Exchanging Lies for Truth

  • David Fairchild
  • Jul 12, 2009
  • Series: Nehemiah

TEXT

Nehemiah 13:14-31:  “Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service.  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.  16 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!  17 Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, ‘What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?  18 Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.’  19 As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day.  20 Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice.  21 But I warned them and said to them, ‘Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.’ From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.  22 Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.  23 In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.  24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but the language of each people.  25 And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take 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.  26 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.  27 Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?’  28 And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me.  29 Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.  30 Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work;  31 and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.”

When we consider Nehemiah and his example, we must realize that the reason for his loving obedience was found in what he believed, in whom he trusted.  Even in the midst of Israel’s return to sin in this last chapter, Nehemiah simply would not be moved.  By surveying this book we see a man who lived out what he believed:

  • Delighted in God when others were miserable and depressed (1:11)
  • Sought God’s face when others were hiding from God (1:4)
  • Feared God’s name when others feared man (1:11)
  • Pursued God’s will when others pursued their own (2:4-5)
  • Confessed God’s goodness when others remained silent (2:8)
  • Served God’s people others were selfish (2:12, 17)
  • Trusted God’s power when others trusted only in themselves (2:20)
  • Acknowledged God’s holiness when others forgot who God was (4:14, 5:9)
  • Shared God’s Word when others didn’t (8:9)
  • Showed God’s love when others showed their hate (8:10)
  • Remembered God’s generosity when others were selfish (8:13-18)
  • Obeyed God’s commands when others were a law to themselves (10:29)
  • Encouraged God’s servants when others were hopeless (10:37-39, 13:10-13)

It is tempting to make Nehemiah a varsity starter and look at ourselves as JV benchwarmers.  Some of you might even feel like you’re just a waterboy like Adam Sandler.

But the root of Nehemiah’s obedience was found in his heart.  In contrast…

The root of all of Israel’s failure was found in their hearts.  What they trusted, what they treasured determined their behavior and failed response.  In fact, all of our problems, like Israel, are described in Scripture as futile thinking, darkened understanding and ignorant hearts (Eph. 4:17-19).  We follow in their steps when we are given over to such desires because we “exchanged the truth of God for a lie” (Rom. 1:24-25). 

In the moment we sin, we believe the lie that we are better off without God—that His rule is too oppressive, that we will be free without him, and that sin offers more than God provides.  This is true of every sin and every negative and distorted emotion.

The Israelites didn’t think of themselves as people who believed lies.  But every step in their decline in chapter 13 is the result of their belief in something else, and that something else is always a lie. 

Their actions were not the result of their circumstances; their circumstances simply brought to surface the disbelief that coursed through their veins.  Our troubled behavior and sinful emotional responses are never because of our circumstances.  They are always a result of what we believe and do not believe. 

Scripture is clear that “Everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23).  This means that our negative emotions are sinful because they are symptoms of unbelief, which is the greatest sin and the very root of all sin.

Israel also did not believe they were non-believers.  Neither do we, and that is the problem!  Because we don’t understand this truth, we think that our sin is something that happens to us and is outside of us, rather than coming from our disbelieving hearts.  We are quick to tell someone who is not a Christian they are a non-believer.  Yet, that’s exactly what we are when our hearts, actions, and emotions are sinful.  We are functional non-believers in that moment and for that time.

I don’t mean that Israel didn’t believe in the theological concept of God, or that they would deny who He is or is declared to be.  The problem is not their theology; the problem was the practice of their hearts which animated their hands. 

The problem with Israel is our own, it is the gap between what we believe in theory and what we believe in practice.  I may agree that God is sovereign (theoretical belief), but slip into deep anxiety when I am afraid or out of control (functional disbelief).  What it means to grow in grace is to see the gap narrowed between what I confess to be truth and what I functionally believe in the moment. 

It is what Nehemiah believed to be true about God theologically AND functionally that kept him from slipping into the same sin, despair, hopelessness and chaos that his brothers and sisters fell into.  He believed the truths ABOUT His God and He believed IN His God.  He trusted in faith in what He knew to be true.

This truth is hope for those of you who read the book of Nehemiah and find yourself trapped in the ups and downs of the Israelites.  If it’s true that behind every sin is a lie, we are able to find a road out of the rut of despair and the feeling that our emotions and actions are inevitable.  Nehemiah is helping us to see the path of hope in hopelessness, joy in the midst of suffering, and courage to fight our shame and disbelief. 

Proverbs 4:18-23 teaches us:

Proverbs 4:18-23: “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.  19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.  20 My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.  21 Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.  22 For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.  23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

But let me warn you brothers and sisters, heart-work is not easy.  To keep your heart with all vigilance doesn’t come by being passive and doing nothing, while you wait for lighting to strike on a clear day. 

John Flavel puts it this way:

Heart-work is hard work indeed. To shuffle through religious duties with a careless spirit will not cost you much. But to set yourself before the Lord, and tie up your loose thoughts to a constant and serious attendance upon him – this will cost you something. To become skilled at praying with eloquent turns of expressions is easy. But to have your heart broken by your sin as you confess it or to have your heart melted by free grace while you bless God for it or to be really ashamed and humbled as you see God’s infinite holiness and then to keep your heart like this when you have finished your duties will certainly cost you some groans and pains of soul. To repress the outward acts of sin and control the outward aspects of your life in a respectable manner is no great matter. Even unbelievers, by the force of habit, can do this. But to kill the root of corruption within, to keep a holy rule over your thoughts, to have everything in our heart right – this is not easy.  –John Flavel

Though it costs us to fight for faith and believe the truth over the lies and though it isn’t easy to keep a watch over our hearts, it is worth everything tear, every sigh, and every moment spent. 

Just as lies about God lead us to the slavery of sin, so the truth about God leads us to freedom from sin.

In a time of great disappointment and heartache, in the midst of threats and mocking, during toil and hard work, Nehemiah continued to fight this rollercoaster of emotions by turning to timeless and eternal truths about the God in whom he could trust.  This made his faith unshakeable, not because Nehemiah was unshakeable, but because He trusted in the unshakeable foundation of God. 

Truths Israel failed to believe:

Sabbath Breaking (vv. 14-22)

God is in control (1:5, 2:4, 2:20)

          …So we don’t have to be.

When Israel failed to believe in God’s sovereign control, they attempted to take control themselves.  When our hearts fail to believe this truth, they exchange it for the lie that I have to keep working, keep moving, keep worrying.  I become anxious. 

I push God to the side and my needs, my security, my wealth and finances become more important than God’s Kingdom.

Israel first sinned in their hearts through disbelief before they broke the Sabbath.  They first failed to trust that God loved them, cared for them, and knew what was best for them by giving them a day that they could stop laboring and simply enjoy His goodness.

Simply put, it is a lack of belief that resting in God is better than taking control of our own lives.  Jesus says in Matthew:

Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The reason our souls can not rest is not because of the circumstances of the market, the downturn in housing prices, or the possibility that you may lose your job.  The reason our souls can not rest is because we do not believe that in Christ all the longings of our souls are met. 

How do we respond when confronted with news that our work or financially security is going to be lost?  Do we hear Jesus’ call to come to Him, or do we listen to the call of our own hearts that tell us that God doesn’t really care? 

Do you turn to truth and speak it to your hearts and tell your own heart to calm down and believe that God is in control, so you don’t have to be?

This leads us to our next truth.  God is bigger.

God is bigger (9:6, 9:7, 1:10, 4:20)

          …So we don’t have to fear our circumstances. 

So many of us are tossed around by the circumstances of our life.  We’re up when things are up and we’re down when things aren’t going well.  We begin to believe the false notion that God is small and our circumstances are bigger.  This means that the functional god of our life is really whatever issue is bigger in the moment. 

Likewise, Israel became anxious about their life and began to work on the Sabbath.  Nehemiah realized that what got them in trouble and the punishment they received was because of the same thing!  They failed to trust God and keep the Sabbath, so God brought pain and suffering as a way of waking them up.  Nehemiah called this lack of trust that led to their anxiety and Sabbath breaking what it was, an “evil thing.” 

Jesus gets to the heart of our functional disbelief by showing us that it isn’t just a matter of rule breaking, but of faith.

Luke 12:22-31: “And he said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.  23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.  24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!  25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?  27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!  29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.  30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.  31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.’”

The reason Israel, you and I are worried and anxious is because we fail to trust our Father.  We have greater faith in our own hands than we do in the One that created our hands and sustains every beat of our hearts. 

Jesus tells us that these are the things that the nations of the world worry about.  But we’re to be a contrast community of people who trust in a God that cares for all our needs and are free from worry and anxiety.  We’re to show the nations, our city, our neighbors what it looks like to trust God by our actions, not simply our words.

What happens when you receive news that your company is laying people off?  What happens when you find out your hours are cut?  How do you respond when you are financially devastated?  Do you run to worry and anxiety like Israel, and begin to believe lies?

Nehemiah loves his Father so much that he can’t stand to see His reputation diminished.  By profaning the Sabbath, by being anxious, by worrying and taking matters in their own hands, they were declaring by their actions who they believed was trustworthy. 

How does your life demonstrate what you believe about your Father?  In what ways are you declaring with your actions in whom you trust?  Do your neighbors, friends, family, and co-workers see by your actions who is in control of your life and who is bigger in your life?

Israel’s relationship to work and finances was how God chose to call them to trust in Him.  So it is with you and me.  We are to trust God so much, and believe that He really does love us, that we are able to release the grip that work and money has upon us. 

This aspect of being able to rest in our Father’s care is extremely significant.  It shows God’s character, and it reveals what we believe. 

It is visible, since it deals with our outer care and provision. 

God gives the Sabbath to show that nations that He can be trusted. 

God gives the Sabbath to remind us that in our rest, we’re saying to God, I don’t need to worry about anything because in you I have all I need.

Nehemiah is able to fight this tendency towards disbelief in his own heart.  He could easily slip into the same worry and anxiety of his fellow Jews.  But he fights it.  He fights it in his own heart and he fights this fight for others.

Look at his pattern again:

1)    He confronts those responsible for leading God’s people (v. 17)

2)    He calls what they’re doing evil (v. 17)

3)    He threatens to lay hands on those who keep coming to tempt God’s people (v. 21)

4)    He sets guards over the gates to keep watch (v. 22)

Nehemiah doesn’t passively give in to everyone’s sin.  He’s the only one fighting, but because he’s fighting for them, they respond. 

So it is with us.  We might be afraid that people will reject us if we fight for their faith by confronting disbelief.  That may be true.  But in this story, those who fought against Nehemiah didn’t have a relationship with God.  The rest, though sinful and worried, still were God’s people, and when Nehemiah fought, they responded. 

But heart work is constant.  This is why Nehemiah set guards to watch the gates.  How are we setting guards, our brothers and sisters, to watch the gates of our hearts?  This is why community is not optional.

Our community, like Nehemiah, should confront sin, call disbelief what it is, and pray for one another intensely as we lay the hands of the Spirit upon our disbelief.  And we guard one another to keep watch so that we don’t let the enemy flood the gates of our heart.

There was another major problem that Nehemiah had to confront.  It was the lack of trust that God is better than their loneliness, which led them to marry non-believers.

Intermarrying Non-Believers (vv. 25-31)

God is better

          …So we don’t have to look elsewhere.

The invitation of God to come to Him is not to a life of dreary abstinence of loneliness.  It’s a call to find what truly satisfies.  Living a satisfied life is simply living a life by faith.  It’s about believing that our greatest satisfaction, joy and identity are found alone in knowing God, and nowhere else.

Whatever sin offers, God offers us Himself.  God is not just good, He is better!  Better than everything, better than anyone else and the true source of all our joy.

Nothing but God will satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts.  If you look for satisfaction or fulfillment, meaning or identity, anywhere other than in Jesus, you will be left empty.  It might give you a moment of satisfaction or pleasure, but you’ll be thirsty and hungry again soon. 

Israel failed to believe that God was better than their loneliness.  They trusted in themselves and believed that lie that their hearts needed to find a lover, a spouse that would bring them joy, even if that meant that the person didn’t know God. 

They made an idol out of marriage, family, and intimacy.  What about our lives?  Have we willingly given in to this same idol? 

If we idolize marriage or relationships, we are committing the same adultery of spiritual fornication that Israel did.  They were supposed to be a contrast community of people so loved and ravished by God that they didn’t have to seek lovers who didn’t love this same God.  By demonstrating that their satisfaction was in Him alone, they were able to demonstrate they could say no to the idol of finding their identity in anything else.

It’s easy to picture obedience to God as the price we pay to have eternal life.  We really want to live for pleasure, but have to settle for living for God.  The life of obedience seems like the sad life.  That’s how we see it!  However, when we come to see how good God is, how satisfying God is, we recognize that our obedience out of love is the best life. 

Living with God and for God is better than anything sin can offer.  Faith that destroys lies is about enjoying the freedom from sin so we can delight in God more fully each day. 

Israel didn’t have to pursue marriage with false lovers of her heart.  She had the real thing.  She chose to believe that she could find a spouse that would melt her heart, but all it did was harden her heart towards God and make her miserable. 

The Israelites believed that if they just found human lovers that their soul be satisfied.  Parents were more concerned with having their children marry and have kids than they were about what kind of marriage and children they would have.

God doesn’t simply want offspring, He wants godly offspring (Mal. 2:15).  He wants us to love and be loved by someone who loves Him more than us.  This is the only way we can truly love one another.  If not, we’ll make each other into ultimates, and idols.  We’ll wrap our purpose for living, our joy, our security, our meaning and our happiness in broken people. 

We won’t truly be able to love because we’ve replaced the true lover of our heart who is perfect, with a false-lover of our heart who is sinful.  The result is not just a broken relationship, but a broken life.  And we are not built to be gods of each other’s hearts.  We can’t truly satisfy anyone or anything because we’re sinners.  So we squeeze each other too tightly expecting more than we’re able to give, or we’re so crushed by the let down that we no longer want to live. 

But God is better than any lover our heart has ever known.  God is the only one who will never leave us nor forsake us.  God will always be faithful, always seek our good, and always shape us into what’s best.

In fact, when we look at the description 1 Cor. 13, we use it as a kind of placard to recite how we’re to love one another.  But let’s read it.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant  5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  8 Love never ends…”

When we read this, it’s tempting to hear it and say, “Yeah right!”  And so you should.  From a human perspective, this is impossible. 

But when we read it as how God loves us, all of the sudden our hearts can be free to follow.  God’s love for you is patient and kind, and when you believe that you begin to be more patient and kind.  God’s love for us is not arrogant or rude, but humble and sacrificial, and when we believe that we become humble towards one another.  God’s love for us is giving and generous, and when we see how Jesus did not insist on his own way but gave up his way so that we could have life, we too are able to become generous with ourselves. 

You see, we are meant to love by drawing from the well of God’s love.  We are meant to love our spouse by remembering how much we’re loved by our true Spouse so we don’t attempt to make another human into an idol.

The results of believing truth over a lie are amazing and completely transforming.  Nehemiah’s theological and practical belief in God shaped him into something different than those who believed the lies.

Our Rest Found in Jesus

What allows us to rest is found in the restlessness of Jesus.  In the Garden, the intensity of the agony of his soul made him sweat blood.  He was so crushed with what He was about to endure that the stress made capillaries in his sweat glands burst.  And He took upon Himself the restlessness of our souls the night before His crucifixion so that we could finally come and find rest.  This is how He could say to us, “come to Me and find rest for your souls.”  We find rest in His great sacrifice.

To the degree that we believe this, to the same degree we are free to rest, knowing that Christ is our Sabbath.  He is the one who worked our righteousness so that we’re welcomed by our Father into His true rest that He planned for His people from eternity.

Our Satisfaction Found in Jesus

What will make us free from pursuing relationships that end in heartbreak and destruction?  What will make us free from the idolatry of pursuing false-lovers?

I want you to think about what kind of bride the Father chose for His Son.  His love for us was so great, that the Father purposefully picked a prostitute like us, a bunch of spiritual adulterers, to give to His Son.

But instead of calling us to wash up before the wedding, this Groom, this King, laid aside His crown and robes, came to the slums of this world, sought out the dregs of our society, and in a great act of reversal, took our filth upon Himself, our shame, our guilt, our debt, our sin, and went to a Roman cross as the place where He would enter into this marriage with us.

And in the greatest act of spousal faithfulness, when he could have come down from the cross, Jesus stayed there for His bride.  He had her on His heart, and He gave Himself for her so that she might be made radiant, beautiful and spotless.

He proved His great love for us so that we would be free from pursuing other lovers of our hearts.  He is not only good, He is better. 

He calls us to believe in this truth and to fight the fight of faith as we rest in the grace of God.

Remember me God, for my good, is the cry of Nehemiah, because Nehemiah remembered God for His good. 

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