Go back to Nehemiah 8 now with
me. Nehemiah chapter 8. I wanted to look at this with
you after I started reading it again. I remember we were going
on to Esther, but something that Brother John Chapman said in
a message Sunday. I listened to him and Luke on
Sunday. Both were blessing. John preached
from Acts 17. Paul was preaching. John said
that the purpose of the pulpit is to preach the Word. That's
the only purpose for it. He reminded me of this passage
that says this is why the pulpit was first made. This is the first
mention of a pulpit podium, and the only reason it was above
It's not that the preacher is exalted or above them or better. It's just so that everyone can
hear. Plus, remember, Ezra opened the
Bible in the sight of all the people to make everyone know
for certain, I'm reading God's Word. That was the purpose of
the pulpit. So everyone could hear the reading
of God's Word and the preaching of the Word and everyone could
see very clearly that this man is reading God's Word. He's not
getting this himself, but it's what God is saying. So it made
me want to go back and look at this, and I did, and I hope you'll
be glad we did. And I thought how fitting that
we take the Lord's table tonight when they told all the people,
go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet. Hold your peace and be of good
cheer. So that's what we want to do.
And I've given you seven reasons. Well, about 77 scriptures, actually. But seven points, seven reasons
for eating and drinking and making mirth. Seven, at least, good
reasons why we take this table and why we should be Very glad. And it said, after chapter 7,
it says, there was very great gladness. Very great gladness. And they partook of this feast
at the tabernacle from then on. Many reasons. Number one, the
reason why we take this table, eat and drink our Lord's body
and shed blood and make mirth or that is should be happy and
glad is that we have the word of God. Number chapter eight,
verse one, all the people gathered themselves together as one man
in the street that was Before the Watergate, what a verse this
is. One of the sisters and I were
commenting back and forth to one another about this. Like
in Acts, they were all together as one man. And all the people,
the Lord had gathered them, as you read with me, through Nehemiah. And then the people themselves
gathered together, and they were in one accord, in unity, as one
man. Because God's people have one
Lord, one faith, one hope, one purpose, one reason for gathering
to worship our Lord. And they met in this one place,
the street. It was the way into the city,
which is Christ, before the water gate. Keep saying that, in the
street before the water gate. All of this is Christ. He's the
way, He is the gate, the straight gate, and He is the water. This
is where they brought the water into the city. It's fitting that
they all meet there where water is being brought in. So they
met there and they spake unto Ezra the scribe, bring the book.
Bring the book. They were so glad to have the
book. Remember the story of Josiah? They found the book. Remember
that? What a wonderful... They just
found the book and they were all so overjoyed to find the
book. But do you know that all the people didn't have a copy
of the book? None of them had a copy of that. Does that tell
you why they were so attentive? You know, we all have a copy
of this book, and I'm quite sure we all take it for granted at
times. We do. We just do. Things that we have,
we take for granted. Things we don't have, We desire
them and hope for them, the things we need. And the people didn't
have a book. They, oh my, can you imagine
how attentive they were? So what a blessing. What a reason
for us to eat and drink and be merry. We have the book. No, we have the book. Malachi
3, you know, that verse in Malachi 3, it says, They that spake often,
they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the
Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book was written, a book
of remembrance. That is, to remember our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what this whole book,
who this whole book is about. and those that feared the Lord
and thought on his name. And so they met together, they
had Ezra read the book, and they were so happy. Our Lord said
in Revelation 1, he said, Blessed is he that readeth the words
of this book. You know how few people read
God's Word? You do, don't you? I do. Why? Because you're glad to have it.
So thankful. That's the day to read. That's
the day to hear. Reasons for eating and drinking and making
mirth or being happy. We have God's Word. He's given
us His Word. And we desire the Word. We do. We desire the Word. The people
asked Ezra to come bring the book and read it to us. We want
to hear it. We want to hear it. We want to
read it. We want to hear it. We want you to give us a sense
of it. Preach it to us. Oh, blessed
are they that hunger and thirst. It's a sign of life. Only those
that have been born again by the Word hunger for the Word,
thirst for the Word. Peter said, desire the sincere
milk of the word, as newborn baby, desire the sincere milk
of the word. That's the first sign of a newborn
child, that they desire their mother's breast, the milk. And
it doesn't take much urging to get them to start nursing, does
it? Well, that's the way it is with
a newborn baby in Christ. And the older you get, the better
it gets, doesn't it? We desire the word. We really
do. We really do. Listen to this. Psalm 1 says,
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in
his law, or his word, doth he meditate day and night. I believe
I'm that blessed man. Are you? David said this in Psalm
26. He said, I have not sat with
vain persons. I'm not going to go in with dissemblers. I'm not going to sit with people
that don't know my God and don't worship my God. And I'm not going
to sit and hear preachers blaspheme my God. No, no. He said, I've
hated the congregation of evildoers. He said, I've loved the habitation
of thy house where thine honor dwelleth. That's where I'll be,
he said. That's with whom I'll be. In my foot, he said, standeth
in an even place in a congregation where I bless the Lord. That's why we come here, to hear
God's Word, to bless the name of Christ our Lord and our Lord
God and God's people. We desire to hear the Word, don't
we? Eat, drink, and be merry. Make myrrh. Oh, my, Ezekiel says
that in chapter 3. I gave him the roll, and he ate
it, and it was sweet to his taste. Another reason why we have reason
to eat and drink and be happy is we have the Word. We desire
the Word. And God has given us men to preach
the Word. God's given us men to preach
the Word. They asked Ezra and Nehemiah
also, but they asked Ezra. As one man, they all said to
Ezra, bring the book and read it to us and preach it to us.
We need you. We want you to preach to us.
And there were other men also. Because how shall they hear without
a preacher? How shall they preach except
to be sent? Oh, how beautiful. are the feet of them that bring
glad tidings." Great joy, Scripture says. We have men to preach the
Word. Isn't that what the Ethiopian eunuch said to Philip? There's
not a clearer passage in the Bible how the Lord has used preaching
to save and no other means than Acts chapter 8, where there was
a man out there alone in a desert, hundreds of miles, away from
anywhere, traveling along, and the Lord sent him a preacher
all the way out in the desert. And he's reading Isaiah 53, and
Philip said, Do you understand what you're reading? He came
alongside the chariot, walking along. That's a great story,
walking along. Do you understand what you're
reading? He stopped the chariot. No, I don't. Can you help me? Can you come tell me? Get up
here in the chair with me. Can you tell me? Does he speak
of himself or some other man? And see, the Lord sent that man,
and he preached Christ crucified, from Isaiah 53. So he said, how
can I accept some man? Tell me. No, we can't. It's just the way it is, and
I'm glad. I'm glad. But we have men to
preach the Word. How blessed, how blessed we are.
Psalm 68 says, The Lord gave the Word, and great was the company
of those that published it. The Lord gave the Word. They
all had the same book, same subject, same one truth, one hope. And all great was the company
that published it. Way back in the beginning, God. He's never left himself without
a witness in any generation. He sent preachers all over the
world to preach the gospel. Go in all the world and preach
the gospel. He that believeth on the Lord
Jesus Christ and is baptized shall be saved. And so it is. How blessed we are to have men
to preach the word. So we're blessed and we should
Be happy and feast. Feast is made for laughter. We
should eat and drink at the Lord's table in gladness because we
have the word. We desire to have the word. We
have men to preach the word to us. And look at chapter 8, verse
3. It says, they read therein from
morning till midday. And the people were attentive.
They were attentive. And verse 8, they read in the
book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused
them to understand the reading. We have great reason to rejoice
because we understand what we're hearing, don't we? Do you know
how many millions of people sit and listen to a Latin liturgy
on Sunday? Latin liturgy. Tell me what that
is. They don't know either. They
don't. Or some little homily. What's
a homily? Is that what you eat? Is that
corn that's blown up? No, that's homily. It needs to
be made fun of. Punishment. This pulpit, as Brother
Chapman said, as Scripture said, is for one reason. To read God's
Word and to preach God's Word. To give the meaning, to give
the understanding, because the people understand. I think it
was Jonathan Edwards who said, I would rather be understood
by ten people than admired by ten thousand. The people understood. Okay,
understood. I've always loved Proverbs 8,
verses 8 and 9, that say this, which you know, Proverbs 8. That's our Lord, who is wisdom,
who is speaking here. O ye sons of men, O ye simple. He said in verse 8, all the words
of my mouth are in righteousness. So there's nothing fraud or perverse
in them. They're all plain. to him that
understand it. and write to them that find knowledge.
See, He has to give you an understanding. He has to open your understanding.
The natural man receiveth not the things of God, their foolishness
unto them, neither can he know them. They're spiritually understood.
But God has given us an understanding. The Son of God has come and given
us an understanding. The Spirit of God has come and
given us understanding. We understand. We understand
that this book speaks of him. It's a hymn book. Very plain
and very clear. And oh, how grateful I am, how
thankful I am that we understand. We understand. Listen to this
in Romans 3. Romans chapter 3. I got my old Bible out so I can
find the scriptures. In Romans 3, he said, there's
none that understand. Now, Romans 3 is talking about
Jew and Gentile. There's no difference. Those
that don't are born again. Those that don't know God. Those
that aren't regenerated. He says, there's none righteous.
No, not one. None that understand it. There's none that seeketh
after God. Nobody will. Nobody does until
God gives them an understanding. Until He opens their understanding.
And it goes on to say that the way of peace they've not known,
there's no fear of God before they're out. But God, how blessed we are,
great mercy, love and mercy to us. He's given us an understanding
of God's Word, of the truth. By faith, Hebrews 11 verse 3
says, by faith we understand. That's how faith begins, right
there, Hebrews 11. By faith we understand. Something of who God is, what
we are, who Christ is, and how we're saved. So what a blessing
that we have the Word, we desire the Word, We have men to preach
the Word and preach and open our understanding. The Spirit
of God opens our understanding. And how blessed we are and reason
to feast and be thankful is we believe the Word. We believe
God's Word. And believing God's Word, you
tremble at it. First thing. Nehemiah 8, look
at verse 9. I told you, well, you read it
with me. that the people wept when they heard the words of
the law. Okay? David said, I love thy
law. I love thy law. But now, you
know, the promises of God are all in Christ, and you don't
know, you don't understand, you can't rejoice in the law until
you see, and my next point, Until you see that you have a law keeper,
until you see Christ as the fulfiller of the law, the law is going
to convict you. Whatsoever things the law say,
Romans 3, 19. Say it to them that are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
become what? Guilty before God. That's what
the law said. The law is a curse. The problem
is not the law. It's our sinful selves. You know
that. You know how few people know
that? There's nothing wrong with the law. We love God's law. We
love every part of God's law. Every jot and every tittle. Our
Lord lived according to that law. We love His law, but thank
God we're not under that law, because it is strict. It requires
perfection in thought, in word, and in deed. And so what the
law says is guilty. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. keeping his commandments. And
the people in Nehemiah's day, so they read in Genesis all the
way through Deuteronomy, and what they were reading is the
goodness of God, how good God was to them, what all God had
done for them, and what all they had done to Him and against Him. They were reading, and this is
the whole story of the Israelites, the sons of Jacob, how good God
was and how bad they were. about all the God's provisions
for them and all their provoking of Him. And on and on it goes. God's holiness and their sinfulness.
God's faithfulness and their unfaithfulness. And they all
read that. And this is what happens. If
the Spirit of God convicts you, convinces you of sin, righteousness
and judgment, you'll take the law, what's a schoolmaster. And
he'll convict you of your sin. And this is what happened to
people who were weeping. We have not kept his law. We
want to, but we can't keep his law. We're always under us. What
shall we do? That's what they were doing.
And they trembled. That's what Isaiah 66 says, doesn't
it? That this man will not look.
Let me read to you. Isaiah 66, verse 2, he says,
he says, To this man would I look, even to him that is poor, and
of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Are there not scriptures that
you read and you just, oh, you get so convicted, don't you?
Some scriptures you don't want to read because you get so convicted
by them. Am I right? You read them anyway
because you need it. Conviction is a wonderful thing.
You know who the Lord loveth? He chastens. And He does it with
His Word more than anything else. Yes, He does. He convicts you.
He goes on to say, Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble
at the word. That's who's hearing it. People that can hear, people
that can read, through the Word of God and not fear God? I hadn't heard it. I hadn't heard
a thing. You know that? Preachers that preach in such
a way that there's no fear in people, they're not preaching
the God of the Bible. Because the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. And so to everyone that trembles,
God says, Peace. To everyone that fears,
he says, fear not. To everyone that's convicted,
he says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Those are my people. Those that tremble at my word. Those that fear me. Those are my people. And to them
are the blessed promises of the gospel. Promises of the gospel. The law says you are guilty. The gospel says you are justified. And only those that are guilty
would laugh. Holy laughter. You know how blessed we are?
Let's eat. You ready to eat? And drink?
And make merry? Oh, we tremble at His Word. We're
thankful that His Word convicts us and chastens us and makes
us feel our guilt and more blessed are they that mourn. You know
that passage in Ecclesiastes that says, let your laughter
be turned to mourning. That's talking to this world
that their laughter is like the crackling of thorns under a pot. It's noise and everybody's laughing
and they ought to be crying. They ought to be weeping. They
ought to be calling on God. Those who mourn, though, He says,
laugh. To those who He has given this
mourning over sin, He tells them, be of good cheer. Our Lord said that to His disciples.
He said, you're going to mourn. I'm leaving, and you're going
to mourn. The world's going to rejoice. You know, he's been gone for
a long time, hasn't he? A few thousand years, and the
world's just mocking and scoffing and laughing like those people
who were the Malachites who took David's wives from Ziklag. You
know, they're all having a big old time eating and drinking
and being merry and laughing. We ain't nothing to this God
of David and all of this. Ain't nothing to laughing and
David's watching. And very shortly, David came
down. And they found out, didn't they? That son of David is coming
very shortly. And all laughter is going to
be stopped. And our mourning is going to stop. That's when
our mourning is going to stop. It's going to be a turn to laughter. I love Psalm 126. When the Lord
turned our captivity again, when the Lord turned again our captivity,
we were like them that dreamed that our mouths were filled with
laughter. This is all a picture of how
that When the Lord brings us all to glory and gathers us all
together in the sweet by and by, there's not going to be any
mourning, no tears, no sorrow, uh-uh. Don't, no. Let's eat,
let's drink, and make mirth from now on. So we are glad, we're thankful
that we the Lord, that we believe God's Word, we tremble at His
Word, and we're so thankful. This is why we eat the table
and drink the blood, drink the wine that represents His blood,
and are happy. It's because we understand, we
believe, we understand that Jesus Christ is the Word of God. He is the Word of God. In the
beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word
was God. And the Word was made flesh. What does that mean? It means
the Bible is Christ. That the Bible walked on this
earth. The Word walked on this earth. The Word was made flesh.
What does that tell you? That the whole Bible is about
Jesus Christ. The Word. Revelation says that's
His name. The Word. Oh, how thankful we
are, how we ought to just rejoice and feast that we understand
that Christ is the Word. Look at Nehemiah 8, verse 10. The men, Nehemiah, and the Tarshid,
and Ezra, and the Levites, all said, go your way, eat the fat,
drink the sweet. What fat? What sweet? The fat of the sacrifice and
the sweet wine. Isaiah 25. Isaiah 25. You need to remember where this
is. I mean, you need to remember
where this is. Isaiah 25. Go with it. You have it? Eat
the fat. What fat? Isaiah 25. You need to commit this to memory.
I'm going to make our memory verse the next six weeks running.
All right, Isaiah 25. This is just wonderful. This
is Jesus Christ crucified in the church in Mount Zion. Verse
6, you have it. In this mountain shall the Lord
of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the leaves,
fat things full of marrow, Wines on the leaves, well refined.
What is that? That's Christ and Him crucified.
Kept saying about the sacrifice, eat the fat thereof, the fat
thereof, the fat thereof. He said, I will destroy and dismount
the face of the covering, cast over all people. Read it, the
veil spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory. The Lord God will wipe away tears
from all faces, the rebuke of the people. Shall He take away
from off all the earth? Why? The Lord hath said it. Keep reading. It doesn't get
better, but it's just as good. It shall be said in that day,
Lo, this is our God. We've waited for Him. He will
save us. This is the Lord. We've waited
for Him. We will be glad and rejoice In his salvation. What's Nehemiah talking about?
Christ. The sacrifice of Christ laid
on Calvary's tree. Eat the fat, drink the sweet.
That's what we're doing. Our Lord said, listen to what
he said. In John chapter 6, this is what
our Lord said. You can turn if you want to,
but you need to remember this too. John chapter 6, our Lord, He
said, now this is vital. He said, if you eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. He kept saying this. And the
people said, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? They
all kept saying that. What is he talking about? And he kept pounding it, didn't
he, John? Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. My flesh is meat indeed. My blood is drink indeed. He
that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me. And
I in him as a living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father. So he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. And most of the people just didn't
understand. They didn't understand. Do you? Do you? Oh, the Son of God has come and
given us an understanding. We feast on that thing, Christ
and Him crucified. We eat His body and drink His
blood. We preach Christ crucified. We
live because we live because of Him. Because He died, we live.
Because He lives, we live. My next point. See, the Word,
we understand that the Word was made flesh. He was made of a
woman. The whole Bible speaks of Christ. The whole Old Testament says
someone is coming. Someone is coming. Who? Someone
to restore the kingdom of the Jews? No. Someone who has an everlasting
kingdom. It's not of this world. The Son of God set up a spiritual
kingdom forever. Do away with all other kingdoms.
to bring His people into that kingdom. Someone is coming, someone
is coming. Who is it? The Holy One of Israel,
the Son of the Most High God, the Lawkeeper, the Lawgiver,
the Righteous One, the Holy One. Why is He coming? To fulfill
the law, to keep the law. It's how the law speaks of Him.
He wrote it. They are they which testify of
Me. We understand that, don't we? Why did He come? To fulfill
the law. To keep the law. Who for? Lawbreakers. Guilty. Sinners. Everybody trembles at the law.
Everybody fears. All these people wept. Why? They
loved the law, but they'd broken it. And they all wept. What are
we going to do? Nehemiah says, that's what this sacrifice is
all about. The men gave him the understanding. That's who's coming,
the Messiah, the covenant head, the second Adam from above, the
sure mercies of David. The Messiah is coming, the keeper
of the law, the giver of the law is going to be the keeper
of the law, the doer of it. Our Joseph is coming. Eat. That's what it represents,
what Christ did, who He did, who He is, why He came, what
He did. We understand that Christ fulfilled
the law. He was made a woman, made under
the law to do what? Why did He come? The world, you
know, everybody's talking about the law and religion, aren't
they? Nobody in religion is talking about the law. Nobody's talking
about righteousness. Nobody's talking about justification.
1 Corinthians 1.30, nobody knows those verses. They don't care.
We do, don't we? Of God are you in Christ Jesus. You know you need to be found
in Christ Jesus, not having your own righteousness above the law,
but that which is by the faith of Christ. Because He's made
unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in who? The Lord Jesus Christ. We do,
don't we? We glory in the glorious gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said in his prayer to the
Father right before he went back to glory, he said, Father, I
have glorified thee on the earth. I finished the work you gave
me to do. And he prayed for all those people
that he did that work for. Now I will that they be with
me where I am, that they might behold my glory." We understand that. Like Moses,
show me your glory. Okay. Sovereign mercy. Sovereign grace. The name of
the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. So Christ, we understand, we
should be very glad. For reasons to eat and drink,
take this table and be very happy as Christ fulfilled the Word,
fulfilled the law for us. Do you remember how this all
started when we started preaching these Old Testament times? My last point was that Christ
fulfilled the Word. The reason we started doing this,
as Christ said on the road to Emmaus, He said, These are the
words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that
all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law
of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. Now do you understand who He
is and why He came and what He did? Now, you understand, it's
written that who Christ has suffered and rise from the dead, and you're
witnesses of these things. And their hearts burn with them.
So that's why we eat this table, and drink, and make merry. And in our text, let me close
with this, it says in verses 17, I read it to you. They had this feast called the
Feast of Booths where they all got little tents and they camped
out. They camped out. You know, they
were in Israel, or Jerusalem, and they didn't really have houses
yet. They were building their houses. Temple was built. The
wall was built. They were fenced in. They were
hedged about at the temple. But they all were waiting on
a home. And so they made little booths.
They got under the, and some of them were made out of myrtle
tree. That's ester, myrtle. Anyway, they were under these
myrtle trees and limbs, and they all kind of camped out like the
tribes of Israel of old. They were in their tents all
around the tabernacle. See, that was their life. And Christ is our life. And we
have here no continuing city. We dwell in tents. We're here
temporarily. And it says in verse 17, it was
great gladness, and they kept this feast with a solemn assembly
and great gladness. Can you do both? Can you be solemn
and laugh? Can you fear and rejoice? Can you? Yes. Can you tremble
and be happy? Yeah, you can. Kelly and I can't understand
how there's not going to be tears in heaven, because we cry when
we laugh. Don't you? Tears of happiness
run. How's this going? Yes, we said. Because we're not going to have
moisture like in us. We're not going to live by the
flesh like we do now. We don't need that moisture.
We're going to be full of Christ's moisture, water of life.