Our Sins Are Great. The Love Of God Is Even Greater.

Nehemiah 8:1-9:5

What happens when God’s people ‘gather together’(8:1)? - (a) We hear the Word of the Lord (8:2-3,8). We come to the Lord’s House, seeking a fresh understanding of His Word. We look to the Lord, speaking through His Word, to fill us ‘with great joy’(8:12). (b) We thank God for His Son, our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ(8:13-18). In ‘the feast of the seventh month’, ‘the Lord’s Feast of Tabernacles’, God’s people remembered how much He had done for them (Leviticus 23:34,42). In the Lord’s Supper, we remember that Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). (c) We dedicate our lives to the Lord(9:2). ‘Do not be conformed to this world’. ‘Be transformed’ by God’s Word (Romans 12:2). (d) We worship the Lord(9:5). Let us ‘praise the Lord our God...’.

Nehemiah 9:6-38

At the heart of Ezra’s prayer, there is a tremendous description of God: ‘You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love’(17). This is ‘our God’. ‘Our sins’ are great. The love of God is even greater. We look at ‘our sins’, and we feel that everything is hopeless. We look to ‘our God’, and everything changes. We see Him as the ‘gracious and merciful God’, and we are filled with hope. Our life need not be controlled by ‘our sins’. It can be changed by ‘our God’(31-32,37). Our God ‘delights in steadfast love’. He ‘will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea’(Micah 7:18-19). How do we know that God loves us? - ‘Christ died for our sins’. Bring your sins to Jesus, and let ‘His blood cleanse you from all sin’(1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 John 1:7).