I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Nehemiah and chapter 8. If you're using the Bibles in the seats, you should find that on page 403, Nehemiah chapter 8. We're continuing our study through the Old Testament looking for Christ. Looking for Christ because he tells us that all of the scriptures are written about him. And so we're believing him and we're looking. We're considering that he may be there in the Old Testament in types or themes, two Ts. Considering that he may be there in promises and progress of redemption, two Ps. Considering that he may be there in comparisons and contrasts, two Cs. At least six ways that we can look for Christ, believing him when he says he's there. The context of Nehemiah 8 is the temple has been rebuilt, the wall has been rebuilt, and the work of repopulating the city of Jerusalem is underway. God's people, having been brought back from captivity in Babylon, are living as the people of God. The context of Nehemiah 8 is a month of worship. The seventh month, the first day of the month, is the Feast of the Trumpets. It's a Sabbath, a holy ordinance to the Lord. The 10th day, not mentioned in our text, is the Day of Atonement, when the people of God remembered His atoning work, that though they should have died for their sins, He would provide a substitute. The 15th day, and it's referenced at the second half of the reading, is the Feast of Booths. Not boos, booths. They celebrate the harvest, they remember God's deliverance and Zachariah points to this feast as a mark of the nations coming to Christ. But this text before us is particularly about the word and the preaching of the word and the receiving of that preached word. Some of you perhaps have seen video clips of Christians in other countries receiving the Bible translated into their language for the very first time. I've seen a couple of those, looked at them recently. There's joy, there's delight, there's singing. Often there's weeping. In one particular video, there was a case of Bibles being carried by the elders of the community, like you might carry royalty above their heads holding this case, and then setting it down, and the elders passing on the scripture to the younger in their community. I spoke with Mr. P from our congregation about his experience working on Bible translations in foreign lands, And of course his work was in a closed country so it was harder to have public celebrations like that. Yet he said that he's seen people thrilled, thrilled out of their mind to receive the Bible in their own language. And recently they took a trip to that great nation and they carried with them copies of the New Testament in the language of the people. Some in suitcases, some in diaper bags, And people were thrilled to receive the language, the scripture in their own language. He mentioned particularly one lady who was, they brought with them also a tool by which people could download an app to hear the Bible and to read it on their phones. And one woman who was excited to hear the scripture in her own language. And who was learning to read. so that she could read the scripture in her own language. To them, the Bible was amazing. Sometimes for the first time to hear and see the word of God in their own language. For us, it's often commonplace. How many Bibles do you have in your homes? How many different translations can you access on your telephone? But we can have the same devotion that these who received the scripture for the first time, as we would say, as the people in Nehemiah's day said, bring the book. I'd like to ask you, it's not normally our practice, I don't believe by any means it's required, but because it's mentioned in our text today, I'd like to invite you to stand for the reading of Nehemiah chapter eight. Hear this, it is the very word of God. And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the water gate from early morning until midday in the presence of the men and the women and all those who could understand. and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose, and beside him stood Mattathiah, Shema, Ananiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Messiah on his right hand, and Paddaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashim, Hashab... on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people. And as he opened it, all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also, Jeshua, Bonnie, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akub, Sherebethiah, Hodai, Messiah, Kelita, Azariah, Josabath, Hanan, Peliah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest, and scribe, and all the Levites, who taught the people, said to all the people, this day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, go your way, eat the fat, and drink sweet wine, and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready. For this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, Be quiet, for this day is holy. Do not be grieved. And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them. On the second day, the heads of the fathers' houses of all the people with the priests and the Levites came together to Ezra, the scribe, in order to study the words of the law. And they found it written in the law that the Lord had commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, and that they should proclaim it and publish it in all their towns and in Jerusalem. Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written. So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the water gate, and in the square at the gate of Ephraim. And all the assembly of those who had returned from captivity made booths and lived in the booths for from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing. And day by day from the first day to the last day he read from the book of the law of God. They kept the feast seven days and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the rule. This is the very word of God. Let us seek him together in prayer. Oh, Father, our God in heaven, we ask that you would open our eyes, that we might, in the opening of your word, receive light. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may have a seat. Well, what are we to do with this text about the people of God so far removed from our time? Well, remember that God's word is to instruct us. And so the instruction that I believe, first of all, that we're called to is to receive the word read and preached. Receive the word read and preached. Private worship, family worship is vitally important for your daily growth in grace. But God desires that in addition to that, and more significantly than that, that you would come in the assembly to hear the word of God read and preached. One of the things that I aim to do in the family worship guide that many of you use is to connect. your family worship or private worship and the corporate assembly of the people of God in worship. That you would come to the book and that you would long to hear the book read and explained. But perhaps for some of you, it's just an old book. Perhaps you don't value its words. Perhaps you think, well, maybe it has some historical benefit or some poetic value, or perhaps even there is in it some measure of wisdom. But I would challenge you, if that's your thinking, to consider the claims that the scripture makes for itself. The word of God, the Bible, claims to be the breathed out word of God himself. All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness. You see, you can't really say that there's some value in this book. It might have some poetic value, it might have some wisdom, it might have some historic value. if you reject its claim to be the very word of God. Let me set that into context. Back in my undergraduate days, one of my early math classes, I was asked by my professor if I would proofread the examples and the questions and answers in the back of the book. It was a fun project. I got a little bit of pay for it. I got my name in print when the book went to print. It was a book of college algebra. It did not claim to be the book of college algebra. It did not claim to be the infallible guide to learning college algebra. It just claimed to be the way that this author thought college algebra would be useful to be learned. And so no one would look at that book and think that it had some sort of special claim. But if you're skeptical of the scripture, be skeptical of your skepticism, and at least acknowledge its claim for itself to be the very word of God. And for you who do, for you who are believers who love the word of God, do you attend to it with the same sort of excitement that one might who received the scripture in their language for the first time? How do you receive the word read and preached as we join in assembly week by week, morning and evening? If you're using the outline, you'll see there seven ways that the people here in Nehemiah 8 received the word read and preached. And the acronym is intentional. I believe that if you respond rightly to the word read and preached, you will find deep joy. You will find deep joy. Well, how did they respond? Let's consider the scripture before us. First, devotedly. In the first three verses, They were in worship together from the beginning of the day to the middle of the day, probably at least six hours. Now we don't worship for six hours at a time, and I don't think their example is a command to us, but for many it's hard enough to sit for a 30 minute sermon. Back in my early days of pastoral ministry, I attended a synod meeting, and back in those days, we began on Saturday evening. The papers that were to come before the court were presented, and the decision of how to respond to them was made. And then we took the Lord's day off and worshiped in the congregations in the area, and then began in earnest on Monday morning our work. And I recall sitting with a pastor friend of mine, as a visiting pastor who was over from another country was preaching in this particular congregation. And at about the 55 minute mark of his sermon, a little boy in front of us whispered loudly enough for at least a quarter of the church to hear, he's gonna go an hour. And though that little boy was not a prophet nor a son of a prophet, he was right. I've only once preached close to an hour, it's not my practice, but do we long for the preaching of the word? A pastor friend of mine who went to the country, Mr. P has translated in, and I'm trying to be careful of names and identifiable information, but when he went to preach there, knowing that they would want a long sermon, he preached for an hour and then sat down. And they said, preach more, please. Thankfully he brought preparation. And so he got up and preached longer. These were devoted to the scripture. They were devoted to the word of God read and preached. They received the word read and preached devotedly. Secondly, as we see the text before us, they received the word read and preached eagerly. They told Ezra, bring out the book. And all who could understand were told in verses two and three, sat there and listened to what was preached. There may be a time and a place for those youngest among us to be in the nursery or to be not necessarily in the public assembly, though it's pretty early that your and our children begin to understand. And so young Walter said amen as I ended my prayer during the baptismal. All who could understand were eager to hear the word preached. How eager are you to hear the word preached? Are you here this morning because you long to hear the word preached, because you want to be here? In some of the interviews that we've had recently, a story was told about someone in an earlier time in Springs Reform Church who was being interviewed, a baptized member being interviewed for Communicant membership, and the elder said, do you enjoy coming to church? And he said, not really. I'm just here because my mom and dad make me. I wonder if any of you children would say that. I'm just here because mom and dad make me come. He wasn't at that moment received, though he later was received as a member, a communicant member of the church. He didn't have an eagerness to hear the word read and preached. We've had one weather delay since I've been here, but no cancellations of service, though I suspect there have been some in the history of Springs Reform Church in a snowy city of Colorado Springs. But if church were canceled, would you rejoice? Would you be glad? Would you think, oh, I can sleep in? Or would you find a like-minded church that had their service online that you could at least participate online? Or would you find a preacher and ask him, bring out the book, bring out the book? Stories told in days gone by and for many of you this will be too long gone by, but a pastor who visited a family in his church and the father said to the son, go bring out the book that we know and love so well. And the little boy came in with a Sears and Roebuck catalog. Now some of you don't know what a Sears and Roebuck catalog is. It was a printed guide to what you could buy through the Sears and Roebuck company. Anything from toys and games and clothing to houses. You could buy houses and have them delivered to your lot and build them out of the Sears and Roebuck catalog. I don't know what the modern equivalent would be. Maybe he would bring out a tablet with Amazon preloaded on it so they could pick from there. their offerings. But are you eager to hear the word of God preached? Do you receive the word preached eagerly? Do you receive it thirdly, earnestly? We see there in verse three that they came with sincere attentiveness to the word of God. Literally, it just says in the Hebrew, the ears of all the people to the book. It doesn't say attentive, it doesn't say listen, but it's a good translation. It's clearly implied in the words there. There was an attentiveness to their ears. They wanted to hear the word read and preached, and they were serious about it. One writer said this, it's by the ear that our first parents listening to the serpent lost paradise, and it's by the ear, the hearing of the word, that we get to heaven. Here, Isaiah 55 says, and your souls shall live. Or Jesus said in John 5, truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment, but is passed from death to life. It is so vital to hear the word of God, read and preach, and it's in the word of God. that we hear the story of salvation. It's in the word of God that we hear the things that Elder Keith Mann talked about in the reading from Hosea. We hear both the bad news and the good news that he who knew no sin became sin for us. They came devotedly, eagerly, earnestly. Fourthly, they came, how should you receive the word read and preached? Receive it piously. Verses five and six, we see that they received the word read and preached reverently. They received it as an act of worship. They stood up as the book was opened as we did this morning. It's the practice of some churches to do that in the reading of scripture. I don't by any means think it's commanded, but I thought as a way for us to see the emphasis of the text this morning that we would do that. But there was for them in the hearing of the word of God read and preached An act of piety, they received it piously in their worship. And how do we come piously to hear the word of God read and preached? I know for some of you children, your parents help you with this. You visit the bathroom ahead of time so that by the middle of the service when it's time to read, you don't think, I need a bathroom break right now. It's not a time to take a nap. It's a time to listen to the word of God. to hear God speak through his word and through the preacher to come as an act of worship. It's interesting in our modern evangelical movement that worship is the songs you sing before the preaching, but worship is the whole of the service, and it's in the act of the reading and the preaching of the word of God that we worship as well. One writer said this in the context of Nehemiah 8, what is strikingly apparent is the royal reception given to the word of God. This day, he says, was to provide a turning point, and from now on, the Jews would predominantly be known as people of the book. Receive and respond to the word of God preached. The larger catechism question 160 says, what is required of those who hear the word preached? Is required of those who hear the word preached that they attend on it with diligence? with diligence, preparation, and prayer. They examine the scriptures with what they hear. They receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind as the word of God. They meditate on it and discuss it. They hide it in their hearts, and they bring forth its fruit in their lives. There is a requirement. for us to respond to the word of God preached devotedly, eagerly, earnestly, piously, fifthly, joyfully. And we see that particularly in verses 12 and following. There was joy as they came to understand the word, though there had been in them weeping at first. They heard the commands of God and they felt their guilt before God, and yet in response to the command that this is not a day for weeping, not that you can't weep in the worship assembly, Don't ever stay home because you're sad. Come to worship. You're among friends. And if you need to weep in the assembly, it's not forbidden, though here they were given the particular instruction to not weep. And so they responded. They responded with joy. They responded coming joyfully to the reading and the preaching of the word of God. These saints, for most of their lives, had been significantly removed from the promised land, and likely significantly removed from the word of God. We're not told that the exiles were allowed to bring with them the scrolls, and so it may have been that it was only the remembrance of the word of God that those faithful priests and Levites were able to communicate to the people. And in thinking about, I wondered if we were to lose our Bibles here at Springs Reform Church, let's suppose we had no Bibles in our homes, we had no Bibles on our phones. I wonder how much of the scripture we could recreate from memory, and that would be a blessed thing, as we would joyfully remember the word of God that we have come to know and to love. You see, often it's not until we lose something that we find out how precious it is. But you are to respond to the word read and preached devotedly, eagerly, earnestly, piously, joyfully, and then in verse 11 and following, obediently. They obeyed in the command, don't mourn today. Today is not a day for mourning, it's a day for rejoicing. Take and give of what you have to those who don't have preparations for today. If you didn't bring for the fellowship lunch, we made preparations for you and we can joyfully eat together in that. And then verse 14, they found the command for these booths and so they did it. And it will be, it will happen that in your private reading, in your family worship, in the public worship, you will come across commands of God that you either didn't know or you had forgotten. And you're to respond with obedience. But remember, even your obedience is an act of the saving grace of God in Christ. You are saved to do good works, not saved by good works. And so your obedience is a response. It's a response to the joy that you have in the word of God given to you. For this remnant, it was not their obedience that gave them joy, but it was their joy that gave them obedience. And lastly, as we look at the text before us, how is it that you might receive the word read and preached yearningly, yearningly, desire it? We see it there, particularly in verse 18, they listened to the word read and preached for eight days in a row. For many, once a week is all we can do. For most of us, a lot of us, we come morning and evening on the Lord's Day as we assemble for worship to worship God and to hear the word read and preached. It's the plan of the elders that come October at our Communion Lord's Day that we've invited Pastor Bruce Parnell to come and give a service or two in preparation in advance. And I'll tell you that way ahead of time, just plan for the, The Friday and Saturday just before the first Lord's Day in October, there will be an opportunity to come to assemble to hear the word preached. You might think, well, that's asking a lot. Well, it is, but there's value. And I think it will draw us near to Christ as we as we anticipate remembering his saving work. Sometimes it's possible to come to the assembly of the saints and think, well, I don't need to learn anything. I don't need the preacher to try to teach me anything. But instead, let me encourage you, come and pray. Lord, use your word read and preached today to make me more like Jesus. Use your word, read and preach today to make me more like Jesus. As you receive the word, read and preach devotedly, eagerly, earnestly, piously, joyfully, obediently, yearningly, it will be in the receiving of the word that you have deep joy. But that's the what. And whenever there's a what, it's valuable to think about the why. Why does it matter that and how we respond to the word read and preached. In other words, why does it matter that we respond to the word read and preached, and why does it matter how we respond to the word read and preached? And triggered from our text. I'll give you two ways in which we can see Jesus in this context. And one of them is that Jesus gave teachers to his church. And we see here a comparison between what's going on in Nehemiah 8 and what we're going to look at in a minute in Ephesians 4. Jesus gave teachers to his church. Here in the Old Testament, we have priests and Levites and scribes. These pastor-teachers, these preachers and teachers are explaining and applying the Word of God, and we read that in verses seven and eight. They give the understanding. They help the people understand what was being read so they might put it into practice. And there was a unity of their teaching. Ezra and 13 assistants who might have been priests, though they're not identified as that, and 13 Levites. And they all gave the same message. It wasn't that some people, if they had Ezra explaining to them, or Nehemiah explaining to them, they had a little bit better explanation than it was those who had Malkijah explaining it to them. No, there was a unity in their teaching, in their preaching, in their explanation. They were giving the sense. They were giving the application. They were saying, this is what God has said, and this is how you should respond to it. They were helping the people who heard the word of God, read and preached to understand. And Jesus does the same thing in the New Testament church. We read this in Ephesians 4, that pictures Christ as a conquering king. Beginning in verse eight it says, therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. That's that image of Christ as the conquering king, ascending into heaven, bringing with him those who he's taken captive by the gospel and giving gifts to his church. And so then it goes on to say in verse 11, he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastor and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Maybe you wonder how mature do I need to get as a Christian? Well, when you can measure yourself by the measure of Christ, and say, hey, that's where I am, then you can stop getting more mature. And guess what? None of us will get there. You know, Warren was a big baby. He was close to 10 pounds, you might remember that. But to see him held by an adult, or even to see him held by a child, he's pretty little. You know, a 10-pound human is a pretty small human. And he's dear and he's sweet. But if 10 years from now he was still a 10-pound human and could do no more than he can do now as one less than a month old, what a tragedy that would be. We would mourn. We would weep. We would pray. We don't want little babies to stay little babies. And Jesus doesn't want baby Christians to stay baby Christians. He wants us to grow up, and he wants us as a church to grow up, and he wants us to become more mature, and he wants us to become more like Jesus. And that's the reason that Jesus gave teachers to his church. You can study the scripture on your own, but if you think I can only learn from my own study of scripture, You're defying what Christ says. Someone said just before church started today, and I won't single you out, I have to hurry and sit down so I can pray for you. I would love it. And anytime anyone preaches the word of God in this pulpit, I would love it that you would come in and sit down and pray for the preacher. Pray for the preacher to preach Christ. Pray for the preacher to preach the gospel. Pray for the preacher to give the understanding, to give the sense. How is the word of God to be preached by those who are called? The catechism says, those who are called to labor in the ministry of the word are to preach sound doctrine diligently in season and out of season. Plainly, not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit's power. faithfully making known the whole will of God, wisely applying themselves to the needs and capacities of the hearers, zealously with fervent love to God and the souls of his people, sincerely aiming at God's glory and the conversion, building up, and final salvation of God's people. Pray that for your preacher. Pray that the preachers and teachers that Jesus has given his church would be those who would faithfully explain the scripture so that you might see Jesus and know him better. Why does it matter that and how we respond to the word read and preached? Because Jesus gave teachers to his church. But there is a far more important reason why it matters. Why it matters that we respond and how we respond to the Word of God preached, and that's because Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the Word. You're familiar, most of you at least, with John's gospel, and he begins this way. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. And without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And then he goes on to say down in verse 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. Now you, like me, have probably puzzled over John's using the word word to describe Jesus. Are we saying that every written word in the scripture is Jesus? No, we're not saying that, but we're saying every written word in the scripture speaks the word that is Jesus, the eternal living word. Consider for a minute, and I had a conversation with a couple of you recently, that some people don't do this, they don't imagine conversations in their mind. For those of you who do, imagine a conversation that you are planning for. As you think about that, you form words. And you think about using those words to communicate your thinking to someone else. That's what words do. One writer has suggested that as words give expression to inner thoughts and reveal those thoughts to others, so Jesus reflects the mind of God and reveals that mind to us. It's in the written word that we come to understand all about Jesus. Some of our Bibles have red letters. Many of us don't like red letter editions of the Bibles because it's all Jesus' word. Some are quotes from his physical life on this earth, in which he came to this earth, humbled himself in obedience to his father in heaven, because he had agreed from eternity past that he would give his life as a ransom for many, and that he would die to save sinners like you and like me. And so we have some of the words that he spoke while he was here doing this, but the whole of the scripture is about him. The message of the written word is all about Christ. We're doing a serious Christ in the Old Testament, but don't for a minute think it's not Christ in the New Testament as well. And not just in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but in all of the scripture, it speaks about him. And God has planned that it's through the reading and the preaching of his word that people would come to faith. Sometimes that's in a formal way, and I would encourage you to join with me. It's a daily prayer of mine. that you and I would invite unbelievers to come to church and that they would hear the word of God read and preached and under the preaching of the word of God they would become Christians, they would come to know Jesus. I encourage you to pray that with me. Again, quoting from the Catechism, it says, How is the Word of God made effective to salvation? The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word an effective means of enlightening, convicting, and humbling sinners, of driving them out of themselves and drawing them to Christ. That's the reason that we look for Christ, even in the Old Testament, because we want to come to know Him. We want to be those who, like Paul says in Romans 10, how can they call on him they've not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? As you pray throughout the week, and I hope you do, as you pray coming in on the Lord's day, pray for my feet to be beautiful, and for my mouth to speak the truth of the word of God. For some, it's the formal preaching that brings them to conviction. For others, it's the informal preaching and teaching of parents. For Timothy, it was his mom and his grandma that he heard the scripture that were able to make him wise to salvation. And for some of you covenant children, it was your parents first that supplemented what you were hearing preached week by week in the service. And why does responding to the word read and preached give us deep joy? Because it draws us nearer to our savior. You see, we can read the scripture as an exercise. We can read the scripture as a duty. But rather read it as a letter from a friend. I know letters are almost passe. Maybe it's emails. Maybe it's texts. Though if you get a letter, especially a letter from a dear friend or a parent or a grandparent or for us, a grandchild, I can assure you we treasure that. Because as we read that, it draws us near to them. And as you read the scripture and as you hear the word of God read and preached, might it draw you to Jesus? Might it make you love Jesus more who has written these words for you and communicated in these to you the mind and the will of God? Is the word read and preached dear to you? Do you respond to the word read and preached with deep joy? Let me encourage you in the grace of our Lord to see and hear Jesus in the word of God, read and preached. Please pray with me that God would make it so. Our Father in heaven, the opening of your word gives light. And would you use even the fumbling efforts of this preacher, of any preacher who would stand at this pulpit and enable us by your grace to proclaim Christ and him crucified. The one who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might be in him the righteousness of God. And Lord, if there are any here who are perhaps skeptical of the value of the word of God read and preached, might it be, Holy Spirit, that you would convince them of sin and righteousness and the judgment to come. that they would see their sin, they would see the righteousness of Christ as the only hope and the needed hope for their salvation, that they might be rescued from the judgment to come because Christ has received that condemnation for all who are his. And for those of us who are in Christ's, help us eagerly attend to the word of God read and preached. Help us grow in our love for Jesus as his word is read and preached in our hearing. And we will give you the praise and we will worship you as the saints did in Nehemiah 8. We pray in Jesus' name.