Transcript Document

Presentation 13
Presentation 13
Without doubt the greatest danger that can
affect both the individual or the church
fellowship is a spirit of complacency. Such a spirit
often springs from a false sense of security. The
environment in which complacency most
commonly grows is not one of oppression and
persecution but periods of unprecedented
blessing and success.
Spiritual complacency was the real temptress
that caused Samson’s downfall and it followed a
long period of success against the Philistines.
David’s complacency which contributed to his
adultery with Bathsheba was also preceded by a
period of unprecedented success and blessing in
the establishment of his kingdom.
Presentation 13
The blessing of God can wrongly suggest
to us that our position is unassailable and
that we are spiritually secure. We lower
our guard. We remove our spiritual
armour. We become complacent. We act
presumptuously and before we know it
our lives begin to crash around us.
This is precisely what happened in
Jerusalem. The work had been
successfully completed. The celebrations
of praise had been held. Nehemiah had
returned to Babylon and soon the people
of Jerusalem had grown complacent.
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It is a great thing, when the people of God
determine, like the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
to live under the discipline of God’s Word.
But that decision once made requires great
vigilance and effort to maintain it. It is
demanding to live this kind of life.
Now the more public we make our stand for
God, the bigger the target we become. There
is a tempter who wants to see us drown in a
morass of backsliding and disobedience. And
very quickly we lose the cutting edge of our
commitment. This is why we must guard
against complacency.
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In the first flush of our re-consecration
to God we give a notice to quite to the
sinful squatters harming our spiritual
lives and our restored fellowship with
God. We can and should in, God’s
strength, drive out from our lives all that
we know to be unholy just as the people
in Jerusalem had previously done.
However, these things can stealthily
creep back in again. Subtly and slowly
they infiltrate our lives until the flag
proclaiming God’s rule is gradually
lowered once more.
[See Bunyan’s ‘Holy War’]
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Are we surprised at the speed of spiritual decline
of God’s people so quickly after Nehemiah’s
returned to Babylon? You may ask, ‘Where are
the flames of intensity which had so recently
marked this people’s consecration to God?’
How quickly they succumbed and allowed
authorities, other than the Word of God, to rule
our lives. Indeed, we may want to question just
how deeply they had allowed God’s Word to take
root in their hearts. It is all to easy to be caught
up in the spiritual excitement of a work of God
without our own hearts being deeply affected by
it. It is possible to piggyback ride on the work of
grace God is doing in the lives of others.
Presentation 13
Think of Jesus’ parable of the soils. Some seed, which
showed initial signs of growth and fruitfulness
withered and died. Where there is no deep root then
the withering takes place very quickly. But even when
the work of God in a person’s life is deep rooted this
does not mean that they are impervious to the pull of
the world. They can surprise others, usually before
they surprise themselves, that they do not have the
commitment to God they once had.
Remove a strong leader like Nehemiah, upon whom
some may have begun to lean, or move an individual
from the warmth of a home church fellowship and a
person’s true spiritual level is often found.
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There were four areas where the people of
God in Jerusalem had failed.
1. They made room for Tobiah the enemy
of God’s people in the very heart of the
work, in the temple v4-9.
2. They failed to provide materially for the
work of God v10-14.
3. They failed to take God’s day seriously
v15-22.
4. They failed to take their own
consecration seriously they pursued
intermarriage with unbelieving heathen
neighbours v22ff.
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1. It is hard to understand why they allowed Tobiah,
who had constantly opposed God’s work, not only
residence in Jerusalem but quarters in the temple the house of God.
The mind-blowing nature of this decision could be
compared to the Jews in Berlin in the late 1930s
building an extension on to their synagogue for
Hitler’s use!
Did the people of Jerusalem fail to see how
dangerous Tobiah was to God’s work? Did they
think Nehemiah was paranoid in identifying Tobiah
as a real and present danger? Did they think that
because he was related to Eliashib the priest he
could be restrained from doing them any harm?
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This ‘trickle’ of compromise opened up the flood
gates for all the others that would follow. Once the
enemy is admitted to the heart of the work then
spiritual erosion on a sudden and dramatic scale is
only to be expected.
It should therefore come as no surprise to us that
Nehemiah upon his return to Jerusalem made it a
priority to throw Tobiah out into the streets with
all his stuff. There was no period of grace until a
removal van could be arranged.
The action was immediate.
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This is the pattern we must follow as
we apply the spiritual lesson which this
passage teaches. Our hearts are God’s
temples. We must throw out, the
enemy with all his furniture,
immediately we are aware of his
presence.
We are to engage in radical surgery. Do
not put what you recognise to be
wrong in your life, sinful practices and
attitudes, on a surgical waiting list! This
is an emergency procedure! Some
things require urgent attention because
of the immediate danger they present.
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2. The people also failed to provide for the
Levites who were responsible for God’s
work in the temple. As a result the Levites
returned to their fields in order grow
sufficient food for their needs. The work of
God suffered as a result. The people of
God were guilty of neglect.
Note Nehemiah question ‘Why is the
house of God neglected? ’ v11. The people
had promised, ‘We will not neglect the
house of our God’ 10v39. But this is
precisely what they had done. And in the
process they broken vows once made with
full and grateful hearts.
Presentation 13
Their hearts had begun to grow cold. They had
given room to the enemy and his influence is
seen in a cooling of their commitment.
There is a challenge here for all who have
promised to support God’s work in their local
fellowship. Promises made when hearts were
warm and full.
Are we guilty of neglect? Does the work suffer
because we have withdrawn our support, be it
the commitment of our time, our talent, our
material resources. Have we stopped
commending Christ to family and friends? Are
we embarrassed by the vows we once made?
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Next consider their failure to keep God’s day
special. Warning bells should ring when we
begin to find God’s day irksome, binding and
restricting . That is a sure indication that we
have lost sight of the fact that this is a day of
grace and of immense blessing.
The Sabbath has great importance in
scripture. As far as God’s OT. people was
concerned, keeping the Sabbath was a sign
of their special relationship with him.
Therefore to neglect the Sabbath was a
paramount to neglecting God himself. It was
breaking the covenant he had made with
them.
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Before we dismiss the Sabbath as something belonging exclusively to the OT
church, remember that the Sabbath principle was built into human history at
the dawn of creation. It is a creation ordinance and as such the principle
continues to hold good. To neglect the Lord’s Day is not only to neglect the
blessing that God is eager to bestow but it is a neglect of God himself. If you
think that forgetting God’s day is unimportant then ask yourself how you
feel if a member of your family forgets your birthday or your wedding
anniversary. To forget God’s day is a slight upon him.
Presentation 13
The final issue that reveals the people’s
coldness of heart relates to mixed marriages.
Israel through intermarriage with heathen
peoples was saying, ‘We do not consider it
important that we remain a distinctive
people, separated to God’. And as a result of
that decision they began to fail in their calling
to be a holy people. The word ‘holiness’ has
two basic meanings; separation and
brightness and the one is dependant on the
other. When separation goes so does
brightness. In next to no time the people of
God are not recognised as different from
anyone else. The world says, ‘We would never
have known that you were a Christian’.
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How quickly this people’s consecration
evaporated. Their once vibrant praise began
to sound hollow and lifeless. The lesson that
we must surely learn from all this is to resist
giving the enemy access to our hearts. Once
he is settled there his baneful influence
soon begins to spread.
If this passage excites a spirit of vigilance in
your heart then it has accomplished its
purpose. If it breaks the hypnotic spell of
spiritual complacency then that too is good.
There is no height of spiritual consecration
from which it is impossible to fall.
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Do not assume that this pattern of declension and restoration is an
inevitable and relentless part of spiritual experience. It is not inevitable that
our lives will constantly blow hot and cold for God. The power of God’s
indwelling Spirit, is more than sufficient to equip us to maintain a constant
temperature.
The tempter whispers, ‘You must yield to
my temptation, you cannot help yourself.
Make things easier and give in now’.
We need to see that for the lie that it is
and learn to resist it in the power of the
indwelling Christ. He is the one who is
‘able to keep us from falling and to
present us faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy’. Jude 1v24
Presentation 13