looking this evening at Nehemiah
chapter 8, and I'm taking the title for the message from verse
10. And here's the phrase that caught
my attention when I read through this again and again over these
last few days. Verse 10 of Nehemiah 8, Then
he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
send portion unto them for whom nothing is prepared, for this
day is holy unto the Lord. Be ye sorry for the joy of the
Lord is your strength. Now notice on that word Lord,
it's capital L-O-R-D. You see that? Now whenever we
see that in scripture, in Old Testament scripture, we know
that refers to Jehovah, Almighty God, the everlasting God, the
joy of Jehovah is your strength. I thought about this phrase again
and again, what is the joy of Jehovah that is our strength? Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father speaks from heaven
and said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. You remember from the book of
Proverbs chapter 8 where it says, the Lord Jesus Christ with daily
His delight. So think about this. Think about
this. The Christ of the Lord, Jehovah,
is our strength. Christ is our strength. He's the strength of our salvation.
He's the strength of our redemption. He's the strength of our righteousness. There was in this day, These
50,000 people gathered out in this street. There was great
joy, but there was also sorrow of heart. Their sorrow was turned
into joy. There was great joy and gladness,
the last part of verse 17. And there was very great gladness,
glad in the Lord. And truly, every believer does
find hope and rejoicing of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is the Lord our righteousness, who is the Lord our joy. You remember the scripture from
Philippians chapter 3, we are the true Israel which worship
God in the spirit, that rejoice in Christ Jesus, that rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in the flesh. Romans
5 declares, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Christ, the Christ of God, the
Christ of God, the joy of Jehovah is our strength. That's amazing,
is it not? That is an amazing statement. Nehemiah had prayed before over
in Nehemiah 6, 9, you remember? O God, strengthen our hands. Now, Nehemiah and Ezra together
rejoice in the Lord Jehovah. who is our joy and who is our
strength, who is God our Savior, God our Savior. The psalmist
said the Lord Jehovah is my light, my salvation, my strength of
whom shall I be afraid. Now by way of introduction the
reconstruction of the temple had been completed under the
ready Scribe and the priest of God, the temple had been completely
rebuilt, completely reconstructed. They were back offering sacrifices
unto the Lord, worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ around the
blood sacrifice, pointing to Christ. The reconstruction of
the wall around the city had been completed, remember, in
52 days, under the leadership of Nehemiah. He was a good building
superintendent. He kept them right after it.
God put it in his heart to do this work, and also in the hearts
of the people to do this work. And by the grace of God, in 52
days, by the help of God, they completed that construction around
the city, that wall, to protect the city. Now in this chapter,
chapter 8, we read about the importance of reading the Word
of God and preaching the Word of the Lord, and how the people
heard the Word with understanding and were blessed before God. They not only heard the Word,
but they heard the Word and were made to understand the Word. Now one of the most important
parts of our worship service is the reading of the word of
the Lord. I remember a few years back,
Lionel will remember this very well. I got up one Sunday morning
and my nose started bleeding. This was about ten years ago.
Dr. Francis, you remember this. My
nose started bleeding and it wouldn't stop. And I plugged
it up and it just kept right on bleeding. Well, I told Lionel
when he came to service that Sunday morning, I said, I'm not
able to stand in the pulpit. I said, you're going to have
to take care of the services. And remember what you did? He came over here in the Bible
study in the morning service. He read the whole book of Ephesians
and the whole book of Colossians. I believe it was Ephesians and
Colossians, maybe Philippians. But he read the whole book of
Ephesians and Colossians. I told him later, I said, the
best sermon has ever been preached in this pulpit. That's right,
because it's the Word of the Lord. You can't improve upon
the Word of the Lord. One of the most important part
of our worship service is the reading of the Word. When we
start our service, we start out with reading the Word of the
Lord. We sing a song, we have prayer. and we read the word
of the Lord again, and we take the word of the Lord, and verse
by verse, book by book, chapter by chapter, and we go through
all the word of God. We've done that since the 24
years I've been here, from Genesis through Revelation, back and
forth, back and forth. We've been through the Word of
the Lord. We call that expository preaching, taking what God has
said and just repeating and amplifying what the Lord has said. We make
much of the Word of the Lord in each of our services, don't
we? The Word of the Lord is quick and powerful, sharper than any
two-edged sword. We take the sword of the Spirit,
which is the Word of God, and we make much of it. We read it.
You see, the written Word tells us all about the living Word,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I thought of this scripture over
in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Don't turn, let me just read
it to you. The apostle said, when this epistle is read among
you, caused that it be read also in the church of Laodicea, and
that ye likewise read the epistle from the Laodicea church." So,
here's the Apostle Paul, by the instruction of God the Holy Spirit,
says we're to read, publicly read the Word of God. Now, let's
take a look at some of the particulars of this special day. And I love
what he says there, this is a special day unto the Lord. for this day
is holy unto the Lord." This day was an appointed day, a special
day that God had appointed for them to do this very thing. Now
look at chapter 8 verse 1, "...and all the people gathered themselves
together at one man. Now there was over 50,000 people
here, not counting, that's probably just counting the men and not
counting the women and children. All the people gathered themselves
together as one man with one heart, with one purpose, with
one mind to stand fast in the word of the Lord into the street
that was before the water gate, and they spake unto Ezra, Ezra
the priest of God, the chief priest, and they spake unto Ezra
the scribe, and said, Bring the book of the Lord, the law of
Moses, which the Lord commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest
brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all
that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh
month. Now, I don't know how much of
the Word of the Lord they brought, but I'm certain that they had
the book of Leviticus, and they were reading from the book of
Leviticus. Now, the time and place they
came together as one man, with one heart, with one purpose,
is significant. They came to hear the Word of
the Lord, and they came to the place that's named there in that
street before the Watergate. The Watergate. You remember this
water gate was one of the ten gates in that city. We went through
each of those ten gates and how they represent the gospel. This
was a gate, this water gate, where the water was brought by
the servants of the temple into the temple to be used in the
ceremonial cleansing and the washing of the priest and the
sacrifice and the utensils in the worshiping of the Lord in
that service. And we read in the book of Ephesians,
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church,
and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word of truth. There is a necessity of hearing
the word of God. The place where they heard and
the place where they gathered is even significant of the Word
of the Lord. The time of this gathering was
according to the command of God. Notice it says here, upon the
first day of the seventh month. Why not the second day of the
eighth month? Why was it upon the first day
of the seventh month? Well, if you read in the book
of Deuteronomy chapter 31, Every seven years or every seventh
feast of tabernacle, every seventh feast of tabernacle, they were
to gather together and to read the holy law of God. And it says
this in Deuteronomy 31, to hear from the Lord, to learn of Him,
and to observe all His words. Now, Ezra the ready scribe of
God, the priest of God, took the book of the Law of Moses,
and read the book, and I love what it says here in verse 3,
he read therein before the street that was before the water gate
from morning, that is from daylight, until midday before the men and
women, those that could understand, and the ears of all the people
were attentive unto the book of the law. Here's a six-hour
reading. Now imagine we met on Sunday
morning, 6 a.m., and I stood up here and read and read and
read for six hours. Would you be attentive to the
Word of the Lord for six hours? Probably not. But these people
were given special grace, special anointing of the Lord. Their
ears were opened and they were attentive to the word of the
Lord. Now Ezra, don't turn to this,
let me just get it for you quickly. Ezra was a special, special servant
of the Lord. It says in Ezra 7 verse 10, Ezra
had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do
it and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. This is what Ezra's
heart was prepared to do, to read the word and to preach the
word. Thirteen other priests were also
with Ezra, some on the right hand and some on the left. to
support him, to encourage him, to help him. We're going to see
over here in verse 8 where it says, So they read in the book
of the law of God also distinctly. These other men also read the
word of the Lord. Those that could understand their
ears were attentive unto the reading of the word of the Lord.
We're told in the book of James we're to be swift to hear, swift
to hear, and slow to speak. We know that faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of the Lord. What a blessing to have
a desire to hear the Word of the Lord, and have ears to hear
it, and then the Lord giving us an understanding in our heart. You remember from our study in
the book of Luke, where the Lord said, take heed what you hear,
and take heed how you hear." I want to hear as this book is
read and as we study it, I want to hear it, study it, receive
it, not as a word of men, but as it is in truth the very Word
of God. Now notice if you will, down
to verse 5 and 6, Ezra opened the book in the sight of all
the people. This was a public reading. For he was above the people on
this pulpit of wood that they had constructed, as it says there
in verse 4, for this purpose. And he took the book of the law
of the Lord in the sight of all the people, and he was elevated
on this pulpit above the people, and he opened it up, and all
the people stood up." Boy, they were anticipating hearing from
the Lord. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the
great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting
up their hands. And they bowed their heads and
worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Now this is a special, special
time. Ezra opened a book before all
the people, and he prayed and blessed the Lord. And I think
of that Psalm 103 where David said, Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless His holy name, who forgiveth
all thy diseases and all thy sin. And then I think what the
Apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 1, where he says, We
bless God who has blessed us. with all spiritual blessings
in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, according as He hath chose us
in Him before the foundation of the world." Now, look at verse
6 carefully. Ezra blessed the Lord, or praised
the Lord, who is the great God. You see that? The great God. The great God. How great is the
Lord? How great is our Lord? Well,
He's above all God. The Lord, the great God. Everything
about our God is great. Is it not? Everything about the
Lord, our God, is great. In the book of Nahum, chapter
1, verse 3, it says, The Lord is slow to anger and great in
Power. He's great in power. He has all
power in heaven and in earth. The Lord prayed in John 17, Father
you've given me power over all flesh that I should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given to me. And then we read
in Psalm 145 verse 8, where we read of the Lord who is great
in mercy. He's great in mercy. He will
have mercy on whom he will have mercy. And then in the book of
Acts chapter 4 verse 33, we read that God is great in his grace. His great grace was upon them. In the book of Ephesians chapter
2 verse 4, But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love
wherewith He loved us. You see, every attribute of God,
His sovereignty, His love, His power, His eternality, His unchangeableness,
everything about our God, Jehovah the Lord, He is great. He is
great. And I love this Scripture too
where it says in Hebrews 2 verse 3, How shall we escape if we
neglect so great salvation? Everything about God saving mercy
is great, is it not? We serve a great God. And the
people said, when Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, the
people said, Amen. You know what that means? So
be it. So be it. And it's a double amen. Amen
and amen. So be it. They lifted up their
hands and their hearts in prayer and then they bowed their heads
in worship. The Father seeketh such to worship
Him in spirit and in truth. The only place, now listen, the
only place a sinner will truly worship is at the feet of the
Great and Sovereign God. A God that you can manipulate,
a God that you can change, is no God at all. The only place
a sinner will worship is at the feet of the Sovereign Almighty
God Almighty. That's right. He sits upon the
throne of grace. Our God is great in sovereignty,
great in power. What a scene this must have been. It reminded me of this, and I'll
have you turn here. If you turn to the book of Luke,
it reminded me of this story here in the book of Luke chapter
4. Turn over there. You remember
when the Lord Jesus came to His home synagogue in Nazareth? Luke
4, verse 16, and he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day to worship, and there was delivered unto him a book, a
book, the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found a place where it is written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
the labyrinth to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord. And he closed the book, gave
it to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that
were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto
them, This day is a scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all
bear him witness and wonder that the gracious word which proceeded
out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this the
son of Joseph? Oh no, he's the son of God. He's
the son of God. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
took the word of the Lord, stood up, and read, and many of those
people were made glad, but also, if you read on in that chapter,
many of those people were made mad. They tried to throw him
off a hill, tried to throw him off a cliff. Now, back to the
book of Nehemiah, chapter 7, or chapter 8, verse 7 and 8. Verse 7 and 8, these other men,
these Levites, caused the people to understand the last part of
verse 7, to understand the law, and the people stood in their
place, so they read the book of the law distinctly, gave the
sense, and caused them to understand the reading. Now, this is significant. These Levites with Ezra, who
were standing to the right hand and to the left, they also read
the word of the Lord. And it says here they gave the
sense, or they read the word distinctly or clearly. Some think that they The scripture
was written in Hebrew. Some of the commentators that
I read said that they read the word in the Hebrew and then they
gave the word distinctly in the Chaldean language because those
people were from the Chaldean area of Babylon. So they read
it in the Hebrew and then they gave the translation clearly
and distinctly in the language of the people so they could understand. And that's probably what happened.
And then they gave the sense, that is, they gave the meaning,
they gave the meaning, that is, what does this mean to me? What is the application of this
to me? And then they caused them to
understand. what was read. Now this is what
we attempt to do when we preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We read, we read the word of
God distinctly. That is clearly and plainly this
is the word of the Lord. It would not do you any good
if I would get up here and speak in some kind of foreign language
and you didn't understand distinctly what I was saying. That's why
when we go to Mexico and preach to those native people in Mexico,
we have to have someone to interpret or translate for us so they could
hear the word distinctly and plainly in their own language. And then secondly, we give the
sense of the text. We always consider the Scripture
in the contents of what's being said, the whole chapter, not
just picking out a verse here, and picking out a verse there,
and trying to build a whole doctrine upon one verse. That's very dangerous. We take all the Word of God,
and preach all the Word of God, and we give the sense of the
text declaring how this applies to us through the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then we give the understanding,
or that is, the Lord by His grace causes the people to understand
the gospel. I can't give any man an understanding. God has to do that. He gives
eyes to see and an understanding. We read over in 1 John 20, we
know the Son of God has come and He's given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true, that we're in Him that
is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and this is eternal life. But I thought of this scripture
over in Luke 24. Don't turn, let me just read
it to you. You remember the Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the
dead, meeting with His apostles? And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled, which are written in the law
of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the
scripture. Now I thought of this story too,
remember the Ethiopian eunuch who traveled to Jerusalem and
spent those days there, and he was traveling back to his home
country. And Philip, by the Spirit of
God, was told to go and meet the eunuch on his way back, and
he was reading, remember, from Isaiah 53. And Philip said, do
you understand what you're reading? And he said, how can I, except
some man show me. Show me what is being said here.
And that's exactly what we try to do as we expound the word
and declare the word of God and try to help people understand
but essentially and really and completely and finally God must
give us the understanding and this was Paul's example too over
here in Acts 20 don't turn back there let me just read it to
you again in Acts 28 where he said when he had pointed him
appointed unto him a day, that is Acts 28, 23. There came many to him into his
lodging, to whom he expounded, expounded the word of God, testified
of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, the Lord
Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, out of the prophets from
morning till evening. That was a long day. And that's
what we do when we preach the gospel or attempt to preach the
gospel. Now listen carefully, the Lord
uses the preaching of the gospel to call out His people, to teach
them, to bless them, to feed them. Let us never discount the
importance of preaching of the word of the Lord and hearing
the word of the Lord as it's being preached. Now I know that
preaching in this day, especially in the last 50 years, the last
20 years, preaching of the Word of God, expository preaching,
verse by verse, word by word, preaching for the most part in
this religious day has been relegated to the scrap heap. They say,
that's old-fashioned. We are into entertainment. We
are into this program. We're into that program. We've
got to keep people involved and we have social programs. And
they've just done away completely with the preaching and teaching
of the Word of the Lord. May the Lord keep us from such
nonsense. May the Lord keep us ever declaring
the Word of the Lord. It pleased God through preaching
to call out His people. One of these managers over here
at the Expo Center called me sometime back, and he said, we're
going to have a big singing. We're going to have a big singing.
We're going to call it Big Church Night Out. And they've had a
couple of them. And he called me and told me,
he told me he wanted to announce it to all the people. We're going
to have a big singing over here in town. We want about all the
people coming here to sing it. And I told him, I said, well,
what about the preaching? I said, are you calling me to
invite me to come over and preach to the people? Oh, no, no, no,
no, no. This is a big night of singing. I told him, I said,
the Lord uses the preached word to call out his people. All they're
doing over there is entertaining the flesh and worship going on. The apostle Paul said, woe is
unto me if I do not preach the gospel. Woe is unto me if I do
not preach the gospel. But woe is unto you if I do preach
it and you don't hear it. You don't hear. What is it to preach the gospel,
tell the truth about God, tell the truth about the Lord Jesus
Christ, tell the truth about sin, the truth about salvation,
how God saves sinners? Paul said, I'm determined to
know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And
the apostle Paul charged young Timothy to preach the word, preach
the word, preach the word all the time, in season, out of season,
preach the word. Now, look at verse nine, Nehemiah
8 verse nine, Nehemiah, which is Tershethah, which means the
governor. Nehemiah, the governor, and Ezra,
the priest, the scribe, and Levi, taught the people and 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. Now, why were they weeping? This
day is holy unto the Lord. This was a day especially set
aside for the reading of the Word of the Lord, rejoicing in
the Lord's mercy, rejoicing in His goodness. Likewise, we set
one day a week aside for the privilege of preaching the Word
and worship of the Lord, reading of the Word on Sunday. And we
have an added bonus one day a week on Wednesday. We gather together
for reading of the Word. But all the people, notice in
verse 9, the last part, all the people wept. When they heard
the word of the Lord, all the people wept when they heard the
word of the law. Now, why were they weeping? They
perceived that they had not kept the law of the Lord, but had
broken it in many, many cases. and were liable to the wrath
and judgment of God in the case of their disobedience unto God. You know why they were weeping?
Guilty! Guilty! You see, the law of God
works death and speaks terror, shows men their sin, and thunders
a curse against them. They all wept as guilty sinners
before God. You remember from our study in
Romans 3, let every mouth be stopped and all the world become
guilty, guilty, guilty before God. That's what the law of God
declared. But notice something interesting.
Verse 10, he said unto them, that is as we described along
with Nehemiah, go your way. It's lunchtime. Go home and eat. Eat the fat. Drink the sweet.
Feast upon what the Lord provided. Send portions unto them for whom
nothing is prepared, for this day is holy unto our Lord. Neither be you sorry, for the
joy of the Lord is your strength. Now, go home and eat. He's saying this. Don't be sorry. Don't worry. Be happy. Be happy. Be happy. Now, when they were
sincerely convicted that they were sinners, they were told
to rejoice. Now this is key. When they were
convicted they were sinners, when they were weeping over their
sin, they were told to rejoice and be happy in the Lord your
God who is your strength. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that the Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. True godly repentance clears
the way for spiritual joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you
know you're a sinner, a sinner by birth, Nature, practice, and
choice. If you know yourself to be a
sinner, and know yourself to be ungodly, my friend, rejoice. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
came to save folks just like you. Sinners. The Lord is your
strength. Notice, for the joy of the Lord. Don't be sorry. You've been convicted,
but rejoice in the Lord who is your strength. Rejoice in the
Christ of God who is your strength. And that's what we do. That's
the message of the gospel, is it not? We rejoice in the Lord
Jesus Christ who is our strength. This holy joy is of the Lord
as salvation is of the Lord. I mentioned earlier about the
eunuch there in the wilderness when Peter Philip opened to him
the Word of the Lord, and when Philip baptized the eunuch confessing
his faith in Christ, it says the eunuch went on his way rejoicing
in the Lord. His sorrow was turned into joy. We read in 1 Peter, Yet believing, ye rejoice with
joy unspeakable, full of glory, receiving the end of your faith,
even a salvation, even a salvation of your soul." Let me read this
to you in Psalm 95. Oh come, let us sing unto the
Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to
the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence
with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto the Lord. For the
Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods. Rejoice in the Lord. If you know
you're a sinner, You have every reason to rejoice. The Lord Jesus
Christ came to save sinners. The Christ of the Lord, Jehovah,
is your strength. Verse 11 and 12, the Levites
encouraged the people, instilled them, saying, This day is holy
to the Lord. Don't be grieved. And the people
went their way. It says there in the last part
of verse 12, They went their way with great
mercy, that is, great joy, because they understood the words that
were declared unto them. They heard with understanding.
The people went their way rejoicing with great joyfulness and gladness
of heart, because they understood the word of the Lord. The last
part of verse 17 says, "...and there was very great gladness."
Very great gladness. How much more is there reason
for us? And how much more reason is there
for joy and gladness when the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the doctrines of God, the doctrine of God concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ is clearly preached And we know and understand and believe
the Gospel. You see, the better we understand
the Word of the Lord, the more comfort we shall find from the
many promises found in the Word of the Lord. Whereby given unto
us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might
be partakers of a divine nature. They that sow in tears shall
reap in joy, Psalm 126. Those that tremble at the convictions
of the Word may triumph in the consolations of the Word. Those who tremble at the conviction
of the Word may triumph in the consolation of the Word, Matthew
Henry. In verse 17 and 18 of our text, All the congregation of them
that were come out of the captivity made booths, sat under the booths,
for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun, until that day
had not the children of Israel done so, and there was very great
gladness, verse 18, Also, day by day, from the first day until
the last, he read in the book of the law of God, and they kept
the feast, this is the Feast of Tabernacles, seven days, and
on the eighth day was a solemn assembly according to the manner. They continued the next day,
and the next day, and the next day, reading and teaching the
Word of the Lord, observing the Feast of the Tabernacle, and
rejoicing in the Lord. They had a seven-day revival.
A seven-day revival concerning the Word of the Lord. Now this
Feast of the Tabernacle was to remember the forty years in the
wilderness and the temporary state until they entered into
the promised land. In those 40 years they wandered
in the wilderness, they had those booths. And they were, once a
year, they were made to build this temporary shelter, remembering
how the Lord sustained them in the wilderness those 40 years.
This, too, is our state now, until they entered that promised
land. And this, too, is our state now, living in booths. Temporarily, we live in booze,
don't we? Tabernacles of clay, this body,
booze, until we reach our heavenly and eternal home. And that's
what they were celebrating there. We're just pilgrims and strangers
passing through this land looking for a city whose builder and
maker is God. Now let me quit with this. I'll
quit with this. Hebrews 11. 9 and 10, Abraham,
it said of him, by faith, he sojourned in the land of promise,
as in the strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and
Jacob. Dwelling in tabernacles, booths. That's what we do. That home
over there on Wynn's Branch, it's a booth. It's a booth. This tabernacle that we dwell
in, it's a booth. It's coming down shortly. But
we're waiting and looking dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and
Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked
for a city which hath foundation, whose builder and maker is God."
So, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Joy in the Lord,
rejoicing in the Lord is your strength.