In the sermon 'Obeying With Joy' by Jason Dohm, the speaker explores the themes of joyful obedience and provision for worship as seen in Nehemiah 12:44-47. The sermon highlights how the people of Israel, despite financial turmoil, demonstrated obedience by joyfully providing for the priests and Levites. This act of provision ensured continuity in worship and was a fulfillment of their covenant to walk in God's law, as previously established in Nehemiah 10. The sermon emphasizes that true obedience stems from a heart made joyful by God's faithfulness and mercy, rather than mere duty. It reflects on the historical context, drawing parallels with the reforms of King Hezekiah and Jehoiada, to illustrate the importance of adhering to God's commandments through practical actions. The role of singers and gatekeepers in maintaining the purity and order of worship is also discussed. The sermon concludes by urging believers to evaluate their obedience, ensuring it flows from joy in Christ and a desire to honor God, even when circumstances are challenging.

Nehemiah chapter 12, starting in verse 44 through the end of this chapter. And at the same time, some were appointed over the rooms of the storehouse for the offerings, the firstfruits, and the tithes, to gather into them from the fields of the cities the portion specified by the law for the priests and Levites, for Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered. Both singers, both the singers and the gatekeepers kept the charge of their God and the charge of the purification according to the command of David and Solomon his son. For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chiefs of the singers and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. In the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah, all Israel gave the portions for the singers and the gatekeepers a portion for each day.

They also consecrated holy things for the Levites, and the Levites consecrated them for the children of Aaron." The title of the sermon this morning is Obeying with Joy. We see the wonderful marriage of these two things in our text today. Obedience but not just a mechanical, lifeless, sterile obedience. It's an obedience with joy. And It's a blessing to see it.

We should learn from it. And it should help us in our own obedience to look for this mark. It's a really important mark of true obedience. Is there a joy behind it? I think that's one of the questions we should come away from our text.

Am I obeying with joy? Last week we had a wonderful text. It was about dedication and purification and celebration. The whole text was about the dedication of the wall. God had done something great for them and they didn't feel like it would be right for it to pass, the kindness and faithfulness of God to pass without marking it out with a real dedication and celebration of the wall.

But it began with purification. So last week the text opened up by introducing we're going to dedicate the wall. Then before any dedication happens, the priests purify themselves and they purify the people and they purify the wall. And all of this points to Jesus Christ. And our need not just one time to have a repentance that brings us into the kingdom of God, but then also to just have ongoing trust in the work of Jesus Christ, always repenting, always looking to the cross for cleansing and every good thing.

And so they began the work of dedication last week with purification and it all points to Jesus and our need for every one of our works. Not one of our works in ourselves is pure enough to stand before God. They all must be cleansed, even after we're born again. We need Jesus as much on the last day of our lives as we did on the day in which we were born again. I think that's one of the things that last week's text taught us.

This week, the people are now putting everything in place to provide for the priests and the Levites, and they're doing it with joy. So as we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for your Word. What a joy it is to have it as a good gift from you and to open it up and to honor it by considering the things that you've said. We want to be a people who come and are joyfully under the authority of your Word.

I pray God, like the people in the text, that our obedience would be full of joy, that it wouldn't be lifeless, it wouldn't be sterile and mechanical, but that it would be full of life, that these things would flow out of, they would spring from. Hearts that are happy have been made happy because of the work of Christ and the freedom from sin and the guilt of sin, the weight of sin that comes when we repent and believe the Gospel, and then move forward in a new life. God, I thank You for a new life in Christ. Fill us with the joy of new life in Christ today. And help that to be a mighty motivation to obey you in all things, to present our bodies a living sacrifice.

May it be so in Jesus' name. Amen. So we'll be dividing the text this week into three little subsections. The first one is just the first verse, verse 44. So assuming you're open to, your Bibles are open to Nehemiah chapter 12, follow with me as I read verse 44.

And at the same time, some were appointed over the rooms of the storehouse for the offerings, the first fruits, and the tithes, to gather into them from the fields of the cities the portions specified by the law for the priests and the Levites. For Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered. So in this verse we have the appointing of men over a certain work and in a certain place. They are appointed over the work of bringing together the collections, the contributions that would serve as provision for the priests and the Levites. They are appointed over the store rooms.

The store rooms would be at the temple. If you look at a diagram of the temple, what you see is a series of rooms that line the outer wall of the temple. These are the store rooms that are spoken of. And when you think of the Levitical tithe, God commanding that the people give a tenth of their produce for the provision of priests and Levites, this is where it was to be stored and it's so clearly put forth in the law. This verse begins with this phrase, and at the same time, so our text is intimately connected with last week's text, and the dedication of the wall, We get this time marker at the beginning of verse 44 and at the same time.

So this happened with the dedication of the wall, the setting aside of these Levites who would be over the collection of the contributions for the provision of the priests and the Levites. But the text doesn't start here. Here's what I mean. So it is at the same time as the dedication of the wall, but the roots for what we're seeing are back in chapter 10. So turn back to chapter 10.

Before they dedicated the wall, they repopulated Jerusalem. And before they repopulated Jerusalem, do you remember what they did? They entered into a covenant together. And that's what chapter 10 is. And so I want to just remind us of where we've been with the people entering into a covenant together.

In chapter 10, verses 28 and the first part of 29 we read this. This is Nehemiah chapter 10, 28 and 29. Now the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the nethineh, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the land to the law of God, their wives, their sons and their daughters. Everyone who had knowledge and understanding, these joined with their brethren, their nobles and entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law. So in these verses in chapter 10 what we have is the setting of the table.

So it's an introduction of what will be the written covenant that they're entering into and it says that all the people entered into a covenant to walk in the law of God. So that's what they were doing. It starts very broad and then it gets very narrow. Then they single out a few particular things that had historically been a point of repeated sin in the life of the Lord's people. They started with mixed marriage.

They say we're not going to engage in mixed marriage. And then They go and they talk about the Sabbath day. They say we're going to keep the Sabbath holy. And then they talk about providing for the worship in the temple that God had prescribed. Now let's skip down to 35 through 39.

So 35 through the end of the chapter, which has a direct bearing on what we see in our text today. So follow along. Nehemiah chapter 10, 35 and following. And we made ordinances To bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all fruit of all trees year by year to the house of the Lord. To bring the firstborn of our sons and our cattle as it is written in the law and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, to bring the first fruits of our dough, our offerings, the fruit from all kinds of trees, the new wine and oil to the priests, to the store rooms of the house of our God, and to bring the tithes of our land to the Levites.

For the Levites should receive the tithes in all our farming communities. And the priest, the descendant of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes, and the Levites shall bring up a tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the rooms of the storehouse. For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the grain of the new wine and the oil to the store rooms where the articles of the sanctuary are, where the priests who minister and the gatekeepers and the singers are, and we will not neglect the house of our God." So it would be very natural actually to have our text for this week be where chapter 11 is because it really is a fulfilling of what they are promising to do in chapter 10 as they enter into this solemn covenant together. We actually see them beginning to fulfill what they promised to do. So the covenant is a promise together to walk in God's law.

Very broad. But then specifically a few things that they want to make sure that they call out. And one of them is what they see today. There are rooms lining the outer wall of the temple and we're going to fill them. And the reason we're going to fill them is that God has told us to provide for the priests and the Levites, the singers and the gatekeepers.

And now in our text today, we're seeing that they're putting very practical things in place, taking very practical measures to fulfill what they promised that they would do which was according to the law. So the law required it. They promised that they were going to obey the law and now they begin to take very practical measures, nuts and bolts. The things that have to be done in order to keep their promise. That's what we see in today's text.

So, There's talking about obeying, and there's actually obeying. And they're not the same thing, and we shouldn't confuse them. I think this is one of the things that we glean from our text today. It's not the same thing to talk about obeying as to actually obey. They're distinct things.

We should talk about obeying. We should promise to obey. But you can't promise to obey and then act like you've obeyed. Especially if you don't follow through and not obey. Here the people have talked about it in chapter 10.

They promised to do it. But now they're putting practical things in place. This has rich applications for us, doesn't it? Many. A thousand.

If we wanted to start to create a list of promises to obey and what we should begin to put in place to set our feet in motion, we could fill up a page so fast with that. And one of the things we should come away from our text with today is anytime we promise to obey, anytime we resolve to obey the Lord we should put our feet in motion by starting to do very practical things to make it happen. If you make promises but you don't put your feet in motion right away, you're in great danger of never following through. Do I even need to say that to you or would you even need to say that to me? We know from what?

From experience, from living a life of many failures in life. Many times promising to do things that never materialize. Why do they not materialize? Sometimes it's because we didn't put our feet in motion. So it's a beautiful thing to come to Nehemiah chapter 12, the end of it, and see them having promised, putting their feet in motion, and begin to just lay the practical groundwork to fulfill the obedience that they've promised to God.

Then we see this. For Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who ministered. For Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who ministered. The people here in our text are motivated not just because they promised, but also by the joy in their hearts. Look back to the last verse we studied last week.

This is Nehemiah chapter 12 verse 43. Remember, this is on the same day. This is at the same time. And this is what has just happened as they begin to put the practical things in place. Verse 43, also that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced for God had made them rejoice with great joy.

The women and the children also rejoiced so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard far off. If you were a neighbor of Jerusalem, you'd hear a ruckus coming from Jerusalem. What was it? Joy. It was rejoicing.

Pervasive, unified, rejoicing. Men, women, children, everyone rejoicing together. Why? Because God had made them rejoice with great joy and now this joy is producing fruit in today's text. The joy that they have in their hearts is launching them into obedience.

They have a duty. They're not really at liberty not to bring the provision, Because God has required it, and they've said they would do it. So the point of the text isn't wait for feeling before you obey. That's not the point of the text. They do have a duty, they should do the duty, but in our text there's more than just duty.

There's a God who has made them happy. When we studied the Beatitudes, it was the beginning of Matthew, It has to be over two years now since we were there. The blessed are the passage. I think there are eight of them or nine of them. The word behind blessed really is a Many colored word that the best I can do to actually render it.

I don't think blessed does it fully justice, but made happy by God gets at least part of the way there. Okay, so Jesus is describing the believer in the Beatitudes. And he says, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. And on and on. He's describing a believer. And a believer is someone who's been made happy by God because God has been good to him or her and faithful and they know it and it launches them. They don't want nothing to come from all the faithfulness of God.

They want something to come from it. They want God to receive the honor that he deserves for being kind and merciful and faithful to us. So it propels them forward. That's what we see in this text. People who have a duty, but a people who aren't simply acting out of duty, they're rejoicing.

They have hearts that have been made happy by God. Now, what is the source of the joy? What is the source of the joy? Two things. The ministry and the ministers are making these people rejoice.

It's right there in the text. The ministry, they've really, we've been seeing them repeatedly be the beneficiaries of the work, the labors of the priests and the Levites. We've seen it repeatedly. There's been a public reading of the law. There's been sacrifices offered.

The priests and the Levites have been out front leading people in the worship of God, leading people in corporate obedience. And now the people are pointing to that and saying that's good for me. Okay, so the ministry itself, they've been ministered and so they're rejoicing as a result of having been ministered to the ministry itself, the work that's been undertaken, they've entered into it. And it's made them glad. They've benefited from the ministry and the ministers.

It hasn't been magical. People have been working for it. So they look at the people who have been laboring and their labors have been a blessing and they are rejoicing over the men who have led them in obedience, in sacrifices, in the reading of the law, a careful explanation of the law that we saw earlier in Nehemiah. They are rejoicing in the ministry and they are rejoicing in the ministers. They see the value of the work.

They see the value of the workers. And they see that bringing offerings and first fruits and tithes, those are the three things named in the text, that bringing this ensures a continuation. So this happens in our lives all the time. We are benefited by something and we are just rejoicing at the goodness of something that has come into our lives and we want to secure the continuation of it. We don't want to see that evaporate and have no more of it.

We want to continue to benefit. So they see the value of the work and the workers and they see that provision ensures the continuation of it so they can continue to reap good things from these labors. Listen to 2 Chronicles 31 verse 4. This is during the time of King Hezekiah, who was a great reforming king of Judah. Again, it's 2 Chronicles 31 verse 4.

Moreover, he, Hezekiah, commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to contribute support for the priests and the Levites." So this is exactly what we're talking about here. Contributing support for the priests and the Levites. That they might devote themselves to the law of the Lord. So Hezekiah the reforming king of Judah commands the people in Jerusalem to provide support for the priests and the Levites. Why?

That they might devote themselves to the law of the Lord. The truth of the matter is, without provision, no one devotes themselves to the law of the Lord. In the New Testament, in Acts chapter 6, It's called the ministry of the Word and prayer. You want more of that? You say we're devoting you to that through provision.

You want less of that? You say you do it on your own time. If you want someone to be devoted to it, they have to be freed from the secular work that they would have been engaged in to provide for themselves. If you want devotion, that's the cost of devotion to the law of the Lord, to the ministry of the Word. And the people here are recognizing the value of it and saying, we'll pay the price for that devotion.

Because we've been reaping the benefits and we want to see to the continuation of this. Brothers and sisters, this is how we should obey with joy, with rejoicing. This has been a challenging study for me because I know that a lot of my obedience is grudging. I think an argument can be made that that's not really obedience at all. It's at least not the obedience that it should be.

Our obedience should be flowing out of hearts that have been made happy by God. And if our hearts haven't been made happy by God, I would like to submit that it's not God that's the problem. Are we arguing, God you haven't been merciful enough, you haven't been faithful enough, What we've received in Christ isn't enough for my happiness. It's not enough to sustain my happiness. No, I think we would make the opposite argument.

I think if we were going to accuse anyone, we would not accuse God knowing how lavishly He's been kind to us. We would accuse ourselves and say, there's so much here that I haven't tapped into, And my lack of joy is my fault. It's my sin. It's my fault. So this text actually brings us face to face with this and gives us an opportunity to troubleshoot.

I don't have as much joy as I should. It's not fueling obedience like it should. And I can't blame God for that because in Christ He's proven His faithfulness beyond measure, His goodness, His mercy. He's drowned me in His goodness. So God's not the problem in this picture.

The coldness of my heart isn't God, it's me. And it gives us an opportunity, if we're not obeying out of joy, to say there's something that needs to be repented of in this heart of mine. I need more of Christ. I need to be with Him more. I need to be going for more joy in Christ.

The joy of obedience is not always in the minute of the obedience. Meaning, it's not a reasonable expectation based on the Bible that you're feeling giddy every time you have to obey. You're feeling wonderfully joyful every time you're called on to obey. Sometimes you clench your teeth and you obey. So how do we reconcile these things?

I think we reconcile these things by understanding Hebrews 12.2. Hebrews 12.2 is about Jesus and his obedience on the cross. Now we know that Jesus was greatly grieved as he went to the cross. We see Jesus in Gethsemane sweating drops of blood and agonizing over being made sin. He who knew no sin was made sin that we might become the righteousness of God.

So you say, was Jesus joyful in that moment? Well, yes and no. He was grieving and agonizing, but his obedience was for what? For the joy that was set before him. So sometimes it's not the joy of the moment, it's the certainty that there's joy waiting at the end of our obedience.

So we don't have to think we should expect always to be giddy happy in the minute of obedience. Sometimes we clench our teeth and we don't want to obey. We're agonizing over the obedience, But for the joy set before us, we obey. That's not inappropriate. I think that's common to the Christian experience.

Sometimes feeling the drag, the pull in the opposite direction of obedience. But this is what it means to walk by faith and not by sight. To believe that God is true and every man is a liar. The pleasures of disobedience aren't what they appear to be. And so we clench our teeth and we obey for the joy that is set before us.

And we find that it's true. We find that God really is right. That passing up on the passing pleasures of sin always yields joy afterwards, the joy set before us. And isn't this Paul's argument in Romans 12.1 that we've been repeating every week? By the mercies of God, present yourselves as living sacrifices.

Present your bodies a living sacrifice, which is what? Your reasonable service. It makes sense that we're pulling out of a deep reservoir of God's mercy and it gives us what we need to obey. It makes it reasonable of us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. Nothing can be more logical and reasonable having the ability to draw from this deep well of God's mercies.

It makes perfect sense that we would present our bodies a living sacrifice. Obedience doesn't subtract from you. That's the great lesson. It adds to you. Sometimes when we obey, it feels like we're going to be diminished, but that's never true, and that's never what we find.

We're never diminished. We're never subtracted from when we obey. We're always added to. We find joy on the other side. And so we pull from joy, having received mercy from God, And it results in joy.

Sometimes it's before us. Sometimes it's immediate. Okay, back to Nehemiah chapter 12. Let's look at verses 45 and 46. Both the singers and the gatekeepers kept the charge of their God and the charge of the purification according to the commandment of David and Solomon his son.

For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chiefs of the singers and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God." In this section we have the singers and the gatekeepers. So that's the who. Singers, gatekeepers. Here's the what. It's the charge of their God and the charge of the purification.

The service commanded by God and the service of the purification. Here's the from where. Where did they get this? Sinai? Was it the giving of the law?

We find this in Deuteronomy. No, it actually came from David and Asaph. Asaph was the musician who he appointed to be chief singer. So it comes from that time. If we want to go and study the details of the singers and the gatekeepers, here's where you go.

1 Chronicles 25 and 26. 1 Chronicles 25 and 26 are both from the time of David. It gives an account of King David and what he was doing, and particularly what he's lining up in the worship of God. In 1 Chronicles 25 you have the singers and the musicians and it's in that chapter that Asaph is one of the three families that are appointed over the music and the singing that is to take place. And in 1 Chronicles 26, you have the better part of the chapter devoted to the gatekeepers and their work.

So there's a lot of details we could go and get about the singers and the gatekeepers from these two chapters. I want to go to a different place. I want to ask you to go to 2 Chronicles. It's only a few chapters back before Nehemiah's Ezra, before Ezra's second Chronicles. So, 2 Chronicles 23.

2 Chronicles 23 is about the reign of King Joash. 2 Chronicles 23, Joash has become king, a usurper has been deposed, and Joash has made the king, and Jehoiada is the high priest. So we'll actually be reading about reforms of Jehoiada, the high priest, in 2 Chronicles 23, beginning in 16, reading through 19. Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, the people, and the king, that They should be the Lord's people. So here already we're seeing the commonalities with what we're talking about in Nehemiah.

It's a people beginning by entering into a covenant with God to be the Lord's people. Verse 17. And all the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They broke in pieces its altars and images, and killed Matan the priest of Baal before the altars. Also, Jehoiada appointed the oversight of the house of the Lord to the hand of the priest, the Levites, whom David had assigned in the house of the Lord, to offer the burnt offerings of the Lord as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as it was established by David.

And he set the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the Lord so that no one who is in any way unclean should enter. There are a couple of things that I think are noteworthy here in 2 Chronicles chapter 23. The first is when Jehoiada as high priest is able to make the reforms that are in his heart, he does what Nehemiah is doing. He goes back to David and what David put in place. And he immediately gets the Levites working and singing and gatekeeping in the temple.

That's exactly what we see in Nehemiah chapter 12. So again, this is long after David, but Jehoiada the high priest is reforming the people back to the practices that David commanded in his day. And he brings back the singing. The songs of praise. And he puts the gatekeepers, and this I think has a direct bearing on our text.

Look at that last verse in verse 19, and he set the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the Lord so that no one who is in any way unclean should enter. That had ceased to happen. The temple is supposed to be a place for clean things. And there are people who become unclean, for instance, by touching a corpse. If you touch a corpse, a priest would be unclean and would have to go through a process of cleansing to be able to go in and minister in the temple again.

And the gatekeepers are supposed to make sure that foreigners who would be considered unclean for the worship of God, or people who had touched a corpse, or there are a number of different categories, or there are things that are unclean that couldn't come into the temple. And the gatekeepers are in charge of that. So my understanding of our text in Nehemiah chapter 12 when we talk about the charge of the purification, I believe that's attached to the gatekeepers and it has to do with keeping unclean things out. It's a cleansing of the temple by keeping the gates. Keeping the unclean things out.

The point being this. If you want the clean, unclean laws obeyed, and if you want ongoing songs of praise and thanksgiving to God, you don't wish you put things into place. You don't hope it happens. God has given them ways to ensure that it happens. So you don't just hope that no foreigners or people who have touched a corpse don't wander into the temple.

You put the gatekeepers in place. You don't just hope that God is praised well in the temple, you put the singers in place, and you provide for the gatekeepers, and you provide for the singers, so that it happens, and it happens, and it happens. As a matter of course. That's what we see in this text. The very practical steps being taken to obey and to make sure that unclean things don't come into the temple where they shouldn't be, and to make sure that God is receiving songs of praise every day.

One final thing in this section not to lose sight of, and I think it's very important because it's not expressed in the text in any way, but it's important. Remember what we saw in chapter 5. Chapter 5 so long ago, it was really before some of the commentators pointed this out, it was completely out of my thinking. Chapter 5 made it so clear that this time in the life of Israel was a time of financial turmoil. Things were not well financially among the Lord's people as we begin the book of Nehemiah.

And they're struggling to buy food. If you had a lot of children, you're struggling to buy food in chapter 5. And you're borrowing money to pay your taxes. And then when you can't pay them back, you're selling your children into slavery. You should have Hebrew slavery in mind and what that entails and not American slavery.

But I'm not sure that helps you a lot. You're still in desperate need. Even in the instance of Hebrew slavery, if you're having to sell the labor of your children to pay your taxes, things are not well financially. It's a time of great turmoil. Here's what James Hamilton says, it's really been helped by his commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah.

He says, Nehemiah's day was not exactly prosperous. It's an understatement. It was a time of economic and political crisis. The people of Israel were not thriving, yet they were sacrificially giving to support the worship of God. They might have been tempted to think that the people listed were unnecessary.

Singers, gatekeepers, Levites, sons of Aaron. Their perspective was whatever it costs us, though we must sacrifice, we must support the worship of God in the temple, that's what our lives were about. Everyone hits times in their lives where obedience costs. There are two ways to think about it. The funding, the providing for the priests and the Levites.

One way is this. We'll fund this optional stuff when we're back on our feet financially. We'll get solid financially, and then we'll fund the priests and the Levites. The other way to think about this is the second way. God owns it all.

God is our provider. Our job is to obey. If we obey, God will provide. Really, everybody in life has to decide about that. And I'm not just talking about the category of money.

Money in some ways is the least of our problems. Our hearts, it's where our hearts are in every category. So Finances is just one category that illustrates it, but it applies across the categories. Do we obey when the conditions are right? Or do we obey because we trust God and we know that if we obey, we'll live in His favor.

And He controls the rest, and we'll take care of the rest faithfully. You have to decide. It's not just the category of money. Every category of life, you have to decide whether the conditions have to be just right for your obedience or whether you trust God that if you obey you'll live in his favor and you'd rather have that, whatever it means, than to not honor him with obedience. In our text, the people who are living in a time of great financial turmoil, And the circumstances are not right for obedience.

That's what you have to understand about this text. The circumstances are wrong for obedience. It's not like they're drowning in prosperity. Some of them are selling the labor of their children to pay their taxes. They are not waiting around for the right circumstances to obey.

They are trusting that the favor of God with sacrifice is better than any other track. The people of God should embrace that proposition with all their hearts. I just want to exhort you today, if you've been waiting to obey in a certain category for a change in circumstances, Stop. You're robbing yourself. God's never robbed.

God has never robbed. The joke's never on God. The joke's only on us when we're waiting for the right circumstances to obey. God's not impoverished by that. He doesn't need your money.

He doesn't need your obedience. He's honored by our obedience, but he's not diminished if we withhold it. The joke's on us. The people in our text are a good example for us. Sometimes obedience is costly in any category, And that's the difference between walking by faith, trusting that God is true, trusting that God is faithful to those who honor Him, that He honors those who honor Him.

It's a simple question. Is that the God of the Bible or isn't it? Is the God of the Bible a God who honors those who honor Him so that all we have to worry about is am I obeying Him? Am I honoring the God of the universe by obedience, and if I am, knowing that God can take care of the rest and will take care of the rest. That is walking by faith.

Okay, our last verse. Our last verse, 47. Nehemiah chapter 12 verse 47, in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah, all Israel gave the portions for the singers and the gatekeepers, a portion for each day. They also consecrated holy things for the Levites, and the Levites consecrated them for the children of Aaron." This section is about provision for a century and beyond. So if you're filling in blanks, it's century beyond.

Provision for a century and beyond. That's what we have here in verse 47. A century. All this, our study, started in Ezra chapter 1 with King Cyrus and Zerubbabel who was made governor and sent back with the first wave of returning captives from Babylon. It was a century ago, it was a hundred years before where we are now in Nehemiah chapter 13.

Or almost a hundred years. And so here in 47 we get the two great governors of a century. The first one and the last one. Zerubbabel at the very front end, Nehemiah at the very back end. And both rallied the Lord's people to provide for the priests and the Levites, the singers, and the gatekeepers, but really, they're just taking the people back to the old paths.

Do you see that? This is what revival is. Revival is not innovation. Revival is a return to what God says. The people of God don't need whiz bang new.

It's not what we need. God gave us what we need a long, long, long, long time ago. And the best way to serve ourselves is just to go back to what God gave us centuries and centuries and centuries ago. Listen to Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 16. Jeremiah 6, 16.

Thus says the LORD, Stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where the good way is and walk in it. Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk in it. God's ways, the ways that He gave His people millennia ago, are what we need today. I can say that with such unflinching confidence.

I wish I lived like it all the time. But at least I can say it with confidence that the patterns and practices and commandments that God gave His people thousands of years ago is what we need today. They're perfectly adapted to the year 2015. Most people in churches today don't believe that. That the modern day calls for modern methods that God didn't give us in His Word.

That's not true. That is not true. That just needs to be rejected out of hand by the people of God. And the old paths are the best paths. The things that God gave us through patterns, practices, and commandments thousands of years ago are exactly what the church needs today.

Jeremiah says you find rest for your souls there. God through Jeremiah says, go back To the old paths, the well-worn paths, you'll find rest for your souls there. But the people in Jeremiah said, we won't walk in that. We need more than that. Here's a note from the Reformation Heritage Bible.

Revival is not a time of innovation and doctrine or worship, but a time of returning to the old paths of God's Word. It is a pressing need today to see the worship of God regulated by the commandment of God. When we think of revival, do we think of that? Mostly we just think of mass conversion. Revival equals mass conversion.

This note in the Reformation Heritage Bible is arguing that revival is going back to what God said. Often, when there is a revival of obedience to the old paths that God gave His people thousands of years ago, their mass conversions happened at the same time. I think that's why we've come to associate that with it and not obedience to the old things. It's both. The point being that God has given us timeless, enduring truths.

The things that Zerubbabel was calling the people of God to a hundred years before couldn't have been more fitting a hundred years later, and a thousand years later, and ten thousand years later, if the Lord should tarry. And I hope He doesn't. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Applications. Three applications.

Number one, examine your obedience. Is there joy behind it? Examine it. Put your obedience to the test. Is it mechanical?

Is it sterile and lifeless? Or is it flowing out of being made happy by God? This is where God wants us. He wants us to take us to a place where we're so satisfied in Him and the work that Jesus has done on our behalf and we're made so happy by His faithfulness and His mercy towards us that we live to honor Him out of that. Offer your obedience as an act of worship.

Our obedience shouldn't be thought of primarily as withholding ourselves from certain things that we really would like to do, our obedience should be offered up as a sweet smelling aroma to God as an act of worship to God. Even in the times where we find ourselves having to clench our teeth and obey anyway for the joy that was set before us somewhere out there in the future. We just offer that up as worship to God. God, you're worthy of obedience. By the mercies of God I present my body as a living sacrifice.

It's a reasonable service. Number two, ask yourself this question. Am I demonstrating a willingness to pay a price to obey? Am I demonstrating a willingness to pay a price to obey? You can sort of angle your life towards comfortable obedience.

And I actually think We should do that. I think we should organize our lives where it's not harder to obey, but it's easier to obey. So that's good. But that doesn't cover everything. There are going to be moments that even if you've angled your life just right, it's going to be hard to obey.

And then are you willing to pay the price to obey? Because you trust that living in the favor of God is the only place to be for you. Number three. What is the place of worship in your life? What is the place of worship in your life?

What is the place of worship in your life? Does it get The first or the last? Does your personal worship get the dregs of your time? Get the very last? If you happen to be able to scrape a few minutes together after everything else is done, you worship.

That, boy, that's not what we're seeing in Nehemiah at all. The people are eager. They stay after the Feast of Tabernacles. They stay longer. You can't get them to go home.

They just keep allocating time to repentance and the reading of the Word of God, and praising and prayer. It's not getting the dregs for them. It's not getting the last for them. I leave you with Matthew 13 verse 44. I think this sums it up.

Matthew 13, 44, Jesus says, Again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it. He goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Living the Christian life isn't supposed to be this hard. It's supposed to be like a man who finds a treasure in a field, and he knows the price of that field is nothing compared to the treasure that's buried there. So he goes away and he thinks nothing of selling all of his possessions to possess that field because he knows the treasure that's there in the field.

And if I buy the field, I get the treasure. So I give a little and I get a wealth. That is the Kingdom of Heaven. If we've seen the beauty of Jesus Christ and what He's done rightly, then obedience becomes that. My obedience, it cost me almost nothing for this treasure.

Repentance becomes that. It cost me something that wasn't worth having anyway. And I get the field and the treasure in the field. Maybe you've never bought that field. Maybe it seemed like an expensive field to you.

You should pray that God would reveal the treasure that's in that field. Because once you've seen it, you'll think nothing of selling everything. For joy over it, you'll sell everything. Maybe you have bought the field, but you've sort of forgotten about the treasure that's there. It's right there in your field.

You own it. You sort of lost sight about it. You've lost your first love. It happens. We drift from our first love.

We have to come back to it a hundred times over in this life. Go reclaim it. If you're in Christ, there's a treasure in that field. It shouldn't be this hard for you. It shouldn't be such a drudgery for you.

Reclaim the treasure that's already in your field. God, I thank You for Your Word. What a treasure Nehemiah has been. I think back through the things that we've studied from Zerubbabel to Nehemiah, and all the things in between. How helpful it's been to my own soul.

Thank you for your Word. I pray that you would make us a joyful people. Fill us with joy, O Lord, as we contemplate all that we have in Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen.