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00:00 It's fitting that on the new first service of the new year that we're looking at a scripture passage that
00:06 shows how the ancient Israelites celebrated their new year. Now, if you listen carefully or read the
00:13 text before you came today in order to prepare for the sermon, you may have thought, I didn't see anything about a
00:20 new year. As a matter of fact, in the text, it said the first day of the seventh month. Now, how can that be a
00:26 new year? If you live in Malaysia, that should not be a problem. I mean, after all, four or
00:33 five days ago, we celebrated happy new year. Three weeks from now, you'll be saying once again, happy new year,
00:39 Chinese New Year. Go up to Thailand in a few months, they'll have a national holiday for their Buddhist New Year.
00:46 Come back to Malaysia a little bit later, still this calendar year, we'll have a national holiday here where we
00:51 also celebrate Happy New Year, the Islamic New Year. I found out in preparing for this sermon
00:57 that the Jewish people had two calendars. An ecclesiastical or a religious calendar. And in that
01:04 calendar, it was the first day of the seventh month. But they also had another calendar, their civil calendar.
01:12 And this first day of the seventh month was the beginning of the new year in their civil calendar. So we see how they
01:19 celebrated New Year's Day by listening to the word of God.
01:25 Just a brief reminder of where we are in the book of Nehemiah. You remember back
01:30 in October we started a series and then because of the Advent time and the Christmas time, we of course addressed
01:37 those issues. We're going back now to resume the study of Nehemiah. A reminder
01:42 where Nehemiah fits in the Bible. Way back in Exodus, God had freed his people
01:48 from slavery in Egypt. He had led them out of Egypt. He took
01:54 care of them on their way to the promised land. And during the time he was leading them, he gave them a
01:59 covenant and promised them if they obeyed the covenant, they would be blessed. If they disobeyed, there would
02:05 be serious consequences. Well, you know the story. The people did not obey God.
02:11 God sent them messengers. The prophets came saying, "Remember the covenant. Repent or else there'll be judgment."
02:18 People ignored them, kept doing whatever they wanted to. God kept his promise and judgment came. Enemy armies conquered,
02:26 destroyed their cities, carried the people off into exile. And now in
02:31 Nehemiah, we pick up where God has made it possible for the people to come out
02:36 of exile and go back to Jerusalem and the surrounding area. And so we see when
02:42 Nehemiah came back, the biggest physical need there in the city was there are no
02:48 city walls to protect the people from enemies. Chapter 7, we see now the city wall has
02:55 been complete. But Nehemiah's task is not over. The biggest, most important task still lies
03:01 ahead. Because why were the city walls broken down to begin with?
03:06 Well, enemy armies knocked them down. Well, why did they do that? because God sent judgment on the people. Why did he
03:13 send judgment? Because they had disobeyed him again and again and again. So the biggest need facing these people
03:20 was spiritual renewal, spiritual revival. And we will see in our text how
03:27 their attention was focused once again on God to truly be the people of God in
03:32 the promised land. This morning, we're going to focus our attention just on chapter 8. And we'll see how the people
03:39 of God encountered God through his word. And from this text, we will see things
03:47 that we can apply to our life because here we'll be encouraged and motivated
03:52 and challenged to value God's word. We'll be encouraged to listen to to
03:59 study and to seek understanding of God's word. And when we understand God's word
04:05 because we value it so much, then we will want to respond appropriately to God and his word. And then we'll see
04:13 that when we apply God's word, that leads us to rejoice. We rejoice when we
04:19 remember who God is, what he has done, what he's doing, what he will do.
04:24 First of all, we're encouraged to value God's word. Now in our text, we see that
04:29 the Israelite people placed a very high value on God's word. They came together
04:35 willingly, eagerly, enthusiastically because they wanted to hear the word of
04:41 God taught and explained. They took the initiative because they valued God's
04:47 word. Now, how do we know that? Well, the text tells us who took the
04:53 initiative, not the leaders. It says the people. They told Ezra, "Bring the book.
04:59 Read to us the words that the Lord has given to us through Moses."
05:05 How else do we know that they highly valued God's word? Because they all
05:10 showed up. Nobody skipped out. All the people gathered as one man in unity. And
05:18 the unity came from a common desire to want to hear God's word. We see
05:24 everybody was there. Men and women, senior adults, young adults, youth, even
05:31 children. Now, probably not any two and three year olds. But it says everybody,
05:36 all who could understand, they came. We also see that the Israelite people
05:43 valued God's word. When we look at verse three, look how long they were there.
05:49 basically from 6 am till noon. Now that's a marathon scripture reading, a
05:56 marathon worship service. And you thought we preached a long time in this service in this church.
06:04 Well, we'll later see in the sermon we're supposed to apply scripture to our lives. So, in trying to keep with this
06:10 passage of scripture, I've prepared a six-hour long sermon. And how can you
06:15 apply God's scripture to life? Easy. Look at the next part. Listen attentively for all six hours.
06:23 Now, just kidding. My sermon's only half that long. But I'm not kidding on the part about
06:28 listening attentively, wanting to hear God speak to us.
06:35 Well, not only did they come and listen to the scripture here for six hours
06:40 celebrating New Year in this way, but we see in verse 13 that on the very next day, the men came back. The heads of the
06:47 house came back. Why? They wanted to continue to study the words of the law.
06:53 And that's still not all. We'll see in verse 18, just two weeks later, they
06:58 came back again. And this time, they had a festival for seven days. And each of
07:04 those seven days, they had Bible study. You see, the people recognized the vital
07:10 necessity of studying scripture. They had a hunger, a thirst for God, who was
07:16 revealing himself to them through his word. Their desire to encounter God
07:23 through his word is similar to what the psalmist expressed in Psalm 42. As the deer longs for streams of water,
07:31 so my soul longs for you, oh God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living
07:38 God. Their desire to know God's word was similar to the psalmist also in Psalm 19
07:45 when the psalmist said, "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul." The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoice
07:52 in the heart. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
07:58 And now look at what he says next. More to be desired are the words of God
08:05 than gold. More than much fine gold.
08:10 When you hear that read, you might think, is this guy serious? The word of God more important than goal, more
08:17 important than wealth, more important than prosperity. Yes.
08:23 Yes, he is serious. What value do you place on God's word?
08:32 Do we place as much value on the word of God as the psalmists more valuable than
08:37 gold? Well, why is the word of God so valuable? Jesus says the words that he
08:43 has spoken are spirit and life. Whoever hears the words of Jesus and believes
08:49 him, God who sent Jesus will have eternal life. He will not come into
08:55 judgment because he has passed from death unto life. Scripture is there to
09:00 meet our deepest needs. Scripture is there to address our most serious problems.
09:06 We face many problems in our lifetime. Our biggest problem is that sin
09:13 separates us from God. And only through a clear proclamation of
09:18 scripture and our understanding of that proclamation of Jesus Christ as the way
09:24 to salvation when we respond in repentance and faith. Can we be forgiven
09:29 of our sin, reconciled to God, and come back into a right relationship with God?
09:35 Move this. Excuse me.
09:41 In Romans chapter 10, faith comes by hearing.
09:47 Hearing from the word of Christ. Yes. Scripture of utmost important. And me
09:53 today, many churches, many individual Christians, they recognize this. Therefore, they place a high priority on
09:60 the proclamation and the teaching of God's word. and talking to some of the youth from the youth camp, I've been
10:06 encouraged to hear the emphasis placed on the Bible at the youth camp and how
10:12 they've covenanted with each other to study together the Gospel of John. I thought that was great.
10:19 But unfortunately, there are some Christians and even some churches who do
10:24 not value highly the scriptures. And this becomes evident in the lives they
10:30 lead or in the activities of some of the churches or even in the ministries of some people who are supposedly
10:36 missionaries. Sometime back I ran into a missionary
10:42 who was drawing support from Christians from churches being paid a full-time salary to share the gospel with an
10:48 unreached people group. And so I was interested. I was talking to this person and she told me, "Oh,
10:55 I've not told any Bible stories to any of the people yet. Oh, I've not shared any scripture with them. Oh, no. I've
11:02 never mentioned the name of Jesus. I'm afraid if I do, it'll ruin the good relationship I'm building with them."
11:09 And I probably had a puzzled look on my face. So she said, "Oh, but I've not been working with him very long."
11:16 I said, "How long?" "A year.
11:21 being paid a full-time salary to share the gospel with an unreached people group, doing wonderful work among them
11:27 to help meet some physical needs, but has not yet one time said anything from scripture mentioned Jesus.
11:35 She did not realize the value of scripture. I'm thinking, why not work for the Red
11:42 Cross, the Red Crescent, the United Nations, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation? All of these organizations
11:49 do wonderful work. They meet the needs of many people in many places of the world. And she was doing some good
11:55 things, I'm sure. But only we Christians with the word of God are able to speak
12:03 to the deepest needs that people have and help them know how they can be set
12:09 free, how they can come into a right relationship with God.
12:15 I'll contrast that with another Christian worker I've talked to in his country, not Malaysia, another country.
12:21 He was also targeting an unreached people group, also drawing a salary,
12:27 reaching out to these unreached people. And when I talked with him, he was telling about all the different
12:32 activities he had. We've got this going and this going and this ministry and that ministry.
12:38 Marvelous things he's doing. And then he said, "And the purpose of each one of our activities and things we're doing to
12:46 help in the community are so that we can expose the people to the scripture." We
12:51 want to get the word of God in their hands so it can come into their heart. The purpose of everything we do is to
12:57 try to lead people to faith in Christ through the use of the scripture. Because you see, that's what the purpose
13:03 of the scripture is. 2 Timothy 3:15, probably the most important verse in the
13:08 entire Bible about the scripture. It says, "The purpose of the scripture is
13:15 to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."
13:22 So why is the scripture so important? It's only through scripture that we can
13:27 come through to faith in Jesus Christ. We can't learn about Jesus and his
13:33 crucifixion and resurrection just by looking at nature. We can't learn about Jesus, his crucifixion, his
13:39 resurrection, just by observing nice things that people that are friendly do for us. The scripture not only shows us
13:46 how to be saved, it also shows us how to live after we're saved. Trains us in
13:52 right living so that we will be equipped to do all kinds of good works.
13:58 So, we value scripture highly. Only through the message of scripture do we know how to be saved and how to live a
14:05 life that is pleasing to God. Do you place a high priority on
14:10 scripture? Does God's word play a significant role in your life? As individuals, we all
14:18 need to make sure we give importance to hearing, reading, studying, and applying
14:24 God's word. And as a church, we need to also make sure that the scripture plays
14:29 a major role in the life of everything we do. I realize there are some groups of
14:35 Christians that don't place a real high value on scripture and instead they tend
14:41 to emphasize their personal experience with God.
14:46 And yes, there is a danger that scripture study can become purely academic.
14:52 You can maybe quote the Greek and the Hebrew and the grammar and all the Bible facts and it's obvious it doesn't mean
14:59 anything in the way you live. And yes, we do want to have a personal
15:05 experience with God where we experience him speaking to us, moving in our heart,
15:10 affecting our lives. But that's exactly what happened to the
15:16 people in ancient Israel. They experienced God how? through study of
15:22 the scripture, through their intense six hours ongoing study, explanation,
15:30 meditation on God's word, they experienced God in a very real,
15:35 intimate, intense, powerful way. God touched their hearts through his
15:41 word. He revived their soul, brought change to their life. Remember, it's the
15:49 Holy Spirit who inspired the scripture. Second Peter chapter 1 tells us in the
15:54 old time the holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
16:03 The Holy Spirit who inspired the scripture does not want us to ignore his
16:08 masterpiece, his written word that he has inspired. So we want to value God's word.
16:16 And secondly, we want to listen to, study, and seek to understand the word
16:22 of God. Because the ancient Israelites in Nehemiah chapter 8 highly valued God's
16:28 word, they were willing to listen intently. We've already seen that for five to six
16:36 hours straight, the people listened attentively. They had come together of their own
16:43 accord. They wanted to be there and hear God speak. They came expectantly
16:48 knowing that God would speak to them. And today, I'm sure many of us are like
16:54 those ancient Israelites. We too have come willingly. At least I didn't see anybody being dragged in. Now, some
17:02 might have come with just a little bit of pressure. But for the most part, we're here willingly because we want to
17:08 be. But do we come with receptive hearts expecting to hear a message from God
17:15 through his word? I enjoy coming to church at least most
17:20 of the time. I attend church regularly. Sometimes I come
17:28 expectantly wanting to hear God speak, expecting to hear God speak. But if I'm
17:34 honest, and I'll be honest, sometimes when I come, the reason I'm
17:39 here is because it's Sunday morning and it's time to go to church. Now, that's not all bad.
17:46 I still have a chance of getting more out of that than if I just hung around the house and did whatever, or if I went
17:52 out to just enjoy a nice, leisurely, late breakfast. But how much better if I
17:57 if we would come expectantly, having prayed before we come, having read the
18:02 scripture passage that's going to be preached on that day, expecting God to move and to speak to us.
18:09 The Israelite people in the text came expecting. Therefore, they listened
18:14 attentively and they did hear God speak.
18:19 Amazing. Five to six hours straight, the people listened attentively.
18:27 No sleepers. Now imagine that. Sitting through a six-hour service with roughly 50,000
18:35 other people around you and not a single person is not enough.
18:42 Now, of course, they did not sit through the sermon. It appears that they were standing most of the time. We see when
18:50 Ezra opened the book, all of the people stood up. And later we see that as the
18:56 Levites were going among the people, teaching them, explaining the word, the people were still standing.
19:04 So maybe that's why nobody fell asleep. Everybody was standing up. It's a little more difficult to fall asleep while
19:11 you're standing up. So maybe we're doing things backwards here. Maybe next week we should sit down
19:18 during the singing. That'll keep you awake and then stand up during the sermon and that way you won't go to
19:24 sleep during the sermon. It's amazing that they could sit
19:30 attentively for five to six hours. Nobody slept.
19:36 Nobody checked their Facebook. Nobody pretended to be taking notes on
19:42 their phone and they were really answering a WhatsApp message. Yeah, you left because I know you you've
19:48 seen other people do it. You've not done it, but you've seen other people do it. These people valued God's word.
19:55 Therefore, they came expecting to hear God. And so, they listened intentively, attentively, and they did hear God
20:03 speak. Now, it's not exactly clear, real clear exactly what happened that morning, but from the text, we can see
20:10 that there had been a large platform, wooden platform built up front. And on this stage, Ezra and about 13 other
20:17 people were sitting there. So, Ezra undoubtedly began the reading,
20:23 but since the reading lasted for six hours, he possibly needed a break, and some of the other men might have read
20:29 part of the time. And we also see some of the Levites men who were not on the
20:34 stage as they circ circulated among the people they also were reading from the
20:40 book of the law of God and they were distinctly communicating its meaning so
20:45 that the people could understand. So probably what happened was
20:50 Ezra or one of the other people on stage read a lengthy passage of scripture and then there might have been silence on
20:57 the stage and that's when the other Levites circulated among the people to make sure they understood
21:04 help them to explain things that they did not understand help them understand things that were a little bit difficult
21:10 and then there was reading from the front again and then once again the explanation among the people we could
21:17 draw a parallel in our church. It's like if on Sunday we come and in the service
21:22 we listen to the scripture read. We hear the sermon preached and then we go out
21:28 to the garden cafe and along the ta among the people we're sitting with at the table we discuss the scripture and
21:33 how we can apply it to our life. Oh, you don't do that at your table?
21:40 Well, you could. Maybe a better parallel would be we come to church on Sunday. We
21:46 hear the scripture. We hear the sermon. And then many of the life groups
21:52 later that week, they will read the scripture once again. Talk about not only the sermon, but talk about the
21:58 scripture. More important to talk about the scripture than the sermon, but talk about the scripture, talk about the
22:04 sermon, any questions, and then they're able to explain. And especially people
22:09 who might have not as much Bible background or are new Christians, they
22:14 can be brought along to help understand a little bit better. Or maybe like in the alpha group, come, everybody's
22:21 together, you hear the word of God, you break into the small groups where you can explain it and answer questions.
22:29 Well, in verse 18, we see that the Levites are communicating the meaning of
22:35 the scripture. This word could be translated, they translated. You see,
22:41 the scriptures were all written in Hebrew, but the world language at that time under the Persian Empire was
22:47 Aramaic. And some of these people who had been in exile under the Persians,
22:52 they knew Aramaic, but their Hebrew might not have been too good.
22:57 And they weren't able to understand God's word in their language. And so the Levites would help them to truly
23:04 understand God's language, God's word, speaking to them in a language that they
23:09 could understand. It's important for people to be able to hear God speak to them in their mother
23:16 tongue. That's why there are so many Bible translation projects. That's why here at this church, we have not only
23:22 the English language service, but Mandarin and Tamil and Tagalog or Filipino. And throughout the KL Va Clang
23:29 Valley, there are so many different languages where the word of God is clearly proclaimed in languages people
23:35 can understand. Well, not only did the people not only
23:41 was the message communicated clearly, we see that the people understood the
23:47 message. It wasn't just go in one ear and out the other ear. Rather, they
23:52 understood. Now, in order for the people to understand the message, there's really
23:58 two big responsibilities. The first responsibility falls on the leaders, the preachers, the Bible study
24:06 leaders, the alpha group leaders, the house group leaders. It's our job to distinctly and clearly
24:14 communicate the meaning of the scripture. But the responsibilities do not stop
24:20 there. It's also very important for the listeners to want to understand.
24:28 And if they're listening and if their heart is right with God and they're willing to study and put out the effort,
24:34 they can learn the scripture. So the leaders communicate the scripture and
24:40 the people will be able to understand if they want to understand. Now, I
24:47 realize there are some difficult things in scripture and there might be some passages you never totally understand.
24:52 And if you're a new Christian, there's even more you don't understand. But over time, with more and more Bible study,
24:60 you will be able to understand. You can also apply these truths to your
25:05 personal devotional life, to your Bible reading, Bible study at home, whether it's alone or maybe with your children.
25:13 Now, the ancient Israelites did not have Bibles in their home. No phones with a Bible app they could
25:20 download. We're really privileged today that we can have a Bible in a language that we
25:27 understand in several possible translations,
25:33 printed copies, copies on our phone. Not only do we have Bibles,
25:38 many, many Bible study aids are available, commentaries, our library has some good resources. If
25:45 we're willing to take the time, put out the effort, we can study, and come to a good
25:52 understanding of God's word, meditating on it, applying it to our lives.
25:59 So, we can understand God's word if we want to. And if we do, we'll be like the
26:05 Israelite people. They rejoiced with great joy. Why?
26:11 Because they understood the word of God that had been declared to them.
26:19 So, we're encouraged to value God's word. We're encouraged to listen
26:24 attentively, to study, to seek to understand God's
26:30 word. And even more importantly, we are to apply God's word, responding
26:38 appropriately to God as he has spoken to us through his word.
26:44 Now the first response I'll mention is how the people responded to God and to God's word even before they heard God's
26:52 message being read and explained. Because even before Ezra the scribe
26:57 opened the scriptures, the people had already responded to God in reverence
27:04 and in humility and in submission. They had come with a teachable spirit.
27:11 They recognize God's authority over them and they recognize the authority of
27:16 scripture over their thoughts, their hearts, their lives. We'll look back at
27:22 chapter um verse five. As Ezra opened the book, all the people stood. Now,
27:29 this is not just a mere formality. Okay, now it's time to stand. Now, time to sit. But they stood as a sign of
27:36 reverence, as a sign of great respect for God's word.
27:41 They were giving honor not only to God's word but to God who had given them the book of LA law through Moses. And we see
27:49 in verse six that Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God.
27:54 Now we don't know exactly what he said when he blessed God because the text is not there. But we can have an idea of
28:01 what Ezra might have said. The Talmud is a collection of uh Jewish
28:08 writings that are not in the Bible, but part of the Talmud was written right about the same time as Nehemiah and Ezra
28:15 were involved in their ministry. And this was a collection of practices of the Jewish people and how they
28:21 implemented many things in their worship. And in the Talmud, we see a blessing that was frequently read by
28:28 scribes right before they read from the book of the law. And that blessing is
28:34 blessed are you Lord great God who gave the Torah to your people Israel.
28:42 The Torah being the first five books of the Bible. Sometimes called the Pentatuk, sometimes called the law of
28:48 Moses. But you have these this blessing giving God thanks for the fact that God
28:54 had given them the scripture. God had made a covenant with them and they were
29:00 grateful to God for this. There's a couple of things in the text that I want to couple of words in the text I want to
29:08 emphasize in verse six that also call attention to the attitude the people had
29:14 before they even heard the scripture. The two words are going to show that the people came with humility before God and
29:22 with submission to the authority of God. And those two words we see in verse six,
29:29 Ezra blessed the Lord God. And then later in the verse we see the people
29:35 worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
29:41 First word Ezra blessed God. It's from the Hebrew word barak. And what does
29:46 that word literally mean? The root word of this word comes from the meaning of
29:52 to kneel. In other words, you're kneeling before one who is greater than I. Kneeling
29:59 before one that I recognize has authority over me. And it's the same
30:05 word that is sometimes translated kneel in the Old Testament. For example, Psalm 95:6. Oh, come let us worship and bow
30:13 down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. It's the exact same word. Ezra
30:19 blessed the Lord. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
30:27 When we know this, that can inform our understanding of what it means to bless
30:34 God. Second word I want to emphasize is the word worshiped and that's the Hebrew
30:41 word shaka. This word literally means to prostrate
30:47 oneself, lay down, fall down flat on your face.
30:53 Just like in our text, it said they worshiped the Lord. They fell down prostrate before the Lord with their
30:60 faces to the ground. This word is used 171 times in the Old
31:07 Testament that they would fall down flat on their face before the Lord. And
31:13 interestingly enough, when we get to the New Testament, which was written in Greek, not Hebrew, we see that the word
31:19 most often translated worship in the New Testament, has the exact same meaning.
31:25 The Greek word procono means to prostrate oneselves, fall down flat on
31:31 your face before God as an act of obesence, of
31:37 humility, of submission, of homage, of worship.
31:44 This will inform our understanding of what it means to worship God. We come
31:50 before him with humility and respect.
31:55 reverence. So that's the first response we want to look at in responding to God's word
32:02 appropriately. We come before him kneeling down, falling prostrate before
32:08 him. Which brings us to the second point.
32:13 We want to be able to apply then God's word to our lives.
32:18 When we hear a command, we follow it. When we're given instructions, we do it.
32:25 When we're advised to avoid certain pitfalls, we do. When we're confronted
32:31 with sin, we repent. You see, God's word does more than just inform our mind or
32:37 tickle our intellect. God's word is there to shape and direct our lives. It
32:43 shows us how to live. Then we're supposed to live accordingly.
32:50 We already saw that God's word word is there to rebuke us to correct us to
32:56 train us in right living so that we can live a life pleasing to God.
33:02 And many of you will remember the words in the New Testament, the book of James. We're to be doers of the word, not only
33:09 hearers. Bible study is not just a mental exercise. It's possible to gain
33:15 more and more and more Bible knowledge and we think we're superch Christians, but we're just deceiving ourselves as
33:20 the text says if we don't apply it to our life. It's relatively easy to
33:27 acquire Bible knowledge. Oh yes, it takes work. It takes time. It's not going to just come automatically. But if
33:33 you study and avail yourselves of the many helps that are available, go to seminars, listen to sermons, go to
33:40 Bible studies, read, you can gain a lot of Bible knowledge,
33:46 but it's not always that easy to apply it to our lives. Yet, that's the purpose
33:52 of the scripture. When we were serving the church in the United States many years ago, one day I
33:59 ran into a man who was a member of our church and he complimented me on the
34:05 sermon I had preached just two days earlier and he said, "You know, you said
34:11 something in there that was really interesting that I'd never thought of before.
34:16 I'm going to think about that some more." Well, I thanked him politely for his
34:22 compliment. Glad the sermon was meaningful. Thank you for the encouraging words. But what
34:28 I really wanted to say was, "Don't just think about it a while. Do something
34:34 about it." I didn't say that. I'd already had a runin with the guy before. He had
34:40 opposed a Spanish language ministry our church was starting to reach out to all of the immigrants from Latin America so
34:47 they could hear God speak to them in Spanish because they didn't know English. He thought they should learn
34:52 English and come to the English church. I thought it was more important that they hear God speak and then learn
34:58 English as they went. And our church was offering English classes. So I didn't want to get into another confrontation
35:04 with a man. I just thanked him. But I was really wanting to say if after you
35:10 think about this a while, if you become convinced that this is truly a truth from God's word,
35:16 let it affect your life. So be careful after the service today.
35:23 If any of you compliment me on the sermon, I might ask you, "How are you going to apply it?"
35:29 I won't do that to you either, even if I haven't had a run in with you. But nevertheless,
35:35 the purpose of all sermons, purpose of all Bible studies is that it will affect our life, not just give us knowledge.
35:42 Now, yes, I realize there are some things in the Bible that you learn that there's really no way you can apply it
35:48 to your life. For example, I started off talking about the Jewish people had two
35:54 calendars and so the first month, first day of the seventh month was also a happy new year.
35:60 I learned that in preparing for the sermon, but how will I apply it to my life? I won't.
36:06 Maybe in the future if I preach on this passage again, I'll mention it again. But what can I do to change my life
36:13 based on this knowledge? Absolutely nothing. But there are some things that possibly
36:19 you've heard for the first time today that you can apply to your life. For
36:25 example, think back to the words behind that give the meaning for bless God or
36:33 worship God. As we bless God, we kneel before him in reverence,
36:41 acknowledging he has the rightful authority over us. Worshiping God means
36:46 we fall down flat on our face before him, acknowledging his greatness and the
36:52 authority that his word has over our life. How will you apply that knowledge to
36:59 your life? It's not enough just to go about and say, "Oh, that was an interesting Hebrew lesson, interesting
37:04 Greek lesson. Now I know some more things in knowing what these words mean. How
37:10 will that affect your worship? How will that affect the way you bless God?
37:16 Now, no, I'm not advocating that we remove all the furniture and we stand up the whole time and then fall down flat
37:24 on our face. That'd be kind of difficult for ladies with dresses or for some of our senior citizens, people with
37:30 disabilities. Maybe when you have your private devotion time at home, some of you might
37:36 want to try that. But more importantly,
37:41 how will knowing what bless God means and worship God means in the original
37:46 language, how will that affect your life? How will that affect your heart
37:52 when you come before God to bless him, to worship him? Will that be expressed by the heart
37:60 attitude of total submission and humility before God?
38:05 See, the Israelite people in our text today were willing to apply what they learned to their lives. They not only
38:13 understood God's word mentally, but they understood it with their hearts, and they wanted to apply it.
38:20 God touched their hearts through the reading and the teaching of scripture. They undoubtedly heard once again of
38:27 God's greatness and his holiness and they realized their unholiness.
38:34 They were reminded of the covenant God had made with them. And they remembered they were guilty of
38:41 breaking the covenant. They had been reminded of God's great provision, his
38:47 love, his faithfulness, and they were reminded of their unfaithfulness, disobedience, straying
38:54 from God. They were convicted of their sin through the reading of God's word, and they
39:01 repented. How do we know that? Look at the last part of verse nine.
39:08 For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Lord.
39:14 They were convicted of their sin. They were deeply troubled by their transgressions.
39:20 They experienced a deep heartfelt sorrow over their failure to do God's will. So
39:27 they wept. Elsewhere in our text, we see the phrase, they mourned and wept. Or
39:34 they grieved. Their hearts had been stirred. Their conscience had been pricricked through
39:39 the reading of God's word. So they wept over their sins.
39:46 Where is the weeping today over our sins, over our shortcomings?
39:53 Does that bring you to tears ever? The scripture says, "Have no other gods before me." Yet oftenimes we have things
40:02 more important to us than God. The scripture says, "Tell the truth. Be honest in all your dealings. And a lot
40:09 of the time we are, but not always. Scripture says to don't cheat others. Be
40:16 fair in all your dealings. Help the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden.
40:21 But we don't follow that. Do we weep over that?
40:26 The scripture says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength, and love your
40:32 neighbor as yourself." But we fall short. Do we mourn because of that?
40:40 The scripture says pray without ceasing. Scripture says you're to be witness for Jesus. Scripture says to go make
40:47 disciples of all peoples, all races, all language, all ethnic groups, all religious groups. But we don't do it.
40:56 When we're confronted with God's word and recognize our failure, is there any
41:01 godly sorrow that we experience? When we're reminded by scripture that we
41:07 are disobeying Jesus, does that bring any stirring of our heart, sense of
41:13 grief? Do we weep over the fact that we have
41:18 not shared our faith with a non-believer in weeks, maybe months,
41:24 maybe years? Maybe in your entire lifetime as a Christian
41:32 when you when the Israelites heard God's word, they were convicted of their failures,
41:40 their sins, their shortcomings to the point that their hearts were broken. They grieved. They mourned. They
41:49 wept over their sins. They repented.
41:55 They wanted God to change their mind, change their heart,
42:00 change their life. So evidently what was happening over this five or six hour period, the
42:07 scripture was read, the scripture was explained, and the people realized,
42:14 I have sinned against the almighty God. And they wept. And there's a period of
42:20 five to six hours where the people are grieving and mourning over their sin. Because each time more scripture was
42:26 read, they realized there's even more in my life that's not right with God than I
42:32 realized. And the more they heard, the greater they realized God was and the smaller they realized they were. And it
42:38 brought tears to their eyes. They wept.
42:43 Well, the fourth response that we see to scripture is we obey.
42:50 If you're truly submitted to God, if you desire to apply God's word to your life,
42:55 if you've really experienced repentance, then you'll obey. You'll do what God's
43:02 word says. Let's look at one example of the Israelites obedience. Verses 14-1
43:09 17. When they read the scripture, they saw that the law of Moses told them that the
43:15 people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month.
43:20 So what did they do? They went out and they made booths for themselves. And all
43:26 of the assembly made these booths and they lived in these booths for these seven days during this festival time.
43:33 God's word said, "This is what we're supposed to do. No questions asked." They did it. They joyfully went out and
43:40 did what God's word instructed them to do. Go gather branches. So they did and
43:46 they built these boos or these huts and they lived in them for a week. No
43:53 complaints. Ah, this is too much trouble. Takes too much time. Takes me away from my work, from my farm for a
44:00 full week. This is kind of silly, isn't it? I feel so uncomfortable living. I
44:07 would rather be home than in this crazy booth. No, you didn't hear that. They did it joyfully.
44:14 Now, a brief word about this feast of the booths or the feast of the tabernacles as it's uh called in the New
44:20 Testament. The purpose of this was to remind the people of their special relationship
44:26 with God. to remind them of the time after God had freed them from slavery in
44:32 Egypt and as he led them to the promised land that he gave to them. And during
44:39 that time they dwelt in these temporary shelters. You see, God freed the people
44:45 from slavery. Then he led them pillar of fire by night, a cloud by day. He
44:51 provided for their needs with bread from heaven, water from a rock. He protected
44:57 them from enemy armies. He gave them his law, entering into a covenant with them.
45:03 For God had told them, "You are my treasured possession."
45:09 God told them, "I will be your God and you will be my people." And then he
45:15 sealed this covenant with blood. And we hear the words of Moses as he sprinkled the blood on the people. This is the
45:21 blood of the covenant. And so the people were reminded of this special relationship with God and how God had
45:28 freed them, how God had taken care of them. But they were also reminded of the
45:33 words where when they were traveling to the promised land, God told them, "If
45:39 you keep the covenant, you'll be blessed. And here are the blessings you'll receive. But if you don't keep
45:46 the covenant, there's going to be some serious problems." So the people during this festival time,
45:54 they're remembering what God has done for them. They're remembering the covenant God has made. And they're
46:00 remembering that not only do they have privileges of being God's special people, they also have responsibilities
46:08 God expects them and wants them to live up to. God's word had said, "Celebrate this
46:13 feast." So they did. And what was the result?
46:19 There was very great rejoicing. It reminds me of the old gospel hymn
46:25 some of you might know. Trust and obey.
46:31 For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Place your
46:39 faith in God. Obey him. That then will bring the joy of the Lord. Which brings
46:48 me to my final point. We're able to now rejoice in the Lord
46:55 because we can remember who he is, what he has done, what he is now doing, and what he will do in the future.
47:04 After the Israelite people had repented, grieving and weeping over their sins for
47:10 a space of time that could have lasted five to six hours, Nehemiah then told the people,
47:17 "Now it's time you can dry your tears. Five, six hours of repentance. God's
47:23 heard your prayer. That's enough. Stop your weeping. Stop your mourning. Now
47:29 it's time to celebrate." And in verse 9, we see Nehemiah telling the people,
47:35 "This day is holy to the Lord your God. Don't weep or mourn." And then he told
47:42 them, "Go home, get some good food, some good drink. Be sure to share with those
47:47 who don't have any. This day is holy to the Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy
47:55 of the Lord is your strength." Yes, there is a time for grieving,
48:02 but there's also a time for rejoicing, for celebrating. As the psalmist says in Psalm 30, "Weeping may tar for the
48:10 night, but joy comes in the morning."
48:15 When we repent, confess our sins in faith, then God forgiven, forgives us.
48:22 We don't have to go through life burdened with guilt and shame. We can
48:27 rejoice knowing God has restored a right relationship with us.
48:33 And even in repentance, we can repent with joy. We were in Bangkok not too
48:40 long ago and I heard a man preach and he said something I'd never really heard of. He said, "Repent with joy." I said,
48:48 "What? I'm more familiar with the way they did it in Nehemiah with the weeping and the sorrow because you realize
48:55 you've not measured up to God's standard and you're convicted. But he said if you
49:01 repent and get a right restored relationship with God, that will bring joy and that
49:08 will motivate you to joyfully look for other things in your life of which you need to repent. Because the more you're
49:15 able to repent and bring back under the lordship of Christ, the more rejoicing there will be. So you can repent with
49:23 joy. Romans 2, chapter 4 tells us that God's
49:29 kindness leads us to repentance. And the Israelites were experiencing
49:36 that at this time. They had heard God speak through his word. They'd had a
49:41 deeply meaningful encounter with God. They had experienced repentance and now
49:46 forgiveness. They had been reminded of God's great love for them. So they had
49:52 true reason to rejoice. So Nehemiah said, "Dry your tears. The
49:59 joy of the Lord is your strength." When I was a teenager, young adult,
50:06 there wasn't much in the way of contemporary Christian music. So people had composed different choruses to try
50:13 to have something for the young people to sing in addition to hymns. And one of the types of choruses that was being
50:19 composed were a lot of scripture songs. And I thought this was good because when you sing scripture word for word
50:26 scripture, you remember it. And one of the songs that we sang was the joy of
50:32 the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Then it keeps on
50:39 going. Not real easy to sing, but a quote from scripture. Some of you might
50:44 have heard that. I don't know. It's pretty old. I like that verse. It was scripture.
50:51 They added other verses sometimes that were also scripture. For example, he
50:56 gives me living waters and I thirst no more. An illusion to Jesus conversation
51:02 in John chapter 4. Also in John chapter 7. Good verses. But then the song would
51:09 sometimes just go on and on and on. The worship leader could just make up verses as he went. And so sometimes you would
51:15 get to some really ridiculous verses, verses not theologically sound, more
51:21 just to entertain or get people stirred up. For example, if you want joy, you must shout for it.
51:28 And so then people are going woohoo or praise the Lord or trying to do something because if you want joy, you
51:34 must shout for it. The text said not biblical.
51:40 Next verse, sometimes if you want joy, you must jump for it. So the congregation was filled with little bunnies hopping around.
51:48 That was kind of cute. It brought a lot of amusement. Some people enjoyed it. I personally often felt kind of awkward
51:54 because that's really not my personality to go jumping around for no reason. But anyway, then the last
52:00 verse of course was haha as if you're trying to muster up a
52:06 laugh. Well, my purpose is not to criticize the song, but just to point
52:11 out we cannot create the joy of the Lord. No matter how much we shout or how
52:18 much we jump or how much we try to laugh, the joy of the Lord comes only by God.
52:27 And we see or one thing I wish had happened that
52:32 never did happen. I never heard a worship leader explain the context of
52:37 this song. Yes, it was a direct quote from scripture. The joy of the Lord is your strength. But they never did
52:44 explain how the joy of the Lord came about. It wasn't from jumping. It wasn't from
52:49 hopping. It wasn't from shouting. It wasn't from trying to make yourself laugh.
52:54 The joy of the Lord came because the people had understood the
53:02 words that were declared to them. The joy of the Lord didn't come from some
53:08 artificial created thing. It came from the fact that they had heard God speak
53:14 to them through his word. They had experienced repentance. They
53:20 understood it not just with their mind but with their heart. And that is what brought the joy. They
53:27 rejoiced because they understood and applied God's word.
53:34 So when they understood and applied God's word to their life, that brought
53:40 about the joy because they were able to remember who God is, what God had done,
53:45 what he is doing, and what he had promised to do for them in the future. And that brought them joy.
53:53 Today we too can experience that. And I would encourage you if you are a believer in Jesus,
54:00 value God's word. Place high priority on it. Put out the effort to study and seek
54:06 to understand God's word. Respond appropriately with respect, humility, submission.
54:14 Seek to not just learn facts, but apply it to your life. Two of those ways we can apply it to our
54:21 life is that of repentance and obedience. And then we too will experience this joy
54:28 of the Lord. And the joy of the Lord can truly be our strength as we go through this new year. If you're not a believer
54:35 in Jesus, I still hope that you will experience the joy of the Lord. But it's not something you can create. The only
54:42 way is to come before Christ. Acknowledge your need of him. Confess your sin to him. Ask him to forgive you.
54:50 Ask him to take control of your life. Placing your faith in the fact that he has reconciled us to God by paying the
54:58 penalty of our for our sin through his death on the cross and through his
55:03 resurrection bringing about victory over death.
55:09 Soon we'll be taking the Lord's supper. And during this time of the Lord's
55:14 supper, we will be obeying scripture because the scriptures do say, Jesus words say, "Do
55:21 this in remembrance of me." It'll be a time where we remember what God has done
55:28 for us. and will remember the covenant that Jesus made. Not the old covenant
55:34 that the people in the feast of the booth were celebrating, but the new covenant when Jesus said, "This is the
55:40 blood of the new covenant. My blood shed for you. My body given for
55:46 you." But before we come to the Lord's supper,
55:52 we also want to realize that the Lord's supper is a time to experience repentance.
55:58 In first Corinthians, we're told before you eat of the Lord's supper,
56:03 before you partake, everyone should examine themselves.
56:09 Let God shine his spotlight on your heart and show you areas of your life that aren't right with him.
56:17 Repent. I want us to now just have a brief time of silence. Each one of you pray, asking
56:24 God to show you what you need to repent of. Let's use this time to remember and
56:29 thank God for what he's done, but ask him to change our life. Help us to repent
56:35 after a time of silence. Then I'll lead us in prayer.
