Spiritual Health: Governed by the Word

Go to verse 13. On the second day of the month, the first day was the day of reading. 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. written in the law which the Lord had commanded through Moses that the Israelites were to live in booze 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 and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees and from myrtles, palms, and shade trees to make booze as it is written. Verse 18. Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the book of the law of God. They celebrated the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly. Chapter 9, verse 1. On the 24th day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads.

those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners they stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers they stood where they were and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God one more verse verse 38 8 of chapter 9 in view of all this this is the people talking we are making a binding agreement putting it in writing and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it and then the people signed this agreement and it was an agreement of obedience that they were going to start to do the things they had or quit doing the things they shouldn't have been doing, and they wrote it down and they signed it. Let's pray. Open our eyes, Lord. May we hear your word. In Christ's name, amen.

Here's the brief background. The children of Israel, because of their disobedience, had lost a war with Babylon and had gone into captivity. It was the punishment of the Lord. It was the discipline of the Lord. But in God's mercy, he did not forget the children of Israel.

And he raised up a Persian king named Cyrus I, who when he became king, told the children of Israel who were in captivity, you can go home. And there were three great migrations of the children of Israel back to Jerusalem and Judah from whence they had come. 538 B.C. Zerubbabel, who may have also been named Sheshbazar, there's a little debate about whether he was the same person named Sheshbazar or not, but probably Zerubbabel led the first migration, then a guy named Ezra, and then a guy named Nehemiah in 445 B.C. Nehemiah was a contemporary of the prophet Ezra, the prophet Malachi, and he lived the time of the Greek philosopher Socrates.

He was a few decades after a guy named Buddha and after a guy named Confucius. He was the cupbearer to Artaxerxes I, a Persian king. Being cupbearer was an important job. you made sure there was no poison in the cup.

But Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem with the permission of the king to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. And it came about that on the first day of the seventh month that there was a solemn assembly. Wilson's been using that term. We're going to have our first ever in this church, solemn assembly. What we just read was a solemn assembly of the people in the days of Nehemiah.

Don't miss the details. It's the first day of the seventh month. The seventh month is the holiest month in the religious calendar of Judaism. It's the month in which the Day of Atonement occurs. The Jews not only had a religious calendar, sort of like we have a church calendar, they also had their civil calendar, which is sort of the regular calendar.

month is the Jewish New Year's Day. It's called Rosh Hashanah. We just had Rosh Hashanah. The Jews just celebrated it. It's the first day of their new year. It's the day of the Feast of Trumpets.

A lot of playing of trumpets on that day for the Jews. It's a day of rest and it's a day for sacred assembly. The writer tells us this is a day of new beginning. It's a new year physically in the but it is a new day spiritually. That's what solemn assemblies are designed to be about.

It's to be a new beginning for the people of God. Who was present? Not just men, as was so common in Judaism. Men often assembled separately from the women and children. But not on this day.

All God's people were together. Where were they? They were at the water gate, the square where the water gate was. The water gate was a gate in the wall of the city of Jerusalem that led to the Gihon Spring. At the water gate was the place where you went through to get physical water to sustain human life.

But on this day at the water gate, they're getting spiritual water to sustain spiritual life. and why did they gather they gathered to hear the word of the lord and they got a big dose of it on this day here's my second question for assessing our spiritual health you remember my first question are we broken and mournful about our sin if we are spiritually healthy broken, and mournful about sin. It is a sign of spiritual disease that sin no longer concerns us, that we're not broken about it. If you're troubled about the sinfulness in your life, that's a good thing. It's a sign that you are spiritually headed in the right direction.

If you just don't give a rip, if you're not bothered about anything you're doing that's not honoring God, if it really doesn't bother you, you're in big, big spiritual trouble. But the second question I ask is this. It's one of those basics. Are we increasingly governed by God's word? Are we increasingly governed by God's word?

If we're going to be increasingly governed by God's word, that means we've got to be asking some sub-questions. governed by God's word, we must first be reading God's word. Reading God's word. I want to emphasize this by first talking about the importance of God's word. I submit to you that the single most valuable item that we possess as Christians is the Bible.

It is the single most important item we possess. According to the scriptures, the word of God is our food and water. It's basic to spiritual life. It is our light and our lamp for the journey. Without it, we don't know where to go, and we will so easily stumble and fall on the journey.

It is our weapon. As we fight spiritual battles, we fight them with God's word, and if we do not have this word in our hearts and around our minds and hearts, we will lose the spiritual battle. It is our teacher, and it exposes who we are. As J.I. Packer said, our desire for God is directly proportional to our desire for Scripture and people.

the prayer and fasting will be of no avail if we do not again turn our hearts to this word. It is a word that we are to listen to attentively. The text we just read said that as the people gathered in this sacred assembly, they listened attentively. That means they were paying attention. They didn't go into the sermon and turn the lights off and drift.

They listened attentively to the word. To listen attentively means we must take time. And we must set aside distractions if we are going to listen attentively. The people of Israel on this day, the first day of the seventh month, listened to the word being read from daybreak until noon. And they stood the whole time.

six to seven hours straight of God's word. I have thought, I have occasionally thought one Sunday I was just going to come in and turn to a book and start reading and see if for 30 minutes we could stand it. it is so important we should be listening with eager and attentive ears to absorb the word and what is being said to us I fear I might have a very small Sunday school class if that was what I did and it's important that we understand we must listen attentively but we must understand the word the words, we've got to understand. So often I fear that we hear the word, we don't fully appreciate its meaning, and we just go on without digging in and finding out what this really means. In our passage for today, as the word was being read, apparently there were people out among the Israelites who were stopping, they were stopping the reading, and these people were instructing the people explaining what was being said.

Some have thought that maybe they were having to actually translate from the Hebrew language, the book of the law, into Aramaic, which had really sort of developed as the main language of the children of Israel. That's possible that there was actual translation work happening. But I think the text seems to indicate there was just explanation of what the word meant so the people would fully understand it. You see these people, as they had been in captivity, from the word. They were not in the word and they were needing to be re-instructed about the word. We need to understand the word so we can properly apply it.

Not only do we need to read the word, we need to reflect on the word. The reason I know that the people were reflecting on the word, that is they were understanding the meaning and seeing how it applied to their lives is they were beginning to weep. They were beginning to cry. And the crying apparently got so overwhelming that the leaders were having to try to calm the people down and stop the weeping and the mourning and the wailing. You see, reflection or meditation on God's word means we are wrestling with the divine word so that we can apply its transforming truth to our daily lives.

you've got to take the understanding of the word and then say, how do I measure up? How should my life be changed in light of what I heard? How should I live differently? How should I act differently? How should I behave differently?

How should my attitude be differently? How should I deal with this situation at work in light of God's word? How should I relate to my spouse? How should I treat my children? How should I coach the basketball team?

We need to take principles from God's word, wrestle with their meaning and understanding, but then take it a step further and say, how does this inform what I should do in everyday life? How should I dress? The Bible tells us. Modestly. How should I speak?

Kindly and with gentleness. Do you see what I'm saying? The people of God don't just need to hear the word and understand it. And it takes hard thinking. I've spent the last several years of my life struggling at times with how can I incorporate this word that I've learned into my life and submit myself to it and begin to live in more direct submission to it.

How do I change? How can I take my bad stuff and be different? It begins by reflecting on what the word says and applying it to our lives. The problem we have is this is one of the most neglected aspects of the spiritual life. We are so busy.

We are so connected with communication that we can't have time for reflection. Richard Foster, who's written one of the great books called Celebration of Discipline, talks about growth in the spiritual life, says the three great enemies, the three great distractions used by the enemy are noise, crowds, and hurry. We need to turn off the noise. We need to find some solitude and silence, and we need to slow down to give time to reflect on this word. I don't know how you do it in your schedules, but you've got to carve out some time for reflection on the word.

If we don't do this, we will not be changed. This is where it happens, the wrestling with the word and applying it to our lives. This is something that is not a one-time occurrence. It's a day in, day out, constant self-examination and reflection. I go home at night sometimes and I say, David, why in the world did you act like that?

Sometimes I'm with Louise and I don't treat her the way I should. And I go and I say, why did you do that? In light of what God's word teaches about how I should have acted, why did I do that? But I try to take it a step further and say, next time, what do I need to do differently to be in conformity with the way God wants me to live? It's a constant day in, day out thing.

This life is not easy. Just like good physical health takes work, good spiritual health takes work. The last point I will make is responding. We read it, we reflect on it, but we must respond to what we've heard. The Israelites responded by praising God when they heard the word.

I think they praised him for a couple of reasons. One, because he was so gracious to reveal his word to them. Secondly, they saw how God had provided for them in their past in so many gracious ways, so they praised him. secondly they mourned over their sin the weeping and the crying if we are reading and reflecting on god's word we will if we are honest before god all of us will have mourning our sins may not be the same but we all have sin in our lives and we will be mourning over that but the response goes beyond mourning. It goes to obedience.

The litmus test of genuine faith is obedience and the litmus test of genuine love of God is obedience. It's the litmus test. In Nehemiah's day, after the people heard the word, they immediately saw they were not in conformity with God's word. They weren't celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a fall feast that they were to celebrate. So what do they do?

They send the word throughout the land. We're supposed to be celebrating this feast, and they start to do it. They obey. They begin to look at all the ways they were disobedient to God, and some of those ways, including they had married people they shouldn't have. They married unbelievers.

They were not observing the Sabbath as they should have. they were not giving to the Lord as they should have so they wrote down an agreement they put it on paper and they said we agree from this day forward we are going to do these things A, B, C that we have been disobedient in doing I think that's not a bad idea to write down specifically where we've been disobedient and what we're going to do to change one sign of spiritual help is that we can point to continuing specific examples where we have changed our behavior or our beliefs or our attitudes in response to God's word.

Did you hear that? Spiritual health indicates that we in our own individual lives can point to specific examples where we have changed our behavior, our beliefs, or attitudes because of what God's word teaches us. think of anything in your life over the last several years, you've changed specifically because of what God's Word teaches.

If you can't, that's a danger sign. Because spiritual health and maturity means increasingly we're finding areas and we're working to become in obedience to God's Word. I started writing down the list and I realized how unholy I was as I went through the list. there was a day when I hated God and was so sinfully angry with him after we lost Joshua, our son there was a day when I wanted to be independent of God I thought I could handle life myself there were days when I would not pray and I still struggle with making prayer an important part of my life I was not helping at all the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. I was not using my money the way God wanted to help the poor, to evangelize the lost.

I was not observing God's Sabbath. I would still remember when Wilson preached a series of sermons on observing the Sabbath. And if he taught those series of lessons, I said, Lord, forgive me. I do not honor your Sabbath and had to change some of my practices. is purity of thought.

Man, do I still struggle with that.

There's a reason we don't have HBO at the Rogers house. There's a reason we don't have cable. It's not because we're holy. It's because David is unholy. And he's got to cut that stuff out

so it doesn't ignite wrong thinking. How about pride and lack of gentleness? I have struggled with that. speaking softly, being kind, and service, being willing just to serve others. I have seen Louise, such an example of service.

She does so many things to help me. And I have reflected on how little I often do to help her.

we need to be finding those specific examples and seeing increasing areas where we're working to bring our lives in obedience to God. And the last aspect of response is confession. What is confession? Confession is acknowledgement of sin, sorrow for sin, and a determination to avoid sin. It's acknowledging our sin before God, being sorry for it, but being determined to avoid it.

Our confession needs to be individual, but it needs to also be corporate. And lastly, I would simply say a willingness to confess sin is a sign of spiritual health. A refusal to confess sin is spiritual cancer. As long as the sin stays there unconfessed, it eats away at our spiritual lives. I want to say a word about corporate sin.

we're so individualized in this country it's hard for us to think about corporate sin that somehow we are all guilty of certain sin before God you go read the Old Testament I've been reading in the 1st and 2nd Kings you will see God held the whole nation responsible for disobedience to his word and the whole nation not just those who were particularly sinful but the whole nation was punished for sin. The whole nation. When I speak of corporate sin, which can be either active or passive, when I speak of corporate sin, it is this kind of sin that occurs when a significant portion of God's people are involved in the same sin, particularly sins that harm the name of God or our ability to serve Him. But corporate sin can also be God's people permit obvious sin to continue in their midst without taking any corrective action. So even though we may not individually be the one who is committing a particular sin, we are corporately guilty if we fail to take corrective action.

so the question is what should we confess corporately

and it's 1041 we've had 25 minutes of Sunday school lessons

how many of you have to leave in about 5 to 10 minutes to get children and so forth

next week what should we confess corporately it's too much for me to try to deal with in five minutes I apologize I told you I would try to deal with it this week this is all we're going to deal with next week

what should we confess corporately let me say a word in closing about this

I do not claim to have any special revelation answer this question. I do not purport to say that God has spoken to me in some unique way to give me the answer to this question. Last week, when I woke up early in the morning, I knew some things to answer this question. But it wasn't some special revelation. I think it was the way God's spirit works inside any believer who is seeking to discern his will by understanding his word and how it applies to our lives.

But I think the answer to this question is so important.

I believe God is not finished with Greer First Baptist Church.

There have been times when I did not think that.

there have been times when I struggled David is God calling you somewhere else

I do not believe God is done yet

he has kept many of his people he has kept many of his people here for a reason

but we will never be what he has called us to be

we will never be what he has called us to be unless and until we will honestly assess where we stand before our Lord as a community of faith and we'll repent where we need to repent

Lord, I pray that as we gather next week, you will open our hearts and minds to understand where we need as a people to become all you want us to be, where we need to confess our sin.

And I pray, Lord, you will forgive us. But I also pray that you will take us to the mountaintop. Do not let us walk in the valley of darkness.

you will let us climb to the mountain top and see your glory your glory for it is in Christ's name amen