In the sermon titled 'Confronting Compromise,' Jason Dohm discusses Nehemiah 13:4-9, focusing on Nehemiah's return to Jerusalem to find that Eliashib the priest had compromised by allowing Tobiah, an Ammonite, to have a room in the temple. Nehemiah's reaction is one of righteous anger, leading him to cleanse the temple and restore it to its rightful use. The sermon emphasizes the need for moral clarity and the danger of compromise, especially when influenced by being unequally yoked with unbelievers. It also highlights the importance of righteous anger against sin and the concept of eye service, where actions are only righteous when under supervision. Furthermore, the sermon touches on the doctrine of interposition, where lesser authorities are duty-bound to oppose greater authorities when they act against God's law. The importance of identifying and addressing areas of compromise in one's life is stressed, alongside the need for a zero-tolerance approach to sin.

Nehemiah chapter 13 verse 4. Now before this, Elias Shib, the priest, having authority over the storerooms of the house of our God, was allied with Tobiah. And he had prepared for him a large room, Where previously they had stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, the tithes of grain, the new wine and oil, which were commanded to be given to the Levites and singers and gatekeepers and the offerings for the priests. But during all this I was not in Jerusalem, for in the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I had returned to the king. Then after certain days, I obtained leave from the king.

And I came to Jerusalem and discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah in preparing a room for him in the courts of the house of God. And it grieved me bitterly. Therefore, I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room, and then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms. And I brought back into them the articles of the house of God with the grain offering and the frankincense." Lord, help us in this time now. Bless Jason as he comes.

Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is, Confronting Compromise. It's what the text is about. You don't need any explanation for such a straightforward title. Nehemiah comes back from Jerusalem.

He finds compromise and he takes it head on. He confronts it without fear. And He's a good example for us about how we should treat compromise. Last week I started the sermon by talking about the timeline. If you just read straight through, and you come to the end of chapter 12 and then you start chapter 13.

The first time is you're just getting familiar with the book of Nehemiah. It reads like one happens right on the heels of the other, but That's not true. As you continue to develop and get a better understanding of chapter 13, you discover that a long gap, more than a decade, probably something like 15 years, happens between the end of chapter 12 and the beginning of chapter 13. So chapter 13 we started last week, will be six weeks, and chapter 13, this is week 2. The first three verses there was another public reading of the Word of God.

And as they read, as the Word of God is publicly read among His people, there's a particular area of disobedience which comes into focus. And it's identified by being brought into contact with the Word of God, colliding with the Word of God. And they change. They're not like the man who comes and looks in the mirror and walks away and forgets what he looks like, as James says. But there are those who come, they are confronted in their own sin, and a sin is brought into focus and they actually change.

And the sin that had come into focus is actually a part of the ceremonial law that the Ammonites and the Moabites cannot come into temple worship. They cannot come into the temple. They're not welcome there. Not because they can't be born again, but because it's ceremonial law and it's representative. All Ammonites and all Moabites represent those who are born in defilement.

When you go back to Genesis chapter 19 and you see the Genesis, the birth of the Ammonite nation and the Moabite nation. You see that it comes from an incestuous relationship. A relationship that you almost can't talk about in a church between Lot and his daughters. So these nations were born out of defilement, but it didn't stop there. They just lived that out.

Lot and his daughters set a trajectory which they were only too happy to follow, so that when the people of God should be met with bread and water, they come out and they wage war against them. So this is a picture of the natural man. It really is. Those who were born out of defilement and then are happy to just live out that trajectory. And in the case of these two nations, it's for centuries on end.

And God says that He's holy, and those who fit that profile are not welcome into His presence. And then last week we went to Isaiah Chapter 56, which brings us to the time of the Messiah. It says the foreigner shouldn't say, I'm rejected from the people of God. The time of the Messiah is really an undoing of that ceremonial law because we don't need the picture anymore. We've got the reality in Jesus Christ and he flips that on its head and the foreigner is welcomed and the wall is broken down.

So the point of the whole passage was how terribly bad it is to be an enemy of God. The enemies of God are not welcome into His presence through ten generations. God keeps count and He does not relent in His judgment on His enemies. But as bad as it is To be an enemy of God, it's maybe even that much better to be His friend. He fights for His people.

He loves His people. He remembers His people. He sustains His people. And his people are welcome into his presence. But it's only through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Only, only, only, only through the blood, the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, that takes the Ammonites and the Moabites of this world and turns them into sons and daughters. This week we begin with verse 4 which begins now before this. So before the events of last week, our text of this week happens, did happen. So it tells us all of what went before this public reading of the Word of God and them realizing we've let Ammonites and Moabites in to participate in temple worship and we must stop and they did stop. And what we have this week in our text is very related because Tobiah is an Ammonite and he's given a room in the temple.

That's the relationship of last week's text to this one. As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. Oh God, we can become so comfortable in our sin. And in the sins of our community and our nation. And we compromise so much that we don't even feel the prick of conscience that we ought to feel.

I thank you for how this text confronts that in our lives. It confronts the drift that takes us to places that we never thought we would go. And I pray that you would use this text to help us in a mighty way to root out the areas of compromise that have been allowed, that have just continued along without opposition for so long. We've been at peace with those things. God, please come and use this text to give us a renewed vigor to identify those areas of compromise and to deal with them so ruthlessly.

To hate sin as you hate sin and to love righteousness as you love it. Make us like our Lord Jesus we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Six verses in the text we're going to divide it into three, just two verses at a time. So a very simple outline.

The first section is verses 4 and 5. Nehemiah chapter 13, verses 4 and 5. What Eliashib did for Tobiah. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's Eliashib Tobiah. What Eliashib did for Tobiah.

Read along with me. Nehemiah chapter 13 verse 4. Now before this, Eliashib the priest, having authority over the store rooms of the house of our God, was allied with Tobiah. And he had prepared for him a large room, where previously they had stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, the tithes of grain, the new wine and oil which were commanded to be given to the Levites and singers and gatekeepers, and the offerings for the priests. We have two people here.

We have Eliashib and we have Tobiah. Neither one of them are strangers to us. Both of them we've seen repeatedly in the book of Nehemiah. And so since we've encountered them multiple times each, I say let's trace them out. Let's go back and see where they've appeared.

And let's begin with Tobiah. Flip back to Nehemiah chapter 2. We see Tobiah first in Nehemiah chapter 2 verses 9 and 10. And the introduction isn't very good and it never gets better for Tobiah. Nehemiah chapter 2 verses 9 and 10.

Then I, Nehemiah, went to the governors in the region beyond the river and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of it, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel." Nehemiah has come to seek the well-being of the Lord's people, and it's obvious from the day he gets there, when Sanballat and Tobiah hear it, they're deeply disturbed that someone would come to help these people. So, not a good introduction. Now flip to chapter 4.

In chapter 4, they have begun repairing the wall and we see Sanballat and Tobiah again. Chapter 4 verses 1 through 3. But it so happened when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant and mocked the Jews. And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves?

Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish, stones that are burned? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and he said, whatever they build if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall. So Tobiah is all too happy to join into the mocking.

Sam Bellat starts it but Tobiah joins in and finishes it. And it says again here for the second time that he is an Ammonite. So there's no question about that. We see Tobiah again in chapter 6. Turn to chapter 6, verses 1 and 2.

This is a very revealing passage. Nehemiah chapter 6 verse 1, Now it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, Gesham the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall, and that there were no breaks left in it, though at that time I had not hung the doors in the gates, that Sanballat and Gesham sent to me saying, Come let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ano. But they sought to do me harm. Verse 1 talks about those who have displeasure in the report. And it's three.

It's Sambalat, it's Tobiah, and it's Gesham the Arab and the other enemies. They have heard that the gaps in the wall have been closed and they're not happy about it. And then there's a conspiracy which is fronted by two, not three. So there's a conspiracy to harm him and only two of the three appear. It's only Sanballat and Gesham.

And the implication of that is that Tobiah can't be seen to publicly be an enemy of the Lord's people. So he's been happy to mock them off-site, out of view. And it's clear in chapter 6 that he's unhappy about the progress that's being made on the wall. But when it comes to putting a name to a conspiracy and invite him to a specific place to do specific harm to Nehemiah, his name is extracted there. Then it becomes just Sambalat and Gesham.

This is right what we see all along. This is further developed later in the same chapter. We're still in chapter 6. Let's read verses 15 through 19. Nehemiah chapter 6 verse 15.

So the wall was finished on the 25th day of Elul in 52 days. And it happened when our enemies heard of it, And all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes, for they perceived that this work was done by our God. Also in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came to them. For many in Judah were pledged to him because he was the son-in-law of Shekiniah, the son of Era. And his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Misholim, the son of Barakiah.

Also, they reported his good deeds before me and reported my words to him. Tobias sent letters to frighten me." So here later in chapter 6 we see why his name can't be on the conspiracy to harm him. Oh, he's in the conspiracy. But he's not going to be the one who meets him there. The invitation doesn't come with his name on it.

We find out why. He is the son-in-law of a Jew, and his son is married to a Jew. So he's got tie-ins to the Lord's people, upstream and downstream, in his family lineage. If we're talking in terms of family tree, up the tree and down the tree, he is tied into the Lord's people. And so he's entangled.

Now we have Eliashib. So that is the history of Tobiah. And we see how cozy Tobiah is with the leaders in Judah to the point where they're writing him letters, giving him information. He's writing letters back. And there's an active conspiracy.

Not just among the outward enemies of God, but among the inward enemies of God, those in the camp as well. So this helps us to make a lot of sense of what happens in chapter 13. Now Eliashib, flip back to chapter 3. Chapter 3, you'll remember, is the 40 groups that are working on 42 places in the wall. And it's led off by Eliashib the High Priest.

So actually the introduction to Tobiah is horrible and never gets better. The introduction to Eliashib the High Priest is great and gets worse. Nehemiah chapter 3 verse 1. Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and hung its doors.

They built as far as the Tower of the Hundred and consecrated it, then as far as the Tower of Hananel. So in this chapter that details who did what on the wall in this 52 days in this miraculous work of God to rebuild and repair two miles of wall in 52 days. Who's first? Elijah the high priest. It's the same one we're dealing with in chapter 13.

So, he's introduced well. Then we saw him again, at least mentioned by name in chapter 12, last chapter. Chapter 12 verse 10. If you'll remember, the beginning of chapter 12 gives lineage for priests and Levites. In verse 10, we get the high priestly lineage going all the way back to the book of Ezra, and the high priest that came back out of Babylon, Jeshua, who came back with Zerubbabel.

So that's where this high priestly line begins in Nehemiah chapter 12 verse 10. Jeshua begot Joachim. Joachim begot Eliashib. This is our Eliashib. Eliashib begot Joyada.

Joyadib begot Jonathan. And Jonathan begot Jaduah. So we see Eliashib here a second time, identified again as the high priest. And then as we work our way through chapter 13 we're going to see another important data point. Look at chapter 13 later in the chapter verse 28.

And one of the sons of Joyada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I drove him from me. So we know that Eliashib is entangled not just with Tobiah, but also with Sambalad, his grandson, is married to Sambalad's daughter. So we see both Tobiah and Eliashib have entanglements through marriage. This factors greatly into what we see.

Our text says that Eliashib has authority over storerooms of the temple. I think that indicates to us it's not a different Eliashib. It is Eliashib the high priest. He's the one who has authority to allocate space within the temple to certain things and to reallocate, to change the purpose of space in the temple. Our text says that he was allied with Tobiah.

Now the NASB and the ESV, good translations both, translated was related to. So instead of allied with, the NASB and the ESV translated was related to, and it can be that but it doesn't have to be that. I think the New King James is better in saying allied with because the Hebrew is literally close to. Tobiah and Eliashib are close to each other. And sometimes that is used in family relations in the Old Testament, but not always.

So I think allied with is good, the best translation. This alliance led Eliashib, the high priest, to prepare a room for this Ammonite in the temple. These are store rooms that line the outside of the temple where the sacrifices are being made, but they are part of the temple complex. Make no mistake, this is absolutely strictly forbidden in Deuteronomy chapter 23 as we saw in our study last week. And it's not just an empty room.

We got Extra space. It's not that. It is space that is in use. In use for what? In use for things needed for temple worship like frankincense, like the grain offering, like the articles of the temple.

And it's being used for provisions needed by the priests and Levites. So it's not empty space. It doesn't have a use. We're just utilizing our assets. It's not that at all.

It is being used for the right things, things that are needful for the worship of God that He prescribed. Temple worship and the provisions that are needed by those who do that work, the priests and the Levites. And so it's a double crime. What is being done is against the law of God and Ammonite coming into the temple, let alone being given a room where he can put his household goods. This is living space in the temple.

That's so clear from our text. When the stuff gets thrown out, it's his household goods. Living space in the temple is given to an Ammonite. And that's defiling enough, but it's a double crime because it's done by the one who should have been chief in protecting the space of the temple for the right uses and the right purposes. It is a violation of the law of God, but it's done by the one who should have been chief in upholding the law of God for this.

It's his duty. And so it's a double crime. Let's look at verses 6 and 7 now. Nehemiah chapter 13, verses 6 and 7. Nehemiah returns and discovers.

If you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's returns, discovers. Nehemiah returns and discovers. Verse 6, But during all this I was not in Jerusalem, For in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I had returned to the king. Then after certain days I obtained leave from the king, and I came to Jerusalem and discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah in preparing a room for him in the courts of the house of God. If you are reading Nehemiah for the first time, just a straight through reading, You would get to this point, you would get through five and say, where was Nehemiah?

From all that we know of Nehemiah, this is completely contrary. The Nehemiah we know from the book of Nehemiah up until this verse could never have let that happen. And this is true. This is why we learn in verse 6 that he wasn't there. He didn't let it happen.

It happened when he was not in Jerusalem. Again, since we're taking a stroll down memory lane in Nehemiah, go back to Nehemiah chapter 2. I want to remind us of the deal with King Artxerxes. This is Nehemiah chapter 2 verses 5 and 6. And I, Nehemiah, said to the king, if it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs, that I may rebuild it.

Then the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, how long will your journey be, and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me and I set him a time. So we learn in Nehemiah chapter 2 that it was always the plan that Nehemiah would return. Again, he's the cupbearer. The cupbearer is not kitchen help.

The cupbearer is the most trusted servant. And usually, the king was dependent on the counsel of the cupbearer. This is the person you trust the most that you put close to you. And he's supposed to guard your life. He's in constant fellowship with you every meal.

And He is supposed to guard your life. We learn at the beginning of Nehemiah that all this began in the 20th year and he returned in the 32nd year. So there's a 12 year span. Presumably he's in Jerusalem the whole 12 years, although that's not certain. There's a lot of that 12 years we don't know.

But in any event he goes back in the 32nd year. It takes him five months to get back. That's the journey. And it's going to take him five months to go the other way. So one way it's five months to go.

You're almost at a year already and that's before you spend any time. It's really unthinkable that your travel time is more than the time that you're there. So my guess is we're talking about multiple years. It has to at least be a year. That's the minimum it can physically be because of its travel time.

So, Nehemiah is gone for a lengthy period of time, at least a year. Undoubtedly, in my mind, more. And Eliashib has exploited his absence. Eliashib has taken advantage of Nehemiah not being in Jerusalem. And he has shown his true colors.

Eliashib doesn't change when Nehemiah leaves town. Eliashib hasn't had the courage to confront Nehemiah, but when he leaves, he's happy to contradict the patterns put into place by this godly leader. He's showing his true colors. There's a proverb of the world that applies to this. When the cat's away, the mice will play.

No mice to be seen when the cat is in the middle of the room. But when the cat is gone for a long period of time, then the mice scurry about as if there's never been a danger. This is what's happening here. We see this in other places in scripture. This is not something that is foreign to the human experience.

The golden calf was made while Moses was up on the mountain. Would that golden calf have been made if Moses hadn't gone up on the mountain? Never, never, never, never. Would this room have been allocated to Elias Shib when Nehemiah was in town. Never, never, never, never.

Paul calls this eye service. Paul calls this eye service. In Ephesians chapter 6 verse 6 and in Colossians chapter 3 verse 22 they're almost identical. That's Ephesians chapter 6 verse 6, Colossians chapter 3 verse 22. Paul says almost exactly the same thing.

Don't be guilty of eye service as men pleasers. To be guilty of eye service is to be going diligently about your work as long as the boss's eye is on you. It's serving, good service, rendered, while you're being watched. And as soon as the boss leaves, you're surfing the internet and wasting time. This is eye service.

You're doing the wrong things as soon as he leaves, but you're doing the right things when he's watching you. And Paul says that's just man pleasing. So Paul's exhortation to bond servants in Ephesians chapter 6 and Colossians chapter 2 is act like you're serving God because you're serving God. Act like you're serving Jesus Christ whether someone's watching you or not because it's true, you really are serving Jesus. And he never leaves the room.

That's really the thrust of the thought when Paul writes to bond servants. But there's a problem. For Eliashib, Nehemiah comes back. He doesn't stay away. Then after certain days I obtained leave from the king, and I came to Jerusalem and discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah.

I want to notice two things from this. The first is this, sin is always discovered. Sin is always discovered. In Numbers chapter 32, the people are almost to go into the promised land, almost to cross over the Jordan, but they haven't yet, but they've already conquered two kingdoms even before they cross over into the land that God has said He would give to them. And two tribes approach Moses, Reuben and Gad, and they say, We have lots of livestock.

This land that we've just conquered is perfect for livestock. Let us settle here and the other tribes can settle across the Jordan. And Moses says, we need you for the fighting. So they come and they say, We'll cross over with you, we'll fight your enemies over there with you shoulder to shoulder until they're conquered and then when they're conquered we'll come back to this land. And Moses agrees to this plan but he gives them a stern Warning in Numbers 32 verse 23.

Moses says, if you do not do so, if you don't keep your promise to go fight shoulder to shoulder with us to conquer our enemies in the land that God had said He would give us. If you do not do so, then take note. You have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. This is a key verse in scripture. God through Moses tells his people for all time, take note.

If you sin against God, your sin will find you out. It finds you out in this life or it finds you out in the next. But my observation after 45 years is, it usually finds you out in this life first. It might take a while. There might be delay that makes people think, I got away with it.

No one knows. But like Paul argues, Jesus never leaves the room. That's the foolishness of eye service, is that Jesus is always in the room. And He has endless ways to have your sins find you out in this life. Just when you thought you'd committed the perfect crime, and no one knows, Jesus springs the trap.

This is the problem with secret sin. It's not secret. And the one who knows has an infinite number of ways to bring it to light. We've seen this. We've had many cases over the last three and a half years now of church discipline.

People who thought their sins were secret weren't secret. God knew and He sprung the trap and He brought these things to light that people thought were secret. They're not secret. And God is actually merciful to bring them into the light so they can be dealt with. It isn't a lack of mercy on God's part.

It is His mercy that He doesn't just leave it there and leave people on the path to destruction not ever confronted with their sin. This text is a good reminder of Numbers 32-23. Be sure your sin will find you out. I just want to issue an exhortation to those who are harboring secret sin. Be wise.

Spring the trap on yourself. Bring your sins into the light before God does. That's the first thing. Sin is always discovered. The second thing I want to notice here is that Nehemiah has absolute moral clarity.

This passage is a good illustration of that, but it's certainly not by itself. From the start of Nehemiah to the end of Nehemiah, Nehemiah has absolute moral clarity. His conscience has been calibrated by the Word of God. So there's no excusing sin, there's no justifying sin, there's no seeing another point of view and understanding the pressures that caused someone to sin. There is just moral clarity.

He looks at this and he says, this is evil, period. He came back from Jerusalem, he discovered what had happened, and he says it's evil. He just calls it what it is. And this world needs a whole lot more of that than what we have. We have consciences, even within the church, that have not been calibrated by the Word of God.

And so there's an endless amount of excusing and justifying and seeing another point of view when people with absolute moral clarity would just say, this is evil. May the Lord grant an increase of that among us, among His people. Now the last section, verses 8 and 9. Nehemiah chapter 13 verse 9, Then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms. Excuse me, I need to start in 8.

Nehemiah 13 verse 8. And it grieved me bitterly. Therefore I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room. Then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms, and I brought back into them the articles of the house of God with the grain offering and the frankincense." In this section we see Nehemiah confronts the compromise. If you're filling in blanks, it confronts compromise.

This is the exciting conclusion of our text. This is where all the action happens in the text. What is compromise? It's the settlement of a dispute by each side making concessions. Like what could be wrong with that?

Agreeing. I don't get everything I want, you don't get everything you want, and we meet in the middle for the sake of settling a dispute. Who doesn't value compromise? Who am I to always get what I want? But In the Christian context, compromise is sin.

Compromise is a soft word for sin. Because in the Christian context, God doesn't have to give to settle with us. Our standard is the Word of God and it's not a negotiable standard. There's not wiggle room. In our dispute with the law of God, there is no wiggle room on His side of the equation.

So any compromise equals sin. Compromise is always driven by reasons. Always, always, always driven by reasons. Also known as excuses. Why we shouldn't obey, why we can't obey.

Why we'll be harmed if we obey. Why it will cost us if we obey. And undoubtedly, Eliashib has his reasons. It would be fascinating to hear him defend himself. But I bet you he could.

He would offer his reasons, also known as excuses. He would tell you about the pressures brought to bear that caused this to be an acceptable way forward where not everybody gets all they want but this is a way forward and explains away his sin. In verse 8 we get Nehemiah's reaction, it grieved me bitterly. ESV is way better on this translation. ESV renders it, I was angry.

I was angry. Behind these English words is a, in Hebrew it's a two word construction. The first word just means exceedingly or abundantly, an abundance of something. And the second word means literally to tremble or to quiver. So a literal rendering of this is like I trembled exceedingly.

I quivered abundantly. Shaking mad. Have you ever been shaking mad? That is what is behind this in the Hebrew. It's shaking mad.

Just quivering. Can't speak Mad. We've seen this before from Nehemiah. In chapter 5, the rich are defrauding the poor. They're lending them the things they need just to live and they're charging them usury for it.

And in chapter 5 verse 6, Nehemiah says, I became very angry. So when Nehemiah is confronted with a violation of the law of the Lord, he's confronted with unrighteousness, his blood boils. He's not cavalier about God's law being violated. And in chapter 5, He confronts the rich. He calls the priests.

He requires them to take an oath. And then He shakes out His garment and He says, if you break your oath, May the Lord do to you like this. May He just shake you out of your homes and your properties. So his anger is actually quite constructive. Now we're Anger averse, meaning we don't like anger.

And I get it. It's hard not to sin in anger. Usually our anger is a reflection of our sinfulness, but there is such a thing as righteous anger. Listen to Paul in Ephesians 4 verse 26. The apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 26 says this, Be angry and Do not sin.

Do not let the sun go down in your wrath. He starts out by quoting Psalm 4.4. Psalm 4.4 says what Paul says in Ephesians 4.26. Be angry and do not sin. It's a command to be angry.

It's an imperative. Be angry, but in a certain way. Not sinfully. And then Paul adds to that, don't be angry for a long time. Don't let the sun go down on your anger.

Don't be governed by your anger. Don't be led into sin by your anger. But certain things ought to make you angry. Certain things ought to make you shaking mad where you can't even talk. What does he do?

He throws all of Tobias stuff out of the temple. Now it's possible that he did this by proxy, meaning he told you, you, and you, go get his stuff and throw it out of the temple. But it reads like he does it himself. Two things happen. The stuff is thrown out and then the room is cleansed.

And I think there's a contrast here. I think Nehemiah with his own hands took that stuff and physically, literally threw that stuff out. Because he's shaking mad and he wants a picture of how despicable this sin is. And how they should have never have let this happen. So stuff is flying out of this room at the hands of Nehemiah.

That's what I think happened. Because there's a contrast that says then he commanded others to cleanse the room. It's clear he didn't cleanse the room. I think he physically laid his hands on that stuff and started chucking it out of that room so that people would be confronted about how terrible it was that they let the stuff in the room to start with. You've heard the stories of a wife so fed up that when the husband gets home, he finds his stuff thrown out on the lawn.

Right? You've heard the story. Or seen the commercial. There's a commercial about that recently. He comes home to find all his stuff on the lawn.

I think this is the Bible equivalent of that. Then Nehemiah commands that the room be cleansed, because the temple has been defiled by the presence of this Ammonite who is an enemy of the Lord's people. Now remember, just like last week, this is ceremonial law. It's not germy. He doesn't need to Lysol the room.

This is ceremonial. This is a picture. This is representative that God is holy and the holiness has been violated. The temple has been defiled. We've got to clean the walls because God is holy.

It's repentance. We did what we never should have done and allowed this Ammonite to live in the temple, and now as a sign that we're turning away, we're walking away from that, we're cleaning the walls. And then he puts those rooms back into lawful service. He brings the frankincense back in. He brings the grain offerings back in.

He brings the articles of the temple back in. So these rooms that were in lawful service were reallocated to something that was very sinful and now this is just the total reverse of that. They are brought back into lawful service. Now turn to John chapter 2. As it turns out, there are a lot of exciting things like this that happen in the temple.

Especially during the time of Jesus, the Son of God. In John chapter 2, in 13-17, we see an account of something that happens at the beginning of Jesus' ministry and at the end of Jesus' ministry. It happens twice. They read like they're the same event, but they cannot possibly be. This is John chapter 2.

Jesus does this at the very beginning of his public ministry, and then he does it again in Matthew chapter 21, which is the last week of his life, which is after the triumphal entry. John chapter 2, verses 13 through 17. Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.

And He said to those who sold doves, take these things away. Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise." Then His disciples remembered that it is written, zeal for your house has eaten Me up. That's Psalm 69. It's about Jesus. Zeal for the house of God had eaten Jesus up.

He was shaking mad when he saw the defilements that were happening in the temple. So in that sense, Nehemiah is being like Jesus and there ought to be something in the heart of everyone who has been saved by grace that when they see the holiness of God violated, they become shaking mad. This is so against the spirit of the age. Nobody is ever shaking mad anymore. Or if they are, they are a subject of derision.

You mock them on the internet. The worship of God is holy ground. And the Lord's People should have a zero tolerance policy when the holiness of God is brought into reproach through sin, through rebellion. Jesus was shaking mad. Jesus was shaking mad.

And yet, He didn't sin. Zeal for the house of God Ate him up. Applications. I have five. They're all questions.

And I've totally overlooked the obvious one. The obvious application is where has the modern church let ammonites into the temple? I'm not even touching that one today. That's homework. Go on your own.

Find out where the modern church has let ammonites into the temple and discuss what they should do in order to throw their household goods out on the lawn. Application number one. Do you have yokes that must be broken? Do you have yokes that must be broken? In 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14, Paul says, Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

Our text in Nehemiah 13 is a classic case of being unequally yoked with an unbeliever, Eliashib the High Priest with Tobiah the Ammonite who had been conspiring against the good of the Lord's people. Jesus in Matthew chapter 10 verses 34 through 37 makes it perfectly clear that this can and often is, can be and often is family. You're not to be unequally yoked. And equally yoked. Matthew chapter 10.

Jesus says, if you love father more than me or mother more than me, or son or daughter more than me, you're not worthy of me. So even though Tobiah had these family entanglements, upstream and downstream, he should have broken this yoke. Yoking with unbelievers is a key doorway into compromise. It's the doorway that Tobiah walked through. By degrees.

Do you know this doesn't happen overnight? A high priest doesn't just wake up in one day and say, wouldn't it be a great idea to give living space in the temple to an ammonite? That happened by a thousand baby steps. You've got to catch this stuff way upstream and say no way up there so you don't find yourself way down here. Maybe there are some yokes that you need to break.

And in our day and age, it doesn't always have to be people. I think we should think people first. Are there relationships that is a doorway into compromise for me? If the answer is yes, break the yoke. Pay the price.

Do it today. It doesn't have to be people. It can be technology. There are a lot of ways to yoke with unbelievers that have nothing to do with people who live and breathe. Who are my counselors?

Who am I listening to? Who I've never even met? Who am I partnering with that I've never even met through technology. That's number one. Do you have yolks that must be broken?

Break them. Number two. What rooms need to be reclaimed for lawful service? What rooms need to be reclaimed for lawful service? There's slots of time.

There are financial resources. They might be real rooms. Okay, Rose Giuliani called me two days ago. She's at Hope. She has a real heart for women who are pregnant and desperate.

So I get a call from her every four months or three saying, I got this girl, she might need help, I don't know what we're going to do if she needs help. You know, and I'm, she's supposed to call. And I'm supposed to call other people, you know, and then we'll worry together. And one day, that's going to come through. It hasn't come through yet.

But one day, some girl, some young woman, who's in a desperate situation with her pregnancy, and has nowhere else to turn, and wants to really repent, is going to call our bluff. And it better not be a bluff. Somebody in this room is going to have to cough up a room and take this young woman into their house. Now that needs to be done with an incredible amount of wisdom and boundaries and all that. We're going to have to figure it out.

But somebody's literally going to have to reclaim a room for lawful service. Literally. I can't wait. It's going to be a mess. And it'll be good for us.

The day that happens will be good for us. Number three. So, back to number two. What rooms need to be reclaimed for lawful service? You get that I'm not really talking about rooms.

This is figurative, right? What places in your life, in your schedule, with your money, need to be reclaimed. You've given them over to an ammonite, and they need to be brought back into lawful service. Number three, is there any righteous anger against sin bubbling in there anywhere? Any righteous anger against sin, against compromise bubbling in there?

I hope so. I find precious little of it in my own heart, to my own shame. Now, when you locate the bubbling, is it for the sin out there? Usually if we can find a little, it's for the gay people. Or the people who approve of them.

But we can't find much against our own sin. This text should confront us about our lack of righteous anger against sin in our own hearts. It's easy enough to whip up a little about things that are happening out there and to remain comfortable with our own areas of compromise. It's time to go on a hunt down of our own areas of compromise and take that stuff and throw it out on the lawn. Stop compromising and reverse course and throw that stuff out on the lawn and get the utensils and the frankincense and the grain offerings back into that space.

If you're anything like me at all, there's too much peace with your compromise. You and I should be waging a holy war against the compromise in our lives, but all is at peace. Number four. Do you need to repent of eye service? Do you need to repent of eye service?

Do you need to repent of eye service? Are you a really good worker while the boss is watching? Or the people that you desire respect from is watching? You're not the same at all when they're out of the room. I do.

I need to repent of eye service. Number five. Do you embrace the doctrine of interposition? Do you embrace the doctrine of interposition? Before I define it, let me just say, if you celebrated the 4th of July, you should.

That's why the United States is a country, because of the doctrine of interposition. Now let me explain. The doctrine of interposition begins with Romans 13 where Paul says that the governing authorities, He is God's minister. That's what Paul says of governing authorities in Romans 13, verse 4. He is God's minister.

He's God's man. Or woman. The doctrine is the ones who were there were put there by God. Does that mean they are all good? No, that's not what that means.

Or 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 14, where Peter writes that kings and governors are sent by God for the punishment of evildoers. That's why they exist. Government is good. Government overreach is bad, but Government is good. Kings and governors are sent by God to punish evildoers.

Now, whether they do that, or whether they do that well, is another discussion. But That is the doctrine of government in the New Testament, and the Old really. In 1644, Samuel Rutherford, the Scottish Divine, wrote a book called Lex Rex. It means the law and the prince. Lex, new word, R-E-X.

Lex Rex. Lex, Rex. The law and the prince. And the subtitle was The Law is King. And it was outlawed, the book was outlawed, Because the king said that the king is king.

That the king is over law. And Rutherford said, no! That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that the law is over the king. The king is answerable to the law.

The law is not answerable to the king. And so they outlawed that book and it was a crime to own one. And that was part of the last book burnings, public book burnings that happened in England in 1688. Lex Rex was right in the middle of that pile of books that was being burned in Oxford, England. Rutherford was right.

All authorities answer to God. If you don't think so, read about Nebuchadnezzar. If you think it only applies to Israel and it doesn't apply to Babylon, then explain Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was answerable to God. Turn to 2 Chronicles.

So 2 Chronicles is right before Ezra. So it's in the neighborhood. So it's in the neighborhood. 2 Chronicles 26. This is King Uzziah.

King Uzziah was a really good king up until a point in time. He enjoyed the favor of God and he was obedient in many ways, but the story goes south in verse 16. 2 Chronicles 26, beginning in verse 16. But when He, King Uzziah, was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. For he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

So Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him were eighty priests of the Lord, valiant men. And they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed. You shall have no honor from the Lord. Then Uzziah became furious and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense.

And while he was angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord beside the incense altar. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him. There on his forehead was leprosy, so they thrust him out of that place. Indeed, he also hurried to get out because the Lord had struck him. King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death.

He dwelt in an isolated house because he was a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. Then Jotham his son was over the king's house judging the people of the land." Now this is narrative. This is Old Testament narrative. And you know that it's true that not all narratives talks about things that are good. There's narrative and then there's approved narrative.

Approved narrative means you can tell from the explicit words of the text that God says that's good. If you just come to the histories of the Old Testament, you say everything in the histories is approved by God, you understand how untenable that is. That cannot be true. That is not true. But there are some places that are approved narrative where within the history, God puts His stamp of approval, and He does that here by striking this king with leprosy.

In other words, he makes it clear that these priests were righteous to withstand the king. And that God approved their withstanding the king. He puts a stamp of approval on it by making this king leprous. He joined in with the opposing of King Uzziah. So this is not just narrative, it is approved narrative.

The doctrine of civil obedience is that we are to obey the king until he commands us to do something that is expressly against the law of God and then we say we have to obey God, we cannot obey you. You have overstepped your bounds as a governor and I'm not even at liberty to obey you. That's civil disobedience. The doctrine of interposition is similar, it's related, but it's different and it's this. That when a greater authority becomes tyrannical, oversteps, goes beyond what God has given him to do, then lesser authorities, also given authority by God, have a duty to interpose.

That's what happens in 2 Chronicles 26. Lesser authorities, the chief priests and the priests, who are under the king in so many ways, are not only not at liberty to obey the king in this matter, they are duty bound to oppose him. So we see the mirror image of this in Nehemiah chapter 13. The high priest actually, this is his jurisdiction, the temple is his jurisdiction. But Nehemiah in another jurisdiction is duty bound to go into that room and lay his hands on this stuff and throw it on the lawn.

He's duty bound to do it. Now this has tremendous application today. Because we've lived in a nation where the opportunity for civil disobedience has almost been non-existent. The circumstances where our government with our heritage would command you to do something that was expressly against the law of God. You almost can't come up with examples.

Now this is not true in other countries. In China They tell women who are pregnant with their second or third child, you must abort. Now that requires civil disobedience from the Lord's people. They are not at liberty to obey the government in that matter. But thinking of examples here is hard to do.

It's not going to be hard to do for much longer. And the days When lesser authorities in the United States of America could just do their job and not come into conflict with the express commandment of God are over, in a new way as of a week and a half ago. They are duty bound. They are duty bound to oppose the greater authorities who are commanding things that are expressly against the law of God. They're duty bound.

They don't have any choice. Many of us are not in that position. But we'll sooner rather than later be in a situation where civil disobedience is called for. For me it might be interposition. 20 percent of Americans today think that churches should be constrained to perform homosexual weddings, meaning you don't have any choice, you just have to do it.

This church is not going to do that. Point me to the nearest jail. I'm going to jail for that if that number rises from 20 to 40 to 51 and it becomes the law of the land. We're not doing that. We're going underground then.

Or we're going to jail, or some combination thereof. Hey, things are changing here. They're changing really fast. The times of Nehemiah could become our times really fast, where we're duty bound to oppose what our government is doing. Let's pray.

God, I thank you for your word. Thank you that it corrects our thinking on so many things. God, I pray for those who are in that position today, who are being compelled, who are in our government, who are lesser authorities, they're being compelled to do something that is expressly against your law and they're Christians. I pray that you would give them clear thinking about this. I know that those Christians will not be saved or not saved by what they do or don't do.

But I pray that you would raise up a faithful people who understand your word, who have such a sense of moral clarity like we see in Nehemiah, that when they see evil they can just say this is evil. And they do their duty, no matter what the consequences are. Raise up a godly church in our nation. Who is willing to stand for righteousness. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.