Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: They came to a place where they repented. Lord, if there is anything that I need to get rid of, show me. When revival begins to be stirred up, the Word of God, prayer, confession, repentance—people begin to change. They begin to give their hearts and time to God, not to themselves.

Guest (Male): I am falling, I am falling in love. I am falling in love, I am falling in love with You.

Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. Today, as Raul continues to lay out the themes and truths in the book of Nehemiah, he'll give us some clarity on what it means when God sends spiritual revival among His people. We'll discover today that a genuine return to the Lord is always accompanied by contrition and a desire to please Him in our actions and the choices we make. Let's join Raul Ries in the book of Nehemiah for our lesson, "Revival Sent by God."

Raul Ries: As you read the ninth chapter of the book of Nehemiah, there are three very interesting chapters in the Old Testament that are kind of going hand-in-hand that speak of revival: Ezra chapter nine, Nehemiah chapter nine, and Daniel chapter nine. When you go home, read those chapters; it'll blow your mind how perfect the Bible is.

And yet behind these prayers that they were actually praying, the people of God were the promises given to them in Second Chronicles 7:14: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and repent from their sins, then I, God, will hear from heaven, and I will forgive and I will heal your land." That's what God said. That's what God will do in His promises, as He did with the nation of Israel.

And yet as we go through this prayer, you'll notice that it reveals the greatness of God, the goodness of God, and the grace of God in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the grace of God is the same God of the New Testament. There are not two Gods; there is one God, the same of the Old as He is of the New.

And as we move through this chapter nine, we need to remind ourselves that the recurrent theme running through Ezra, Nehemiah, and the book of Daniel is that God desires a holy people for Himself—nothing less. A holy people. He cannot accept unholiness. Holy people that serve Him, and they will serve Him with all their hearts and all their minds and all their strength.

That's why this chapter is so important to my own life. Notice how it begins in chapter nine, verse one: "And now the twenty-fourth day of this month, the children of Israel assemble with fasting and sackcloth and with dust on their heads." Notice, after they heard the Word of God and the Word of God pricked their hearts. As they began to repent and get their hearts right with their wives and their children, grandmas, grandpas, and the whole body of Christ in the Old Testament, the people began mourning over their sinful condition.

You see, fasting here is an act of self-denial. It's not so you can look good and lose weight. That's not sacrifice; that's self-building. But here, he speaks of a self-denial that concerns spiritual concern over physical needs. When you fast, it's building up the spirit, not the flesh. It's denying, starving, putting to death the flesh so that the spirit can grow and live and be powerful.

Secondly, the sackcloth is a symbol here of profound sorrow. In my life, I blew it. I came against God, I sinned against God, and I am really sorry for what I have done against God. Then the dust here in the Old Testament: they would put dust on their heads to remind them of their mortality, that they were going to die. We all die. From dust we came, dust we return.

And yet here in Nehemiah, there is an intensity of repentance from the people of God. Verse two: "Then those of the Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and their iniquities of their fathers." This was another sign of the seriousness of seeking God: confession of sin and separation from foreigners, from the world, and from people that are not good for you.

In the context of the text, they are separating themselves from these foreign women they married when God told them not to do it. They're divorcing them, getting rid of them. They came to a place where they repented. Lord, if there is anything that I need to get rid of, show me. The world? Okay, Lord. My marriage that is not to be unequally yoked with nonbelievers? Second Corinthians chapter six, 14 through seven, one—read it. He says not to be together with a nonbeliever. What fellowship has light with darkness?

And yet how many people in the church disobey God and they get boyfriends and girlfriends that are not believers? "Oh, I'm going with that person because I'm going to bring them to the Lord." Sure. Good excuse. Where's your commitment to God? Are you going to obey, or are you going to disobey? You can't straddle the fence. You either are going to live for God or you're not going to live for God.

God wants us to be separated from the world, separated from the things that will bring us down and will consume us. These people showed repentance, but at the same time, they show also confession of sin and the seriousness that they really want to see the Lord. "I'm going to separate myself from all foreigners." And they stood up and they confessed their sins and their iniquities of their fathers.

What caused this? The reading and the hearing of the teaching of the Word of God. Conviction came. The Holy Spirit working. That's what happens in Bible study. Then in verse three: "And they stood up in their place, and they read again from the book of the law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day," that is three hours. "And the other fourth hour, they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God."

Interesting. Can you imagine confessing for three hours and then worshipping for another three hours? Six hours in total. The Jew worked like this: 6:00 in the morning until 12:00 was one shift; 12:00 at noon until 6:00 PM in the evening, another shift; 6:00 PM to 12:00 midnight, another shift; and 12:00 midnight until 6:00 in the morning, another shift. Four major shifts they went through. Six hours they confessed, and six hours they worshipped the Lord. As they read the Word of God, they worshipped and they confessed their sins before God.

Then verse four says, "And then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebia, Bani, and Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God. And the Levites Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebia, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, 'Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever. Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.'"

This is now the evidence from the words of God as they were reading the Bible, they were confessing, and they were actually coming to that place where revival begins to break out. All of a sudden, they're standing here, and when they open the Word of God and they stand up to bless the Lord God forever, they open the scriptures and they start reading Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy again, quoting the scriptures as they're standing before the Lord until the end of the chapter. They just go on and on and on, the people blessing the Lord, reminding Him how they were disobedient, reminding them how God warned them, then reminding them how they repented, and now they were willing to follow the Lord.

Once again, look at how beautiful this is. Conditions for revival. Number one: they start out by speaking of God as their creator. Verse six: "You alone are the Lord. You have made the heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their angels, and the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You." Imagine that. At verse six, the book of Genesis being quoted concerning how God made the world and God made everything, even the angels that stood before the Lord worshipping Him. Worshipping the Lord. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. The cherubim, the seraphim. Interesting. Here it is.

When revival begins to be stirred up, the Word of God, the Spirit of God, prayer, confession, repentance—people begin to change. They begin to give their hearts and time to God, not to themselves. That's revival. Then secondly, the goodness of God now pronounced from verse seven through 30. Look at what he says: "You are the Lord God, Jehovah, who chose Abraham and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham, the father of a multitude."

Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 17—they know the Word of God. They haven't heard the Word of God in about 175 years. Here they are, right back with the Word of God. They've been living a life of sin. God's been judging them, but now there's revival going on.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Visit somebodylovesyou.com to look through our full library of scripture-rich resources created to help deepen and direct your faith. Be sure to look for Raul's ten-part series titled "From Opposition to Victory" on either CD or USB. Now, back to more with Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: And then thirdly, notice the faithfulness of God. Verse eight: "You found his heart faithful before You and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites," and all the other "ites." Notice, "To give it to his descendants. You have performed Your word, for You are righteous, oh Lord."

What is the faithfulness of God? Lord, we could have been killed; there were more of them than us, and yet You gave us victory over them. All these nations that were surrounding Israel. The faithfulness of God's Word. God says, "I promised, and I've done it."

Then verse nine, fourthly: the graciousness of God who cares for His people. "You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the Red Sea." Can you believe that? He's quoting Exodus now. He's talking about when they came out of Egypt and Pharaoh said, "Moses, take your people and go. Go now," after the firstborn was killed.

And when they got over to the Red Sea, or the Sea of Reeds, they got over there and Moses had a staff. When they got to the actual edge of the water, when they looked back, here comes the Egyptian army with horses and spears and shields, and they're chasing after the children of Israel. And the people began to panic, and Moses is looking this way, that way, behind him, but he forgot to look up.

And the Lord said, "Hey, Moses, what are you doing? Keep going to the water. Put the staff down. Touch it." And all of a sudden, what happened? The water came up, and they walked on dry ground. God set a trap for the Egyptians. As they got to the other side, when they got in the middle, the water came and killed every one of the Egyptians.

But they crossed over. Remember that, he says. Don't forget that. How many times you and I are like Moses? We're looking here, we're looking there, we're looking behind us, and we get freaked and we get scared. And yet God says, "Why don't you look at Me? I made the promise, and I've worked in the past. Don't you think I'll work in the present and work in the future for you?" He's reminding them.

Remember that Moses said in Deuteronomy, always mention this to your children and your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren from generation to generation: the faithfulness of God and the promises of God so they can build themselves upon those things. How my great-grandmother crossed the Red Sea, and now here we are today. He's reminding them.

They cried out to God, and God heard their prayer. Verse 10: so here in verses nine through 12 is Exodus chapter two through 15 in the book of Exodus. He says, "You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants, and against all the people of his land, for You knew that they acted proudly against them. So You made a name for Yourself as it is this day." What did God do? He drowned the whole Egyptian army under the water of the Red Sea. Imagine that.

Verse 11: "And You divided the sea before them so that they went through in the midst of the sea on dry land, and their persecutors You threw into the deep as a stone into the mighty waters. Moreover, You led them by day in the cloudy pillar and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the road which was to be traveled."

"And then You came down also on Mount Sinai and spoke to them from heaven, and You gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments." Notice, the Ten Commandments given to the people of God. Exodus 19 to chapter 40 now. Here we see it in verse 13 to 19. The whole Old Testament quoted in chapter nine of Nehemiah.

He says, verse 14, "You made known to them Your holy Sabbath to rest and commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws by the hand of Moses Your servant. And You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought them water out of the rock from thirst and told them to go in and to possess the land which You swore to give to them." Remember to the book of Numbers.

They didn't have any water, so God gave them water. They didn't have any food, so God brought manna and then brought after they got tired of it, then God gave them quail meat. And when they were full of meat and they were disrespecting God, God says, "I'm going to give you enough meat where it comes out of your nose and out of your ears." And God gave to them. And God judged them, and God punished them. They were never satisfied.

God brought them out of Egypt, and they were always saying, "Oh, I wish we could go back. Remember the leeks and the watermelons in Egypt?" What watermelons? What leeks? They were in bondage. Isn't that the way we are? Egypt's a type of the world. "Oh, when we were in the world, we had it all." Oh yeah, you had it all—dying with all. Egypt has nothing for you. Egypt was Satan's territory; it was killing you.

We came out of Egypt, and now we're walking with God. And here he's reminding them of everything God has done. God was so good to us. He did so much for us, and He's done so much. Notice verse 16, fifthly: the compassionate God who does not abandon His people. God will never leave you nor forsake you. "But they and our fathers acted proudly, hardened their necks, and did not listen to Your commandments." So here God was faithful, but they were unfaithful. It's never God's problem; it's always our problem.

Verse 17, he tells you they refused to obey. "And they were not mindful of Your wonders that You did among them, but they hardened their necks and in their rebellion they appointed a leader to return to their bondage. But You are God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them." The God of the Old Testament. Here He is: forgiving, gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and kind. The God of the Old Testament.

And yet they hardened their hearts against God, who wanted to forgive them. Even when they made a molded calf for themselves and said, "This is your God that brought you up out of Egypt," and worked great provocations. Now he's going to speak to them again from Numbers chapter nine through verse 19. "Yet in Your mindful mercies, You did not forsake them in their wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them on the road, nor the pillar of fire by night to show them the light and the way they should go."

God never abandoned them. God was faithful to them. "You also gave them Your good spirit to instruct them." The Holy Spirit, here He is in the Old Testament. "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 never lacked anything. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell."

Can you imagine that? To wear the same clothes for 40 years and the same sandals. Forty years in style. Forty years God says, "I took care of you." Notice that. "Moreover, You gave them kingdoms and nations and divided them into districts, so they took possession of the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon, the land of Og, king of Bashan." So here now Numbers chapter 20 all the way through Joshua 24.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. To learn more about this ministry, please visit our website at somebodylovesyou.com. You can also contact us by phone at 800-634-9165. Someone is available to answer your questions and take your orders Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific Time. You can also reach us by mail at Somebody Loves You, PO Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765. Join us again next time as we discover more about the love of God. Until then, remember that somebody loves you.