Let's bow for prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we bow our
heads and our hearts in worship, in praise, in thanksgiving. We come to make mention that thy name is
exalted, we come to extol and honor the King, King of kings and Lord of lords.
In the name of Jesus, we confess that he is Lord, our Lord and our God, our all
and in and it is in his name we gather
this evening. We ask your blessings on the
word, the time together, fellowship around the word. Give us hearing
ears, attentive minds, receptive hearts. May we leave this place blessed and having profited from your word
and with stronger faith than when we came. Forgive us of our
sin through the one whose name we pray in, Jesus Christ in his
name. Amen. Okay, open your Bibles
to Nehemiah chapter 8. Nehemiah chapter eight. You may. Remember that we last studied
in chapter four. But we're going to go ahead to
chapter eight I've been looking forward to this chapter in the
next. Chapter 5 is not without importance. It deals with support of the
gospel. Chapter 6 deals with subtlety
of false brethren and preachers or hirelings. Chapter 7 is a
long genealogy, but it is not insignificant,
because it's a picture of the Lamb's Book of Life. Only those
who were found there were found in the city, and that's a picture
of being found in Christ. And I urge you to read those
chapters for yourself. But we come to chapter eight
tonight, a most blessed chapter, and this is a picture of a congregation
of believers who have come to hear the gospel preached. Let's
look at it. Verse 1. It says, All the people
gathered themselves together as one man into the street. That was 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. So all the
people had gathered together, it says, as one, as one man. And I dwell on this quite often. Some may think I speak of it
too much, that I expect too much. But the truth is, we don't dwell
on it nearly enough. this thing of gathering together,
because the scripture says in Hebrews that we're to do this
so much more as we see the day approaching. That's what he says. He says, forsake not the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but so much
more. Exhort one another so much more
as you see the day approaching. And I remind you and myself that
all the blessings that God has for us are right here. Right
here and in the midst of the church where God's people are. This is where we fellowship. This is where we get the blessings.
God blesses us individually. He does in our private times,
but I believe I know it's so, that he blesses us more when
we're together as a congregation, because that's what heaven's
going to be. So all that God has for us is right here, in
and around the fellowship of his word. Everything else is
vanity. This is the only thing real and
lasting. So I can't urge us enough to
gather together, and it says as one, they gather together
As one man, that is, they were of one purpose and one mind.
And look at it, it says they met together before the water
gate. Everything's significant. The
water gate at this wall around Jerusalem was where the water
was brought in. That's where they got all their
water. And what it was, was there's a spring right outside the wall
there, a spring from which they got their water. That's significant,
isn't it? And fitting that this is where we hear the word
of the water of life. And they spoke to the preacher.
They spake unto Ezra the scribe. They beseeched him, that's what
they did, to bring the book. They said, make sure you bring
the book. We're gathering together at the Watergate, and we want
you to come and read and speak to us. Bring the book. Don't come if you don't have
it. That's what they were saying. Bring the book. And they wanted
to hear from God's Word. Verse 2. Ezra the priest brought
the law before the congregation. Now, this is He's talking about
the five books of Moses. He's not talking about the Ten
Commandments only. He's talking about the five books
of Moses, which was perhaps about all the word of God they had
at this time. So Ezra brought the book and
it says, he brought it to the men and women and all that could
hear with understanding, those who had ears to hear. on the
first day of the seventh month. To all who desired it, in other
words, all who wanted to hear it, he brought the book. And
verse three says, And he read therein before the street that
was before the water came. He read in the law, in the word,
from the morning until midday. From about anywhere from five
to six a.m. till noon. He read out of God's
Word before the men and the women and those that could understand.
And look at this, it says, the ears of all the people, all the
people, the ears of all the people were attentive for six hours
there under the book of the law. I'd like to be a part of that,
be able to listen intently. That's why they came and that's
why they heard so intently. And that's the secret to being
attentive. You get what you come for. If
we came every time to worship, to hear from God, we came out
of a true heart to worship and hear from God, God would give
us ears to hear and a heart to receive. He said, ask, seek,
and knock. If we come out of mere habit
or duty, Because it's Wednesday night or Sunday, we might not
hear a thing. But if we come hungry and thirsty,
the promise is we'll go away filled. We'll go away filled. I thought of times when my wife
calls me to dinner, and I may be busy doing something else,
and I'm not all that hungry, and she has to call me two or
three times. But then there are times when I am starving to death. I would think I am. And I'm,
you know, she doesn't have to call me. I'm in the kitchen milling
around, tasting, sampling the goods. Matter of fact, I'm urging
her, Wednesday's going to be ready. And that's the way it
is with this gospel. And every time it's that way,
it's the best meal I've ever had. So come hungry and thirsty,
and you'll go away filled. All right? And that's what these
people did. And they were attentive. Verse 4, And Ezra the scribe
stood upon a pulpit of wood, a tower of wood. It's the first
time, I believe, that you'll see this in Scripture. He stood upon a pulpit of wood
that they'd made for this purpose. That is, for him to stand and
read and preach. And beside him stood thirteen
men. We'll not read these names, although
they're not unimportant. They are. But there were thirteen
men that stood beside him on this pulpit, this podium. All right, verse five. And Ezra
opened the book in the sight of all the people. All right,
they made this pulpit of wood. for this purpose, for the reading
of the word and for the exposition of it. And it says that when
Ezra got up there, and I remember they called him and said, you
come and bring the book. And he got up there and what
he did was he had a book and he opened it up before all the
people. In other words, he wanted everyone
to see that it was God's book he was opening up. He wanted
to make sure that everyone knew. Now, this is God's Word I'm reading
out of. Do you see the picture there?
This is why we preach verse by verse through the Scriptures
here. This is why. And tell people to follow along.
Urge people to bring their Bibles and to follow along, so they'll
know What we're saying, or rather whose word it is that we're attempting
to proclaim, declare. It's not our own. It's not the
book of common prayer. It's not the body of divinity
of some old Puritan. It's God's word. Look here, we're
opening God's word and we're going verse by verse. You see
that? That's what Ezra did. He opened
it for all the people. and made sure they knew what
it was they were looking at. All right, verse 6. And it says,
verse 5, when he opened it up, all the people stood up, and
Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. In other words, Ezra prayed
before he read anything and before he said anything. He asked God
to bless him, as we should too. And as we do. And all the people
answered, Amen. Amen. With a lifting up of their
hands and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their
faces to the ground. Now verses 7 and 8. And also
there were 13 other men jumped down there and the Levites. And they caused the people Now
here's, these are really the verses that make up the text.
It says, they caused the people to understand the Word. And the people stood in their
place. In other words, they were just riveted there. They were
here and saying what they were reading. And they were understanding
what they were saying. And they stood there. Nobody
moved. hearing what they were hearing.
They hadn't heard it in a while. Look at verse 8. And so they
read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense
and caused the people to understand the reading. Boy, those are three
things that I want to strive at and you need to demand from
this pulpit. Preach distinctly. Don't hem-haw
around, yea or nay, preaching. Give the sense. Give the sense. Expound it. Don't go around it,
but expound it. Deal with it. All the counsel
of God. And cause them to understand
the reading. Do you understand what you're
reading? I recently heard overheard someone
commenting on a preacher, a particular preacher, not someone here. But I heard someone comment on
a certain preacher that they had trouble listening to him
because he was hard to understand. In other words, he preached in
such a way as kind of preached over their head. Well, that's
a tragedy, isn't it? It's like there's an old writer
one time said, we're preaching to sheep, not giraffes. So put the food down where they
can get to it. And I want to preach, like Paul
said, the simplicity that is Christ. The simplicity of Christ
and do it as simply were clearly and distinctly as possible. All
right, now what did Ezra and these men preach? He said they read in the law of
God, the word of God, distinctly and gave the sense and caused
the people to understand. What was it that they read? What
was it did they expound upon out of these five books of Moses? What did they read and what did
they preach? I think I know. Matter of fact,
I know I know. Because there's only one thing
there. When the scribe of scribes came here. When the capitalist
scribe of scribe, when the preacher of all preachers came here. What did he preach? What did
he read? It says in a place that, now
you know who I'm talking about. talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, one time on the road to Emmaus, he came across
two of his disciples, and it says he began with the books
of Moses. And it says, "...and all the
prophets and the psalms, and he expounded unto them." What
did he read? What did he expound? What did
he give the sense of? What did he make them to understand
in the Scripture? Do you know the rest of that
verse? He read, expounded unto them all the things concerning
himself. Concerning himself. And just
as it caused their hearts to burn, these people in Ezra's
day, they start weeping. Whether it was, well it was like
the people back in, I said Ezra didn't it? Well it is, it's Ezra,
it's Nehemiah, back in the book of Ezra. You remember that, John,
don't you? Where the people, after they
heard, after the foundation was laid, it says that some were
weeping and some were laughing. And they couldn't tell the difference
between the two. Who was weeping and who was laughing. Just like
when we hear the gospel. We weep over our sins, but we
rejoice with joy unspeakable that those sins are put away.
And I'm sure that Ezra, And our Lord. I'm sure they both began
at the same place. In the law of God. And where
might that be? In the beginning. They began
where God began. I'm certain of that. I'm certain
they dealt with the fall of man. Don't you know? They dealt with
the fall of man, and I'm just pretty sure that they proclaimed
the woman's seed that was to come. He had six hours. And we don't have it. We don't
have six hours, so I'm not going to go back there. They may have
dealt with Cain and Abel, because all religions come from those,
don't they? Cain and Abel and the necessity of one thing. And
I'm certain they dwelt on the ark and the flood. Certain of it, because Christ
spoke of it, didn't He? That's the type of Christ, the
need to be in the ark when the overflowing scourge of God's
wrath comes through. Maybe they spoke of Abraham. Our Lord did. Maybe they spoke
of Abraham, the father of the faithful. Maybe he went right
to Genesis 22. That's a wonderful gospel story. And when Abraham
took that son of promise, Isaac, That son of promise up on the
mount and was about to sacrifice him on that altar. And he raised
that knife to plunge it in him and God stayed his hand and there
was a ram caught in the thicket by its horn. You reckon they
dealt with that? Perhaps. Maybe Joseph. Maybe they dealt
with Joseph a long time about his imprisonment, about his ascension
to the throne, about salvation. through Joseph about how Joseph
revealed himself to his brethren. That's the type of Christ. Many
things. But I know for a fact, I know for a fact, one place,
that Ezra went and read. And I'm certain the Lord dealt
with it. Turn over to Exodus chapter 12 with me. I know it. So how do you know? I know it,
because I know the chapter. And because the Lord said here
in Exodus 12, He gave commandment to Moses. He gave commandment
to Moses to speak this to the people. When the people were being delivered
from Egypt, after they had been delivered, and when they had
been delivered, God gave commandment to Moses, you speak this right
here. This is the one thing needful. The one thing needful. And the
people in Nehemiah's day, see, they had been delivered. They'd
been set free. And they'd been brought into
the city of Jerusalem. And they need to hear this. This
is the one thing that they needed. This one thing. that they must
have, that they would die without. Look at Exodus 12. Let's go down
through here. And the Lord spake unto Moses.
Now this is what Ezra was reading. The Lord spake unto Moses and
Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you
the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of
the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel,
saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them
every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a
lamb for an house. And if the household be too little
for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house
take it according to the number of the soul. Every man, according
to his eating, shall make your account for the lamb. Your lamb
shall be without blemish a male, a male of the first year, that
is, the first born. You shall take it out from the
sheep, that is, it is chosen out of the flock, from the goats. You shall keep it up until the
fourteenth day of the same month, that is, you shall observe it,
look at it carefully. to make sure it has no blemish,
no spot. And the whole assembly of the
congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they
shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and
on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat
it. Take the blood, strike it on
the door post, then eat it. And they shall eat the flesh
in that night, roast with fire. and unleavened bread, and with
bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, or that is
unfinished, nor sodden at all with water, mixed, diluted, but
roast with fire, his head with his legs, the whole sacrifice,
and with the pertinence thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it
remain until the morning, no waste, And that which remaineth
of it until the morning, you shall burn it with fire. And
thus shall you eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your
feet, your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgment. I am
the Lord. And the blood shall be to you
for a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day
shall be unto you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast
to the Lord throughout your generation. Keep it a feast by an ordinance
forever. Don't ever stop this. Don't ever
stop doing this. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. And the people heard this and
they started weeping. Weeping. Why? They hadn't been
doing it. Well, it says that Ezra gave
the sense of all this. You've read this with me a thousand
times with other men, haven't you? Do I need to give the sense
of all that? Do we understand it? Okay, I
will. That Lamb is none other than
Christ, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
a kid, a lamb, a male of the first year. Christ is the Son
of God, the firstborn among many brethren. He's the only begotten,
well-beloved Son of God. And it says it was to be without
blemish. And Christ is without spot, without
blemish, without sin. He's the sinless sacrifice. And He was made sin for us who
knew no sin. All the congregation killed Him. He bore our sins for us on Calvary's
tree. But it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him in our stead. And God the Holy Spirit took
the blood and applied it to our souls. And applied it to our
understanding. And applied it to our works.
And applies it to us. And puts away our sin. And He
tells us to eat it. Eat this, without which you have
no part in Him. Take Him by faith, the Son of
God. And he says this is to be an
ordinance forever. Christ said, this do in remembrance
of Me. As often as you need it, do it
in remembrance of Me. Always do it. Now turn back to
Nehemiah 8. Nehemiah 8. And it says in verse
9 here that the people wept. All the people wept when they
heard the words of the law. But they had not been sacrificing.
Maybe they'd been religious. Most are. But they didn't have
a lamb. They'd been religious and they'd
been doing some things, but no blood in them. And God caused them to understand
that. Without any blood, there's no
acceptance with God. There's no true worship. You
know, I wish that somebody come in here for the first time. Somebody
come in here and hear the gospel for the first time and just start,
just break down weeping. And conclude that their religion's
been a bloodless one. That they hadn't been here in
Christ, and they hadn't been worshiping God in spirit, rejoicing
in Christ Jesus. But it'd been all flesh. Don't
you wish? No blood in it. They needed the
blood. And I'd tell that person, a person come in here and hear
the gospel for the first time, and I'll tell you right now what
Ezra told them. Weep not. Look at verse 9. Ezra
said, This day is holy. He taught the people and said
unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord God. Mourn
not, nor weep, for all the people wept when they heard the words
of the law. Verse 10. Then he said unto them, Weep
not, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet. Drink the sweet, eat the fat,
eat, drink, don't weep. Eat what? We didn't bring anything. It's already ready. If you go
back to chapter 5, don't now. If you go back to chapter 5,
you'll see that Nehemiah set a big table. Nehemiah himself,
the governor. set a big table and said, anybody
that wanted to could come eat at this table. And what do you
reckon he ate? First thing mentioned was a kid
and bullets and so forth and lots of wine. Lots of wine to
go around. It said the heathen, back there
in chapter 5, said the heathen could come sit at this table.
Anybody that was hungry, anybody that was thirsty, all they needed
to do was come. Didn't have to bring a thing.
He was all ready. Eat! Eat what? It's already ready. It's come to the table. Eat the
fat. Verse 10 there, this is good.
It says, send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared.
Give to them that don't have anything. Those that have no
money, no price in their hands, no price they bring, give them
all they want to eat. Give them all they want to eat.
That's who it's for. That's who it's for. And it says
that, look at verse 10. This day is holy unto the Lord
our Lord. Don't be sorry, neither be you
sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites
stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace. Hold on to your
peace. The day is holy. Don't be grieved. Don't be grieved. God is reconciled. So be ye reconciled. There's a lamb slain before the
world began. It says all the people, verse
12, So all the people went their way to eat and to drink and to
send portions. And they started out by weeping,
and they ended up by laughing and making great mirth. They
went away from that place joyful. Why? Why were they joyful? What was it that caused them
to rejoice? Because they heard a good singing? Huh? Because they saw a good Easter
pageant? Huh? Look at it. They have understood
the words that were declared. They understood the gospel. And it just made them happy.
That's all they need. And it filled them up to the
fullest. All right, let's eat the Lord's
table together. Brethren, if you'll come. Thank you.