Repopulation of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 11:1-12:26)

Welcome to God's Word for You from Ministry of Sharon Arby Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter 11. After 1 and 2 Chronicles and Ezra, if you get to the Psalms and Job, you've gone too far. Nehemiah 11. And we'll be this morning looking at chapter 11, verse 1, through chapter 12, verse 26. Nehemiah 11. in the first half of chapter 12. Because of the nature of this chapter, I'm not going to read the chapter in its full entirety to start with, but we're going to work through it as we go together in the text.

Well, this week I was talking to someone at the church, and we were talking about what makes rural life so good. What makes living in a small community something special? And as we were talking, one of the things we came down to is, in a rural community, you know people. And in a small town, your name means something. When you're in a small town, people know who you are just by the very mention of your name. Some of you, all I need to do is say, oh, that person's name, and I could be talking to a total stranger, and they know who you are because they've been friends with you or friends with your parents before you.

And even this past Sunday, when we were at the Thanksgiving meal, I mean, I'm still new to the community. I'm in a type of community. I was from a type of community that was really transient. I mean, people would move from house to house to house to house, always looking for their permanent home. But here, it's like you guys sink down roots and you stay for a long, long, long time. And it's admirable.

And at Thanksgiving, I remember talking to someone, and she politely asked me, would you like some yams? And like my mom told me, when you don't want something, you politely say, no thank you. And she said, spoken like a true Schneider. I thought, I've never met you before. I don't know who you are. But she knows who I am, because we're in the community. See, I'm still learning names, but when you're in a small community, people know your name, and your name means something.

And that's what's going on here in Nehemiah chapter 11 and the first half of chapter 12. People's names mean something. They are part of something. And that something that they are a part of is the very work and plan of God's covenant. God is forming a people to be Himself, to be a family for Himself, a holy nation for Himself, and each one of these names represent what God is doing in the midst of His own people. And so we start Nehemiah chapter 11 with seeing what God has done and is doing in His people, not with the religious per se, not with the priests and the Levites, but with normal everyday people. You need to remember the context of what's going on here.

The people have been sent away from their homes. The Babylonians had come and they had conquered Jerusalem and everything around Jerusalem. It was utter destruction. And the people were captured and sent away, hundreds of miles away, forced to march for hundreds of miles to Babylonia. And there they lived for 70 years, their ancestral homes left behind. But then after that time of exile where God had punished them for their sins, for their adultery against Him, for their idolatry of worshipping other gods, He brought them back. And so these people with these ancestral homes finally come back to where their roots are.

Now there's something weird in Iowa. You guys really like to celebrate living in one place for a long time. So much so that at the state fair, the governor awards certificates to every family who's lived in the same farm for 100 years. We don't do that type of stuff in Southern California. This is all new. It's amazing to me that you celebrate living in one place. Now imagine your family having lived not for 100 years, but for 850 years. in the same land.

See, God had promised the people land in Joshua chapter 15. And they had lived in those ancestral lands. They weren't allowed to sell those lands or give them away to other people. They lived there. Their identities were tied to, we are from this town. We owned these fields. God gave them to us. And then they were ripped out of that. Eight centuries of history ripped out of it. And finally they come back. But there's a problem. Jerusalem is empty. The capital city is empty. It has houses, it has a wall, but nobody's living there. What are they going to do?

Well, that's where we find ourselves in the first few verses. Nehemiah chapter 11, verse 1, Now the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem, the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine-tenths to dwell in other cities. And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem." They realized, we need to repopulate Jerusalem. There's not enough people living there. So we're going to cast lots. We're going to see who God sovereignly chooses to go live in Jerusalem. And they cast lots for that. And when they cast the lots, they find out one tenth.

Now let me ask you, if you had just moved back to your home, and you had just tilled the ground, if you had just pulled all the weeds from your field, if you had just sown all the seeds for your field, if you had just rebuilt your house, If the lot fell to you, would you go back to Jerusalem? Would you willingly leave your ancestral home of eight centuries to go move into Jerusalem? Would you forsake the worldly goods and the comfort of all your history to go move to the Holy City?

That's a challenge that they're facing here. And the people who are willing to go, they honor them. Look at verse 2. And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem. Who were these men? And where did they come from? What towns and what cities and what families is this involving? And that's where we look at the next few verses. Look with me at verses three through nine. These are the heads of the province who dwelt in Jerusalem.

But in the cities of Judah, everyone dwelt in his own possessions in their cities, Israelites, priests, Levites, Nethanim, and descendants of Solomon's servants. Also in Jerusalem dwelt some of the children of Judah and of the tribe of Benjamin. The children of Judah, Athaiah, the son of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Ammariah, the son of Shephathiah, the son of Mahalalel, of the children of Perez, and Maaseah, the son of Baruch, the son of Kol Hosea, the son of Hazaiah, the son of Adaiah, the son of Joyarib, the son of Zechariah, the son of Shaloni. All the sons of Perez who dwell at Jerusalem were 468 valiant men. these were the sons of Benjamin. Salu, the son of Meshulam, the son of Joad, the son of Padaiah, the son of Kolaiah, the son of Maaseah, the son of Ithael, the son of Jeshaiah, and after him Gabaiah and Salai nine hundred and Now drop over to verse 25 with me.

This is where these families came from. And as for the villages with their fields, some of the children of Judah dwelt in Kirjath Arba and its villages, Debon and its villages, Jacobazel and its villages, in Jeshua, Moladah, Bethpelet, Hatzor, Shual, and Bersheba and its villages, in Ziklag and Mekinah and its villages, in Inrimon, Zorah, Jarmuth, Zanoah, Adulam, and their villages, and Lekish, and its fields, and Azeka, and its villages. They dwelt from Beersheba to the valley of Hinnom. Also the children of Benjamin from Geba dwelt in Machmash, Ijah, and Bethel, and their villages, and Anathoth, Nob, and and Aniah, in Hathor, Ramon, Gitaim, in Hadid, Zeboim, and Nebalat, in Lod, Ono, and the Valley of Craftsmen. Some of the Judean divisions of the Levites were in Benjamin. It's out of these villages, out of these homes, out of these families, that God calls people to come and live in Jerusalem. And again, we might think, why is that important? Why does God give us these lifts? Because God is fulfilling His covenant promises.

Look with me at Jeremiah. You're going to want to keep your finger in Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 16. Jeremiah 16, verses 14 and 15. This is what God had said decades and decades and decades before that He would do. Jeremiah 16, verses 14 and 15. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that it shall no more be said, the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel out from the land of Egypt. Verse 15. Here's what the Lord's people are going to say now.

See, it was no accident that God had sent the people into exile, and it was no accident that they were back in the land of Judah. It was no accident that they were living in their cities. It was God who had sent them away, and it was God who had brought them back. It is God who had put them in those cities, and now it's God who's putting them in the Holy City. It's God who's calling them to forsake everything that they know at home, that they just started getting used to again, and pick up all their personal belongings and move to a strange city. God is fulfilling His covenant promises.

But it's not just the leaders and the laity who are moving to Jerusalem, also the Levites are returning as well. Who are the Levites? Who are the Levites who are returning to Jerusalem? The Levites are those people who are the temple servants. Now, you need to remember something here. Levites don't make sacrifices. Levites aren't priests. Levites are the ones who sweep the temple floor. Levites are the ones that when the altar gets full of ashes, their job is to go clean it out. The Levites are the ones who are mopping up the blood after the sacrifices. The Levites are doing the hard work of the temple. But the Levites I'm not sure how many of you have read your Old Testament before, but if you read through the book of Numbers and it gives the regulations for the Levites, sometimes I feel like they get a pretty short end of the stick.

They're not allowed to have any inheritance. In Joshua chapter 15, it's like going to the Oprah Winfrey store. You get a city, and you get a city, and you get a city, and you get a town. But the Levites, none. None. They're not allowed to have inheritance. They're allowed to live in the cities of refuge. They're allowed to live off the land. But they are not allowed to have permanent roots tied down anywhere. Why? Why? What's their inheritance? What did they get? Well, they got service to the Lord.

And the only thing that they had to live off of was those rented lands in the cities of refuge. as well as the tithes. Now, Levites are in a peculiar spot here because their entire vocation, their entire job is to take care of the temple of God. But if the people don't pay their temple tax, if the people don't bring in the sacrifices, guess what happens to the Levites?

Zich, zilch. Their kids go hungry. This is their job, and if people don't bring in what God has commanded, it's time for them to put another notch in their belt loop. But it's getting tighter and tighter. And this is the history of what happens. The people neglect the temple because they want to go worship at the high places. The people don't want to bring in the temple tax. The people don't want to bring in the sacrifices. The people turn away from God and they want to go somewhere else.

And earlier, when we looked at the genealogies, we found that there were just a fraction of Levites who returned. Can you blame them? Would you want to go back to a job where people didn't pay you? Would you want to go back to a place where you had no family history? Where there's not a family home to return to?

And yet some of them do. Why? Why in the world would these Levites come back to live in Jerusalem? They have a heritage. That heritage is not in homes or in fields. but it's in service. There's a family in our country with the last name of Miller, and one of the children was interviewed a while ago, and they asked her, they said, where's your home? And she laughed at the interviewee, and she said, I've had 53 addresses in my life. I'm a nomad. I don't have a home.

See, because she was from a military family. And her father had been in the military, and his father, and his father, and his father, and his father, and his father, seven generations back from now to the Revolutionary War. Their heritage was not in saying, oh, we are from this place, but it was a heritage of service, that we have served our country since the Revolutionary War, and that's what we will pass down to our own children. And it's a wonderful heritage that they have. And this is a heritage that the Levites have as well. And so their names are listed here for us, these Levites who are willing to come back. Nehemiah chapter 11, look with me at verse 15.

Also of the Levites, Shemaiah, the son of Ahashub, the son of Azariakam, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Bunai. Shebathiah, the son of Josabath, of the heads of the Levites, had the oversight of the business outside the temple of God. Mataniah, the son of Micaiah, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, the leader who began the thanksgiving with prayer.

Bakbukiah, the second among his brethren. And Abda, the son of Shumua, the son of Galal, the son of Jaduthun. All the Levites in the holy city were 248. Moreover, the gatekeepers, Akub, Talmon, and their brethren who kept the gates were 172, and then flip over a page to Nehemiah chapter 12, verses 8 and 9, we get the list of the Levites who returned from Babylon. Moreover, Nehemiah 12, 8, moreover, the Levites were Jeshua, Benuai, Kadmiel, Sherabiah, Judah, and Mataniah, who led the thanksgiving psalms, he and his brethren. Also, Bakbukiah and Unai, their brethren, stood across from them in their duties.

And then, again, if we look down at verses 22 through 26, we find the last of those who are listed from the Levites. During the reign of Darius the Persian, a record was also kept of the Levites and priests who had been heads of their fathers' houses in the days of Eliashib, Joedah, Johanan, and Yaduah. The sons of Levi, the heads of the fathers' houses until the days of Johanan, the son of Eliashib, were written in the Book of the Chronicles. And the heads of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherabiah, and Joshua, the son of Kadmiel. with their brethrens across from them, to praise and give thanks, group alternating with group, according to the command of David, the man of God. Talmud and Akub were gatekeepers keeping the watch at the storerooms of the gates. And these lived in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Jeshua, the son of Josedach, in the days of Nehemiah, the governor, and of Ezra, the priest, and the scribe."

Again, though, why does this matter? Why are all their names listed? Go to Jeremiah with me again, Jeremiah chapter 32. Jeremiah chapter 32, beginning at verse 36. Why would we read all those names of Levites brought back to the Holy City? Jeremiah chapter 32, beginning at verse 36. Now therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city which you say, it shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries where I have driven them in my anger, in my fury, and in my great wrath. I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. They shall be my people and I will be their God. then I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not turn away from doing them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and with all my soul.

It is with all of God's heart and it is with all of God's soul that He brings God's people back. See, God would not forsake His covenant. God would not leave His people there in Babylon alone, but He would draw them back to Himself and He would plant them safely in the land. And the list of names we have in Nehemiah chapter 11 and 12 is a sign that this is becoming true. that God is planting his people there.

It's not just the people, it's not just the Levites, but there's a special class of people in Israel, the priests. The last group of people who are returned. And the priests, we need to remember, the priests are a subset of the Levites. Aaron was of the tribe of Levi. And it is Aaron who is a priest and his children after him who are priests under God. So the priests are not allowed to have any inheritance. They are just as bad as the rest of the Levites are when it comes to having any personal foundation or roots in the land of Israel. They have nothing to call their home except for one thing.

Numbers chapter 18. Numbers chapter 18 tells the priests what is their inheritance. Numbers chapter 18 verse 20 says this. Then the Lord said to Aaron, you shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them. So what is their inheritance? What is their portion? I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel. It is the Lord God himself who is their inheritance.

God is telling Aaron, God is telling the priests, God is telling them, you don't need anything outside of me. Take satisfaction in me. Take satisfaction in serving me. Take joy in me. I will be your inheritance. I will be your portion. I will be enough for you. Come and drink and I promise you will be satisfied is what he's telling the priests.

And when we imagine and we think back to the priests and all the blessings that they had, it's amazing. Yes, they didn't have homes. Yes, they didn't have land which they could call their own and pass down to their children and grandchildren. But when we think back to the ordination service of Aaron, and we think of him being anointed with God's holy oil in it being poured upon his head and coming down upon his head and down his beards and upon his garments and God setting him apart to his own work. You can imagine Aaron having an inheritance that he could tell his children, oh, it's better.

It's better than any land. I'm going to give you the turban with this gold placard on it that says, holy unto the Lord. Son, there's going to come a day when you are going to minister before the very mercy seat of God, and you will wear that breastplate with the different jewels on it, with each name of the tribes inscribed upon them, and you will go before a holy God and represent your people as a mediator between the God of heaven and sinful people on this earth. You can imagine the priests as they were raising up their young boys, and they would see their fathers walking into the temple Sabbath after Sabbath, and they would think, someday I'm going to get to go in there, and I'm going to put my hands on the head of that bull, and I am going to see the sins transferred from God's people onto this animal, and it's going to be taken away. This was their inheritance. Their inheritance was to serve a holy God, to come into His presence once a year, to be in the very presence of God. That was their inheritance. It wasn't always glorious.

The priests forgot that. The priests literally forgot the law of God. During the time of Josiah, they literally forgot the law of God and they brought it out and they said, we found the book. The priests, as we look later, they were sacrificing in the temple to idols.

The Lord wasn't their portion anymore. The Lord wasn't their only hope anymore. The Lord wasn't their satisfaction, but they wanted more than what they thought the Lord could give them. But here we find them coming back. Here we find them coming back to Jerusalem. Look with me at chapter 11, verses 10 through 14.

Of the priest, Jedahiah, the son of Joarim, the son of Yaqin, Sherahiah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshulam, the son of Zadok, the son of Merioth, the son of Ahitab, was the leader of the house of God. Their brethren who did the work of the house were eight hundred and 22, and Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zechariah, the son of Pashur, the son of Melchijah, and his brethren, heads of the fathers' houses, were 242. And Amashai, the son of Azarel, the son of Ahziah, the son of Meshulamoth, the son of Emer, and their brethren, mighty men of valor, were 128. Their overseer was Zabdiel, the son of one of the great men."

And then in chapter 12, verses 1 through 7, We find even more priests. Now these were the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua, Shariah, Jeremiah, Ezra, Amariah, Maluk, Hatush, Shekaniah, Raham, Merimoth, Ido, Genethoi, Abijah, Majamin, Maadaiah, Bilga, Shemaiah, Joyarim, Jedidiah, Shalu, Amuk, Hilkiah, and Jediah. These were the heads of the priests and their brethren in the days of Jeshua.

Now, all those are priests. All those are priests. All of them offer the sacrifices. All of them partake in the rituals that would happen at the temple. But only one priest Only one priest once a year on the Day of Atonement could actually enter into the Holy of Holies. And that's the list we look at last in chapter 12, verses 10 and 11. These are the high priests. These are the names of the high priests, those who are allowed to actually go into the Holy of Holies themselves. What did these people represent? What did the priests, what were their jobs? Why were they there? Again, Jeremiah. Jeremiah, turn there with me again. Jeremiah chapter 33. Remember, Jeremiah, again, this is written decades before any of this ever happens. Jeremiah, chapter 33, beginning at verse 6.

Behold, I will bring health and healing. I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth. I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return and rebuild those places as at the first. The temple is rebuilt. They're allowed to go in. They're allowed to actually offer these sacrifices once again.

Let's be honest. Have your eyes glazed over? Let's be honest. As you read the book of Nehemiah, Be honest with yourself. Isn't this one of the least riveting things you've ever heard? Like seriously, let's take a step back and let's be honest with ourselves. Put your religious Christianity away for the side and just be honest with each other and honest about God. We would like to just gloss over these passages.

Why? About a bunch of dead people doing dead stuff that we hardly understand and it never seems to have actually worked. And let's think about, in a few chapters, in chapter 13, we're going to have to look at how these same Israelites failed again. And we look at this and we go, why?

Why in the world are we spending time reading this? Why in the world do we need to read the list of the names of the high priests? Why do we need to know the names of the Levites? Why do we need to know the names of those who are living in Jerusalem? Why? Why?

I'm going to propose to you that it's not because God really wanted you to study those names nitty-gritty and be able to pronounce every single one of them perfectly. Trust me, you won't be able to. I can't. But you're going to—this isn't the point of what God is doing here. God is not just giving us a list of names because somehow that's supposed to satisfy our soul. It's actually the exact opposite.

We come to the book of Nehemiah and we're saying, really God, is that it? Priest after priest after priest after priest after priest. Sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. Really God, is that all there is? And in Jesus Christ, God says, no. Turn with me to the book of Hebrews. Turn with me to the book of Hebrews, and I'm going to really start preaching here. We only have a few minutes, so you're just going to be drinking out of a fire hose.

But that's okay. The book of Hebrews, chapter 7. Hebrews 7, and it is in Jesus Christ that we find a priest that is better than every single one of these other priests that have been mentioned in Nehemiah 11-12. Hebrews 7, verse 14. If I go fast, write down the reference and read it at home, that's fine. Hebrews 7, beginning at verse 15. 14.

For it is evident that our Lord, this is Jesus, rose from Judah, of which tribe Moses said nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident in likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. For he testifies, you are a priest forever. according to the order of Melchizedek.

For on the one hand, there is an annulment of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness. For the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, there is bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God. Did you catch it?

Jesus Christ is the priest forever. God has made him the priest of the order of Melchizedek. Jesus Christ is the priest who serves in the temple of God forever. There is no genealogy in Hebrews. You're not going to go to the book of Hebrews and say, OK, where's the line of Jesus that I can follow, how he became priest? No, it's God made an oath. God made Jesus that priest, and Jesus is that priest forever. Jesus is the priest, but even better than the priest, look with me at Hebrews chapter 8, we're going to stay in Hebrews, verses 1 and 2. Hebrews chapter 8, Jesus is not just the priest, He is THE priest.

Now this is the main point of the things we are seeing. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man. See, Jesus Christ ascended, He rose from the dead, and He ascended into heaven, and He's seated down at the right hand of God, and He is in the heavens. Jesus is not the priest who ministers in some earthly tabernacle, some earthly temple that's going to be destroyed.

But Jesus Christ is the one with power as our High Priest forever with all authority before God. Let me give you some hope, Christian. You never have to look to another priest, because there's never going to be another priest. There's never a better one. Jesus is never going to fail you. Jesus' sacrifice is absolutely perfect. And that's what God tells us in Hebrews 9, verses 11 through 15. Hebrews chapter 9, verses 11 through 15.

But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood. He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer sprinkled the unclean sanctifies for the purity of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse our consciences from the dead works to serve the living God. And for this reason, He is the mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance." See, the high priest, once a year, went into the Holies of Holies, but when they were done with that sacrifice, what did they have to do? They had to hightail it out of there, not Jesus.

Jesus enters into the heavenly holies of holies and he sits down. Jesus is our minister bringing before our Father you every single moment of every single day. How do you enter into the presence of God? Through the sacrifice and the priestly office of Jesus Christ. How will you be able to enter into that new heavens of Revelation chapter 21? How will you possibly be one who won't defile that heavenly city?

If you are trusting in Jesus Christ as your High Priest who will make you perfect. It is Jesus Christ who is our High Priest. See, the book of Nehemiah was never meant to satisfy our souls. But it was meant to push you to Jesus Christ. It was meant to push you to the one who can make your soul new and perfect. It was to bring you to Jesus Christ that you might say, finally, I have a priest forever. And it is that priest who is perfect. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 10.

But by that will, We have been sanctified. That means we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. That is a finished work. Just recently I was talking to someone about how every single time there was a gospel offer to them when they were a child, they felt like they needed to come back up. And they needed to be able to say, oh, I think I'm finally actually a Christian. Brothers and sisters, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, His sacrifice is once and finished. Let's stop here.

There are times you're still going to sin. You're going to sin. You're going to fail God. You're going to transgress His law. It's going to happen. You will not be perfect in this life by your own deeds. The question is, what will you do with your guiltiness? You only have two or three options. Ignore it and keep living in your guilt. Try to fix that guilt on your own, which you can never do, because tomorrow you're still going to have sin.

Or actually have faith in Jesus Christ, who died once for all. A completed work, never to happen again. And bring your eyes down four verses to verse 14. For by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Jesus Christ died as our sacrifice and stands as our high priest, fully accepted before the Father. That is your hope.

Look nowhere else. That is the types and the shadows that Nehemiah's day was looking to, finally when these sacrifices could stop. And they have stopped. Do you wonder why we don't bring in a lamb from the back door and open its throat and pour out its blood here? Do you wonder why we don't have that vivid picture week after week, year after year? Because Jesus paid that price.

Final Point

Finally, once for all, the sacrifice couldn't be more perfect.

Where will you run to? Who is your heritage? What is your hope? I'm gonna push you. I'm going to push you here. I know I'm over. Bear with me, it's fine. What do you cling to in this world? Where do you find your roots? What do you think, in your own heart, if you had to be honest with yourself, what is it that I am ultimately satisfied with?

The answer to that in the scriptures must be God himself through the Lord Jesus Christ. That is where the Christian runs to for joy and for hope and for assurance all the time. Lift up your eyes to Christ. Take comfort in him as your high priest. Be satisfied, for one day he will wipe away every tear from your eyes. there will be no more pain, and you will bask in the glory of His grace.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the promise of this new covenant that you have brought about in the blood of your own Son. Lord, we do pray But we thank you so much for taking out our hearts of stone and giving us a heart of flesh. Father, we pray that we might live for you. Father, we pray that for those in the congregation, those who are with us who do not know you and still have that heart of stone, Lord, that you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, might take out their hearts of stone and give them hearts which would bleed for you. Father, please, let's not just bleed for you, but let's live for you. Satisfy us with your grace. In Jesus' name, amen.