He may be seated. Now, Nehemiah
chapter 8. Read with me the first three
verses of Nehemiah 8. Nehemiah 8, that all the people
gathered themselves together as one man into the street that
was called or before the water gate. And they spake unto Ezra,
the scribe, to bring the book of the Law of Moses, which the
Lord had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the
Law, the Word, before the congregation, both of men and women, and all
that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh
month. And he read therein before the street that was before the
water gate, from morning until midday, before the men and the
women and those that could understand, and the ears of all the people
were attentive unto the book of the law." This was one of
the first Bible conferences. Everyone came to sit to hear
the Word of God. They asked Ezra, to bring the
Word. Brother Ezra, would you please
bring the Word of God and bring a message to us? And Nehemiah
and 13 other men, 15 preachers all told, read and preached and
gave the sense of the Word of God, preached it clearly. It
says in verse 1, they were gathered together, these people. The reason
they were gathered is because the Lord gathered them. And that's
why you're here tonight. The lot is cast into the land.
You've made a choice whether or not to come here or not. But
thank God, the ultimate choice is His, that the whole disposing
thereof is of the Lord. If left to ourselves, we would
not come here at all. But thank God He's made us willing
in the day of His power. It's God that worketh in us.
both the will and to do of His good pleasure. And what a wonderful
thing this is, and those that observe lying vanities, which
is everything, forsake their own mercy. That is, forsake this,
but whatever else, forsake their own mercy. Well, they gathered
themselves as one. One mind, one heart, one soul. This sounds like Ephesians 2,
doesn't it? how the Lord has gathered His
people. Listen to this. I love this.
God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together
with Christ by grace, you say, and has raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Our brother Charles right now
is seated or standing or something in the congregation of the righteous,
doing what we're doing, except doing it with a perfect heart
and mind and perfect attention. No pain. The dew of youth is
on his brow, as is everyone that's with him. Can you imagine? Just
try to imagine who all is standing beside him. People we know and
love are with him. Why wouldn't we want to go there?
Well, He's gathered us together tonight to do what they're doing
there, what we'll be doing throughout eternity. Thank God He's gathered
us. Forsake not the gathering yourselves, the assembling of
yourselves together as the manner of some is. It was before the
Watergate. That's significant. They met together where the water
was brought in. Like, this is the source of water.
This is the place where the water was brought in. to water the
sheep and the people. And that's fitting, isn't it?
We meet where the fountain is, the source. And verse 2 says,
they asked Brother Ezra to bring the book, and Ezra the priest
brought the law before the congregation of men and women and all that
could hear with understanding. I guess the little children were
in the nursery, I suppose. But they brought the law before
the people. They made sure. In other words,
and down in verse 4, he stood upon a pulpit of wood that was
made for that purpose. A podium, pulpit, podium, so
that everyone could see that he was reading from God's Word. He wanted to make sure, and they
needed to know for certain that he's reading from God's Word. Everyone didn't have, no one
had a copy of it. The people didn't have a copy
of it. Only Nehemiah, only Israel, only a few of them had a copy
of God's Word, Moses, the books of Moses. So it was precious. It was rare. And they wanted
to know for sure that these men are reading from God's Word.
So they stood up and showed them, this is the book, the book of
the law that God wrote. And the people were glad about
that. My father-in-law, Ed Ballard,
when the Lord began to make him in debt and in distress and discontent,
I'm talking like those that went to David in the cave. This is
what the Lord does with every single person that He brings
to Christ, our Captain. He puts them in debt to God,
in distress over their sin, and discontent with religion. Well, Brother Ed, the Lord brought
him to where the truth was, where an Ezra, a willing scribe, was
found, a Nehemiah. And he loved the fact, though
he did not understand what the man was saying. And this is what
he said in the beginning. He did not understand what he
was preaching. He was so new, so strange. But
he did say this. He said, I knew he was reading
and preaching from God's Word. And that impressed him, because
he came from a place where they didn't do that. And so it is
today. Isn't it? Most not only turn
away their ears from the truth, but there's no truth, there's
no word for people to listen to today. Most of the so-called
versions of Scripture today are perversions. If you look at them,
if you examine them closely, they are perversions of Scripture.
They don't even resemble the original Word of God, like the
King James Bible. It's sad. Most people are not
hearing it read or hearing it preached and don't have a copy
of the true Word of God. How blessed we are. Did not our
Lord say in Revelation 1, blessed are they that read the words
of these books. Blessed are they that hear. Faith
cometh by hearing, not reading. hearing. Blessed are they that
have a true preacher of God to preach the truth as it is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And blessed are they that receive
it or lay hold of it. Verse 2 says they with understanding. They could hear with understanding.
How blessed if there's a man standing who's declaring it plainly
so that we can understand. The Lord sent a preacher all
the way out into the wilderness to a man who was sitting in his
chariot. Remember that? A black man. An
Ethiopian eunuch. And the man was reading from
Isaiah 53. And the Lord joined Philip to
this man's chariot. Is one man worth a preacher traveling
miles to preach to? What if that were your husband?
What if that were your father? What if that were your son or
your daughter? Would they be worth it? Why not? And so what is it worth to pay
to support the preaching of the gospel? Well, the Lord sent Philip
out there to this one man, and he joined himself to that chariot,
and he asked him this question. He heard him reading, and he
said, Do you understand what you're reading? And here's what
the man said, How can I? Here's humility, and here's honesty. I've been reading this, and I
don't understand it. How can I except some man show
me? Would you show me, Mr. Phillips?
Would you show me? He said, I'd be glad to, because
somebody showed me. Paul said, I've given to you
that which I also receive. the gospel from someone else
and was so glad, Ananias was Paul's, oh my, he thanked the
Lord for sending Ananias to preach the gospel to him. He had a dear
spot in his heart for Ananias. Well, they read from the book
of the Law six hours. And the people listened attentively. Six hours, mind you. Paul at
one time preached all night long. We're pretty sad, aren't we?
But the Lord knows our pride. I remember as a boy thinking
that preaching was going to go all night long. See, we had conferences. We had conferences every year,
and they were four-day conferences. Remember that Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday with two preachers in the morning and
two in the evening? That's 16 preachers. I thought
I was going to die. Like that young man who, when
Paul was preaching, fell out the window and broke his neck. The Lord raised him up. Later
on, that young man, I feel quite sure, was listening attentively.
He would dare not go asleep. But they all listened attentively.
That's hard to say. And verse four, it says, Ezra,
the scribe, stood upon a pulpit of wood made for that purpose,
not so he would be above them. Not so that he would appear to
be superior to them, but only for the purpose that they would
see him reading from the wood and so that everybody could hear
him. That's the only purpose. The pulpit of wood, I'm quite
sure, this is a lectern, not a good example. When they first
started making them years ago, they were a big thing and pretty
much covered the man, which is good. That's just a good thing. The preacher is not necessarily
to be seen, but to be heard. Aren't the so-called pulpits
today indicative of religion today? Have you noticed them?
They're clear. They're plexiglass. These men
want to be seen. Faith comes by hearing, not seeing. Hearing the Word of God. And
when the Lord really preaches through a man, you won't see
Him. You'll see Christ. You won't hear Him. You'll hear
Christ. Ezra, the scribe, the Lord called
him a willing scribe, stood up there and there were 13 men with
him, beside him, in support of him, in encouragement to him,
fellow laborers. And oh my, there are at least
that many men here and I have many brethren all over the land,
my fellow laborers whom God has called, all of whom see eye to
eye. And what a wonderful thing that
is, preaching the same gospel. Verse 5, Ezra opened the book
in the sight of all the people. He was above all the people.
And when he opened it, all the people stood up. They stood up. He opened the book, first of
all. That caught my attention. He opened the book. And the people
saw him open the book. And I thought of that story in
Revelation 5, it is, where John wept. He said, no man was able
to open the book. And we ought to weep that there's
not more open books in this land today. Paul wept over his brethren
in Israel. in chapter 9 of Romans and chapter
10 of Romans. How wonderful it would be if
every man in America today would just stand up and read Romans
1. The Lord might convict our nation and our world of sin,
righteousness, and judgment. And I'll read another. But we
are. How blessed we are. Oh, how blessed
we are. Bless the Lord. You bless the
Lord. We could be amongst them. Who
maketh us to differ? He opened and all the people
stood up. See, the people had a great reverence for the
Word of God, a great appreciation for the Word of God. The Word
was scarce in those days. Remember in the days of Samuel,
it says the Word of the Lord was precious. The Lord spoke
through Samuel. If people want to hear, they're
going to hear it through Samuel. He says, the Lord was so rare,
so hard to find, and it was precious, valuable, needful, one thing
needful. And the people came to hear it,
and they all stood up here when he read, and I'll not have you
do that, but nevertheless, they did it in great reverence, great
respect, and solemnity, because they feared God's Word. They
reverenced God's Word. They had great respect. Literally
treated God's Word with respect. Literally. I do not put another book on
top of this book. Ever. I don't do that. That's
not superstition. It's reverence and respect for
this book. A copy of it. A copy of it is
a great gift of the Lord. This is not a common thing. We
don't put it aside or put it in a place where we put a common
magazine or a novel or something. This is God's Word. We're literally
to treat it with respect. It's a precious gift. A copy
of it is a precious gift. And the way some don't use it,
tell me, Well, they do not reverence God's Word. The way some abuse
it, you see preachers running all over the pulpit using this
as a prop, waving it like, have you seen that? I know you've
seen these false preachers. The way some physically treat
it shows their lack of reverence, lack of respect, lack of appreciation
for it, and that they treat it like a common thing. This is
not a common thing. This is a wonderful thing. A
wonderful thing. And a real good one today, for
that matter, cost about $150, $300. They don't make this one
anymore. Some of you have it. This is
about the best Cambridge made in Cambridge, England. It's the
best one ever made as far as I'm concerned. I bought four
or five of them and they don't make them anymore. We don't treat
it disrespectfully. I stood up, trembled at the word. This man will I love. Ezra blessed
the Lord, verse 6. He blessed the Lord, the great
God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen. How did he bless
the Lord? Well, like David did. I didn't read all of 1 Chronicles. David said, David blessed the
Lord and said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father,
forever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness
and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for
all that is in heaven and in the earth is thine. Thine is
the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.
Rich is honor come of thee. You reign over all. In thine
hand is power and might. In thine hand it is to make great,
to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank
thee and praise thy glorious name." That's how Ezra blessed
the Lord. That's how David blessed the
Lord. And that's how we're to bless the Lord, ascribe everything
to our God and nothing to man. Blessed be the Lord. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy
name. And all the people, all the people answered, Amen. Male and female did that. Women
are not allowed to speak in the church. Women are not allowed
to teach or usurp authority over the man. But they are to say,
Amen. Yes, they are. All the people.
The word Amen. I love the word Amen. You know
the Lord's name is Amen? That's His name. Thus saith the
Amen in Revelation 3. I think it is, or two. Thus saith
the Amen, the Lord Jesus Christ. The word Amen means so be it.
Everything Christ is and says, that's the way it is. So be it. That means it is true. When you
say Amen, you say like that Syro-Phoenician woman, truth, Lord. Everything
you say. Amen. You say, that's the way
it is. You say, that's the way I like
it. Amen. It's a good word. And all the
people said, Amen. In our meeting last May, I had
the privilege of sitting and listening, which I don't get
the privilege of doing very often. I did recently in Madisonville,
but I can't hear very well. But when I was sitting out there
with my wife, which was a privilege too. She sits alone. And I got
to sit with her like you do with yours. But I could hear some
of our ladies that I can't hear normally. I got to hear some
of our ladies. I heard them say, Amen. A good tonic wrote me. And I
just loved it. It did my heart good. In my heart. Amen. That's so be it. They lifted up their hands, which
we don't do anymore, but they bowed their heads, which we do
do. We bow our heads. Why do we bow
our heads when we pray for this reason? In humility. In worship. Worship the Lord
with our faces to the ground. In humility. Faces to the ground. And verse 7 says, At the end
of it, it says, "...that caused the people to understand the
law, and the people stood in their place." They stood still.
They weren't running around and jumping up and down and clapping
hands like these phonies do today in Pentecostal holiness. No,
no, no. They were seated and in their
right mind, clothed and in their right mind. And they stood or
sat in their place still. Their strength is to sit still.
Listen, be still as a man declares unto you, God. Know that He is
God. And that's what He leadeth us
beside still waters. So they read in the book of the
law and the law of God distinctly, gave the sense, caused them to
understand the reading. They read it distinctly. and gave the sense of it, the
meaning of it. They expounded the Word of God. This is what this means. As they
were reading, they were commenting on it. And Paul said this, seeing
we have such hope, that is, one hope, and it's a good hope. And
where is it? Through grace. And where is this
hope? Who is this hope? In Christ.
So we preach with great plainness of speech, Paul said. Like our
Lord, the common people heard Him gladly. They could understand
Him. And Jonathan Edwards is the one that said this. He said,
I'd rather be understood by ten than admired by ten thousand
for my eloquence or great profundity or oratory. Last week, a woman paid me a
high compliment. She said to me after the service,
she said, you made a message so clear and so plain that my
12-year-old son turned around and said to me, Mama, I understood
everything he said. That was a great compliment,
a great encouragement to me. But after they read and gave
the sense of God's law, verse 9, it says, all the people, they
taught the people Said unto all the people, The day is holy unto
the Lord your God. Mourn not, nor weep, for all
the people wept." They wept as they read the Word
of the Lord. What was it that caused them
to weep? How holy God is and how sinful
we are. What God requires, and it's not
unreasonable, it's reasonable, and what we're not willing to
do at all. How good and gracious God is. How kind God is. How merciful God is. How giving
God is. You know, God gives, and gives,
and gives, and gives, and gives, and gives, and never takes one
thing in return. The Lord doesn't get anything
in return. And what does He require of us?
Worship. But the people, and we are not
willing by nature to do that. We were by nature children of
wrath even as others. Though we had everything, though
He fed us, though He clothed us, though He watered us, though
He gave us everything, promoted us and gave us everything we
have. What do we have we have not received?
Every good and perfect gift comes now. Though He did that for years,
we went for years without thanking Him. Though we went for years
like the like the Pharisees who attributed things to themselves.
Pride, like people today do. Oh, my. The goodness of God that
they just repent. Nehemiah 9. Oh, I started to
go over to Genesis and just start reading. But I didn't do it. But go look
at Nehemiah 9. He gives a brief account of the
whole book of the law in Nehemiah 9. Nehemiah 9.13, it said, The
Lord came down upon Mount Sinai and spake with them from heaven.
Remember when Moses said, Who among the people of the world
has God spoken to and revealed these things to? To us and our
children, the Lord has revealed, not your neighbors, not people,
us. Why? Who am I and what is my
house that He brought us here hitherto? What one people did the Lord
take to Himself? His elect. That's the elect.
And He gave them right judgment, true law, good statutes, good
things, holy, just, and good, and true, and right. If a man
do, the Lord said, it will be well with him. He will be willing,
obedient, and eat the good of the man. Verse 14, He made them know His
holy Sabbath, made known unto them His holy Sabbath, His precepts,
His statutes, His law by the hand of Moses, People started
hating Moses. Man, old man, old man. Gave them
bread from heaven for their hunger, water out of the rock, and their
thirst. Promised them, promised them,
these unworthy, ungrateful people to possess the land, but they
Sounds like Ephesians 2, doesn't it? But they and our fathers
dealt proudly and hardened their necks, hearkened not to his commandment,
refused to obey, were not mindful of his wonders, hardened their
necks in rebellion, appointed a captain to return to their
bondage. Let's go back to the slime pits.
What fools! But God, with thou art a God
ready to pardon, gracious, merciful. slow to anger, of great kindness,
and forsookest them not." Boy, I'd like to see me weeping after
this. I'd like to see me doing it. Verse 19, then, your manifold
mercies forsook them not in the wilderness. The pillar of the
cloud departed not from them, that lead them by the way, the
pillar of fire by night. There's darkness to the Egyptians,
light to the children of Israel. Why? They were worse. They were worse, and so were
we, are we, are we. Thou gavest them, verse 20, thy
good spirit to instruct them, withheldest not thy manna from
their mouth, though they were complaining in their tents, gave
them water for their thirst forty years, sustained them, they lacked
nothing, their clothes waxed not old, their feet swelled not,
gave them kingdoms and On down it says in verse 26,
Nevertheless, they were disobedient, rebelled against thee, cast your
law behind their back, slew your prophets. Go on down to verse 30, Yet many
years thou didst forbear them, and testified against them by
thy Spirit and the prophet, yet they would not give ear. Therefore
gavest thou into the hand of the people of the land. Nevertheless,
For Thy great mercy's sake Thou didst not utterly consume them,
nor forsake them, for Thou art a gracious and merciful God."
And the people wept. They wept. But the preacher said,
be of good cheer. The preacher said, weep not.
The Lion of the tribe of Judah, he had prevailed. You failed,
he prevailed. The Lord hath laid on him, we
have every man turned, every man to our own way, but be of
good cheer. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all." That ought to make us weep both mourning
over our sins that put him on the tree and great tears of joy
that he did put away our sins. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Now, once in the end of the world,
hath he appeared to put away sin, all of them, by the sacrifice
of himself." So they said, all of them said the same thing.
See, the law of God is good if it's used lawfully. The law is
to be preached to show the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the holiness
of God, and how whatsoever things the law sayeth, it sayeth to
them that are under the law, why? that every mouth may be
stopped, every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty
before God. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in God's sight. You know how few people
understand that? You know how few people understand
that? And we hear that all the time.
We hear it so much. But we're so blessed, aren't
we? Be reminded of that over and over again. That by the works,
deeds of the law, by the works of the flesh, it's not of works
lest any man should bow. Now here's how we're justified.
Want to hear it again? Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus Christ is the righteousness
of God's people. You know how few people hear
that word ever in their lifetime? Righteousness. Oh, a good name
is better than anointment. Jehovah said to Kenneth, the
Lord I rush to. Surely shall one say, and the
Lord have I righteousness and strength. Here's one. How about
you? So they said to the people who
understood that though they were guilty of breaking the law, Christ
was made guilty for them. They said, eat the fats. Verse
10. Go your way and eat the fat.
What fats? What fats? The only fat that
was ever served up was the fat of the lamb, the fat of the sacrifice. What did you read tonight, brothers?
Sammy? Eat the fat. Fat. Fat things. Wine on the leaves, well refined. In this mountain, Mount Zion,
the people eat the fat, the fat of the lamb, the sacrifice of
Christ and all He did. Oh, my. It's savory meat, isn't
it? Such as the Father loveth, and
so do His children. Go your way. Eat the fats. Drink
the sweets. The sweet wine on the leaves,
well refined, the wine of His blood. And send portions unto
them for whom nothing is prepared. In other words, take some home
with you to your family or your neighbors, your kin. They said,
don't be sorry. This day is holy unto the Lord.
The joy of the Lord is your strength. Your strength is to sit still.
The joy of the Lord is your strength. Rejoice, Paul said, in the Lord. And again I say, rejoice. And you know where he wrote that?
He was in prison. He's trying to cheer us up. I'd like to have his faith with
you. Many stripes on his back and start singing. Rejoice in
the Lord, because that's your strength, he said. Sorrow and
being downcast and unbelief and doubts and fears just brings
you down, makes you weak, makes you lose sleep. But the joy of the Lord is your
strength. Rejoice in the Lord. The Lord
is King. Thy God reigneth. Rejoice. He reigns. He works
all things. The Lord is your Redeemer. He's
not only your King, He's your Redeemer. Boaz. He will not rest
until the thing's done. The Lord is your righteousness.
You don't have to produce one. The Lord is your shepherd. You
will not. You shall not. You have not wanted
one thing. You like anything? Have your
feet swelled? Has your head swelled? The Lord is your peace. The Lord
said, I, my peace, I give unto you. The Lord Jesus Christ, your
Father, your Husband, your Brother, your Friend, your Prophet, your
Priest, your King, your Salvation, the Lord in whom you trust, rejoice,
I say, and again I say rejoice, because none who trust in Him
are guilty. Not one. Not one. and will never be desolate. He
will not leave one person behind. Not a hoof will be left behind. Not a dog will bark. Not a hoof
left behind, because the Lord is the one we trust. Blessed is the man who trusts
in Him. And in closing, it says, they steal all the people, verse
11, hold your peace. The days are holy. Oh my, what
a holy night this is. It's not even Christmas. Neither
be he grieved. I know we grieve over our sins,
but he says the Lord has put them away. And all the people
went their way to eat and to drink, send portions, and they
went from great mourning to great mirth. Why? Get a new car? New chariot? New house? New job? No. The greatest blessing of
all. They understood. Alright, stand
with me. Our Lord, we pray with Moses
of old, what one people like your people, your elect, your
chosen, your Israel, your true Israel, what one nation is like
this, Mount Zion, that you've chosen, put your name there,
that you've revealed your word to, your covenants, that you've
reserved mercy and truth for. He kept covenant and mercy for. He sent Christ the covenant head,
the captain of the salvation, sent the Holy Spirit. Oh my,
how blessed the church of the living God is, the church of
Christ, the church of God which He purchased with His own precious
blood. What people are so blessed as
we are. We have many things, many material
things, and we thank you for them all. Of thine own hand have
we given back to thee a small portion of the great bounty that
you've showed us. And I thank you that you've made
your people willing to give cheerfully, to support the Gospels. What
a worthy thing it is. What a precious thing it is.
What a valuable thing it is, and how blessed we are to have
a part in it. O Lord, lay it upon all of our
hearts to give bountifully, to give cheerfully, willingly, because
of Thy great gift, Thy unspeakable gift, Your Son to die for such an unworthy
creature. O how we thank You. Make us aware
of just how You've given, how He gave Himself for us. He gave His all. He was rich,
yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might
be made rich. How we thank You. Thank You for
this Word. Thank You for again reminding
us, for bringing us, for revealing it to us, causing us to understand
it. Lord, continue to do it for us
and our children. Open our children's hearts, we
pray, not just ours, that the children of our brethren everywhere,
we bring them before You and ask that You be pleased to reveal
Yourself to them, cause them to see their need of the Lord
Jesus Christ and cast their care upon Him and trust in Him for
the saving of their eternal soul. And we'll give You all the honor
and glory. For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever
and ever. Amen. We turn this off.