How can a person be saved? From what is he saved? How can someone have eternal life? Scripture teaches that after death each person will spend eternity either in heaven or hell. How can a person go to heaven?

Paul said this to Timothy:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 3:14-15

One of the reasons God gave us Scripture is to make us wise for salvation. This means that without it nobody can know how to be saved.

Well then, how can a people be saved and what are they being saved from? A common method of sharing the good news of salvation is through the Romans Road. One of the great themes, not only of the Bible, but specifically of the book of Romans is salvation. In Romans, the author, Paul, clearly details the steps we must take in order to be saved.

How can we be saved? What steps must we take?

Step One: We Must Accept that We Are Sinners

Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” What does it mean to sin? The word sin means “to miss the mark.” The mark we missed is looking like God. When God created mankind in the Genesis narrative, he created man in the “image of God” (1:27). The “image of God” means many things, but probably, most importantly it means we were made to be holy just as he is holy. Man was made moral. We were meant to reflect God’s holiness in every way: the way we think, the way we talk, and the way we act. And any time we miss the mark in these areas, we commit sin.

Furthermore, we do not only sin when we commit a sinful act such as: lying, stealing, or cheating; again, we sin anytime we have a wrong heart motive. The greatest commandments in Scripture are to “Love God with all our heart, mind, and soul and to love others as ourselves” (Matt 22:36-40, paraphrase). Whenever we don’t love God supremely and love others as ourselves, we sin and fall short of the glory of God. For this reason, man is always in a state of sinning. Sadly, even if our actions are good, our heart is bad. I have never loved God with my whole heart, mind, and soul and neither has anybody else. Therefore, we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). We have all missed the mark of God’s holiness and we must accept this.

What’s the next step?

Step Two: We Must Understand We Are under the Judgment of God

Why are we under the judgment of God? It is because of our sins. Scripture teaches God is not only a loving God, but he is a just God. And his justice requires judgment for each of our sins. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death.”

A wage is something we earn. Every time we sin, we earn the wage of death. What is death? Death really means separation. In physical death, the body is separated from the spirit, but in spiritual death, man is separated from God. Man currently lives in a state of spiritual death (cf. Eph 2:1-3). We do not love God, obey him, or know him as we should. Therefore, man is in a state of death.

Moreover, one day at our physical death, if we have not been saved, we will spend eternity separated from God in a very real hell. In hell, we will pay the wage for each of our sins. Therefore, in hell people will experience various degrees of punishment (cf. Lk 12:47-48). This places man in a very dangerous predicament—unholy and therefore under the judgment of God.

How should we respond to this? This leads us to our third step.

Step Three: We Must Recognize God Has Invited All to Accept His Free Gift of Salvation

Romans 6:23 does not stop at the wages of sin being death. It says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Because God loved everybody on the earth, he offered the free gift of eternal life, which anyone can receive through Jesus Christ.

Because it is a gift, it cannot be earned. We cannot work for it. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Going to church, being baptized, giving to the poor, or doing any other righteous work does not save. Salvation is a gift that must be received from God. It is a gift that has been prepared by his effort alone.

How do we receive this free gift?

Step Four: We Must Believe Jesus Christ Died for Our Sins and Rose from the Dead

If we are going to receive this free gift, we must believe in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Because God loved us, cared for us, and didn’t want us to be separated from him eternally, he sent his Son to die for our sins. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Similarly, John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.” God so loved us that he gave his only Son for our sins.

Jesus Christ was a real, historical person who lived 2,000 years ago. He was born of a virgin. He lived a perfect life. He was put to death by the Romans and the Jews. And he rose again on the third day. In his death, he took our sins and God’s wrath for them and gave us his perfect righteousness so we could be accepted by God. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” God did all this so we could be saved from his wrath.

Christ’s death satisfied the just anger of God over our sins. When God saw Jesus on the cross, he saw us and our sins and therefore judged Jesus. And now, when God sees those who are saved, he sees his righteous Son and accepts us. In salvation, we have become the righteousness of God.

If we are going to be saved, if we are going to receive this free gift of salvation, we must believe in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection for our sins (cf. 1 Cor 15:3-5, Rom 10:9-10). Do you believe?

Step Five: We Must Confess Christ as Lord of Our Lives

Romans 10:9-10 says,

That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Not only must we believe, but we must confess Christ as Lord of our lives. It is one thing to believe in Christ but another thing to follow Christ. Simple belief does not save. Christ must be our Lord. James said this: “Even the demons believe and shudder” (James 2:19) but the demons are not saved—Christ is not their Lord.

Another aspect of making Christ Lord is repentance. Repentance really means a change of mind that leads to a change of direction. Before we met Christ, we were living our own life and following our own sinful desires. But when we get saved, our mind and direction change. We start to follow Christ as Lord.

How do we make this commitment to the lordship of Christ so we can be saved? Paul said we must confess with our mouth “Jesus is Lord” as we believe in him. Romans 10:13 says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

If you admit that you are a sinner and understand you are under God’s wrath because of them; if you believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he died on the cross for your sins, and rose from the dead for your salvation; if you are ready to turn from your sin and cling to Christ as Lord, you can be saved.

If this is your heart, then you can pray this prayer and commit to following Christ as your Lord.

Dear heavenly Father, I confess I am a sinner and have fallen short of your glory, what you made me for. I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins and rose from the dead so I can have eternal life. I am turning away from my sin and accepting you as my Lord and Savior. Come into my life and change me. Thank you for your gift of salvation.

Scripture teaches that if you truly accepted Christ as your Lord, then you are a new creation. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” God has forgiven your sins (1 John 1:9), he has given you his Holy Spirit (Rom 8:15), and he is going to disciple you and make you into the image of his Son (cf. Rom 8:29). He will never leave you nor forsake you (Heb 13:5), and he will complete the work he has begun in your life (Phil 1:6). In heaven, angels and saints are rejoicing because of your commitment to Christ (Lk 15:7).

Praise God for his great salvation! May God keep you in his hand, empower you through the Holy Spirit, train you through mature believers, and use you to build his kingdom! “The one who calls you is faithful, he will do it” (1 Thess 5:24). God bless you!

Leading a small group using the Bible Teacher’s Guide can be done in various ways. One format for leading a small group is the “study group” model, where each member prepares and shares in the teaching. This appendix will cover tips for facilitating a weekly study group.

1. Each week the members of the study group will read through a select chapter of the guide, answer the reflection questions (see Appendix 2), and come prepared to share in the group.
2. Prior to each meeting, a different member can be selected to lead the group and share Question 1 of the reflection questions, which is to give a short summary of the chapter read. This section of the gathering could last from five to fifteen minutes. This way, each member can develop their gift of teaching. It also will make them study harder during the week. Or, each week the same person could share the summary.
3. After the summary has been given, the leader for that week will facilitate discussions through the rest of the reflection questions and also ask select review questions from the chapter.
4. After discussion, the group will share prayer requests and pray for one another.

The strength of the study group is the fact that the members will be required to prepare their responses before the meeting, which will allow for easier discussion. In addition, each member will be given the opportunity to teach, which will further equip their ministry skills. The study group model has distinct advantages.

But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense…
Nehemiah 13:4-31

What are signs of spiritual decay in our lives or others and how should we confront it?

After seeing the revival that happened in Israel, we also see how prone they were to fall back into sin and compromise. Some have compared the spiritual life to walking upstream; if you are not fighting to move forward, then you are, by default, going backwards.

At this point in the final chapter of Nehemiah, Nehemiah returned to Persia for some unspecified amount of time.¹ Some commentators think his second term as governor began approximately nine years after he left.² While Nehemiah was gone, it is possible that Ezra had died “(in 13:13, Zadok is called “the” scribe, perhaps indicating that Ezra no longer held that post).”³ When Nehemiah returned, Israel had reneged on the majority of its commitments to God, which they made in chapter 10.

This may seem like a surprise after all God had done for them and their seemingly genuine repentance; however, this not only happened with Israel, it commonly happens to us individually and corporately. If we are not fighting to move forward, then we are sliding backwards. It is for this reason that we must be tenacious in seeking to practice a holy life and also fighting for holiness in our churches. There is a continual inertia drawing us and others towards spiritual decay.

Certainly, we see this in our churches and Christian communities. Why are so many of our churches in disarray? Statistics say that around 75% of youth fall away from the faith in college and never return.⁴ Seventeen hundred pastors leave the ministry every month in America.⁵ We have churches making all kinds of moral compromises as they disregard Scripture. We are seeing a very rapid spiritual decay happening in the church.

As we consider Nehemiah 13, it can seem a little depressing after such a great revival. And, it also can be depressing as we consider the decline of Christianity happening in so many parts of the world; however, there is hope. We see hope in a man who was zealous for the Lord named Nehemiah.

Four times he prays for God to remember his works in this chapter. He is a man who wants to please God. Yes, there is hope for us individually and as a church as well. God still uses people like Nehemiah, people like John the Baptist, godly leaders who are zealous to turn communities and individuals back to God.

In this text, Nehemiah is a type of Christ. As Christ went into the temple, he pulled out a whip, turned over tables, and harshly rebuked the leaders of Israel. Scripture says of Christ that zeal for the house of God consumed him (John 2:17). Nehemiah was the same. He threw a man out of the temple who was defiling it, rebuked the leaders for their lack of faithfulness in giving, locked people out of the city who were abusing the Sabbath, and pulled out the hairs of those who married foreign women in order to turn them back to God. Nehemiah was a man consumed with seeing God’s glory in Israel.

In the same way, God is calling for people in this generation to be zealous for personal holiness and also holiness in the church. He is looking to raise people who are consumed with zeal for the house of God (cf. 2 Chronicles 16:9).

In this text, we will consider common signs of spiritual decay not only in the church but in our spiritual lives. Godly leaders must be able to spiritually diagnose their people, their society, and even their own lives. They must be able to diagnose so they can participate in the restoration process. In this text, we will not only see common signs of spiritual decay but also steps to restoration—to restore our churches and our lives.

Big Question: What signs of spiritual decay do we see happening to Israel in Nehemiah 13; how does Nehemiah confront them, and how should we apply these truths as leaders to our spiritual lives and our ministries?

Compromised Leadership Is a Sign of Spiritual Decay

Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and oil prescribed for the Levites, singers and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.
Nehemiah 13:4-5

In this text, Nehemiah introduces us to the compromise that was happening within Israel. They broke all the commitments they made in chapter 10. It is no surprise that when he started to list their sins, he started with the leadership of Israel. The High Priest was disrespecting God by allowing an Ammonite official into the temple (cf. Neh 2:10, 13:1). He had given Tobiah, who had previously persecuted the Jews, a room in God’s house.

This is how moral compromise often begins in the people of God—it begins with the leadership. The leadership starts to compromise by disobedience and disregard for the teachings of the Word of God, which eventually affects all the people. Have we not seen the effects of bad leadership throughout Scripture?

Interpretation Question: In what ways have we seen the negative effects of bad leadership throughout Scripture?

Solomon compromised by marrying pagan women in disobedience to the law, and consequently, all of Israel was led astray into worshiping idols. The book of Kings shows us a pattern of Israel’s stumbles. They would have a good king and, therefore, start following God. And then they would have a bad king and, consequently, stumble away from him. For every Josiah, Asa and Jehoshophat, there was a Jereboam, Jehu, and Ahab, the wicked kings of Israel who led the nation astray.

During this time period, not only were the kings corrupt but so were the priests. In fact, right before God judged Israel by Assyria, God rebuked the priests through the prophet Hosea.⁶ Listen to what he said:

The more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful. They feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness. And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.
Hosea 4:7-9

The priests were sinning just like the people. In fact, they enjoyed the sins of the people and made a profit off of them. God promised he would punish the priests and the people together for their compromise.

Theological and moral compromises amongst the leadership of churches or ministries typically precede people going astray. In fact, when Christ appeared in the Gospels, Israel was being run by the Pharisees and Sadducees who were corrupting the teachings of Scripture and leading people astray as well. In the Gospels, Christ spent a significant amount of time correcting and rebuking the leadership of the people.

Application Question: Why is the leadership of the church so important?

Consider what Christ said: “A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master” (Matthew 10:24-25). The people can go no farther than their leaders. The leaders create the ceiling for the church.

When we look at the state of our churches, it is often a reflection of its leaders. When we have leadership that does not preach the Word, leadership that is not on fire for God, leadership that does not run their household well, it is no surprise that the light in the church is so dim.

Paul described the church in the last days in a similar manner. He said that the church would not be able to stand sound doctrine and, therefore, would heap up many teachers to itch their ears and to say what they wanted to hear (2 Tim 4:3-4).

Interpretation Question: Why was the High Priest compromising? What could be some of the reasons?

We are not sure why the High Priest compromised; it could be many reasons:

1. Maybe, he had liberal doctrine.

Even though they had just read that Moabites and Ammonites could not enter the temple (cf. Neh 13:1), maybe he thought the Scripture was antiquated, full of errors, and not relevant. Maybe he thought God was not the author of “every” portion of Scripture, and therefore he could pick and choose what was of God. We see that happening in many churches today, and consequently, instead of submitting to the Word of God, they stand in judgment over it. They take liberty to decide what God said and did not say. They say, “God didn’t really create the earth as seen in Genesis; it was created through the evolutionary process.” “Jonah wasn’t really swallowed by a whale.” “Jesus didn’t really turn water into wine.” They choose what is of God and not of God, and therefore, they choose what not to submit to.

Eliashib might have rebelled because of his doctrine which, no doubt, would have also negatively affected the people.

2. Maybe, he was a people pleaser—meaning he wanted the applause of the people instead of God.

Potentially, it was the Israelites clamoring for more liberality and for him to stop being so narrow-minded. Later in this chapter, we see that many of the people married foreigners and their children couldn’t speak Hebrew (v. 23-24). Maybe he wouldn’t stand up for God.

As mentioned previously, Paul declared that this would happen in the last days. People would heap up many teachers that would itch their ears and make them feel good. Many ministers won’t preach strong doctrine or hold the church accountable for fear of losing their jobs, status, or numbers in the church. Today, we have many leaders in the church who are “men of men” instead of “men of God.”

3. Maybe, he was simply a hypocrite.

He might have been preaching the truth but not practicing it in the temple. In that case, he would have been a hypocritical leader.

Whatever the reason, we can be sure that his actions contributed to the sins of the people. As we look at the rest of the text, we see that the people are living in great compromise as well. Like priest, like people; we see this happening all around us, and therefore, decay has crept into many of our churches.

Leaders of the church must ask themselves, “Are we setting the example?” (1 Peter 5:3). It is the leaders who set the spiritual ceiling for the congregation. It is enough for a student to be like his teacher. If the pastor, elders, and teachers are no longer growing in zeal for Christ, how can they expect it from the congregation? If the leadership in the church is no longer growing in the knowledge of Scripture, how can they expect it from the congregation? The leadership sets both the ceiling and the direction of the congregation.

Let this challenge us as we serve in any form of leadership to never be lacking in zeal or obedience and to always be abounding in the work of the Lord (cf. 1 Cor 15:58). But also let this challenge us to pray daily for the leadership of our local church and churches around the world. It is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher.

Application Question: In what ways have you seen both the positive and negative effects of leadership in the church? How can the church better support our leaders in order to encourage their continual growth in the Lord?

Misuse of Finances Is a Sign of Spiritual Decay

I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and singers responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields.
Nehemiah 13:10

Nehemiah 13:10 says the Israelites stopped supporting the Levites who maintained the temple and taught the people. Because they were not being supported they moved back to their fields to earn a living. Listen to what Nehemiah said: “I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and singers responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields.”

Most commentators say that Malachi was prophesying during this period of time.⁷ God said through the prophet in Malachi 3:8 that the people had robbed God through their tithes and offerings. They had stopped giving to God.

Similarly, this is a common sign of spiritual decay with us. Whatever we really love, we put our money into. If we really love books, movies, food, or anything else, one can tell by looking at our bank statements.

In the same way, when God is no longer our priority, we will find it harder to support his work with our finances. This is what was happening with Israel. God had ceased to be their priority, and therefore, they stopped giving to his work. Similarly, when they were on fire for God, their offerings were great. Remember the giving in the previous chapter:

And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away. At that time men were appointed to be in charge of the storerooms for the contributions, firstfruits and tithes. From the fields around the towns they were to bring into the storerooms the portions required by the Law for the priests and the Levites, for Judah was pleased with the ministering priests and Levites.
Nehemiah 12:43-44

When they were on fire for God, they gave great sacrifices with joy. Similarly, when we are on fire for God, we also give joyfully, but when our relationship with God cools, we start to give less or the giving ceases all together.

I have seen this personally in my own life. I remember being in college on a full basketball scholarship, without any real financial needs. I was growing in God—knowing his voice more and enjoying his presence. With that came a growing desire to give to him, simply because I loved him. But the problem was I didn’t make any money. My scholarship provided all my needs, but it didn’t provide any spending money. So, I remember getting a part-time job just because I wanted to have something to give, not only to God but also to others who had needs. This is a natural occurrence. When you are growing in love with someone, you naturally want to give, not only financially, but you want to share in all good things with that person.

I experienced this with my daughter, especially when she was a baby. I remember going to the store to buy groceries, and without a real need, I went straight to the baby section. I was thinking, “What can I buy for my daughter?” There was great joy in buying things for her. I got new diapers and a special no-throw-up formula. I got some scented baby bath liquid that would help put her to sleep (which my wife swiftly threw away, saying something about “chemicals”). I bought a bunch of stuff that at that stage of life meant nothing to my daughter, and she couldn’t even thank me for them. However, giving to her helped fulfill my joy. It’s a natural thing to give when you really love someone and that includes giving to God.

Jesus said this about our treasures—our finances: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). He taught that wherever one puts his money, it will show where his heart really is.

In fact, what a person spends his money on is often an indicator of his spiritual health—including his salvation. Let’s look at John the Baptist when he called Israel to bear fruits worthy of repentance or to prove their salvation (cf. Lk 3:8). He said:

“What should we do then?” the crowd asked. John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” Tax collectors also came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?” ”Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”
Luke 3:10-14

To the wealthy who had two tunics (or jackets), he said, “Share.” To the tax collectors, he said, “Don’t collect more money than is required.” To the soldiers, he said, “Don’t extort money and be content with your pay.”

Isn’t that interesting? Every fruit that had to do with true repentance, which really means true salvation, was shown in their finances. How people handle their money shows whether they truly love God. It shows where their relationship with God is.

What does the way you use your finances say about your relationship with God? The decay in Israel’s spiritual life was shown in their lack of giving to the Lord.

Consider what Paul teaches about our giving in 2 Corinthians 8:7: “But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.”

He says as believers, we should seek to grow in our giving to the Lord. It should be abounding. This makes perfect sense because giving is an indicator of our love for God. Since our love for God should always be growing, by necessity, so should our giving. Therefore, when our desire to give is less, it is a sign of spiritual decay. That’s what happened with Israel and that’s what happens with us.

What does your giving say about your heart? How is God calling you to excel in giving?

Application Question: What do you spend most of your money on? What does that say about your heart?

A Decrease in Time Given to Worship Is a Sign of Spiritual Decay

In Nehemiah 13:15-16, we also see that the people stopped practicing the Sabbath. Look at what it says:

In those days I saw men in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Men from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah.

The Sabbath originally was meant to be a time of rest, where the Israelites focused on God instead of work or other things. However, at this point, many people no longer practiced the Sabbath but instead compromised with the world, as they bought and sold on the Sabbath day. Instead of focusing on God and worshiping him, they focused on their work and making money instead.

No doubt, Israel had excuses. If everybody was working and they closed their businesses, they would lose money and customers. They could rationalize it.

It’s the same for us. It’s easy to rationalize missing church, small group, or our personal Bible study, but that doesn’t make it right. “I’ve got school.” “I’ve got work.” “If I don’t work, how am I going to pay my bills? I can’t commit to church or small group.” “I got home from work late; I can’t go to church tomorrow.” We have all types of excuses that keep us from worshiping, keep us from reading our Bible or serving the church. This was a sign of spiritual decay with Israel, and it’s the same for us.

I don’t believe we are under the Sabbath as a law because Christ is our Sabbath (cf. Col 2:16-17), but the principle is the same. Typically, when there is moral decline in our life, we will find that there has also been a decline in our time given to worshipping God.

The signals of this are hard to miss. Some people may stop going to church all together and others become sporadic. They stop going to small group and start missing their daily quiet times. Many never commit to any type of consistent worship. These are all signs of spiritual decay. You must be fighting to grow or your relationship with God and your holiness will decline. Paul said, “Exercise yourself to godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7). Without disciplining ourselves to worship, we cannot be godly people.

How is your daily and weekly commitment to worship? What does it say about your relationship with God?

It should also be noted that what we give our time to in lieu of worship shows our idolatry. The Israelites were making wealth an idol over God. They would shop, buy, and sell on the Sabbath instead of worshiping the Lord. Materialism had become their idol.

What is keeping you out of worship? Is it work? Is it friends? Is it rest? What is keeping you from finding your Sabbath in Christ? Whatever you do instead of worshiping the Lord or spending time with him shows the idols in your heart.

Application Question: What are common things that cause you to neglect the worship of God? How is God calling you to put him first?

Worldly Relationships Are a Sign of Spiritual Decay

In Nehemiah 13:23-24, we see that the Israelites also compromised by marrying pagan women. Nehemiah said this:

Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah.
Nehemiah 13:23-24

This compromise was so bad that many of the children couldn’t even speak Hebrew, which meant they couldn’t read the Holy Scriptures or understand the teaching of the priests and Levites.

When we compromise with the world, not only does it affect us, but it affects those close to us, like our children. They will grow up speaking and thinking like the world, instead of speaking and thinking like God.

God gave strict rules against marrying foreigners in the Old Testament because of the tendency of being drawn to worship other gods. Solomon compromised in this area and, essentially, turned the nation of Israel away from God, eventually leading to their exile. This dangerous compromise had previously almost destroyed Israel. The marrying of a foreigner itself probably wasn’t sin, for Ruth and Rahab were both foreigners. However, they had committed to worshiping Yahweh and were, eventually, placed in the lineage of Christ.

In the New Testament, we similarly have clear admonitions and prohibitions against marrying an unbeliever. Look at what Paul says to the widows in 1 Corinthians 7:39: “A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord.”

A widow was free to marry anyone, but the person had to belong to the Lord. It had to be someone who was serving God. Similarly, Paul declared how he had the right to take a “believing wife,” which implies he didn’t have a right to take one who didn’t believe. Look at what he said in 1 Corinthians 9:5: “Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?”

However, this call to separation does not just apply to marriage but to all intimate relationships with the world. Second Corinthians 6:14 says this: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”

Paul used an analogy from the Old Testament law about not yoking two different animals together, such as an ox and a donkey in Deuteronomy 22:10. Many believe this work-related law had to do with their inability to plow a straight line. The ox and donkey have different natures and different temperaments. The ox is so strong it would pull the donkey in a different direction, and therefore, the work would be unproductive.

In the same way, Christians are not to be in any worldly relationships that keep them from walking a straight line with Christ—that pull them away from God and hinder them from being productive in serving him. Certainly, this applies to marriage, but it also applies to friendship, work, and everything else.

One seminary professor said where a person will be in ten years will mostly be affected by the books they read and the company they kept.⁸ What do your most intimate relationships say about your relationship with God and your future? Solomon said something similar. Proverbs 13:20 says, “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.”

Now, certainly we are called to minister to the world and to love them, but we are not called to be “yoked with them.” Christ ate and drank with the world in hopes of winning them to God. He befriended them, prayed for them, and served them, but, when you look at his most intimate relationships, it shows that his most intimate relationships were with believers.

It has often been said that Christ had five rings of fellowship around him. He had the three apostles: Peter, James and John—his most intimate friends. He took them up on the Mount of Transfiguration when he didn’t take others. He took them to pray before his death. Then Christ had the nine other apostles who were always with him. He had the seventy-two (cf. Lk 10:1). And he had other followers outside of that, and then he had the world.

His most intimate relationships were not with those going a different direction. He was a friend of sinners, but his deepest friendships were with those who were following God. Christ said this: “Who are my mother, brother, and sister but those who obey God?” (Matt 12:50, paraphrase). You are affected by your most intimate relationships. Amos said this: “Can two walk together unless they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3).

Your most intimate relationships not only affect your ministry, but they also reflect who you are. They reflect what is inside you and what you agree with.

What do your most intimate relationships say about your relationship with God? Are your closest relationships with those who will pull you closer to the Lord or farther away from him? Friendship with the world is a sign of spiritual decay (cf. James 4:4).

Application Question: What is the balance of being salt and light in the world and also being separate from the world? Do you have any relationships that commonly pull you away from God? How is God calling you to remedy that?

How to Fix Spiritual Decay

We just looked at signs of spiritual decay in the life of a community or an individual believer. We can discern spiritual decay by looking at our leaders, our use of finances, our time given to worship, and our relationships.

What should we do if we see areas of decay in our life or in the church? How can we fix it? What can we learn from Nehemiah who is a type of Christ, as he zealously sought to turn the nation back to God?

Application Question: How can we fix spiritual decay, as demonstrated through Nehemiah?

1. We must become aware of areas of sin.

In this chapter, we commonly see how Nehemiah saw or was informed about the sins happening in Israel. Look at the passages below:

And came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God.
Nehemiah 13:7

I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and singers responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields.
Nehemiah 13:10

Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.
Nehemiah 13:23

Similarly, if we are going to fix areas of compromise in our lives or others, we must be aware of it. This is the first step. The problem with many individuals and communities is the fact that they don’t even know they have a problem. They are unaware of the idolatry in their hearts. They are unaware of their sin or don’t think the sin in their lives or their community is a big problem. Therefore, they don’t seek to remedy it.

Application Question: What are ways that we can better discern areas of sin or compromise in ourselves and others?

• We must be people of the Word of God.

This is implied in verses 1-3. The Israelites were reading the Scripture on the day they dedicated the wall (cf. Nehemiah 12), and they learned they were forbidden to allow Moabites and Ammonites to enter the temple, leading them to repent. Look at what it says:

On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.
Nehemiah 13:1-3

In the same way, we must constantly be in the Word if we are going to recognize sin. It is like a mirror that reveals our sin and compromise (cf. James 1:22-25) and the sin of others.

• We must have accountability relationships where people have the right to speak into our lives.

This is what we see with Nehemiah. Nehemiah came back to Israel and pointed out all the wrong things being committed within her. David had Nathan. Nathan, as a prophet, would confront David when he was in sin, no matter how uncomfortable it must have felt. Similarly, we should have people that we allow and invite to be prophetic in our life.

These accountability relationships include sometimes asking questions like: “How is your spiritual life going?” “How is your marriage going?” “How is your time in the Word of God?” If we are going to be part of the solution, we must be aware of the problem.

Who is your Nehemiah? Who has the right to speak into your life?

• We should pray for God to point sin out in our lives and our communities.

Listen to how David prayed: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).

David sought for God to reveal things in his life that were not right. We must continually bring ourselves before God as well and ask him to show us areas of compromise so we can become more like him.

• We must spend time with the people we lead and get to know them in order to discern how we can help them.

The good shepherd knows his sheep by name (John 10:3, 14). We must spend time with them. We must be with them in times of celebration, in times of mourning, and in everyday activities. We must know them. As we know them, we will better discern areas of compromise in their lives and how to minister to those areas.

What else should we do to help fix spiritual decay in our lives and others’?

2. We must develop a righteous anger that leads us to confront sin.

Nehemiah 13:8 says, “I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.”

Nehemiah became very displeased when he heard about Tobiah being in the temple. However, not only was he displeased, he went into the apartment, threw everything outside, and then filled it with the offerings and the other things of God.

His anger also led him to confront many of the other people. Consider these texts:

So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.
Nehemiah 13:11

I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day?”
Nehemiah 13:17

I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair.
Nehemiah 13:25

One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. And I drove him away from me.
Nehemiah 13:28

Not only did his anger lead to rebuking the people, but also to beating the men who had compromised by marrying the pagan women. He beat them and pulled out their hair (v. 25). When he said that he pulled out their hair, he was probably referring to the hair on their beards. By pulling out the hair on their beards, he was probably disrespecting their Jewishness. Jews were called to be holy, and one of the ways they represented that was by the males growing beards. Essentially, he was saying, “You are not following God! You are not a Jew!”

Another outlet of his righteous anger was running the High Priest’s son away from the temple for also marrying a pagan (v. 28). This man had defiled the priesthood. God gave specific commandments for a priest’s wife. She had to be a Jew and a virgin (Leviticus 21). Therefore, the High Priest’s son was disobeying God and consequently leading others to do the same.

Now many of us struggle with what Nehemiah did, and it may even seem unkind. However, this is exactly how Scripture calls us to handle sin, especially our own. Listen to what Jesus said:

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Matthew 5:29-30

Christ said you must be drastic in trying to get rid of sin in your life. If you struggle with lust, get rid of whatever is leading you into sin. Get rid of the TV; turn off your Internet connection. If it’s a friendship or a relationship leading you into sin, be willing to separate yourself from it. John Owen said, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” We must be drastic in seeking to get rid of sin in our lives.

But this is not just for individuals, it is also needed in the church when there is unrepentant sin. Look at what Paul said to the Corinthians:

hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?
1 Corinthians 5:5-6

In this context, a believer was having sex with his father’s wife. Paul told them to kick this person out of the church (hand over to Satan) because the yeast of this person’s sin would spread. It would spread like a deadly cancer. Paul commanded them to not even eat with a professing believer who was living in unrepentant sin (1 Cor 5:11).

In the same way that it is not cruel or unloving for a doctor to cut cancer out of a patient to save his life, it is not cruel or unloving for the church to do the same with sin. We must lovingly help our friends get rid of habitual sins. At times, we must even separate ourselves from those who will not repent. Although this may be hard, we must do this in order to become holy and to help others become holy.

Because the church does not often practice this, it has become more and more compromising and less effective for the kingdom of God.

Yes, we must be wise as serpents and gentle as doves (Matt 10:16). There is a place for tact, but I think the church has too much wisdom and too much tact, which often means that we do nothing. There is a place for this in the wise plan of God. It is those who are righteously angry who do something about abortion. It is those who are righteously angry who do something about trafficking. It is those who are righteously angry who say this is not right and who fight for justice. It is the righteously angry who mourn, weep, and pray for the God of heaven to move on our behalf. We need to be forceful men and women who advance the kingdom of God (Matthew 11:12).

3. We must be people who truly desire to please God.

Nehemiah 13:14 says, “Remember me for this, O my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.”

Four times Nehemiah prays that God would remember him. This reflects the reason that Nehemiah was so zealous. It was because he truly wanted God’s approval and favor over his life. When one is living for the world’s approval instead of God’s, it will be easy to compromise and not respond to sin.

We must be people who truly desire to see God pleased with our lives. The fact that this is repeated four times demonstrates how great of a priority this was for Nehemiah, and it must be for us as well.

4. We must be people with perseverance.

Another thing clearly demonstrated in this text is Nehemiah’s great perseverance. He had already challenged Israel about all these things in the previous chapters. He had already helped them get rid of the compromise with foreigners. He had helped restore the Sabbath. In fact, in chapter 10, Israel made commitments to be faithful in all these areas, but now they had compromised again.

It is no different for us when battling with sin in our lives or others. For many Christians, Satan will get them so discouraged at their failures that they just give up and wallow in their sin. Similarly, others will give up on trying to help people all together. They say to themselves, “This is impossible.”

Again, statistically 1,700 pastors leave the ministry each month. No doubt, a major reason for this is discouragement. They feel like they are not making a change, that people are stuck in their ways, and the church is not growing. Therefore, they get discouraged and quit.

However, when God rewards his servants in the Parable of the Talents, he doesn’t reward them because they were successful; he rewards them because they were “faithful.” He says, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:21). In the same way, we must be faithful in battling sin, faithful in battling compromise in our lives and the lives of others in order to honor God. We must be people of perseverance if we are going to get rid of sin.

Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Application Question: Do you have any people who are allowed to speak prophetically in your life? In what ways is God calling you to be an agent of change like Nehemiah in the lives of others?

Conclusion

In this text, we see common signs of decay in the lives of the people of God. What are signs of compromise amongst the people of God?

1. Compromised leadership
2. Misuse of money
3. A decrease in time given to worship—Sabbath
4. Worldly relationships

In what ways is God calling you to fix areas of compromise in your life or others? How is God calling you to be like Nehemiah, a type of Christ, who zealously confronted sin?

Application Question: What are the primary leadership lessons you learned from the book of Nehemiah and how is God challenging you to implement them into your life to become more of a godly leader?

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¹ The Moody Bible Commentary (Kindle Locations 26193-26194). Chicago: Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

² MacArthur, John (2003-08-21). The MacArthur Bible Handbook (Kindle Location 3464). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

³ Cole, Steven. “Lesson 13: The Problem of Permissiveness (Nehemiah 13:1-31)”. Retrieved 1/15/15 from https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-13-problem-permissiveness-nehemiah-131-31

⁴Turek, Frank. “Youth Exodus Problem”. retrieved 1/11/15, from http://crossexamined.org/youth-exodus-problem/

⁵“Statistics in Ministry”. retrieved 1/11/15, from http://www.pastoralcareinc.com/statistics/

⁶ MacArthur, John (2003-08-21). The MacArthur Bible Handbook (Kindle Locations 5841-5842). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

⁷ MacArthur, John (2003-08-21). The MacArthur Bible Handbook (Kindle Locations 6969-6970). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

⁸ Cole, Steven. “Lesson 13: The Problem of Permissiveness (Nehemiah 13:1-31)”. Retrieved 1/15/15 from https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-13-problem-permissiveness-nehemiah-131-31

Editor’s Note: This is a lightly edited transcription of the audio message. Thanks goes to Marilyn Fine for the transcription work.

Introduction

In the sessions that I have been speaking to you, I have been trying to demonstrate that our hope for the Lord’s return is not some distant event, but it could occur very soon. Of course, I have been talking about the Rapture of the Church and our gathering together unto Him. The Rapture, as you know from scripture, is a movement from earth to Heaven. God takes out of the world those who are His and takes them home to Heaven before the tremendous events that follow take place.

In the earlier hour of teaching Dr. VanGorder made very clear that Matthew 13 is talking about the Second Coming of Christ. Matthew never mentions the Rapture and the Second Coming is just the opposite to the rapture. The person who is taken out is taken in judgment and the person who is left is left to enter the Millennial Kingdom. The two situations are exactly the opposite and you cannot put the two together.

Now, I have been trying to point out that while the Rapture has no signs given as preceding it, what we are seeing in the world is preparation for the events that will follow the Rapture. Logically, if the world is getting in order to fulfill the events that follow the Rapture and the Rapture is first, then the Rapture could be very near.

Yesterday, we saw how the changes in Europe that have taken place since World War II are exactly what we would expect if the Roman Empire is going to be revived as Daniel and other passages teach us. A ten-nation group is being formed and today the situation in Europe is exactly ripe for that. If the Rapture occurred, we believe that ten-nation group would be formed almost immediately—because all the end time prophecies that talk about the end time picture, talk about that ten-nation group as being in the center of the activity and their ruler as the ultimate world ruler.

There are a number of prophesy magazines being published and they sort of specialize in having a prophesy answered every week. I think that is a little bit extreme. I prefer to stay with the main line—the major things that cannot be argued about that are obviously true and pointing all in the same direction that the Lord is coming.

Of course, what we saw first was the Rapture of the Church itself. It is always pictured as an imminent event with no preceding signs. Then yesterday we saw the formation in Europe that makes it plain that we are about to see the revival of the Roman Empire and then with that the Rapture of the Church would take place. It is possible to go off on the wrong foot here. I saw a statement to the effect that the vultures were increasing in Israel and that proves that Armageddon was about here. Well, that sounded very interesting. One man who advanced this went all the way to Israel to find out if it were true. Of course, the vultures are increasing in Israel, but the simple reason is that there is a lot more vegetation now than there used to be with all the irrigation that Israel has brought in. They have more to eat so they naturally are increasing. Whether it has prophetic significance I sort of question. In other words, we have to be careful about realizing that every wind that blows does not fulfill prophecy. There are plenty of things which are plain, obvious and clear.

Israel

One of these areas is what God is doing with the nation Israel. Every time you see a Jew you are seeing a miracle. Here is a people who were first predicted to Abraham 4,000 years ago. Much of their existence, especially since Christ, they have been scattered all over the world. Any other people would have been absorbed and disappeared. Today, there are still millions of Israelites that know that they are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and that they belong to one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Well, that’s a miracle. You see a Jew? It is a miracle because Jeremiah said that they would continue as a nation as long as the sun and moon endure. When you see the sun, and you see an Israelite, you are seeing fulfilled prophecy.

Now, some strange things have happened to Israel in my lifetime and in the lifetime of many of you and these things are tremendously important from a prophetic standpoint. The subject of Israel and prophesy is not a small subject. One time I spent a whole week just on Israel’s prophesies and spoke twice a day. It’s worthy of a large book. I have a smaller book that is incorporated in the volume The Nations, Israel, and the Church In Prophecy, but there is so much in the Old Testament about Israel. One of the tragic things in the history of the Church is how the Church has just bypassed this and ignored it as if it were not there. They are so interested in the Church that they do not want Israel to have a place. In fact, they try to interpret the scriptures that Israel is all through.

There are many avenues of study on this topic and it is such a temptation for me because there is so much here that you could be burdened with a lot of things that you do not need to really know. However I would like to point out two things that the Bible makes plain about Israel. One is that they are going to inherit the land, the Promised Land, and second that they are going to be restored as a people. Both of these things are contradicted, probably by the majority of the Church today. They say Israel is all through. They will never be an inheritor of the Promised Land and so they try to explain away what the Bible teaches. Let me go through this rather rapidly because that is what we are going to have to do this morning.

In Genesis 12, do you remember God called Abram from the Ur of Chaldees, a place near Babylon, which archeologists have located, and told him to go to a land He would show him? Genesis records how he went somewhat hesitantly, but he finally arrived in the Promised Land. When he got there, we have the record of what God told him in the first few verses of Genesis 12. These are dynamic, important passages. Listen.

“Get out of your country from your family, from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who curses you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Do you realize that this promise has been largely literally fulfilled? You know this idea that prophecy is interpreted non-literally, or is fulfilled non-literally is wrong. It is just as wrong as it can be. Prophesy is just as factual and just as certain and just as literal as history and the Bible demonstrates that again and again. As I pointed out, hundreds of prophesies have been fulfilled.

It says Abram would be a great man. We are discussing him 4,000 years after he lived. I think I was in Miami someplace and saw a Chevrolet sign on a car, “Abraham’s son, Chevrolet.” Who would have thought that 4,000 years ago. You see, Abram is still a prominent figure not only in Israel and Judaism but all over the Muslim faith he is regarded as a prophet.

Then, he tells him he is going to be a great nation and, of course, Israel has become a great nation. In fact, other nations have descended from Abram, as well.

He said, “I will bless those who bless you and curse who curses you.” History fulfills that to the letter. The nations that have hurt Israel and penalized them and persecuted them have paid an awful price. Just go back in history—Egypt, Assyria, Babylon. Now, Medo-Persia was not too bad and God blessed them. The Grecian Empire and then finally Rome. Now, more recently we have had Spain and Germany and Russia and other nations which have persecuted Israel. They have paid a price for that.

On the other hand, God has blessed the nations which have been kind to Israel. While there are a lot of things wrong in America, generally speaking we have been kind to the Jew. He has had opportunity educationally, in the business world, science and so on, and he has made his contribution to our country. God has blessed America because of it. It is one of the reasons why we are blessed in spite of all our sins.

Then, it says in you, all the families of the earth be blessed. Do you know that you have a blessing which comes all the way from Abram? You are part of that “all the families of the earth” if you are saved. The New Testament in Galatians 3 tells us that we are the spiritual children of Abram, not the literal children, but the spiritual children. Like Abram we believe in God and He counts it to us for righteousness. You have been blessed because of that.

The Land

If you look at these promises, you will find they fall into three major divisions: blessings on Abram, blessings on the nation, and blessings on the world. We get in on the world one. But, the Israelites, according to this passage, are going to become a great nation and they are going to inherit what? The land. When we read on here, verse 7, the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants, I will give this land.” What did He mean? You know, people say prophecy is too obscure, so hard to understand. Is that hard to understand? Abram had left the Ur of Chaldees and gone to a land. When he got there, God says I am going to give this land to your descendants forever. Is that plain? Do you know the majority of the Church says it does not mean that? It says the land does not mean literal land. It means Heaven.

We have all sorts of hymns, and I like to sing them, too, about standing on the Jordan River, you know, and looking over into the Promised Land, which they say is Heaven. It is the wrong use of topology. The Jordan River is not a type of the death of a believer. It is the type of the death of Christ. Through the death of Christ we enter into the Promised Land and the Promised Land is not Heaven. Now, for Israel it is a literal land. For us, it is the area of faith and conquest, just as Israel possessed the land by putting their foot on it so you and I have a life of faith. But it is not a perfect life. There is death, there is sin, there are difficulties still in our present existence. We are not in Heaven, but we are in the Promised Land of faith as far as the topology is concerned. So, hymns are wrong. God forgave them when they went to Heaven and they discovered, “there goes the hymns, wrong!” So you just have to cross your fingers if you get to the wrong hymns saying, “Now I know that it is not quite right.” There is not any river that you cross to go to Heaven. There is not any sea that you go across. You go to Heaven directly: “To be absent from the body to be present with the Lord.” So, that is our future.

Now, about the land. Why do they say you can’t take it literally? It is because they do not want to take it literally. They have never offered an argument yet to prove that the land is not the land. I went through the Old Testament and looked up every reference to the word “land.” Every one of them is a literal relationship to land, real estate, not Heaven. When God promised to give them the land forever He meant exactly that.

There is a long history to this, however. You know Abram, first of all, had trouble in not having an heir. There is a long story about that, but finally Isaac was born. God said to Isaac, not to Ishmael (whom he had by Hagar earlier) you are going to inherit the land. In Genesis 26 when Isaac was feeling his oats and he wanted to go down to see Egypt (you know, like young people want to explore the world) God said, “Stay in the land. I am going to give your posterity to the land.”

Later, when Jacob was fleeing Esau for fear he would kill him, (you remember when he would flee into the desert with a stone for a pillow—not exactly a Holiday Inn) God spoke to him in a dream and He said, “Your posterity is going to get this land.” It is Abram, Isaac, Jacob and the 12 sons of Jacob.

Now, the Moslem world rejects that. They say that Ishmael has inherited the land, but there is not a scrap of evidence in any manuscript that says that. After all, Moses wrote the Pentateuch somewhere about 1,500 years before Christ. Mohammed did not come on the scene until 600 years after Christ. 2,000 years later and he comes and says “Now the Bible is wrong. It should have said Ishmael inherits the land.” It is just ridiculous, but that is what they believe because the Koran says it and that is why there is such a tenacious hold on the land.

Nevertheless, the Palestinians, who claim to be descendants of Abram (there is a question whether some of them are) were going to try to hang on to this land. All this peace talk is useless. They are not going to be satisfied until they have the land and Jerusalem and the temple site and the whole business. They are never going to really settle for anything less. Of course, in the Great Tribulation they are going to get it. Israel is going to be run out, once more, and they are going to have the dominant scene until Christ actually comes back.

So, we have this promise about the land. Now, Abram never went out of the land, but under Jacob, you remember, Joseph went down to Egypt first. Then, later the whole family transferred to Egypt in order to get away from the famine. The people of Israel, the people of Jacob’s household, numbered about 70. In several hundred years in Egypt under favorable government and rulers, they prospered and developed into a nation of perhaps two million. Then, there was a change in dynasty and the new dynasty did not like Israel and made them slaves. We have the sad record of how they labored making bricks and so on until God finally redeemed them.

God raised up Moses and led the children out of Egypt to the Promised Land. Now, He had promised Abram that a long time ago. You see, he told Abram in chapter 15 that they were going to a strange land but that they would come back to the Promised Land. So they came back. In other words, there has been the literal transfer: out of Israel to Egypt and then back from Egypt to the Promised Land, exactly as God had predicted in Genesis 15.

Now, if there is any question about what the land is we have that settled in Chapter 15. Chapter 13 first of all when Lot left and do you remember God said to him, look and see what you’ve got here! So it says that God said to Abram in verse 14, “Lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward and westward, for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.”

What did He see? He did not see Heaven. Now, it is true that in Hebrews it says he looked for a city whose foundation whose maker was God. That is true. He looked for the eternal state but long before the eternal state and the New Heaven and the New Earth are created, he is going to see the promise of the land fulfilled! The land will be inherited by Israel. So, that is Chapter 13.

Then, in Chapter 15, when Abram was having a problem about this because he did not have any children and he wanted to appoint one of his servant’s children as his own, God said no. Then, He reiterated His promise with a sacred rite of shedding blood. Then, in the last part of Chapter 15, He enumerates what He means by the land. “To your descendants have I given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.” Then, it mentions the people who live in it—the Kenites, the Kenizzities, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaims, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.

I talked to one of my friend who is an amillennialist (you know, they do not believe that Israel is ever going to inherit the land). I said now, what about this? Well, he said it is just heaven. I said it does not sound like heaven to me. All these tribes, wicked tribes it says are in the land. Well, he said it is just Heaven. You see it is an arbitrary, unsupported statement that is absolutely wrong. Israel is going to inherit the land, before they came back to the land.

Out Of The Land

Well, when they came back to the land, (remember in Deuteronomy, Moses was given his “second law,” as it were, [that is what Deuteronomy means]) and he warned the children of Israel that if they did not keep the law they would be driven out of the land, the Promised Land. So, we have this sad record here in Deuteronomy, Chapter 28, how the land is going to go to someone else. They are going to be driven out of it.

So, he tells them here in Deuteronomy 28, that “The Lord is going to bring upon you and your descendants (verse 59) extraordinary plagues. He is going to bring you back all the diseases of Egypt (verse 60). Every sickness and every plague is going to be yours. You shall be left few in numbers, whereas you were as the stars of Heaven and all the multitude because you would not obey the voice of the Lord, your God. So, be that just as the Lord rejoiced over you do you good and multiple you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring to nothing. You shall be plucked from off the land where you go to possess it and the Lord will scatter you among all people from one end of the earth to the other and there you shall serve other gods which neither you nor your father’s have known, wood and stone, and among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your feet have a resting place and there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. Your life will hang in doubt before you. You shall fear day and night and have no assurance of life. In the morning, you shall say, oh, that it were evening, and evening you shall say, oh, that that it were morning because the fear which terrifies your heart because of the sight which your eyes see.”

In other words, Israel is going to suffer and be driven out of the land. That was tragically fulfilled, of course. First of all, in the year 722 the Assyrian armies came in and carried off the ten tribes. Jerusalem and the two tribes there under Hezekiah were spared. But, then in 605 BC, Babylon came in and they conquered the city of Jerusalem and carried off the able-bodied people as slaves. Again they came, and took many of them to Babylon, especially in the years that followed in 596 and 597. Finally, Jerusalem itself was completely destroyed with its magnificent temple in 586.

So, once again, Israel was driven out of the land. A second time, as it were, they have “gone down to Egypt.” Now, they were driven out a second time and they were suffering. But, in the midst of all that, it is amazing the grace of God. Israel did not deserve this, but God said to them, “After 70 years, you are going to come back to the land.” Now, this is a good illustration of how God, when He says something, means it literally. In other words, He told them it would be 70 years and that is exactly what it was.

Back To The Land

Let me read the verse for you in Jeremiah 29. We have the record of what God promised. Jeremiah 29:10,

“For thus saith the Lord, after 70 years are completed in Babylon, I will visit you and perform a good word toward you and cause you to return to this place.”

Now, does God mean what He says? Is it literally true? Of course it is literally true! God does not play games with us. When He promises something, it is going to be fulfilled. You know what happened? Well, Daniel as a lad, a teenager, was carried off to Babylon where he became the right-hand man of Nebuchadnezzar for 40 years during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Then, a series of other rulers came and went. Finally, the Meads and the Persians took over in the year 539 BC and conquered Babylon.

About that time, Daniel somehow secured the book of Jeremiah. It must have been the original. They did not have Xerox copies in those days. He read this and he came to Jeremiah 29 and he was excited! You should be excited about prophesy! Daniel saw how God was going restore His city and restore His temple and restore His people. Daniel admitted, as we have it in Daniel 9, how the people did not deserve it. It was of the grace of God that they went back, but God had promised and Daniel claimed the promise for the glory of God.

So, the book of Ezra records the promise. The whole book records the fulfillment. The whole book telling us about how they went back and reclaimed the city and eventually built the temple and the people of Israel restored the city of Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah. Thus when Christ was born, He was born in Bethlehem, not in Babylon, as Micah the prophet had predicted He would be. So, we have the wonderful facts that God keeps His word.

Now, Nehemiah came along, you remember, and he was concerned about the city of Jerusalem. It had been in ruins for 90 years and they said for 90 years we cannot do anything about it. Nehemiah organized them and worked it out so that each family would build a section of the wall. They built the wall. What they said could not be built for 90 years they built in 52 days.

How does the work of the Lord get done? By one person – no! By everyone doing his part. That is the way they built the wall. Then, they passed a law in Israel that one out of every ten had to build a house in Jerusalem. In those days, they did not haul off the debris. They just leveled it off, as Jerusalem had been destroyed so many times, and built on top of it. That is why we sing that song, “I walk today where Jesus walked.” When you get over there, you discover you are about ten feet higher than when Jesus was there because of all the debris. Well, they built the city and the city was a thriving city by the time Christ was born.

Out Of The Land, Again

Then, Israel began to depart from God. As a nation they rejected Christ—although individuals accepted Him. You remember Christ was predicting His coming and the tragic days ahead. The disciples thought he was a little bit too melancholy and they showed him the beautiful temple, in Matthew 24 The temple had been in rebuilding for 40 years already. It was being replaced. It was a 500-year temple that they had built when the pilgrims went back from Babylon. Now it needed replacements and it was magnificent.

It was being built out of huge stones that were quarried in Jerusalem there— sometimes to ten, 15, 20, even 30 tons, we are told. They would take hundreds of people and put these huge blocks of stone on rollers and roll them up to the temple site. They would built earth ramps and just take it right up and drop it in place. It didn’t need any mortar. It was cut precisely to fit that place. That is the way the temple was being built. I think they had a right somewhat to be proud about it.

You know what Christ said though? “Not one stone will be left upon another.” Now, stones that weigh ten, 15, 20 or 30 tons do not just get up and move off. The great pyramids in Europe, in Egypt rather, were built about 3,000 BC and they are still there. Those stones are mostly around two tons, as I understand it. The big stones that form the structure of it. So, if the temple had not been tampered with, it would still be there, but He said “not one stone will be on another.” Of course, that tragically happened while some of the disciples were still alive.

In 70 AD, the Roman soldiers threw them down in Jerusalem. Because Israel and Jerusalem had a record of rebellion, they broke the walls and came in and slaughtered the people. Some think as many as half a million Jews were packed in the city in the Time of the Feast, and they destroyed the city and burned the temple. They pried the stones out one by one.

Now, they are digging up some of these stones outside Jerusalem that were thrown down the hill at the time the temple was destroyed. Now, there is a wall there and people say well that does not prove Jesus’ prophecy being fulfilled, because that wall is still there. The wall was not part of the temple. It was the retaining wall because the properties are up and down there (hilly) and they built this retaining wall in order to level the surface on the top. So, that wall is still there, but it was not there when Christ was there. It came many years later. So, that Wailing Wall is still there (as a retaining wall underneath the temple walls, which themselves are no longer there).

You see the prophecies were literally fulfilled. After 70 AD, the children of Israel were literally driven out of the land. The Roman soldiers came in. They burned down their houses. They filled their wells with stones. They cut down their trees. They made the land as uninhabitable as they could. They claim only about 15,000 Jews remained. Some were scattered through the land. All the rest were sent all over the world just as Moses predicted 3,500 years ago.

You see, when God says something is going to happen, it is going to happen. That is true about the Rapture; it is true about the Second Coming; it is true about the Millennium; it is true about Heaven; it is true about Hell. God predicts with absolute accuracy in His Word. So, that is where we are now.

Prophecies And The Future

Now, at the time of Nehemiah, it was a new beginning with Jerusalem being rebuilt. Daniel had the amazing faculty of summing up two great prophetic programs – one was for the Gentiles. We saw that yesterday: the four great empires that followed Egypt and Assyria and the Babylon Empire, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome were the great empires and then we saw how the Roman Empire is going to be revived at the end times. That is all part of the Gentile scene.

But, Daniel also predicted the future of Israel. In Daniel 9: 24-27, he predicts that it will be covered in a period of 70 weeks. The word “week” is not in the Hebrew; it is the word “seven” and practically all expositors recognize that what it is talking about is 70 times seven, which is 490 years. Now, this is not an easy passage to understand. I remember when I was a seminary student our prof lectured on it for two weeks. When he got through, I did not know any more than when he started. It was pretty difficult for me to understand. But, it does say that there is going to be the beginning with a decree to rebuild Jerusalem.

Now, scholars wrestle with that because there are other dates suggested, but I take it as the year 444-445. They wrangle about that, too, because it is the last day….last month of 445 or the first month of 444. I will let you guess, but from that point on, it is going to be 490 years. Without getting into all the complications of it, first of all there is seven times seven or 49 years in which the city is rebuilt. Of course, that is what happened after the wall was built. That has been fulfilled.

Then, there is 62 times seven, 434 years that immediately followed. That takes us up to Messiah, the Prince, Christ. It says at the end of those 62 sevens times seven more, which 49 or 483 years that the Messiah would be cut off. It says in verse 26 that after the 62 weeks are full, and you add the two together and it becomes the 483 years, “The Messiah shall be cut off and not for Himself. The people of the Prince who has come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end shall be a flood until the end of the war desolations are determined.”

Now, this is something strange. You see, from Nehemiah’s time to Christ, there is a solid 483 years. But, now some things are predicted that could not be fulfilled in those last seven years. Jerusalem is going to be destroyed. When was that? Well, that was more than 35 years after Christ died. So, it could not be in that last seven years. So, what it is telling us is that the last seven years are postponed. That there is a time gap between the 483 years and the last seven years of Israel’s program. We are living in that time gap. That explains a lot of things. I explained earlier in this series the Old Testament vision just jumps to the present age. It views it as it comes to the person and the work of Christ and then right to the end time. That is the way it is pictured.

So, it does not really picture a gap such as we have for now almost 2,000 years. But, that is the way it is. The Bible anticipates that there will be that final period leading up to the Second Coming and as far as Israel is concerned, it is comprised in seven years. That is what it tells us. Verse 27: “He,” (referring to this future world leader—I think it is the antichrist) shall confirm a covenant with many for one week or for one seven and in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offerings.”

It goes on to say he is going to bring an abomination. Now what happens? Well, according to Daniel 9:27, when the Roman empire is revived and this ruler conquers three and then all ten countries, his first step in his place of power is to impose the seven-year covenant on Israel. The first half it is going to be observed. That is, it is going to be a time of peace as far as he is concerned, even though there is this invasion from the north from some state of Russia and other countries mentioned in Ezekiel 38 and 39. God is going to interfere and stop it.

When you gets to the middle of the last seven years, suddenly a change takes place. This ruler of the ten countries has received such power politically that he proclaims himself ruler over all the entire earth and, apparently, nobody is strong enough to stand against him. It may be that is because he controls the oil in the Middle East. I do not know. The Bible does not explain it, but the whole world accepts him.

At the same time, he breaks his covenant with Israel and becomes their persecutor. He claims to be God and he aligns himself with Satan and demands that everybody worships him and worships Satan. Those who do not are beheaded. They are put to death. So, it is a terrible time that Christ calls the Great Tribulation. That is what Daniel calls it. Christ said it was so awful that if he did not stop that three-and-a-half-year period by His Second Coming there would not be anybody left alive in the world. Of course, that is not God’s purpose to destroy the human race. He has in mind the Millennial Kingdom to follow. So, that is not His purpose, but it is going to be stopped by Christ’s Second Coming and so this awful period begins.

God is going to pour out the terrible judgment described in the book of Revelation in Chapter 6 through Chapter 18. One devastating judgment after the other that decimates the earth and kills probably 80-90% of the human population and destroys the cities of the world in a great earthquake at the end. So, there is going to be a terrible time of trouble ahead, according to the Bible, in that last three-and-a-half years – the Great Tribulation and the Second Coming of Christ will occur.

Where Are We Now?

Now, where are we in all this? Well, 483 years of Israel’s history have been completed, but we are waiting for that last seven years. That seven-year period is going to be introduced by the antichrist and we learned yesterday that he cannot appear until after the Church is raptured. In other words, the day of the Lord cannot begin until the Church is gone because the day of the Lord is the marking. It is the midnight between the two days. We learned he could not be here yet, so he is going to be identified, I believe, when he conquers three of those ten countries. Then, all ten, if there is any question about it, he is identified seven years before the Second Coming of Christ, you see. Now, if the Rapture has to occur first, where does that put the Rapture? It puts it more than seven years before the Second Coming. It wipes out the so-called “post-Tribulational” view that he is going to come at the Second Coming for which there is not a scrap of scripture proof. Then, some want to put it in the middle of the seven years. That is just as wrong and now here it is demonstrating more than seven years before.

So, where are we? Well, according to God’s Word, we are on the verge of completing that last seven years. What has happened to Israel? You see, they were scattered all over the world and now what does God’s Word say about it? He says they are going to be restored to their land. Here again, let’s turn to a few scriptures. I do not like you to listen to me and just believe what I have to say.

In Jeremiah 23, it describes how they are going to come back to the land. Verses 5 and 6 and the verses that follow, as well, this is what I read,

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, (Jeremiah 23:5) that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness, a king shall reign and prosper and execute judgement and righteousness in the earth.”

Now, who is that? That is Jesus Christ. That is in His Second Coming to the earth; in His days at the Second Coming, Judah will be saved. Israel will dwell safely.

Now, this is His name by which you will be called, the Lord, our righteousness. Therefore, behold the days are coming, says the Lord, that they shall no longer say as the Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt. But, as the Lord lives who brought us and led the descendants of the House of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I have driven them and they shall dwell in their own land.”

Amillennialists, please take note. The Bible says Israel is going to possess the land in the Millennial Kingdom. Well, that is not the only passage. There are many others. It describes in detail. The book of Amos, for instance, talks about how God is going to resume it. I like this one as one of the best passages. It is found in Ezekiel 39. You remember this is a passage that talks about the war that is going to occur in the first half of the seven years. But, now it describes how it is going to climax in the Second Coming. In Ezekiel 39, beginning in verse 25, this is what I read,

“Therefore, thus says the Lord God, I will bring back the captives of Jacob and have mercy upon the whole House is Israel. I will be jealous for my Holy Name after they have borne their shame and all their unfaithfulness in which they have been unfaithful to me. When they shall dwell safely in their own land and no one makes them afraid. When I have brought them back from the peoples, gathered them out of the enemies’ land, I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations. Then, shall they know that I am the Lord their God who sent them into captivity among the nations but now also brought them back to their land”….listen to this…. “have left none of them captive any longer.”

What does that say? It says that at the Second Coming of Christ, Christ is going to gather all Israel from all over the world and bring them back to the Promised Land.

Now, it also makes clear that rebels are going to be purged out. Only the saved of Israel are going to be brought back, but those that are saved, those that have trusted Christ in that awful time of trouble are going to be brought back to the Promised Land. Ezekiel, as he closes later on, talks about their being apportioned out. He says the land is going to be divided into 12 sections, each section for a tribe of Israel. He names the tribes. They are not lost as far as God is concerned and they are going to inherit that land for the Millennial Kingdom, for the thousand years of Jesus’ reign.

Now, today what has happened? Well, the facts are that Israel has gone through some tremendous changes in the last 50 years, haven’t they? Many of them were killed, of course, in Germany. Then, afterward by acts of the League of Nations they were given a portion of the Promised Land. Later in war, they conquered portions more. Today there are four million Jews already in the Land. That is the biggest movement of Israel since the time of Moses. Do you realize that? That is happening while we are still here. Now, this is not the fulfillment of the promise that He is going to gather them all, but you see it is the forerunner because all the prophesies dealing with the end times picture Israel in the land. That is where they are going to be persecuted. We have Israel in the land today, but the problem is practically all of them are unbelievers as far as Jesus Christ is concerned. The Bible is very clear that only believers in Christ will inherit the land. That is how we understand it will happen because when the Great Tribulation breaks out, as Christ told them in Matthew 25, they are going to have to flee. Leave Jerusalem. Go to the mountains. Get away because they are going to be driven out of their land once again. Then, when Christ comes back the rebels will be purged out to be sure, but the righteous Israel is going to be re-gathered and installed in their Promised Land.

The fact that in our twentieth century after 1,900 years of being scattered all over the world Israel is back in their land. This is another token that we are in the end-times, that Christ could come any day and these great promises should be fulfilled.

Conclusion

So, we look at what the Bible says about the Church. The Rapture is imminent. Look what the Bible says about the nations. Europe is ripe for the renewal of the Roman Empire. You look at Israel. Israel is already in the land ready for its role in the end times. What is God trying to tell us? He is telling us that Christ could come very soon. It is not 2,000 years away. It could be in your lifetime. In fact, it could be today. To me, that is an exciting expectation for which I should prepare by examining my own personal salvation, my commitment to Christ and my living for Him for the things that count for eternity. That is what this conference, as far as I am concerned, is all about.

Now, tomorrow we are going to continue in our study of this. We want to see some of the other questions answered that people raise about this when they question whether Christ is coming. I hope you can leave this conference excited by the fact that Christ is coming and He could be coming soon. There is good, solid biblical facts to support those conclusions.

Shall we pray.

Our Father, once again, we pray for any who may not be saved if there are any here that they may come to know Christ before it is too late and before they are left behind. How wonderful that Christ died for us and by His grace we can be saved by simple faith in Christ. If we are not saved, it is because we have not come because Christ said “he that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.” So, we pray that they will come. Then, Father, most of us here are Christians. The issue is not our personal salvation but our commitment to you and our living for things that count for eternity. So, speak to our hearts and undertake for us, we pray, and bless abundantly as we seek to serve you effectively, for we ask in Christ’s precious name, amen.