Looking at verses 6-37…verses from 6 -37 of Nehemiah Chapter 9.
And I’ve titled this sermon: “God’s Love Is Not an Excuse to Sin.
Now you’ll realize there are no slides. I can assure you it’s not because of rugby! This is a prayer that will be going through today. It will be good for each and everyone to go through it in their own Bible.
The title of the sermon is God’s Love Is Not an Excuse to Sin. And I could have easily titled it as well., God’s Love Demands Obedience.
Now the main point of this message this morning, is that God’s love for us will not deter him from disciplining us, therefore, we must be obedient.
God’s love for us will not deter Him from disciplining us, therefore, we must be obedient.
I’m not going to go through the background of Nehemiah. We know that this happens at the time when Judah is coming back from slavery. Another patient government, the wall has already now been built and Nehemiah is busy with the insides of the wall. Starting with…Worship. He started with worship, putting the correct people in place in the church or in the synagogue and also appointing leaders. Once he did that, he then went. In fact, it’s not even him, the people asked him to bring the book of the Law of Moses – and we bought it.
And we see that in Chapter 8, when Ezra began to open the word of God at the request of the people, readied and gave an explanation to all those who were listening, giving them the meaning of what was being read such that they could understand.
So, although Nehemiah was in charge, Ezra was the one who was doing this. And we saw previously why he was specifically the one who was asked to bring this book. He read it. He explained it and the point of all that was such that people can understand what was being read, and we also saw that this went on for six hours.
We also saw that it was the people that requested the book to be heard.
We also saw how attentive the people were to the preaching of the word by Ezra, even though it was for six hours.
We also saw how much respect they had for the Word of God. They stood up when it was read!
We saw the end result of this preaching of the word of God was that the people were convicted of sin.
We saw how they began to mourn and weep as a result of this conviction.
The Word had pierced their hearts and exposed their sin, their rebellion, their disobedience.

Not only did the Word bring conviction of sin in their hearts, but it also humbled them. And they bowed and worshipped God.

We saw in verse 11 of Chapter 8 that the people were now grieved. That means they were worried, anxious, concerned, uneasy. This is normal and understand and… and understandable reaction given that they saw themselves how God sees them for the first time since they were taken to capture, to slavery. And this was because of the way that the Word was being preached to them. They just realized how sinful they are. But the Word of God was not finished with them!
We also saw in verses 13 to 18 of Chapter 8 that the word of God produces obedience. In verses 1-3 of Chapter 9, we saw how the Word of God leads to confession of sin.
So, first of all, it gives to conviction of sin. Then it led them to humility and worship. Then it led them to. obedience.
And now, at the beginning of Chapter 9, we see them as a result of the Word being led to confess their sin.

And lastly, in verses 4 to 5 of Chapter 9, we saw how the word of God makes one realize their inability to obey God without God. The more you read the Word, you realize I can’t do this thing on my own. And they did as well!
The word of God also drove them to prayer. And we will look into the contents of this prayer this morning.

As I said, we are in Chapter 9 of the Book of Nehemiah, and we’ll be looking at verses 6 to 6-37. And just to repeat the main point – God’s Love for Us Will Not Deter Him from Disciplining Us. Therefore, We Must Be Obedient.
Now I’m not going to read the whole passage. We will read it as we look at the different points. Now I’ve divided this, and this would not scare you. It Doesn’t mean it’s long. It’s just that there are so many facets to this prayer, even what I’ve got here is only, I believe, a tip of the iceberg, as we say.

So, I’ve divided this into 10 points.OK. Doesn’t mean we will be here for six hours, although we have precedence that Ezra did do it for six hours. It’s nice and cold. It’s not hot. So, we can actually beat that thing. We can, I mean, we’ve won the World Cup, we can beat Ezra as well – can’t we?
The 1st point is found in in, in vv6, God is unique and a Sovereign Creator – God is a unique and a sovereign Creator.
2. God is faithful – Verses 7 and 8…. God is faithful – vv7-8.
3. God is a powerful savior. – vv 9-12…God is a powerful savior – vv-9-12
4. God is a lawgiver – vv13-14… God is a law giver vv13-14.
God is a provider #5 – vv15 at of the beginning of 15.
6. God demands obedience – the 2nd part of vv15… God demands obedience. –
7.Man is ungrateful and rebellious. vv16 to the 1st part of 17… Man is ungrateful and rebellious.
8. God does not forsake his own – 2nd part of 17-25
9 Main man remains ungrateful and unrepentant and rebellious – vv26.
God’s discipline #10 God disciplines his own in love – vv27-31.

And man’s response to God’s discipline. 32 to 37… and 32 to 37 is really the main point of this prayer. Everything we will be talking about all these points build up to vested to. 32-37.