage vows that they would renew their vows to their spouse. As this couple is taking their vows, and we should do the same even as church members. As new people become members of the church, these vows are repeated. We remind ourselves hey, I made these commitments to God, I need to grow in these ways as well.

Speaker 1: 27:49

So what are the membership vows that people take when they become a member of Westtown church? Well, there are five of them, and they're quite basic and simple, but they're all very important. And the first is do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in God's sight, justly deserving his displeasure and without hope except in his sovereign mercy? See, this parallels what the Israelites did in Nehemiah, chapter nine, where, after the reading of the law, they confessed their sin. When you become a member of a church, you are acknowledging the fact that I'm not perfect and I can't do anything to make God accept me. I am completely dependent upon him.

Speaker 1: 28:36

And that leads us to the second membership vow Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as the son of God and the savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon him alone for your salvation, as he is offered in the gospel? Now, if you remember when we were in Nehemiah, chapter eight, we took a little bit of time to look at the feast of boobs and how Jesus fulfilled both the God's provision to the people and the wilderness and the manna and the water from the rock. When Moses struck the rock, we saw how it is through God's mercy and grace to us in Christ that we are saved. As a body of believers, we are committing to the truth that salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone, by faith alone. And then the third vow that we take is do you now resolve and promise and humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit that you will live as becomes the followers of Jesus Christ? This is paralleling what takes place in Nehemiah, chapter 10.

Speaker 1: 29:44

The people are making specific commitments that we are the recipients of God's love. We're gonna live like it, and we have failed so many times in the past that we know that we can't do this ourselves. We need God's power to help us do that. That's what being a member of the church involves. And then the first excuse me, not the first the fourth vow that we take is do you promise to support the church and its worship and its work to the best of your ability, just like the Israelites committed themselves to the temple tax and to the provisions for the temple, and so on and so forth. As members of a body of Christ, we are committing to use the gifts that God has given us and supporting the church and its worship and work to the best of our ability not somebody else's, but to what God has given us.

Speaker 1: 30:36

And then, finally, when you become a member of Westtown church, the commitment that we make is that we submit ourselves to the government and discipline of the church and promise to study its purity and peace, that we are committing to the community of believers under the leadership that God has appointed, so that we together might provide a witness to our community that we are the followers of Jesus Christ and the way in which we love one another.

Speaker 1: 31:04

And so may it be. May it be that the Lord would so work in us as a fellowship, as a body of believers, that we would be so aware of our need of him and the mercy and grace that he's given us in Christ, that we would commit to follow him in some very practical and tangible ways, by expressing our love to him, by keeping his commandments and the way in which we use our time and our commitment to gathering together and worship the way in which we use our money and the way in which we order our lives for the glory of God. May the Lord so help us. For his glory and honor, let us pray.