We have spent the past few Sunday nights talking about what it takes to understand God’s Word. The first 12 verses of chapter 8 have given us one of the best examples in Scripture of God’s primary design in making His Word understood. In that text, we’ve seen how it takes the right message for God’s Word to be understood. It takes the right method for God’s Word to be understood. And it takes the right response for God’s Word to be understood. If we pulled the right principles from those 12 verses, we should have no problem in knowing how we can understand God’s Word. But most of the time, the knowledge isn’t the problem, is it? I got to take CJ out on the golf course last week. He loves to golf and I played a little bit when I was in high school. Here’s the frustrating thing to me about golf. In my head, I know what I’m supposed to do. I had a few lessons. I’ve seen the experts on TV. I’ve heard Hank Haney’s golf tips on the radio. I have the information that I need to hit a decent shot. But something happens when I get into the tee box. For some reason, none of that information makes it from my head into my swing. My swing is shaped by my undisciplined body rather than by the information in my head. And I lose another ball off into the woods. How often do we do that in here? We know what we’re supposed to do. And when we respond in the right way to the right message that has been presented using the right method, it continually reinforces what we know we’re supposed to do. But then we leave here. And too many times, none of that information makes it from our heads to our lives. The book of James puts it this way in James 1:19-25: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. BUT be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” What James is saying is that if we have sat under the teaching of God’s Word, we know what we’re supposed to do. We know how we’re supposed to live and give and go and tell. Anytime we look into God’s perfect Law of liberty, which is His Word, it’s pretty clear what we’re supposed to do. Our problem is not looking into His Word when we’re in here. Our problem is that we forget about it when we leave. Most of the time, ours isn’t a knowledge problem. Ours is an application problem. When we come in here, we look into the mirror of God’s Word. And that mirror shows us all of the flaws in our life that, by God’s grace, we need to work on. But then as soon as we put the mirror down, we walk away and forget. And as soon as we put the mirror down, we think we’re okay. And because we think we’re okay, we never apply to our lives the Word that we have understood with our heads. Our passage tonight is huge. As I said, it runs from 8:13 all the way through chapter 10. And the reason that it’s so long is because Ezra spends all that time making it clear that the people applied the Word that they understood in 8:1-12. Tonight we’re going to look at the pattern they followed as they applied God’s Word to their lives. And as we do, I trust that we can use this same pattern when we are having a hard time applying particular truths of God’s Word to our lives. We’re going to look at this large passage in three chunks. We’re not going to read each section, but you can take that home for your homework tonight.
The first section runs from 8:13 through the end of chapter 8. It starts in verse 13 with the leaders of the remnant gathered in a small-group Bible study with Ezra. And, as happens anytime you get serious in studying the Bible, they found things they weren’t doing that they were supposed to do. As they were reading in Leviticus 23:33-43 and Deuteronomy 16, they discovered that they were supposed to be having the Feast of Tabernacles—literally “the feast of tents or booths.” God intended the feast to remind the people of how temporary their existence was when they were wandering in the desert for 40 years. They were supposed to build tents or temporary booths to remind them of that. And as it reminded them of how temporary things were for them, it was also supposed to remind them of God’s provision for them. From very early on, the true meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles was distorted. By the time of Solomon, it had become more of a harvest festival. By the time of the exile, it had almost begun to look like some of the pagan harvest festivals of the nations around them. But when the leaders of the remnant got to digging in the Word, they rediscovered how it was supposed to be. And they rediscovered its true meaning. So, from verse 15 through the end of chapter 8, they built these little temporary booths and celebrated God’s provision for 7 days. What is interesting is that, when they first began to read and study Scripture, what was the first thing they found that they could apply? The first thing they found that they could apply was something external. It was an outward action. It was a ritual. It was a work. It was some THING that they could DO. The first thing they could find to apply to their lives was the easiest thing to find. They found an external requirement of the law. Doesn’t the same thing happen to us? We find the 10 commandments and say, “OK, there’s a list of stuff that I can do.” We look through the rest of Scripture and see all of the different external things we can do. Go to church. Pay a tithe. Help the poor. Witness. Don’t say bad words. Don’t gossip. And before you know it, we’re caught up in a bunch of rituals. We’re caught up in a bunch of rules—do this, don’t do that. Now, is that a good thing or a bad thing? It depends. Observing the externals is a good thing. It was a good thing for the remnant to observe the Feast of Tabernacles. That was what God wanted them to do. But do you remember what God told the pre-exilic Israelites back in Isaiah? In Isaiah 1:13-15, God told them, “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.” Why was God so angry with them? They were doing what they were supposed to, weren’t they? Yes, they were—but they were only going through the motions. They were doing the right things, but they didn’t have the right heart. You see, you can dot all your I’s and cross all your T’s just the way that you’re supposed to. But if your heart isn’t right, it doesn’t matter. God is still not pleased. Dotting all your I’s and crossing all your T’s is a good thing. But it’s only the starting point. When you understand that Scripture is telling you to change something in your life, change it. But don’t stop there. Application of God’s Word to your life doesn’t stop with simply observing the externals.
It must also recognize the internals. That’s what happened with our remnant in chapter 9. The last verse of chapter 8 tells us that the seven day Feast of Tabernacles led them into a solemn assembly. That wasn’t part of the original requirement. This was something that they were moved to do because their understanding of God’s Word didn’t leave off with simply following the rules. And the first part of chapter 9 tells us what that solemn assembly looked like. Verse 1 tells us it was a time of fasting and repentance. Verse 2 tells us it was a time of separating themselves from external distractions. Verse 3 says that it was a time of diving into God’s Word even more than they had been. And it also says that it was a time of worship. Do you notice anything about what was happening here? They had moved from applying the Word of God externally to applying it internally. They had moved from simply following a bunch of rules to repentance and worship. They had moved from changing their behavior, to changing their heart. I’ve had people (not here) ask me if I ever preach “on” tithing… or preach “on” voting… or preach “on” drinking. I tell them no. I have talked about each of those external behaviors in sermons before. But I have never specifically preached on them. And I probably never will. Because those are externals. Externals are good, but only if they either come from, or result in, internals. See, only two things can happen from continually focusing on the externals. The first thing that can happen is that, when we attempt to apply Scripture by following all of its external requirements, we can quickly become legalists. We can get all puffed up with pride about all the “good” things we’re doing. And at the same time we can look down our noses and condemn all those people who aren’t doing as well as we are. Of course, when we do that, we like to ignore all the things that we aren’t so good at. So, if we apply Scripture by focusing on the externals, we can become prideful legalists. The second thing that can happen is actually a good thing. Because when we look at the requirements of Scripture, we can allow it to show us our sin. And that’s the purpose of the law in the first place. It is a schoolmaster that God has given us to show us how far we fall short of His perfect standard. And as it shows us that, it shows us our desperate need for His grace. That’s God’s desire. And that was what happened throughout the rest of chapter 9. From verse 5 through verse 37, the remnant applied God’s Word internally. They broke out in a time of worship and repentance. As you look through those verses on your own, I want you to see how they recognized God for who He is. Then they followed that up with recognizing Him for what He had done in creation, and what He had done historically for their people, and what He had done specifically for them. Then around verse 33, they clearly saw who they were in light of who God is. They saw how they had rebelled against God. They saw how they had taken Him for granted. They saw how sinful they were and how displeasing they were to Him. And when they saw that, they repented. When we understand God’s Word, we can apply it to our lives externally. We can change the way we talk. We can change the way we act. We can work real hard to quit worrying so much and quit losing our temper. But here’s the problem. If we leave it there, we will continue to battle and struggle and be defeated by the same things over and over and over again. We talk about having victory in Jesus. Victory in Jesus doesn’t come from following a bunch of external rules. Victory in Jesus doesn’t come from being mysteriously zapped by the Spirit. Victory in Jesus only comes when we move from only applying God’s Word to the externals and move to applying it to the internals. It comes from brokenness and repentance and worship. Yes, we still do the externals. The remnant still enjoyed their feast. But the point is that they enjoyed it. It wasn’t a burden. And the reason it wasn’t a burden was because they not only applied God’s Word externally, they applied it internally. When we begin to understand God’s Word, we need to apply it. We apply it externally, but we don’t leave it off there. Because we need to apply it internally as well. But even that’s not where it ends. Because God knows that when we’re talking about applying His Word, we need more. What else do we need? We need to make a commitment. Look at 9:38:
NEHEMIAH 9:38
That verse is really the introduction to all of chapter 10. Chapter 10 deals with all of the specifics of the covenant that the people made. What were they agreeing to? They were agreeing to be a separate people in verses 30ff. Separation carries the idea of holiness and sanctification. We might say that they were agreeing to grow in their walk with God. They also agreed to give their money to God’s work in verses 32ff. They agreed to give their physical efforts to His work in verses 34ff. They agreed to dedicate their families to God in verses 36ff. And how did they agree to all this? Did they do it privately in their hearts before God? Did they do it quietly with just their family and closest friends around? No, they didn’t. Four things marked the commitment they made that day. First, it was public. They did it in front of the whole gathered remnant. Everybody was involved, and they did it in front of everybody. I’m sure some of them might have been shy. I’m sure some of them might have been terrified to appear before the group. It didn’t matter. Because when they made their decision public, it sealed it in their minds. It made it a permanent commitment rather than just a temporary decision. Not only was their commitment public, it was accountable. When they made the public commitment, it wasn’t just in front of an unknown crowd. No—they knew these people. They were their friends and neighbors. They were their families. There were leaders there who would hold them accountable to persevere in their commitment. They were held accountable for their commitment. Their commitment was public and it was accountable. It was also permanent. Verse 9:38 uses the words, “seal unto it.” That, coupled with the word “sure” covenant means that this was a binding contract. We don’t understand that, because all of our contracts today are breakable. But their covenants were basically sealed with their lives. When they made a “sure” and “sealed” it, they were basically saying that they were putting their lives up as collateral. It wasn’t something that they entered lightly and when they entered it, they entered it knowing that they had to keep it. The contract was permanent and it was specific. That’s what all of chapter 10 is about. They were going through a list of all the things they were going to do as a result of this covenant they were signing. Now, I want you to notice what has happened here. Notice that we’re back to externals again. We started with applying God’s Word with externals. Then the externals turned into applying God’s Word with internals. Then we moved to the point where applying God’s Word drives us to making a commitment. And much of that commitment focuses on externals again. Why is that? Because internal change is always marked with external results. Jesus said that we are known by our fruit. Externals like fruit don’t do anything to save you. Just like making a public commitment doesn’t save you. Walking an aisle and making a public commitment to Christ in the waters of baptism doesn’t do anything to save you. Any more than being a good person and feeding the poor and helping your neighbor will save you. It’s the internals that save you. Recognizing who God is. Recognizing how your sin separates you from Him. Seeing what He has done for you through the death of His Son on the cross of Calvary. Believing that Jesus lives again and trusting Him as Lord of your life. That’s what saves you. That is your internal application. But that internal application doesn’t stay internal. Because it is always expressed externally. It shows in the life you live and the good works you do. And it shows in the public commitment you make. Public, accountable, permanent and specific. The commitment you make by presenting yourself publically before this church. And the commitment you make in the waters of baptism. Have you made that commitment tonight? You have heard enough of God’s Word that you understand it. You understand who He is and what He’s done for you. Whatever the decision is, do you need to make it public tonight? Do you need to make it so that you can be held accountable? Do you need to make it permanent? Do you need to make it specific? Whatever the decision that God has shown you in His Word, start to apply it tonight by making that public commitment.
