and turn to the book of Nehemiah. We have been going sporadically through the book of Nehemiah as Brother Josh has opened up and started in the book of Esther. So tonight is supposed to be, I think, one of his worst nights with the swelling of the surgery which he's had along with tomorrow, he said, tomorrow and tonight. And I'm going like, boy, happy anniversary. So do pray for Brother Josh, that swelling doesn't bother him too bad. If you look at him, it doesn't look like he's gone through anything. He looks real good, and we have thanks to the Lord for that. In Nehemiah chapter 8, I'd like to start out just by talking about what all has transpired in our current society, because as we look at our current society, there is a famine in the land. I am not talking about the supermarket, though if you go to certain grocery stores in certain places, there are bare shelves. You know that. There's products that are missing. Things have backed up, and of course the leadership of the country tries to play it off that it was somebody else's fault. It used to be the buck stops right at the top, and let me tell you, it still does. There's a famine in the land, but I'm not talking about groceries. I'm talking about something totally different because if you've noticed, I believe it was yesterday, there was a shooting in Lexington. There's nothing unusual. It happens pretty much all the time. There's a shooting here, shooting there. There are shootings in major cities. I think over the weekend you will always read about Chicago, how they have about 30 or 40 murders. Looks like those numbers would really go down over a period of time, but you know what? It's not happening that way. There are lootings you've seen in California where gangs of people, I'm talking about many, many people, will just flood a store and just haul out stuff and just haul stuff off. This is all because of a famine in the land. The famine I'm talking about is a famine of God's Word. There is a lack of fear of God because there is a lack of the teaching and preaching and proclamation of God's Word. When God's Word is not proclaimed, when God's Word is not sown, let me tell you, conditions deteriorate in our society. Morality goes down in our society. Homes are broken in our societies. Lives deteriorate in our society. Nations deteriorate and also crumble because of a lack of preaching of God's Word. May we, as we approach the word of God tonight, may we fall upon our knees to worship him who alone is holy. This past week, I saw a little meme and I posted it on Facebook. Some of y'all, I'm sure, have seen it. Some of you may have not. Johnny Erickson taught us. She made a comment and she said, of course, she is paralyzed from the neck down. She says, the first thing I plan to do on resurrected legs is to drop on my grateful, glorified knees. She desires to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. What do we need to see a revival in our land? What do we need in our society to see revival truly happen? Let me tell you, it is not something that you do. Here's a continuation from this morning. If it's something you do that will bring about revival, let me tell you, flesh will glory in the presence of God, and God will not have His glory given to another. It is not you that bring revival, it's God and His Spirit that envelops and just breathes life into His people. What would it take to see the Spirit of God breathing fresh life into His children? Let me give you an illustration. Before we get into Nehemiah 8, I want you to look over in the book of Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel 37 is kind of like an example of what it takes to bring about revival. Because you remember Ezekiel, he is placed in a valley. And in this valley there is nothing but bones. These bones are dry bones. It ain't just bones, they're dry bones. In other words, they've been decayed for quite a while. And the Word of God says in verse 1, The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit, and set me down in the midst of the valley, which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about. And behold, there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. These bones had been sitting for a long time. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. If God set you in the middle of a cemetery and he told you, can these people live? Ezekiel gives the right answer, only the Lord knows. Again, he said unto me, prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Now do you believe these bones can be revived? How are the bones going to be revived? hear the Word of the Lord. Can a dry bone hear the Word of the Lord? Ezekiel was just commanded to proclaim the Word of the Lord, which is what we're called to do. Because you know what? The society we live in, it's surrounded by dead people, spiritually dead people. They cannot hear the Word of God because they're spiritually dead. Can those people live? prophesy. Say, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Now what have these bones got to do to live? Hear the Word of the Lord. You mean these bones don't have to repent? No. Hear the Word of the Lord. Listen to what these bones got to do. What do these bones got to do? Do they got to get a program going? No. They got to hear the Word of the Lord. So, Ezekiel says, I prophesied. As I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them." Imagine that. All of a sudden these bodies come on these bones. Ezekiel's watching the flesh come back even as It had gone away. It's an odd thing. But there's no life in these bodies. The bones came together, bone to his bone, foot bone connected to the ankle bone, ankle bone connected to the... You know how that song goes. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them, then he said unto me, Prophesy unto the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came unto them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great army. God can give life to the dead. That's the power of God. To see a revival in this land, in our nation, our community, our workplaces, wherever it might be, let me tell you what it's going to take. People are going to have to hear the Word of the Lord. Only God can give life. You can't give life. I can't give life. God can give life. That's the power of God. You know who gets the glory when God gives life? Not you. It's God. God alone is worthy of all the glory. I want you to look in Nehemiah 8. In Nehemiah 8, what we have is that renewed emphasis on the Word of God. we run across a person's name right in the very first verse. Somebody we've not run across in Nehemiah yet. This man we're looking at in chapter 8 in verse 1. His name's Ezra. Ezra is a scribe. Ezra is a priest. And all of a sudden he comes to the forefront, so to speak. Nehemiah is not in the forefront right now. I find this very fascinating. How does Nehemiah respond when God uses Ezra to step forward? Nehemiah spiritually yields to the will of God. Here is a spiritually mature man. Verse 1 in chapter 8 says, And all the people gathered themselves together as one man. They're in unity. into the street that was before the water gate. And they spake unto Ezra the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate, from morning until midday, before the men and the women and those that could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood. which they had made for the purpose, and beside him stood Mattathiah, and Shema, and Ananiah, and Uriah, and Hilkiah, and Maasaiah, and on his right hand, and on his left hand, Paddaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashem, Hashemadonna, and Zechariah, and Meshulam. And Ezra opened the book in sight of all the people, for he was above all the people. And when he opened it, all the people stood up. Now let's pause there for a moment. Here is Ezra. He's a man of God. He's a man of the Word. He knows the book of Moses. And that's what he's opening up, the first five books of the Law. As he opens these books up, you've got to understand, here's the man that's already been in Jerusalem for 14 years before Nehemiah even shows up. He's been around, he's had the Word of God, but now the people come to him because they desire to hear the Word of God. As I mentioned the scripture this morning that's quoted over in Zechariah, it's not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. is not a program that was put together that rallied these people all in unity. It is not some type of scheme or plan or some type of ingenuity or wise decisions that all these people get all unified together. Let me tell you, they are in unity because of the Word of God. Here, I want you to notice If it had been man's thinking to think up something to get everybody together, all the plans would have been in flesh. All flesh is flesh. The flesh is death. It's what it tells us in Romans 8. The spirit is life. Such precious, precious words as we think about Romans 8. If you dwell in the flesh, that's death. The things that we do in the flesh, it's death. How we need the moving of the Spirit of God. When you come to a point in your life, when you realize it's not by works which we have done. but it's according to His mercy, not only that He has saved us, but that He is working in us and through us. Only then can you experience the freedom of Christ working in your heart and your life. Listen to what the Apostle Paul said. In 2 Corinthians 2 and down in verse 14, he said, which always causes us to triumph in Christ." Wait a minute. Is this Paul that got stoned to death and he laid as dead and he's saying, the Lord always causes me to triumph? Paul had learned a lesson. He had learned that the only way that you triumph in the Christian life is by trusting in the Lord. You know what? We began by faith, but we've got to continue by faith. We want God to be exalted. We want the Lord to be glorified. Therefore, we desire Him to do a mighty work. Paul, as you think about his life, something remarkable, as you think about all the knowledge Paul had. Man, he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was a Pharisee. Man, he knew the Old Testament just like the back of his hand. And yet, what did he do when the Lord struck him down? He had to go to one Ananias. Then what did he do? He tried to witness to the Jews. Did they listen to him? It wouldn't have nothing to do with him. They tried to kill him. Here's Paul in all the magnificent knowledge that he had. He went away to Damascus for a while. Went away for 10-15 years. Went away for a long time. His life seemed like a failure. But let me tell you, God was working a work in his life to where he could learn to lean upon the Lord that the Lord might get the glory for working in his life. Here's how Paul experienced triumph in his life in everything. There he was in a jail. What did he do when he was in jail? With Silas. He started singing. Why? Because he knew he was triumphing in Christ. And boy, did God give a victory. Consistently throughout his life. Here, I want you to notice, first off, in Nehemiah chapter 8, we must be people of the word. That book that you hold in your hand. You know what? I've got the Bible on my phone. I've got the Bible right here. I've got Bibles in my study that's stacked just knee-high to a... bigger than a grasshopper. I've got Bibles everywhere. So do you. You've got Bibles probably collecting dust somewhere. We are to be people of the book. We are to be known for knowing the Word of God. God's Word is not magic. Make sure you understand this. You don't read God's Word or recite God's Word and expect a miracle. That's not how God's Word works. It's got to be understood. It's got to be applied to life. To be a people of the book, We've got to also be a people of understanding. It must be understood to apply to your heart and your life. If you don't understand what you're reading, you can't apply what you're reading. Therefore, it must be understood. The word understand, if you notice, I want you to notice, it's mentioned in verse 2. It's mentioned in verse 3. It's mentioned down in verse 7. It's mentioned down in verse 8. It's mentioned down in verse 12. It's mentioned down in verse 13. And if you notice, this chapter has only got 18 verses. Understanding is important when it comes to the Word of God. you must have understanding. In the New Testament, the word obedient is the word, a compound word in Greek, it's hupēr akuō. Hupēr means to be under. Akuō means to hear. To be under hearing is to be obedient. In other words, you've got to have understanding of the Word. You've got to be in the Word, but you've got to have understanding of the Word to apply the Word, to be obedient unto the Word. We must be people that have understanding. Can you imagine the scarcity of the Word of God as Nehemiah is writing here and Ezra is speaking here? There was a rarity of the Word of God. You think about even in New Testament times, there was a rarity of the Word of God. As God's Word is being written, they didn't have the full New Testament throughout New Testament days. There was a scarcity of the Word. Even so, as these people gather together, they want to hear God's Word because, you know what? They didn't have copies of the Bible like you and I got. So they gathered together to hear the Word of God read. While there was a famine of God's Word throughout many days, throughout biblical times, we have a famine of God's Word in our day and time. And I'm not talking about not having the Word of God. I'm talking about not having the Word of God in our hearts. There is a difference there. You can have 50 Bibles in your house, but you know what? They don't amount to nothing if you don't apply it to your heart and your life. You know what? They can collect dust just like a library book, and it does you no good. We must get the Word into our hearts. There is a famine, even in our land today. Notice this hearing with understanding. In verse 5 and 6, the Word of God says, Ezra opened the book and the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people. And when he opened it, all the people stood up. Notice here the reverence for the Word of God. When Ezra started to speak, what does all the people do? They stand because they revere the Word of God. Do you believe you could heard Ezra speak back in that day and time? Absolutely. You know what? God's given us the ability to shut our mouth, though some are lacking that ability. But God's not given us the ability to shut our ears. Have you ever tried to shut your hearing off? It don't work that way, does it? You can't shut your ears like that. But you can shut your mouth. You think about that, it's because the Lord desires for us to hear. Be swift to hear and slow to speak is what the Word of God advises us. Is God speaking today? Is the Word of God speaking today? Is the God of all the universe, is He speaking to us today? You know, God is not silent. There was 400 years space in between the Old and New Testament. There was silence. But God is not silent today. God is speaking, and if God, the Creator of all the universe, the One who holds our lives in His hands, if He is speaking, we need to take heed to what He's saying. We need to listen, to pay attention. In verse 3, you notice, the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. They paid attention to it. They showed reverence by standing up. In verse 6, and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up of their hands, and they bowed their heads, and they worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. As I speak God's Word, it is very easy. I have sat where you sat. It is very easy to forget who is speaking. If you lose sight of Him speaking, your mind will wander. Do you hear what I'm saying? It does not matter who the preacher is. It does not matter who the speaker is. The speaker can have the squeakiest, awkwardest, roughest voice. What matters is whose word is it that's being spoke. It's the Word of God. Revival comes through knowing who is speaking. I read an illustration of a lawyer who's about, if you ever heard many lawyers, some lawyers are so dry. There was one lawyer commercial, I gotta chase a rabbit here. Y'all heard of the hammer, hadn't you? I mean, you've seen the commercial with the hammer on there. He's a real short guy. He's probably about that tall. I was in court one time because I had jury duty, and he came in. I'm going like, what? And of course, he looked at the judge, and he started smiling and laughing. And I'm going like, that's the hammer. I thought it was kind of funny. But anyway, this lawyer was reading a will of a deceased. He was a very dry lawyer. As he's reading this will, there was one who was supposed to gain quite a bit in inheritance. Do you believe the one who was about to get the inheritance was bored to death at listening to that lawyer in his old dry voice? Now I'm going to tell you what, that boy was sitting on the edge of his seat waiting to get his inheritance. It didn't matter who was speaking it, the authority was in the Word. And you know what? Here's the Word of God. And we need to keep sight that it is the Word of God. In verse 1, notice what it says, they wanted to bring the book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. In other words, it is God's Word. It was not so much Ezra speaking as much as it was the Word of the Lord being proclaimed. And even so, from this podium right here, it is the Word of God that counts, and it's the Word of God that people need to hear in our day and time. People need to hear sound exposition. They need to hear the Word of God rightly divided, as we read over in 1 Timothy this morning. Look in verse 7 and 8. Verse 7 says, "...and Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, and Jemim, Acub, Shibbathi, Hodijah, Maasaiah, Kelita, Azariah, Josabad, Hanan, Peliah, and the Levites caused the people to understand the law, and the people stood in their place." In other words, as Ezra spoke the word, These leaders were scattered throughout and they gave understanding of the Word of God. They expounded the Scripture. It is important that there must be sound exposition of the Word of God. There are two different words I want to throw at you. Some of you have already heard these words, but I want you to understand what these words are. There is the word exegesis and the word eisegesis. Exegesis is reading out what's in the Word. It just very simply means reading what's there, getting what's there out of it. Eisegesis. That's a different word. Eisegesis is reading into the Word that which is not there. And that's the way a lot of people do. They like to read into the Word what's not in the Word. It's important that we be exegetical in our reading. and not eisegetical. We've got to rightly divide the Word of Truth. We've got to say what the Word of God says and very simply say what it means. So in verse 8 it says, So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and they caused them to understand the reading. They gave understanding. Charles Spurgeon had once said, Whenever he preached, he always wanted to preach to where children could understand what he was saying. That's so vitally important. You know what? You don't have to sound like you've got all these big, long theological words and Greek words and all these kind of things just to show your knowledge to somebody. People need the message simplified. to where they can understand. How does it apply to my life? You know what, if you can't understand what the speaker's saying, you can't apply it to your life. How does it apply to my life? I am so thankful for those who teach our young children. Thankful for my wife. Thankful for Cheryl. I'm thankful for Sarah. I'm thankful for Brother TJ. I'm thankful that you can teach the Word of God on those young people's level. They need to hear the Word of God and relate to it and know, how can I apply that to my life? Because God's Word is relevant. I'm telling you what, this here, what we have in front of us, it's more relevant than the Mars newspaper. It's more relevant than what's on your computer that you're going to hear news from around the world within a few minutes. Let me tell you, God's Word is alive. Now how do we respond to it? I want you to notice in verse 9, the Word of God tells us this. And Nehemiah, which is the Tershithi, which means a governor, and Ezra the priest, the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, 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 did people weep when they heard God's Word? It's because they knew they had sinned and disobeyed God. Therefore it caused repentance, it caused weeping. Here's a humble response to the Word of God. When you know God's Word is speaking to your heart, You know what? Your proper response is a humble response. You need to repent. You need to weep over your sins as you hear the words of the law. And let me tell you what happens when you weep over your sins. If you know the Lord and you've experienced His forgiveness, it brings great joy in your heart. Notice it says in verse 10, Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy unto the Lord. Neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. You see, repentance, when you turn from your wickedness and you trust Christ and you believe he's forgiven you of your sin, that turns into great joy in the heart of the believer. The joy of the Lord is our strength. You know what I had during my sickness over the past week and a half? I had joy at times. I was downright flooded with joy right there at the beginning of it, and that's when I had some really big waves come over me with some things. Some of y'all may have noticed I posted on our Facebook site. You notice where I posted about the Gentleman Lowly book, and I didn't get hardly any responses to it, and I thought, That's all right. I'll joy with myself. I'm telling you what, my heart was full of the love of the Lord from reading a portion of passage through that book, speaking about how God loves us, how Christ loves us so much. And it's almost like over... It's kind of like... I don't know how to express it. It's kind of like pouring warm butter all over me, just like, ooh, it feels so good. It just warmed my soul. I can't express it. It's just the love of God just flooded my life. And I tried to share it in print, and it didn't go anywhere, but that's alright. I had a good time. You might have missed it, but I had a good time. Here, I want you to notice. As they read, and Ezra read, as the people heard, as they turned from their sin, they wept, And they were corrected for that, and they had joy because the Lord is our strength. The Lord is our hope. Ezra didn't read just to give the people knowledge. The people didn't listen just to gain the knowledge. Notice they applied it to their hearts. And because of that, it brought about a great revival within them. Over in 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 1, verse of scripture Brother Josh mentioned the other night. It says, now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifies. People don't need to know all your knowledge. They need to know you love them. People need to know the love of the Lord. They don't need to know great deep theological terms that you might have learned and how you can spell an exegete, how you avoid the eisegete, and how you can even pronounce a Greek word. You know what? People need to know you love them. People need to see the love of Christ in your heart flowing through your life toward them. Let me tell you, love goes a long way. It covers a multitude of sins. is what the Word of God tells us. What do these people do after hearing the Word of God? After weeping and then turning into joy and celebrating, let me tell you, they started being obedient and they started worshiping the Lord. Notice what it says in verse 11. So the Levites stilled all the people and said, Hold your peace, for the day is holy, neither be ye grieved. And all the people went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them. You notice they understood, therefore they applied it to their heart and life. And on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even understanding the words of the law. And they found written in the law, which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month, and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth into the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. So the people went forth and brought them, made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of this house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim. And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths. For since the days of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so, and there was very great gladness." In other words, they were supposed to do this, but they had neglected it. Now they're being obedient. Now they're worshiping the Lord. Also, day by day, from the first day into the last day, he read in the book of the law, and they kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly according unto the manner. Ezra read. Every day. And you get this. Ezra read. How long did Ezra read? In verse 3, he read therein before the street, that was before the water gate, from the morning until midday. Ezra read for about probably five or six hours. Can you imagine your pastor standing here reading till about 12 o'clock tonight? There'll be a bunch of Uticuses in here, doink, falling out. Good thing we don't have no windows to fall out. But he did this day after day, and you know what? The people soaked it up. Is that a love for the Word of God? That's a love for the Lord. and loving His Word. May we ever be faithful to God's Word. May we always be available to hear God's Word. And may we ever be teachable as we hear God's Word, that we might apply it to our hearts and lives, that we might be conformed into the image of His dear Son, You know what? People don't need to see me. People need to see Christ in me. That's why John the Baptist said he must increase, I must decrease. I pray that others might see Christ in me. But you know the only way people are going to see Christ in me is if I get in the Word, I apply the Word of God to my heart and my life, and I put it into practice. And as I go through life, the Lord brings people into my life. And you know what? I show the love of Christ. And you go do the same. And let me tell you, God will bless you in rich ways. We're gonna give a hymn of invitation. There's any tonight that know not Christ, never publicly professed it. You don't have a love for the word of God like you ought to. You need your heart quickened. You need a little heart surgery. We're not gonna cut you open here, but the Lord will. And he can apply his word like no other. Let's stand and go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. And oh Lord, as we read of hundreds of years ago, how your people stood for five, six hours just to hear your word read and expounded, and how they wept and rejoiced in it. Oh, Lord, give us tender hearts that we might be receptive to your word, that we might rejoice in it also. And Lord, in that which we rejoice in, may we share it with others. In our lives, Lord, we ask that you be glorified. For Christ's sake. Amen.