Bad News

 

Pastor Jamie has been preaching through the book of Nehemiah for the past few Wednesday evenings.  Nehemiah led an exodus of Jews back to Jerusalem who had been taken into captivity in Babylon 70 years earlier.  They were met by other Jews who had hidden from the Babylonians and were still there in the area.  Both groups were motivated by Nehemiah and Ezra to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and reestablish the worship of the Lord at the Temple.  While cleaning out rubbish in one of the rooms of the Temple, workers found a copy of the Book of the Law and brought it to Ezra.  Nehemiah and Ezra summoned the people, and on an appointed day, from morning to midday, Ezra read to the people from the Book of the Law and explained what it meant.  The people were shocked, embarrassed, and repentant.  They began to weep and wail in bitter anguish over their sins.  But Nehemiah stopped them cold.  Nehemiah 8:9, “And Nehemiah … 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.”  They had to hear the bad news before they could hear the good news.  Hey, that’s exactly how we are!  We must hear that we are terrible sinners before we can do anything about our sin.  We must hear the bad news before we can repent.  I have a tract that says exactly that: First, the Bad News; then the Good News.  Hey, trust Jesus Christ today before it’s eternally too late.  You’ll be eternally glad that you did.