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The Watergate Revival By David Jones

 Turn again to the eighth chapter of the book of Nehemiah. Everyone's heard of Watergate, of
course. It's a word that's gone down in the history of the United States of America.
Not exactly America's proudest moment. It's an episode which is going to take them a long time
to live down. But there's another Watergate which is quite a different story. And you read about it
here in this chapter of Nehemiah, Nehemiah chapter 8. What happened here in this chapter in September
444 BC was something truly remarkable. God used two men in particular, Nehemiah and Ezra,
and God used these two men to recapture the soul of a nation, and to determine the ethos of that
nation for the next 400 years or so, right up to the time of the coming of Christ. And it all
happened at a place called Watergate in the city of Jerusalem in the month of September 444 BC.
It's a remarkable story of national renewal and reformation. And in these three chapters here in
Nehemiah, chapters 8, 9, and 10, you have the account of that great revival and reformation
that took place under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra. Probably in those three chapters you
have the fullest and longest account of revival anywhere in Scripture. And I want us to spend the
next couple of evenings, Sunday evenings, looking at these chapters. It all begins, you notice,
with a hunger for the Word of God. Spontaneously, or so it seems, nothing appears to have been very
much organized, spontaneously the people pour into the Watergate Square in the city, as if drawn by
an invisible magnet. They come in droves, men and women, children even, old enough to understand,
we're told. And they all come, would you believe it, to listen to a preacher. That's what they've
come for. Nobody wants to listen to a preacher nowadays, do they? It's almost a dirty word,
of course, isn't it, preaching? At very best, preaching is regarded as a rather outmoded form
of communication. There are much more effective means of communication available to us today,
in this technological age in which we live. At very best, preaching is regarded by a lot of
people as an out-of-date method of communication. At worst, it's a dirty word. To preach at someone
is to moralize. It's to put yourself above the other person. Don't preach at me, people say,
don't they? And so it's very difficult for us to relate to what's happening here. Even amongst
God's people, there is a very low expectation, isn't there, when it comes to preaching. And so
this seems a little strange to us, perhaps, tonight, that all these people should come
together with such excitement and with such expectation to listen to a preacher. But they
do. Look at them here, all flocking in through the Watergate of the city. All the people,
we're told, assembled as one man in the square before the Watergate. And listen, they told Ezra
the scribe, they requested, they demanded almost, of Ezra the scribe, that he bring out the book of
the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel. Now, how do you explain this? The only
possible explanation for this, it seems to me, is the Holy Spirit. No other way to explain it.
We're going to sing, to close the service tonight, that hymn, Revive Thy Work, O Lord,
create soul thirst for thee. That's how one of the hymns goes, one of the verses goes. It's a
prayer. Revive thy work, O Lord. Well, what do we mean? What happens when God revives his work? This
is what he does. Create soul thirst for thee, that hungering for the bread of life, O may our
spirits be. Hungering for the bread of life. That's what's happening here. These people are hungry for
the Word of God. Hungry to hear from heaven. And only the Holy Spirit can do that. There'd been a
famine. A famine, Amos puts it like this in his prophecy, a famine of the hearing of the Word of
God. That's what had happened. Those are the days that they'd lived through. Indeed, those are the
days that we find ourselves in, aren't they? There's no shortage of Bibles. Don't mean that. The Bible
is still the number one bestseller in the world. There's no lack of ministry. There's plenty of
biblical ministry around. There are still plenty of churches in Australia where the Word of God is
preached. There's no lack of ministry. There's no shortage of Bibles. But there's a famine of the
hearing of the Word of God in the churches, isn't there? People don't want to know. Even God's people
are hungry for other things. But they're not hungry to hear the Word of God. That's how it
had been in Jerusalem for a long time. Until September 444 BC. And then things changed in a
dramatic way. And the people come from all points of the compass. They come pouring into the city,
young and old, men and women, teenagers even. All those old enough to understand, we're told
there in this verse. They all come like one man into the city, pouring in through Watergate. And
they demand, bring out the preacher like a football crowd. We want, we want Ezra, Ezra. As
one man with one voice, give us, give us Ezra. But it wasn't Ezra they wanted, was it? It was
God's Word that they were hungry for. It was God's Word they wanted. And for six hours we're told
here. I was taught in college that the average attention span today is 17 minutes. Well that
was about 20 years ago when I was in college. I suppose it's about five minutes now. But people
can't sit and listen to a sermon that's any longer than five minutes or ten minutes. Well here these
people are, you see, and they stand. They don't even sit in uncomfortable pews, locked into their
pews. I'm thinking of getting one of these central locking things for these pews. But they didn't
even have the benefit of these lovely comfortable pews. They stood for half a day and they listened
to Ezra expound the Word of God to them. Now I know that you can explain that culturally. They
lived in an oral culture. They lived before television and printing presses. But there's
more to it. It goes much deeper than that, doesn't it? The only way you can understand,
you can explain, the only way you can understand this hunger for the Word of God is in terms of
the Holy Spirit. This is a spiritual thing. They're hungry to hear from God. Now that's what happens
in revival. That's what revival is all about. When God's Spirit moves, people want the Word.
They don't shut their Bibles, they open their Bibles when God's Spirit moves. That's one of
the tests. If you want to apply this test to some of these modern claims to revival, well it's a good
test, isn't it? When the Spirit moves, people don't shut their Bibles, they open their Bibles.
These people are hungry to hear the Word of God. Listen to what Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones says in his
book on preaching and preachers. What is it, asks Lloyd-Jones, what is it that always heralds the
dawn of a reformation or a revival? It is renewed preaching. Not only a new interest in preaching,
but a new kind of preaching. A revival of true preaching has always heralded these great movements
in the history of the church. And of course, when the reformation and revival come, they have always
led to great and notable periods of the greatest preaching that the church has ever known. As that
was true in the beginning, as described in the book of Acts, it was also after the Protestant
Reformation, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Latimer, Ridley, all these men were great preachers. In the 17th
century, you had exactly the same thing, the great Puritan preachers and others. And in the 18th
century, Jonathan Edwards, Whitfield, the Wesleys, Rowlands, Harris, were all great preachers. It was
an era of great preaching. Whenever you get reformation and revival, this is always and
inevitably the result, says Lloyd-Jones. And notice what he says. He doesn't, he says it is renewed
preaching. It is a new kind of preaching. That's what you've got here, isn't it? Look at verse 5.
Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them. Listen,
and as he opened it, the people all stood up. As Ezra opened his Bible to speak from it,
what happened? The whole crowd got on their feet, as a man. Now that wasn't something choreographed.
That wasn't something they'd rehearsed for weeks before as part of the liturgy. It wasn't something
that had been organized at all. It was spontaneous. It was spiritual. It wasn't stage managed. It was
spontaneous. It was spiritual. As so great was their expectation, so great was their hunger,
that when Ezra stood up six foot above contradiction in his little pulpit and opened
the Bible, the people stood up in expectation. They stood up out of reverence and respect for
the God who was now coming to them in his Word. That's how God comes to his people, in his Word,
as it is preached. That's what happens in revival. You stand when someone really important comes into
the room, don't you? And spontaneously they rise to their feet. Why? Because God had come into
their midst, through his Word, and they knew it. They were conscious of it. The old Puritan,
this is why, you see, preaching is, in the reformed tradition to which we belong, preaching is at the
climax of worship. We don't believe in worship services and then teaching meetings. Preaching
is the climax of our worship, because we believe that this is how God comes to his people.
Through the Word as it is opened up, by his Spirit. The old Puritans used to talk about Christ coming
to us in the chariot of the preached Word. That's what I'm talking about. Christ coming to his people
in the chariot of the preached Word. Something like that happened at Watergate in September,
444 BC. They all turned up in church, but this was different. This time they had an expectation,
this time there was a hunger there, there was a longing to hear from heaven, and as Ezra stood
up and opened the scriptures, God came. I know God's always there, but God came in a special
way. God came in a way that brought them to their feet. And as Ezra begins to open up the
scriptures, they're suddenly, solemnly aware that they're in the presence of God. Now isn't that
what Paul is talking about in the New Testament? For example, in Corinthians, in that passage in
1 Corinthians chapter 14. Isn't that what he's describing there? Whatever, I know it's a
controversial passage, but we'll leave aside the controversy, whatever you think prophecy is.
Isn't this what he's saying? Listen. 1 Corinthians chapter 14. If an unbeliever or someone who does
not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that
he is a sinner, and he will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare,
so he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, God is really among you. He's arguing, you see,
for the word to be understood by people. So that outsiders coming in will understand. There won't
be anything there that they won't understand. And an outsider coming in, an unbeliever coming in,
and hearing the word of God spoken, whatever you think prophecy is, it's more than a foretelling,
it's a forthtelling. It's telling forth the word of God. And as God's word is spoken, in that it'll
be a congregation there at Corinth in the meeting, and an unbeliever comes in. What happens? God is
there. How do we know God is there? How does this unbeliever jump to the conclusion that God is in
their midst? Is it the tremor in the voice? Is it the authorized version? A lot of prophecy seems
to be in the authorized version, doesn't it? Is it the authorized version? Is it the ecstatic,
faraway look in the face of the preacher? No. What was it that convinced this unbeliever at
Corinth that God was in their midst? What was it? The secrets of his hearts were made bare. Who told
him about me? How did the preacher know that I was coming tonight? Ah, the preacher didn't know.
Nobody told the preacher. It's God! It's God's word, you see. It's God's word coming home
understandably and relevantly to that man's life. And the only conclusion he can come to is that
God is there in the midst. Now, that's the kind of preaching that happened here, seems to me,
at Watergate. That as Ezra, we're told in verse 5, opened the book, as he opened it, the people
all stood up. Ezra praised the Lord, the great God, verse 6, and all the people lifted their
hands and responded, Amen, Amen. Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to
the ground. With their faces to the ground. Didn't fall back laughing, did they? They fell forward
with their faces to the ground. There is a profound awareness that they are suddenly in
the presence of the august majesty of heaven, and they fall down with their faces to the ground.
They are suddenly aware, you see, that they are in the presence of this great God, of whom the
scriptures tell us the angels continuously, continuously cry out, He's holy. He's holy. He's
holy. Look how holy He is. We can't get over His holiness. We're told that again and again. In
Isaiah, we're told it. In Revelation, we're told it. They keep on shouting out to each other,
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. And as Ezra opens the scriptures, these people are suddenly
aware that they are in the presence of the august majesty of heaven. They're in the presence of the
thrice holy God, and they fall on their faces. They don't fall back laughing and joking. They
fall on their faces before Him. Listen to the testimony from, this testimony from a man who
knew something about revival firsthand. This is a man who was involved in a revival in the Solomon
Islands in the 1970s. Someone asked this man what it was like to be involved in revival. This is
what he said. He said, we may think of it like this, every home has a door. Whenever you go into
a house, you enter through a door. You go through so many doors it becomes just a habit. We
enter without thinking much about it, whether we're going into a rich house or a poor house.
Then imagine that you're going into a particular house, the home of a very wealthy man, the Prime
Minister perhaps. He walks straight into his house without thinking, and then suddenly you become
aware of the beautiful carpet. The house is very posh. You look at the purity of the beautiful
carpet and you think, oh dear, there's mud on my shoes. Then you look down and you look back,
and yes, you've left muddy marks, and you think, what a mess. It's a very real feeling as you see
the beautiful carpet spoiled by mud. Then you realize that the owner of the house is looking
at you, and up the mud, and you feel very uncomfortable, and you feel that you want
to clean the mud away with your tears even, and that yet it would not be enough. And he says,
it was like that. It's like that, he says, with the very temple of God. You see the dirty marks
left inside his temple, and you want to clean away those marks with your tears. But you don't
have enough tears, and then it's as though you hear the words, no tears can wipe off those dirty
marks. Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse you, and you're glad, and you rejoice, and you have a
sense of indebtedness to God. This is revival, this man says, when the Spirit of God brings us
into his presence. That's where these people are, you see. That's why they're on their faces. They're
suddenly aware that they're in the presence of God. Oh, they've been there before to church. It's
a habit they've got into. Perhaps you came here tonight, you're in the habit of coming to church,
but my friends, sometimes you come to church, and it's different. You're suddenly aware that
you're in the presence of God, and your life is dirty, and it needs cleaning up. That's where
these people are, as Ezra opens the Scriptures to them, as the Word is opened. Now let's look
at the dynamics of this more closely. I want you to notice that the emphasis here is very,
very, very strongly on the understanding of God's Word. You have to be blind not to see this,
but the emphasis here is very, very strongly on the understanding of God's Word. This is
very important, particularly in the light of so much that's happening in today's church,
and so many claims that are being made today to revival. It's very important to see this,
but it's very strongly the emphasis here in verse 2, in verse 3, in verse 7, in verse 8,
in verse 9, in verse 12, in verse 13. It's the emphasis, isn't it? Let's just look at those
verses quickly. In verse 2, we're told about all these people. We're actually told that the people
that came flooding into the square there at Watergate were those who were able to understand.
In verse 3, we're told that Ezra read, and all the people listened attentively to the book of
the law. He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square in the presence of the men,
women, and others who could understand, and they listened attentively. In verse 7,
we're told that the ministry team there, I won't attempt to pronounce their names again because
it'll sound different, but the ministry team there, in verse 7, they instructed the people
in the law. That was their job, that was expected of them. They instructed the people in the law.
In verse 8, we're told there that they read from the book of the law of God, making it clear,
giving the meaning, so that the people could understand what was being read. In verse 9,
we're told there that Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites, who were instructing the people,
said to them, this day is sacred to the Lord your God. They were instructing the people,
not exciting them, not entertaining them. They were instructing the people, we're told there.
In verse 12, all the people went away to eat and to drink, to send portions of food and to
celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known
to them. They throw a huge party, they have a great celebration, a terrific celebration,
because they now understood. They understood the Bible. The Bible had suddenly come alive to them.
And verse 13, on the second day of the month, they come back for more, we're told. The heads
of all the families, along with the priests and the Levites, gather around Ezra the scribe to
give attention to the words of the law. You see, you have to be blind not to see it, don't you?
The emphasis here is very, very, very strongly upon understanding the Word of God. In fact,
everything is set up so that the Word of God will be understood, even the platform. Interesting what
people do with platforms and pulpits, isn't it? I don't know why this pulpits on the side,
it doesn't belong on the side, it looks like a sore thumb here on the side, and it belongs
in the middle. That's where it was, that's where it should be. But I think it's probably in the
middle of the century. I don't know if this is the explanation for what happened here at St.
John's, but I know it's certainly in England. What happened was that earlier on this century,
in the middle of the century, there was a liturgical movement, you see, and so they
wanted to introduce the altar into the focal point. And the pulpit was put to one side,
and you had five-minute homilies and a huge communion service. And now, of course,
you go to some churches and they don't even have a communion table on the stage. They have a stage
and they have a drum kit and a microphone and all sorts of things, don't they? And the pulpits
disappeared out of the door altogether. There's a platform now for the worship leader. Well,
people don't like pulpits. I always remember when I first started my ministry, I remember
someone coming up to me and saying, who do you think you are to stand six foot above contradiction?
People don't like people. Why do you have to stand in that pulpit? Why don't you stand down
on the same level as us? There's an anti-authority sort of mentality that people have. They don't
like to be preached to, you see. And we don't like a pulpit, but there's a pulpit here. Ezra
is given a pulpit. He stands six foot above contradiction. Why? Well, because it's important
that the preacher should be seen and should be heard. He stood in that pulpit so that
everybody could see him and everybody could hear him. And surrounding him was this ministry team
of 13 Levites with the unpronounceable names, whose job it was to make sure the people could
hear and understand what was being preached. And then it would seem, I mean, those people are in
verse 4, but then it would seem in verse 7 there are another 13 Levites who seem to act as small
group leaders, or so it would seem. Of course, in those days there was no PA system. They had to,
it's quite possible that these men acted as a sort of PA system as well, public address system,
so that what was coming from the platform was repeated to the limits of the crowd. Everybody
could hear what was being said. Some commentary suggests that not only did they act as a public
address system, but they may well have acted also as an instantaneous translations service,
translating from Hebrew into Aramaic so the people could understand better in their own dialect,
in their own language, what was being said from the pulpit. And that may be so. But what we're
told here is this. What we're actually told about these people and their brief is this,
that their brief was to instruct the people, not simply to amplify Ezra's voice or to translate
what was being said into another language, but to instruct the people, and to make clear the
meaning of what was being said. So you see how well they were set up here. Not only did they
have a preacher at the front, they had small groups as well with trained leaders. The Levites
were trained leaders. It's important, I think. You see, these weren't Bible study groups like
some of our Bible study groups, which really turned out to be a pooling of ignorance. These
were Bible study groups with trained leaders. This was a massive teach-in. Not only did they
have Bible study groups, or an all-age Sunday school it may have been, I don't know, meeting
at the same time as Ezra was preaching. I don't know how you work that out. But not only did they
have these facilities, they also had, it would seem at the end of the chapter there, a family
camp with Bible teaching every day. That comes later. But this is what happens. This is what
happens when revival comes. The Bible jumps to life. When the Spirit moves, He doesn't bypass
the understanding. On the contrary, He enhances the understanding, and eternal truths are brought
into focus. And it's as if you're hearing them for the first time, though you may have heard
them hundreds of times before. That's revival. It's truth coming alive. It's the Word of God
coming home to you, as never before, through the understanding, to the conscience, then to the
emotions, and to the will. That's how God works. Any other order than that is just psychological
manipulation. And there's an awful lot of that about, isn't there? There are ways to work up a
crowd. Some people are naturals. They don't have to be trained how to do it. It just comes naturally.
Paul was aware of that, wasn't he? You remember what he says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 2?
He was well aware of this. He knew that if he pulled the right levers, the right emotional,
the right sort of psychological levers, he could get results. He knew that. But he deliberately
decided not to do that on his evangelistic campaigns. Remember what he says? 2 Corinthians
chapter 4 verse 2, he says, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not use deception,
nor do we distort the Word of God. On the contrary, listen, by setting forth the truth plainly, we
commend ourselves, listen, to every man's conscience in the sight of God. He doesn't sort of storm the
emotions of his congregation. He presents the truth to their minds, to their understanding,
to their conscience. That's how God works. That's how lives are transformed. Anything other than
that is just psychological manipulation, and it leads to sterility. James Denny, who was a great
Scottish preacher, has a fine sermon on the Lord's temptation, and he speaks of our Lord's
refusal to use methods which appeal to the senses rather than to the soul. He's referring to that
temptation from Satan to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, and this is what he
says, how little he, that is Jesus, had of all that churches attempted to trust in now. How little
there is in the Gospels about methods and apparatus. We may well believe he would look
with more than amazement upon the importance which many of his disciples now attach to such
things. He spake the word unto them, that was all. The trust of the church in other things is really
a distrust of the truth, an unwillingness to believe that its power lies in itself. A desire
to have something more irresistible than truth, to plead truth's cause, and all these are modes
of atheism. It is not only a mistake, but a sin to trust to attractions for the ear and the eye,
and to draw people to the church by the same methods by which they're drawn to places of
entertainment. What the evangelist calls the word, the spiritual truth, the message of the
Father and of his kingdom, spoken in the Spirit and enforced by the Spirit, told by faith and
heard by faith, is our only real resource. And we must not be ashamed of its simplicity. We must
not be ashamed of its simplicity. Now let's look at the effect of all this. A great and lasting
change came over these people. Let me just sum it up to you as I close in three, with three words.
Repentance, rejoicing, and reformation. Repentance, rejoicing, and reformation. First of all, there is
genuine repentance here, isn't there? Look at verse 9. You find there in verse 9 that Nehemiah
and Ezra had to deal with the tears of the people, with the grief of these people. In verse 9,
do not mourn or weep. The second half of verse 9, Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites had to plead
with these people, do not mourn or weep, for all the people had been weeping as they listened to
the words of the law. As Ezra opened the scriptures to their understanding, as he preached the Word of
God to them, they became convicted of their sin. They'd been living in exile, you see. They'd lived
for generations, far away from God and His Word. And their lifestyle betrayed all the marks of
having lived in Babylon. You can pick that up even in the book of Nehemiah and in the book of Ezra.
There were family problems, there was intermarriage, there were all kinds of pastoral problems with
marriage and divorce. You can read about that in the ninth chapter of the book of Ezra. Ezra is
appalled. He says he sat down and he was just broken, he was shuttered about it, and he goes
to God in prayer about it there in Ezra chapter 9. They were ripping one another off in chapter 5
of Nehemiah. You can read about it there. Nehemiah is angry with them because he finds that the rich
were exploiting the poor and people were getting into debt and they were charging exorbitant rates
and some people were even indulging in some kind of slave trading to pay off their debts.
They'd been living far away from God, you see, for far too long. And as we'll see there at the end of
the chapter, they hadn't celebrated the Feast of the Tabernacles, the Feast of Booths, they
hadn't celebrated that feast properly for a thousand years. That's what we're told in verse
17. It's almost too much to believe, isn't it? But that's what we're told there in verse 17. Oh,
I don't think they'd totally neglected the Feast of Tabernacles, but they hadn't celebrated it
properly, not as the Word of God prescribes, not for a thousand years, not since the time of Joshua.
And now they're overcome with grief. Amazing how you can drift on, isn't it? Year after year,
in your sin, in carelessness and indifference to God and His Word, and then God suddenly arrests
them, God comes to them through the preaching of Ezra, and they're overwhelmed with grief.
Overcome with grief that they had gone on for so long without getting clear about what pleased God
and what displeased Him. But you notice their grief soon gives way to gladness, doesn't it?
And that kind of godly sorrow for sin always leads to rejoicing. Look at verses 10 to 12,
as Ezra and Emma begin to deal with this. They're not working the crowd. They're not manipulating
the people. They're dealing with something that's happening spiritually. These people are broken
because of their sins. Their hearts are broken. They've offended God. They've lived carelessly
and indifferently to God's Word. And their hearts are broken and they're grieving with a godly
sorrow over their sins. And Ezra and Emma and the Levites, there are 26 of them, they have to go
around that crowd and deal with these people and encourage them so that their grief might be turned
to gladness. That's what the gospel does. Listen to what they say there in verse 10. Emma said,
go enjoy choice food, sweet drinks, send some to those who've nothing prepared. This day is sacred
to our Lord. Don't grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. The Levites calmed all
the people saying, be still. This is a sacred day. Don't grieve. And all the people went away to eat
and to drink and to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy because they now
understood the words that had been made known to them. Or you say, the fickleness of the crowd.
One minute they're crying, the next minute they're rejoicing with great joy. No, no, that's not
fickleness. That's what happens when the Spirit comes. When the Spirit moves through the Word as
it is preached. That's what happens. People are convicted. But when people are convicted of sin,
the same God who convicts us of sin is the God who wants to comfort us. He's the God who wants
to throw his loving arms around us and welcome us into his kingdom. Blessed, Jesus says, blessed
are they that mourn. They shall be comforted. That's how you know a spiritual man. That's how
you know that God's Spirit is working. You see something truly remarkable. You see tears and
rejoicing in the same person at the same time. You see mourning over sin. But that mourning over sin
soon gives way to rejoicing. That forgiveness. That happened. To these people. Crowds of them.
Crowds of them. Through the preaching of Ezra. Listen, if you want to just an insight into the
preaching of Ezra, you can go back to the eighth chapter of the book of Ezra and verse 22. Listen,
this is the preaching of Ezra. This is the God that Ezra preached to these people. This explains
their tears of sorrow for sin and their rejoicing. Listen, the gracious hand of our God is on
everyone who looks to him but his great anger is against all who forsake him. That's Ezra's
message. That's the God he believed in. Listen, the gracious hand of our God is in everyone who
looks to him but his great anger is against all who forsake him. There it is. Law and gospel.
There it is. God's anger is against all those who forsake him. Oh the people heard that and
their hearts were smitten and they they were convicted of their sin but no sooner are they
convicted of their sin then Ezra comes again and he says he's gracious. He's gracious to all those
who look to him. That's all you have to do. Look to him. And no sooner do they look to him than
their tears are turned to joy. Spurgeon said to me about repentance, repentance is the tear in
the eye of faith. That's what it is. Repentance is the tear in the eye of faith and as you look
away from your sins to Jesus your heart is broken because of your sin. You repent of your sin but
looking away from your sin you look to Jesus. That's what's happening. Great rejoicing.
But just look at this rejoicing a moment. It's a joy that overflows to others. You notice that?
Listen to what Nehemiah says. You don't see much of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is prominent in the first
six seven chapters. Then he sort of stands in the background and allows Ezra to come to the
forefront. But here he is again in verse 10. Nehemiah said go and enjoy good choice food
and sweet drinks. Send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord.
Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength. And he encourages them you see to
rejoice because God is gracious to them. They've been unfaithful to him but God has been faithful
to them. God's given them servants to call them back, to rebuild the city, to minister his word
to them. This is a day for celebration Nehemiah says. And you notice what he says? Go and you know
enjoy the best steak, prime steak, best cut of meat, sweet drinks and send to those who have
nothing prepared he says. I like that. Send to those who have nothing prepared. It's a joy you
see unlike the superficial jolliness that you find in many churches today. That's a diseased
kind of joy. That's a self-centered kind of joy. But this is a joy that overflows isn't it?
Especially towards those who have no provision made for them. There are many people like that
in Australia tonight you know. People for whom no spiritual provisions been made. Doesn't your heart
go out to those people? There are kids growing up in godless homes. Nobody ever prays for them.
No mother or father sits down with them and reads the Bible to them and tells them the stories of
Jesus. Doesn't your heart go out to them? There are people in this city of Hobart who would never
darken the door of a church and never intend to darken the door of a church. Nobody's reaching
out to them. There's no spiritual provision made for them. Doesn't your heart go out to them? My
friends if you've been blessed by God, if you know the joy of the Lord is your strength, then you'll
want to share it won't you? You'll want to reach out. Like David you remember? Restore unto me the
joy of my salvation oh Lord. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be
converted unto you. When? When the joy of my salvation has been restored. When God blesses
you like that you see. When God comes into your life again and you have great joy and you know
the forgiveness of your sins and you've had pardon and peace and assurance of salvation, then it
overflows. And you want to share it with others don't you? You want to reach out to those,
especially those for whom no spiritual provision has been made. So there's repentance in the city.
And there's great rejoicing. And indeed the emphasis is on the rejoicing. It always is.
But then finally there's there's reformation too isn't there? Look at verses 13 to 18 at the end
of the chapter there. Especially verse 13 and verse 18. On the second day of the month the
heads of all the families along with the priests and the Levites gathered around Ezra the scribe
to give attention to the words of the law. Day after day verse 18 from the first day to the
last Ezra read from the book of the law of God they celebrated the feast for seven days on the
eighth day in accordance with the regulation there was an assembly. They can't get enough of the word
of God you see. They're not just out on Sundays. They can't get enough. The next day they're back
for more and the next day and the next day and the next that's what happens when God moves by
his Spirit. When revival comes. The extensive teaching of Ezra on day one leads on to days
and days and days of intensive Bible study by the heads of the families. They're not content you see
just to hear from Ezra. They're not just content to hear and to understand what Ezra is saying
from the pulpit. They also want to think through the implications of that for their family lives,
for their day-to-day living. They want to implement it in their lives and so they do.
Verses 14 to 18. They found written in the law which the Lord had commanded through Moses that
the Israelites were to live in bulls during the feast of the seventh month and that they should
proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem. Go out into the hill
country bring back branches as it is written. So the people went out verse 16 and brought back
branches and built themselves booths on their own roofs in their courtyards in the courts of the
house of God and in the square by the Watergate and the one by the gate of Ephraim. The whole
company that had returned from exile built booths and lived in them from the days of Joshua son of
none until that day the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. They began to obey
the word of God and put it into practice in a way that they'd not done for generations.
That's what happens when God comes by his spirit and the result of all that joy great joy even
greater joy. That's what happens to live by the bible my friends is not the same as living under
the Quran is it? Don't let anybody tell you that it is. Don't let anybody put you into the same
bracket as an Islamic fundamentalist. To live by the bible is not the same as living under
the Quran. To live under the Quran is a miserable existence. It's a restrictive regime but to live
by the bible is gloriously liberating isn't it? I don't know of any greater joy. I can't think
of any greater joy imaginable than to live out your life under the canopy of God's word.
You you shall know the truth Jesus says and the truth will set you free. No wonder this city was
filled with joy. This is spiritual reality. This is life worth living. This is what revival is all
about. It's life from the dead. Religious excitement can't produce that. But when God
moves by his spirit that's what happens and suddenly one day in September 444 BC it happened
and Israel became alive again after years of exile.
After months and months and months of hard laborious work.
After lots and lots of fervent prayers. Suddenly one day in September 444 BC Israel came alive
again alive to the word of God and if God can do that for his people in the old testament
don't you think he can do it for us?
And don't you think he can do it in a day? I believe he can do it and he did more on that one
day than they had accomplished an entire lifetime indeed in a thousand years.
I'd hate to be missing on the day when God did this wouldn't you?
Oh that God would visit us in this way. That's what revival is all about. It's a visitation of
God through his word by his spirit. And it comes through prayer. We look at that next time in
chapter 9 but you notice it's there in this chapter too in verse 5 and 6. As Ezra opened
the book all the people could see him because he was standing above them and as he opened the
people all stood up Ezra praised the Lord the great God and all the people lifted their hands
and responded amen amen then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
My friends if you want this kind of blessing you've got to pray for it.
That's why the congregational prayer meeting is a number one priority in the life of this church.
If you want to see God coming through his word and by his spirit to this city of Hobart
and the joy of the Lord's people overflowing through the streets of this city of Hobart
you've got to pray for it you've got to plead the promises I summon you I solemnly summon you
my friends those of you who belong to this congregation for the prayer meeting on Wednesday
night to pray that God would come by his spirit to this city. This recording is brought to you
by thechristianlibrary.org.au