Turn with me if you would for a short time this evening as the Lord will enable us to Nehemiah chapter 8. to the second portion of God's word that we read together to the book of Nehemiah and chapter 8. And we'll take as our text verses 1 and 2. And all the people gathered themselves together as one man 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 as for the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women to all that could hear and with understanding upon the first day of the seventh month and so on. We wish this evening to look at Nehemiah chapter 8. We often hear of times of blessing, times of refreshing from the right hand of the Lord. We often think, and almost as though if today you were to hear of God's word being revived somewhere, that you would want to go there. Because we don't know what it is really to live in a day of great revival of God's Word. We can think back to times of the Reformation, and we can think back to the times of the Covenanters, and we can think back to the 1800s, the early 1800s when God revived His work in our nation and in many respects, really even throughout Europe in some occasions. We can think of great times when God brought great blessings to his people. But we haven't had such a blessing in our land for quite some time. We haven't had such times of refreshing. In fact, over the last number of years, our nation has fallen further and further away from the things of God. Atheism and humanism and unbelief is rampant. And God's house lies desolate. And there is no time just now where we can say that God's work is really reviving. We hear of the odd occasion when someone is converted, when someone is brought to a living and a saving faith. But we don't really know what it is to live in a day of when God has revived his work. But that doesn't mean to say that today that God's work is not working. Because God can revive not just a nation, he just doesn't revive a congregation or a denomination. God can revive a dead soul. One dead soul that is brought from death unto life, God brings that and revives that soul, awakens that soul out of death. Now, we might not be able to know much in our own day of revivals in terms of the blessings of congregations or denominations or a country or nations of the world. But what is it for God to bring a blessing? What is it for God to bless a nation? Or to bless a congregation? Or even to bless an individual? So what is it? It's an important question. Ask yourself, what is it when God blesses? And we want this evening to look and seek to answer that question in some measure by looking at the day of Nehemiah. And we want to look at three things. We want to look at, first of all, the Spirit of God. We want to look at the Word of God. And we want to look at the people of God. We want to look at the Spirit of God, the Word of God, and the people of God. Let's then begin with the first of these points, the Spirit of God. What's happening here in the day of Nehemiah? Well, there has been a return from Babylon. That return started off, as you know now, under Joshua and Zerubbabel. Then things came to a standstill. And then Ezra comes down. And the work progresses. And then Nehemiah comes down. Nehemiah the prophet. He comes. And despite all the opposition from St. Ballot and Tobias and all these ones. And despite the fact that they invite him to go out into Ono. And a lovely place, but really what they're wanting to do is to interrupt the work. Despite all that, the work finishes. The walls are now intact, and the gate has now been put back on to the walls. And what's going to happen now? Well, you see a mighty blessing here. Because you see, first of all, there's three things that you notice that takes place. First of all, the people gathered themselves together as one man. Into the street that was before the Watergate, the people gathered themselves together. A wonderful sign, isn't it? When the people gather themselves together. God, you'll notice on the news sheet, at the first page it says, delights in the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. He delights in the dwellings of Jacob. But God delights in it when his people gather together to worship him. And it's a wonderful sign, isn't it? When the people come and they want to gather together, they want to be together. It was a sign of, at the time of the Covenanters, they went out into the hills and they gathered together. Why? They were going out there and they were gathering together. There were congregations out in the hills. At the time of the revivals, when God revived His work in this land, and it happened in one place that I know of, it said that they had no building and all they could see were the faces in the snow. They gathered to hear God's word. There was that desire to come and to meet together. It's a wonderful sign, isn't it, when people come to meet and gather together. And notice here, it's they gathered themselves. They gathered themselves. There was no need for a minister to go and chase them up and try and get them to find out where they were the day before. There was no need then for someone to chase them up and find out why weren't you there. They gathered themselves, they wanted to be there. It was their delight to be where God's people were gathering. They gathered themselves together in the street there. But Lord Jesus Christ himself gave us a wonderful example of that, didn't he? On the Sabbath day he went and he went into the synagogue. Why? To be with God's people. He went there and he gathered with God's people. That's always a good sign, isn't it? It's always a sign that God is blessing his people. For there is that desire to be. with God's people. It's a sign of the Spirit, isn't it? It's a sign of the Spirit drawing the sinner. But you see, you can come to God's house, and you might want to gather in God's house, but that doesn't mean to say that it's a work of the Spirit, does it? You might be in God's house tonight because your parents are in God's house or people might be in God's house because it's what was done in the past. The forebears did it so they're doing it. You might come to God's house. There may be many reasons why you come to God's house. But that brings us to the second reason why the people were gathered on this day. They gathered themselves and you then read that When they gathered, they spake to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. So you see, they came to God's house because they wanted to hear the law of the Lord. They weren't going to God's house, and they weren't gathering together for amusement. They weren't coming to God's house for entertainment. You go to many places today, and it's amusement, entertainment that you will find. But that's not why they were coming. They wanted to hear the law of the Lord. If you go back then, the law of the Lord is either the law of Moses, the law of the Lord, or simply the law. That was the first five books of the Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The first five books of the Old Testament. And the Septuagint, it was called the Pentateuch. Pentateuch being five, five scrolls, Pentateuch. That was the Greek name that was given to it. Pentateuch by the Greek name that was given to it. But the Hebrew name was the Torah. The Torah was the law. They wanted to hear what God had to say to them. My friend, why do you come to church? Why are you here? Are you here just because you have to be here? That's a sad thing if you're only here because you have to be here. You see, a sign of God's blessing is when they gathered themselves together, but they wanted to be there together in order to hear the law of the Lord, what God had to say to them. It's a wonderful thing, isn't it, when we come to God's house and we come and we say, I wonder what God has to say to me today. Has he got something to say to me this evening? Has he got something to say to us? And then when we come to God's house, we're asking that question. What does God have to say to me tonight? I'm not here just because, I'm not here just to have my, my emotions tingled or anything else, I'm here because I want to hear what God has to say. And that's what they came, they said to Ezra. Now, you might come to God's house, and you might come to God's house wanting to hear what God has to say, but that's still not enough, is it? That's still not all that they were doing here. You may come to God's house, you may think to yourself, well, it'll be interesting to hear what the preacher has to say this evening. He might say something that's interesting. He may say something that's not interesting. He might be bored by the preacher. But you're coming, you see, and if all you're coming is to hear what story the preacher has to do, then you're still coming short. of what happened in the day of Nehemiah. Because look at verse 3. He read that in the street from the morning until midday from the men and the women, those who could understand in the ears of the people, were attentive unto the book of the law. They attended unto it. They weren't only coming to listen to it, they were attentive. What does it mean to be attentive to God's word? Well, surely it's to listen to it in a way that you're applying it to yourself. You're asking yourself, I'm wanting to attentively listen and to actually understand what God is saying to me. And then to apply it. You see, there are people that will say with regards to, well I understand what God is saying, but you know, I think something different. I know that God is saying that, but well yes, I understand that, but let's think of something. That's not what they were doing. They were attentive. to God's word. Some people come to God's house and all they're interested in is sort of switching off. Let's switch off. Let's think about what we're going to do tomorrow. Let's think about work tomorrow, what we're interests are tomorrow. Let's think about college tomorrow. Let's think about this, that and the other. And they've switched off. My friend, that wasn't happening here. They came to, they gathered themselves together They wanted to hear God's word and when God's word was read in their midst, they were attentive. It's almost as though they were hanging in every word that Ezra read. Now my friend, let me ask you this. Do you think by nature, man by nature is that way? Do you think that by nature man wants to come and gather here this evening? Look around you. And you will see what by nature man wants. He's not interested in going to church. He's not interested in being with God's people. He's not interested in listening to the Word of God. And he's certainly not attentive to what God has to say. What's needed? The Spirit of God. It's the Spirit of God alone that will do that. When the Lord blesses His word, when He blesses His church, He blesses the church by His Spirit. At the same time, you have Zachariah prophesying. And what does the Lord say through Zachariah? Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord. You know, people say what we need today is better preachers, what we need today is more, you know, zealous this and zealous my friend, what we need is the Holy Spirit. What we need is the Holy Spirit. It's not entertainment, it's not more lively services, it's not more interesting stories even, it's good when we preach and we would love to be great preachers. But you can have the greatest preacher all you like, what we need is the Holy Spirit. Because it's only the work of the Holy Spirit that will do that. It's only the work of the Holy Spirit that will change. And think of what the Holy Spirit can do. At a time when God blesses his church, the drug addict that is feeding the habit of junkies is now teaching his children the Word of God. That's the work of the Spirit. The man who's going out looking for a fight on a Friday night with a knife and all the rest of it, he's now standing in the street corner and he's telling others about Jesus Christ. My friend, the Holy Spirit, it's the Holy Spirit that can do that. And when in the day of Nehemiah they came and they were seeking, they came and they gathered themselves together and they were demanding to hear what God had to say and they were attentive to the words, my friend, We pray for a day when the Holy Spirit would be poured out. And in that day, many would be coming to God's house. And they wouldn't be coming to God's house just to gather together. They would be coming to hear the Word of God. And they wouldn't just be coming to hear the Word of God. Their hearts would be open to be attentive to the truth. It's the Holy Spirit, my friend, that's able to do that. That's the second thing. If we think about the Spirit that opens the deaf ears and the Holy Spirit that opens the heart, let's secondly look in this day of great blessing to the Word of God. If we see first of all the Spirit of God, let us look at the Word of God. And you'll immediately notice that the Word of God and what's already been said can't be separated. It can't be separated. They are demanding and wanting the Word of God. It's the work of the Spirit. In them wanting to come and to be attentive to the Word of God. We've already seen that. But let us look at the central place that God's word, God's law, the word that they had was there central to everything that took place that day. Ezra comes and we are told that Ezra the scribe, that he took the law and he read it before the street that was before the water gate. There is a public reading of God's word. He brings it publicly. And he read therein before the street, verse 3, that was before the water gate from the morning until the midday. There he is reading the Word of God in the very public place. And wouldn't it be wonderful that instead of all the vanity fair that goes on in this city over these few weeks, wouldn't it be wonderful if the council said that it's now going to be the public reading of God's word in Princess Street, at the mound. And we're going to encourage it, that people will come and hear. And what a privilege we have today because he reads it in Jerusalem. Ezra comes and reads the word in Jerusalem. What does Jesus say? Jesus says, Go ye into all the world. Preach the Gospel to every creature. Take the Gospel out of Jerusalem, beginning at Jerusalem. Take that Gospel and preach it to every creature. Take the Gospel to Australia, to New Zealand. Take it to America, Japan. Take it to Edinburgh and preach it in the street there. Have a public place. Have a door that is open that people can come in and hear the Word of God. My friend, what it was like in the day when God revived His Word in this land. Why do you think it is that John Knox is standing there with a Bible in his hand? Why do you think it is that in Glasgow it was the very motto of the city, they've changed it now, but the motto of the city was, let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the Word. It's because the Word became central. And there was a pulpit. People say to you, you know, pulpit, well there's a pulpit in the scripture and he's raised up in this pulpit. And he's not raised up in the pulpit so that he can be exalted, that becomes obvious. He's raised up in the pulpit so that everybody could hear. so that even those at the back would be able to listen to every word and every syllable that he read. He was raised up in a pulpit to hear. My friend, isn't it wonderful when you come into a building and what is central to that building is a pulpit. Not an altar with a pulpit at the side, but the pulpit there right in the middle. Anybody walking in the door will be able to see the pulpit. What is the main thing that goes on in this building? The pulpit. The preaching. Preaching of the word. Preaching of the word. And you know, you've got a list of the men here, and from verse 4 you've got all these men, some on his right hand, some on his left hand. What are they doing there? Uriah, Hilkiah, Masariah, on his right hand, and Pididaiah, and Mesheel on his left hand. What are they doing there? They're there upholding him in the work. My friend, that's the job of an elder. You may ask yourself, what's the job of elders in our own denomination? You may say, well, they sit in a kirk session and they interview people going to become members. My friend, it's more than that. They are there beside the minister upholding the preaching of the word, safeguarding the preaching of the word, putting their own amen to the preaching of the word, to the preaching of Christ crucified. That's how important the word was in the day when God blessed his word. And you know, as soon as Ezra opened the word, the people stood up. You notice that? They had a reverence for God's Word. My friend, when I was young, and growing up, I've probably told you this before, when I was young and growing up, and it happened very often in the free church, you would come in, the congregation would sit, and there would be the pulpit up the front. Anybody coming in would see. Preaching was central in this building. And before the minister came in, an elder would come in, and he would have the Bible at that in his hand. And he would walk into the pulpit, and he'd put it down. And then the minister would come in, showing the preeminence that God's Word had in the preaching. And my friend, whenever God blesses His Church, He blesses the Word. It's the word that became, in verse 5 he says, And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above them. And when he opened it, all the people stood up. See, what a reverence they had for God. My friend, do you have a reverence for God's word? Are you able to say with others that you know that this is, that you receive it, not as the word of man, but indeed and in truth as the very word of God? Is that how you receive it? You receive it as God's Word. Well, before Ezra even uttered a word of reading God's Word, he prayed. One of the reasons, I don't have a psalm really between the reading, it's a slight thing, but I like to pray before we open God's Word. We like to open to pray before we open to God. Even in private, when we come to private reading of God's Word, my friend, what do you do? Do you pray? And do you thank God? Do you bless God? And when Israel prayed and he blessed God for the Word, the people answered, Amen. They put their own Amen to it. He was praying for them. And they lifted up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped God. Worshipped the Lord. Such a reverence. Let me ask you this. If I were to ask you this evening, what's more important, praying or reading the Word of God, what would your answer be? Well, praying is very important, my friend. But reading the Word of God and studying the Word of God is far more important. It's far more important for you to sit and listen and to read what God has to say to you than for you to say to God what you want. Now that's not in any way decrying prayer. That's not in any way saying that we shouldn't be praying. We should be praying. But my friend, we should be studying the Word. We should be listening to what God has to say to us rather than what But it's as if you come in the presence of somebody, and they start to speak, and you can't get a word edgeways. You can't get a word in, because they're speaking, speaking, speaking. And you try to say something, and they still, and they go. You can't stop. That's not how we should be with God. We should stop and listen to what God has to say to us. That's not to say that we don't pray. Don't get me wrong. Ezra read the Word of God in their presence for up to six hours. And they were attentive on it. And they revered it. My friend, that's true when God blesses His church. It is by the Spirit of God. And there is then that love of the Word of God. And then there is thirdly, the people of God. And once again you see that we're already overlapping here, it's all the one thing isn't it? We've got the people of God in the beginning, we've got the Word of God, but here we find the people of God and what happens? They wept when they heard the Word of God. Verse 9 This day is a holy day. Mourn not, nor weep, for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. They wept. You can probably understand why they wept. When they heard the law of God and all that God demanded of them. when they thought about how far short of what they ought to be, when they saw how far short of the demands that they fell, no wonder they wept. My friend, have you ever wept under the preaching of the Word? In a day of God's blessing, you hear the weeping in God's house, because they recognised Their failure. And when we read God's law, we read such a failure. Why was the law given to the children of Israel? It was a great blessing that was given to them. They had a great blessing when they had the Ten Commandments set before them. When the law that was there was all set out before them. It wasn't a curse to them, it was a blessing to them. The Ten Commandments given to Moses was a great blessing. Why? Because the law showed them. Not that they could be right with God by the keeping of the law. And it showed them that they needed a saviour. They needed to go to the sacrifices. And here that day they wept. But you also notice here, look, What a great comfort there was given to them. Then he said unto them, Go your way, eating fat and drinking the sweet, and send portions unto them whom nothing is prepared for this day as holy unto the Lord. Neither be ye sorry. Why not? Verse 10, For the joy of the Lord is your strength. You see, it was the Lord that was their strength. It was the joy that the Lord gave to them. They were going to, in the second half, do the Feast of Tabernacles. What was the Feast of Tabernacles? They went out into the wilderness in booths and it showed how the Lord provided for them in the midst of their wilderness journey, despite all of their failures. God was still faithful to all of his promises. God would still bless. people wept and were comforted, the Lord is your strength. And my friend, if the children of Israel in that day would weep over their sins, how much more when you discover that God blesses his church today, that there is first of all a great weeping over sin. There is the work of the law that tells us that we are hell deserving sinners and we need to mourn and weep over our sins. But the gospel, Jesus Christ, He is the strength of the Lord. He is the joy that is brought to the soul, this longing soul. We are able to come in. There is during that time of God's blessing. Yes, there is mourning, but also there is joy. there is the great joy of the Lord. My friend, do you know the joy of the Lord? Do you know what it is to be blessed by the Lord? Do you know what it is to come into his house and to come in mourning over your sins? To have that weight upon your shoulders and you come in and you hear these words, cast thy burden upon the Lord. My yoke is easy. My friend, do you know what it is to rejoice in the Lord your God? The strength of the Lord, He's your joy. The joy of the Lord is your strength. And you know they left there with great mirth. You find that in verse 12. And all the people went their way to eat and to drink and send portions to make great mirth because they had understood the words that were declared unto them. They now understood what God was saying to them. And my friend, you won't really know joy in this world until you understand what God is saying. You won't really have the joy. You might have joy and mirth in one evening or whatever it is. You might have joy and mirth. You might go out and enjoy yourself. My friend, it's fleeting. It's nothing. It's not there. But the sinner that comes to know the Lord Jesus Christ and the joy of the Lord, the sinner that comes to know sin's forgiven, The sinner that comes to know what it is to hear these words, peace, be still. It's the sinner that comes to know joy unspeakable and full of glory. And you'll only come to understand what God is saying when you come to understand his word. What's his word? Well, it's the Bible. But my friend, Jesus is the word. He is the Word made flesh. The Bible is all about the Word. The Old Testament is all about the Word. The New Testament is all about the Word. The whole of the Old Testament, as we saw this morning, as Jesus came into Jerusalem upon the ass and upon the colt, the foal of the ass, prophesied in Zechariah. This is not a new religion that Jesus brings in. It's going right back to Genesis. where there's the promise of a Messiah. And that one way of salvation is there in the Old Testament. And those in Nehemiah's day came to understand what God is saying. And my friend, God has spoken in an even clearer manner today when he has spoken by his son. And Hebrews tells us he will speak by no other. God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." End of story. Do you understand what God is saying when God has spoken by Jesus Christ? He's saying to you, you're a hell-deserving sinner. You need to mourn over your sins. But for those who understand the way of salvation, it brings joy and mirth, joy unspeakable, and joy that is full of glory. So if we look for God to bless His church, if we look for God to bless our congregation this evening, let's pray for these three things. That God would bless His church by His Spirit, first and foremost. And then in blessing by His Spirit, we would come to a greater love of His Word. That thirdly, He would bring us to the people of God a weeping and a mourning and a rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. May it be that the Lord, because this law that was given, this law that they heard read in their presence, do you know what it was? it was but a schoolmaster. The Torah, the Pentateuch, as it was called in the Greek, the law of God was but a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. And if they were able to understand that, then my friend, we should understand as we come to Christ. Let us pray. Gracious and ever-blessed Lord, we pray thou would bless us this evening with a blessing that makes rich and which adds no sorrow to it. We thank thee for the blessings of the gospel, the blessings that are to be found in Jesus Christ the Lord. May we love thy word. May we love thy day. May we love the gospel. May we love thy people. May we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. And then in all that we fail in all these things, and even loving our neighbor as we ought, we thank thee that our salvation does not depend upon that, but it depends upon Jesus Christ, the Lord. Oh Lord, we pray this evening that we would understand thy word. Supposing we leave here with five moral issues that we have more understanding of, and we do not understand thy word, then we have failed. If we come to understand many things about life, but do not understand thy word, then the preaching has failed. But may it be that we would come to understand thy word and love Jesus Christ. Bless us now, pardon us as his name said, amen. We'll conclude singing in Psalm 133. Psalm 133. Tunis Denfield, behold how good a thing it is, and how becoming well, together such as brethren are in unity to dwell. Like precious ointment on the head, that down the beard did flow, even Aaron's beard and to the skirt did off his garments go. As Hermon's dew, the dew that doth on Zion hills descend, for there the blessing God commands, life that shall never end. Psalm 133, behold how good a thing it is. He who hath heard of the ages, and hath recalled it well, who hath sought the treasure not, if you be cheated well. Thy precious ointment on the head that hath appeared it all, it becomes clear unto the church in all things now. Our parents' children should act upon time until it's end, For they will never see nor commence life that shall never end. We remind you of the prayer meeting on Thursday night at 7.30. The services next Lord's Day are at the usual hours of 11 a.m. and 6.30. The rest of the intimations are on the new sheet. We'll conclude with the benediction. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, three persons, one God, rest on and abide with you now and forevermore. Amen.