Separated Unto God

Nehemiah 9
Nehemiah 8 records a great revival at the Water Gate and Nehemiah 9 tells of a prayer that leads the people to make a decision to live for God. The “Amen” has been said, and now the people must be doers of the word and not hearers only. The people commit to living a life “separated from the people of the land unto the law of God.” The concept of separation has a bad reputation. It shouldn’t!
Separation is a total commitment to cleave to God (based on the WORD of GOD) motivated by love (resulting in WORSHIP). Separation is total devotion to God, no matter the cost. Because we are separated unto the Lord, His Word, and His house, we are separated from the people of land that surrounds us.
The two keys involved in our separation:
1. The Word of God, v.28,29,34,36 The Word of God gives us the basis of our separation. This is the reason, it establishes the authority of why we are to be a people separated unto God.
2. The House of God, v.31,32,33,35,36,37,38,39. The house of God
Our separation unto God will affect our:
1. Marriage Covenant, v.29,30
The northern kingdom had become a new race of people, the Samaritans. This happened because the seed of Abraham intermarried with the Gentile nations, and the seed of Abraham lost their distinctive walk with God. One of the best weapons the devil has to blur the difference between the holy and the profane is to get the people of God to intermarry with the unsaved.
Exodus 34:10-17.
Should a Christian marry a non-Christian? NO! What are some of the arguments people offer for marrying a non-believer?
? As long as we love each other, it will work out!
? Marriage will give an opportunity for me to see them saved!
The principle of separation from unbelievers was 2 Cor.6:14.
Lev. 10:10, And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean.
Ezekiel 44:23, And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
2. Worship Commitment, v.31-39
The phrase “house of God” appears nine times in this passage. Notice their worship commitment! Remember that the house of God was rebuilt during the book of Ezra and the prophets Zechariah and Haggai preached and encouraged the people to build. Now they commit themselves to continue building up the house of God.
A. Affects their WORK, v.31. They had to keep the Sabbath day, they had to resist buying and selling, lighting fires, or doing any work on the sabbath. I know that today we are not under the Law of Moses that the believers in Nehemiah’s day were under. Sometimes a Christian is in a profession, like nursing, where they must work on Sundays. Under normal circumstances, I challenge people to have the faith to wait on a job or situation where they will not have to work on the Lord’s Day. God made our bodies to work, but not all the time.
B. Affects their WEALTH, v.32-39
? They gave a temple tax (v.32,33) that helped to provide for “all the work of the house of our God.” So our offerings today are given so that the work of the local church can go forward.
? They gave wood, so that the fire could keep on burning on the altar. Lev.6:12
? They gave the firstfruits of the ground, to the priests, so they could eat, v.35,37 Prov.3:9
? They gave firstborn of their cattle
? They gave a tithe of all to the Levites; the Levites gave a tithe of the tithe to the priests (Num.18:25-32)
Wiersbe says, “Where there is true spiritual revival, it will reveal itself in the way we support God’s work, beginning in our own local church.”