Alright, go back to Nehemiah chapter 8. That song we sung. I sing the mighty power of God. We read in Psalm 92, which says it's a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord to sing. To sing. Let everything that hath breath sing his praises. Let's look at verse 12 again. This is our text. went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them. This is a good Thanksgiving message, I believe. This is the story of the children of Israel. having a gathering or a worship service, and then afterward they feasted and made great mirth. And that's the title of this message, Sam, Cause for Great Mirth. This is the story of a people who were held captive. They were once in captivity in Babylon, but by God's mercy and grace, God gave a king orders to send them to Jerusalem, to set them free and send them to Jerusalem to dwell and to there rebuild the temple, rebuild the walls and rebuild that city and dwell forever. And they were under the kind government in this undertaking. They were under the kind government of a wise man named Nehemiah who was the governor. and under the good preaching, the sound preaching of a man named Ezra. So these people who were once captives, set free, sent by order of the king to dwell in Jerusalem and to hear the preached word were most blessed and had great cause for thanksgiving. Now do you see why we've studied this story? This is a beautiful picture, a type of God's people who also were in captivity, but yet God delivered them. And by order of our God and King, redeemed by Christ, placed in the body of Christ, the church, New Jerusalem, put under the government of the Holy Spirit, and under sound preaching. Now I look at verse 1 again. Go back to verse 1. It says all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street. That was before the water gate. It's a worship service. They gathered as one to hear God's Word. And they told their preacher, get the Word out and read it to us. We need to hear the Word of God. That's why we're here. And I believe that's why we gather every time. Isn't it? Do you insist upon it? I am commanded to do it. As Paul told young Timothy, so he tells every young preacher, preach the Word in season. especially out of season. Preach the Word. And that is why we assemble every time to hear God's Word declared. And verse 2, Ezra the priest brought the law, and I believe he had the books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy. He brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women and all, or that is whoever was old enough that could hear with understanding. He brought the law out, the books of Moses. Verse 3, and he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday. He read God's Word for six hours. And the people were attentive. I wish we had that I built them. But anyway, he read it for six hours. And bless God, the people were attentive. And verse 4, it says, Ezra, the scribe, stood upon a pulpit of wood they'd made for that purpose. This was when the pulpit was made. This is when they started using a pulpit. That's what this is called, a tower of wood for the purpose of a man standing up there to read God's Word in the sight of all the people. A pulpit, reading and declaring God's Word in the sight of the people. Verse 5, I'm sure not going to read all those names again. But anyway, Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people. In other words, he wanted to make sure that everyone knew that he was reading from God's Word. See this? I'm reading from God's Word. I'm not reading from a man's manuscript or book or book of sermons. I'm reading from God's word. You see this? I'm not making this up. I didn't get this from man. This is God's word. He wanted to make sure everybody knew that what he was reading was indeed God's word. And so do I. So do I. Now, it says he opened the book and the sight of all the people. Now, he, I believe he's the only one that had a copy of it. Back then, they did not have, everyone did not have a copy of God's Word. Now, is it not great cause for thanksgiving that you have, every one of us have a copy of God's Word? They had to, in a sense, trust that he was indeed reading God's Word. But you can look at it for yourself and see. If I am, can't you? And you've got a copy that you can consult privately whenever you will. What a blessing. What a blessing. Do you know what all it took for us to have this book? Many lives were lost, and men sacrificed their lives in order for us to have an English version of this book. So that's cause for great thanksgiving and the possession of this blessed book in our language, the language of the common people. And verse 6, it says, after he read, he blessed the Lord, the great God. That is, he prayed and all the people said, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. A faithful priest, there were about 13 of them that we read their names, 13 of them. Perhaps each of them in turn, I'm not sure, but perhaps each in turn would take a text from God's word, Genesis through Deuteronomy, maybe another book. But I believe each one of them took text and whether they, I don't think they divided up. It says they were all, all the people were together as one. I don't think they split up, I think they stayed together. And each man took a text and began to give the sense of it. That is, he began to preach it. So this is really the first Bible conference to ever be held. Thirteen preachers. And it lasted, I don't know how long it lasted. It lasted a long time. And they set up the feast of boobs and that lasted for a week. But this was kind of a first Bible conference. And perhaps now, this is perhaps what went on. I'm quite sure that something of this nature went on. The first man got up and took Genesis 1 and began to talk about God's creation. And went on through and talked about the fall of man. How that God created man upright, but man rebelled against God. Man in sin and wickedness rebelled against his good God and his Creator. Shook his fist, said he would be God instead of God. And man fell. And that man, whoever it was, preached on that. And then he went to perhaps Genesis 3 and talked about the woman's seed, which is Christ. How the woman's seed would come to redeem man out of this mess. And Christ being the woman's seed, the born of a virgin. And then perhaps he went on to the flood and talked about how God Almighty and anger and wrath and judgment against a sinful, rebellious world that had increased in population and just got more and more wicked as days went by, as years went by, and God, in anger and wrath and, yes, hatred, destroyed a world full of sinners. And that man got up and preached the truth. He preached how that God is not all love, but God is angry with the wicked every day and destroyed this planet by flood, but eight people And by the mercy and grace and goodness of God and his revelation to them and his goodness to them, spared them and put them in an ark. And what does that ark represent? Somebody did. Somebody preached that. And then perhaps the next man got up and he took the story of Jacob. Jacob, one of Abraham's sons. And all of his kindred and who Jacob was. how he got his name, and what kind of fellow he was, and his sons, what kind of men they were, and the story of Joseph and his brethren's cruelty to Joseph, and who Joseph represents, Christ and his goodness, and the captivity of Israel. And then Moses, perhaps he went on to talk about Moses the deliverer whom God sent to make known the true and living God to a people that didn't know him after all this. And then perhaps another man got up, a third man, a fourth, or whoever, got up and he began to speak from the exodus, the Passover lamb. how God, that day, was the beginning of months for the people, the very beginning of their new life. And God was going to bring them out of captivity of the Egyptians and take them to a land, a promised land that He promised them, flowing with milk and honey, and redeem them. And God revealed Himself to them and showed them how they needed a lamb and so forth. Perhaps a man got up and preached all that. And how they came to Mount Sinai and Moses went up for them and received the law which they were reading at this time, the law from God, the gracious, merciful God gave this wonderful book that he didn't give to anybody throughout the world but his chosen people, the sons of Jacob. And gave them this law, this blessed law which gives life, which opens blind eyes and opens deaf ears and so forth and so on, leads in paths of righteousness. and the tabernacle, instructions for the tabernacle and all that that represents, who that represents, the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps somebody got up and preached that. And then somebody else got up, perhaps, and preached the sojourning of Israel through the wilderness in the book of Numbers and so on. And how the people once again were rebellious and wicked people and rebelled against God and all His mercy and all His goodness to them. And they forgot God, murmured and complained against such goodness and mercy to them, murmured and complained against God. And so God sent fiery serpents in the midst of the camp and bit them and they were all dying from this snake bite. But God in mercy and grace Had Moses put a serpent of brass upon a pole like unto the serpent they were bit by, a picture of Christ, the remedy for sin, to whom all would look to would be healed, would not die. The manna, perhaps somebody got up and preached on the manna, God graciously reigning bread from heaven upon a people that were ungrateful, undeserving, unworthy, sinful, rebellious, stiff-necked, hard-hearted, no good bunch of people. And that's what they read, and that's what they gave the sense of, and on and on it went, and it caused the people to understand the reading. After that, after all this preaching, and this meeting didn't start out with great mirth. This meeting didn't start out with people joyful and happy and feasting and all that. After hearing all this preaching and reading of God's Word, all the people, look at verse 9. Verse 9, it says, all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. as they should, as we should. Because whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. Guilty. Upon first really hearing God's Upon first really hearing and understanding the sense of God's Word when it's preached, when it's declared, when it's read, the sense is given. It should convict us of sin, our sin, not the children of Israel, our sin, how that we've done just like they've done, only worse. It should break our hearts. It should show us the awful consequences that we have suffered because of our own sinfulness and rebellion against God. That's what it should do. And it does do it by God's Holy Spirit. He convinces of sin and it should show us what we've brought upon ourselves and upon our children. These things should make us weep. They really should. Let me ask you, have you read and do you understand? Like these people, someone read to them And they understood that God created man upright in his image, but man rebelled and fell, and man has become a vile and wicked and filthy creature. Man created beautiful, holy in the image of God, but man in pride and rebellion sinned against God, and that's exactly what we did. And all of these diseases and so forth and all this suffering and all that is a result of sin. You go into a nursing home and look at the ravages of sin, and it ought to make you weep. Man created upright, beautiful. He's just fallen low, hasn't he? Fallen low. Have you read? You have read. And do you understand that God is holy? We say this all the time. But God is holy and God is just, and Scripture says He will not clear the guilty. He will by no means clear the guilty, and that's everyone in here. I'm convinced there's some in here that do not know that yet. I haven't seen Mr. Wet Eyes. Has God destroyed a whole world full of people? People. with a flood, and he's going to do it again. Not a fairy tale. This is not some cunningly devised fable Peter said. This is the truth. Christ told that. Jesus Christ said it. He can't lie. Have you read, do you read, and have you understood how that God chose a people? God in mercy and grace and love and kindness chose a people, sinful and corrupt though they were, To show mercy and to spare them from this wrath to come? Spare them out of a world that He purposed to destroy? And yet they still sinned against Him? God who caused the bread to rain from heaven, and that's where we get ours. Everything we get, every good and perfect gift, cometh from above. What do we have that we have not received? And we're rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. Where did it come from? God has freely given it to us. And God warned the children of Israel, He said, beware that when you come into the land that floweth with milk and honey and your cattle increase and your houses and your lands and all, beware that you don't forget God. And that's exactly what the people did. He says they sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play and didn't have time for God. After all the mercy and grace and kindness that God had shown to these people, they did that. They didn't have time for God. They forgot God. And so have we, time and again. Have you read, have you not read and understood that most of our troubles and our problems and our burdens are due to our own sinfulness? and our own rebellion, our own stubbornness not to hear God's word. It's not this person or that person, this happened to that person. It's me. It's my fault. Adam had no one to blame but himself. He blamed it on his wife. Ultimately, he blamed it on God for giving her to him. Do we not understand that most of our problems are due to our own sinfulness and stubbornness and not heeding God's word? When God has plainly laid out clearly the path we are to trod and how that we repeat the very sins of the children of Israel that it is written right there for us to see. And do we not yet understand how that God, if God does not continue to show us mercy, that God does not spare our children, that they're going to perish with the rest of this God-forsaken world, and that right soon? Do you see why the people wept? It didn't start out joyful. When we first hear and understand the truth, if God really speaks to us with His powerful voice, the first thing He does is break these old hard hearts. I mean, every time the Gospels are preached, the Gospels are not good news until your heart is broken. The Gospels are only good news to sinners. The reason the Gospels cease to be good news to us, and we grow tired of it, is because we are at ease in Zion. Because we've, you know, reached a certain level, and we know all this and we know that, and it's in our head, and our hearts have become hardened. So I ask you, how does all that make you feel? There's somebody in here that's actually got some tears in their eyes. That's good. Alright? Hold your peace. Hold on. That's the bad news. Hold your peace. This is what Ezra and Nehemiah, this is what they said. Hold your peace. Be still. Be still. Don't be grieved. If you mourn over your sins, you'll be comforted. Our Lord said, Blessed are they that mourn. They'll be comforted. See, unless we mourn, the gospel has no comfort to it. If you weep, it will be turned to laughter. Psalm 126 says, He that goeth forth weeping will no doubt return with joy, with laughter. He that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seeds, shall return with his sheep. So if we hear and understand the madness Then hear and understand this, the good news. Anybody need it? Be of good cheer. This is what my God tells me to do also. He says, warn them. If you fail to warn them, like he said to Ezekiel, I will carry their blood at your hands. That's what he said. And that's what his indictment is against all these false prophets. They get up and say, peace, peace, when there is no peace. when they hide the word of God from the people. What word? The words of judgment, the words of wrath, the words of condemnation. And take off the offense. But to those who heard this and understand the sense, our Lord says, be of good cheer. The warfare is accomplished. There's a battle being waged for the town of Mansoul, like old Bunyan wrote of, and he got it from God's Word. A battle being raged for this town of Mansoul, for your soul. Yep, Satan hath desired you to sit you like wheat, Stephen Parks, and you're no match for him. Adam wasn't. No man down through history has been a match for him, but one. And if this one undertakes on your behalf, warfare is accomplished. Iniquity is pardoned. Now who's that going to mean anything to except people who are full of iniquity? Iniquity means coming far short. Iniquity. Tell them their iniquity is pardoned. Tell him he forgiveth all thine iniquities, all thine iniquities, all thine iniquities. Now who does that mean something to? As a chief, it meant something to the thief on the cross. All of them, every one of them, forgiven. It meant something to Mary Magdalene. All of them, Lord, you don't hold me accountable for any of them? Not one. Where are thine accusers? Doth no man accuse thee? Neither do I. Thine iniquities are forgiven. He redeemeth thy life from destruction. He redeemeth thy life from destruction. The Lord, listen to this, the Lord is merciful. Now who does that mean something to except those that are guilty? The Lord is merciful. That's His name. The Lord is gracious. Who does that mean something to except people that have nothing, know nothing, can do nothing, weak, poor, needy, huh? Gracious. The Lord is gracious. God of all grace. He giveth more grace. You need grace? He's gracious. He's full of it. Slow to anger. Who does that mean something to except those that feel like God ought to be angry with me? But He's not. Plenteous in mercy. Oh, surely I've sinned away the day of grace. Surely I've sinned enough now He's going to quit showing me mercy. No, here's good news. His mercy endureth forever. Whoever He has this saving mercy upon, He keeps having mercy upon. I see somebody with tears and a smile on their face. Well, our God says, as far as the East is from the West, I'll remove their sins from them. Clean slate. Their past is gone. God, He says, I'll remember it no more. Don't bring it up. Don't bring it up. Their past is gone. Like they never sinned before. Like they never lived up until now. Never. It's gone. Past is gone. Who does that mean something to? Chief of Center, buddy. God says, I've put all your sins on the head of a scapegoat and he's led out into the wilderness by a fit man and he deposits them and they'll never come back again to haunt you. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. He knows your frame. Now who does that mean something to? Except those that know something about their sinfulness and their weakness and their violence, huh? Like there's a father pity of his children. So the Lord, you pity your children? You have mercy upon them? You want to do them well? Oh, how much more? You're Heavenly Father. You then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children. How much more shall the Father give good things to them that ask Him, that need them? daily loatheth us with benefit. His mercy, now listen to this, His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting. Cheer up. Be happy. And this is what they said, I believe. They said in verse 10, go your way. Eat the fat. You just did, folks. You just did. God has served us a feast of fat things. Fat of the lamb, you know. Christ Himself. Fat things and wine on the leaves, well refined. Good, pure, Christ-centered preaching. Eat the fat, drink the sweet. You know, sweet only means something to you after you've had a bit of dirt. The children of Israel were to eat the roasted lamb with bitter herbs, weren't they? That's trials and affliction. That's the bitterness that we feel of our own sins and rebellion against God that they say now. Drink the sweet. Drink the sweet. Christ Himself drank the cup of God's wrath dry, the bitterness, the wrath of God, which should have been poured out on us. Christ drank that cup dry. And then He filled His cup for us, full of mercy and goodness and kindness and sweetness. Drink it. Our cup runneth out. Sweetness. It's path-dropped fattening. Do you understand that? Any of that? How it pleased the Lord to make you His people. Go with me to Ezra. I'm going to quit with this. Ezra chapter 3. Let's close with this. This is wonderful. I remember as a young believer, you know, this is why I'm... Was it Job? Job said that. Job later on, he said, Oh, that I were as in months past. Does anybody know what he meant by that? Job said, Oh, that I were as in months past. Meaning, tender and sensitive and pricked in my heart and broken and sensitive to the Word of God. When every message was the best one I ever heard. You hear me? Listen to me. And I feel the same way. Most of the time, I feel the same way. As old as I were as in months past. I remember when I couldn't get enough of preaching. Go wherever it was. Every message I thought was wonderful. The best I'd ever heard. The one that was speaking to me and me only. I remember as a young believer, working on the railroad. In the midst of, you know, that mess. And you know, like Lot in Sodom, I was vexed with the conversation of the wicked, and it began to rub off on me, and I felt no different than I felt as one that mocked, like Olah. I felt like I was one that mocked. And being particularly convicted of my own sin and worthlessness, and I thought, God's going to just be done with me. He's not going to put up with me anymore. I'd just only known him a few years. But I remember this verse of Scripture came to my mind as if it was spoken out loud. Where our Lord said to His disciples, He said, Fear not, little flock. It is thy Father's good pleasure to give unto you the kingdom. And I, buddy, I don't think I hit the ground on my way back to the roundhouse. I dropped the locomotive off and was walking back to get another one. I quickened my step, quickened my heart more than anything else. Fear not, little flock. Fear not, little believer. It's your Father's good pleasure. It pleases the Lord to make you His people. And it's His good pleasure to give unto you the kingdom. Neither hell nor high water is going to keep you from it. So that's what the people, they were weeping, and it turned to joy. And back here in Ezra, something similar happened. Verse 11, Ezra chapter 3, it says, They sang together by chorus and praising, like we just did. These are real people. The names are different, but they're no different than we are. And they were giving thanks unto the Lord. Why? Because He's good. For His mercy. What's His great goodness? What's His chief goodness? What's the chief cause for our thanksgiving? His mercy. Someday we're going to know that. Someday we're really going to know that. You know, I don't want to wait until then, though. I want to know now. For once in my life, I want to, from my heart, out of the abundance of my heart, my mouth speak out, and no matter what anybody thinks, praise my God. Give Him thanks for His mercy. that endureth forever toward Israel." Israel, who's that? Sons of Jacob. And all the people shouted with great shouts. Sunday morning during the message, one of you said to me, I just came so close to just hollering, what's to stop you? These people did, listen, when they praised the Lord because, why? Because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. They brought out of captivity, brought to Jerusalem, and old Zerubbabel, you know who that is? Old Zerubbabel, it says, he started building a house. Zerubbabel wasn't of the priest of Levi. He wasn't a priest. He wasn't of Levi. He was of Judah. He's one of our Lord's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. Oh, Zerubbabel. The whole book of Haggai, I believe, is about Zerubbabel. The whole book. It says he laid the foundation of the house. And it's there. God's going to build his house. And it says he's going to lay the topstone with shouts. What's the shout? What's the shout? Grace unto him. And you as lively stones, living stones, are built up, are built on this foundation, which is Christ our Lord, and built and put in this house. These bricks in this building have been here for thirty-some years. They're not coming out, humanly speaking, of themselves. They're not going to pop out. They're cemented in. They're vitally joined together. You hear that? That's Ephesians 4, isn't it? Vitally joined together. in Christ, one body, one building, built up, holy under the Lord, a tabernacle, a temple under the Lord. And they all shouted when the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and chiefs of the fathers who were ancient men, old men, old men had seen the first house. They saw the first house, and they saw how it was torn down, how the enemy came in and tore it down, and abominable practices were brought in, and all of that, and the people into captivity. And when they saw the foundation of this new house was laid before them, they wept with a loud voice. But many shouted aloud for joy. And here are these old men weeping. And here are some people shouting for joy. And look, it did. And it says in verse 13, so that the people couldn't discern, the people that were listening couldn't discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping. What do they do? Are they weeping? Yes. What do they do? Are they laughing? Yes. Are they happy? Yes. Are they sad? Yes. The people shouted with a loud noise and the noise was heard afar off. And one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture, Psalm 126, says when the Lord turned again our captivity. When the Lord turned again our captivity. We were in captivity, and we get back in captivity to sin. Like Psalm 107 says, and they sin against the Lord, and they're brought down with hard labor, but God, they cry unto the Lord, and He hears them, and brings them out of captivity again. And then they're okay for a while, and they get back into it, and they cry unto the Lord, and He hears them. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and His wondrous works to the children of men. But it says there in Psalm 126, when the Lord turned again our captivity, we were like them that dreamed, and our mouths were filled with laughter, the Scripture said. Laughter. And they said, the Lord hath done good things for us whereof we are so glad. Let's give thanksgiving. Why? All this stuff, you see. See the world. The world has this stuff. The world, some people in the world have more stuff than we do. Bigger houses and bigger cars and all of this. That's not the blessings of God. That is the blessings of God. I mean, God, He said, my seed will not be begging bread. That is the goodness of God. But that's not His chief goodness. God's greatest goodness, chief goodness is revealed unto you and our children. The mercy, the love, the grace, the gospel of God that's in Christ Jesus our Lord. We're of all people most blessed, aren't we? Let's give thanks. Stand with me. Our Lord, oh, we thank You. We don't thank You like we want to. We don't thank You like we ought to, but we do thank You. We do understand something of, a little bit of, Your mercy, Your love, Your grace, Your goodness, Your kindness to us through Christ Jesus our Lord. How that You spared us, but spared not Your Son. Lord, we can't thank You as we want to, but someday we will. We do thank You that You have caused us to read and given us a sense of Thy Word and an understanding of what we read. And we thank You, Lord. We are of all people most, most, most blessed. And so we give thanks as much as life within us for so great salvation. Lord, bless Your people. Give them a good time together. Let us go our way. Eat the fat, drink the sweet, and make great mirth and fellowship. Truly, our fellowship is here, but we are glad you have given us time together with those we love, and we pray that you make it a good time, a profitable time. We give Thanksgiving the food of our lips unto our God this day. Amen. Okay. Yeah.