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Back to Sermons Index Back to Home Page 29th June 2008 AMSUSTAINED BY THE LOVE OF GOD Pastor Colin Meadows Nehemiah 9:19-27, 31, 1 John 3:1-3, Jude 24 Ø What is your village like? A man had lived in his village for some time but became upset with some of the people there. He decided he needed a change of scenery so he left. As he wandered along the road, he came to the entrance to the neighboring village. An old man was sitting by the side of the road so he asked him “What are the people like in this village?” The old man replied with a question, “What were the people like in the village you have just come from?” “O they were mean spirited and very hard to live with!” he replied. “Well you will find the same in our village, my friend,” the old man replied. A few hours later another man came along. He stopped to chat with the old man and asked, “What are the people like in this village?” “What were the people like in the village you have just come from?” the old man replied. “They were great, very friendly, hospitable and such a joy to be with!” “Well, you will find that it will be the same here,” he replied. The way we view our surroundings, the people and places were we live and work, will dramatically impact on our lives. If we have a negative picture in our minds of our work mates or family members, and of our church, then this will permeate our innermost being and affect every part of our lives. I want to take this thought a step further… our view of God himself will have the most dramatic impact of all on our lives. What is your view of God today? If you view God as being harsh, distant, uncaring and disinterested in your daily concerns then this will dramatically colour your whole world. But if your view of God is more positive them you will view life quite differently. As we conclude our series in the book of Nehemiah, I wish to look at how Nehemiah’s positive view of God sustained his life and ministry. He had such a positive, healthy and Biblical view of God. The clearest way, I feel, to discover a person’s view of God is to listen to their prayers. The way we pray will very clearly reveal our view of God. Let’s thus examine some of the prayer statements made concerning God in the book of Nehemiah and see what we can learn. What view of God is portrayed here? Ø God is great and awesome! The clear picture in the book is that God is just so amazing. As we read the prayers in this wonderful book, we find that God is seen as one who is all powerful, the mighty one. Neh 1:5 “O, LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God…” Let’s explore a few of the words used here for they are all very significant. The name for God, elohim, is the plural form for God, but it is treated as a singular. It refers to the one who is divine, in contrast to humanity which is not divine. There is only one supreme and true God. Let us not forget that. There is more that is revealed about God here. God is personal for he has the special personal name, Yahweh, often referred to as the Tetragrammaton. Most English Bibles translate this special or personal name for God as LORD, all in capitals. This is to distinguish the name from other words and to preserve its power and significance. The original Hebrew text of the Old Testament had no vowels so the personal name for God was not pronounced. Instead Jews used the phrase adonay or ‘My Lord’ for they feared to say God’s personal name. This is where we have derived our use of the word LORD. The word Jehovah came much later and was not used until the 12th Century. To put it simply, LORD or Yahweh is the name by which we worship the true God, Elohim. Listen thus to the words of the Levites as they prayed… Neh 9:5b “Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. ‘Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. 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.’” We worship the all powerful one, the one and only God, whose personal name is LORD, the one who is everlasting, invisible, immutable, the one true God who dwells in unapproachable light and splendor. Honor, glory, majesty, and power are due to his name. He is magnified and highly exalted and his manifold wisdom is unsearchable. He is life and he bestows life. His character and will are perfect, complete, and divine. Yes, our LORD is truly great and awesome! Do you have that picture of God? Nehemiah did. Ø God is righteous and just in all his ways! Next we find that the LORD is righteous and just in everything that he does. Neh 9:8b “You have kept your promise because you are righteous.” Neh 9:33 “In all that has happened to us, you have been just; you have acted faithfully, while we did wrong.” The root meaning of the word justice refers to that which is straight or correct. God is just and upright in all his ways. He always does what is right, even when we don’t see it that way. Our standard of justice is based on how things affect us, of what we feel is good for us. We see just a small part of the big picture while God sees the whole. God’s justice is so much deeper than what we see as justice. His rule is righteous and just. His burning anger is provoked because he is zealous for his holiness. Humanity on the other hand is not righteous or just. We are all sinners who stand condemned before a righteous holy God! We thus need to be careful when we say ‘I wish God would bring justice here on earth right now!’ If God were to judge us all, not one of us could stand innocent in his presence. Remember that justice is getting what we deserve. We are all guilty. We are all desperately needy people. I remember being at a meeting in the 1970’s and the speaker asked us all if we were in need of God’s help and felt inadequate for the journey we were on. Only one man put up his hand for prayer. Later I asked who the old man was. ‘Oh, he’s the president of the Baptist Union’, was the reply! We all should have put up our hands at that time! If we are all such needy people what should we do? Is there any hope for us? The exciting news of the gospel of Christ is that Jesus the righteous one has taken our punishment for sin. We can by faith be made righteous in God’s sight. How does this happen? Look to the example of Abram. Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” We can become righteous by faith. We need to say to God ‘I acknowledge my sinfulness before you and stand condemned. Please forgive me and set me free.’ That is at the heart of why Jesus died for us. Yes, God is righteous and just in all his ways. Ø God is full of grace and mercy! God is the God of grace and mercy. He is gracious, kind, merciful, compassionate, and completely trustworthy. He shows his love and faithfulness to all. Neh 2:8b “And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests.” There are many ‘grace-words’ used in the Bible, often overlapping in their meanings. One grace word in the OT, chesed, speaks of God’s covenant love, of his faithfulness or loving kindness to us as his children. The NT equivalent of this word is mercy. This word speaks of a steadfast love that never ends. Another grace-word in the OT, hen, speaks of God’s undeserved favour towards us. In the NT the equivalent word is grace or charis. This word speaks of the divine power given to a person to live a life that honours God. Neh 9:17b “But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.” Neh 9:31 “But in your mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.” Grace is getting what we don’t deserve - freedom and pardon from Christ. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve – eternal condemnation and separation from God. We are justified or made right with God by grace through faith. God then treats us as if we have not sinned. Faith thus is the human response to divine grace. I like the words of Moffat when he commented ‘the religion of the Bible is a religion of grace or it is nothing…no grace, no gospel.” Grace – getting what we don’t deserve. Have you responded to the amazing grace of God? You can’t earn it – you just need to say thank you! Ø Let us respond to our loving LORD! Nehemiah and his people listened to what God said. They then repented, and sought to obey God. They heard and they responded in obedient living. Let us do likewise. Neh 8:9b “For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.” God’s Word will penetrate deep into our hearts as we listen with obedient hearts. What then did the people do? Neh 9:2b “They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers.” They went on a journey with God, following Nehemiah in faithful obedience. When we step out in faith, then God will flood our hearts with joy. Neh 9:10b “Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” God longs to pour out his Holy Spirit on obedient believers. His grace will then empower us to be his people. But for this to happen we must have a right view of who God is. Nehemiah had a right view of God and this colored his world. He had strength to face each challenge as it came his way for he was trusting God who was all power and awesome. He could put his hands in God’s hands and know that he would be dealt justly for he was trusting God who was righteous in all his ways. He could approach God at any time when he failed for he was trusting God who was full of grace and mercy. Listen as we close to some of the verses from the Levite’s prayer of Nehemiah 9, verses that remind us that we are sustained by the love of God: “Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. ‘Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. 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. You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham… You have kept your promise because you are righteous. You saw the suffering of our forefathers in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea….You made a name for yourself that remains to this day… You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven… In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock…But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love….Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert…You gave your good Spirit to instruct them…. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies…And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time…But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. In all that has happened to us, you have been just; you have acted faithfully, while we did wrong.’” Yes, Nehemiah was sustained by the love of God through the long years of his ministry. May the same be true for us! That is why at the end of the book, Nehemiah asked for God’s continuing favour or mercy in his life… Neh 13:31 “Remember me with favour, O my God.” What is your view of God today? If you have a right view, then you will sense his wonderful sustaining love that gives you strength day by day to enable you to live for him. In closing, let me tell you about a young man called George. He was an 18 year old man in Scotland in the mid- 1800s, who found himself slowly going blind. He had become a pastor and at one time was engaged to be married. His fiancé however broke off the engagement when she realized that George was going totally blind. She is said to have informed George that she did not wish to be the wife of a blind preacher. George’s sister meanwhile helped him with his sermon preparation. He would dictate the message to her and she would then read the message back twice. After that he could give the sermon word perfect. God blessed his ministry and the church grew to around 2000 people. Then his sister became engaged to be married. George found this a challenging time and he went through much suffering and mental anguish. Then on June 6, 1882, the day of his sister’s wedding, he dictated the words to a hymn. It is said that he composed the hymn in about five minutes, without any need for correction. The hymn that George Matheson (1842-1906) wrote that day went like this: O love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee, I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths Its flow may richer, fuller be. O light that follows all my way, I yield my flickering torch to thee; my heart restores its borrowed ray, that in the sunshine’s blaze Its day may brighter, fairer be. O joy that seeks for me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee; I trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not vain That morn shall tearless be. O cross that raises up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee; I lay in dust’s life’s glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red life That shall endless be. George Matheson, like Nehemiah, was sustained to the end of his life by the ever present, all powerful love of God! Let us live likewise. Jude 24: ‘To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen’
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