SPEAKER_00: Church, if you would turn in your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 8 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Working our way through Nehemiah, if Lord willing, the schedule goes as planned.
SPEAKER_00: We'll finish this up in the end of October.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah 8 is a kind of unique passage because it is a sermon and it teaches what a sermon is and what a sermon should do.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a whole lot of places in the scriptures where we can just kind of get a clear picture.
SPEAKER_00: This is a sermon being given, this is the reality of that.
SPEAKER_00: I was doing some rough calculations, some crude math.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a mathematician, not really a numbers guy by any means.
SPEAKER_00: But I was just thinking, if you can take the, like how many years we've all been Christians, for those who are Christians in the room, and add all those years up and think about how many sermons collectively have we listened to?
SPEAKER_00: And it's gotta be in the tens and tens of thousands.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe close to a hundred thousand sermons.
SPEAKER_00: If you take everyone's life, every sermon that we've all listened to, add it up a hundred thousand sermons potentially.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's an amazing thing.
SPEAKER_00: When you think a hundred thousand times we've heard the word proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: But what's the point of a sermon?
SPEAKER_00: Why listen to thousands of sermons in your life?
SPEAKER_00: God has ordained his word to be proclaimed, to be heralded to his people through the regular preaching of his word.
SPEAKER_00: Through the preaching of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Not to build kind of a big event, but to build his church.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't kind of come on Sunday mornings just to listen to me or to Ron or Jimmy or whoever else because we're really interesting people.
SPEAKER_00: Or that we have some amazing insight into the word that unless you're here, you're just not gonna get it.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, we preach so that there will be understanding and obedience.
SPEAKER_00: The point of preaching is to bring understanding and obedience.
SPEAKER_00: For in this there's great joy and salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read together.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read all of chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: If you know me, I do not do well with all the biblical names, although I've tried, so be patient.
SPEAKER_00: Let us read God's sacred, precious word.
SPEAKER_00: And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate.
SPEAKER_00: And they told Ezra the scribe to bring up the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.
SPEAKER_00: 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 early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and women, and those who could understand.
SPEAKER_00: And the ears of the people were attentive to the book of the law.
SPEAKER_00: And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And beside him stood Meteethus, Shema, and Neah, Uriah, Hilkiah, Messeah, and on his right, and Pedeah, Meshel, Mikoljach, Hashum, Hashbedinai, Zechariah, and Mishalim on his left hand.
SPEAKER_00: And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it, the people stood.
SPEAKER_00: 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 worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Hakub, Shebethe, Hodiah, Messeah, Kalite, Ezariah, Jazbad, Hanan, Peliah, and the Levites helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places.
SPEAKER_00: They read from the book of the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense that the people understood the reading.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Do not mourn or weep.
SPEAKER_00: For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law of the law.
SPEAKER_00: Then they 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 our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
SPEAKER_00: So the Levites calmed the people, saying, Be quiet, for this day is holy, do not be grieved.
SPEAKER_00: And all the people went their way to eat and drink and dispense in portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were be that were declared to them.
SPEAKER_00: On the second day the heads of the father's houses of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, came to gather to Ezra the scribe, to excuse me, came together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the law.
SPEAKER_00: 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 their all their towns and in Jerusalem, go out to the hills and bring branches of olive and wild olive, myrtle and palm and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.
SPEAKER_00: So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts, in the courts of the house of God, and in the squares at the water gate, and in the square at the gate of Ephraim, and all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths, from the day of from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to the day the people of Israel had not done so.
SPEAKER_00: And there was very great rejoicing, and by day, 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, according to the rule.
SPEAKER_00: Says the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So we jump in to Nehemiah chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've kind of been with us, we've been in a series through Ezra and Nehemiah, and we see a pattern in both the book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: And that is these both men come to rebuild something.
SPEAKER_00: Ezra rebuilds the temple, and Nehemiah rebuilds the wall, and then they seek to rebuild God's people.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 8, we see this assembling of the people together.
SPEAKER_00: They're finally gathered together to hear the word proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: The people were gathered, right?
SPEAKER_00: And as they gathered, they wanted to know what is it that we're kind of here for.
SPEAKER_00: They've been traveling, they've been in Babylon for years, now some of them have been back for years, and they've been working hard, they've been rebuilding, they've been kind of rebuilding temples and walls and all these things.
SPEAKER_00: And then they gather the people together and they open the word together.
SPEAKER_00: That they may have understanding and clarity.
SPEAKER_00: It's my goal this morning that we can understand through this passage how God instructs his people through the proclamation, the teaching, the preaching of his word.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that that's not the only way.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be here on a Sunday morning or under a Sunday preacher to grow in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not what I'm saying, and that's not what the word is saying.
SPEAKER_00: But rather, it is through this time, this gathering of the people together, that God brings instruction to his people.
SPEAKER_00: So my points this morning, the three points are that the word is central, so listen attentively.
SPEAKER_00: The word has been given, so respond appropriately, and the word brings life, so enjoy obedience.
SPEAKER_00: We see how serious these people were about God's word.
SPEAKER_00: They all gathered together to hear it proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: They were present.
SPEAKER_00: It was a priority for them to gather together.
SPEAKER_00: I've said this before, I'll keep saying this.
SPEAKER_00: The Sunday gathering is the most important thing in your week.
SPEAKER_00: This is the most important thing you can do all week.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I don't say that because I'm just a phenomenal preacher, and you just gotta be here to hear me preach.
SPEAKER_00: You know that's not what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: But this is the rhythm that God has designed for his people.
SPEAKER_00: We see this all through the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: They gather on the Lord's Day, they gather to encourage, to build one another up, to study the scriptures, to hear the word proclaimed, to lift up one another's burdens.
SPEAKER_00: We're never more the church than we are right here, right now.
SPEAKER_00: When we scatter, we say we try to scatter well, we're still Christians and we're still a part of the church, but we're never more the proclamation church.
SPEAKER_00: That we're all gathered here together on the Lord's day with the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So we gather.
SPEAKER_00: And when we gather, the word is central.
SPEAKER_00: The word is central.
SPEAKER_00: It's present.
SPEAKER_00: And we see this in this passage in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And they they gather the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly.
SPEAKER_00: So it's interesting as we'll get in this passage, you'll realize this wasn't the norm.
SPEAKER_00: And this was kind of the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Like these people, as we know, were taken off into captivity because they were disobedient and then are brought back.
SPEAKER_00: And for a long period, the word was not central to their life.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't central to their daily life, it wasn't central to their rhythm as a people of God and how they worshiped.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing is that the word was, it's present.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to say that we are people of God, that we're Christians if God's word is absent from our life.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to say, man, I love Jesus, I'm a Jesus follower.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, where's Jesus' word in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's somewhere on the bookshelf somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: I don't really need the word.
SPEAKER_00: I've kind of grew up in the church.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I kind of know the gist of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel like I need to read it or study it.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard everything it has to say.
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, the word is present with us.
SPEAKER_00: It's in us, it's among us.
SPEAKER_00: We have it open.
SPEAKER_00: We're studying it.
SPEAKER_00: We're people of the word.
SPEAKER_00: The word is central, it's present.
SPEAKER_00: And the word was honored.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just a token.
SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't just be a token thing that it's really nice.
SPEAKER_00: It sets there on the mantle or it sets on the coffee table and it looks really good.
SPEAKER_00: But it was actually honored.
SPEAKER_00: Look in verse 4, and then in verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 says, The scribes stood on a wooden platform, Ezra stood on the wooden platform that they had made for this purpose.
SPEAKER_00: They built this platform, right?
SPEAKER_00: So they finished building the wall, and they're like, hey, one more thing, we've got to build like a platform.
SPEAKER_00: Not so everyone can just be like, wow, look at Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: He looks so priestly in those garments.
SPEAKER_00: He looks so nice there.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: It's so that they can clearly hear the word taught.
SPEAKER_00: There is a symbolism happening when the word is elevated up.
SPEAKER_00: It's a priority, it's our authority for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's honored.
SPEAKER_00: And how do the people respond?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6, Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen and Amen, lifting up their hands.
SPEAKER_00: They bowed their heads.
SPEAKER_00: They were learning to have this honor for the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And we live in a day and age where we don't honor anything.
SPEAKER_00: But nothing is honored.
SPEAKER_00: People don't honor their parents.
SPEAKER_00: Parents don't honor their children.
SPEAKER_00: They don't honor the authorities in their life.
SPEAKER_00: They don't honor their neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: They don't honor anything.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's interesting how much it changes.
SPEAKER_00: Several years ago, we all went through a pandemic together.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not here to talk politics, but there was a there was a huge push to honor science in that.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And you're you're a fool if you didn't.
SPEAKER_00: And then now science disagrees with biology, and so we're not honoring science anymore.
SPEAKER_00: We're honoring your opinion, not biology.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about the science anymore, it's about how you feel.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about how you feel, it's about kind of what's the group think.
SPEAKER_00: What's the what's everyone's what's the consensus?
SPEAKER_00: And so there's everything, truth is moving around.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, how do I get a hold of it to honor it?
SPEAKER_00: It's just shifting all the time.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God is to be honored, it's to take priority in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what's I have this conversation with people all the time.
SPEAKER_00: What's God's will for my life?
SPEAKER_00: This is God's will for your life.
SPEAKER_00: This is it.
SPEAKER_00: His will is that you love him and follow him.
SPEAKER_00: And that's all laid out in his word.
SPEAKER_00: This is his will for your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's to be honored.
SPEAKER_00: What's the Lord say?
SPEAKER_00: It says, don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Well then you shouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about like we all struggle with our flesh.
SPEAKER_00: We all have our contending, but we're to seek to submit to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: It's to be honored in our life.
SPEAKER_00: It's to be honored in how we treat one another.
SPEAKER_00: We don't use God's word.
SPEAKER_00: We don't weaponize it to manipulate things to get what we want.
SPEAKER_00: We honor God's word.
SPEAKER_00: So the word is central, it's present, it's honored, and it's understood.
SPEAKER_00: This is so important.
SPEAKER_00: Look in verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: They read from the book, the law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.
SPEAKER_00: This idea of clearly, it's that there's it's given with understanding that it's laid bare, it's explained.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just some ideas and thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: Think about how many of us have grown up in the church and just heard sermon after sermon.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, I don't even know if I really understand what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: Or it just sounds like white noise.
SPEAKER_00: It's so important as an elder and as Christians, as brothers and sisters in Christ, that we help people to understand the word.
SPEAKER_00: What good is it if I say, okay, this is how, this is God's will for your life, this is how you are to live, this is the final authority in your life, but you don't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the thing that the priests should have been doing for generations.
SPEAKER_00: They should have been teaching the law to the people.
SPEAKER_00: They should have been expounding upon God's word, but they were not.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the people were given over to sin and they didn't desire the things of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And here, God has brought his people back.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember, the theme of this series is that God renews and restores his people.
SPEAKER_00: He's bringing them back.
SPEAKER_00: They rebuild the wall, they're doing these things.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's restoring them.
SPEAKER_00: He's giving them understanding again.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible instructs husbands to live in an understanding way with their wife.
SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't mean, hey, your wife's a real, you know, difficult person, so you gotta kind of understand her, but saying, listen, this is your bride.
SPEAKER_00: Know her well.
SPEAKER_00: Live with her in an understanding way.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that implies that you're learning and you're applying and you're seeking to do this well.
SPEAKER_00: And if God's word is not central, if it's not present, it's not honored, we're not going to understand it.
SPEAKER_00: If we're not studying it and saying, Lord, help me to understand this, and taking passages to one another like this, I'm confused about this.
SPEAKER_00: What do you think about this?
SPEAKER_00: There must be understanding.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a day and age where there's so little tolerance even for understanding.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to understand anything, you just have to affirm things.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to understand my world, you just have to affirm it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't understand what the Bible says, you just have to affirm it or not affirm it.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the kind of relationship that God calls us into.
SPEAKER_00: He calls us into a loving relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: And this requires, again, that we know him, that we know his word, that we understand what is going on.
SPEAKER_00: So we must listen attentively, as they did in Nehemiah 8.
SPEAKER_00: So I know I'm not the most eloquent preacher to grace your ears.
SPEAKER_00: But you're not coming here to hear me.
SPEAKER_00: You're coming here to hear God's word taught.
SPEAKER_00: And so you are to listen attentively.
SPEAKER_00: What does God's word say to you?
SPEAKER_00: What's he saying to you with his spirit in you?
SPEAKER_00: What is it that he's wanting to teach you?
SPEAKER_00: For you to have understanding in.
SPEAKER_00: Listen attentively, because God's word is central.
SPEAKER_00: The other thing is that God's word, because it's been given, we need to respond appropriately.
SPEAKER_00: We see this in the next several verses.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 9, there begins to be this response of all this emotion.
SPEAKER_00: So Ezra reads the word, it's been given clearly, and there's this emotion, weeping, this mourning that the people are responding with.
SPEAKER_00: And it kind of says three times between verses nine and verse 12, hey, stop your weeping, stop your mourning.
SPEAKER_00: This is a day for rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: Which is kind of an interesting interaction there.
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: What I think is going on is that the people are feeling the weight of their sin.
SPEAKER_00: They're finally, for the first time, seeing and they're getting a glimpse of the glory of God and how magnificent He is in the kind of life that He's called His people to.
SPEAKER_00: And then they look back at their life and their father's lives, and then the generations who have not been walking in the ways of the Lord, and they're broken over this, and they're weeping.
SPEAKER_00: Which, when you think, what is a proper response to God's word?
SPEAKER_00: What is a proper response to God's word?
SPEAKER_00: When you hear God's word taught or preached, and you're reading it, what is a proper response to it?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's obedience.
SPEAKER_00: It's obedience in faith.
SPEAKER_00: But obedience again alone is not the intended desire.
SPEAKER_00: Obedience from the heart that desires to worship God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the intent.
SPEAKER_00: That's the obedience with the desire to worship.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: There's a difference there.
SPEAKER_00: One is just obedience for the sake of obedience, and one is obedience as an act of worship to God.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to be clear: obedience for the sake of obedience is not wrong, but it's not fully right either.
SPEAKER_00: God has given us commands that we are to obey.
SPEAKER_00: And even if we don't feel like obeying them.
SPEAKER_00: But every command God has given us as an opportunity for us to worship Him in our obedience.
SPEAKER_00: So the word was proclaimed by Ezra with clarity.
SPEAKER_00: Now the people, they respond with sincere hearts, a sincere desire to obey.
SPEAKER_00: They respond with mourning and weeping, and they respond with joy and rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah, who was the governor in Ezra, the priestscribe, the Levites, who taught the people, said to the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_00: Do not mourn or weep.
SPEAKER_00: For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law.
SPEAKER_00: And it would seem this is the sorrow, the weight of the sin, the weight of all the years, the generations of missed opportunity, because people were not clearly teaching and sharing the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: There's times when we lay open God's word is proclaimed, and this is a true and right response is this mourning, this weeping.
SPEAKER_00: This sorrow over sin, sorrow that we have neglected to keep God's word central in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, people are suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Marriages are breaking apart.
SPEAKER_00: Kids are struggling.
SPEAKER_00: Young people are playing with frustration and difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: Because we didn't keep God's word central in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So they respond with this mourning and this weeping.
SPEAKER_00: But then there is this call to respond with joy and with rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: This is, if you are a Christian, this has been your experience.
SPEAKER_00: You're made aware of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You're made aware of your need for a savior.
SPEAKER_00: And there's this kind of weight on you.
SPEAKER_00: I can't save myself.
SPEAKER_00: I deserve to go to hell.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I deserve.
SPEAKER_00: There's this weight to those things.
SPEAKER_00: But then Jesus Christ says, No, I'm redeeming you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm paying the price for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You belong to me.
SPEAKER_00: You're part of my covenant people.
SPEAKER_00: And that brings about this joy and this rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: So there is a response.
SPEAKER_00: There isn't this kind of like, well, that's nice.
SPEAKER_00: Good sermon, preacher.
SPEAKER_00: Some people need to hear that.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the response that we give.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the response that is appropriate.
SPEAKER_00: Respond with obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that is mourning.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I've sinned.
SPEAKER_00: And look at the cost of that sin.
SPEAKER_00: There's heaviness there.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't just stop it.
SPEAKER_00: There's also joy.
SPEAKER_00: It's a joy to hear God's word proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: It's a joy to hear the truth of God explained and made clear.
SPEAKER_00: It's a joy to know how we are to live and how we're to honor God.
SPEAKER_00: So we respond with obedience, with the heart that desires to worship.
SPEAKER_00: Because this brings life.
SPEAKER_00: The word brings life.
SPEAKER_00: There's joy in obedience.
SPEAKER_00: So enjoy obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Beginning in verse 13 of this passage, it begins to talk about this festival, this feast that's going on.
SPEAKER_00: This is the feast of booths or the feast of tabernacles or sukkat in Hebrew, if you're familiar with that.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the seven feasts that God's people were to observe, that God had established in the old covenant, that the people would remember what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: And this feast is typically celebrated at harvest.
SPEAKER_00: So September, October is when the feast would take place.
SPEAKER_00: And the people would do that.
SPEAKER_00: They would make a booth.
SPEAKER_00: They make like a little tent, a little tabernacle out of sticks and shrubs.
SPEAKER_00: And we know in in Leviticus 23, where the instruction was given to the church on how they the nation of Israel, how they're to observe the feast of booths.
SPEAKER_00: They're to make these tents, they're to dwell in them for like eight days, from Sabbath to Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: So from a Saturday all the way through to the next Saturday.
SPEAKER_00: And they're to remember that they were held captive in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And that God delivered them out from captivity.
SPEAKER_00: And this isn't just kind of family folklore for them.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just, you know, back in the day God did this thing.
SPEAKER_00: But they established, God gave them the feast to remind them that God had protected them and that he had provided for them.
SPEAKER_00: That even as when they were in the desert, he was providing for them.
SPEAKER_00: When they were sojourning through, God was providing for them.
SPEAKER_00: God provides for us.
SPEAKER_00: He's our provider.
SPEAKER_00: He's freed us from the bondage of sin and he will provide for us while we're in the wilderness in this present age.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The garden of Eden, Genesis, it's gone.
SPEAKER_00: Brother, sister, we are in the desert, and there is a garden waiting for us ahead.
SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, God is going to continue to provide for us.
SPEAKER_00: This feast of booze was a foreshadow that the Messiah was coming, the ultimate provider was coming.
SPEAKER_00: And that our dwelling in tents is nothing more than just dwelling in tents for a season, for a time.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually, this is a side note, but it's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Most scholars believe that Jesus was actually born during the Feast of Booths.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know how Christmassy you all are, but there are a couple of reasons for this.
SPEAKER_00: One, there's some good clarity that the Catholic Church started celebrating Christmas or the Lord's birth in December.
SPEAKER_00: They started doing that in the fourth century, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's also some understanding that shepherds would not have been out with their sheep in the middle of winter in December.
SPEAKER_00: It's also interesting that in John 1 4.14, it says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_00: And we have seen his glory, the glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_00: And in Greek, that word dwelt, that became flesh and dwelt among us is this tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: The word became flesh and tabernacled with us.
SPEAKER_00: He dwelled with us.
SPEAKER_00: So there's life in this understanding that God's word brings clarity.
SPEAKER_00: It's saying you're not on your own.
SPEAKER_00: You're not just kind of in the desert trying to figure this out.
SPEAKER_00: God has a plan for his people.
SPEAKER_00: He's been faithful, and we're to celebrate this feast to continue remembering how God has been faithful to us.
SPEAKER_00: They were attentive to the word.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: It's like they discovered it.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: This is like a newfound thing to them.
SPEAKER_00: Now there was probably some kind of remnant, like they've probably heard of this thing, but they didn't realize until they read through Leviticus 23 how they were to celebrate it.
SPEAKER_00: They were attentive, they're looking in the word.
SPEAKER_00: Are we missing something?
SPEAKER_00: Is there something we're kind of glancing over?
SPEAKER_00: They're not kind of leaning on, well, I've been a Jew for all my life, or I've been a, you know, my great-great-great-great-granddaddy was a Jew, and we've been Jews all along, and we're all Hebrews, therefore, we must just know how this works.
SPEAKER_00: It's not what they did.
SPEAKER_00: They were attentive, studying the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: And then they begin to keep and obey the fast.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: And all the assembly, everyone who had returned from the city, from the captivity, made booths and lived in the booths.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Everyone did this.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, hey, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: We missed the mark.
SPEAKER_00: We've been missing the mark for generations on this.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get this going.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be obedient.
SPEAKER_00: And they were already struggling with a lot of opposition in the neighborhood, if you remember.
SPEAKER_00: Like the neighbors didn't really care for these people.
SPEAKER_00: And here they are, like running out to the woods, grabbing a bunch of bushes, bringing them into the city and making tents.
SPEAKER_00: They're not kind of winning any popularity contest here.
SPEAKER_00: But what was their attitude?
SPEAKER_00: The second part of verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: And there was very great rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: Very great rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: There was this attitude, this among them, like we are actually doing it.
SPEAKER_00: Like look at, like, hey, we're we're living this out perfectly?
SPEAKER_00: Surely not, but we're doing it.
SPEAKER_00: So they're rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: They're not saying, well, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really good at booth building.
SPEAKER_00: And look at you, you're doing a pretty good job of this thing.
SPEAKER_00: They're saying, we're being obedient to God's commands.
SPEAKER_00: We're glorifying Him.
SPEAKER_00: We're following His Word.
SPEAKER_00: And that brings joy.
SPEAKER_00: This idea of obedience to God's word, that it can somehow stymie or kind of shut down your joy in life.
SPEAKER_00: I can't be a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: There's too many roles.
SPEAKER_00: Just think about this for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: If there is a creator God, I believe there is.
SPEAKER_00: If there is a creator God, wouldn't He know how you are to live, to have the most joy, the most contentment, the most satisfaction, the most meaning in life?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: If he made you, he should know why he made you and what he made you for.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if only there was somewhere where he could just tell us these things and reveal to us why he did what he did and how it is that we're to live.
SPEAKER_00: If only there was a word that was we had that we could study these things and obey them.
SPEAKER_00: Because in obedience is great joy.
SPEAKER_00: If you know the story of the Old Testament, this is just one kind of scene in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: It's a story of people disobeying God's word and suffering.
SPEAKER_00: For generations, for thousands of years, neglecting God's word and suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And God is so gracious.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Listen, I love you.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to be my people, to follow my words, because this is what I've made you to do: to worship me, to love one another, to enjoy my creation, to humbly walk with your creator.
SPEAKER_00: See the reality is that Christ will return.
SPEAKER_00: And he will dwell with his people again, and he will tabernacle with us again.
SPEAKER_00: And he's returning to bring his bride into his eternal kingdom, where she will worship and adore God forever.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point of the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point of all the sermons.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point of the Bible, is that God is at work with his people, and Jesus is coming again for his people.
SPEAKER_00: So let us be a people who are seeking after him, who are hearing the word clearly and have understanding, who aren't being lazy in our thoughts and our theology, who are studying the word, keeping the word central, who are quick to confess our sin, quick to be humble and to adore God.
SPEAKER_00: That we may be a people who experience the joy of the Lord, this great rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: If God grants you many more years, Lord willing, you will hear many, many more sermons.
SPEAKER_00: And I've said this many times, it's like a meal.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to a spot where you're like, hey, you know what, I've eaten just about everything I can eat.
SPEAKER_00: I think I'm just done eating for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard it all, I've eaten it all.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't get to a spot like, you know, I've heard preaching for 30 years, 40 years, 60 years.
SPEAKER_00: I think I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how this works.
SPEAKER_00: You don't come here just to just to kind of hear something, so you get an expansion in your understanding, and then that's it.
SPEAKER_00: You get fed.
SPEAKER_00: God is the Jesus is the bread.
SPEAKER_00: He's given us food to eat, to nourish.
SPEAKER_00: And come back next week on the Lord's day and do it again and again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: Because we need the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't come to hear eloquent preachers, but come to be fed by the Word of God that you may walk in understanding and in worshipful obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Because in that there is life.
SPEAKER_00: Church, let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: God, you are gracious to us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your love for us.
SPEAKER_00: May we walk in obedience to you.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for those who may be here who do not know you as their Lord, as their Savior, that they would repent of their sin, that they would turn and put their hope and their faith in you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You would grant them life.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that they would see how empty the things of the world are.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for the church.
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy for us to just hear another sermon, hear the word again, hear the verse that we've heard so many times.
SPEAKER_00: May we be attentive.
SPEAKER_00: May we be asking you, Holy Spirit, to make these things clear to us.
SPEAKER_00: May we walk in obedience to these things.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in your holy and precious name, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.