Understanding God’s Word is not an optional thing for us. Understanding God’s Word is crucial. If we want to live our lives in the way that we were designed to live them, we have to understand how to do it. And the only way we can do that is to understand God’s Word. So, the question that this text has brought us to, over the past few weeks is, How can we understand God’s Word? What is He trying to tell us? How is God trying to speak to us? He’s trying to speak to us the exact same way that He was speaking to the remnant in our passage. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen that, first off, in order to understand God’s Word, we have to start with the right message. And then last week, we looked at how not only the right message is important, but the right method is important as well. Now, if all you heard were those two messages, you might think that the burden of understanding God’s Word is all on the one delivering it. You might think that if the preacher is doing his job, everything’s covered. I hope you didn’t think that. But even if you did, tonight’s message should clear that up. Because if the only thing it took was having the right preacher, everybody that listened to Jesus would have been saved. Everybody that listened to Paul would have completely understood God’s Word. But that wasn’t the case, was it? Because it not only takes the right message and the right method to understand God’s Word. It takes the right response. Do you want to understand the Bible in such a way that it will be sufficient for all of your life’s needs? Then you must have the right response to its teaching. Tonight we’re going to look at seven ways that the remnant responded to the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. And as we do, I trust that we will be persuaded to respond in the same way when we hear God’s Word preached and taught.
When God’s Word is preached, we are to respond in unity. We’ve talked about this several times over the past couple of weeks. But we’re going to talk about it again because it’s important. If it wasn’t important, there wouldn’t be such an emphasis about it in the text. If we want to understand God’s Word, we have to gather together in unity. ALL the people gathered for the teaching. Not just part of them. Not just occasionally. They all gathered. And notice how verse 1 says that all the people gathered. They gathered as one man. What does that mean? It means that they gathered in unity. They left their differences behind. Were they all equally as “spiritual”? No, some of them had been passing information back and forth to the enemy. Some of them were related to Tobiah and were secretly plotting with him against Nehemiah. But they were all part of the “as one man” who came to hear the preaching of God’s Word. They didn’t bring those differences or disagreements out at that time. It wasn’t the right time or place for that. Later on, we’ll see that Nehemiah will take care of some of that. But not now. Differences were laid aside for the sake of the preaching of the Word. All the men. All the women. And all the children who were old enough to understand. Divisions of age and sex and social class were laid aside. Just like they should be laid aside for us. Everyone must be welcome and encouraged to sit in here under the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. And if someone comes in here to listen to the preaching of God’s Word, we must gather together with them “as one man”. No matter what they look like. No matter what their background is. No matter if we know them or not. No matter if they have a lifestyle that is an abomination or not. I’m not talking about church membership here. I’m talking about the hearing of God’s Word. And when we hear God’s Word preached rightly, we are to respond in unity. We are to also respond with eagerness.
When God’s Word is preached, we are to respond with eagerness. When you come to church, what are you looking for? I’ll tell you what the remnant was looking for. Verse 1 says that when the people gathered together, they told Ezra to bring out the Book. How many times do we come together and want to bring out anything but the Book. Bring out some good singing. Bring out some emotional speaking. Bring out some good fellowship. Bring out the activities. Bring out something. But bring out the Book? All of it? That’s what the remnant asked for. This wasn’t some sort of spontaneous, mob-rule response either. This was an eagerness that they had to prepare for. This had been in the works for a while. They were so eager to hear Ezra preach the Word that they had already built him a platform so they could see and hear him. And after they got the area cleared, the site prepared, and the pulpit built, they gathered everybody together and called Ezra in. And when he got there, they didn’t ask him to entertain them. They didn’t ask him to tell them cute stories. They didn’t ask him to give them 10 ways to make their lives easier. They asked him to bring out the Book and explain it to them. Why did they so eagerly do that? Because they were eager to meet God. And they knew that the way to meet God is to meet Him in His Word. Are you eager to meet God? Then quit trying to meet him in some sort of ecstatic, mystical way. Meet Him in the way He’s designed. Meet Him in His Word. Eagerly prepare. Eagerly gather to hear His Word preached. How eager are you to hear God’s Word preached? You can answer that by how eagerly you prepare. What would have happened if the remnant would have called Ezra to open the Book to them, but they hadn’t prepared a place for him to launch it from? Their eagerness would have proven weak, wouldn’t it? We have a platform and a building and a pulpit. So how can you eagerly prepare? Here’s a good way. Read the text ahead of time. I preach systematically, so you know where we are going to be next week and the week after that. If you can’t figure it out, it’s usually on the sign out front. Read the text for yourself. Ask it questions. Let it bring questions to your mind. If the sermon doesn’t answer those questions, then ask me about them afterwards. Be eager in your approach to Sundays. That way you’ll expect something when you get here. Otherwise, all you’re expecting is to have something dumped in your lap. And anything that gets dumped in your lap will roll off in the floor as soon as you stand up to leave. If you want to understand God’s Word, you need to respond with eagerness. We also need to respond with endurance.
When God’s Word is preached, we are to respond with endurance. Some of my favorite preachers to listen to preach long sermons. John MacArthur says that it’s almost impossible to preach an expository sermon in less than 45-50 minutes. The difference between his sermons and mine is that he has something to say for that long. He also says that for some people, 15 minutes is too long, because they didn’t have anything to say in the first place. I do not know of a good expository preacher who preaches less than 30 minute sermons. It’s almost impossible to do what verse 8 of our text says in less than that. And, to most of us, 30-45 minutes seems like a long time to sit through a sermon. But then when I look back through history, I wonder when that attitude came about. When you see some of the great revival sermons of the first and second Great Awakening, they were LONG. Most of them were well over an hour. And then when you look at some of the printed sermons of the great Puritan preachers, they would go on for hours. They might cover 20 points in two hours. No padded pews, no air conditioning, no children’s church. And these guys weren’t exactly exciting in their mannerisms. Many of them would read from a manuscript the whole time. Can you imagine? Now imagine the scene in our passage. These people prepared for the service by building a platform. But notice what they didn’t build. They didn’t build any chairs. They gathered together and practically begged Ezra to bring them the Book. And he did. And he read to them from the first five books of the Bible. He read to them from morning until midday. And verse 5 tells us that the people stood up the whole time. Maybe you’d have to stand to keep from falling asleep around the middle of Leviticus. But sometimes, it takes endurance to sit through the preaching of God’s Word. Preaching can’t be done in brief little sound bites. It takes time to expositionally preach a passage of Scripture. It takes time to read it distinctly. It takes time to give the sense of the passage. It takes time to cause understanding to happen. And all of that time takes a certain amount of endurance. If you want to truly understand God’s Word, you will respond to its teaching with endurance. We are also to respond with attentiveness.
When God’s Word is preached, we are to respond with attentiveness. Verse 3 says that “the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.” Just like the romantic couple might say that they have eyes only for each other, the literal meaning of the verse says “ears, all the people, to the Book of the Law.” The people had ears only for the Bible. They weren’t going to be distracted by anything else. People ask me if it distracts me when kids cry or somebody moves around during the service. Most of the time it doesn’t. I’m usually so wrapped up in preaching that I don’t even notice. But what I do notice is when everybody else notices. If something happens on one side of the sanctuary, everybody’s head turns. I don’t say to fuss. I say that to point out how easy it is to get distracted. I think that most of us have varying degrees of ADD. We know that going in. So what can we do to overcome that besides giving out Ritalin prescriptions in the vestibule? I think that we can do things to improve our focus. We can improve our attentiveness by participating. Look at how the people in the passage participated. They stood up. They lifted their hands. They shouted Amen. At the appropriate time, they interacted with the teachers. Now, are we going to do all that? No—those things would only add to our distraction. But here’s what you can do to add to your attentiveness by participating. The first thing you can do is bring a Bible and follow along. When I say something about verse 8, you can look in verse 8. Keep it open in your lap. If it’s a study Bible, you can check the notes to see if they say anything different than what I’m saying. If you prepared by reading the passage ahead of time, you can see if what I’m saying answers any questions you might have thought of. You can take notes. They don’t have to be good notes. But something about holding a pen and paper in your hands brings focus to your mind. Write down questions you might have. Write down cross reference passages I might bring up that you don’t have time to turn to. And, an occasional amen doesn’t hurt. If nothing else, it will wake up your neighbor and help them to be attentive. If you want to understand God’s Word, you will respond to its teaching with attentiveness. Another response we’re to have it humility.
When God’s Word is preached, we are to respond with humility. The remnant’s humility really showed in three ways. First, it showed by them seeing their need. They knew what they didn’t know. That’s hard for us sometimes, isn’t it? Especially when we’ve been in church for a long time. It’s easy to get to the point where we think we’ve got it all figured out. I’ve actually had people say to me that the reason they don’t come to church is that I can’t teach them anything they don’t already know. That’s not very humble, is it? Besides, it’s not about what I can teach them. It’s about what God’s Word can teach them in the setting that He’s designed, through the weak and broken vessel that He’s chosen to call. Responding with humility means seeing your need. It also means showing reverence. In verse 5, when Ezra opened God’s Word, all the people stood up as a sign of their reverence. Years ago, men would stand up when a lady walked in the room. Now people don’t even stand up when the president walks in the room. We are losing the ability to show respect to others because we have no humility. Humility before God shows respect to His house. It shows respect to His Word. It shows respect to the teaching and preaching of His Word. The third way the remnant showed humility was in verse 6. They were free in their worship and bowed their heads and knelt before His greatness. When they were moved by God’s Word, if they were moved to praise—they praised without worrying what others might think. If they were moved to brokenness—they were broken before the Lord without worrying what others might think. They responded with humility to the Word. If you want to understand God’s Word, that’s how you will respond. You’re going to humbly realize that you don’t know it all. You’re going to humbly show reverence to God’s Message and His method. And you’re going to humbly respond in the way that God wants you to—not how you think others want you to.
Understanding God’s Word takes the right response. It calls for you to respond with unity. It calls for you to respond with eagerness. It calls for you to respond with endurance. It calls for you to respond with attentiveness. And it calls for you to respond with humility. There are two more ways that you have to respond to God’s Word if you want to truly understand it. You have to be broken by it. And you have to be joyful in it. Verse 9 says that the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Why was that? Because, when we respond in all of those other ways to the preaching of God’s Word… when it’s preached, we’re going to be convicted. The Holy Spirit will show up and His job is to convict of sin and righteousness. He will show us our sin. And when we’re responding in a right way to the preaching of God’s Word, we’re going to hate our sin the same way that Jesus hates it. That’s where the remnant found themselves. When was the last time you found yourself there? Maybe the reason is that you’re not responding to the preaching of God’s Word the way you need to. So, are we supposed to leave this place in tears every Sunday morning and Sunday night? No, we’re not. Because with the recognition of the badness of our sin, comes the understanding of the goodness of our Savior. In verse 11, the teachers moved the people from weeping over their sin to the holiness of the day. The last verse of chapter 7 tells us that the time of their gathering was the seventh month. According to the book of the law that Ezra was just preaching from, the seventh month was to be a celebration of the sacrifice of atonement. It was the sacrifice that symbolically paid the price for all of their sins. It was the sacrifice that pointed to the atoning work of Christ on the cross where He paid for all of our sins. You see, when we truly understand God’s Word, our response will be two-fold. We will weep over our sins. But as we weep over our sins, our joy will be made full in Christ. Because it’s then and only then that we will see how wonderful our Savior really is. And when we truly see how wonderful our Savior is, then we will scatter like the remnant did. We will scatter to our homes and neighborhoods with the good news of Jesus on our lips. We will have celebration in our hearts and praise on our lips and the world will see what a great and glorious Christ we serve. We will shed tears in here. But we will send portions and make great mirth out there. And many people will be saved. All because you understood the words that were declared to you.
