The sermon by Jason Dohm, titled 'Blessed Are Those Who Mourn,' focuses on the themes of mourning over sin, corporate confession, and repentance. Based on Nehemiah 9:1-5a, the sermon draws parallels between the Israelites' assembly for fasting and confession and the teaching in Matthew 5:4, where Jesus blesses those who mourn. The sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding mourning as a blessing and integrating it into the Christian life, not as a constant state, but as a persistent one. It highlights the corporate nature of repentance, where the Israelites gathered to confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, demonstrating the need for communal accountability in spiritual growth. The sermon also draws historical parallels with instances like the Pilgrims' practices and national days of prayer in American history, illustrating the importance of collective humility and seeking God. The role of the Levites in leading worship and confession is also discussed, along with the importance of avoiding syncretism and maintaining a united, holy community. The sermon encourages believers to embrace a sensitive conscience, as it leads to worship and genuine transformation through the recognition of God's mercy.

Our sermon text for today is Nehemiah chapter 9 verses 1 through 5a. Now on the 24th day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads. Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins in the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for one fourth of the day and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God then Jeshua, Bani, Cadmeo, Shabbaniah, Buni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Shaniah stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God. And the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebeniah, and Pethiahiah said.

That's sort of abrupt, But they say 38 verses of things, so you have to cut it somewhere. In the text for last week, the people are celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. It's an eight-day feast that starts and ends with the day of holy convocation and the people are living in temporary shelters made out of leafy branches for a whole week. Some people are actually on the housetop of their house. All the comforts of home are just feet away.

But you forsake them for a week. There is an application of this for New Testament believers. This isn't just something that's useful to Old Testament believers, but the application for us, one of them is found in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 11 where Peter calls New Testament believers Sojourners and pilgrims. So it wasn't just Old Testament believers that went through the wilderness and were sustained by God and were fed by God. That's us too.

And It may not be a requirement in the law of God for us to now live on a rooftop under the leafy branches for a week, like they did, but we are still supposed to have a mentality of tabernacling, of being sojourners and pilgrims, and not having this be our country, but our citizenship is somewhere else. The other thing we saw in last week's text is the insatiable desire of the people for the Word of God. That's going to continue on into our text today. There's going to be more to say about that in this week's text. The title for this week's sermon is Blessed are those who mourn.

It comes from the mouth of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5 verse 4. When Jesus says, Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted, The type of mourning that Jesus has in mind that He is speaking to in Matthew 5 in Sermon on the Mount is the type of mourning that is in view here in our text today in Nehemiah 9. It's actually a blessing. We tend to have dim views of mourning. We can't wait to get out of that mode.

But Jesus calls it a blessing, at least certain kinds of mourning. It should have a place in our life. That's one of the things we should come away from our text today with. Mourning over sin should have a place in our life. Not a constant place, but a persistent place.

As we go to the text, let's pray. Our Father, we come to you. We're Americans. We live in a light-hearted world. And there's almost always levity among us.

If there's a struggle in our culture, it's to be sober-minded and to take time off of our lightheartedness to be confronted with our sin, the different ways in which we fall short of your glory and transgress your law. I thank you for this text. This brings us face to face with that. It confronts us with something that is an ongoing weakness in our culture. I thank you that your Word does this again and again and again.

It confronts every culture. No matter where we go in the world, no matter what country we're born into, our culture is confronted by your Word. And this is good. You don't leave us to our own thoughts and our own ways, but you bring us into contact with higher thoughts and higher ways. May it be so, God.

Bring your word to bear on us in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. So I'll be breaking the text up this morning into three segments. The first segment is just the first verse. So let's read that again together and then consider it.

This is Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 1. Now on the 24th day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads. So this verse describes a day of corporate humiliation. If you're filling in the handout and you're filling in blanks. It's corporate humiliation.

This is a day of corporate humiliation. First, before we really get started into the exposition, I should point out that chapters 9 and 10 are a single unit. So we're going to be in chapters 9 and 10 for a number of weeks. We'll probably be here a month. But it's not so in Nehemiah.

It's a day's activities. And so we want to keep all these things together in our heads and view them as they are as a single unit. In fact, chapter 12 is the dedication of the wall. And they've just finished the wall. We don't have a time marker that tells us exactly when the wall is dedicated, but you can believe that not a lot of time goes by between the completion of the work and them consecrating this mighty act to the Lord through the events of chapter 12.

So chapters 9, 10, 11, and 12 are happening in a very short period of time. And since it won't be all that short of a period of time, preaching through it, we want to continue to keep that in mind. Here's the backdrop for our text. We're in the seventh month still. That began at the beginning of chapter 8, where our author tells us that on the first day of the seventh month, that the Law was read from sun up to midday, and that this set the people to weeping.

In chapter 8 verse 9 we read, all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. So God uses the reading of His Word to bring conviction, to cause conviction to fall upon the hearts of His people. They begin to weep, and this is the right sentiment on the wrong day. So the first day of the seventh month is the Feast of Trumpets. God has set it aside as a holy day for rejoicing.

So it is good that they have read the law, and it is right that a holding up of who God is and who man is, and what the righteous standard of this God is, would cause conviction to fall upon them. There's not a thing in the world inappropriate of that. But to spend the day in grief, a day that God has set for rejoicing, it wasn't the right day. It was the right sentiment, but it was the wrong day, the Feast of Trumpets. So the people are actually restrained from this in chapter 8.

Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites who were teaching the people say, stop the weeping and go feast. Go eat the best, drink the best, and rejoice. And they do that. And then they come together again from the 15th through the 22nd of this seventh month for the Feast of Tabernacles. And that also is a week of feasting and rejoicing.

And they do that and now this is two days later. The Feast of Tabernacles ends on the 22nd. Our text is the 24th of the same month. So it's two days later. And I want to point out that the law of God, the law of Moses, doesn't require anything for the 24th day of the 7th month.

Everything that is within view of our text is completely voluntary. The law of Moses doesn't require it. You're dismissed after the feast of tabernacles. The seventh month is a really busy month on God's worship calendar, but it ends on the 22nd. So when they gather again on the 24th, it's because they've decided of their own free will.

This is sort of a free will offering. You should think of it this way. It's not required by the law of God. They feel a pressing need to do it. They want to do it.

They're ready to deal with the things that began when the law of God was read and the conviction of the Holy Spirit fell upon them for their sins. There are two important things I want to notice in this first verse. Here is the first thing. This is corporate. This is a corporate event.

The text says, the children of Israel were assembled. So It's natural to go to individual application. This is me. I should feel grief over my sins. I should repent.

And that's right, but I don't want to skip there yet. It's not time to get to the personal application yet. It's a time to recognize what the text actually says, which was that this is a corporate event in its very nature. It is good to repent individually. Of course it's good to repent individually, but God has a united people.

We are a body. We are many members of one body. And this is a gathering together of the body. The united people of God, in order to repent together. Of course they should have ongoing repentance in their life.

Of course that's the life of believers. And yet There is a place and a time for the united people of God to gather together and join their hearts together in repentance. Because we are our brother's keeper, There is such a thing as corporate sin. Cain asks this. Am I my brother's keeper?

God comes and says, where's your brother? Cain asks this. Am I my brother's keeper? And the answer to that question is, yes! We owe each other a duty of love.

We have a debt of love to repay to one another. We are not free to view ourselves as an island. I'm not an island. I'm joined to you and you're joined to me. I'm your keeper and you're my keeper.

And we owe each other a debt of love. So it is appropriate and good to say, God, I have not been what I should have been. Forgive me. Have mercy on me. Change me.

But, it's also equally valid to have a time where we say, we have not been what we should have been. God have mercy on us. God forgive us. God change us together. God has a united people.

Know this. We are supposed to help each other grow in holiness. I'm pretty confident we're not as aware of that as we should be. I think we should be aware of that all the time. We are supposed to help each other grow in holiness.

This is the consistent testimony of Scripture. I want to give you an Old Testament place that says that and I want to give you a New Testament place that says that. Here is the Old Testament place. Leviticus chapter 19 verse 18. You know it as the second greatest commandment.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Do you know what the context for love your neighbor as yourself is? The lead in to the second greatest commandment is, Don't hate your neighbor by refusing to rebuke him for his sin. If you look at the verses that lead into the second greatest commandment, love your neighbor as yourself, that is the context. God through Moses says, love your neighbor enough to rebuke him in his sin.

Help him be holy. Help him when he is compromising. Help him when you see sin in his life. Don't hate him. Love him enough to rebuke him in his sin.

Help him be part of a holy people. Be a holy member of a holy body. That's the Old Testament verse. Here's the New Testament verse, Matthew chapter 7 verse 5. Help your brother with his speck.

Usually we read that text and we come away with, I can't be a hypocrite and I've got a plank in my own eye, so I shouldn't worry about him, I should worry about me. The text does start there, it just doesn't stop there. It says, when you have dealt with your hypocrisy, when you have got the plank out of your eye, then you can see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. In other words, you have a duty to do so. You have a duty to help your brother with his sins.

Not because you hate him, quite the contrary, because you love Him. We are to love each other enough to help each other grow in holiness. So there is such a thing as corporate sins. And we are our brother's keeper and our sister's keeper. We are supposed to help each other grow in holiness.

How are you going to grow in holiness without my help? How am I going to grow in holiness without your help? There is not a good answer to that question. Part of The design and the intent of God is to use each other in our lives for a good purpose. That our sins would be confronted in a gentle way, in a loving way.

That's the first thing. This is corporate. This is not me as an individual falling under conviction and coming and repenting of my sins. That's only a very small part of what's in our text. This is a gathering together of the united people of God to confess their sins as a united body.

Here's the second thing. Number two, the focus is on humility and seeking God. This is the purpose for the fasting and the sackcloth and the dust on the head. Humility and seeking God. Turn back to Ezra chapter 8.

Ezra chapter 8 was a memory verse a couple of quarters ago. Ezra chapter 8 verse 21. In Ezra chapter 7 Ezra is introduced. In Ezra chapter 8 Ezra leads back the second wave of captives from Babylon. And we read this as they are preparing to come back from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Ezra chapter 8 verse 21, Then I, Ezra, proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. Do you remember that? Ezra calls a fast and it is to humble themselves and it is to seek God. This is exactly the same purposes that are being fulfilled through what's happening in Ezra chapter 9. Humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God and seeking His face for the way for us and our children and all our possessions, just like Ezra 8, verse 21.

So we have humility as one of the core focuses of this 24th day of the seventh month. The law has laid them low. So they might have been impressed with themselves, we often are, But they've heard the law. They've heard who God is and seen Him exalted by a reading of Scripture. And they've had this righteous standard lifted up.

And they've been forced to compare themselves with it. With the righteousness of God and His righteous standard for man. And they're reminded of who they are and who they aren't. So they might have come to the seventh month impressed with themselves, but that has eroded quickly as more of Scripture has been read. And now they're impressed with God.

They see God highly exalted, which is what we always see about God when we go to the Scriptures. And all of This is a posture of humility. Fasting is part of the posture of humility. Wearing sackcloth is part of a posture of humility. Having dust on their heads is part of a posture of humility.

They're physically putting themselves into the place of humility before God. So they're humble before God, and they're also seeking God. Every comfort is laid aside. It's good to do that from time to time. Just say, I'm putting the comforts aside.

Sometimes you just get this sense, the comfort is not helping me. My comforts aren't helping me. My pleasures aren't helping me. I need something now that my comforts and my pleasures can never deliver to me. I must put them aside." So they're making a declaration through their actions.

And the declaration is this, I don't want comfort, I want God and His mercy. I've had too much comfort and not enough God and His mercy. And so I want comfort more than I want food. I want God and His mercy more than I want food. I want God and His mercy more than I want comfortable clothing.

I want God and His mercy more than I want being clean and presentable. I want to acknowledge what I am. I want to stop pretending. And I want to assume a posture that reflects reality. No more faking.

No more faking. Peter says this in 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 6. Peter says, Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. This is what the Lord's people are doing in a corporate way. They are humbling themselves under the mighty hand of God, knowing that He will exalt them in due time.

That if they humble themselves, that God will draw near to them and He will exalt them in His own time. They're feeling lack. They're feeling need. And that's not a bad thing. That's a great thing.

The dangerous position is to actually be needy but have no sense of it. What a danger to your soul to have desperate need but have no sense of it. This is how so much of the world spends every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year in desperate need with no sense of it. What a mercy it is when God presses our need on us. So we feel it and know it and we want Him to come.

We actually have a desire born in our heart that He would come and give us what we can't give to ourselves. The final point that I want to make from verse 1, it's not in verse 1, is this. What we see in verse 1 is not something that is limited to Bible times historically. Bible times historically. The gathering of the people to humble themselves and seek God this way is not limited to Bible times.

And We, as Americans, actually have a rich history of it. Here are four examples from William Bradford's, Of Plymouth Plantation. If you haven't read it, It's a great read. Here are four times where they did something like this in this colony at Plymouth. In the year 1620, The Pilgrims are ready to depart from Holland.

They left England because they were being persecuted for their practice of the faith. They spent a period of years in Holland. I think it was 11 years, but I'm going from memory. Now they had this opportunity to come to the new world, and they are ready to depart from Holland. Here is what William Bradford records.

This is the year 1620. When they were ready to depart, They had a day of solemn humiliation. Their pastor taking his text from Ezra chapter 8 verse 21, And there at the river by Ahava I proclaimed a fast, that we might humble ourselves before our God, and seek of Him a right way for us, and for our children, and for all our substance." Upon this discourse, he spent a good part of the day very profitably. The rest of the time was spent in pouring out prayers to the Lord with great fervency and abundance of tears." What we see happening in Nehemiah chapter 9 is something that happened on the shores of Holland before the pilgrims left. They actually quoted Ezra chapter 8 verse 21.

They said, we're doing something like this. We are humbling ourselves before God and we're seeking him for his direction. Then in the year 1629, this is nine years later, they would have been in the New World for a number of years at this time, and their pastor, John Robinson, because of health, couldn't come with them. So he remained in Holland. And so in the year 1629, they're looking for a teaching pastor.

The time came where they couldn't wait for John Robinson. The original plan was John Robinson waiting for a return of health. When health returned, he would come and be their pastor in the New World. And by 1629 it's apparent that's not going to happen. And it didn't happen.

John Robinson never made it to the New World. But anyway, in 1629 they're looking for, they're working to identify a new pastor. Here is what William Bradford records. It pleased the Lord to move the heart of our governor to set apart July 10th as a solemn day of humiliation for the choice of a pastor and a teacher. The first part of the day was used for prayer and teaching.

The latter part was used for the election. The account proceeds to tell of the method for evaluation of the different candidates. They have something that is really important to them, the calling of a pastor and a teacher. They want God's blessing, so they humble themselves and seek God through a day of humiliation. Then later in the same year, later in 1629 in August, right after the first execution.

So a man has committed premeditated murder, and for the first time in the New World, they feel compelled to put to death this murderer, who's been given due process, and been convicted of premeditated murder. That has just happened and they are in a time of deadly sickness. People are dying from sickness. So they consecrate a day of humiliation and prayer and at the end of it they make a covenant to walk in the ways of God. This is exactly like Nehemiah chapter 9.

They have been studying Nehemiah chapter 9. They know that the hand of God is upon them. They have had to execute a man and people are dying from sickness and they say, we're going to make a covenant to walk in God's ways and we're going to seek him for his favor. And Then finally in the year 1644, so this is 15 years later, they are on the verge of a major war with the Narragansett Indians. They do a number of things in preparation for this war.

One of the things that is enumerated that they do to get ready for a war for the Indians is to have a day of prayer and humiliation. To humble themselves before God and to seek God. They didn't choose a pastor without doing this. They didn't leave for the New World without doing this. They didn't engage in warfare without doing this.

When they felt their sins upon them, because they had a murderer in their mix that they had to execute, This is what they did. They joined together as a united people to humble themselves before God and do this. That's all in of Plymouth Plantation. Here's some more history. In 1776, The Congress set aside Friday, May 17th as the day of humiliation, fasting and prayer.

This is right at the beginning of the War for Independence. In 1799, our second president, John Adams, set aside Thursday, April 25th as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting and prayer. In 1863, right in the middle of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln set aside Thursday, April 30th as the day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. These last three that I've mentioned, Congress in 1776, John Adams in 1799, Abraham Lincoln in 1863, When you read those proclamations, they are weekdays. All three were weekdays.

In the proclamation, it said, Don't do your normal occupations. Set aside the time for prayer and repentance. When you read these proclamations, they are very beautiful, and you just are struck with how things have changed. Can you imagine now our president or our Congress calling on the people to set aside a weekday and not go about your normal occupations but to humble ourselves before God and repent of our sins so that God would have favor upon us. I think we should come to verse 1, Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 1, and we should consider why we don't do this.

We're Christians, I'm sure we're repenting of our sins, but they're taking a day. Have you ever done that? I've never done this in my entire life. I've never set aside a day and say I'm just going to labor to repent of my sins. I'm going to just set aside the whole day for reading scripture and confessing and worshipping.

Why don't we? Why don't we do this individually or corporately? Why is Nehemiah 9 some sort of a strange phenomenon to us? I want to suggest that I don't think it should be. What if we were to do this?

What if we were just to take an hour? Has anybody ever repented for an hour? I've never repented for a whole hour? When you run out of things? My guess is the answer is no.

My guess is if you were to really think, you could fill the hour of the ways in which we dishonor God with the things that we think, and the things that we say, and the things that we do? And the things that we should do that have gone undone, I think we could fill the hour. Okay, let's move on. Now verses 2 and 3. Nehemiah chapter 9 verses two and three.

Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners, And they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day. And for one-fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God." In this section, half of a day is given to reading and repentance and worship. So if you're filling in blanks, reading, repentance, worship. Half of a day of reading and repentance and worship.

The text is quite clear. These measures are reserved for Israelites. This is not come one come all. This is those who are of Israel. So if you're not of the lineage of Israel, you are excluded.

These measures are reserved for Israelites. Verse 1, the children of Israel were assembled. We already saw that in verse 1. It was the children of Israel who came together. Verse 2 drives that point home.

Those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners. So this is a day for the people of God, the united people of God and nobody else, not one other person, is to participate in this. I could re-preach a number of sermons from Ezra and Nehemiah on this point. We've seen this be a pattern. There have been specific times where the people very subconsciously, very proactively separated themselves for this or that through the course of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Two things I want to review from those sermons. There are two things at work when they separate. The first is this. It's a rejection of syncretism. Syncretism is always pressing on the people of God in every century.

It did them, it does us, it will our grandchildren. Syncretism is mixing. Syncretism is worshipping God and worshipping other gods. And Don't think if you don't have a Buddha on your mantle, you're not a syncretist. There are many ways to mix that have nothing to do with idol worship as we think of it.

We worship many idols that don't have a figure. The first thing at work is a rejection of syncretism. Remember back to Ezra chapter 4. In Ezra chapter 4, they are right about to rebuild the temple. And they get an offer of help.

And people come to them, and as in chapter 4 verse 2, people come to them and say, let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do, and we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Aserodon, King of Assyria. We're just like you. We worship your God. Two, we've been sacrificing to Him for a long time now. No, no, no, no, you're not just like us.

You've been sacrificing to many gods, one of them, Jehovah. And so their reply is, you may do nothing with us to build a house for our God. That's another example in Ezra and Nehemiah where they make this separation and they draw the line and say, you can come over this line, but here's what's required. You're not over this line right now. You're worshipping God alongside the other gods, and Our God is a jealous God.

Our God doesn't play nicely with others. He doesn't allow us to have other gods before Him. With our God you must be in or out. All in or all out. So that's the first thing.

It's a rejection of mixing. It's a rejection of syncretism. The second thing though that we have to keep in view is The engrafting of those who forsake everything to become a part of Israel. That is a possibility. And nothing in our text today precludes that.

There isn't engrafting into the lineage of Israel. Those who will forsake everything to be part of Israel. So if you won't forsake everything, don't bother. That's syncretism and our God won't allow mixing. But if you'll forsake all of that, if you'll if you'll forsake your family, if you'll forsake your people, if you'll forsake your nation in order to come across the line, then you will be grafted in.

Remember In Ezra chapter 6, the temple is finally completed. They are celebrating the first Passover since the temple was completed. Here is what we read in Ezra chapter 6 verse 21. Then the children of Israel, who had returned from the captivity, ate together with all who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations of the land, in order to seek the Lord God of Israel. In Ezra chapter 6 verse 21, there is a Passover celebration.

And it is those who came back from captivity, but there is also another group that joins in. It is those who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations in order to seek God. They have forsaken everything to be grafted into Israel. How do we know this for sure? Because of Rahab, because of Ruth.

Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho. Ruth was a Moabitess. And yet they are both found in Matthew chapter 1 verse 5. So how do you know for sure that someone from outside can be grafted in to the lineage of Israel? Because of the lineage of Jesus Christ.

These pagan women were grafted in and given a place of honor in Jesus' family tree. Now, consistent with their overall posture, this fasting and sackcloth and dust on their heads, they begin to confess. They begin to confess two things, their own sins and the iniquities of their fathers. Listen to what Matthew Poole says about the confession of their own sins. Matthew Poole says, For their consciences, having been fully awakened by the law read to them, and their hearts being full of grief for their great sins which they were not allowed to express in that time of public joy and triumph.

Now when that was past, they resumed their former thoughts and passions, and recalling their sins to mind, set apart a day for solemn fasting and humiliation." I think Matthew Poole has well summarized the whole chapter and the whole seventh month. It started with the Law being read to them, and it's so clear when you read that, that their consciences were fully awakened to their sins. Before that day, their consciences weren't fully awake to their sin. They didn't feel their sin pressing on them. But when the Law is read, it's pressing on them.

But then, they have no relief valve. There's no relief. Nehemiah and Ezra and The Levites won't let them weep and mourn over their sin because it's to be a day of rejoicing. So now it's time. Now it's the 24th.

The sentiment hasn't evaporated. The sentiment is still there. Now they're at liberty to set apart a day for solemn fasting and humiliation. And they do that. They're confessing their sin.

They felt their own personal sin, and they confessed it. They wanted free. And they confessed the iniquity of their fathers. Why the iniquity of their fathers? If the Bible makes one thing clear, It's that you're not guilty of your father's sins.

He did them. You didn't commit them. So why? Think of Genesis chapter 12. In Genesis chapter 12, God comes to Abram.

I believe he is still Abram in chapter 12. He makes promises to him. Here is Genesis chapter 12 verse 3. In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Abram, I'm going to give you a lineage and I'm going to bless all the families of the earth.

And that's a promise by the way that is repeated. I believe it occurs three times in Genesis. All the families of the earth are going to be blessed through you. I'm setting you aside as an object of my love and your posterity and as an object of my mercy and I'm going to give you all sorts of privileges. I'm passing over all the other families of the earth, and giving your family privileges that no one else will be given, and you're going to be a blessing to all the families of the earth.

So Abram becomes Abraham, and his family is supposed to be a holy people for the purpose of being a blessing to all the families of the earth. And the truth of the matter is they haven't lived up to their privileges. God has given them privileges. Not because they were smarter, faster, stronger than anybody, but because he desired to make them an object of his mercy. So he pours out these privileges on them.

And now they're seeing themselves as the law is read, as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy is read on the first day of the month and through the feast of tabernacles day by day. And they're seeing God has done everything He said He would do. And we've on so many points we've not been the blessing. We've been given privileges, we've not lived up to that privilege. We've not walked worthy of our calling.

To put it in New Testament language, We've not walked worthy of our calling. Our fathers haven't and we're following right in their footsteps. By the way, this is a pattern. Not only isolating and confessing our individual sins, but confessing the sins of our fathers is a pattern. We saw this in Ezra chapter 9 when Ezra prays, he confesses his sins and his father's sins.

We saw that we've seen this in Nehemiah chapter 1, When Nehemiah prays in chapter 1, he is confessing his sins and the sins of his fathers. Godly men see themselves connected. Godly men and women understand the connections. So there's corporate sin, but they're also looking upstream to their fathers and they're saying, we stand in this stream. We didn't pop out of nowhere.

God's been faithful to a hundred generations. We're the recipients of the privileges. We're connected to this. Our view is so narrow. We should be helped by Nehemiah chapter 9 and expand our view.

Not just my sin, but our sin. Not just the sins of our generation, but the sins of those who have gone before us. We are connected. We are one people. Now we're given the breakdown of how the time was allocated.

So one fourth of the day, they stood for the reading of the book of the law. This is three hours. Day here, I believe, and the commentators are unanimous in this. At least the ones I read. Commentators are never unanimous.

The ones I read are unanimous in this. That day here is being used as day versus night. You have 12 hours of sunlight and this is a fourth of it, so three hours. So for three hours they stand in reverence for the Word of God and it is read to them. Now let's recap the seventh month.

First day of the month they gather at sunup. The law is beginning to be read and it goes through midday. So That's probably six hours of reading the book of the law. Then on the second day of the month, heads of families gather together with the Levites and the priests. They all gather to Ezra for additional instruction.

Then the people come together for the Feast of Tabernacles, eight days, and it says that Ezra, I would assume Ezra is the he there, that Ezra reads to them day by day from the book of the law. And now two days later, there's another three hours. Just back to the people having an insatiable appetite. They are not satisfied. They want more of the Word of God.

These are people of the Book. There are some great examples we get from Ezra and Nehemiah. Here's one of them. These people have such an appetite for the Word of God. They are people of the Book.

They want to hear it and they want to obey it. Then a fourth of the day, another three hours is spent confessing and worshipping the Lord their God. The rest of the chapter is going to give us some of the contents of these three hours. Notice something really important. Their confession of sin results in worship.

That's the sequence. Reading the book, Confession of sin, worship. The result is not self-pity. The result is not wallowing. It's worship.

The confession of sin turns their eyes to the mercy of God and so they worship. They know that God is holy. How many hours of Scripture reading does this represent from the first of the month until now? I don't know. A lot of hours.

And they are seeing God as He is. And they know they fall short of that. That the righteous standard has been lifted up. They're nothing like that. So they're confessing their sin, but it's turning their eyes towards the mercy of God.

They're understanding that God hasn't consumed them. In fact, He's graciously brought them back from captivity. They have the signs of His favor all around them, literally, in the wall. They needed to know whether God was for them or against them, they could look at 52 days of incredibly miraculous productivity and know that God favors them. They know that God has been merciful to them.

So they don't wallow around in self-pity, they worship. In 2 Corinthians chapter 7, Paul talks about two kinds of sorrow. 2 Corinthians 7. There's godly sorrow and there's worldly sorrow. Paul says that godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation.

Godly sorrow produces something. It produces a turning, a confessing and a turning from sin. And that leads to salvation. But Paul says there is another kind of sorrow, there is a worldly kind of sorrow that produces death. And Then Paul goes on in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 to develop this further, talking further about godly sorrow.

And he says it produces diligence. It produces fear. It produces vehement desire. It produces zeal. How much better is that than a pity party?

Godly sorrow produces things, wonderful things. It will give you vehement desire. It will give you fear. It will give you zeal. It will give you all the things that we lack and wish we had.

Godly sorrow brings that. People are experiencing this in Nehemiah chapter 9. They are being given a gift. They are being given godly sorrow that produces all the things that we lack but we need. For Christians, conviction of sin is a gift.

It sends us running to Christ. It makes us trust Christ, which makes us worship, which makes us change. This is what it means to be a real Christian. Conviction of sin, it's not a curse, it's a blessing. Because it sends us running to Christ.

And then we worship because we receive help in time of need. It changes us. We're different as a result of God bringing the weight of conviction. That's why Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn. You're not cursed if this is given to you.

It's a gift. You're blessed. Now verses 4 and 5, the role of the Levites. I'm not reading the names. I think Tim got them all right, or at least I'm not going to contradict him.

The role of the Levites. We're given in these last verses two sets of eight names each. And five of the eight from the first set reappear in the second set. So there's probably an overlap of five names. You can't tell for sure, because some of these names are very repetitive, very familiar, very often used names.

It would be like if I called Samuel in this room. There would be a couple of kids that would come forward. So it's hard to tell whether it's an overlap or just two people with the same name. It doesn't really matter. There are two sets of eight names.

It appears that there's a high degree of overlap. The first set is on the stairs of the Levites. The Hebrew behind stairs just means an ascent, something that goes up. So that's why they render it stairs, but it can also mean an elevated place. That's probably what it means.

The Levites are elevated for the purpose of the things that are going to unfold through the rest of the chapter. So they're on stairs or they're on an elevated place. And these eight Levites are crying out with a loud voice to the Lord. They are pleading with God on behalf of the people. They are standing as representatives of a repenting people, and they are Crying out with a loud voice to appeal to God.

Remember who the Levites are. They are a special tribe among a special people. And they are supposed to lead in righteousness. They don't even get a physical inheritance. Eleven other tribes, all of them get land.

Something very physical is given to them. The Levites don't get that. God is their inheritance. Their inheritance is God. And their job is to lead the people in righteousness, to study the Word of God and to teach the Word of God and to help in the prescribed worship of God.

So here they are standing as representatives of a repenting people and crying out with loud voices to the Lord their God. The second set of eight lead a time of corporate recounting of God's mercy and faithfulness and the people's persistent rebellion. So that's what we're going to get in the whole rest of the chapter. The two great themes are, God is faithful and God is merciful. That's what you're going to learn about God through the rest of the chapter.

And you're not. He is and you're not. Those are the two great things. God is faithful. God is full of mercy.

Even when you're unfaithful. Even when you persist in rebellion. It's so good to look back and acknowledge where you've been. There's such value. Because when you look back, if you've been in the faith for a while, you just see the fingerprints of God's faithfulness all over the different turns of your life.

I wasn't very faithful there, but man was God faithful. This is what a review of our history gives to us. Two applications. Very simple, very straightforward from the text. The first is a challenge.

You don't have to, but I think you'll benefit from it if you do it. I plan to do it. Take an hour and do in miniature what we see the people doing for a whole day. They did it for a day, I'm saying take an hour. And I want to prescribe it.

Read Isaiah 6, read Matthew 5, and then confess and worship. That's in miniature what they did. Read Isaiah 6, read Matthew 5. Isaiah 6 is Isaiah a holy man being undone in the presence of God. Because he realizes he's not really a holy man.

He's an unholy man. God is a holy God, so He is undone. He falls on His face before God. Then God cleanses His lips. He cleanses Him.

That's Isaiah 6. Matthew 5 is Jesus giving commentary on the law. Our tendency is to shrink the law into something that's manageable. But what Jesus does is he just expands it out to where it always has been, and he applies it spiritually. So he takes murder, and he takes you and your pride because you've never stabbed somebody to death.

And he says, oh yeah, how about hatred? How about speaking evil? And he takes adultery, and he takes you and your pride because you've never physically actually done that act." And he says, have you ever lusted? So this is an expanding of the law to the way God sees it. Not the contracted thing that man does with it, but how God sees it.

So read those two. It will lay you low before God and then confess and then worship God for His mercy. Take an hour. Number two. Embrace what Jesus says in Matthew 5, 3 and 4.

This is the Beatitudes, this is the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Listen to it. Matthew chapter 5, verses 3 and 4, we should embrace this. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

Do you realize what a blessing and a gift a sensitive conscience is? To have a sense that you're poor in spirit, to not be feeling rich all the time, and in need of nothing, to put it in terms of Revelation and the letter to the church I don't remember. I think it's Revelation chapter 2 a Letter is written to people who think they're rich and are knee in need of nothing, but really they're poor and they're blind and they're naked. Do you realize what a gift it is to be poor in spirit? Feel the weight of sin.

We shouldn't be running away from that. We should be running towards that. Jesus says, Blessed are those who mourn, they shall be comforted. We shouldn't be trying to get out from under that. We should be embracing that.

Because It ends in worship. For non-Christians, it ends in suicide if you take it all the way to the very end. It ends in death. Paul says that so clearly. And it literally will drive People who don't have mercy, haven't received the mercy of God, it will drive them to the very end point of that is suicide.

But for Christians, it makes You know how gracious God has been through Christ. And it leads you to worship. Embrace it. Don't run away from being poor in spirit. That's not...you don't leave that behind at the point of salvation.

I was that for a little while and now I'm cheerful all the time. Never have a sense of my sin. We shouldn't even desire that. Let's pray. God, I thank you for your word.

I thank you for conviction of sin. What a blessing and a gift it is. And I pray that you would have us running towards it, not to wallow in it, not to pity ourselves, but so that we would know how great your mercy has been to us in Jesus Christ and we would worship you. And that we would be changed. Pray now for heads of households as they come to round out the teaching that you would bless them with thoughts that would help us.

In Jesus' name, Amen.