Being confronted with the reality of our sin makes us uncomfortable.

How we respond to that kind of confrontation shows what's in our hearts. Today on

Truth For Life, we'll learn how the Israelites responded when God's law was

read after the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt and their own sin was exposed.

Alistair Begg is continuing our study in Nehemiah.

I invite you to take your Bibles and we'll turn again to Nehemiah chapter 9.

The events of Nehemiah 8 and 9 take place in the space of one month that is clear from

a careful reading of the text. At the beginning of chapter 8 we have the description of the gathering

of this large congregation. We're told at the beginning of chapter 8 who was present

in the congregation, it was made up, verse 2 tells us, of men and women and all who were

able to understand. We discovered that if God's people are going to benefit from such gatherings

to hear the word of God proclaimed, then they need to gather expectantly, secondly that

we would listen attentively and this attentive listening is such that given that things

are to be done decently in order, anything which hinders attentive listening should

be addressed graciously, imaginatively, properly and so on. And then that the people would

respond properly to the word of God and in responding properly that they would leave

joyfully. In the 13th verse of the 8th chapter we found along with them that there had been

a feast that they were missing, they had been neglecting the feast. This was the second

day of the month, the feast was due to begin on the 15th so they had about a fortnight

to get organized for it, they used their time well and they engaged in the feast. And central

to all that is taking place in chapter 8 and then in chapter 9 is the reading of the law

of God, the proclaiming of the word of God. Those of us who are the consummate clock watchers

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