All right, open your Bibles again
in Nehemiah chapter eight. The title of the message is they
understood the words declared. Like I told the class this morning,
the book of Nehemiah is a continuation of the book of Ezra. Ezra had
returned to Jerusalem some years before Nehemiah did to rebuild
the temple. Then Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem
and he rebuilt the walls and the gates of the city. And the
theme of both of these books is the restoring of God's people.
Restoring to Him. And restoring the right worship
of God. As I've read through this book,
I really like Nehemiah. He's just my kind of guy. He's
faithful. He's determined. He's single-minded. He came back to Jerusalem and
he did what he came to do. He rebuilt the walls and the
gates This was not an easy job. People were against him the whole
way. He had enemies attacking him and his workers. Well, you
think, well, we need to stop working on the wall to fight.
Not Nehemiah. They fought with a weapon in
one hand and built with a tool in the other. I mean, he wasn't
going to stop, no matter what. He had enemies come to him. They
didn't want him rebuilding those walls. And they said, Nehemiah,
I want you to come down and let's talk. We'll make a treaty together,
and then we'll help. And what they were trying to
get him to do was compromise. There's a picture of God's preachers,
you know, somebody always trying to get you to compromise the
gospel, not Nehemiah. He said, I'm not coming down
to have a meeting with y'all. God sent me here to rebuild the
wall. That's what I'm going to do. He had enemies mocking him,
mocking him and mocking his work. They saw this wall, you know,
just a little animal could knock it over. And that's the way the
world sees preaching. I said, it's nothing. What you're
doing is nothing. But none of those things deterred
Nehemiah. He wouldn't quit. He had a job
to do, and he was going to do it. And that's the attitude of
God's preachers. God's given us a job to do. One
job. Our job is to preach God's Word.
That's our job. And we're going to do it. God
help us, we're going to do it. We're going to lay the foundation
of faith, which is Christ our Savior, and we're going to build
on that foundation, building Christ. By God's grace, we're
not going to stop. We're not going to let anything
get us off on a tangent doing what God has not called us to
do. And that's the picture we have here in Nehemiah chapter
8. It's a good picture of how preaching is to be done. He gives
us the subject of our preaching and he gives us the results of
true preaching. Now remember the theme here.
It's to restore the people of God and to restore the right
worship of God. Well, there's only one way that
can be done. It's by the word. It's by preaching
the word. That's the only way. No other
programs, no other methods. The only way that'll happen is
by preaching God's word. So here, first of all, here's
how preaching is to be done. Preaching is to be done simply
by declaring the word of God. Look here at verse one. See if
this isn't what they did. And 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.
And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation,
both the 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 the morning until
midday before the men and the women All those that could understand
in the ears of all the people were attentive under the book
of the law. Ezra was an older man by this
time. He'd been back in Jerusalem for
a number of years, rebuilding the temple. And he had the respect
of everybody there. And people heard Ezra the priest
was going to read, was going to speak to the people. Everybody
came out. I can't imagine how it would
be with us here if I announced Brother Henry's going to be here
Wednesday. He's got a word from God for you. This place would
be full, you know, out of our respect for him. That's the way
the people looked at Ezra. They respected him. They wanted
to come and hear what Ezra had to say from the Word of God.
And Ezra made no pretense. He got his message directly from
the Word of God. They gave him the Book of Moses,
those first five books of the Old Testament. And he read them,
expounded upon them, preached the Word of God to them for four
hours. Four hours without stopping.
And the people, they stood. They didn't sit. When they read
the Word of God, they stood. And all the time he was reading
the Word and expounding upon it, they stood for four hours. You know, we think sitting for
45 minutes, that's a long service. Frank's long-winded this morning.
that people stood attentive for four hours. Wow, that's a special
time of worship. And we ought to keep our preaching
short. I'm not gonna start preaching for an hour and a half. But I
do remember, I remember one time in particular, a few times, Brother
Henry preached for an hour and 20 minutes. And he was preaching
and he said, oh, I preached too long, I gotta quit. I thought,
what? I thought it'd be like 10 minutes, you know? This is
a special time of worship. God was speaking. And you know
the only time that'll happen? When we read how God speaks through
His Word. God speaks to us today by His
Word. We just do well just to read
God's Word. And just say what it says. This
is the Word of Life. And our day has so left this. We need for religious people
to quit singing, to quit testifying, to quit entertaining, to quit
having light shows and plays and motivational speeches. We
need for religious people to absolutely quit telling us what
they think and start telling us what God says. We need to
just start preaching the Word of God. Because I'm telling you,
what God says is all that matters. We need preachers to preach.
what God has commanded His people. This book is not a suggestion
book on how to live your life. Isn't that what verse 2 says? Which the Lord had commanded
to Israel. This is God's commandment. We
need somebody to preach it. Look over at 2 Timothy chapter
4. This is Paul's instruction to Timothy in the ministry. The
only time we'll ever be able to worship is if we do this.
Preach God's Word, because it's the only way God's going to speak
to His people. 2 Timothy 4, verse 1. I charge thee therefore before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall judge the quick and
the dead at His appearing in His kingdom. Now this is serious,
and it's a serious charge. Look at what it says. Timothy,
preach the Word. At all times, just preach the
Word. Be instant, in season and out
of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering in doctrine.
For the time will come when they'll not endure sound doctrine, but
after their own lust, shall they heap to themselves teachers having
itching ears, and they'll turn away their ears from the truth,
and shall be turned unto fables. If we turn away from this book,
we'll be turned to fables. I mean, we may as well be watching
Disney movies. But you watch thou, watch thou
therefore, watch all things, you endure afflictions, And you
do the work of evangelists, make full proof of your ministry.
How's he going to do that? By preaching the word. Just preach
the word. We need for preachers to start
preaching the word. Now, we need preachers to get
off of stages and with these portable microphones walking
around and PowerPoint shows. We need them to get out of the
corner and out of from sitting around table sharing. And we
need preachers to get in a prominent place where people can see and
people can hear and preach God's Word. We need him to get in a
pulpit that's in the center. Not so the preacher is front
and center, but so that the preaching of the Word is front and center.
Look at verse 4, that's what they did. And Ezra the scribe
stood upon a pulpit of wood which they'd made for that purpose
so people could see him and people could hear him as he read God's
Word and expounded upon it. We just make Make the preaching
of God's Word the focus, the center of everything we do, because
that's the only way we'll ever be able to worship God. That's
the only way we'll ever hear from God. Here's my second point. The subject of gospel preaching.
The subject of our preaching is Christ. Period. End of sentence. Christ is the
subject of our preaching. He's the only subject of our
preaching. And where is he revealed? Where is Christ the living word?
Where is he revealed? In the written word. So we preach
God's word. Now you remember the theme of
these books is restoring God's people and restoring the right
worship of God. Well, the only way we'll ever,
a sinner will ever be restored to God is in Christ. Well, then
let's preach it. The only way we'll have the right
worship of God is in Christ. Well, let's preach it. And when
we preach the word, We must tell people, what does this word mean? And I promise you what it means.
It means Christ. Look here at the end of verse
seven. And they caused the people to understand the law and the
people stood in their place. So they read in the book of the
law of God distinctly and they gave the sense and caused them
to understand their reading. They caused them to understand
what God is saying to us in his word. They gave the people the
sense of the word of God and they spoke distinctly, clearly. So everybody understood exactly
what they're saying. Every time we meet together,
we leave here. I want you to know exactly what
I mean. I mean, I want to be so clear
about that. Now you may not believe it. but
I want you to understand exactly. I don't want you to leave and
say, what do you mean by that? No, I want you to understand exactly what
God's word says. And I know that happened. We'll
see this, the reaction of the people here in just a minute.
Ezra and these other preachers, they told the people what the
law of God says. Look at Romans chapter three.
It's not recorded. Their comments are not recorded
already. Well, what does the law of God say to you and me?
What does the law of God say to all of us? Well, the Apostle
Paul tells us, you know, Paul lived thousands of years later.
He's preaching the same message that they were preaching on that
day. And this is what the law of God says to all of us. Romans
3 verse 19. Now we know that what things
whoever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them which who are under the
law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may
become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by
the law is the knowledge of sin. Now the law says to everyone
who's under the law, law says to anyone who's trying to earn
their righteousness by keeping the law. The law says that person
is guilty before God. That's what the law says. And
that's what Ezra and his friends, what they told the people, the
law says, Anyone who's under the law trying to keep the law
is guilty. The law says you and I can't
keep the law. It's impossible for us to keep
the law. No flesh can be justified before
God by our own law keeping. And I know they told the people
that because we read to open the service there that the people
began to mourn and to weep and with good reason. You know, if
all we see is what the law says to us about our sin, we'll mourn. And all the law can do is show
us our sin. The law can never show us the
way of grace. The law can never show us the way of mercy. The
law can never show us the way of righteousness. All the law
can do is be a mirror and show us our sin. But I also know this,
Ezra and these other preachers, they didn't stop there. They
gave people the meaning of the word of God. They also told people
how Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Christ
is the goal of the law. The law was written to drive
us to Christ because we can't keep the law. But he did. He kept it perfectly for his
people. Read on in verse 21. This is what Paul says. But now
the righteousness of God without the law, without your obedience
to the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets, by these prophets, Ezra, Nehemiah, and these other
preachers. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there's
no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth. He's made this
open plain for everybody to see. This is God's eternal purpose
that God has set forth his son to be a propitiation through
faith in his blood. to declare his righteousness
for the remissions of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness, the righteousness of the man Christ Jesus, that
he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
But where's boasting then? It's excluded. By what law? Of works? No, by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Nehemiah
and Ezra and these other preachers, that's exactly what they told
the people on this day. Now you're thinking, Frank, how
do you know that? Their comments aren't recorded. How can you
know that these preachers preached the message of salvation by grace
through faith in God's Son? Well, it's their names. The names
of all these fellas. Now remember, names in scripture
mean something. And the names of these preachers
tell us what they preach. You put the names of all these
preachers together, and you've got the gospel. This is the first
Bible conference. All these preachers gathered
together. And they didn't just have one or two, all of them
spoke. I was driving down to Kingsport Friday with Marvin
Stoniker. He called his son Gabe. He said,
Gabe, how many preachers are we gonna have tonight? And Gabe
said, well, I think there's gonna be nine pastors there. We're
gonna have all nine of them preach. Marvin said, me and Frank are
gonna enjoy hearing them. All these fellows, they took
turns speaking, expounding on God's word and giving people
the meaning of God's word. Let's look at their names and
see if we can't see the gospel here. The first name, Ezra. Verse
four, Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they'd
made for the purpose. Ezra's name means age. A true
preaching never tells anybody that God will help those who
help themselves. No. True preaching tells helpless
sinners that can't do anything for themselves where aid is found. It's found in Christ, the great
physician. It's found in Christ who heals
all of our sin sicknesses. What does the law do? It reveals
our sin, doesn't it? We see the law and we cry out
to the Apostle Paul, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? Here's A. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the end of the law. He's the goal of the law. We
can't do anything, can we? He did it all. Now you look to
him. He's where Ada's found. Then
the next name is Mattithiah. His name means the gift of Jehovah. True preaching. These fellas,
they preached Christ, the unspeakable gift. My friend, salvation is
not something that we can argue. I just wish false preachers would
quit putting this burden on people. You can't earn it. Salvation
is a free gift of God's grace in Christ Jesus. That's what
they preached. Then Shema, when he took his turn, his name means
echo. You know what he did? He did
what all God's servants do. We just echo the word of God.
We read God's word and says that's what that says. We just echo
it. Thus saith the Lord. I want you to go home, and what
I want impressed upon your heart, what I want God to put in your
heart so that you keep it there, is the Word of God. I want you
to have Christ on your heart. I don't want you to be impressed
how cleverly I said something, because if I try to say it clever,
I'm going to mess it up. Let's just echo God's Word. It's
God's Word that saves. It's God's Word that gives life.
It's God's Word that strengthens and comforts his people, allows
us to grow in grace. Then Ananias, his name means
Jehovah has answered. What do you need? What is it
that you need? You know, everything we need
is answered in the Lord Jesus Christ. We need the forgiveness
of sin. How can God forgive my sin and
still be just? The answer's in Christ, isn't
it? We need grace. Where's the answer? It's in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We need righteousness. What's
the answer to that? I can't keep the law. I can't
earn a righteousness. What's the answer? The answer
is Christ. He's my righteousness. Everything
God has required of us is answered in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
in judgment, One day, God's going to call my name. I'm going to
be called before the judgment seat of Christ, before the almighty
justice of God. And my name's going to be called.
And Christ, my substitute, is going to answer and say, I'm
here. And I'll be accepted because
Christ answered for me. He's the answer. Whatever question
it is you've got, Christ is the answer. Jehovah is the answer. Then, Uriah. His name means the
light of Jehovah. All true preaching is, is declaring
the light. Isn't that it? Here's the light.
Christ is the light of the world. And the only way we'll ever believe
God's word, the only way we can believe it, is in the light of
Christ. He's the light of the world.
I can tell you until I'm blue in the face, I can stand up here
every week until these little ones are old people, Telling
you every week, you're a sinner. You're depraved, you can't do
anything to please God, and you'll never know it. You'll know. I'm going to come here this morning,
I know what Frank's going to say. He's going to say, I'm a
sinner. I'm helpless. I'm hopeless. I don't know what
he's going to tell me. You know when you'll believe it? When
you see Christ, the light of the world. Now I see my darkness. Christ is the light of the world.
That's who we declare. Then Hilkiah, his name means
the portion of Jehovah. Christ is our portion. Christ
is our exceeding great reward. You know, we'll never worship
God. We'll never be restored to God trying to earn rewards
in heaven. If you're out here trying to,
if I'm here, boy, I'm really working hard because I want a
bigger house than David. I want the house up there on
the hill. I was not going to honor that. How foolish is that? We can't worship trying to earn
rewards in heaven. If I tell you when we can worship,
when we worship Christ, who is our exceeding great reward. I don't have any idea really
what heaven's gonna look like. I suspect most of what we read
in scripture about the place we call heaven is given to us
in picture. I don't really care. All I care
about is Christ. He's the reward. He's my portion. Then Messiah, His name means
the work of Jehovah. The work of Christ is the salvation
of His people. His righteousness, His work of
righteousness that He brought as a man, that's a work of righteousness
for His people. The payment of sin in His blood,
He willingly went to Calvary and suffered and died. That's
His work, the work of forgiveness. So look to Christ. Look away
from your own works. It's the work of Jehovah that
saves. Come to Christ and surrender to Him. Quit trying to earn your
own righteousness and just surrender. Just submit to the righteousness
of Christ. He finished the work. Then Padaiah. His name means Jehovah has ransomed. Oh, we read the book of the law. God's preachers give us a sense
of the law. Oh, we're frightened to death.
I've sold myself in sin. I've sold myself into bondage
to sin. Can't set myself free. There's
a price on my head I cannot get out. But Christ came. We hear about being sold in sin.
And Padua came and said, Brethren, Christ has paid the ransom price.
You go free in Him. He says to God's elect, God said,
deliver them from going down into the pit. I found a ransom. I've provided the ransom for
my people. The ransom is the person of God's
Son, our substitute. Christ redeemed his people. He
bought his people back. He ransomed them from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us. He took our place as
our substitute and ransomed us, and we're free, free in him.
Then Mishael, his name means who is God. Now that has something
to do with the Almighty. Michelle came and told us who
God is. Now all true worship has to center
on this. Who God is. We can't worship
God if we don't declare God as He is. And we have to declare
God not as we think He is. God's not some grandfatherly
figure. Somehow we've got this impression
of God. He's this grandfatherly figure. You don't want to dote
over His people. Well, that's not the way God's word portrays
him. That's not the way God says he is. God's word says that God
is holy. And at the same time, God is
love. It's the character of God to
be holy, to remain holy, to always be holy, and yet love sinners
and his son. God's word says that God is just. Whatever he does, it's right.
It's just, it's perfect. And at the same time, God's merciful.
He's merciful to his people. God is truth. Everything he does
is done in truth. And at the same time, God's gracious.
He's true to sinners and he's gracious to sinners in the person
of his son. That's who God is. And all true
worship centers on this. Who is God? Now listen to me. We don't come here and gather
together to worship because of what God has done for us. Now,
I'm thankful, don't get me wrong, I'm so thankful for what God
has done for us and in us, but now we don't worship God because
of what He's done for us. And we don't worship God because,
you know, what He will do for us if we're good Christians.
I remember my mother telling me, I was just a little baby,
you know, and it was wintertime, I was born in the middle of winter,
Boy, she had to take the baby to church. Didn't matter if it
was cold and snowy and he could get sick or something, you know.
No! God might kill him. God might
kill the baby. No, we don't worship God because
of what He will do for us if we're good Christians. We worship
God simply because of who He is. Just because of who He is. God's worthy to be worshipped.
I don't care what He does with me. God's worthy to be worshipped. Then the name Malachi, his name
means Jehovah is king. You can't preach the gospel unless
you declare God who's sovereign. God saves, and he saves whom
he will, and he saves when he will. Now that doesn't mean we're
to say this, well God's sovereign, so you know, whatever. God's
gonna do whatever he will, nobody can stop him, nobody can say
what are you doing. God's will has been determined
before the foundation of the world, So no matter what I do,
it's not going to change His will. So I'm going to sit here
and do nothing. God's going to do what He's going
to do. Nothing I can do about it. Now, if all that thought
is pure sin and pure rebellion, that's all it is, of course there's
something we can do. We can do what God's Word told
us to do. God has commanded us to preach the gospel. Well now,
we can do that. God has commanded us Beg for
mercy. God's commanded us. Come to Christ. Well, we can do that, can't we?
We can come to Christ. We can beg for mercy. We can
ask that God... Lord, I don't believe. Would
you give me faith so I believe? Lord, I'm a sinner. Would you
forgive me? You promised you'd forgive sin.
Would you forgive me? We can seek the Lord. God commanded
us to. He said, seek the Lord while
you may be found. I said, this is God speaking, I said, not
under the seat of Jacob, seek ye me in vain. You seek him,
you'll find him. That's what God said. You seek
the Lord because God told you to. And you'll find him in the
day you seek for him with all your heart. And when you find
him, you know what you'll say? I didn't find God. God found me. He saw, yeah, I
saw him. But God sovereignly revealed
himself to me. God sovereignly saved me. God's
sovereign. Then the name Hashem. His name
means enriched. God is rich in mercy to sinners
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Poor, bankrupt sinners need a
God who's rich in mercy. Isn't this good news? God's rich
in mercy. That's who He is. And He enriches
His people with every spiritual blessing. Gives us everything
he requires and everything we need. Then there's a name, Haspadanna. His name means considerate judge.
God is the just judge. He said in his word, he will
by no means clear the guilty. But God's a considerate judge.
Now that doesn't mean that he feels sorry for you, so he overlooks
your sin. He's the considerate judge. He's
the judge who's merciful to sinners in His Son. He's merciful to
consider His people in Christ our Redeemer, to consider us
in His sacrifice, to consider us in His righteousness. He's
the considerate judge. In Zechariah, His name means
Jehovah has remembered Him. No matter what happens to us,
the rest of our journey here below, God will remember His
covenant of grace in Christ. You want me to tell you who God
will remember? He's going to remember every needy, every guilty,
every dying sinner. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. How often I forget, Lord, would
you remember me? Noah was on the ark. It rained
40 days and 40 nights. Now the rain has stopped, but
the earth is flooded. Noah's bobbing along on the ark,
you know. And scripture says God remembered
Noah. He caused the water to start
to recede. He remembered him. He remembered him in that ark,
a picture of Christ. Oh, how Hannah wanted a son.
She wanted a child so bad, she just, she felt forsaken of the
Lord and she prayed. And the Lord remembered Hannah,
gave her a son. God will remember every needy,
every guilty, every dying sinner. Call on Him. Then Meshulam, his
name means ally or friend. Yes, we've broken the law. We've
made ourselves enemies of God by our sin. That's true. But
I've got good news. We've got a friend. Christ is
the friend of sinners. receiveth publicans and sinners,
and he eats with them. In verse seven, there's more
preachers there. We see more of this message, the message
that must be preached. If sinners are going to be restored
and if we're going to have the right worship of God, there's
Jeshua. His name means Jehovah is salvation. Now, salvation is not a thing. Salvation is not a state that
God puts us in. Salvation is a person. It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's who we declare. Christ
is all. He's all. Then there's Bainai. His name means built. Every believer,
I don't care where you find them, they're built on one foundation.
Christ, the solid rock. And that building, the building
that's built on Christ, that'll continue. Except the Lord built
the house, they labor in vain that built it. But if Christ
built a house, it's going to last eternally. Then there's
Sherebiah. His name means Jehovah has brought
heat or Jehovah has scorched. Now we read the law. We know
what our sin deserves, don't we? It deserves the fire of God's
wrath. But a believer is standing on
scorched ground. Jehovah has scorched. The fire
of God's wrath is not going to fall on God's leg. Well, why
not? That's what our sin deserves.
It's not going to fall on God's elect because that fire already
fell on Christ our substitute. We're standing on scorched ground.
God's wrath's not looking for you. It's not coming for you.
It won't hurt you. It's already been poured out on your substitute.
That's good news, isn't it? And that fire, you know where
it fell, the fire of God's wrath? It fell on God's right hand.
Standing next to Sherabbi is a man named Jamin. His name means
right hand. Christ is the right hand of God. That's His holy arm that has
gotten God to victory. It's Christ, His right hand.
He won the victory over sin, death, and hell. Then there's
Acub. His name means insidious. Now
this means that something was done in secret. This is the work
of the Holy Spirit and God's elect. It's a secret work. It's
a work that can't be seen on the outside. It's a work in the
inner man, a heart work. Salvation is a heart work. It's
the work of the Spirit. And this work must be accomplished
or there's no salvation. Our Lord said you must be born
again. This work must take place in
your heart. Well, we can't give birth to ourselves, can we? But
the Holy Spirit does. He gives birth to all of God's
people. How does he do that? With this
seed. The Word of God. That's what
he preached. Then there's Shabbathai, Shabbathay. Don't name your son this. That's
a hard name to say. His name means rest. All the law requires. They read the law. No wonder
they mourned. All the law requires is work,
work, work, work, work, and more work. Oh, I've got good news. In Christ, there's rest. He's
finished the work. He sat down on the right hand
of God because the work's finished. Now come to Him and rest, just
rest in Him. Then haracha, His name means
the majesty of Jehovah. Majesty. Now there won't ever
be any worship until we understand this. We're coming into the presence
of majesty Himself. And we can't figure Him out.
We cannot figure out Christ our Savior. Who can figure out God?
He's so majestic. But we can worship Him. I don't
have to fully understand God in order to worship Him. I don't
have to understand how God has accomplished everything He's
accomplished for His people because I don't. I don't need to. I see
His majesty in salvation. I see His majesty that He put
away the sin of somebody like me and I can worship Him and
I can give thanks. True worship has to do with awe
at the majesty of God. This is not coming into the presence
of an equal. No, this is coming into the presence
of majesty. We worship and we understand
this. God doesn't need me, but I need him. And in his majesty,
he chose me. He sent His Son to die for me.
He sent His Spirit to give me life. Now I can worship Him now.
I can worship Him. Then there's the name Messiah.
His name means the work of Jehovah. But what is the work of Jehovah?
Well, it's the complete work of salvation. It's a work of
righteousness that's done for us. And it's a work of righteousness
that's done in us. The new birth, the giving of
a new heart, It's the work of atonement for our sin. God had
to do something for himself before he ever did anything for you
and me. God did something for himself. He atoned for sin. And
then there's the work of forgiveness, where he comes and applies the
blood to our heart, draws us to himself. Then there's a name,
Kelita. Kelita means meaning. Now true
gospel preaching always involves this, the maiming of the flesh. I mean just the killing of the
flesh, just embarrassing the flesh, putting the flesh in the
dust, removing all hope of any glory, any goodness at all in
the flesh, because we've got to kill all hope in the flesh
before there'll ever be any restoration to God. All hope in the flesh
has got to be maimed, it's got to be killed before there'll
ever be any worship. And you know who was standing
right next to Kelita? A man named Azariah. His name
means Jehovah is healed. Now it's no accident these two
fellows were standing right next to each other. They had to stand
next to each other because the gospel kills and makes alive. The gospel declares we're dead
in Adam. We're maimed in Adam. Oh, but
we're made alive in Christ. We have life in him. Christ is
the great physician. The flesh is maimed, but He heals
of all of our sin. Then there's the name Josephad.
His name means Jehovah has endowed. I saw this week about this fellow
that he endowed, he's a football player, he endowed a bunch of
money to the hospital in the town where he plays in the NFL.
He made this huge endowment. Well, they named a cafeteria
after him. That sounds good, he endowed that money. God has
endowed. He's given every spiritual gift
to his people. What name do you want to bear?
Oh, I want to bear his name. The one who's endowed us with
everything. Then there's Hanun. His name means faith and mercy.
The message of the gospel is a message for sinners. Now, if we ever lose this, if
we make the gospel a series of doctrines and all these difficult
things that people can't understand, if we preach the gospel, we preach,
and a 10-year-old doesn't understand it, we didn't preach it right.
The gospel is a message for needy sinners. There's mercy for sinners
in Christ. There's favor. God has favor. Then come to Christ. Then there's
a name, Peliah. His name means Jehovah has distinguished. God distinguished a people out
of the lump of Adam's fallen race by electing them, by choosing
them. God chose to save them. There were the Egyptians and
the Israelites. Somebody made a difference, didn't they? God
did. There's Jacob and Esau. Born, conceived at the same time,
growing in the same womb, coming forth in the same father and
mother. There's a difference between those two boys. Who made
them? God did. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. God made a difference between
the saved and the lost by putting his people in Christ. Washing
them in his blood. He put them in the blood of Christ
to atone for their sins. God made the difference. He made
them objects of His grace. You can't preach the gospel without
preaching that. See, this is the message. He put all these
men together. They all preached that day. And that's the message,
how sinners are reconciled to God. That's the only message,
the only message that will cause a sinner to worship. Now, let
me give you this quickly. This is the reaction of God's
people to gospel preaching. It's both bitter and sweet. It's
mourning and rejoicing. Verse 9, and Nehemiah, which
is the Tersheth, he's the governor, and Ezra the priest, the scribe,
and the Levites that taught the people. They said unto all the
people, this day is holy unto the Lord your God. Mourn not,
nor weep, for all the people wept when they heard the words
of the law. Then he said unto them, go your way, eat the fat
and drink the sweet, send portions unto them for whom nothing is
prepared. For this day is holy unto our Lord, neither be ye
sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites
stilled all the people saying, hold your peace for the day is
holy, neither be you grieved. And all the people went their
way to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great
mirth because they had understood the words that were declared
unto them. And Nehemiah and Ezra and all
these preachers, they taught the people the law and they understood
what they were being taught because they mourned and they wept And
we have to mourn over our sin. I mean, that's a very good reason
to mourn our sin and rebellion against God. But the gospel doesn't
stop there. The gospel points out the bitterness
of our sin so that we'll enjoy the sweetness of Christ. So we'll
enjoy the sweetness of forgiveness and grace in Christ. And they
told the people, now go your way. Don't be sorry. The Lord's
your strength. We're sorry, but the Lord's your
strength. Repent over your sin, certainly.
Mourn over your sin. Hate your sin, but don't always
be down to mouth. Rejoice! Christ has forgiven
your sin. He's cleansed your sin. He's
atoned for your sin. Go eat the fat things, the best
tasting things. Go drink the sweet things. That's
the blood and body of our Lord Jesus Christ, the spiritual man.
Just go eat Him. Drink His blood and eat His flesh.
heart's content. That's the fat things, the good
things. And don't just take a plate full. There's plenty if you're
hungry. Take an extra portion. Just take
extra. Just eat till you're stuffed
and take an extra portion to others. Maybe they couldn't be
here. Go tell them about Christ. Tell them. Come and dine. There's a portion for you. Come
and dine. All's ready. And the people rejoiced. Now they didn't rejoice mindlessly.
They didn't rejoice because they had this warm religious feeling,
you know. They didn't rejoice, well the
preacher said rejoice, I'll rejoice. No, they rejoiced because they
understood God's word. They said, that's what that says. Those fellows are preaching,
that's plain, that's what that says. And they rejoiced. They were restored and they worshiped
when they understood the word of God. I can't make you understand. Only God can do that. I can't
make you understand. But by God's grace, we can preach it. You
come back Wednesday and you won't be surprised when we preach God's
word. This is the word that restores sinners to Christ and enables
us to worship. All right, let's bow in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent is your matchless name. And we bow before you giving
thanks for your word. I would thank you that you move
the prophets and the apostles of old to write the word of God. You've preserved it and protected
it. Put it in our laps this morning in the form of a book that we
might open and read. And Father, I pray you bless
your word. Give us faith to believe and
understand. Receive your word. cause us to
look to Christ, to look away from ourselves, to have no confidence
in this flesh, and have all of our faith and hope and confidence
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Cause us to rejoice in Him, for
He has done all things well. It's in His matchless name we
pray. We pray for the glory of His
name. Amen.