I please God to bless us together
as we meditate in his word this morning. Let us turn to the book
of Nehemiah chapter 8 and we'll read verse 8. 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 cause them to understand
the reading. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah,
although they are placed in this position, in actual fact of course
they were the last books written in the Old Testament, were written
after the book of Malachi. And so as we read this we should
understand that therefore Ezra and Nehemiah did perhaps have
most of the Old Testament to be able to read to the people. So on this wonderful occasion
this day when the people were gathered together and we're told
as one man they were all gathered together as one man clearly with
one desire and that desire was to hear the law of God or the
word of God read to them. And it's interesting how this
commenced. The fifth verse tells us, And
Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was
above all the people. And when he opened it, all the
people stood up. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the
great God. And all the people answered,
Amen, Amen. They were lifting up their hands
and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their
faces to the ground. Significant, I'm sure, as they
were to commence reading the word of God, the law of God.
What did Ezra do? He prayed before he started reading. I'm sure it's a good thing to
always pray really, when we gather together for worship before we
actually read the Word of God. And also it's significant that
the people, they didn't stand there like dumb, dumb dummies. They actually recognised what
was being said. And therefore they all said,
Amen and Amen. For some reason today, I don't
know why people don't seem to like to join in saying Amen. And it clearly means that they
agree with what is being said. We must conclude if people don't
say Amen, they don't agree with what's being said. So I think
perhaps we've got ourselves into rather a sad situation. But here
we have the example here of what occurred in this day of Ezra
and Nehemiah. And what we also observe is here
that they had all these people, all these men, were gathered
together either side of Nehemiah as he stood up to read the Word
of God. They were beside him so that
they could help the people to understand what was written. And we're told how long this
reading went on for. It went on from the beginning
of the day, which generally is accepted as about six o'clock
in the morning, until midday. That was six hours reading the
Word of God. And it wasn't, of course, on
the one day. It would occur for seven days. So it was a wonderful
time of worship. And it wasn't just a situation
where the people came and stood up and just stood there, but
they listened. And the Word of God was explained
to them, so that they did understand the reading. Now this is of course
so important to us, surely. We gather together, don't we,
so often. But do we actually understand What is being read? Do we understand what is being
preached? There's no benefit of coming
together, just bringing our bodies into a building and sitting there
for an hour or so and not being benefited because we didn't understand
what was being said. It's very important, therefore,
that there is a right understanding. And if we don't understand, and
if the minister hasn't really spelled it out very clearly,
so that we couldn't understand it, we should ask. Why? We should ask that it might be
explained to us. And perhaps there are others
who could also help with that understanding, because here these
people were with Ezra and Nehemiah. They weren't by themselves. There
were other people with them, which we're told caused the people
to understand the law. It is so important that you and
I understand the truth of God. But it's not something we just
come and we think well I've done my duty today and off you go
home. There's no purpose in that. We come to worship the Lord. These people came to worship
the Lord. They bowed their head to worship
God and they came to hear what was being read, and to understand
what was being read. And how important that is, surely
for us today, as we gather together here, to hear what is being said,
so they're read in the book, in the law of God distinctly,
and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.
Now we don't know, of course, Precisely what was being read
but generally speaking the law was that which was encompassed
in the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus Although the reality
is of course the whole law of God is really the whole Word
of God But no doubt that was the part that was read carefully
to these Israelites and remember They come back from Babylon They'd
been there for 70 years. They were taken captive because
of their sin. There they were, far away from
Jerusalem. That place which had been besieged
and was broken down. And now, by the grace of God,
they'd returned. The king of Babylon had encouraged
them to come back. That's an amazing thought as
well. And there they were, they'd come back. And there they were
now, and they rebuilt the wall, and it wasn't an easy task, but
they rebuilt it, and the temple also, and now here they were,
in this attitude of worship. Now, as the law was read to them,
as the Word of God was read to them, did it have any effect? It did have an effect. It did
have an effect. Do you know what the effect was?
We read it together. For all the people wept when
they heard the words of the law. What a good thing that would
be, you know, when you and I are so affected by the Word of God
that we weep because of the truths that are set before us. We weep perhaps because of the
acknowledgement of our sin. Because we realise we have offended
Almighty God. The Israelites had offended Almighty
God and now His mercy had been great towards them. And that
also is a cause for weeping. When we realise the Lord's mercy
toward us, But He hasn't cast us off. He hasn't cut us down. But He's remembered us with mercy
and love toward us. And all the people wept. Well,
what a blessing it is if by the grace of God the Holy Spirit
enters into our heart with divine power so that we are affected
by it. and it moves our heart so that
we realise we are dealing with Almighty God. We're not just
dealing with a mere people, we're dealing with Almighty God and
the Word of God is God speaking. What a mercy when God speaks
to our heart through His Word. We don't want to just read the
Bible and it has no effect. We want to read the Bible so
that it has a gracious effect upon us. And so here we are,
reading this word this morning. So they read in the book, in
the law of God, distinctly and gave a sense and caused them
to understand the reading. And what did Ezra say? He said, this day is holy unto
the Lord your God. It is a day, a holy day, when
God speaks to our souls. It is a holy day. It's a day
when the Lord God has condescended to remember us. He hasn't passed
us by. Israel had come here very expectantly. Oh they turned their back upon
God for so long and now they were brought back and now they
were there expecting the blessing of God. What a good thing when
we can come up to the house of the Lord with a humble expectancy
that God will bless us and that desire that he will bless us
and that concern that he will bless us. We don't want to be
left and have no blessing. We don't want to find that we
are left behind as it were, being passed over. We want God to look
upon us and God to bless us. So then it is a holy day when
God speaks to our souls It's a holy day, isn't it? It's a
day when the Lord has looked upon us in love and mercy. It's
a holy day. And therefore they were told
not to mourn, nor to weep, for all the people did weep when
they heard the words of the Lord. And he went on to say, 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, neither be you sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.'
You see there was a wonderful change. Here they were rejoicing
in the joy of the Lord and that was strength to them. That was an encouragement to
them. And how good it will be then
if as we read the Word of God and we are given an understanding. Now I thought this morning, as the Lord may help, just to
give us as it were an overview of the great truths contained
in the Word of God. Because how often we fail, especially
when we're young, to understand the Word of God. And my friends,
I pray that you young people may understand the truth of God's
Word. And none of it is to be ignored
And to think, well, I don't think that's very relevant. You know,
some people have a very small Bible. By that I mean, they'll
perhaps turn to the Psalms and then they'll turn to the New
Testament. And generally speaking, they'll ignore the rest of the
Word of God. They'll never read Nehemiah and
Ezra and Esther. And they just ignore those books
which have much instruction in them. But, as we consider the
situation contained in the Word of God. It gives us the complete
and true account of God's dealing with his people right up to and
past the time of the Saviour. And also we have the record of
it to encourage us today that we understand the truth because
it has an application to our souls today. Well, as we go back
to the very beginning, let's start on a right vein. All the
Word of God is true. The Word of God is as it is written. I remember a few years ago now
I went to visit a local vicar and we sat down and he said to
me, he said, He said, I want to tell you first of all, he
said, I am a born again Christian and I believe the word of God
as it is written. Well, that was a good start,
wasn't it? It was a good start, you know,
for us today. If you and I can say before God
that we are a born again Christian and we want to be able to and
we need to be able to, and then to also say, I believe the word
of God as it is written, the truth of God. And as we commence
in Genesis, there we have the glorious account of the creation,
how God himself spoke the world into being. It's impossible for
you and me to understand that, because our minds are finite,
we don't a mind that can understand a God who can but speak and things
come to pass. But it was so and it still is
so. Let us understand therefore that
God did speak the world into being. And there was then, he
created Adam and then he created Eve. And there were those two
in the Garden of Eden, that beautiful garden. And there was no sin. It was a perfect environment.
There was perfect peace. And they drew it together. We
have no idea how long it was for, but not very long, it would
seem. And then of course, what happened? Well, before that time, the devil,
who was an angel in heaven, gathered together. some other angels who
fought against Michael and his angels and lost and was cast
out. And because he was cast out and
he is still cast out and he would ever be cast out, his great aim
is to deceive mankind, deceive you and me. And that's what he
commenced to do when he tackled Eve. when he came to Eve and
he asked her what had been told her, he said, has God said? And what he did by those few
words was to cast doubt upon the truth of God. Now we have
this in the word of God to help us today to never listen to what
the devil says when he comes and questions something. and
says, has God said? That's what he'll try and do
to the words that God may have spoken to your soul. He'll come
and question it. What he wants you to do is to
doubt it. And what he wants you to do is to disbelieve it. Well,
remember, every word of God is true. And don't listen to the
devil. Well, Eve, listen to the devil. She knew what God had said. She
told the devil what God had said. But it didn't have the effect
upon her. The devil prevailed. And what
did she do? She ate of the fruit that was
forbidden. The fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. She was forbidden to eat of it.
She took it because it looked good. And she ate of it. And
what happened? She sinned. What had she done? She disobeyed God. Tragic. Terrible. The worst day in the
history of the world when Eve ate of that forbidden fruit. And that sin which she and then
subsequently Adam did when he also partook of the fruit that
she gave to him. And you see, ever since that
day, sin has been in the world and has passed upon all mankind,
all men and women. Whenever we're born into this
world, we are born in sin and shaped in iniquity, a tragic,
tragic occurrence. What was to be done? What was
to be done? There was lost man. sinned against
God, guilty, could no longer come to inhabit first of all
the Garden of Eden, which was a perfect place, and then also
eventually to enter into heaven. No prospect because of sin. Because there's no sin in heaven.
And so there was the sad, sad case of Adam and Eve. And then of course we know what
happened. They then knew that they'd done wrong and then tried
to hide from God. We can't hide from God. They
couldn't hide from God. You and I can't hide from God.
Not at all. And so God came down in the evening
and called out for them. He didn't want to answer because
they were guilty. And then eventually he found
them, he saw them, he tackled them. And what did they do? They tried to make excuse for
their sin. How easy it is when we try and
make excuse for our sin. The Word of God encourages us
to confess our sins. Not to make excuse for them,
but to confess them. Why so? Because John tells us,
if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This
is the great, gracious, merciful God that we have to deal with. However, Adam and Eve tried to tell God that it wasn't their
fault. Eve said it was the devil's fault.
Adam said it was Eve's fault. They were guilty. They were guilty. What was going to happen? Well,
God spoke to them. God speaks to all mankind in
those beautiful words that we read of in the third chapter
of Genesis and the 15th verse. It's not particularly Easy words,
but this is what it says. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. The Lord here was speaking to
the devil. He was speaking to the serpent. And telling him there would be
that enmity that would be between the devil and the woman between
her seed. That means you and me today. But also, he said, the seed of
the woman shall bruise thy head, the serpent's head. And of course
we know that that seed eventually was the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was he that indeed conquered
Satan. And therefore, way back in Eden,
we have this glorious promise. Now, just you think of that.
Israel, for hundreds and thousands of years, would have relied upon
that promise. Because without it, There was
no hope. They were lost. They were ruined. So what a blessing if you and
I have an understanding of that situation back in Genesis, the
very beginning. And then as we follow on through
the Old Testament, we have the picture set before
us very clearly that in order to have sin forgiven, have sin
taken away, which all of us need, in the same way that Adam and
Eve needed, there had to be someone who could take away that sin. And who was that someone to be?
Because man, through sin, was not able to do that because they
were all sinners themselves. So how was sin to be taken away? Well, again, we can go back to
Genesis and what we read there was that Adam and Eve, they realised
they were naked. They didn't realise it before
because there was no sin in being naked. They lived very happily
in that Garden of Eden. But when their eyes were opened
to behold that good and evil, they realised they were naked.
And therefore they needed to be covered. And what did they
do? They tried to cover themselves.
And they made some, put some, stitched some fig leaves together
to cover them. Well that wasn't very satisfactory
was it? But what did God do? And we see here the wonderful
compassion of God. He covered them. He made them
coverings of animal skins. You may say, well, what's the
significance of that? It is very significant. Because
what it meant was, if those skins were to be produced, in order
for those skins to be produced, animals had to be slain. And
those animals were slain, and because they were slain, their
blood would have been spilled. And so there, in that early day,
the Lord God gave that glorious picture of the need to be clothed,
and only being clothed through death and the shed blood. Now,
that position was continued right through the Old Testament right
through the time until the Lord Jesus Christ came. And if you
study the Word of God you will find that sacrifices were made
and it began of course with Abel. Abel, he was a husbandman and
he looked after the flocks and he had sheep and he slew the
animals and made a sacrifice to God. The animal was slain,
the blood was shed and it was a sweet savour to God. It was
an acceptable sacrifice. Right there you see, the beginning. And that carried through. And
you can trace it, you can trace it through. And when Noah came
out of the ark, what did he do? He set up an altar and he offered
up sacrifices to God. And those sacrifices are really
twofold, to acknowledge sin and the requirement for sin to be
forgiven, and then to offer up a sacrifice in thanksgiving to
what God has done. And so we have that then in Noah
after the flood, and of course we can read of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, and all of those patriarchs, they offered up sacrifices. We have the continual picture
of the need which showed forth what was to come. The Lord Jesus
Christ was to come and offer up himself as that wonderful
and complete sacrifice. But as we trace the journey,
we come to that wonderful occasion when Abraham, who had been blessed
with a son, Isaac, and that hadn't come about easily, God had told
Abraham years before that he would be the father of a multitude
of people, more than the sands of the sea, more than the stars
in the heavens. And yet, you see, time went on
and time went on, and no heir, no son was born. But the appointed
time came when Isaac was born. God's promise was fulfilled. And you and I should be encouraged
today, if perhaps God has given us a promise, and it may not
be with reference to a child, it may be a reference to something
else. And time goes on. And time goes on. And we think,
well, how is this going to come to pass? The Lord has his time scale. The Lord has an appointed time
and that day cannot be put back and it cannot be brought forward. And so in Abraham's case the
time came when Isaac was born. God's promises come to pass without
any doubt. They may be tried, they often
are, because we want to have them proved. We don't want to
be relying on a promise that we've taken to ourselves, which
doesn't emulate from God. But God's promise has come to
pass. And so Isaac was born. And then, when he was but a lad,
God told him to go and offer him up. Well, that was a test
of faith, wasn't it? You think of that. God's promised. He's given me the son. And now
I'm trying to go and offer him up. How is the promise to be
fulfilled that I will have a multitude of children? But Abraham believed
God. Abraham was given faith to believe
God. My friends today, you and I,
need living faith to believe God. And so he trusted that the Lord
would come and appear. And so he did. He didn't fail. He took Isaac up to the mount,
built an altar, laid him on the wood, took his knife to slay
him. And then the Lord told him to
stop. There was the evidence. that
Abraham feared God, that Abraham believed God, believed that the
things which were impossible with man were possible with God.
And there you see the Lord had prepared a ram, caught in its
hands, horns in a thicket behind, and Abraham took that ram and
slew it and offered him up in a place of Isaac. The blood was
shed, the life was taken. And what did it show us? A glorious
picture, the wonderful picture of substitution. That means that
Jesus Christ stood in our place, in our stead. He bore the punishment
instead. Word, it's good, isn't it? If
you and I have, therefore, a spiritual understanding of these things,
so that they are real. They're not just history. They're
spiritual. They're real. They're very important. And then, of course, we know
that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Jacob came and he had those 12
sons. Of course, Joseph, as we know,
was sold into Egypt, all in God's purpose, all in God's purpose. What we're told with regard to
Joseph when he was in prison, we're told this, he'd had promises,
wonderful promises, in dreams, seemed to be no possibility.
We're told he was tried, the word of God was tried, So it
was. There was poor old Joseph. All
those years taken away from his father. All those years. I think
it was 17 years until the time came when he was called to stand
before Pharaoh. And what a deliverance that was.
What a change. What an amazing time of blessing. And you see it was all in the
purposes of God because His brethren came down into Egypt
and they were in Egypt for 400 years or so. That was a long
time. And yet God's promises were still
being worked out. They'd been told, Abraham had
been told, they would go down into Egypt for 400 years. And
there they were. But, at the appointed time, they
were delivered. And they were delivered in a
remarkable way. A remarkable way to show the
wonderful blessing of God and to show again the amazing truth
and importance of death and the shed blood to atone for sin. As we know, the last plague that
was to be brought upon Pharaoh which would influence him to
let the children of Israel go, was when the firstborn was slain. And all the firstborn were slain
apart from those who were safe. And who were those who were safe?
Only those who were under the blood. You say, well what does
that mean? It means this, Moses had commanded
the people, the families, to take a perfect lamb, and to slay
the lamb, and to take the blood of the lamb, and to put it on
the doorpost and lintels, and all those who went in, under
that blood, into their houses, were safe. The avenging angel
passed over them. The tremendous significance for
you and me today is this. All of us need to be safe under
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no safety anywhere else. And to have the picture a bit
more complete, the lamb was roast in the fire, representing the
blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, had to endure the fire,
the wrath of God on behalf of his people. It's a very simple,
a very wonderful picture. And so today, when we think about
our salvation, and it is very important we do think about it,
because it means the saving of our souls and it's so, so essential. That you and I are saved from
our sin. were only saved from our sin
through that which Jesus Christ did for his church when he died
upon Calvary's cross and shed his most precious blood. And
so therefore we have that wonderful picture. And then of course Pharaoh
let Israel go. They went out. They were freed from that place
of toil and difficulty. And then came to the Red Sea,
God again appeared. There seemed no way of escape. Red Sea before them, Pharaoh
and his men behind them. God knew what he would do. God knows today what he will
do to rescue his people. And so they
went across the Red Sea on dry land and Pharaoh and all the
Egyptians were slain in that Red Sea. And so they came into
the wilderness and it wasn't long before the Lord appeared
to them on Mount Sinai, appeared to Moses and there he spoke to
Moses and gave to him the pattern for the tabernacle that was to
be erected, a place where the Israelites would be able to worship
God. And in that tabernacle were so
very clearly set forth so many pictures relating to the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Here was a time of blessed instruction. And what a mercy, therefore,
if there was that understanding of what Israel were to now behold
as they continued the journey. And you can read, of course,
the full account of the tabernacle and after that the temple, when
Solomon erected it, very similar, the essence of it. The great
blessing was, there was set before Israel the need for salvation. And it was set before them in
the, again, the shedding of blood and the sacrifices. And there
was continual sacrifices, off and on. There was the smoke ascending,
the sweet savour to God. Israel would have seen that every
day, be reminded of it. And then of course there was
that great day of atonement. when the high priest went not
only into the holy place but into the most holy place and
in the most holy place was the Ark of the Covenant and in the
Ark of the Covenant was the Ten Commandments and over that was
placed on top of the Ark the Mercy Seat and it was there that
God came and spoke with the high priest and gave his evidence
of being there. But the only way of entrance
was through the shed blood. The high priest had to take blood
and sprinkle it on the mercy seat so that Israel then could
believe that their sins were taken away, their sins were forgiven. What a day that must have been.
annual occasion they look forward to it and so we have that ceremony
which was set before Israel which was carried on more or less right
until the time when the Lord Jesus was on the earth and of
course there was that continual going into the holy place and
there was also Of course, the Passover which was also kept
until that great day, that great night, that night which was never
to be forgotten, when the Lord Jesus Christ, for the last time,
partook of the Passover. In the upper room, he asked that
it might be prepared for the Passover. So it was. The Lord
Jesus Christ He partook of that Passover, the last time it was
necessary. It was never necessary again. And why was it not necessary
again? Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper on that same night, the
night in which he was betrayed. Yes, he took bread and he blessed
it. He said, this is my body which is broken for you, eat
ye all of it. Likewise he took the cup when
he had stopped saying, this is the cup of the New Testament
of my blood which is shed for you, drink ye all of it. So there was the ceremony, there
was the Lord's Supper which was instituted to take the place
of the Passover. It was the night when the Saviour
was betrayed. And then, of course, the next
day He was crucified upon that cross. And what occurred then?
He gave His life. He died. He shed His blood. A fulfilment of that which had
been prophesied back in that Garden of Eden. A wonderful picture. A wonderful position. And so
today, Where are we? Where are we today? Well I hope by faith we're standing
at the cross and by faith we behold the amazing love of God,
the love of the Father, the love of the Son and the love of the
Holy Spirit, that because of his great love for mankind, for
God so loved the world, and he gave his only begotten Son, that
whoso believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. Oh, friends, today is our hope
in the finished work of the Saviour, is our rest there in what Christ
has done. And as therefore we read now,
the Word of God, like these Israelites did. They rejoiced in it. They praised God for it. You
see, we read, and all the people went their way to eat and to
drink and to send portions and to make great mirth, because
they had understood the words that were declared unto them.
Well, I'm sure the Holy Spirit gives us a right understanding
of this great and glorious plan of salvation, to realise that
it is because of his amazing love to his church that we have
the hope of eternal life, that we can bless God, that he's opened
our eyes, whereas we can say, one thing I know, whereas I was
blind, now I see. Just one thing, my friends. Blessed
understanding. If you and I have that understanding,
one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now my eyes have been
opened and I behold the grace and glorious plan of salvation. One thing. There's another one
thing. Remember the parable of the Pharisee
and the man who came and cried, the publican, and what did he
say? One thing, he said this, God
be merciful to me a sinner. One thing, what a blessing it
was. What did God say to him? I tell
you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than
the other. So we have two things there,
essential for all of us, to have a right understanding of that
we are blessed with, to realise that we have passed from death
to life. We're blessed with spiritual
sight and we're blessed with the knowledge of our sin to turn
to the Saviour, to seek for forgiveness and find it in the sin-atoning
death of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we can bless God and
praise God for His great plan. There it is, recorded to us in
the Word of God. And may we go on our way like
this Israelite stood, rejoicing in what God has done. Amen.