“FOR ALL THE PEOPLE WEPT”


—A Gospel Message from
Nehemiah 8:9


by Joseph Tirrito

“And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha,* and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.” Nehemiah 8:9.
[* “Which is the Tirshatha.” Margin: that is, “who is governor.”]

I want to talk to you this evening about these words—“For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.”
          The context is that Ezra has been reading from “the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel” (Nehemiah 8:1), and he has been reading “from the morning until midday” (verse 3). The Jewish people have gathered together to hear Ezra read from the Bible from early morning until noon. This was probably four to six hours that they sat under the plain reading of the Word of God.
          Immediately before our text, we have verse 8: “So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them”—the people—“to understand the reading.” They read to them and they expounded the meaning of the text to them. And what happened?
          God the Holy Spirit came down on these people, convicted their consciences, and they wept. And this is what I want to talk about.
          Now, notice the following things and let me make some applications here.
          When did they weep? “For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.” I remember when God convicted my conscience of sin, that I wept bitterly, and that I agonized over the specter of eternal damnation looming over me. If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ tonight, the law of God ought to be a dreadful thing to you. I hope it frightens you, and I hope that it knocks dread into your conscience. Sinner, if you don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you ought to be scared to pieces to even hear the Bible mentioned, let alone hear its condemnation of you read. “For the wages of SIN is DEATH” (Romans 6:23a). “For ALL have SINNED, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
          God’s standard is Himself. If you don’t measure up, you’re in trouble, because you can’t work your way up to His standard.
          “But God is a God of love! He would never condemn me to hell!” you protest. Well, let me say that God doesn’t need to condemn you to hell on Judgment Day; the fact is that you’re condemned already. Is Jesus loving? Yes, but this very same Jesus said, speaking of Himself, “He that believeth on him”—i.e., on Jesus—“is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, BECAUSE HE HATH NOT BELIEVED IN THE NAME OF THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD” (John 3:18). You don’t need to be condemned at some future time; you’re condemned already. I think that’s good enough reason for you to start weeping.
          Sinner, think of all the laws which are set forth in the Bible, and think of how you’ve broken them. Just think of the Ten Commandments, in Exodus 20:2-17.

  1. “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ~ Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Take an honest look at your life and tell me if YOU are Numero Uno in your life, or if Jehovah God is.

  2. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: ~ Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; ~ And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” Have you ever bowed down before a statue or an idol to pray to it? Have you created a false perception in your mind of who God really is? Is money, pleasure, or anything else more important to you than Jehovah God? Have you rejected the Bible because, as God’s Word, it is too holy of a Book to fit your sin-tainted morals, values, and convictions (or lack thereof)? Do you not realize what anarchy exists in the world today because of the fact that “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25b)? Have you rejected the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, thinking that you can still believe in God but not in Jesus? Well, Jesus said that you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Jesus said, “He that hateth me hateth my Father also” (John 15:23). If you are a Christ-hater and a Bible-rejector, you have broken this commandment.

  3. “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” If you call yourself a “Christian,” but in reality you are a mere “CHURCHian” who lives like the devil and spurns the Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Word, the Bible, then you have taken the Lord Jesus Christ’s Name in vain. Every time you mutter Jesus’ Name in anger, you are building up wrath for yourself. Every time you say, “God!” as an expression of frustration or as a swear word, you are aggravating the condemnation which has already been laid against you. If you think that God’s last name is “damn,” then God assures you that God will one day damn you to hell. Are you so foolish as to think otherwise? “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

  4. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. ~ Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: ~ But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: ~ For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Under the Christian dispensation, there is no longer any such thing as the Sabbath (Colossians 2:16-17), but there is the Lord’s Day, on which we are to gather together to worship God, sing hymns, hear Bible-based preaching, fellowship together, and give what we can to support God’s work in the world. “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come” (I Corinthians 16:2). Have you refused to give to the support of God’s work in the world through His church? Are you stealing His money—of the money which He has lent to you, are you refusing to give Him a portion back? “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). Are you refusing to worship the God who created you with His people? Finally, note Exodus 20:11 which we read a moment ago, referring to how Jehovah God created everything in six days. Sinner, are you so arrogant as to call God a liar and think that you know more about His creation than He does, by saying that you believe in the myth of evolution? Evolution is a logical farce, a sham, a delusion, and I would STRONGLY urge you to read Pastor Perry F. Rockwood’s excellent little booklet, The Myth of Evolution. You can read it at http://www.tpgh.org/archive/books/72.htm, or write to The People’s Gospel Hour (http://www.tpgh.org) up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for a printed copy; they have the information at their webpage. Write for The Myth of Evolution and send 30 cents (or $1 for 4 copies), plus $2 for shipping and handling to:

    The People’s Gospel Hour
    P.O. Box 1660
    Halifax, NS, Canada B3J 3A1

  5. “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” If you have ever disobeyed your parents (if they were in line with God’s Word), then you have broken this commandment.

  6. “Thou shalt not kill.” Have you ever even remotely thought of killing somebody? Have you hated somebody enough that you would kill them if you could get away with it? Let Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount condemn you: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: ~ But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matthew 5:21-22). There are many places in the Bible in which anger is condoned, and in which God-haters are called fools. For instance, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good” (Psalm 14:1). Atheists have been around for a long time, and God says that scientific atheists in 1999 are as foolish and hellbound as flat-lander atheists were in David’s day, back in the mid-1000s B.C. God says that they are fools. But you and I have no right to call somebody who seems a little bit slow in their mental faculties, “You fool!” He says that that is just as bad as killing them. If you have ever called somebody an “idiot” or “stupid” in anger, or if you have hated somebody or been angry without a cause, you are “in danger of hell fire.”

  7. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Again, Jesus’ expands on this in His Sermon on the Mount, and His words are binding, because as God, He speaks the Word of God! “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: ~ But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28). The minute you start imagining yourself in bed with somebody who you’re not married to, you are an adulterer, and you are no better than the President of the United States, the fake TV healer, or your next-door neighbor who have actually done the deed.

  8. “Thou shalt not steal.” Sinner, if you have so much as taken a dime from another person and refused to give it back, you are a thief. Not only that, but you are a thief if you try to get to God through any other way—be it your good works, your moral life, your church membership—except the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. ~ Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep” (John 10:1, 7).

  9. “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.” If you’ve ever gossiped, slandered, or libeled somebody else, you’re guilty of breaking this commandment. If you’ve ever lied to yourself about what God is really like—if you’ve worshipped any other god except the God of the Bible, AS HE HAS REVEALED HIMSELF IN THE BIBLE—you are guilty. If you’ve ever told a “little white lie,” you’re guilty. There are no such things as “little white lies.” “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! ~ Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 5:20, 24). A lie is a lie is a lie. It is meant to deceive another person, and it is from the devil himself. If you have willingly, gladly rejected the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, here’s what the Bible says about you. “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. ~ Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [but] he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also” (I John 2:22-23). And Jesus says to you, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).

  10. “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.” If you’ve ever been jealous of someone else’s material possessions, you’ve broken this commandment. You’ve also broken the First and Second Commandments prohibiting worshipping other gods, because material things have become the top priority in your life; and you may be driven to break the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Commandments in order to get what you covet of your neighbor’s.
And, as if all of that weren’t enough, God tells us, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). If you could keep God’s whole law perfectly (and you can’t), and then offended in the most minute point, “thou art become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:11) and you would still go straight to hell when you die.
          Now, I know that this was not a pleasant exercise. Many of you were probably upset by this. But I only tell you this because I care about you deeply and want you to be right with God, and the first step is to recognize your sinfulness. Dear friend! oh, must I ask you, “Am I become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16).
          Nehemiah 8:9, “For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.”
          Poor sinner, are you weeping? If you are, there’s hope for you. If your conscience troubles you, then God the Holy Spirit is working in you at this moment. You have despaired long enough now. “This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep.”
          If you are a sinner under the curse of God—“condemned already”—why should you “mourn not, nor weep”?
          Because, “This day is holy unto the LORD your God.” God has seen to it that you received this message today, and that you understood it. “For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (II Corinthians 6:2).
          You have sinned, and you have sinned greatly. But salvation is free. The reason why so many people die having rejected the gospel is because they refuse to understand that it is NOT a new religion or a new set of “DO’s” and “DON’T’s” to keep. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not complicated at all. The reason why most people die having rejected it is because they refuse to believe that salvation could be so SIMPLE after all.
          Here is God’s solution for your sins—here is His plan of salvation for you—and notice, it is not dependent upon what you can do, but upon what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you upon Calvary’s dreadful cross, in shedding His blood for your sins (Romans 3:23-28):
          For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; ~ Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: ~ Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; ~ To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. ~ Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. ~ Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
And again in Romans 4:4-8:
          Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. ~ But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. ~ Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, ~ Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. ~ Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, became a Man, lived a perfect life for thirty-three years, and died on the cross, shedding His blood as your Substitute and mine—then rose again from the dead in order to vindicate His holiness and guarantee His payment for our sins as valid. “He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:25). Why? Because He loves you and me. ”For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God the Father loved you and me, His Son willingly endured the wrath of God which should have been yours and mine, as our Substitute, and God the Holy Spirit gave us a perfect Book called the Bible—which He inspired and preserved until He got it into our language—so that He could tell us about “so great salvation” as this.
          “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1).
          “How,” you ask, “may I be saved?” In answer, the Holy Spirit of God tells you in His Word how simple it is—“And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31).
          Lay hold of that promise: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!” Oh, lay hold of it and you can know the peace of God, the love of Christ, the constant fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the hope of eternal life in heaven with him, freedom from condemnation to hell, freedom from sin and guilt, freedom to live a life of liberty and loving service to God and to those around you as you seek to tell them, in the everyday course of your life, how the Lord Jesus Christ has saved you and can save them also.
          “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). If ever there were a doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ is a PERSONAL Saviour, let it be forever silenced by that verse.
          “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: ~ By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ~ And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; ~ And patience, experience; and experience, hope: ~ And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. ~ For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ~ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. ~ But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ~ Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. ~ For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. ~ And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the atonement” (Romans 5:1-11).
Dear sinner friend, do you know the peace of God today, which can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ through faith in His blood, shed for your sins on Calvary’s cruel cross? If the Holy Spirit has shown you the truth of His Word, the Bible, and has convicted you of sin, and has shown to you the need of a Saviour and the Father’s provision of a Saviour in His Son—then turn to Him today, repenting of your sins, and believe on Him, asking Him to save you from your sins. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” That is the gospel message—it’s just that simple. Will you receive Him today and be born again? “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: ~ Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).
          “This day is holy unto the LORD your God: mourn not, nor weep.”
          “So the Levites stilled the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved” (Nehemiah 8:11). If you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ today, then hear the Holy Spirit saying to you, “Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved,” and take full assurance of your salvation in Jesus’ finished work of salvation.
          But take advantage of it today! For now, having been warned, if you should neglect it and be lost forever in hell—“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation...?” (Hebrews 2:3a). Oh, how terrible that would be, to suffer forever in the lake of fire and brimstone, where the “smoke rose up for ever and ever” (Revelation 19:3)! Come to Jesus NOW, just as you are—as a sinner—in simple trusting faith. Hear His final invitation to you; no soul who ever came to Him was ever turned away. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy leaden, and I will give you rest. ~ Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. ~ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

          I heard the voice of Jesus say,
                “Come unto Me and rest;
          Lay down, thou weary one, lay down
               Thy head upon My breast.”
          I came to Jesus as I was,
               Weary and worn and sad;
          I found in Him a resting place,
               And He has made me glad.

          I heard the voice of Jesus say,
                “Behold, I freely give
          The living water; thirsty one,
               Stoop down, and drink, and live.”
          I came to Jesus, and I drank
               Of that life- giving stream;
          My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
               And now I live in Him.

          I heard the voice of Jesus say,
               “I am this dark world’s Light;
          Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise,
               And all thy day be bright.”
          I looked to Jesus, and I found
               In Him my Star, my Sun;
          And in that light of life I’ll walk,
               Till traveling days are done.

[Edited from the original, which appeared as a post to the Evangelical/Catholics Message Board at Christianity Online (Keyword: COL) on America Online, Sunday, September 19, 1999.]

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