I invite you to turn in your copies of God's words in Nehemiah chapter 8. Nehemiah 8. If you remember our sermon from last week, I preached on the first few verses of Nehemiah chapter 7, on the tail end of our sermon on Nehemiah chapter 6, and then we're going to be skipping over that large portion of Nehemiah 7, which is identical with Ezra chapter 2. So if you want a sermon on Nehemiah 7, you can go back and listen to my sermon on Ezra 2. We will be referencing Nehemiah 7 a little bit, but that's the context. So Nehemiah chapter 7 is that list of names, similar to what we see, identical really, to what we see in Ezra chapter 2. A list of names of God's people that have come into the land here. Let's turn our attention now to the reading of God's word. And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the water gate from the early morning until midday in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for that purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Ananiah, Uriah, Hekiah, and Maasaiah on his right hand. And Paddaiah, Mishel, Machijah, Hashum, Hash, Hashpadanah, Zechariah and Meshulam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it, all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads, and they worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also, Jeshua, Bani, Cherubiah, Jamin, Akub, Shabbatai, Hodiah, Maasaiah, Keletah, Ezariah, Josabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their place. They read from the book from the law of God clearly and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law. And he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine, and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready. For this day is holy to the Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, Be quiet, for this day is holy. Do not be grieved. And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them. On the second day, the fathers of the houses of all the people with the priests and the Levites came together to Ezra, the scribe, in order to study the words of the law. And they found it written in the law that the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, and that they should proclaim it and publish it in all their towns and in Jerusalem. go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written. So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the water gate, and in the square at the gate of Ephraim. And all the assembly of those who had returned from captivity made booths and lived in the booths. For from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun, to that day the people of Israel had not done so, and there was very great rejoicing. And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read from the book of the law of God, and they kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the rule. Thus ends the reading of God's word. Let's go to God and ask that he bless our meditation upon it. Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your Word. We pray that You would give us attentive ears this evening, help us to sit under Your Word with great rejoicing, help us to desire to understand, as we have just read, of our ancestors of old, our fathers and mothers in the faith, the people of God who desire greatly to hear from Your Word. We thank You for the blessing that Your Word is, and we pray that You would work in our hearts that we would truly treasure Your Word. Father, I pray that you would be pleased by the meditations of our hearts and the words of my mouth. I pray that what is sown in my weakness would be raised by the power of your Spirit. In Jesus' name, Amen. Our first point here tonight is that we are to understand the Word of God. It's a theme that runs out throughout this chapter, understand the word of God. God's people here clearly had a desire to hear God's word and to understand it. And we can rejoice for that fact, that history, our history of many years ago of God's people reviving really their faith. We're moving now in Nehemiah from a physical rebuilding of God's people to a spiritual rebuilding. The wall is completed. The gates are in place. In Nehemiah 7, there's an account or a list of God's people who are coming into the city faithful, desiring to serve God. We can think of a membership role in one sense. We have a membership role for our church. And it's the duty of the session to keep the role up to date, who is actually in our midst, in our number, who are we accountable for, who has moved on. And here we have a role in Nehemiah 7 of God's people. And they are coming under the authority of God's ordained leaders. And their first real act that's recorded for us here is that they desire to understand God's commands. They told Ezra, the people, told Ezra, bring God's word to us. We see that at the very beginning in verse one and two. They told Ezra the scribe, bring the book of the law. And so Ezra does so. Isn't it amazing that this people, the people that we know to be so fickle, to be so inconsistent, that here is a moment of faith, a moment of faithfulness, desiring to hear from God's Word. We ought to pray that this would be our desire, that we would consistently have this same attitude, that all of God's churches, that all churches everywhere would have this spirit. As we think throughout history and we think about great revivals in the church, times of reformation or revival where God's Word went out, where the church was rebuilt where the spiritual walls of the church were guarded and defended and strengthened and fortified. At the heart of those times in history was a passion and a desire for God's Word. The same is true here in Ezra 8. There was a desire to understand God's Word, a desire to hear it. May that be our own spirit. Ezra reads God's Word, and on this first day, there's five or so hours of reading. From the break of dawn to noon, Ezra read the law. I don't know exactly how far he got into God's Word, but it was a lengthy reading. And the people weren't done. They didn't check the box and then say, well, we're set, we can go another over many years without this kind of spirit, this desire for God's word. Now they had a hunger, they had a true desire. After he read it that first day, we have record in verse 13 that the heads of the houses came again to study God's word, to have true understanding. And then he continued to read each day after that for seven days. There is a desire to understand God's commands. We ought to pray that that be our desire. If it's not our desire, we ought to spend serious time with God, asking that it be our desire, working in our hearts by the Spirit, that we would truly treasure God's Word. As we just sang in Psalm 119, my possession is the law of God. That ought to be our heart. It's amazing to see Ezra brought in. His role was not done. We read his amazing account of his life and his role in the book of Ezra, and then it's quiet for a while, but he's brought back again. What a testament to this man of faith. In Ezra, we read that he was quick with the law of God, that he loved the law of God, that he studied the law so that he could do it and so that he could teach it. And here's his opportunity. And that was really his command from the pagan kings. Go instruct the people in your ways. And here he gets to fulfill that duty and his desire to teach God's people. We also see that the stress here, the emphasis is understanding. It's mentioned in verse 2 and verse 3 and verse 7 and verse 8 and in verse 12. Derek Kidner, in his commentary, says that mindless superstition was the mark of paganism. And that's pointed out in a few texts. In Isaiah 44, 18, they cannot understand. Or in Hosea 4, 6, my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. And that became the downfall of the apostate Israel, that northern kingdom. If you were in Sunday school, we talked about that, that they were scattered, destroyed by Assyria. They had no understanding. God's people, the remnant, the true people of God, would desire to understand God's word. that's shown even more that their heart here, their true desire, by the way that this was set up, this hearing of God's Word. And it's not exactly clear how this worked, but we read here of some assistance, as it were, to Ezra. He's there with other men on his right and his left, and they likely took turns reading the Word of God, reading so that it was read clearly. And then there were those, the Levites and that other list, that were among the people. And they were helping the people to make sure that they understood what was being read. In verse 7, we see that these other 13 moved among the congregation, and likely in some sort of interval between the readings to make sure everyone was following, everyone was tracking. This was not a mere formalism. This was not a mere outward Gathering where people were checking a box going through the motions. There was a true rich Desire to understand and the leaders were equipped to help the people And as I said in verse 13 The heads of the father's houses of all the people with the priests they gathered together to continue to learn There is a focused study on God's law, and we see specifically the heads of the Father's houses mentioned here. And we can think of those great passages that instruct families and heads of families to be concerned with right leadership, of leading God's people, their people under their household, to worship and understand God. If you think of Joshua 24, as to me and my house, we will worship the Lord, we will serve the Lord. You can think of Deuteronomy chapter 6, where there's the instruction for parents to be teaching their children, morning and day, when you get up and when you go down, when you're walking, to be instructing them in God's commands. The duty of understanding God's Word, of loving God's Word, of delighting in God's Word, that couldn't be left to the Levites or the priests. It couldn't be left to corporate worship. It had to be a regular part of the whole body, the people of God. There's some instruction here for us in our practices of family worship. Heads of houses, be studying God's word so that you can teach it to those who are in your household. so that you can rightly instruct, so that they can have true understanding, right understanding. We ought to be doing family worship, private and family worship, gathering together, a consistent time together, where you're reading God's word, studying God's word, talking about God's word, memorizing God's word, singing God's word, praying together. There's some instruction here for us. For that to be done well, to be done faithfully, heads of houses, make sure you are studying well. Heads of houses, I mentioned, you might think that applies only to men, the fathers, but if you're single, living by yourself, you are the head of your household, and you ought to be making sure that you are studying richly. As fathers, husbands, heads of your house, you do that not on your own, but you have a helper to help you in that work. So helpers, be making sure that as leaders in your home, you are studying God's word richly, intentionally, so that you can teach it. So there is the emphasis on understanding. And then we move to this next section of the text here, where we're going to be focusing primarily here for the rest of the passage, and not so much on the Feast of Booths that is celebrated. But we read here something interesting, where there's a movement from what is understood to how it impacts the hearts of God's people. Understanding is central. That's clear. It's repeated. It's clear. Understanding. But then out of that understanding, hearts were impacted. And that is right. That is what ought to be done. As we think about our family worship, as we think about our worship here, as we think about our Reformed context, where we heavily emphasize right understanding, let us not make our worship, our reading of God's Word, merely an intellectual pursuit. May we strive to grow in our love for the God who loves us and calls us. May we be convicted deep in our hearts over our sin. May we have great joy, contagious joy. We see that demonstrated here. And also, may we not reverse that order. May we keep understanding intellectual understanding, right knowledge first, and may out of truth flow emotion. It's too easy and too tempting for emotion to impact what we believe. It's easy to affect emotion, to emotionally convict. You could be watching a commercial and get emotional. Emotions are easy, but our emotions ought to be directed by truth. and not the other way around. We see the people here, they're first grieved. We see that as the word of God was read, the law of God, they were grieved, deeply grieved. They were weeping. But then they eat and drink and they send portions and they make great rejoicing because they had understood the words that were declared to them. I think there's some room for question here, and I struggle back and forth. What's going on here? The people grieve in response to God's word, and the Nehemiah and the Levites seem to correct them. Don't grieve, rejoice. And I don't think what's happening here is they're saying that it was wrong for them to be broken. I think they're not saying that you shouldn't have wept. What they're saying is don't stay there. The right response to God's law, one of the right responses is a true conviction, being broken by our sin, recognizing our guilt before a holy God, recognizing how far we fall short. We ought not stay there, broken by our sin, weeping, unable to rejoice. It's good to grieve. good to be convicted, but let conviction lead to Christ. There is joy to be found in God's law. There's joy to be found in who God is, and ultimately those things point to Christ and are demonstrated, manifested by Christ and his work for us. Have joy true joy we see an effort from Nehemiah Nehemiah says it's time to feast it's not a time to weep and he points them to that fact that we're gonna have some some good feast here and the Levites continue to instruct them in God's law so Nehemiah let's get our eyes on the verse here Nehemiah in verse 9 and 10 Go your way, eat the fat, and drink sweet wine, and send portions. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. It's time for a feast, people." Then the Levites, in verse 11, calm the people, and they instruct. They say, this day is holy. It's set apart. This is a special day. And then that changes the heart of the people, and they do rejoice. As the people instruct, Part of what might have been happening there part of white what might have occurred and maybe not but what we do know is that there are several aspects of God's law and As as the Levites and other leaders were teaching the people they would have rightly pointed to these aspects of God's law That God's law is meant to be to be that mirror that reveals to us our sin shows us our ugliness and if we hold up the mirror of God's expectation we see a how far we fall short, and that's one right aspect. But that's not all that God's law has for us. It also has blessing. God's law protects, and it guides, it corrects, it gives a way for people to walk. And that's one use, we could call that the civil use, to restrain evil, to turn away wrongdoing, to bring about justice. and that is good, and that ought to be a reason to rejoice. The third function, so the first function is that mirror, the second is that civil use, the third function is that guide, for the people of God, to guide them into the good works that God has planned for his people, as we read in Ephesians 2. The law tells God's children what it means to be pleasing, to live in a pleasing and good and life-giving way, a way that builds up Those are good things. As we read the rest of Nehemiah 8, we see some hint at that. That there's more in God's law and His commands and His expectations of His people than just brokenness. Than just a wallowing in our guilt. God is the giver of good gifts as the Heavenly Father for His children. This quote, I think it comes from Derek Kidner, it might come from Ligonier, but it says, it is in the moment of becoming aware of our guilt and truly repentant over it that we have the most reason to rejoice. God is compassionate. His character is to forgive and to be gracious and merciful and tender towards his people. That's why there is the gospel. God is just fully, but the gospel is so that he could remain just and be gracious towards his people. As we recognize our need and our repentance over it, that's the time to rejoice. Don't stay in your conviction. I pray that you would be convicted over your sin. Even tonight, as you hear God's word and maybe you think of ways you fall short, be convicted. Be broken. but repent and then rejoice. We are to be a joyful people. The joy of the Lord is our strength. Nehemiah points to the character of God to encourage God's people. The joy of the Lord is our strength. As we think about Ezra reading God's word, what would he have been reading? He would have been reading the tale, the true events, the true account. of God's people constantly turning away and God constantly pursuing them. They would have read of the covenant of grace being revealed and unfolded to God's people. The joy of the Lord is our strength rejoiced. God finds joy in pursuing you despite your sin. Lastly, we are to rest in God's commands As we read Hebrews 4, there's some pretty amazing parallels between Hebrews 4 and this chapter. The Sabbath that is spoken of isn't a regular Sabbath. It's one of those ceremonial Sabbath days, festival days that's being pointed here, laid out, and yet it points to rest. Sabbath always points to rest. the ceremonies, the weekly Sabbath in the Old Testament. And Hebrews 4 shows us that those who did not hear God's Word by faith did not enter into the rest. But what do we read here? That we read a testimony to their faithfulness. That they desired to hear God's Word because we are a faithful people. And they can rejoice because they get to enter into the rest. And that's the flow of the text. The Levites say, don't weep. This is a Sabbath day. Rest. Rejoice. Delight. These are good news. As we read other texts and we can think about what they're reading and how they're being instructed, we can look to Leviticus 23-24 and that is the day that is being talked about, that Feast of the Trumpets. Our children love when we read in family worship about the Feast of the Trumpets because we all get to practice our trumpet blowing. What a day full of trumpet blasts. In Jewish tradition, this becomes the New Year day, Rosh Hashanah. It's a day of great celebration. It's a day of new beginning. It's a day that points forward to new creation. And doesn't Hebrews 4 point to that fact, that there's an eternal rest that awaits for God's people. And all of the Sabbath thrusts, the day that's set apart, are pointing forward to that promise, to that fact that God desires for us to commune with Him and to rest in Him. And we will enter into that rest by faith. Christ returns raises from the dead on the first day. The day that is to be set apart for God's people moves from the seventh day to the first. Another way that we could say that is it moves from the seventh day to the eighth day. The eighth day in Jewish tradition has a lot of significance. We can think about the Israelite boys who are to be circumcised on the eighth day. There are many ceremonial Sabbaths, such as this one that we read about, that occur on the eighth day, and then the resurrection. And all of those things point to the promise of new creation. As we see God's people here, they're reading God's law, they sit under it for five hours in one day at least, and then for seven more days in constant instruction, and they're broken by their sins. But that conviction ought to lead to the promise of Christ that God will restore. For us who live this side of the cross, we can say clearly that that's what our hope is. That we are new creations. That when we're convicted of our sin, that's no longer what describes us, what identifies us. We're not that old man. We're polluted by the sinful nature. We struggle against the old man, he creeps up, but that's not who we are. We are new creations. And that's why we are to rejoice. That's what brings us joy. So seek to understand God's word. Be convicted, be impacted, be affected in your heart. And may it lead you to Christ, that your greatest emotion, that your lasting emotion is joy. That that is our regular state, that we would rejoice and return to that state as new creatures in Christ. And isn't that the gift of the Lord's Day for us as we think about a day set apart pointing forward to that rest? We rest in Christ from our labor of seeking to be righteous enough before God. We rest as new creations delighting in the good gifts that God gives to us, that He ordained even in His law, in His ceremonial law, He ordained feasts for God's people to remind them of what He had in store, that were fulfilled in Christ. We ought to have joy as we understand God's word. Let's pray to that end. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We pray that we would be a joyful people, that you would help us to remember that we are a new creation before you, and help us to, by faith, enter that rest. And we know that united to Christ in a very real and spiritual way, we have already entered the eternal rest, that nothing can remove us from your presence, that nothing can condemn that would turn you to have brought your wrath upon us but we are new creatures in Christ father as new creatures may we long for the spiritual food that you have given us may we desire and prioritize your word May we as a church body love to grow in our understanding of your commands, and of your law, and of your promises, and of the gospel. May we be a people marked by that desire. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.