In Jason Dohm's sermon titled 'These Things Became Our Examples,' the focus is on the detailed recounting of Israel's history as presented in Nehemiah chapter 9, verses 9 to 38. The sermon emphasizes the active sovereignty of God, His goodness, faithfulness, and mercy in dealing with Israel despite their persistent unfaithfulness and rebellion. Dohm highlights the importance of learning from biblical history, as seen in both the Old and New Testaments, to strengthen faith and avoid the mistakes of past generations. The sermon underscores the inability of humans to maintain righteousness without divine intervention and emphasizes God's essential nature and eternal purpose as the basis for His actions, rather than human merit. The message encourages believers to find hope in God's faithfulness and to appreciate the historical examples as a guide for righteous living.

Today's sermon text is Nehemiah chapter 9 from 9 to 38. Please follow along. You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the Red Sea. You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted proudly against them. So you made a name for yourself as it is this day, and you divided the sea before them so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and their persecutors you threw into the deep as a stone into the mighty waters.

Moreover, you led them by day with a cloudy pillar, and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the road which they should travel. You came down also on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from the heaven and gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. You made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws by the hand of your servant, of Moses your servant. You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought them water out of the rock for their thirst and told them to go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them. But they and our fathers acted proudly, hardened their necks, and did not heed your commandments.

They refused to obey, and they were not mindful of your wonders that you did among them. But they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion they appointed a leader to return to their bondage. But you are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them. Even when they made a molded calf for themselves and said, This is your God that brought you up out of Egypt and worked great provocations, yet in your manifold mercies you did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them on the road, nor the pillar of fire by night to show them light and the way they should go.

You also gave your good spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. Moreover, you gave them kingdoms and nations and divided them into districts.

So they took possession of the land of Sihon and the land of the king of Heshbon and the land of Og, king of Beishan. You also multiplied their children as the stars of heaven and brought them into the land which you had told their fathers to go in and possess. So the people went in and possessed the land. You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands with their kings and the people of the land that they might do with them as they wished. And they took strong cities and a rich land and possessed houses full of all goods, cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance.

So they ate and were filled and grew fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their backs, and killed your prophets who testified against them to turn them to yourself. And they worked great provocations. Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their enemies who oppressed them and in a time of their trouble when they cried out to you, you heard from heaven, and according to your abundant mercies you gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies. But after they had rest, they again did evil before you.

Therefore you left them in the hand of their enemy, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they returned and cried out to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies, and testified against them that you might bring them back to your law. Yet they acted proudly and did not heed your commandments but sinned against your judgments which if a man does he shall live by them and they shrugged their shoulders, stiffened their necks and would not hear. Yet for many years you had patience with them and testified against them by your spirit in the prophets, yet they would not listen. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

Nevertheless, in your great mercy you did not utterly consume them nor forsake them, for you are God, gracious and merciful. Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who keeps covenant and mercy, do not let the trouble seem small before you that has come upon us, our kings and our princes, our priests and our prophets, our fathers and on all your people from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day. However, you are just in all that has befallen us, for you have dealt faithfully, but we have done wickedly. Neither our kings nor our princes, our priests nor our fathers have kept your law, nor heeded your commandments and your testimonies with which you testified against them. For they have not served you in their kingdom, or in the many good things that you gave them, or in the large and rich land which you set before them, nor did they turn from their wicked works.

Here we are, servants today, and the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its bounty, here we are, servants in it. And it yields much increase to the kings you have set over us because of our sins. Also, they have dominion over our bodies and our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. And because of all this, we make a sure covenant and write it. Our leaders, our Levites, and our priests seal it." The title for this sermon this morning is, these things became our examples.

It's a phrase that's actually taken by what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and we'll get there. But there's great value in the history of God's people. It's a history of God's dealing with His people, His faithful dealings with His people, and it's a history of His people's dealings with God, which is not nearly as faithful. In fact, it's the contrary. And Paul argues in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that these things are meant by God to be examples for us.

We are to learn from the history of His people. In the previous text that Jim preached on two weeks ago, it's our memory text. We've been reciting it every Sunday for 15 or 16 Sundays now. It begins on the 24th day of the seventh month. The people are gathered together voluntarily.

The Feast of Tabernacles is over, So they could go home, but they've decided not to go home. They've decided to have a time of fasting with sackcloth and with dust on their heads. A time of total separation from foreigners, so this is just Israelites. A time of confession, a time of reading the Word of God. The Word of God will be read publicly to them for a fourth of the day.

And a time of worship. There will be worship for another fourth of the day. And I think Jim was right on the nose when he applied this to what God said to Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14. God says, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their land." I think that's exactly what the people are doing and exactly what the people are hoping for. They are humbling themselves and they are confessing their sin and they are praying and their hope is that God will hear them and heal their land.

They know that God has promised it and they believe that God will do it. In the first verses beginning in 5b, the second half of verse 5, God is just thoroughly praised. This is what I love about this memory text. It starts out with this gush of praise to God for His greatness. He is the Creator of all things.

Everything that is on the earth, He made it. Everything in the seas, He made it. The heavens, He made it. The host of heaven worships Him. And then also for His goodness.

So it is a gush of praise for His greatness and His goodness. And that section, our last section, ends with the words, you have performed your words for you are righteous. And That brings us to our text today. Let's pray. God, I thank you that your merciful hand has always been upon your people, that you have never left, you've never forsaken your people, but you have been very forthcoming in making promises to us.

And you have performed your words, for you are righteous. I thank you for what all of this means for us New Testament believers standing in Christ, that though we are weak, though we have many frailties, though much sin remains in our lives, we can look and see that you keep your promises. Thank you God. I pray that this would be a time of refreshment for your people today. As we look at this text, we do see sin, but we see it overwhelmed by your faithfulness.

Set our hearts rejoicing, I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. So here's how we're going to spend our time this morning. I want to begin by talking about the structure of the chapter. It's an extended chapter, 38 verses, but it's an interesting chapter. It gives us the history of Israel in summary form.

So I want to just walk through the structure of the chapter and then I want to speak of the value of Bible history and argue that God thinks it's really valuable, so if God thinks it's valuable, we should value it. And then I want to talk about the main themes of the Bible history that is set before us here in Nehemiah chapter 9. And then I want to try to apply it in just a couple of ways that are probably very obvious. So here we go. Here is The structure of the chapter.

If you're filling in blanks, that's the first part. The structure of the chapter. Verses 1-3 of chapter 9 sets the context. I've already talked a little about it. It's the seventh month.

It's really an important month in the worship calendar that God has given His people. But it's over in the month. Feast of Tabernacles closes out what God requires and now we're two days beyond that and the people won't go home. But they're fasting and they have sackcloth on and they have dust on their heads, and they have humbled themselves before God. They are confessing their sins, they are praying, they are hearing the Word of God, and they are worshiping.

So this is the context for all of our texts that we're covering today. And then in verses 4 through the first part of 5 we see that there are Levites who are leading in this. And This is so consistent with the work that God has given Levites to do. They are leading the people in this prayer. The second half of verse 5 and verse 6 shifts to what is said.

By the time we get to the second half of verse 5, we are done with context, we are done with the who, and we are to what is said. Everything else, 5b through 38, should be in quotes. These are words that are spoken at this time and this place by these people. It is a prayer. The rest of the chapter is going to be what is said at this event.

And it's a prayer to God. It's not a sermon. You can sort of get lost in the middle of it. It sort of in the middle starts to read like a sermon. You have to reset your mind, recalibrate your mind that it's not a sermon, it is a prayer.

These things are being declared to God. And This prayer begins exactly like the Lord's Prayer. Have you thought of that? Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever.

Blessed be your glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise. And on and on for a couple of verses there. It's a beginning with a hallowing, a praising, and acknowledging the name and the goodness of God. The greatness and the goodness of God are just on display, just like Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew chapter 6. Then in verses 7-31, this long stretch, we have a recounting to God of the history of the nation.

So again, not a sermon, a prayer. It's a recounting the history of the nation to God. It is sort of a laying out our history to God. And it is an acknowledgement of their dealings with each other. In other words, God you have been dealing with us for a long time.

Here's what it looks like. Here have been your dealings with us. God, we've been dealing with you for a long time. Here's what our dealings with you have looked like for a long time. It's an acknowledgement of their dealings with each other.

Here's a breakdown of that. It's a chronological recounting. In other words, It's a long, long history in microscopic form. It's time period by time period by time period in order. It's chronological.

It's in order of when it happens. So it is a history in that account. It begins in verses 7 and 8 with Father Abraham. Israel is named after his grandson. Jacob is his grandson, right?

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Abram is not the only one who gets a name change. Jacob gets a name change to Israel. The nation takes its name from the grandson. The nation begins with Father Abraham.

He had many sons. Many sons had Father Abraham. And so the history begins with the promises that God makes to Abraham. That's what we get in verses 7 and 8. Then in verses 9 through 12, we have Egypt, the slavery of the people, the people crying out and then God delivering them.

So that is verses 9-12. Then in verses 13-17 we have Sinai, the people come to the Mount and God gives them the Law. This is Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments, the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. In the history, It's made so clear that God gave them good laws. This is a blessing.

This is a blessing. It's a curse if you break the law, but the law is a blessing. The law is good. And our text affirms that. Then in verses 18-21, we have 40 years in the wilderness.

God says, I sustained you for 40 years. Your clothes didn't wear out, your feet didn't swell, You always had bread, you always had water, I sustained you for 40 years in a place that didn't have things to sustain you. The wilderness is not where millions of people go to be sustained. Unless God is supernaturally sustaining. Unless you can walk out in the morning and gather manna, and water comes out of rocks and things like that.

That's not where you go to be sustained, but God sustained them anyway. Forty years of care. Deuteronomy chapter 1, God says, I carried you like a son. Forty years He carried them in the wilderness. Then in verses 22-25, it's the taking possession of the land.

God actually gives them the land after 40 years. They had refused to go in 40 years earlier, but now God gives it to them. There's talk of Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, the giant king of Bashan. They're just representative of mighty nations that were mightier than the people of Israel, but Israel conquered them anyway because God was with them. That's what verses 22 through 25 are about.

In verses 26 and 27, you have the time of the judges. It was a really, really, really, really, really dark time in the history of Israel. It was the time where every man did what was right in his own eyes. You see this reflected just in these two verses, verses 26 and 27. You see this cycle repeating itself.

The people rebel against God and so he gives their enemies victory against them. Then they cry out and then he sends them a deliverer. Then They have rest for a little while. And rinse and repeat. Cut and paste.

They do it all over again. And then they do it all over again. And if you've read the book of Judges recently, they do it all over again. It just keeps happening. God gives them into the hands of their enemies.

They cry out. He delivers them. They have a little bit of rest, and then it all happens again and again and again. Then in verses 28-31, this ends the history. It's the time of the prophets.

It's interesting to me, it's not called the time of the kings, it really is the time of the kings also, but in this recounting to God of their dealings with each other, they recount that it's the time of the prophets. It's the time where God spoke to them and tried to bring them back by rebuking them for their sins. That brings them to the present day. So You have this tremendous sweep of history in verses 7-31. It begins with Abram around 2166 BC.

Abram is 2166 years or something close to that before the time of Jesus Christ and it ends in 444 something like that 444 BC is the time of Nehemiah Nehemiah's return from Babylon to Jerusalem. 1700 years of dealings with each other. Of God dealing with this nation, and of this nation dealing with God. 1700 years. What a sweep of history.

It's a remarkable summary of history, but don't forget, it's a prayer. It's a recounting, it's an acknowledging that this is what brought us here today before you God. We are here today because you have been dealing with us in faithfulness for 1700 years. So it is really a declaration to God of His faithfulness and saying, we're here today, we're behind this wall that you supernaturally allowed us to rebuild and repair. We're here because you're faithful.

We were unfaithful, you were faithful. We were unfaithful. You were faithful. You were faithful. You were faithful.

And now we are standing before you today. Because you are faithful. You have performed your words. For you are righteous. In verses 32-37, it brings us almost to the end of the chapter.

It's an appeal to God. We've acknowledged our history and our dealings with one another. Now God help us. God have mercy on us. It's an appeal to God, acknowledging that he has dealt justly and faithfully with them, but that the nation has done wickedly time and time again.

So it's an appeal not based on God now, now we're here, now we've got our act together, it's so far from that, it's an appeal based on His mercy. They've essentially proved that He's a merciful God by recounting the history. So now they appeal to God based just because you are merciful. We are bold to come and appeal to you for help because you have proved yourself to be merciful for 1700 years. I think this is how we should understand that.

In fact, verse 33. Look at verse 33. It makes it so clear that it is an appeal based on mercy. However, You are just in all that has befallen us, for you have dealt faithfully, but we have done wickedly." He's appealing based on his faithfulness and His mercy. Then finally the chapter ends in verse 38, the last verse of the chapter, and they commit to enter into a covenant together.

This is the set up verse for chapter 10. We are going to spend two weeks looking at the covenant that they make with God in chapter 10. It's the lead in. They commit to enter into a covenant with God to obey Him at the end of the chapter. Spoiler alert, they won't really keep their covenant.

By the end of Nehemiah, very specific things that they enter into a covenant to, they'll be breaking by the end of chapter 13. So that is the structure of chapter 9. Now the value of Bible history. I think this is one of the key things we need to come away from this text gaining, having obtained. Histories like Nehemiah 9 happen all over the Bible.

God thinks it's important. And so we should think it's important. How do you know God thinks it's important? Because He's allocated so much space in the Scriptures to his dealings with his people and his people's dealings with him. Both are important.

I want us to sit at the feet of two great teachers for the next few minutes, which Both are arguing for the value of Bible history. The first teacher that we will sit at the feet of is Asaph, Psalm 78. The second teacher that we will sit at the feet of is the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10. Let's begin by turning to Psalm 78. Asaph is the writer of this Psalm.

It's really long, and if we read it and overlaid it onto Nehemiah 9, we'd find it matching up so many different points. It really is a very comparable history of the nation of Israel. But we're not going to do that because we don't have near enough time to do that. I'd like to read verses 1-8 of Psalm 78 and then make a number of observations. Psalm 78, a contemplation of Asaph.

Give ear, O my people, to my law, Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he has done. For he has established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. And may not be like their fathers a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Asaph opens up this great recounting of the history of the nation this way. Verses 3 and 4 he says, We've been told and we're telling. We got it from our fathers and we are giving it to our children. In the second half of verse 4 he says, it is for praises that our children might know the strength of God and that they might know His wonderful works. So our fathers taught us about the strength of God and His wonderful works and we learned it and our Children must know it too.

God is strong and God has done wonderful things for His people. Our dads told us that and our children have to know that. In verses 5 and 6, Asaph says that God's desire is for this to stretch through the generations. You keep getting father to son, to father to son, to father to son. I think there are four generations if you count them up in verses 5 and 6.

It's the fathers have passed it to us, that the generation to come might know that they might arise and impart it to their children. So there's your four generations. God has always intended this to flow down through the generations. And Then in verses seven and eight, this is really the punch line of what Asaph is teaching as we sit at his feet. Says there are two great reasons to pass these histories through the generations.

Here's the two great reasons. One that they may set their hope in God. Two, that they may not be like their fathers. That's why you tell your children of the strength and the mighty works of God. The dealings of God with His people and the dealings of His people with God.

This is why you tell them to your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren. One, that they might set their hope in God. It's to give them hope in God. It's to impart faith to them if God would give you grace. It teaches them that God can be hoped in.

If we don't learn anything else from the 1700 years of the nation of history, let's learn this. God can be hoped in. He is a solid object for your trust. That's why you should tell your children, your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren that they may set their hope in God. The second reason is equally important, that they may not be like their fathers.

The power of negative example. Don't we have both of these in spades, in abundance in Nehemiah chapter 9. It should build our faith. It should increase our hoping in God and it should teach us not to be like our fathers. The power of negative example is on display.

We have the same needs. We have those needs. Our children have those needs. We need faith. We need to set our hope in God.

And when we've obtained saving faith as a gift from God, it needs to grow. These histories, not only will it help us, make us wise to salvation, that's what 2 Timothy 3 says, that's what Paul says to Timothy about the Word of God. It makes you wise to salvation. It doesn't automatically save you, but it gives you the wisdom that's needed for salvation. It imparts that to you.

It helps you hope in God. We need that, but then we need to grow. You look at these histories and you see the faithfulness of God and you see his mighty acts on behalf of your people. You can't help but have your faith grow because he's demonstrated his faithfulness and his power and intervening, intervening, intervening, intervening on behalf of his people for 1700 years. Now we are not going to believe that God will intervene for us.

How can this be? And It helps us see all the pits that our fathers have fallen in. You know what? The pits haven't gone anywhere. The same pits are here.

We shouldn't be like our fathers in so many ways. This helps us to see the things that snared our forefathers so that we are on the lookout, we are discerning. That's Asaph. Now to Paul in 1 Corinthians 10. I don't have many comments on it, but I want to read a large section.

I want to read 1-13. Hopefully you're there with me at 1 Corinthians 10 beginning in verse 1. Paul writes, Moreover brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after the things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the People sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day 23, 000 fell. Nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents.

Nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happen to them as examples and They were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stand take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." Look again at verse 6.

So has given you Old Testament history. A lot of it that is contained in Nehemiah chapter 9. Here is what he says about it in verse 6. Now these things became our example to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. He's agreeing with Asaph.

He's pointing to the negative example. They were idolaters. Don't be idolaters. They tempted God. Don't tempt God.

They grumbled. Don't grumble. They followed their lusts. Don't follow your lusts. He is saying exactly what Asaph was saying.

It is repeated in verse 11. Look at verse 11. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Then he talks about the temptations.

Look at the temptations. They're common temptations. Study your history for the common temptations so that you don't fall into the same temptations. Take heed if you think you stand, lest you fall." So we find this everywhere in scripture, the histories. If you turn to the table of contents, you don't have to, but I am.

Look for the books that are dominated by history. Genesis dominated by history. Exodus dominated by history. Leviticus numbers in Deuteronomy has a lot of history but I wouldn't say that it's dominated by history. Joshua dominated by history.

Judges dominated by history. Ruth, yes. 1st and 2nd Samuel, yes. 1st and 2nd Kings, yes. 1st and 2nd Chronicles, yes.

Ezra, yes. Nehemiah, yes. Esther, yes. Job, yes. Psalms and Proverbs, no.

The prophets, no. Look at all that, the sweep of Old Testament history, how much is devoted to history. Asaph tells us why. Paul tells us why. It will make us wise to salvation.

It will help us to set our hope in God. It will help us increase our faith. And it gives us the negative examples. It gives us the bear traps that are waiting for our feet. The minute you step into it, CLAMP!

It tells you what those pits look like. How about the New Testament? Matthew, yes. Mark, yes. Luke, yes.

John, yes. Acts, yes. Romans in the epistles, no. Revelation, no. Still, so much in the New Testament, also given to history, all for the same purpose, that we might set our hope in God and that we might not be like our fathers.

So much benefit from the Bible histories. Finally, understand the prominence of Bible history in the Gospel preaching of the early church. This didn't go away with the Old Testament. The history of the Lord's people being set before the eyes of the people for these reasons didn't stop in the book of Acts. It continued.

If you look at how Jesus preaches in Matthew 23, when he's giving the seven or eight woes to the Pharisees, he's rebuking the Pharisees. He ends by saying, your fathers killed the prophets and you're just like them. He's using it just as we see it used in the Old Testament. If you look at Acts chapter 7, this is Deacon Stephen's sermon in Acts chapter 7. It is a fantastic sermon and it reads almost exactly like Nehemiah chapter 9.

It's a history of the nation of Israel. Why is Stephen doing that? It's the New Testament era. Why is Stephen preaching the Old Testament history? Because it's a history of what God is like, and it's a history of what man is like, and it forces us to think about redemption.

That's why they preach that way. Because it preaches the holiness of God, and it preaches the fallenness of man, and it brings you right to the doorstep of the cross. That's what the Old Testament histories do. Paul preaches this way, Peter preaches this way. They are always pulling material from the Old Testament history and using it.

Why? Because it is the gospel narrative. The history of the Bible is the history of a holy God and unholy people who are desperately sinful and need Christ. So that was the structure of chapter 9, the value of Bible history, now the main themes. I want to give you four main themes of the history that is set before us in EMI chapter 9.

You know to boil down this to four main themes, Many things are passed over. And yet, you keep seeing certain things bubble up as you read through. Appear again and again. If God is repeating it, it is important. So I think these four themes just keep...

These are the things I keep seeing bubbling up in Nehemiah chapter 9. Number one, the active sovereignty of God. The active sovereignty of God. It's active. There's a belief in sovereignty that still sort of expects God to be passive.

He can do anything. It's an acknowledgement. He can do anything. But the sense is, he doesn't really do much. That's not what Scripture teaches.

The Scriptures teach, and this history teaches, active sovereignty. Active means he's doing things, he's doing a lot of things. And it is sovereignty. No one stops him. When he goes to do something, he does it.

No one can hold his hand back. This is a theme of this history. As Jim pointed out two weeks ago, it begins in verse 7 with God choosing Abraham. God bringing Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans. God changing his name and saying, you were this, you are not this anymore.

You are this now. Why? Because I am God. You used to live here. You are not living here anymore.

I am bringing you out of Ur of the Chaldeans. I'm giving your descendants lands. I'm subjecting nations to your descendants. Why? Because I'm God.

And it continues throughout the whole history. I did an exercise. I don't know if you can see this or not. I need to switch them, don't I? So, in this column is God, and this column is Israel.

I just went through verses 9 through 31 where the history ends. If God did something, I noted it, it's only Bible words. This isn't commentary on anything, it's just a verse and words from that verse. Israel here, they are doing things down to about this point in the page. God in his doings finishes the page and then this page is all God.

What this goes to say is that God is the main actor in the history of his people. Here it is in pictorial form. Israel's actions end right here, towards the bottom of page one. God blows through the bottom of page one and gobbles up most of page two. God is the main actor in the history of His people.

God isn't curiously looking on as history meanders. Did you get me there? God isn't curiously looking on as history meanders here and there. He's taking it somewhere. This is a major theme in the history.

God is taking history to His preordained ending. What was true of those 1700 years is true this minute. You've got 1700 years of it in Nehemiah chapter 9. It's true this second. Jesus Christ is sitting on the throne.

He's reigning. His enemies are being made his footstool. He's acting sovereignly every minute in our world, in our lives. Secondly, the second theme. The goodness, faithfulness, and mercy of God in those sovereign actions.

Theme number one was the active sovereignty of God. Theme number two is the goodness, faithfulness, and mercy of God in those sovereign actions. In other words, you can see God is acting so much more than Israel is acting. He is the main actor. What characterizes those actions?

We have a lot of them. They span 1700 years of history. What are they like? They are like goodness, they are like faithfulness, they are like mercy. Let's look at each of those individually.

God is comprehensively good in his actions in this history. That just means there are no exceptions. When you look down the two-page list of his actions across these 1700 years, he is comprehensively good, with that exception. He is hearing the cries of his people. He is delivering his people from bondage.

He is giving them good laws. By the way, a point on the laws, the stretch of text about Sinai. There is only one law mentioned by name, specifically. It's the Sabbath. Why is that?

I think it's because it's highlighting that God gives rest to his people. It's just highlighting the goodness of God. He gave laws at Sinai. They were good laws. Let me prove it.

He gives rest to his people. He's sustaining his people with bread and water and having their clothes not wear out for 40 years in the wilderness. He's giving them land that they couldn't conquer in their own power. They will drink from wells that they didn't dig. They'll live in houses that they didn't build.

They'll inhabit cities that they didn't build. They'll eat from vineyards that they didn't plant. He's sending deliverers when they've been defeated by their enemies. He sends prophets to speak to them when they need to be rebuked, when they need to be brought back. His goodness is comprehensive.

He's comprehensively good in this history. Secondly, God is comprehensively faithful in His actions in these histories. Here is what is remarkable about that. I think it is easy to prove it. He is comprehensively faithful across these 1700 years.

But here's what's remarkable about it. This is in the face of almost comprehensive unfaithfulness. So it doubles the weight of it. Not only is God faithful, He is faithful in the face of unfaithfulness. He has given every reason to drop it.

You can imagine. Verse 17 and verse 19, you did not forsake them. Verse 20, you did not withhold your manna. They made an idol, you did not withhold your manna. Verse 27, you heard from heaven and gave them deliverers.

Verse 28, almost exactly the same thing, you delivered them from their enemies. Verse 30, you had patience with them. And again, I've already read verse 33, they just acknowledged that God was just and faithful across the 1700 years and that they were wicked. Great is thy faithfulness. O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with thee.

You have performed your words for you are righteous." God's consideration is that he has promised it. Lastly God is comprehensively merciful in His actions in this history. He is comprehensively good, He is comprehensively faithful, and now He is comprehensively merciful in his actions in this history. Every act of unfaithfulness chronicled in Nehemiah chapter 9 deserves death. So look in Nehemiah 9 and look at all the unfaithfulness and know that every act of it deserves death.

The wages of sin is death. And not only did God not give them what they deserved, not only did He meet out their wages, pay their wages, but He acted in goodness and mercy the whole time. Verse 31, If you're in Nehemiah chapter 9, look at verse 31. Nevertheless, nevertheless, okay, so it starts with a word of contrast. Even in light of all the unfaithfulness that has been laid before you in the chapter, nevertheless, in spite of all that, in your great mercy you did not utterly consume them nor forsake them, For you are God, gracious and merciful." Nevertheless, we got the history of us.

We know what the history of us is. How greatly we've provoked you, how persistently we've provoked you, nevertheless, what a precious word in this context. God overlooks that. Why does he overlook that? Because of who he is?

Because he's merciful? Nevertheless, in your great mercy you did not utterly consume them nor forsake them. For you are God, gracious and merciful. That is why. Even the judgments that are related in the chapter, even the judgments have redemptive purposes.

Even the judgments, even when God allowed their enemies to have victory over them, it was so that they would turn back to him. The text is so clear about that. Even in the condemnations that were being shouted out by the prophets, was so that they would turn. It was not to pronounce an eternal condemnation, an irrevocable condemnation. It was to turn the people back to Him.

That's what the judgments, that's what the declarations of the prophets were. They were actually acts of mercy. Even the judgments in the history of Israel were acts of mercy to turn the people's hearts. To make them know that they were in desperate need of God. Number three.

Number one was the act of sovereignty of God. Number two was the goodness, faithfulness, and mercy of God in those sovereign actions. Number three is the utter inability of man to persist in righteousness. It just slaps you in the face when you come to Nehemiah chapter 9. It's just like a bucket of cold water.

Splash! You cannot get away from it when you read it. The utter inability of man to persist in righteousness. Oh man can persist. We see that.

We see 700 years of persistence. But it's stiffening the neck. It's shrugging the shoulders. It's refusing to obey. 1700 years, one pattern.

Our hearts are prone to wander. I don't want to be misunderstood. I'm saying the inability of man. You can take that as man's a victim. He just can't do it.

Here's the nature of the inability. Man is unable because he is unwilling. He goes happily along with the rebellion. The nature of the inability is just unwillingness. He can't because he doesn't want to.

Nothing in him wants to do otherwise. Nothing in him wants to persist in righteousness. So you have these little bursts of repentance, but they don't last. What lasts is the rebellion in chapter 9. 1700 years, one pattern.

Verse 16, they acted proudly. Verse 16, they hardened their necks. Verse 17, they refused to obey. Verse 17, they were not mindful of God's wonders. They forgot His miracles.

Verse 18, they made a molded calf. Verse 26, they were disobedient. Verse 26, they rebelled against God. Verse 26, they cast God's law behind their backs. They cast his law behind their backs and just acted like you've never said anything to us.

You've never commanded us anything. Verse 30, they would not listen. They stopped up their ears. That is the nature of the inability. You never said anything to me.

What? I can't hear you. Unable to persist in righteousness. Here's a critical point. This is God's people.

This isn't Sodom and Gomorrah. This is Israel. This is the most favored. The oracles of God are given to them. Paul says that in Romans chapter 3.

To them belong the oracles of God. They had the best chance, The best opportunity to persist in righteousness. So it's not like this is a history of a wicked people, but better things were happening elsewhere. No, worse things were happening everywhere else. This is the best that the heart of man has to offer us this 1700 years of persistent wickedness and rebellion.

Something is desperately wrong with us. This is a value of the history. Something's wrong. You come away from this history, and you have to know there's no hope within this people. Sometimes you have a bad story and you say well the sample size is small.

It might not be a rule, it might just be a bad instance. 1700 years, almost two millennia of time, We're not lacking in sample size. If it was going to happen, it would have happened with this people. If it was going to happen, it would have happened with this people. If it was going to happen, it would have happened somewhere in the 1700 years.

There's no hope within this people. When you read the Puritans, they talk about alien righteousness. It's not righteousness from outer space. It means it comes from without. If you're going to be righteous, it has to come from without.

This is what we learned from Nehemiah chapter 9. Righteousness is alien. There's no hope in here. There's no hope within those people. There's no hope within this heart.

If there is going to be righteousness, it is going to have to be alien righteousness. It is going to have to be Righteousness that is out there and that is given to you as a gift. Now we know in full, it's Christ. He is our only hope of righteousness. If there's no Christ, there's not going to be any righteousness.

It doesn't matter if you make it from 1700 years to a million years, you're never going to have righteousness. It's alien. That was number three. The utter inability of man to persist in righteousness. Now the last theme I'm going to speak of, number four, is the good news.

The actions of God are not determined by man's inability, But by two things. One, his essential nature. Two, his eternal purpose. I'll say that again. Number four, the actions of God are not determined by man's inability.

In other words, our inability to persist in righteousness doesn't seal our fate. The actions of God are determined by these two things, his essential nature, what he is like, his character, and to his eternal purpose, what he has just decided to do, where he has decided to take history before the first day of history. Isaiah says that, God, you determined the end from the beginning, before the first day the end was set. It was unchangeable. If God was not who He is, and if God were reacting to man, He would have cast us off.

If anything in the universe is certain, it's this. If God were not who He is, who is He? He is gracious and merciful. He is abounding in mercy. He is patient.

If God were not who He is, and if God were reacting to man, He would have cast us off. In other words, if He were looking for some hopeful sign in order to unleash His favor on us, His favor would remain with Him till the end of eternity. But He's not looking for a hopeful sign. He is a God who is determined that He is going to have mercy on people. He is going to be merciful.

He is going to go capture trophies of His grace. He is going to take sinners who didn't deserve to be rescued and he is going to rescue them to prove who he is. He is not waiting on them. He is not looking for something in them. Here is what Paul says in Romans 9.

This is the great chapter on election. Romans 9.29, I quote this a lot. This means you should memorize it. Romans 9.29 will serve you so well because it just keeps your mindset right. It calibrates your mind in ways where we're radically predisposed to be uncalibrated.

Here it is. Uncalibrated. Here it is. Unless the Lord of Sabaoth, unless the Lord of Hosts, unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom. We would have been made like Gomorrah.

Romans 9.29, unless the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies had left us a seed, had left us a remnant, we would have become like Sodom. We would have been made like Gomorrah. What happened at Sodom and Gomorrah? Total 100% annihilation. You understand, if everybody gets what they deserve, Sodom and Gomorrah.

If God pays you your wages, Sodom and Gomorrah. It's not a surprise that he condemns people, it's a surprise that he saves people. That's what's unanswerable in this world. But he has decided to save people because of who he is. Because he's merciful.

Gracious. He is abounding in mercy. Here are the applications. Number one, obvious. Give careful attention to the Bible histories.

I went through the table of contents and I proved that so much of the Bible space is given to Bible histories. Give careful attention to them. They will help you set your hope in God, as Asaph says in Psalm 78. They'll make you wise to salvation, and then they'll help your faith to grow, reading the histories. And they'll help us not be like our fathers.

Both very valuable. The second one. This is the big one to me. I think this is the thing we should come away from the text with. Having gained.

Bask in the faithfulness of God. Which is not contingent on your faithfulness. Bask! You know what basking is, right? It's a cat in the sunbeam.

Basking stretched out in the sunbeam. Bask in the faithfulness of God which is not contingent on your faithfulness. Our brains veer that way, thinking that we are handicapping God by our own faithfulness. Now, it does matter what we do. I'm not teaching that it doesn't matter what we do.

I'm just saying that God is not going to be bossed around by what we do. Listen to Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 13. The Apostle Paul, 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 13. 2 Timothy 2 verse 13, If we are faithful, he casts us off forever. Right?

Isn't that how it goes? If we are faithless, He's done with you. No. Here's the real verse. If we are faithless, He remains faithful.

He cannot deny Himself. Here's why God is faithful. Because He's God and He's faithful. He's who He is. And if you're joined to Christ, he can't turn his back on Christ.

He won't turn his back on Christ. He'll preserve you. He'll bring you safely to the finish line. He can turn your heart. Even when you're faithless, He can send a prophet.

He can send a judgment. To turn you around like he did for 1700 years for Israel. He did not cast them off. He sent the things that would correct. And it was mercy.

It was mercy for him to let Nebuchadnezzar drag them into captivity. It preserved them as a people. It was mercy for him to send prophets who would shout condemnations because they were intended to turn the people's hearts back to God. Let's talk about you. Maybe your greatest discouragement is you.

Maybe you are discouraged. And when you look at the source of the discouragement, you say, it's me, I'm the source of the discouragement. I can't get my act together. I can count my blessings, I can see that God has been good to me, and I can see that I keep not being good to God. Welcome to the history of Israel.

Welcome to 1700 years of God's dealing with Israel and Israel's dealings with God. So maybe your greatest discouragement is you. Maybe it's right that your greatest discouragement is you. Let your greatest encouragement be God. If you're discouraged because you can't get your act together, be encouraged about the nature of God and that even though you're faithless if you're in Christ, He remains faithful.

Here's probably the key reason that I know I'm in Christ. Because there have been a hundred times in the last thirty years that I was drifting off into the weeds. And God didn't let me keep drifting. He brought the correctives into my life that turned me back. So in spite of my sinfulness, in spite of my stubbornness, I have a stiff neck, In spite of my stupidity, God didn't let me keep veering.

He brought me back, and He brought me back, and He brought me back, and He brought me back. So I can only come to one conclusion. I'm in Christ. He's just determined. He's going to show me His mercy.

He's just determined that He's going to keep me. How do I know that? Because I keep being kept. I keep being kept. Thank God for His mercy.

Let's pray. God, I do thank you for your great mercy. It's good to have Nehemiah chapter 9, but I'm not sure that we need it. I think we can look at our lives and see that you have dealt faithfully with us and we have dealt wickedly with you. But I thank you that even when your people are faithless, you remain faithful.

You're determined to keep them and you have the power to do it. So we thank you for the goodness that there is in the gospel. Help us never presume upon your grace, God. Thinking that grace will abound, we just sin. I hope not to presume upon it, but I thank you that You are gracious.

You are abounding in mercy. Thank you for the words of Nehemiah chapter 9 that helps us to set our hope in you. Now help us not to be like our forefathers. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for watching!