Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter
8, and reading through our text the last part of verse 10. For the joy of the Lord is your
strength. I read from verse 9. And Nehemiah,
which is the Teth Shepher, and Ezra the priest, the scribe,
and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people,
This day is holy unto the Lord your God. Mourn not, nor weep,
for all the people wept when they heard the words of the Lord.
Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat and drink the
sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy unto our
Lord, neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. I want to, before we come to
the text itself, this latter clause of verse 10, to just get
in our minds as to when this is taking place. The children of Israel had been
carried away into Babylon and they had spent 70 years there. When they were carried away,
the temple had been utterly destroyed. However, according to the Lord's
promise, the Lord, after 70 years, brought them back. It is in fact 70 years from the
time the temple was destroyed to the time it was restored again. There are actually two ways the
70 years could be measured, because it can be 70 years from the time
that one group were taken away to Babylon and then the first
ones brought back. But the 70 years is very distinctly
from when the temple was destroyed to when it was again restored. This time that we have before
us here is a long while, long while after they were brought
back. When they first came back, they
started to build the temple, but then they were very discouraged. They needed the prophets, Zechariah
and Hegai, to encourage them to start building again. And
so from the time they came back to the time the temple was built
it was 24 years. Then we had a further 38 years
from that time to the days of Queen Esther when the Jews were
delivered from being completely destroyed. Then from Esther's
time we have another 20 years before Ezra then comes back with
a small contingent of Jews back to Palestine. It is yet going
to be another 13 years before Nehemiah comes and another two
years before this event here takes place. So really, from
the time of their return from Palestine to this time is 95
years. It is not soon after at all,
it's a long while, in fact longer than the 70 years' captivity. But here they are, back in their
own land, and here they are gathered together in a most noble and
good gathering together, a gathering where the Word of God was to
be read publicly in a very open way. The first eight verses are
dedicated to describing this gathering around the Law of God
and hearing the Law of God, those that could understand men and
women and younger ones as long as they could understand. And we read in verse three, all
the people were attentive unto the book of the law. It's a wonderful
assembly, isn't it? That we had such assemblies today. Large assembly, no doubt. And
yet all the people attentive. The Book of the Law was a prominent
place. I believe this is the first time
we read of a pulpit lifted up high so that all the people could
actually see the Word of God, see it opened, and when it was
opened they all stood up. We get a real picture of what
reverence and how high esteem the Word of God, the Law of God,
was to have to them. And all of those that were on
this very large pulpit, you wouldn't get two people in my pulpit,
but this one here is a very large one. And so many, all really
confirming and strengthening and giving ascent to the law
of God being opened and being read. We read how careful they were
to read, in verse 8, in the book of the law of God distinctly,
to give the sense and cause them to understand the reading. We feel very far Cumbria is far
short in that, but that should be the aim. Of all who handle
the word of God, whether law or gospel, the Apostle Paul said
that he'd rather speak five words with the understanding than 10,000
words in an unknown tongue. When our Lord told the parable
of the sower, it was the one that the word was taken immediately
out of their heart that did not understand that word. The one
that brought forth fruit was the ones that understood it.
And when our Lord rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples,
it is emphasized, then opened he their understanding that they
might understand the scriptures, including the law, including
Isaiah, including the gospel that runs right through those
Old Testament scriptures where we are now. So the first part
of this chapter is dedicated to this picture of the Word of
God, the Law of God, being read so distinctly and being understood. Verses 9 to 12, where our text
is, speaks of this holy day. A day set apart to gather together,
to be taught, to hear the word of God, to worship the Lord. And you know, it is well worth
reminding ourselves, if we were to go back to verse 6, We read, they bowed their heads
and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. There's
something that seems today in many, many churches, that when
you speak of worship, the thought is it's singing, it's hymns,
it's psalms. You have a worship leader, you
have those that concentrate upon that aspect of the worship. And
of course, we know in the Old Testament, temple worship, their
singing was a major part. But here, the emphasis is in
reading the Word of God, and there they are worshipping in
that way. Remember that. As we hear the
Word of God read, as it is expounded to us and set before us here,
May we also be in an attitude of real worship before the true
and living God, before He whose Word it is, inspired, infallible
Word of God. You know, you might say, well,
could we be accused of worshipping the Word of God? We're not worshipping
a book, we're not worshipping An actual article, the Lord says,
heaven and earth shall pass away, my words shall not pass away. There are many different sizes
and shapes of Bibles, but the word is the same. And that word
we can never esteem too highly. Never esteem it too highly. That
which shall endure forever, never pass away, The holy, inspired
Word of God, no parallel, no man's word, no man's laws, no
traditions, anything comes up to the Word of God, that which
we are forbidden to add to or to subtract from, but we are
to esteem all the Word of God as pure and as holy. It is through the word of God
that the Lord makes himself known unto his people. You would remember
how it is written in the book of Samuel, the first book of
Samuel, with the Lord appearing to Samuel. We read there at the
end of End of chapter three. And the Lord appeared again in
Shiloh. For the Lord revealed himself
to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. That is how the
Lord revealed himself to Samuel. And that is how the Lord reveals
himself to us. And in these gospel days, And
that is how the Lord revealed himself to these gathered on
this occasion, in this holy day, a day set apart for the worship
of God. And we come back of course to
this, this is where our text is. I'll just briefly mention
what we have in the latter part, where we have the feast of tabernacles,
which had not been observed, right the way through, right
from the time of Joshua, that is the time when they went into
the promised land. What was this feast? It was to
remind them that they had come out of Egypt, separated, left
their houses there, and they were sojourners. They were to
make booths, make tents as it were, dwellers not in houses,
but just in booths. And the Lord's people are never
to forget that they are sojourners. They are not to build their home
as it were here forever. Yes, we have our homes, but we're
all to remember this is not our rest, it is polluted. We are
confessing that we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth as
set before us in Hebrews 11 verse 13. And it is the witness of
the people of God they are in the world but not of the world. And this time with the Feast of Tabernacles
was to set this forth and to remind them of what they were
in this world, and it's a reminder to us as well. But we come back
to this day, the day that was a holy day, that it followed
or was part of this reading of the law of God. And at first, the first effect,
that which preceded joy, I want to look at that. And then the
joy of the Lord that is spoken of here, and I want to look at
it as really a name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. perhaps to reword our text in
this way, in a gospel way, for the Lord Jesus is your strength. Our text says, for the joy of
the Lord is your strength. But then thirdly, it is that
joy that we relate to joy, gladness, joyfulness, that is spoken of
here, that that is our strength. But firstly, it's that which
precedes it. Sorrow may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning. You know, before any soul is
brought to the joy of the gospel, The Apostle says the law is a
schoolmaster unto Christ. And we certainly find it here,
that before there is joy, the very distinctive thing that they
are reading is the law of God. The moral law, the ceremonial
law, the five books of Moses, that wherein was written concerning
the Feast of Tabernacles, that in which was written the moral
law at Sinai. And as this was read, this was
the effect. The people wept. Why did they
weep? There are several reasons that
it may have been so. The first is this, to realize
that they were sinners, that they had sinned against that
law. They had broken the law of God. They had not kept the law of
God. Godly sorrow. Godly sorrow, not
the sorrow of the world that worketh that wrath, but godly
sorrow worketh repentance. It works a good thing, a right
thing. And we find that the people are
weeping in this way. Do we know what that is? To weep
over our sin, to join with dear Peter when he had denied his
Lord those three times, The Lord turned and looked upon him and
he went out, he wept bitterly. Know what it is to really be
in mourning? They shall look upon me whom
they have pierced, they shall mourn for him and be in bitterness
for him. But it's to realize that we have
broken the law of God and he brings us then to mourn and to
weep. Another reason is the majesty
of the law. This must have been a very impressive,
you might say emotional occasion, but occasion when the great majesty
of the Lord was shown in the law of God. And we may say this,
that the law of God was never given with the intention that
fallen man should be able to obey it, and by obeying it, attain
to eternal life. We have broken that law in Adam. Already the sentence is passed
upon us. It's too late now to then go
back, look at that law with a view that we might attain eternal
life. Paul speaks of those in Romans
10, who were ignorant of Christ's righteousness, though going about
to establish their own, meaning they were looking at the law,
seeking to obey it as their title to heaven. The law of God was
never given in that way. The law was given that sin might
then be imputed, that all the world might be brought in guilty
before God. When there is no law, sin is
not imputed, when there is no law. And so the law was given
that sin might abound, but it was also given to show the purity,
holiness, and majesty of God. How many times have you and I
read the word of God, read the law of God, read how strict it
was, the man that was stoned because he was gathering sticks
upon the Sabbath day, The law of God that allowed for no relaxation
of it at all, that sentence was executed, that there needed to
be atonement made for sins of knowledge, sins of presumption,
sins of ignorance. There was no sin left out at
all. People couldn't claim any reason
why they were not under that law. And have we ever read it
and thought, well, How unreasonable that is, how impossible it is
that any man should be able to fulfill it. But man is not meant
to, but what it sets before us is how holy, pure, upright, perfect
our God is. God gives such a perfect and
holy law and then provides his only begotten Son in the same
form as his brethren, made like unto his brethren, sin accepted,
and he fulfills the law, and he makes it honourable, and he
satisfies the holiness and righteousness of God. And so the law is a necessary
thing as given. It is showing how grand, how
great, how full of majesty, how holy and pure God is. We think of the seraphims crying
out, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. And all the revelations
of God to man is to produce that effect. When the law was given,
Sinai was on a smoke, there was a thunder, there was a lightning.
Everything is conducive to seeing how great, how majestic God is. And so we can understand the
effect of the people to mourn and to weep. But this was not
to be the end of this day. It was not to be the reason why
they were gathering together. And we would say this, that all
of the ceremonial law and really all their gatherings and our
gatherings as well, they must all point to the Lord Jesus Christ. a sacrifice in the Old Testament. There's not an ordinance that
doesn't in some way point to his work, his person, and the
gospel failed in those types and those shadows. So that which
precedes joy is at first sorrow. And I say to any that feels that,
Fewers bow down on the sense of their sin, their guilt. It is God that convicts of sin. It is through the law that there
is a knowledge of sin. If the Lord has granted that
godly sorrow, a sense of his majesty, his might, his power,
what he is to a poor sinner, then he will not leave that sinner
there. He will bring them Out from under
that condemnation of the Lord, you think of the opening words
of Romans 8, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. Go on to look then in the second
place, these words, the joy of the Lord, as really applied to
our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The word Lord here is Jehovah,
the Eternal God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And it is the
joy of the Eternal God in His Beloved Son. Remember, the Father
spoke from heaven. This is my Beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. And it is the delight of God,
it is the delight of our Lord to come, and it is the delight
of His Father. The angels herald His birth,
and all the scriptures, they point to the coming of the Just
One. Moses himself says, A prophet
shall the Lord thy God raise up unto thee, like unto me. Him shall ye hear. And it is
our Lord Jesus Christ then that is the strength of the people
of God. It is the right hand of God that
he saves by. It is the help that is laid upon
one that is mighty. He is the lamb that Abraham said
to Isaac, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. is that provision that is made
that takes away, takes away the condemnation of the law, satisfies
the justice of God. The Lord Jesus Christ coming
in the place of His people, made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem them that are under the law. The joy of the Lord,
the joy of God, The joy in His beloved Son, in whom He delights,
is the strength of the people of God. All the Scriptures point
to this. Those when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Those that have no might, those
that have no strength, they are to look unto the Lord and be
strengthened in the Lord. We think of Daniel when he had
a revelation, you might say in a similar way to these people
here, of the majesty and greatness of the Lord. He fell before the
Lord with no strength at all. And it was the Lord that came
and strengthened him and lifted him up. A view of the Lord Jesus
Christ is that which strengthens the people of God. A view of
God's provision, a view of Him that suffered, bled and died
on Calvary's tree, who has made sin for us that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. It is to see Him and to realise
that Every poor sinner, if they are to be strengthened, it is
in Christ, and Christ alone. He is the one, and the knowledge
of Him, and remember, the people here, when it comes to the joy that
they had, and rejoicing, we read at the end of verse 12, the reason
because they had understood the words that were declared unto
them. And how can that ever be understood,
a reason for gladness and joy, unless they had understood that
God had made a way that that law that they had heard proclaimed
before them was to be put away, was to be satisfied, The Lord
came not to destroy the law, but to magnify it and to fulfill
it. And really we have at Sinai a
beautiful type of that as well, because the first writing of
the law on the two tables, those tables were broken, cast down
by Moses at the bottom of the mountain. But God restored those
tables. The law was written again. And
the tables then were put in the Ark, which was a beautiful type
of Christ, the Ark of the Covenant. There in that Ark was the fulfilled,
not broken, law of God. And the children of Israel had
that with them constantly. They had reminder of that. It is Christ that died. It is
Christ that fulfills the law. He satisfies the law. You've
broken it, but Christ has fulfilled it. And so the message here,
the message in these Gospel days when the light of the Gospel,
Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the true Christ, come see
a man that told me all things that ever I did, is not this
the Christ, the one that we waited for? He is the strength of the
people of God. What a message to those who have
no strength or mind. Those who are slain by the law,
those who are guilty, those who have no works to plead, those
who have no strength. Sin takes away their strength. Sin brings under condemnation,
but with the Lord Jesus Christ there is strength. When the children
of Israel came out of Egypt, they came out with a strong hand,
and they came out immediately after the shedding of the blood
of the Passover. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you." And it was that which brought them out, and a
beautiful type of our Lord, our Passover Lamb. Behold the Lamb
of God, that taketh away the sin of the world, says John Baptist. And it is the Lord Jesus Christ,
then that is the strength of the people of God. Dear friend,
don't look for strength in yourself. Don't look in fulfilling the
law yourself, don't look in your own obedience, it is in Christ's
obedience clothed, and wash me in his blood, so shall I lift
my head with joy among the sons of God. So may we think then
of this word for a message for every child of God, everyone
that is, sorrow mourns over their sins, The joy of the Lord is
your strength. The Lord Jesus Christ is your
strength, is our strength. Well, lastly then, there is the
joy of the Lord, that is when we have joy, when we have gladness. You know, there are those that
think, well, real religion is to go about with a long face,
to never ever own to being blessed and favoured, but always be speaking
of our sin and the great weight of sin and the evil of our heart
and their whole hope, their religion seems to be that they are a sinner. Now don't get me wrong, God's
dear people will always feel and always know that they are
sinners. There's a most solemn thing if
we only know the malady We never know the remedy. Or if we say
we know the remedy, but it never causes joy, never causes gladness. When the angels proclaimed the
birth of our Lord, there was joy, there was gladness, there
was praise. When Simeon saw the Lord brought
into the temple, he said, Lord, now let us, thou thy servant,
depart in peace, mine eyes have seen. thy salvation. When our Lord came into Jerusalem
and they met Him with palm trees and cried Hosanna to Him that
cometh in the name of the Lord, praising the Lord, they said,
Master, Master, are you there? But the Lord said, if they should
hold their peace, the very stones would cry out. They couldn't
help but joy. They couldn't help but have filled
with gladness and joy. And so, it is not an evidence
of grace that there's never a proceeding from under the law and from sorrow,
from speaking of sin. There's many that can speak about
sin, Very different thing to actually feel it. And when it
is felt, then we won't be able to just go through life just
saying, well, we're a sinner. Because the burden will be a
burden, and Bunyan portrays it well with this Christian. His
one desire was to be rid of that burden, to be delivered from
the condemnation, to be set free from sin. And may that be the token that
we have, that our sense of sin is a schoolmaster unto Christ. It drives us, it brings us, it
brings us to know the sin bearer, brings us to know God's remedy,
brings us to joy. To have a little foretaste of
the joy in heaven, a little foretaste of that which those have a full
draughts of above, but to have a little sip here below. And
so with the people of God, that which strengthens them, that
which encourages them, that which helps them on their way, is not
the burden of sin, is not the depths of sin that they feel,
is not the condemnation of the law, It's when they see the law
fulfilled in Christ, when they see their interest in Christ,
when they understand the plan of the gospel, the substitutionary
offering of the Lord, then there is joy, then there is gladness. When the plan of God is really
understood, when it breaks into The understanding. You know,
think of those two on the way to Emmaus. As they walked, they
began, they were sad. And the Lord drew near, He asked
them why they were sad. And they'd seen Him crucified,
but they didn't understand what was done. They didn't understand
the Scriptures. And so the Lord drew near, O
not Christ who has suffered these things, and to enter into his
glory. Beginning at Moses and all the
scriptures, he opened up unto them, in all the scriptures,
the things concerning himself. And they said afterwards, when
the Lord then revealed himself to them in the breaking of bread,
did not our heart burn within us? Already before he was revealed,
their heart was burning. really a pent-up joy, a wonder
at what was being opened up and revealed concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. This really is a real vital scripture
evidence of the pardon and forgiveness of sin, an interest in Christ,
a real understanding of the Gospel plan, that it changes sorrow
into joy and brings gladness. And here, the dear people had
to be exhorted in this. The Levites stilled the people. They said, this day is holy,
neither be ye grieved. They were to have a feast day.
This wasn't just an ordinary day, because the portions that
they had They had to eat the fat, that was only reserved as
special really, that was the Lord's portion. Drink the sweets
and portions, it was a feast day. A feast of fat things. A gospel feast, a gospel provision. And they were to look after those
that were poor, that couldn't prepare anything. This day is
holy unto the Lord, neither be sorrow, for the joy of the Lord
is your strength. My mind goes back to Joseph and
his brothers. Now Joseph was sent before his
brethren to preserve their lives by great deliverance. And yet
in them sending and him being sent out, they were so cruel. The sins, the evil that they
did to him, When they were brought into conviction of that, they
were so sorry, they could not hardly believe that Joseph would
forgive them, that he had good intentions for them. And Joseph
had to assure them, be not cross with yourselves, be not angry
with yourselves. It was not you, but God that
sent me hither. And yet years later, when Jacob
died, their father died, they thought, now, now Joseph will
really come down hard on us. And they had humbled themselves
again. They were sorry before Joseph. And in one sense, he had hard
work to cause them to forget their sorrow, their sin, and
what they'd done, and to actually be thankful and rejoice that
God had provided for them. God had sent him before them. And you know how vital it is
when those who know and feel their sin, those that are pricked
in their hearts, those that know against thee, the only have I
sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Now, David speaks
of it in Psalm 51, and he says this in his prayer, restore unto
me the joy of thy salvation. There is a joy of the salvation
of God. There is a time of mourning,
a repentance of sorrow. But then when the Lord shows
again those sins put away and assures that poor soul that it
is well with them, well while life endure, well when called
to die, the lines are fallen unto them in pleasant places,
they have a goodly heritage, or how that heart leaps with
joy. How there is that gladness and
realizing that the sins that I have committed, heinous as
they are, they are put away. That the Lord is my God, Jesus
is my Savior, my Redeemer. He has gone to prepare a place
for me. The whole secret really of this
mirth, this gladness, this joy, because they understood the words
declared unto them." What a picture of the Gospel. What a picture
of that open to the understanding of the dear disciples. And that
which they go and proclaim. The Gospel means glad tidings,
good tidings, joyful tidings. And so the message here is that
joy is the strength of the people of God. When we have sorrow and
mourning, then we cannot have joy, we cannot proceed. We're
no use really to our families, the Church of God. But when we
have that joy and gladness, how that quickens our steps, how
that encourages us, how that lifts us up, how then we've got
a message, come and hear, All ye that fear God, I will tell
what he hath done for my soul. Then we run in the ways of the
Lord. Law and terrors do but harden,
all the while they work alone. But a sense of blood-bought pardon
soon dissolves a heart of stone. It is that which makes glad. That which causes the people
of God their weight, the weight of their sins rolls off their
back. That's when they have that joy
and gladness. And that is their strength. That
is what holds them on their way. Not law. Not terrors. Not the terrors of a slave. Not
the threat of the lash. The threat of damnation. But
the strength of the people of God is that joy that the Gospel
gives, that realisation that all is settled, my soul approves
it well. He hath done great things for
me. The Lord is my God, my Saviour. The dear psalmist, when he got
low, he says, Why have thou cast down, O my soul, Why art thou
disquieted within me? He didn't want to stay in that
position. Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God. Don't remember this. Don't listen to Satan. Whenever
we feel joy or when we understand the gospel, you say, yeah, but
it's not for you. You should be mournful. You should
have humility. Don't follow him. Where the Lord gives
that joy and that gladness, then do joy. When the Lord has given
it, then we are to rejoice in him. Let the word of God dwell
in you richly. And if that word is the word
of the gospel, with sweetness and savour, don't quench it.
Don't push it out, don't say that's not for me, but embrace
that which is given. The people here are exhorted
that they should not now be sorry. They should understand God's
provision of a lawgiver, a law fulfiller, of the strength of
the Lord in our Lord Jesus Christ to come and that that joy of
the Lord was their strength. That is what would help them
to build. That is what would help them
to, as willing and not as a slave, to walk in the ways of the Lord. So may we remember that. May this word be to us, the joy
of the Lord is your strength. And may the Lord bless us with
that joy and realise by blessed personal experience Let that
joy bring strength, and it is our strength, and the Lord Jesus
Christ is our strength. Amen.