Scripture: Nehemiah 13:1-31
Sermon Series: Nehemiah: Making a Difference for God – Sermon 14

If the Bible were a fairy tale, the book of Nehemiah would end with And they lived happily ever after? Did you know fairy tales have been sanitized from their original version? For instance, Little Red Riding Hood. In the original there’s no heroic woodcutter to kill the wolf. Instead, the wolf eats the grandmother, tricks Little Red Riding Hood and then eats her too.

Most fairy tales would end a chapter sooner at the end of chapter 12. The completion of the walls was followed by a revival, public written covenants to live obediently to God, and a huge celebration heard for miles.  Most writers would have ended there on a high note, but Nehemiah wrote one more chapter. He’s more interested in truth than some spiritual fairy tale.  

After the wall project was complete, Nehemiah went back to Persia as a senior advisor to the king. When he finally retired from his government job, he returned to Jerusalem. He’s now around 70. 

Chapter 13 records what Nehemiah discovers when he returns. When he left the sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away (Nehemiah12:43), but these same people had now violated the covenant they’d signed, so Nehemiah came back hitting hard like an NFL linebacker. 

They’d made promises to obey God. Now we find each promise has been broken. That’s because the most spiritual person can find their standards begin to erode if they begin accommodating to the pressures of sin.

Nehemiah 13 is a microcosm of the whole Old Testament and a mirror of each our lives. It’s one thing to start well, but too few Christians and too few churches and even denominations end well.

This morning I want to share with you the one thing that can keep you from experiencing all that God wants to do in your life. We want to talk about the one thing that can keep us from experiencing all God wants to do through us as a church – spiritual carelessness. 

Do you realize that from the moment you wake up there’s an adversary who wants to destroy you? His temptations are waiting for you, tempting you to scroll through your phone instead of reading God’s Word. They’re tempting you with various distractions, keeping you from time alone with God in prayer. They’re tempting you all day long from varied angles; pride, anger, and impure thoughts. They tempt you to envy or worry. They’re tempting you with impatience, harsh words, unforgiveness. They tempt you to spend your money on things that won’t last or spend time on things that don’t matter. Maintaining a healthy relationship with God demands vigilance. 

Are you getting the point? You’re surrounded by temptations 24/7. Spiritual warfare starts the moment you wake up. Spiritual carelessness is the initial phase of sinning. As we work through this chapter, if you’re taking notes…

1. They began well with God’s Word, vss. 1-3. 

On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent (Nehemiah 13:1-3). 

We must commend them. They’re reading God’s Word. It’s tragic that many Christians rarely read the Bible and then wonder why they have so little peace or joy. Not only did they read it, but they also applied it…immediately. 

The Bible is like a tiger. You don’t have to defend it. You just let it loose and it will transform lives. The Bible is not to be informational. It’s to be transformational. It must be applied. James 1 compares Scripture to a mirror. When you see dirt and blemishes on your face, you do something. 

As we regularly immerse ourselves in the Bible, the Holy Spirit uses it to transform us into who He wants us to be. It often involves convicting us of sin and exposing areas where we’re not what God wants us to be. Is that happening in your life? It’s evidence that you’re truly saved. We need to read God’s Word and apply it, letting the Spirit use it to transform us.

The Ammonites and Moabites are singled out because of their devious schemes against Israel when they came into the Promised Land – at least a thousand years before. They hired a false prophet, Balaam, to curse Israel.

God has a long memory when it comes to injustice done to His people. As a judgment on these nations, He excluded them from His house.

What’s wonderful to understand is that this ban wasn’t absolute.  An Ammonite or a Moabite who converted to faith in Israel’s God was not banned. There are some notable examples of Moabites and Ammonites who became full participants in Israel’s religious life.  Perhaps the most notable was Ruth the Moabitess, who became the grandmother of King David and an ancestor of Jesus, and in found in His genealogy in Matthew 1.  

Wonderfully, today anyone can become a member of the family of God simply by repenting of their sin and placing his/her faith in Jesus as their Savior. No religious rites and rituals are required, no list of rules and regulations must first be obeyed. It’s simply committing your life to Christ and trusting Him as your Lord and Savior.

Have you done that? Then, are you reading and applying the Bible? Or are you procrastinating on a change the Bible has pointed out? To have God’s blessing they had to obey and get these pagans out of God’s House. Vance Havner said, Satan is not fighting churches – he is joining them.

Only when we open our Bibles and apply it, will we recognize its power to save and transform us. It’s where we must begin if we want to see our own lives and churches transformed. Unfortunately, after this spiritual carelessness sets in, and things rapidly go downhill.

2. They allowed evil inhabitants into God’s House, vss. 4-9. 

Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests. While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem…[But when] I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber…I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense (Nehemiah 13:4-7). 

When is it easiest to throw out biblical truth? When a family member is living in violation of God’s Word. With the hot button issues of homosexuality and transgenderism, parents will change their view of what God’s Word says if their child is living in violation of Scripture. FYI: God’s Word only allows one sexual relationship, a married heterosexual one. 

Eliashib, the priest, one of the first ones who stepped up to rebuild the walls is somehow related to this weasel. Because they’re related he lets the fox move into the hen house. It’s “evil” (vs. 7). Eliashib betrays God and His people. Those rooms were to be used for storage for the Levites’ provisions. Tobiah’s “guest” room meant that there wasn’t room for them. Eliashib not only defiled the Temple, but he also robbed God’s servants of their income. Apparently, Tobiah was half Ammonite and half-Jew. He has a Jewish name that meant “God is good.” But Eliashib cultivated an evil relationship. Blood had priority over doing what was right and pleasing God. 

Many struggle with this. Some lose their family by coming to Christ. Others lose peace in their marriage by doing what pleases God. It can cost a job or friends. If you’re going to live for Jesus, you’ll have enemies. 

Today we’d say Nehemiah wasn’t “tolerant.” Our culture has taken tolerance to lunacy. Please understand, we believe in tolerance. Tolerance today though means calling evil good. Isaiah 5:20, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Anything goes but what God’s Word says. Those who hold to Scripture are called hateful or bigots. But tolerating Tobiah meant he infiltrates the core of their worship, the Temple.

Nehemiah does the tough stuff. He actions what Jesus did 500 years later when he kicks money changers out of the Temple. It’s righteous indignation. 

The problem demanded drastic, immediate action. And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.

Nehemiah goes off on Tobiah!  He shoved him out the door and then threw his furniture, TV, and laptop into the street, and ordered the rooms sanitized. 

Where we are personally or as a church in ten years will be determined by what our authority is and who our friends are today. Wrong friendships damage our spiritual integrity. Do you have some friends who are dragging you down spiritually? Is it time to sanitize your relationships?

 3. They became careless about their commitments, vss. 10-14. 

Did you know the most serious flying accidents for single engine planes are caused, not by novice pilots, but by pilots with the most experience. 75% are by pilots with over 400 hours of flight time. Apparently, these pilots assumed that because they’re experienced, they could cut corners and got sloppy.

It happens with Christians too. Those who know better start cutting corners. The Jews stopped giving as they were commanded to, so the Levites and priests were forced to go make a living in the fields. I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field (Nehemiah 13:10). 

I knew a man some years ago who really knew the Bible. He could teach Scripture. He was being considered for a leadership position at church, and the Financial Secretary declined him because this man didn’t give a dime. 

Jesus said, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21). Baby Christians are learning how to give. The more mature a believer is, the more they love Jesus, the more that they love to give. 

Our giving is one of the clearest evidences of our heart’s true condition. The one who usually has the greatest handle on someone’s spiritual maturity in a church isn’t the pastor, it’s the Financial Secretary. FYI: No one should ever be in a place of leadership in a church if Jesus is not Lord of their finances. 

The Levites were supported by tithes. The nation had covenanted to keep this promise. Tobiah’s accommodations hindered God’s people from obeying God’s Word. Unrepented sin always leads to other sins. 

To survive and feed their families, the Levites were forced to farm causing them to neglect more important spiritual ministries. What does Nehemiah do? He confronted them and obedience was re-activated. To ensure that this disobedience didn’t happen again, he appointed godly men to oversee the storing of the tithes in the storerooms. Michael Andrus insightfully says, Churches don’t have financial problems; they only have spiritual problems which produce financial symptoms.

Did you know that the average American household spends about $75 per week eating out but the average Christian family gives between $17 to $30 per week in their giving at church. Do you see a priority issue? 

Currently, we’re seeking to build an addition. Some of you are concerned we don’t have enough money. Yes, we have enough. It’s really not a financial issue; it’s a spiritual one. God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). Are you a cheerful giver? A generous one? 

4. They prioritized making money over obeying God, vss. 15-22. 

Have you heard of Eli Herring? He was a 340-pound offensive tackle. In his senior year of college, he was considered the top senior offensive tackle in the pro draft. But Eli Herring turned down a possible multimillion-dollar deal with the Oakland Raiders because he didn’t want to play on Sunday. 

He’s a high school math teacher now. Unable to get football completely out of his blood, he coaches the offensive line at a high school. 

The New Testament doesn’t prohibit working on Sunday or playing football, just watching it…I’m kidding. Pick it up at verse 15: In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, ‘What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?‘ (Nehemiah 13:15-17). 

Some merchants from Tyre had no scruples about the Sabbath and were doing a brisk business on the Sabbath. Some Jews also had excuses (they would have called them “reasons”) for violating the Sabbath. “If I don’t tread my grapes that day, they will rot!” “Everyone else is doing business then on the Sabbath, I can’t compete if I close up my shop!” 

New Testament Christians aren’t under Israel’s Sabbath laws, but like these Jews, it’s easy to make up excuses for why we put business and the pursuit of pleasure ahead of worship. “I’d like to spend time alone with God every day, but I’ve got to work.” “I’d like to go to church, but Sunday is my only day to chill.” Spiritual permissiveness always affects how we spend our time.

Corporate worship is God’s plan. It’s to be a priority for the people of God. We need community. We need time with other believers. Usually, when there’s spiritual decline in our lives, there’s been a decline of time with God alone and worshipping God together with other Christ-followers. 

Israel’s new god was money. Commerce replaced holiness. Instead of putting God first, they put profits first. And Nehemiah confronted them for their disobedience. As believers we have that same biblical responsibility of confronting error and warning the deliberately disobedient. 

5. They put sex before purity, vss. 23-27. 

In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?

You’ve probably never heard of Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. When Senator Joe McCarthy was on his Communist witch hunt in the 1950s, she bravely spoke out against him when others feared to and rightly accused him of using fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear.

Nehemiah takes a stand. We are called to do the same against the culturally accepted evils in our day. But it takes courage to stand for what the Bible teaches. We’re never to be mean, yet we must stand where the Bible stands. 

We’ve seen this before. Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab (Nehemiah 13:23) were their enemies, now they’re Israel’s marriage partners. They were sleeping with the enemy. The prophet Malachi’s prophecy tells us that they were divorcing Jewish wives to marry idol worshippers for business partnerships to make more money. But their moral compromise was costing them their children and grandchildren. If their children can’t speak Hebrew, they can’t read or understand their Scripture.  

There is no more vulnerable area of your life than that of the emotional attachments you form with the opposite sex. Satan never comes along and says to a Christian young person, “Wouldn’t you like to marry this nice girl from Ashdod? She’ll lead your children and you astray from the Lord. Your children will be half-pagan, and your grandchildren will be completely pagan.” No, Satan says, “Your parents are too strict. They follow God’s laws and insist you follow them. You’re missing out! Look at how much fun this sexy babe from Ashdod would be! You don’t have to marry her. Just go out and enjoy yourself for a change!” And before he knows it, the sexy babe from Ashdod has him compromising his morals.

Moral permissiveness begins as an innocent trickle through the dam but subtly widens until the dam bursts. By then, the damage is serious and widespread. How did Nehemiah confront this permissiveness?

Some criticize Nehemiah for being harsh and not being more tactful, but when God’s people are being poisoned by permissiveness, politeness isn’t a good option. 

If I saw you about to drink deadly poison, you wouldn’t want me politely to smile and think to myself, “I wouldn’t drink that, but I don’t want to impose my views on him. Each person has a right to his own opinions.” You’d want me to shout, “Wait! That will kill you!” And if need be, you’d want me to forcibly knock it out of your hand.

That’s what Nehemiah did. He didn’t worry about being polite or about what people would think of him. I’m sure he made enemies by what he did here, but I’m also sure he was God’s friend. Many no doubt grumbled what an unloving, harsh man he was. It’s far more loving to rudely knock the poison out of a person’s hand than to smile politely and watch him drink it. 

Conclusion

Dr. Eric Frykenberg spent 57 years in India as a missionary. Once a young missionary asked him what the most difficult problem was that he faced in his many years in Christian work. He said, It was when my heart would grow cold before God. When that happened, I knew I was too busy. I also knew it was time to get away. So, I would take my Bible and go off to the hills alone. I’d open my Bible to Matthew 27, the story of the crucifixion, and I would wrap my arms around the cross. And then I’d be ready to go back to work. Christian friend has your heart grown cold? If it has, then wrap your arms around the cross.

But maybe you’ve grown spiritually careless. John Piper said, To be caught in secret sin is a horrible thing. There’s only one thing worse—not to be caught, because one day, guaranteed, you will be caught. He’s right. It’s guaranteed that the longer you continue in secret sin, the more devastating the consequences will be. 

My heart goes out to you this morning. No doubt there are many who are holding on to secret sin. I believe that God loves you so much that in His mercy He has brought you today to hear this word, to hear Him mercifully saying, “Bring it into the light. Don’t let it stay in the dark. It will lead to more and more destruction.” 

God loves you. So, for God’s sake, for others’ sake around you, and for your sake—be careful! Secret sin too often ends in destruction.

The list of those, including pastors, who have made shipwreck of their lives is so long. I know too many personally who have forfeited so much of what God could do in their lives, their families, their work, and in churches because they were careless. They missed out on God’s best. Too many others have been hurt because of them. Please heed this word from God. 

This brings us back to Nehemiah. He has holy passion for the purity of the temple and the ministry of the Levites. It’s holy desire for the honoring of the Sabbath and the covenant of marriage, which leads Nehemiah to take hard steps, to confront evil and remove sin with force, even though that would undoubtedly cause more trouble for him. Spiritual carelessness must be replaced by spiritual carefulness!

It’s what I love about Nehemiah. We’ve seen it throughout this book. Nehemiah wasn’t looking for his reward from man. He was not looking for his reward from this world. Nehemiah was looking for his reward from God. 

Nehemiah lived for an audience of One! That’s where the joy is! That’s where God’s rewards are! How about us? How about you? How about me?