As it may please Almighty God
to bless us together this morning, I'll direct your attention to
the book of Nehemiah and chapter 8, and we'll read verse 8. So,
the book of Nehemiah, chapter 8, and reading verse 8. So, they read in the book in
the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them
to understand the reading. It's not a long text, is it?
You should be able to remember the essence of what this means. and it's very clear that here
was a situation that the Israelites were there, they come out of
Babylon and you may remember they went down into Babylon into
captivity for 70 years because they disobeyed the Lord God. They disobeyed the prophets,
they'd ignored what was said, they'd been warned they would
go into captivity but they'd ignored it and then it came to
pass and they went there and they spent 70 years, not happy
years were they, far away from Jerusalem in Babylon and there
they were and they were sorry and they mourned and therefore
God in his wonderful mercy and it's good to realise God is merciful,
he's also faithful because he promised that be there for 70
years. And after 70 years, amazingly,
the king who was in Babylon encouraged them to go back to Jerusalem
and to rebuild the temple and even provided materials for them. Really a complete change of events.
But what we should realize is that God is in control. God is in control of all men's
hearts. And we may sometimes think, well,
that's impossible. Nothing is impossible with God. And we should remember that.
And so here we have these books of Ezra and Nehemiah. They're
very interesting books, and I hope young people can read them, gives
a lot of instruction to the Israelites as they return to Jerusalem. And so we should be thankful
for it. But here we have, in these words
before us here, a direct situation. And those who were reading, and
we know of course that Ezra was principal scribe who read, He
read in the book of the law Distinctly and gave a sense and caused him
to understand the reading and it's very relevant and It's very
relevant for us today As we read the Bible they didn't
have all the Bible in those days and he had those first five books
and Here we're told they read in the book of the law of God
distinct. That means clearly. They didn't
rush over it. They read it so that people could
understand. And then, obviously, there were
difficult things. There are difficult things. And
they gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. Now today, it is beholden upon
pastors and preachers and elders and deacons to do just the same. To give a sense of the things
which are read and cause the people to understand the reading. Really there's no point, is there,
in just reading things that people don't understand. therefore it's
necessary that people are given an understanding. And I think
also it's necessary, and I have said this before, that if people
don't understand, they should ask. They should ask people. They should ask the minister,
I didn't understand that, can you tell me what it meant. Now,
the minister may not always be able to answer that question,
but nonetheless, the minister should go away and find out what
it means and come back and tell the people or tell the individual. You see, we should never read
the Bible and then think, well, I didn't know what I read today.
That's a disaster, isn't it? you and I should always be concerned
to understand what we read or understand what we have read
to us. We have a great blessing in having
the Bible to read. The Bible tells us all that you
and I need for our natural lives and also our spiritual lives. And it gives a wonderful account
of God's dealings in detail with many of the saints. And how wonderful
it is, as you and I read such accounts, to be able to think,
well, I know what that man passed through because I'm passing through
the same situation. And I'm very thankful that there
is a record of that in the Word of God. to encourage me and to
help me in my life. So let's be very thankful that
we do have the word of God. And again, it's not a question
of just reading it for reading sake. There is a tendency, I
know, all of us to start reading something and then get to the
end. But the more important thing
is, is to understand what we're reading. Now, you may turn around
and say, well, of course, these things are spiritually discerned.
Well, historical things are not spiritually discerned. And they
are obvious. But there are things which are
spiritually discerned. And naturally, we may not understand
them. But we can come to our God and
we can ask him to teach us and we can ask him to give us an
understanding. And as I already said, we should
not be backward in asking people who are believers. And they should
not be embarrassed if they don't know the answer. I remember a
pathetic answer given to a young man once. He asked a question
of a minister, and the minister said, oh, my boy, when you get
older, you'll understand. Well, that was a rubbish answer,
wasn't it? That wasn't an answer which was adequate at all. We
need to be honest in our answers. And if we don't know, which we
may not know, because the word of God is a great depth, contains
many things that you and I may not understand. But that's why
here, on this occasion, the people, the preachers, gave understanding. And it's a great shame if you
come to hear the Gospel preached and don't understand, and it's
not explained to you, so that you do understand. Because We
need to understand. We don't want to think, well,
that's not very important, I can forget about that. The word of
God is important. It's there for us. God's given
us his word. And that's wonderful when you
think of the millions or billions of people in the world today
who don't have a Bible. And you and I have a Bible. and
how tragic it is if we have a Bible and don't understand what's written
therein. Well, here you see, these people,
as it were, have been out of touch with the Word of God. They haven't been able to attend
the worship in the temple. They've been away, and sometimes
that may be like that in your life and my life. Perhaps we've wandered away and
we haven't wanted to go and hear the Gospel preached. And we've
made plenty of excuses why we needn't. But what a blessing
when the Holy Spirit gives us is spiritual hunger and thirst
for the truth of God. To know and to understand the
great truth. Well, you and I have to look
into our own hearts, don't we? Because you can't look into someone
else's heart. You don't know what someone else
is really thinking. But you and I can look into our
own hearts. And if we find there things that
we don't know and don't understand, let us pray to God that he will
give us an understanding and seek understanding from those
who we know are believers. You know, it's a great blessing
to remember what the people in Malachi's day did. We're told this, and they that
fear the Lord spake often one to another and a book of remembrance
was written of what they'd heard and what they'd discussed. Now is beholden upon the Church
of God, the people of God, to speak about the things of God. in those that feared the Lord
spoke often. It wasn't just the odd occasion. They spoke often. And how worthwhile
it is to speak often on the things of God. I've mentioned, I know
a number of times, I've mentioned it once more. Today, once when
we were away at Christmas, we went to one of the churches in
St Lucia and It was Christmas Sunday, and we had a Christmas
lunch, nothing very special, but anyway, it was a Christmas
lunch. And afterwards, we all sat around in a circle. And the
minister said to us, now, he said, we're 300 and whatever
it is, 62 days into this year. I think it'd be a good thing
if we look back over this year, as
far as it's progressed, and think of what God has done for us. What God's done for us in natural
things and what God's done for us in spiritual things. And we
went round the room. Everybody partook and spoke of
what God had done for them. naturally and spiritually. I wonder this morning if we were to follow that exercise
and each one of us had to give an account of what God had done
for us during the year. Well, I hope that all of us would
have something to say, but it may be you've got nothing to
say and you could be very embarrassed
when it was your turn to speak and you have nothing to say well
it's a great blessing if God therefore gives us and has given
us things that he's done for us which we do remember And we
do desire to honour God in testifying of what he's done. You see, such
statements bring honour and glory to God. And we shouldn't be unmindful
that of course that's the last thing the devil wants you to
do. He wants you to shut your mouth
and never say anything. He doesn't want God to be honoured
and glorified. But it would be a wonderful favour
if God has done something for you and you're able to declare
it for his honour and for his glory. Remember, his work is
for his honour and for his glory. And it's very wonderful and very
humbling when you and I can trace out in our heart what God has
said and what God has done. And you see, when God speaks
to us, it's usually through his word. He applies his word. It may be a single word, maybe
a sentence, maybe a paragraph, but nonetheless, what a blessing
if you are able to say, well, God said this to me. And you remember when it was
and how it was and the scene and the need there was. And it is an evidence also that
God is teaching and God is leading and God is directing us. So just remember these things. Well, it's clear from this account
in Nehemiah that God in his great love to his people brought them
right back to the beginning of the word of God in Genesis. And
as we read together, in this ninth chapter about these truths,
which is really, really good to be able to remember and to
read the truths as we read together in the sixth verse of the ninth
chapter. Thou, even thou art Lord alone. Remember, there's
only one God. There's only one God that you
and I are to bow down to. There's only one God that you
and I are to worship and that one God is a great God and consists
of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. One God. You and I naturally cannot understand
these things. It's beyond our little mind.
But it's good if God gives you and me faith to believe the things
which are impossible with men are possible with God. What a blessing, therefore, to
have that faith. And so, therefore, we read here,
thou art Lord alone. Thou hast made heaven, the heaven
of heavens, with all their hosts. the earth, and all things that
are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest
them all, and the host of heaven worshipeth thee." That's only
a few words, isn't it? But that speaks to us clearly
about creation on the earth, and of course of the heavens. And I think it's very wonderful
as we advance in science, in a day and age in which we live,
there's more and more proof of the truth of God's word. More
and more proof that what the word of God records is true. And how true that is with the
great universe, Again, you look up in the sky on a clear night. Well, there's myriads of stars
that you and I cannot really appreciate. And yet you may know
they've produced this, built this wonderful new telescope
that magnifies things. I think it's nine times more
than the previous big telescope. And they've seen things now which
they couldn't see before. And what does it show? What does
it show? Well, Professor Stuart Burgess
tells us very clearly. He worked on this telescope,
and he tells us, what does it show? The glory of God. It's good, isn't it, to realize
the glory of God. And here, you see, Nehemiah was
reminding the people of the greatness and the things that are therein,
the seas and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all.
You see, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, set before
us. It's good isn't it? If you read
these things and you are confirmed in your faith. The Word of God does confirm
us in our faith. You know these books of Ezra
and Nehemiah are not read very often. I wonder how many times
you read them. You may not have read them, I
don't know. You may have read them a lot, which is good. But
they're really worthwhile reading. And often, in the Word of God,
there are things which, as it were, are almost hidden away. And they're really fundamental
texts. You may say, what do you mean
by that? Well, texts that support the truth of God's Word. texts
that support our faith. What a blessing it is, therefore. When you and I come across such
words like that, what does it do? Well, we can virtually shout
for joy, can't we? These We read together the people
weeping when they heard the words of the Lord. And also, then he
said unto them, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared. For
this day is holy unto our Lord. It's a day when they understood
the truth of God. Neither be he sorry For the joy
of the Lord is your strength. And when something is revealed
to our faith, it brings joy into our heart. Why? Because it's
another proof that God's word is true. And it is true. But it's good
to have these things proved to us. And as we read through the
Word of God, there are so many places where God's Word proves
to us it is indeed true. And just to think here with these
Israelites, they come back from Babylon, been 70 years there,
in a desolate place and here they were in the street and here
were these preachers there standing around and Ezra was reading the
law and they were explaining what it meant and they were being
told of these great and wonderful truths. Well how good it is for
us because not only does Ezra speak here as he reads about
creation and about the greatness of it, he then moves on. And
he moves on through a number of situations which are great
truths and are fundamental to our faith. He speaks about Abram. He speaks about him and how he
came forth out of Ur the Chaldees. and gavest him the name of Abraham,
which doesn't enter into detail here, but you can read detail
in the 11th of Hebrews, and also you can read it in Genesis, about
Abraham. God told him to leave. Did he argue? Did he say, well,
I don't think I'm gonna leave this place. It's my home and
it's very comfortable and I quite like it. He went out, not knowing whether
he went. He didn't know where he was going.
But God led him and God directed him. And I'm sure you're aware
of God's great and glorious leading in the case of Abraham. And yet,
you see, Abraham's faith was tested. And we today will have
our faith tested as to whether we do believe. And it is fundamental
that we do believe. We must believe the truth of
God. We must believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We must believe that he is the
only one and true God. And so it's wonderful to have
such great truths set before us. No doubt the Israelites,
as we know, they rejoiced as they heard these great truths.
They may have heard them before, they'd probably forgotten about
them. And here they were, put before
them very clearly, and therefore they had a good and a right understanding
of the truth of God. That really is the word that
rests upon my spirit, that people might have an understanding,
cause them to understand the reading. My friends, may you
and I be concerned to understand the reading of God's Word, because
in it is all that you and I need. And what a wonderful thing it
is when we read it and we can be directed naturally in our
lives what to do with regard to schooling, university, jobs,
marriage, everything. It's all contained in the word
of God. And you and I can be directed as we read the word
of God. What a blessing it is then to
come across a word of direction. And we say, well, that's God
speaking to me. There's the word of direction. There's the word that I needed. There's the word
that I wanted. You see, God is very gracious
and very faithful. And it's good sometimes just
to think, you and I are pretty insignificant, aren't we? And
it's good to have a right view of our own self. you think of
the world, you think of the billions in the world, the billions that
have been, and to think that God, God takes notice of little
you and little me. And he knows when we pray, and
he knows when we ask for guidance, when we ask for confirmation,
that we're in the right way, that we come to him asking, he
will teach us and he will direct us. What a blessing it is to
think and to have faith, God-given faith, to believe that God does
take notice, that God does hear. and answer our prayers. It's very humbling, isn't it?
When you and I have a little view of ourselves, how small
and bad we are. You know, it's good if you and
I come to that place that the Apostle Paul spells out when
he wrote to Timothy, his son in the faith. And he tells him
he was less than the least of all saints. and also the chief
of sinners. What enables you and me to say
that? It's his grace. It's his grace,
it's his mercy, and it's his favour toward us. What a blessing
when God brings us then into that situation and that position. And it's important to realize,
as we read in that ninth chapter, that as you and I come to God,
as these people came to God, what did they do? And the seed of Israel separated
themselves from all strangers and stood. And what did they
do? They confessed their sins. and
the iniquities of their fathers. Well, it's an important consideration. You see, that means we're under
the influence of the work of the Holy Spirit. That means what it says, we confess
our sins. And it's only you, and God knows,
what sins you committed. And it's good to come and confess
our sins to God. What a blessing that is. You
see, here were these people here clearly told about the need there
was to confess sin and clearly doing that. Not surprising, is
it? that God was gracious to them.
And they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law
of the Lord their God one fourth part of the day. Another fourth
part they confessed and worshipped. That means half the day. When
have we ever done that? The answer probably is no. For a quarter of the day, they
listened to the Word of God being read. They didn't get fed up. They didn't say, I've had enough
of that. I'm going home now. No, they stayed and they listened. And then they confessed and worshipped
the Lord their God. You see, we have a little view,
don't we? in these accounts of the reality of true religion. It's not something we just pick
up and then dump. It's something which is, forms part of our life. It is our life. And what a blessing
it is. And that's why we have such statements
as this. in these chapters. We only read
a small part of it. I know there's a lot of names
in these chapters but nonetheless it's really good to just remind
ourselves of the great truths because we did read this morning
about Israel. They came out of Egypt. God graciously
appeared for them when there appeared no way. I like to remember
the crossing in the Red Sea. The Egyptians were behind them. The mountains were around them. There was no way of escape. The
Red Sea was before them. And that may be so in your life
and my life. We may think, oh, I'm hedged
in. I can't move. Does he have any
way of escape? Well, the Lord did that which
hadn't occurred before. He made a way through the Red
Sea. And if perhaps we come into what may seem impossible
situations, just remember this, the things which are Impossible
to men are possible with God. Nothing is impossible with God. And so we're told the Lord heard
their cry by the Red Sea. They were in a desperate scene,
weren't they? Sometimes we get into desperate
scenes. What a mercy it is to know that our God reigns And
we're told, even though there are signs and wonders upon Pharaoh
and all his servants, they wouldn't let the people
go. So didst thou get them a name, as it is this day, and thou didst
divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst
of the sea on the dry land, And thou persecutors, thou threwest
into the deeps as a stone into the mighty waters. They were
all killed, all the Egyptians. What a wonderful, wonderful deliverance. And then he goes on just to remind
him, and it's good to be reminded. Moreover, he says, thou leadest
them in the day by a cloudy pillar. and in the night by a pillar
of fire to give them light in the way wherein they should go. So the pillar of fire gave them
light as well. It was dark all around, but God
gave them light. And that's good just to read
these things in our little lives today, to realize that God still
leads and directs his people until God led. They had to sit
still. They couldn't move. But when
God moved, they moved. It's good, isn't it, to have
such accounts and such direction for us today. And then to remember,
there they were, no food. God provided food in a most remarkable
way. You see, it's good to have these
things recorded again and again in the Word of God to instruct
us and to encourage us. And so how it was, these were
wonderful occasions for Israel. How gracious God was to them
in bringing these facts before them to their remembrance. And they were able then to come
and to praise God, praise God. And, you know, they had to come
and confess. And they said, you can read further
on in this chapter, how be it thou art just in all that is
brought upon us, for thou hast done right, but we have done
wickedly. Confession, isn't it? It's good
when the Holy Spirit brings us to that place to confess, when
God shows us where we are, what we are, and to direct us to come,
to seek Him, and to be directed by Him. Well, just a few comments
this morning. You can go home and you can think
on these things. Remember, sow. They read in the
book of the law of God, not any old book, in the law of God,
distinctly, carefully, and gave the sense and caused them to
understand the reading. Amen.