GOD TAKES PROMISES SERIOUSLY
Nehemiah 5: 1 – 7

A dying man gives each of his best friends -- a lawyer, doctor and clergyman -- an envelope containing $25,000 in cash to be placed in his coffin.
A week later the man dies and the friends each place an envelope in the coffin. Several months later, the clergyman confesses that he only put $10,000 in the envelope and sent the rest to a mission in South America.
The doctor confesses that his envelope had only $8,000 because he donated to a medical charity.
The lawyer is outraged, "I am the only one who kept my promise to our dying friend. I want you both to know that the envelope I placed in the coffin contained my own personal check for the entire $25,000."

William Carey said, “The future is as bright as the promises of God.”
"The saloon is a liar. It promises good cheer and sends sorrow. It promises prosperity and sends adversity. It promises happiness and sends misery.... It is God’s worst enemy and the devil’s best friend.” - Billy Sunday
Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; He promises honor and pays with disgrace; He promises pleasure and pays with pain; He promises profit and pays with loss; He promises life and pays with death.
There are approximately 8,810 promises in the entire Bible. In the Old Testament there are 7,706 and in the New Testament there are 1,104 wonderful promises. Deuteronomy 28 has 133 promises, which is more than any other chapter in the Bible. “We’re sitting on the premises when we ought to be standing on the promises!” observes Vance Havner. (Encyclopedia of Illustrations #4612).
Anytime you think that the Bible is out of date & doesn’t deal with contemporary problems just go back & read the book of Nehemiah.
The problems that Nehemiah & the people faced are some of the same problems people sometimes face today.
As we turn to the 5th chapter of Nehemiah, we discover that a strike has occurred among the laborers who are rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.
They probably weren’t on a picket line, carrying signs & blocking traffic.
But they had stopped working & were loudly complaining about their living conditions.

Vs. 1 says, “And there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brethren.” The people were unhappy, & they stopped working to voice their grievances.

Like a good leader, Nehemiah listened to them, & found that their problems were very real.
Vs’s 1-5 tell us that while the nobles & officials among the Jews were rich & had plenty, the common people were on the verge of starvation.

It was terrible situation for many of the families.
And as we read about it we wonder why? How could this possibly have come to pass?

THE CAUSES OF THEIR PROBLEMS
Well, as we look carefully at the Scriptures, we discover 3 reasons for what was happening.
First of all, it was a time of famine and food was not only scarce BUT it was also very expensive.
In Vs. 3 the people tell Nehemiah, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”

Food was in short supply... and greedy merchants were taking advantage of the shortage by raising prices higher and higher.
More and more of the laborers’ resources were being used just to secure food for themselves & their families.

Also, their taxes were too high. Vs. 4 reads, “ “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards.”
Israel was a conquered nation in the Persian Empire.
But King Artaxerxes was more than 800 miles away.
How could he collect taxes in Israel? It was simple. He delegated that task to some of the Jews who lived in Jerusalem.
It was their job to collect the taxes from their own countrymen & send a set amount of money to the King’s treasury back in Persia.
The sweet part of the deal was that the King really didn’t care how or how much these tax collectors collected from the people.
All he was concerned about was that they sent in to the treasury the amount that he expected.
Anything above that amount the tax collectors could keep for themselves as their pay. So the tax collectors were getting rich while the people were getting deeper and deeper in debt.

Then in vs. 5 we discover yet another problem – they were having to pay high interest rates.
Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them,for other men have our lands and vineyards.”
The price of food, their taxes, AND the interest rates on the money they borrowed were SO HIGH that people were not only having to mortgage their homes AND fields, but some were even selling their sons & daughters into slavery just to survive.

Is the Bible outdated? Does it sound like a book that is irrelevant?
It speaks here of famine, high prices, and high taxes.
Interest rates were also high, with no hope of relief.
The rich were getting richer, and the poor were getting poorer.
And the people were crying out at the injustice of it all!

So what happened? How did Nehemiah react to the outcry of the people?

THEY WERE VIOLATING GOD’S LAW
Vs. 6 tells us how Nehemiah reacted: “And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.”
There are times when a leader must be a diplomat. But there are other times when the best response is a justified anger. Nehemiah was angry because the officials were ignoring God’s Law.
They were not obeying the Law that God had given them.

God had chosen His people AND made a covenant with them. God’s people were to live lives differently than others around them. They were to be a living testimony to the world of God’s love AND care for His people.
He had brought them out of slavery and into the promised land.
He had given them laws and standards to live by.
He had watched over and cared for them AND blessed them.

But they had ignored God’s instructions, & now the whole nation was in trouble. But some of you may be wondering, “Just what laws or instructions of God were they ignoring?”

Well, for example, in Exodus 22:25 God had told them, “If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest.”
Notice that God says that this has to do with "My people." God says, "If a fellow Jew is in need it’s all right to loan him money but don’t act as a moneylender. When you lend to him, don’t charge him interest."

Deuteronomy 23:19-20 says, “You shall not charge interest to your brother—interest on money orfood or anything that is lent out at interest. 20 To a foreigner you may charge interest, but to your brother you shall not charge interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all to which you set your hand in the land which you are entering to possess.God was saying that he wanted His people to be unique.”

In effect, He was saying, "I will bless you so richly that you won’t have to charge interest to your own brothers. Your lives will be so different that foreigners will ask, ’How in the world can a nation exist like that?’ And you can answer, ’God is blessing us, AND He provides for our needs.’ And this will be a living testimony to the power & guidance of Almighty God."

There is another scripture in Leviticus that may also have been in Nehemiah’s mind. Leviticus 25:38 40 says, 38 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39 ‘And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. 40 As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee.”

No Jew was ever to enslave another Jew. Making a slave of a fellow Jew was evidence of an absence of love AND concern for his brother. Their love for each other as God’s people was to supersede love of money. This, too, was to be a testimony to the pagan world.

So when Nehemiah hears the outcry of the laborers, and investigates, he becomes very angry because the officials had deliberately violated the Law of God, and His people were suffering.

NEHEMIAH’S REACTION
So what did Nehemiah do?
In vs. 7 Nehemiah says, ”I took counsel with myself,...”
In other words .... He thought long and hard about it!
Aren’t you glad that’s there?
Yes, he got angry, but he thought before he spoke.
So God was able to speak to Nehemiah about what to say next.

Self control is a virtue that a leader cannot afford to be without.
He regained his composure and now he was ready to take the situation in hand.
Then it says that he “...”charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them,”
Nehemiah didn’t go behind anyone’s back to deal with the situation.
He went straight to the nobles and officials and he confronted them with their violations of God’s law.

Vs. 9 says, “Then I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?
What is he saying? He is saying, "The pagan world is looking at us & saying, ’You’re just like everybody else... you are no different at all.’"

That is a problem that Christianity faces today, too.
Who wins when a church argues and fights and splits? Nobody but Satan.
The world points its finger & says, "See, they aren’t any better than we are."

That was the trouble with the people of Israel. Their life style was no different than the pagans around them. And the name of God was shamed.
After Nehemiah rebuked the ruling elite, notice their response. The last part of vs. 8 says, “They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.”

That is a good way to respond when the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin ...
to be silent before the Lord and accept the fact that you have sinned.
A good leader, however, does not stop with rebuke.
Nehemiah took steps to correct the problem. He helped them to deal with their sins.
And we, too, can learn from his actions.

STEPS TO CORRECT THEIR SIN
First of all, in vs. 10 he says, “Let the exacting of usury stop!”
What is he saying?
He is saying, "You know what your sin is... so do something about it!!! stop it!"
Vs. 11 says, “Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves & houses; & also the usury you are charging them...”
When? “Immediately!”
“Not next month not next year but right now, with the help of almighty God, stop the sin that you are committing."
How did they respond? Vs. 12 says, “’We will give it back,’ they said. ‘And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.’”

Next, Nehemiah tells us, “Then I summoned the priests & made the nobles & officials take an oath to do what they had promised.” Nehemiah told the priests, "I want you to hear their pledge to God that they will not do this anymore."
Then Nehemiah impresses upon them the importance of the oath they have just taken.
Listen to vs. 13, Then I shook out the fold of my garment[a] and said, “So may God shake out each man from his house, and from his property, who does not perform this promise. Even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.”
At this the whole assembly said, ‘Amen!’” and praised the LORD. Then the people did according to this promise.

Folks, I’m not sure that we realize how important it is for us to keep our promises. When we make promises to God when we make promises to other people as Christians we are to keep those promises.

Do you realize what becoming a Christian is?
It is a promising to God that we will live for, love and serve the Lord as long as God gives us life. So keep your promise to God, and He will keep His promises to you.
No one really falls away from God overnight.
It is a gradual thing as Satan eats away and erodes the faith upon which we build our lives.

A few years ago a small Pennsylvania community built a red brick building to be their city hall, police department and fire department building.
When it was dedicated practically the whole town showed up. They were so proud of it. They cut the ribbon and had the dedicatory address and all of the community took pride in the building that they had erected together.

But within a few weeks cracks started to develop in the walls. They thought at first that the building was just settling and they weren’t too concerned. But soon the windows wouldn’t open, and they couldn’t close the doors. Large cracks appeared in the floor, and the roof began to leak.
Finally, the building had to be evacuated, much to the embarrassment of the builder and the disgust of the taxpayers.

They brought in experts who found that blasts from a nearby mining area were slowly but effectively destroying the building. Gradually, down beneath the foundation, there were small shifts and changes taking place that caused the whole foundation to crack.
They couldn’t feel it or hear it on the surface, but quietly and down deep there was a weakening. Finally, the city had to post a sign, "Condemned. Not fit for public use." And then the building was demolished.

Sin is like that. It slips in. Oftentimes we don’t even notice it. Then little cracks show up in the walls of our lives little holes or flaws in the foundation begin to develop. And the first thing you know a life is destroyed by sin.

There is a better way. It is the way of faith, and a refusal to ignore or excuse our sins any longer. It means to be sensitive to the invitation of Jesus Christ, and to be obedient to His will in our lives. It means to keep our promises to God, even as we expect Him to keep His promises to us.

I would like to close this morning with a story an old missionary told while visiting his home church in Michigan.
"While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every 2 weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to the nearest large city for supplies. This was a journey of 2 days and required camping overnight at the halfway point in the jungle.
“On one of these trips, just as I arrived in the city I saw 2 men fighting, one of whom had been injured. As a missionary doctor I intervened and treated his injuries. And at the same time... I talked to him about the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Afterwards I went about my planned tasks – collecting money from a bank, purchasing medicine & supplies, and then began my 2-day journey back to the field hospital. Halfway back, I camped overnight as usual, and then arrived home without incident.
“Two weeks later I repeated my trip. Upon arriving in the city, I was met by the young man I had treated. He told me that it was known that I regularly carried money and medicines.

He said, ‘Two weeks ago several of us followed you back into the jungle, knowing that you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you & take everything. But just as we were about to come into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards. So we left.’
“At this I laughed to myself and said that I was certainly all alone out in that jungle campsite. The young man wouldn’t accept my word, though. He said, ‘No sir. I was not the only one to see the guards. There were 6 of us who saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those 26 guards that we were afraid & left you alone.’

As the missionary was telling this story in his home church in Michigan, one of the men of the congregation jumped to his feet and asked if the missionary could tell him the exact date this had happened. The missionary told him, and the man then told him this story:
“On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I was preparing to go play golf. But for some reason I felt a very strong urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging was so strong that I called men in this church to meet with me to pray for you. Would all of those men who met with me on that day please stand up?”
The men who had met together to pray that day stood up. As the missionary looked around the room at those who were standing, he wasn’t so concerned with who they were – he was too busy counting how many they were. There were 26 men standing!

Folks, I don’t know if any of us will ever experience something as dramatic as that.
But I do know that God loves us, and that He is preparing a place for us that where
He is we may be also.
Do you believe that?
Do you believe in Jesus and his promises?
Will you consider the PROMISES GOD offers to you this morning?
You have the opportunity to dedicate your life to HIM this morning by repenting of your sins and being buried with Him through baptism.
Will you come to Him this morning as we stand and sing our song of invitation?

Contributing Sermon
by Melvin Newland