The Passion Project - The Covenant of Repentance

What does real repentance look like? In this message from The Passion Project series, Pastor Scott Wiens explores Nehemiah 9—a powerful account of how the people of God responded after hearing the law of the Lord read aloud.

Scott walks us through the covenantal structure of the passage, revealing three key movements: Perspective, Remembrance, and Response.

It begins with Perspective. The Israelites spent a quarter of the day reading God’s Word, followed by confession and worship. They acknowledged God’s greatness and re-centered their hearts around His sovereignty. This wasn’t a ritual—this was a reorientation. As Scott explained, without seeing ourselves rightly before God, true repentance is impossible.

Then comes Remembrance. Nehemiah 9 recounts Israel’s long history of rebellion, but also God’s unmatched faithfulness. The people didn’t make excuses or hide their sin. Instead, they laid it bare. Again and again, they had turned away from God, experienced judgment, cried out, and received mercy. Scott reminded us that honest remembrance isn’t meant to bury us in guilt—it’s meant to lift our eyes to grace. As Romans 2 tells us, it’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.

The final step is Response. The people didn’t just confess—they committed. They entered into a covenant, pledging to walk in obedience moving forward. And while we know the Israelites would fall again, Scott pointed us to the hope we now have in Christ: the promise of a new heart and a new spirit within us. Through the Holy Spirit, God empowers us to live transformed lives—not just momentarily moved, but continually changed.

Scott also quoted R.C. Sproul, who said, “When we realize that we have offended God, we must feel this rupture of our soul.” That rupture is not condemnation; it’s a holy discomfort that leads us to the arms of Jesus. If you’re feeling that tug—if you’re weary from carrying sin on your shoulders—Jesus invites you to come and find rest.

This message isn’t just a history lesson—it’s a present-day call. God still draws us back. He still speaks through His Word. And He still transforms hearts.

Watch or listen now and let Nehemiah 9 shape your perspective, stir your memory, and invite your response.

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Rupture of Our Soul
• 3:30 Establishing Perspective for Repentance
• 16:40 Remembering God's Faithfulness
• 30:45 The Cycle of Sin and Mercy
• 41:20 A New Heart: The Power to Obey
• 50:15 Grace is a Pesky Thing

Transcript

Scott Wiens: 0:03

I want to begin with a quote from a gentleman by the name of RC Sproul on repentance, and it's a really powerful quote and it says when we realize that we have offended God, we must feel this rupture of our soul. When we realize we have offended God, which really is sin, we must feel this rupture of our soul. Just take a moment to think about that. Have you ever experienced a rupture of your soul? Our response to our sin is really one of the hallmarks of a true Christian. It really is. And today we are going to talk about repentance because that's what our text is talking about, and we're going to come back to this quote towards the end.

Scott Wiens: 1:10

We're in a sermon series on the book of Nehemiah which we call the Passion Project, and we are on week nine, week nine. So therefore it's sermon nine and it's on chapter nine. And last week Kelly really set this up beautifully when he preached on chapter eight and how the word of God is the real core of any revival and any repentance. It was a great sermon, kelly, it was wonderful. I want to remind us of the points he made because it was really vital to understand that he said the Word of God awakens our faith. The elevation of God's Word corrects our vision. The elevation of God's word corrects our vision. The explanation of God's word brings encounter and the continuation of God's word transforms our behavior. And this is so beautiful because this is leading directly into what we're going to talk about today, which is really the response of what they read the word of God. So we're going to continue this story in chapter nine and we're going to see the people step into this process of repentance and owning their sin. And really, chapter nine is interesting because chapter nine follows and it's actually chapter nine and 10, but I've only got nine it follows what's called a covenantal form.

Scott Wiens: 2:23

Now, the covenantal form was a very common process in the Near East at the time this was written and these covenants usually fell into three primary categories. There were three primary phases. The first was a preamble and then there was what's called a historical prologue and then there was this acceptance of the covenant prologue and then there was this acceptance of the covenant. And we're going to see that really clearly in this chapter. And, of course, because the focus of chapter nine is repentance, this is a covenant of repentance that we're going to read about today. Now, each of these sections. As I read this and I studied and I prayed, three themes came out with each one of these processes the first one, the preamble I've called it perspective Perspective. The second, which is the historical prologue, I called that remembrance. And the last one, the acceptance of the covenant. I call that response. And so today, as we look at these three sections of this covenant of repentance, we're going to see parallels, very clear parallels of how we, as Christians, should respond when we are walking through repentance.

Scott Wiens: 3:33

Are you with me? Let's pray, father. We are so grateful for your word, father, we are so grateful that we can sit here in this beautiful building and we can worship you, and we're so grateful that we can open up your word and we can study it. Father, we thank you for the book of Nehemiah, we thank you how you preserved it through all these years. And, father, my prayer is that today, as these words become unpacked, that they become alive, that each one of us are convicted, that hearts would be convicted, that our hearts would be set right on the right path of repentance, not a worldly repentance, but a godly repentance. Lord, help us to hear. Rend our hearts. Lord, in Jesus' name, that's my prayer, amen.

Scott Wiens: 4:20

Well, normally what we do at this time is the pastor will read the entire chapter. This is 37 verses, and I thought you know what I'm going to do. Instead, I'm going to preach through it. I'm going to read it as I preach through it, because it really kind of lays out in a very wonderful story format. So let's get the setting and get ready to kind of set up. So in Nehemiah, verses 1 through 2, we're going to start here, just to kind of set the stage here. Now, in the 24th day of this month, the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and sackcloth and with earth on their heads, and the Israelites separated themselves from the foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. So this is the setting we have now their fathers. So this is the setting we have Now.

Scott Wiens: 5:06

Just so you know, in chapter eight, as Kelly was unpacking that and talking about it, that was the first day of the seventh month and he talked about the feast of booths. I grew up keeping the feast of tabernacles, which is the same thing, booth tabernacle. You know, I always thought you don't go through a tall tabernacle on the expressway right. It would be a real change the whole meaning of that, wouldn't it? So a toll booth.

Scott Wiens: 5:27

But at the beginning of that chapter was interesting because Nehemiah told them what he said do not mourn. He said do not mourn and weep, because they were already starting to feel repentance, but he said not yet. This is a time, it's a time to celebrate. There's time for that. And guess what? Here came chapter nine. Now, it's time Now, and it's interesting that, however, as they're entering this covenant process, they were convicted by the law, but they already had this welling up inside of them, which was the right response up inside of them, which was the right response. And, by the way, you wonder sometimes why the putting dirt on their head, or ashes? It really is a sign of humbling. It's placing yourself in the right perspective, which we're going to talk about. When you humble yourself before the Lord with fasting and sackcloth and these ashes, really what you're doing is you are placing yourself low, and that's what repentance is. It's placing yourself low.

Scott Wiens: 6:31

Now, where was this? Well, it's obviously Jerusalem. It does not specifically say in verse nine what part of Jerusalem. It says something about the stairs of the Levites. So it could possibly be at the temple, but it may be at the same place, which was the water gate, and no, president Nixon was not there. If the younger people go and say what Well, you didn't live through that, you can be thankful, but we can probably assume that was roughly the same place. And who was there? This is interesting. It said the entire assembly of Israel. Now, remember who's telling the story, nehemiah. So he was there, obviously, but you know, neither Nehemiah or Ezra are mentioned inside this scripture, this whole chapter.

Scott Wiens: 7:17

What we're going to read is spoken by the Levites, and it said they separated themselves from the foreigners among them. Now, as I read that, I think at first it hit me and I realized almost immediately why they did that. You know, when we have communion, when we take the Lord's Supper, what's one of the things we always say? If you're not a believer, please do not feel pressured to do this. Why? Because you're reaffirming with the Lord, you're remembering the sacrifice of Christ, and it's between you and God, it's between believers and God. And so the foreigners that were there, they didn't believe in this God, right? So this was between the nation of Israel, and there's also an element of a corporate repentance that's going on here. And, by the way, just because it's a corporate repentance doesn't mean there's not an application for us individually, right? So let's keep that in mind.

Scott Wiens: 8:11

So, with that as a background, let's jump into the first one, which is the preamble, which I've called the perspective. Okay, and we're going to start by beginning in verse 3 and going through verse 6. So Nehemiah 9, verse three, and they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day. For another quarter of it, they made confession and worship the Lord, their God. On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua Bani Kadmiel Shebaniah, bunai Sherabiah Benaiah Cheraniah, and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God.

Scott Wiens: 8:46

Then the Levites now listen to these guys Jeshua Kadmiel Benaiah, hashabaniah, sherebiah, hodiah Shebaniah and Pethahiah. I want applause, please. Thank you. Brian Durfee said you know, we're just all thankful we don't have to get up there and say those words, and that's exactly right. Anyways, they said stand up and bless the Lord, your God, from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. Verse 6, you are the Lord, you alone, and you made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all of their hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all and the host of heaven worships you. This is the preamble.

Scott Wiens: 9:44

Now it's interesting in this preamble, the Levites are going through three specific things to give them perspective. Perspective, and what are they? Well, first it was the reading of the Word of God. Then they went into praising Him right Praising and worshiping Him and then they went into acknowledging the greatness and the power of God. And I just want to unpack those three things here because they're very important for us today.

Scott Wiens: 10:05

Now the Word of God. I am not going to give Kelly's sermon again because it was so good, but if you missed it, I always say this if you missed the service, please go back and listen to the sermon online, because they all flow together. It's all in the same book. So Kelly addressed the role of the Word of God so well last week, but really, the thing is they started again and they read it again. For a quarter of the day they read it. They just finished reading it in verse 8, I mean literally maybe a couple weeks before this, but they read it again and that should tell you something the Word of God was so important Because, listen, if they don't know what the word of God is, what do they know to repent of?

Scott Wiens: 10:49

I remember in seminary I was doing a paper on Josiah, king Josiah, and it was interesting because they were rebuilding and they were fixing the temple up and they discovered the book of the law and one of them brought it to Josiah and they read it to him and he's like he had never heard this before. How can you repent if you don't know what God's law is? So they were reminding themselves again. That's what we need to look at this. What is it? It's a catalyst. The word of God is always a catalyst. Truth is always a catalyst for repentance.

Scott Wiens: 11:28

Now, secondly, they praised God. In verse 5 it said Stand up and bless the Lord, your God, from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessings and praise. This sounds like what one of us would say when we get up here to introduce worship. It was the most beautiful worshipful statement and you know anytime you read where it says you know blessings and praise from everlasting to everlasting. This is a huge, all-encompassing praise that they're doing, and what it did is it demonstrated their repentance through this worship. That just naturally came out. It naturally comes out when you are coming to repentance. It should.

Scott Wiens: 12:12

And think about when you worship somebody, when you worship God, what are you doing? You're placing yourself under him, underneath him. Some of us have fallen into the traps in the past and maybe you might be there where you worship something else and you just have to understand. You might say I don't worship anything else. Well, how important is your 401k, especially now? How important is your job or your relationships? I've seen people literally worship their spouse. I've seen that. So you place yourself underneath them and so by doing this worship, that's what they're doing. They're placing themselves in a subservient position to God and they're doing it before God. They're announcing this to God through this worship, reading the law. God brought on the spirit of repentance and that automatically men led to worship and placing them below.

Scott Wiens: 13:12

Remember, this whole thing's about perspective, right, and I love Judy's word today, by the way, that was spot on the mess, everything. I'm sitting here listening to the worship. I'm just going God. Once again, you did your tapestry, you lined everything up. And third, the third thing they did is they acknowledged the greatness of God, verse 8, you are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve all of them. Wow, wow.

Scott Wiens: 13:54

They worshiped God and then they acknowledged his complete sovereign control over everything, over everything. You see what they're doing. They're gaining perspective. Remember, the Levites are speaking this to the people. The people are listening and as they listen to this, you're going to see that their hearts are becoming. They're putting themselves, they're realizing that. Wait a second. We are down here and God is way up here. He created everything the depth of the ocean, everything that's on the earth, the heaven and the heavens of the heaven. I mean, these are all encompassing statements, brethren. It's so, so powerful when we're getting even more. They're giving me more perspective because they're acknowledging who God is.

Scott Wiens: 14:45

I call these truth statements. In your personal prayer time, do you make truth statements? These are statements that are rock solid. They are so solid, they never change, and everything they said here hasn't changed in thousands of years and had existed for years, millions of years before. God is always on his throne. He's the one. And why was this so important? Well, because they had to get their relationship right with God before they could move into repentance. They had to get that right. It's the trifecta. You know the law of God, you worship God as the one who's over you and you acknowledge his greatness. It's beautiful.

Scott Wiens: 15:32

And, by the way, if you have idols in your life and think about the Israelites, by the way, they didn't always do this, always do this what's the first thing they did when they started to slip away? They looked for other gods. You know, why didn't they just go sin? Why didn't they just go? You know, do all. No, they've. The first thing they did is they looked for another God. What should that tell us? Because we are saying we're the same thing. You show me somebody that's walked away from God and I'll show you somebody that found another God. They found another God, they found something to worship and unfortunately, I think sometimes that thing is themselves. That thing is themselves.

Scott Wiens: 16:28

Adam and Eve in the garden. The great deception. What did Eve? What did she want to do? What was the tug for her? What was the tipping point for her when Satan said you will be like God, you don't have to place yourself under him, you don't have to worship him. You, you don't have to worship him. You're going to be on par with that. If you don't worship God, you're worshiping another God. Now, what's interesting, by the way, is I thought about King David when I thought about these three perspective gaining things, and immediately in my mind I started thinking about certain Psalms that I'd read in the past. And David was a man after God's own heart. Right, this man knew repentance. We know that because we've read Psalm 51. It's a heartbreaking Psalm to read, right? But there are three things I'm just going to bring up three things that he did that follow this same pattern. I'm just going to bring up three things that he did that follow this same pattern.

Scott Wiens: 17:29

He acknowledged God's word as preeminent in his life. Think of Psalms 119. I'm going to start in 97. Oh, how love I your law. It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. Verse 100. I understand more than the agent, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, of course rules, of course, that you've taught me how sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey in my mouth. Through your precepts, I get understanding. Therefore, I hate every false way he did this. He acknowledged that the word of God was his foundation for everything.

Scott Wiens: 18:19

What else did he do when it came to worship? Well, I don't really need to really address that much, do I? Because most of the songs that we sing up here, that when they're coming from biblical text, most of them are Psalms of David. Right, I just picked out one, psalm 63, three through four. Because of your loving, because your loving, kindness is better than life, my lips will praise you, so I will bless you as long as I live, I will lift up my hands to your name, Worship, worship, praise and acknowledging his lowly position and God's lofty position.

Scott Wiens: 18:53

Immediately my mind went to this scripture in Psalms 8, verse 3. When I look at your hearts, heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him? What is man that you are mindful of him? There is nothing more perspective gaining than to being out and just looking at the creation and just realizing I'm just a speck of dust. I'm less than a speck of dust. Why are you mindful of me? Of course I know why, because scripture tells me why, but it puts me in that perspective which is so important, thank you. So the application for point one for us, this whole thing about getting perspective how does this apply to us? Well, I think a lot of you are probably nodding already. You know where I'm going.

Scott Wiens: 19:49

If we want to experience true repentance, it should naturally include these three things. It first and foremost and must always be informed by the word of God Truth. You and I need to know truth, we need to understand truth and we need to hold on to truth. And, by the way, if you haven't figured that out, that's getting more and more difficult every day. So many people are nullifying the word of God by twisting and explaining it away or making it fit into the culture. Oh, that can't be right, that's going to offend somebody. So therefore, I'm going to twist that. I've seen that before and it's sad. What's really sad is I felt tempted to do that before. If we're honest with ourselves, sometimes we're like this is really harsh. I don't know if I want to say that. But we can't walk away from truth and, more importantly, forget that yourself. When you find yourself straying, you have to stand back and look at what truth is. That's your measurement. That's your measurement and unfortunately, that's what happens.

Scott Wiens: 20:59

We did a class called the Deconstruction of Christianity. We went through that book of the same title, called the Deconstruction of Christianity. We went through that book of the same title. Neil and I did this last semester I think it was last semester. It was powerful, but it was sad because so much of the deconstruction is people saying well, I want to be a Christian, but I want to be this kind of Christian.

Scott Wiens: 21:19

I want this to fall in here, and some just literally reject it totally and walk away in here, and some just literally reject it totally and walk away. And unfortunately, we like to shape and mold our God into an idol that we can follow. You can't identify sin if you don't know what truth is. It's as simple as that. Secondly, when it comes to worship, we should desire to worship God readily and with a willing heart. Boy, worship is so powerful I can't imagine not being in this room when we worship. It's so powerful. It's so powerful If someone doesn't want to worship the Lord, their God, then I can almost guarantee you they probably don't have the right perspective.

Scott Wiens: 22:03

Their perspective's off. If you don't want to raise your hands to God, ask yourself why. Why wouldn't you do that? I challenge any of you to find somebody any one of our spiritual heroes in the Bible that were not worshipers. Just try to find one and you're probably. Well technically, it doesn't say he worshiped, no, no, they all worshiped the Lord, and a lot of times you know the way they worship the Lord is they fell flat in their face. That is an act of worship. You remember? I always think of that burning bush example Moses out there doing his thing with the sheep. It's like that bush has been burning a long time. What's that all about? Take your shoes off. You're on holy ground, shoes off, face down. He knew who God was and he knew what his response should be to God, and we need to also acknowledge the greatness of God.

Scott Wiens: 23:11

One of the things Judy had and she shared this a couple of times she's come up during worship and one of the things she did was share the names of God. Why was that important? Was that just like informational? Well, that's really neat. I didn't know that was the name of God. No, no, it's for you to understand and expand the God that you worship. The more you know about God, the more you understand the meaning and the power of it, the bigger your God gets and the smaller you get. Right, that's the way it's supposed to be. That's the way it's supposed to be. Brooke wrote an amazing worship song about the names of God.

Scott Wiens: 23:54

I love that song. That should be sung in every church. As far as I'm concerned, I love that song. That should be sung in every church. As far as I'm concerned, that's a powerful, powerful song. And what does it do? It gives you perspective. That's what this whole first section is about. They were getting perspective as they walked into repentance. Rehearsing the greatness of God reminds us of how big and wonderful God is, and we find it much easier to see our sin, much easier to see their sin.

Scott Wiens: 24:24

Okay, let's go to the second section, which is the historical prologue. Now you just have to understand. And I labeled this one remembrance. Okay, I called it remembrance. This is the preponderance of the rest of this chapter. I wanted to use the word preponderance. I thought it was a big word. I want some credit for that in the guys in the sound booth. Okay, preponderance Timothy doesn't know, he's looking up on his phone right now. So I'm going to break this up into two sections because there's a natural flow here. So the first one begins in verse seven. So let's just start reading.

Scott Wiens: 25:03

You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram, abram and brought him out of the Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, the Girgashite and whoever other ites were there. He got their land and you have kept your promise, for you are righteous. And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and you heard their cry at the Red Sea and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of the land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers and you made a name for yourself as to this day. And it's interesting when Joshua was leading the children of Israel to the promised land, remember some of the responses of the nations that they were conquering. They said we heard about what your God did at the Red Sea. God made a name for himself, trust me, he made a name Verse 11,.

Scott Wiens: 26:06

And you divided the sea before them so that they went in through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depth as a stone, into the mighty waters. You know stones are heavy. Have you ever taken a stone and just thrown it into a really raging river? It disappears. The river's like whatever. That's what he's saying. That's what he's saying. By a pillar of cloud, you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night, to light for them the way in which they should go. You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them the right rules, the true laws, good statutes and commandments. You made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them the commandments and statutes and a law by Moses, your servant Verse 15, and you gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water out from their rock for their thirst, and you told them to go and possess the land that you had sworn to give them.

Scott Wiens: 27:06

We're going to stop there. What are they doing? What are they doing? We know they're remembering, but what are they remembering. They're remembering God's faithfulness, his providence, his direction, his faithfulness Because, remember, they referred to the covenant he made with Abraham. They're remembering this faithfulness and it's important that we understand that because and this is a very important part of any covenant, but for them especially, let's just look at some of the things they remembered, just to rehearse really quickly they went all the way back to the founding of their nation, abram right. They went all the way back to there and they talked about how God Abram right. They went all the way back to there and they talked about how God found Abram faithful, changed his name to Abraham, took him out where he let him settle. They rehearsed their time in Egypt, which was a huge part.

Scott Wiens: 28:10

Last night my wife and I had a chance to do a Seder with Rick and Karen Greenberg Such a powerful, powerful meetings. It was wonderful with Rick and Karen Greenberg. Such a powerful, powerful meanings. It was wonderful. And when you go through that, so much of it is remembering is remembering what God has done in the life of the nation. He remembered how he brought the brought of Egypt, walked them through the Red Sea, did all of that stuff I mean everything led and provided for them in the wilderness. They were remembering God's faithfulness.

Scott Wiens: 28:42

Now, why did they do this? Why was it important? Well, I think I just thought through this and it just kind of made logical sense to me. That number one it gave them confidence that God is going to forgive them and we're about to read about their unfaithfulness here in a minute but it gave them confidence that God is with them. God has always been with them and God always will be with them. It was a reminder of that. Secondly, it helped them understand God's provision. In the history of their nation, god was always there and providing God's provision. In the history of their nation, god was always there and providing. And you know, I think, what it really did. It really helped them build a spirit of thankfulness. Aren't you thankful that your God forgives you?

Scott Wiens: 29:38

Now, however, their remembrance also involved remembering the sins of their fathers, and that's what we're going to now read. Now, I've been toying around with how I was going to read this. I figured I don't want to lose sight of this, but I've got to change my tone of voice just so you understand. I've got it highlighted in my thing. There's a pattern that's going to jump out to you, so just listen to this, starting in verse 16,.

Scott Wiens: 30:03

But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and they were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them. They stiffened their neck and they appointed a leader to return their slavery in Egypt. Yeah, it's just what sin. I was going to do a New York accent, but I can't do that. It's sinful and this is their response. This was the response of our fathers to all of God's faithfulness. But look what he says after that.

Scott Wiens: 30:38

But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them, even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said this is your God, who brought you out of Egypt and had committed great blasphemies. You and your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. Okay, sin, god's faithfulness. Right, let's keep reading. The pillar of cloud that led them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way by which they should go. You gave your good spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness and they lacked nothing, god's faithfulness right. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. I never thought about feet swelling until I got a little older. I never thought about feet swelling until I got a little older. That's a big deal, by the way.

Scott Wiens: 31:43

And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Shion, king of Heshbon, and the land of Og, king of Basham. You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, by the way, that's happening here in our church, by the way and you brought them into the land which you had told their fathers to enter and possess. So the descendants went in and they possessed the land and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land. By the way, we know Joshua went in and fought those battles, but they identified correctly who was winning that battle. Right, they said you. They didn't say you allowed us to win, they just said you did it right the Canaanites and gave them into their hand, with the kings and the peoples of the land that they might do with them as they would Verse 25, and they captured fortified cities and a rich land and took possession of houses full of all good things.

Scott Wiens: 32:36

Cisterns already hewn vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance, so they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. Oh, my goodness, what a wonderful picture of God's faithfulness and his provision and all that stuff. Oops, here comes verse 26. Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them, in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies. That's the response. One of the things you'll notice is there are no excuses being given. You see that, no excuses.

Scott Wiens: 33:23

So verse 27, god goes enemies, your turn. Therefore, you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer. Sometimes God punished himself, sometimes he used their enemies to punish, which I think was to help them realize that, listen, the only reason you're here is because I brought you here and I provided it. If I take my hand off, you're done, you're done. But then look what he says.

Scott Wiens: 33:57

And in time, in the time of their suffering, they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven and, according to your great mercies, you gave them saviors who saved them from the land of their enemies. Here's God's faithfulness again, uh-oh, verse 28. But after they had rest, they did evil again before you and God went and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so they had domin. They did evil again before you and God went and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so they had dominion over them. Punishment, oh. In the same verse, though. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them, according to your mercies, and you warned them in order that they warned them, in order to turn them back to your law. Merciful God faithfulness. Yet here we go again. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments. They sinned against your rules, which, if a person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. Many years you bore with them and warned them with your spirit, through your prophets, yet they would not give ear. Therefore, you gave them into the hand of the people of the lands. But wait a second. Here we go. Nevertheless, in your great mercies, you did not make an end to them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. You see, this pattern we're seeing.

Scott Wiens: 35:28

This is the historical prologue and it's really important. We don't just read over there and say that's a neat history. No, they're doing something very purposely here, verse 32,. No, they're doing something very purposely here, verse 32, now, therefore, so they have. They rehearsed all this. Now, therefore, our God, the great and mighty and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, don't miss that. What did they say? You keep covenant. What is this whole chapter about Covenant? They're moving into a covenant and they're identifying that God keeps their covenant.

Scott Wiens: 36:01

Let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. They'd been in bondage that whole time. Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly. And they identify again Our kings, our princes, our priests and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them, even in their own kingdom, and admit, amid your great goodness, that you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you. Return from their wicked works. God once again brings the enemies in to punish them.

Scott Wiens: 36:54

36,. They're acknowledging this, by the way. Behold, we are slaves this day, in the land that you gave our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts. Behold, we are slaves and its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us. Because of our sins, they rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress. That's the pattern, obey, everything's going. Great Sin, bondage, cry out for mercy, forgiveness restored, and again and rinse and repeat, which I don't do, literally, I don't do rinse and repeat.

Scott Wiens: 37:51

Does it not depress you, those who are in the Bible reading, did it not depress you just a little bit, going through the book of Exodus and all this, to see this constant turning away from God, constant turning away? They were doing this because they needed to humble themselves before God and they needed to own it. Humble themselves before God and they needed to own it. They needed to own their sin. They didn't make any excuses. I see nowhere here. And they said but we turned to other gods, because, after all, they didn't say that, they just owned it.

Scott Wiens: 38:32

And so the application for us is really, really clear. I don't care how long you've been walking with the Lord. Most all of us should be able to look back on our lives, and we should be able to see God's faithful hand in our life, in spite of our sins. Now you might say, scott, are you telling me to dwell on my past sins? No, no, no. I want you to hear me real clearly, and I appreciate what was said up here this morning. We're not defined by those sins anymore, right, god puts them as far from us as east from the west, right, but we need to remember his faithfulness. I can look back in my life and see times when I literally should have deserved a great punishment for what I did, for my sin. Yet I received grace, and God is always ready to forgive you, always ready to forgive you. He's faithful, even though we are not. He's faithful.

Scott Wiens: 39:35

Romans 2, verse 4, is a really powerful verse. I'm going to read this in the New Living Translation. It says don't you see this is Paul talking? Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you. Can't you see? His kindness is intended to turn you from your sin. Turn you from your sin. Brethren, are you responding to the kindness of God? Do you know the kindness of God? You know, every morning, when I wake up and take a deep breath and I'm just like I'm redeemed. I'm redeemed this day. I might do really well or I might fall on my face, but I've got a faithful God that will never leave me. He will never forsake me. He will be there with me entirely, the whole time. That kindness should drive me to my knees to repent. It should drive me to the point where I hate my sin. The Israelites were displaying this by reminding themselves of the riches of his kindness, his forbearance and his patience.

Scott Wiens: 40:50

Point three we're going to talk about the acceptance of the covenant. Their response I only get one verse. Well, let's read it. Nehemiah 9, verse 38. Because of all this, everything they just talked about, from verse 1 all the way to verse 37, because of all this, we make a firm covenant in writing. On the sealed documents are the names of our princes, our Levites and our priests, and now they go to chapter 10. Now, there really shouldn't have been a chapter break here, but they had a lot of verses so they had to break the chapter. But it is a transition point in the covenant because chapter 10, which we preached on in a couple of weeks by Mark you're going to see their response to that.

Scott Wiens: 41:38

But I'm going to seal just a little tiny bit of it by saying they responded and the third part of this covenant is in the acceptance of the covenant was their response, and that's the key word was a response. They've gone through the perspective of hearing the word of God, worshiping God, acknowledging his greatness. They remember their sinful history and they are now choosing to respond. And their response was making a covenant to obey. That's their response. They're about to make a covenant that we are going to obey. And, by the way, just so you know, there are many times in the history of the children of Israel they went years with not obeying. They went years it's not like they sinned and you know, later that day God threw them into, you know, punishment, and then the next day they went oh, I'm sorry. And then restored. There were years that they went through punishment and they're in that process now. Right, the application for us today is pretty evident.

Scott Wiens: 42:44

What do we do when we are faced with our sin. I'm going to go back to that quote from the very beginning. When we realize we have offended or sinned against God, we must feel this rupture of our soul. When we sin, do we number one, do we acknowledge our sin, or do we do what so many people do and they justify it? God, everybody's doing it. I know this couple that did that and they got away with it and they're good now. And I knew that guy that cheated at work or he took stuff home and he's okay now. I mean, you know it's okay and it's like people start justifying sin.

Scott Wiens: 43:31

You want to know why we justify sin. If we're Christians, you want to know why we justify sin. It's because the Holy he's in us, the Holy Spirit's in us, and we're miserable. And we got to somehow try to put salve on that gaping wound that needs surgery. We put a little band-aid on it by trying to justify it. But if you're truly one of God's, he will not let you go. He will make you miserable. I've been through that. It's not a good place to be. I'd rather just repent. It's much easier to just repent. It's so much easier. The sad part is and Tyler mentioned this the other day, I think.

Scott Wiens: 44:18

If you read forward in Nehemiah, if you've read the whole book, guess what? It didn't take long until they fell out of that covenant. But even though that can be a little depressing, there's something different between them and us, isn't there? There's one big difference between them and us. God took a part of the Godhead, holy Spirit, and he placed him in us. You and I have God in us.

Scott Wiens: 44:52

Paul talks about Christ in us. That means we have the power that he's transforming us and we have the power to obey. We have the power to obey, we have the power to get out of that kind of a cycle. I'm not saying, don't, we're not going to sin. I'm not saying that, but we're going to start walking away from that habitual sin. We're going to start walking away from sin that used to define us and we're now being defined by who we are, and that's we are gods, we're men. We're men, women, children of god. We're adopted. You know, by the way, he, for god, so loved the world he gave his only begotten son. Begotten means was from him. You and I are adopted, but we're adopted. Oh man, man, that's powerful. You got to actually give you chills. You and me are adopted. And when he came into our lives, we had a heart transplant. We had a heart transplant.

Scott Wiens: 45:50

Ezekiel 36, one of the most powerful prophecies, says it best in verse 26. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone. Who had a heart of stone? The Israelites Guaranteed. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And now check this out. And I will put my spirit, capital S person within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Christ in me, christ in you. We quote 2 Corinthians 5.17 all the time because it's good. That's why we quote it. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. I was going to say if anyone's in Christ, he's just a better person. No, that's fake Christianity, that's false Christianity. You're a new person and you want to know what tells you you're a new person. Go back to the quote from Sproul.

Scott Wiens: 47:00

How do you respond to your sin? Does it grieve you? Because it grieves God. Does it grieve you? Do you get that kick in the stomach feeling? Do you want to be reconciled with the Father? You know, my wife and I have been married for 36 years and I really honestly say we don't fight anymore. We just don't fight. We're close, god, it's just great. But there were times I remember in our past that we fought, like last week. So I didn't say when that changed. No, no, no, I'm kidding, no, no, seriously. There was a time where every once in a while we'd get sideways and then we would go to our corners. I don't know if you're like me I hope you felt like me but any time there was something between Hedy and I, I had this terrible feeling in my stomach. I could not wait to reconcile to her and get it solved so we could be one again. I hated that. That same feeling should be magnified a hundredfold when it comes to your sin, your sin.

Scott Wiens: 48:13

If you're getting comfortable with your sin y'all, you got to look in the mirror and you got to ask yourself God, you need to change my heart, you need to give me a heart of flesh. This sin should grieve me. It should grieve me. You know there might be some people here today that maybe you're thinking. What I'm saying you just have never experienced. Maybe you haven't experienced that change in your life where you're saying, yes, god, I'm not here and I don't get what you're saying. I've not given my life over to Christ like that. That might be you and I'm going to say just there's a few things I know to be true. If that, if you're thinking this way, if you're, if you're sitting there, maybe you're going to growing some conviction right now.

Scott Wiens: 48:58

But if that's you, let me just say a couple of things. First, I know that you're listening to this and it might be online. I know you're listening to this because God brought you here. That's what I know, because there's no accidents with God. He's sovereign. We had a great example of that in our lives this week. God's sovereign. Secondly, I know you're miserable. Why do I know you're miserable? Because I know that when God starts to work and he starts to work in your mind and your heart and he starts to wake you up because we know from Ephesians that we're dead in our sins when he resurrects us and we start to see our sin, it grieves us and it makes us miserable, because we want to know what should I do?

Scott Wiens: 49:43

Remember the sermon that Peter preached on Pentecost? What was the response of the people what now shall we do? They were feeling this same feeling. They were miserable. They were just oh, don't leave us here, don't take a coffee break, tell us what we got to do.

Scott Wiens: 50:07

And so if you're here right now and you're feeling that I got a great answer for you and it's a wonderful answer, and it's a wonderful answer and, by the way, you're miserable because maybe you've been feeling this for a while and you've been fighting it. Maybe you've got a different God up here. Maybe you're like I don't want to stop drinking. Alcohol is not as simple. You know, you get what I'm saying. I don't want to start having sex outside of marriage. I don't want to start being honest. I don't want to stop telling my jokes, I don't want to do it. You put the list up there. It might be that you're miserable because you don't want to stop doing this. Miserable because you don't want to stop doing this.

Scott Wiens: 51:02

But I heard a great song called Black Sheep. I don't know what's his name. Again, I forgot the artist's name. It's just this guy's amazing. It's called Black Sheep and the very last one, the very last words in the song, was amazing.

Scott Wiens: 51:24

Grace is a pesky, pesky thing when God's calling you, you don't got a chance. You don't got a chance. I didn't come to the women's thing, by the way, last yesterday, but my wife told me all about it and she said you know that lost sheep parable, where they leave the 99, go for the one. We think it's this whole come on back, come on back to the flock. No, the real image is a burly, a burly sheep herder grabbing the sheep and going, putting them on back and going back to the sheep, the rest of the sheep. That's what God's going to do to you. That's what he wants to do. He wants to call you back and he will have you because he's God and you can run. You can run, you can do anything you want. It ain't going to help. Amazing grace is a pesky, pesky thing. Well, you get to. The good news is you can respond to that and it's a real simple response. That's a real simple response. That's a real simple response At Trinity.

Scott Wiens: 52:26

We don't believe that you just say a prayer and you're saved. We don't believe that you might be well, that's what the Bible says. No, I tell you, what we believe is we believe that God begins working in your heart and he gets you to this point where you're grieved by your sin and you hate your sin and it's like a vile taste in your mouth and you want to repent. At that point, then it's as simple as a prayer. And so if you're online and you're listening to this, or even if you're here, there are going to be a group of people up front and we'll pray for you. But if you're online, it's really simple.

Scott Wiens: 53:01

If God's got you in this place, if God's got you there, all you have to say is Lord, I don't want to be here anymore. I need forgiveness for my sins and I am giving my life over to you, my whole history. I want to follow you and he'll make you new. He'll answer that prayer. You repent. He forgives because he's faithful, and you are now in the fold and all you have to look forward to is joy. In fact, don't trust me, don't listen to my words. This is what Jesus said and it's so beautiful In Matthew 11, verse 28,.

Scott Wiens: 53:45

Come to me, all of you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. It's rest, by the way, when you finally repent. The peace that comes over you is a beautiful thing. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Brethren, we have a lot we can learn from this chapter.

Scott Wiens: 54:14

When you are experiencing repentance, first thing you do is get perspective. You can do this from your prayer room, and this time, at 21 Days of Fasting, is beautiful. You can read the word of God. Believe me, it's living and active and it's sharper than any two-edged sword. It will convict you. You will hear from God. You will know truth. Spend time remembering how God has worked in your life and, thirdly, respond with repentance and I can tell you that the peace of God that transcends all understanding will come over you.

Scott Wiens: 54:51

This is my audience participation. How many of you have been where I'm talking about and now experience peace every day? Put your arms up high, put them up high. If you've experienced that, that's what you guys get to enjoy every day. He's faithful and when we repent, he responds. Stand to your feet and let's pray.

Scott Wiens: 55:29

Father, what is man that you were mindful of him? Who are we? We know from your word, because it's truth. We know that we are not the great of the world. We are the ones that are going to make other people scratch their head and go why them? But God, you restored us, you brought us back, father. I pray that, as we look at this scripture and as we continue on these 21 days of fasting, that, father, you truly give us the heart of repentance that we can be as the Israelites were, we can follow this process of repentance but yet, father, through the power of Christ in us, your Holy Spirit, that we can obey and we can walk forward in newness of life. Father, we thank you for this truth and we pray that we would use this every day of our lives until we are face to face with you. We pray this and give this over to you in Jesus' precious name, amen.