Thank you, Jerry. All right, back to Nehemiah 8. I was tempted to skip over the last part of this
chapter in order to get to chapter 9. If you're familiar with chapter
9, you'll know why. And I urge you to read it this
week in preparation for Wednesday night. Wonderful chapter, chapter
nine. But there's something here. In
the last six verses of chapter eight, something the Lord commanded
the people to do at And when he brought them out
of captivity with Moses, and now he does it here again. It's
so important that the Lord commands this three times. Twice to the
Israelites in the wilderness, and now here again he brings
it up again. So it's something here. are too
important to pass over, and one shouldn't pass over anything.
But sometimes for time's sake, we just go on. But this is important,
and I hope you'll get something out of this, as I did. All right,
look at verse 13. Go on down here. It says, on
the second day, we're gathered together, chief of fathers of
all the people, and the Levites unto Ezra the scribe, even to
understand the words of the law, or that they might receive instructions
from the words of the law. The chief men, the fathers, the
leaders, the priests, the Levites, they came the next day to Ezra. to receive more instructions
from the Word of God. Now, you remember how that the day before that,
all the people got together, asked Ezra to bring the book,
make sure you bring the book, and come and read us out of God's
Word. We haven't heard it. We need
it. And he did. He brought the book,
you remember, and remember how he opened it up. front of everybody
so they'd see this is God's Word I'm reading. And he read for
six hours and preached for six hours. Thirteen men with him
there. And the people, it says, stood
right there and listened to every word. It reminds me of Mexico or Africa. Not America. We can't sit there
unless it's a good TV program. And it says they wept. When they
heard all this, they wept. They wept, because the Word of
God convicted them. For what? God sent a revival, and it started
with me. Well, the second day, these leaders
came, they came back to get more and special instructions that
they might teach the people. And what is this? What's this
a picture of? But a preacher or a teacher of
the Word who must come again and again and again to God's
Word. Keep coming. Keep studying. to show himself approved, or
in the case of these ladies that teach our children, herself.
Keep studying this word, to show him or herself approved, a workman
that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth. This is the picture of those who would teach and preach.
They're going to have to be conversant with the word. Brother Todd and
I were talking. He made the comment, he said,
you know, a preacher of the gospel ought to be familiar, somewhat
familiar, with every chapter in the New Testament. I agree with him. I sure do,
at least the epistle and one of the gospels. But that's what
these fellows did. They were going to teach the
people and preach to the people. Well, Joe, what they did, too,
is they came to an experienced preacher. That's the way God teaches his
preachers. That's how God calls his preachers. They're good church members first,
right? They're good listeners before
they're good speakers. And they're called out from among
the people, and they go and they sit and they listen to a man
who's experienced, who knows, God knows Christ and knows the
Word, and they receive that instruction. And wait a minute now. We're
all, what does the scripture say in Revelation? He's made
us all kings and priests. Doesn't it? So, we're all to
consult this Word constantly. We're all to keep coming back
for our personal profit. And Peter said that we might
be ready, that we might be ready always to give an answer to every
man that asks a reason, asks you a reason of the hope that
is in you with meekness and fear. So it's no less a responsibility
for you, Jeanette, than it is for me. Right? So that's what
they did. So they came back. And what did
we note last Wednesday night about The people came. They were hungry, weren't they?
They were hungry. And you remember us dwelling
on that? How Christ said, Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst,
and they'll be filled, didn't they? These people wanted to
hear the Word. So they said, Ezra, bring the
Word. We want to hear it. We've got to hear it. Did they
hear it? Every word of it. So it behooves us to come with
a hunger and thirst. Had someone call me recently
and ask me what the times of the services were. It was somebody
that lived quite a distance away. And they were going to make a
trip down. And I said, we've been, in their very words, I
believe she said, we've been dying to come there and visit
and hear. And I said, hear me preach, is
what she said. And that figures, because she
didn't show up. They wanted to hear God's word,
they might have come. At any rate, she said, what time
are the services? I said, well, we have Bible classes,
Bible study at 10 o'clock, and then worship service at 11. Bible
study at 10 o'clock. Now, we're going to look at the
Bible. Bible study at 10 o'clock. We're going to go verse by verse.
And then we have another service at 11. And I thought to myself,
if she's really interested, she'll show up at 10 o'clock. Right? Right? It's kind of like, you
know, I gave that illustration about me being hungry at times.
At times that I'm not hungry, and many of us keep calling and
calling and calling. Where is it? But then there's
times when I'm real hungry as you have to go. I'm there early.
And I'm sampling the goods. So if you want to think of it
this way, ten o'clock is like hors d'oeuvres. Eleven is the
main course. How hungry are you? How hungry
are you? I was delighted to see those
men study down there. It shows some hunger. It sure
does. Well, those people were hungry. They came and they got filled
up, John. Oh, did they get filled up? Got
the word, and then they got to eat. And so will we. All right, verse
14. It says in these preachers and
teachers, they found written, Ezra found, he's the one that
had the word, they were looking at it together. They found written
in the law, which the Lord commanded by Moses, that the children of
Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seven months.
and that they should publish or tell everyone, teach the people,
proclaim in all their cities in Jerusalem, saying, Do this,
do that. Now, look over at Leviticus 23. Leviticus 23. This was what they
were reading. Leviticus 23. And the Lord repeated it again. not word for word, but he repeated
it again in Deuteronomy, chapter 16. But here in Leviticus 23,
we'll see this ordinance, this ordinance that the Lord set forth,
this peace, this ordinance. Now listen carefully, all right? Whatever the Lord sets forth, every jot and tittle of it must
be kept. by you and me. Every John did them. It's not
an option. What? Command? It's not an option,
is it? Every ordinance. And you know,
every ordinance, if you read these ordinances, such as the
Passover feast, the Feast of the Tabernacles, the Feast of
the Sabbath, the Feast of the Atonement, and so on and so forth,
unleavened bread. After every one of them, he said,
Don't ever stop doing this. Ever. Forever. John, that's why the people wept.
They hadn't been keeping the law. They'd broke them all. They hadn't been keeping it. He said do it forever. And they
hadn't and they were. Five books of ordinances to keep. Five books of ordinances commanded
the people, the handwriting of ordinances that were against
them. Why are you smiling, John? You
know the rest of that verse, don't you? But the handwriting
of ordinances were against them, and they wept. And Ezra said,
what Ezra said, I say to you, because we hadn't kept them either,
and they're against us. It's on the books against us,
but we've not. They've been nailed to the cross.
He's nailed the handwriting of ordinances against us to the
cross. And I thought about this, Brother
Stan. God has graciously simplified all the law, brought it all together
in one, so that we don't have to worry
about or keep every jot and tittle to perfection. There's only one
thing We have to do one thing. That's five books full that you
must, it must be perfect to be accepted. You shall not one jot
or tittle surpass away from the law, except it be fulfilled or
you won't be accepted. But God has graciously brought
it together in one. One thing, all we have to do. on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved." Because he kept it up. Isn't that gracious
of him? These people wept. And I know
Ed was preaching the same gospel. He pointed them to the same Christ,
didn't he? Don't weep One command, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ who fulfilled every ordinance for
us and nailed those ordinances against his cross and stamped
on there with his blood, paid in full, kept, paid in full. And he is the one whom every
one of these ordinances picture and typify. He is why God gave
them. God didn't give them just to
make people toe the line or to be strict and austere and
just make rule after rule after rule after rule just so they'd
just be like kids think of parents, make us miserable? He didn't
do that. They were pictures of Christ.
Always were, always have been. Like this one here. All right?
You with me? If not, we'll continue this. Anybody want to hear the rest?
All right, okay. Leviticus 23, look at verse 39.
It says, In the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you
have gathered in the fruit of the lamb, ye shall keep a feast
unto the Lord seven days. And on the first day shall be
a Sabbath. The first day shall be a Sabbath? Yeah. He'd been saying that all
along, hadn't he? Oh, yeah, you rest first. He
rested and cried. First day of Sabbath. On the
eighth day should be a Sabbath. Tell you what, you rest. Start
to finish, just rest. That's pretty good, isn't it,
Joey? What's hard about that? He's going to tell them all.
Then eat. Rest and eat. Read this. They've got to make a little
booth, this dwelling. And He shall take you on the
first day, verse 40, take you on the first day the boughs of
goodly trees, of the limbs of the fruit of goodly trees, and
branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and so on and
so forth. And He said they will make booths. Turn over to the
next verse, verse 42. You shall dwell in booths. You
make these little huts, little dwelling places, these booths,
or tabernacles, another word for it. Seven days dwell there. All that are Israelites born
shall dwell in these booths. All born. All Israelites, all
Jews, all of them shall dwell in these booths. And then he
gives specific ingredients or materials that make up the booth,
all right? They would make these little
huts, these little tabernacles to dwell in that were made out
of various trees. And every single item in these
booths represent Christ. Let's look at it together, okay?
Christ, the tree of life. In Him are all manner of leaves
and fruit. Look at verse 40. You shall take
on the first day the bowels or limbs of fruit, or take the fruit,
or either limbs that have the fruit on it, or limbs that make
fruit, of goodly trees, goodly trees. And over in Nehemiah,
Brother Henry, he gave three types of trees. He gave the olive
tree, he gave the pine tree, and he gave the myrtle tree.
That's what these goodly trees were, olive, pine, and myrtle. He said, take these three trees
and make you something to dwell in. Well, out of these materials. What do these things represent?
Olive tree. Olive tree. Olive tree. What's olive? What do you get
out of olives? What's the thing we get out of olives? Oil. Oil. What's that? Well, that's
the anointing of Christ our Lord, isn't it? Who anoints us with
his spirit, the branch. And the branch, the olive tree,
The olive branch—remember when Noah sent out the raven and the
dove? Huh? What did the dove come back
with? Olive branch. Olives symbol peace, and Christ
is our peace, and Christ, whose Spirit anoints us and causes
our face to shine. Olive oil, they say, is one of
the most healthful things you can can partake of it, cause
you oil, David said, to make our face to shine. And when God
anoints us with an understanding of Christ, he causes our face
to shine. Goodly tree, olive tree, and
a pine tree. Pine tree. Now, what's good about
a pine tree? Some of you are thinking that,
aren't you, Henry? I know you are. Pine tree. But there's something in a pine
tree, folks. Have you ever cut down a pine
tree? I know you men have. What did you get all over your
hands? Tar. Pine tar. You know what another
word for that tar is? Pitch. Pitch. Pine tar. Pitch. That represents
the blood of Christ. And you know, if you've ever
gotten into that stuff, Brother Henry, you can't Get it off,
can't you? You can't get it off, can you?
It's got to wear off. So it is with the blood of Christ. It's poured on the mercy seat,
John. It's stuck, buddy. It's not coming off. The blood
of Christ. The pitch. That's what was all
over the ark. Pine tar. Pine tar. That's what was all
over this ark, too. Covered in the blood. Myrtle.
What about myrtle? No, that's not crepe myrtle.
This was a myrtle over there that's an evergreen, an evergreen
tree. It had fruit on it. Nancy will like that. That evergreen
myrtle, and all these were evergreens. That's symbolic, isn't it? This
little myrtle tree had fruit on it that were white berries.
They started out white berries. After a while, they turned black
and blue. And then you could eat them. You get the picture? Christ,
the holy, spotless Son of God, whom God bruised for a wounded
and bruised, and by those wounds and bruises we're healed. We
eat his body, which was broken for goodly trees. Goodly trees. Listen to this in Revelation
22. He says, The tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits,
yielded her fruit every month. There wasn't a month that went
by that there wasn't fruit on that tree. Anytime anybody was
hungry, there was fruit on that tree. The tree of life. And the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nation. The goodly tree. Christ is that
goodly tree of life in whom we dwell. Our dwelling place. Look at the next thing in verse
40. Goodly trees, branches of palm trees. Palm tree. Brother Don Bell, the folks down
in Crossfield, love to sing that song. Palms of victory. Palms
of victory. The only place I know that sings
that song. Palms of victory. Branches of a palm tree, he says. Palm tree grows high. Oh, it
shoots straight up, it reaches, and then the leaves of the palm,
you've seen palm trees, and it's beautiful. It's a beautiful,
ornate tree, and it just shoots those branches out to the sky. And this is what the dictionary
said about this. The sap yields sugar from which
a prized drink is made. And the fruit is highly edible
and nourishing. The seeds are ground and used
for food for camels. The leaves are used to cover
roofs and fences and make baskets and mats. Every part of the palm
tree is usable. Christ in him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead. Palm tree, in whom we dwell. and boughs of thick trees." In
other words, Joe, he said, go get some big limbs off a big
sturdy oak. You've got to have something
that's going to hold it all together, hold it up. That's a picture
of Christ, isn't it? Upon whom this whole structure,
Christ our foundation. And then he says, willows, willows
of the brook. Willows, what are willows? I'll tell you what. I'll give you an illustration.
When we were down in Shreveport, Louisiana, we were driving around
looking for some land for them to build a church lot on, or
church building on. And one of the fellows with us,
we spotted a can and said, now there's one for sale. And he
described it and all that. And the fellow sitting there
said, we don't want that. We don't want that. I said, how
come? You see all those trees on that?
You know what kind of trees those are? Willow. You know where willows grow?
Water. Wherever there's water. There's
a lot of water there. You don't want that. It's a tree
planted by the water. That's what a willow tree is.
Huh? That's where they grow. That's where they thrive. That's
exactly what Psalm 1 says. That's Christ, the tree of life.
of the brook. He's our dwelling place. And
he says, and you shall rejoice. After this thing is made up and
it's a place for you to dwell, just get in there and just sit
down and feast and just look at it and rejoice before the
Lord, your God, seven days. Just sit there and we'll bring
you food. And we'll read to you and preach
to you and And you just rejoice, huh? So that's what he says this
is all about. It's a feast and it's a dwelling
place. It's a feast and a tabernacle.
And Steve, that's all God requires of us. Just feed on Christ and
dwell in him. Dwell together. We feed on the
gospel and dwell in Christ, our dwelling place. And look over
at verse 43. And verse 43 says that your generations
may know. This is your, you should dwell
in booths, he said, that your generations may know that I made
the children of Israel to dwell in booths. And God hath made him to be for us sin. And God hath made him wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification. God hath made him. to be our
dwelling place. God hath made him our hiding
place. God hath made him our tabernacle. God, I have made
the children to dwell and move. When I brought them out of the
land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God. And he declared unto
them this peace." Now back to Nehemiah. And so it is. And here's another picture, another
reason for this feast of the tabernacle. He said, You're supposed to keep
this, to keep this feast of the tabernacle, dwell in these little
booths, that you may know that I made
the children of Israel to dwell in booths. Now, what's that saying? Well, the children of Israel,
where were they headed? Where were they headed? They
were headed to the promised land. God had promised them a land that
is fairer than day, and by faith we can see it afar. My father
waits over the way. He's prepared us a dwelling place
there. There's a land over there. Those booths were what? Temporary
dwelling places. Just temporary dwelling places.
There were types, brother Stan, that they're not living here
forever, right? They're not going to live there
forever. It's just a temporary place. They're looking for a
permanent place. And that's exactly what the scripture
said. We know that if our earthly house
of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God and
a house not made with hands, but eternal in the heaven. And
that's what God's people, that's who God's people look for. Let's
read these last verses in closing. So they did this. People went
forth, verse 16, and brought them and made themselves booze.
Everyone upon the roof of his house and in their courts and
in the courts of the house of God and the street of the water
gate, wherever they were, that's where they dwelled, and in the
street of the gate of Ephraim and all the congregation of them
that were come again out of the captivity. Everybody that had
been delivered made booze and they sat under these booze. They
sat down right there. Since the days of Joshua, the
son of Nun, unto that day had not the children of Israel done
so. And oh, when they found out that they just had to rest. That's all. Oh, it was a great
gladness. A great gladness. You mean that's
it? That's the law? Yeah. Sit down. Got your booth there? Sit down. Sit down. Oh, they were great
gladness. And also, look at this, verse 18, day by day, from the first day until the
last day, he read, Ezra read in the book of the law of God,
and they kept the feasts. What did they do? They rested,
worshipped, and they ate, and they rested, and they ate, and
they worshipped, and they worshipped, and ate, and rested. Good life
to me. Sounds like a good life to me,
doesn't it? Don't work, rest, eat, worship. That's all he required. That's
all he required. And there was great gladness. Thirty-two minutes. All right,
let's stand. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for Christ who is all and in all. Thank you for showing
us, revealing to us Him who satisfied the law on our behalf,
who kept every jot and tittle of the law, fulfilled all righteousness
on our behalf. And we take you at your word,
and we simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and we trust
that you shall indeed save us through Christ. cause us to always
rest in him and dwell in him by faith and feed upon this gospel
and worship you. In Christ's name we have met
this day. Amen. you I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I
don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I
don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I
don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.