Nehemiah and Ezra, and Nehemiah
is written by the same person, and they just continue what Nehemiah
just continues what Ezra was talking about. And Ezra, he came
to rebuild the temple and the altar in Jerusalem. Remember,
the first thing he did when he got there was to rebuild the
altar and offer sacrifices, and then they laid the foundation
of the temple. and never got to finish it for
years and years and years. And you remember how some rejoiced
and then others wept because it wasn't anything like it was
before. And Nehemiah picks up about working
in Jerusalem and rebuilding the walls and the gates in Jerusalem. But these two books go together.
And before we get into it, let's put our hearts together and pray. Our Father, O gracious God in
heaven, Lord, when you start a work,
you finish it. If you are for someone, no one
can be against them. And we bless you for that. For
your great faithfulness to your promises, to your covenant, to
your blessed Son, and all the promises you gave us in Him,
how faithful you are. How richly You have blessed Your
dear saints here on this earth. Father, with all the things that
You've given us, of all You've given us, You've given us Your
Son. You give us Christ. You gave Him to be our light,
our life, our hope, our stay, our shield, our strength, our
shield, our buckler, our helmet. You gave Him to be everything
to us. all that we need to find acceptance with You. And Father,
we pray that You would be pleased to meet with us tonight in the
power of the Holy Ghost, that You would quicken my mind and
heart, my speech, that I might be able to speak the things that
ought to be said tonight, and that You would anoint the ears
that they might be able to hear and the heart understand. And
Father, we pray for those that we mention tonight, for Kathy
and her father, Her family, Lord, they're no doubt very weak in
body, very tired. And Lord, we pray that You would
strengthen them and help them. We pray for Janet and her mother
and the family there, that You would give them strength to take
care of her mother. And Lord Jesus, have
mercy on our children, our grandchildren. Without God, without Christ,
and without hope in this world. Have mercy, we pray. Amen. Amen. What happens is, here in verse
9, and I think it is in verse 6 and verse 16, is the culmination
of everything that happened here, where the walls were finished.
But what Nehemiah does is he describes the rebuilding of the
walls in Jerusalem. Nehemiah 6.16. And he describes the rebuilding
of the walls. And Ezra and Nehemiah are together
in this book. Ezra stayed in Jerusalem. Nehemiah
came to Jerusalem twelve years after Ezra came down the first
time. But the theme of both of these
books is God's worship being restored, the worship of the
true and living God being restored, and God's people being revived
and restored. And wherever you find God's people
being restored, you'll find true worship restored. And when God
revives His people, that's true worship, and the first true worship
is because God revives His people. Now, we know what it is to have
false worship. And we want to have true worship.
We want to have the true worship of God. We want our hearts revived.
And where God stirs up His people's hearts, there will always, always
be a true worship of God. And when the heart starts declining,
And there's a declension in the true worship of God. It's because
the heart's declining. There's a declension in the heart.
They go hand in hand. If God stirs up your heart, you're
going to worship truly. And if He leaves your heart cold
and not save you by His grace, you'll worship falsely. And that's
what David, when he prayed in Psalm 51, his prayer of repentance,
he said this, Oh, do good. Do good and thy good pleasure
unto Zion. Zion represents the church. Build
thou the walls of Jerusalem, then shalt thou be pleased."
If you build the walls of Jerusalem, if you do good in your good pleasure
and desire, then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of
righteousness, with burnt offerings and old burnt offerings, then
shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. Now, beloved, when
we talk about the temple and when the temple was being rebuilt,
this is the place where worship and sacrifice was offered. This
is the place where they had the altar, and, beloved, they offered
a burnt offering and a peace offering before anybody ever
went in further to go to worship God. And God was always worshipped
by sacrifice. But when you think about the
worship and the sacrifice being in the temple, our Lord Jesus
Christ, He represents all the work of God. He's the temple
of God. He's the tabernacle of God among men. And the salvation
is by His sacrifice. And the only place we can worship
God is in our Lord Jesus Christ. And the only priest that makes
intercession for us now is our Lord Jesus Christ. And the walls
of Jerusalem, when he talks about the walls being built around
Jerusalem, and Nehemiah restored those walls, this shows us two
things. It shows us the security of God's
people. God's got a wall around us. And
secondly, that that wall separates God's people from the rest of
the world. Now, I want you to look with
me in Isaiah 26, verse 1. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. Isaiah 26, verse 1, about a wall.
Nehemiah came to restore the walls, rebuild the walls around
Jerusalem, the city of God. And look what it says here. You
know, and it also, remember I told you, and I, in Psalm, I think
it's Psalm 48, he said, you know, walking around Zion, look at
her bulwarks. See where there's a weakness.
See if you can find any faults. And a bulwark is that same thing
as a wall. Who's going to tear it down?
Who could come against it? Now, look what he says here in
verse 1 of Isaiah 26. In that day, Shall this song be sung in the
land of Judah? We have a strong city. Salvation
will God appoint for walls and bones. God will put walls and
walruses around His people, and that's called just salvation,
because no one can ever save us from it. And it's also that
wall, this wall that God puts around us, separates us, God's
people, from the rest of the world. Just like God made the
distinction between Egypt and Israel. God made that distinction. We don't make the distinction.
God makes the distinction. Who makes you look different?
Who, what have you got that you didn't receive? And just as he
made a difference in Egypt and Israel, he says, you know, there'll
come a time that a dog won't move his tongue against Israel.
Not against man or beast. And the reason being that God
made that distinction. And that's the way God makes
a distinction in His people. And He did there in Jerusalem.
These walls were torn out. God said, I'm going to build
them back. And all the walls that are around us and build
up around us, God says they're our salvation. They're our salvation. And I tell you, the only thing
that distinguishes us from anybody else in this world is the free,
sovereign, saving grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. God
alone makes the difference between us and the world, between Israel
and Egypt. God's the only one who does that.
And you go through this book, and we'll get here in a minute,
four times, four times, those who conspired against Ezra, Nehemiah,
and Judah, they sent word to Nehemiah, trying to get him to
suspend the work of building the walls of Jerusalem. They
pretended to want to work out a plan that they could deny to
help him to work. And four times, and Isaiah 6,
aren't we? Nehemiah 6, not Isaiah, Nehemiah
6, I'm sorry. Got Isaiah on the brain. But
four times, Nehemiah answered. Look what he said here in verse
2 of chapter 6. This and bond. Well, look at
verse 1. There's four people against him
here. Oh, they just despise these Jews. Don't want this place rebuilt.
Now, it came to pass when Zimbabwe and Tobiah, Jeshua and the rest
of our enemies heard that I had built up the wall and that there
is no breeze left therein. And that's where we get down
here to verse 15 and 16. The wall has been built. There's no breeze left in there.
So then down to verse 15, So the wall was finished, and the
twenty and fifth day of the month, in fifty-two days, that's how
long it took them to build these walls all the way around Jerusalem.
And it came to pass, when all of our enemies heard thereof,
and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they
were much cast down in their own eyes, because they perceived
that this work was wrought of God." If there's going to be
a salvation built around us, it's going to be the work of
God. But these men despised this work, and they sent to Nehemiah,
and it says there in verse 2, I, Nehemiah 6, this, said, Bothered
in Jesus, sit unto me, saying, Come, let's meet together. And
some one of the villagers in the plain of Odo, but they sought
to do me mischief. And I sent messages unto them,
saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why
should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to
you? You know, you fellows ain't nothing. Why should I leave the
work of God, and come down, and have a conversation with you
all? You're trying to do me mischief." So they tried four different
times to do this. And that's why we're talking,
you know, we're called, all of us is called to do a work. We're
God's church. And God helped us to never let
anything, anything turn us aside from the worship, from the work,
the prayers, the things that God's called us to do, whatever
it may be in this world. Don't let nothing come between
us and our relationship with God, and our worship of God,
and our Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody comes and they say,
oh, come down and whatever. If it's going to hinder the work,
oh, don't let nothing happen. Nothing happen. And so that was
12 years went by between the time that Ezra came down and
that King Artaxerxes gave permission for Nehemiah to go up to Jerusalem.
Twelve years went by. Ezra had been down there, and
he had been laboring with the saints of God, and he was the
priest, he was the scribe, a ready scribe. And when you read the
books of Ezra and Nehemiah and Esther, we find the names of
Artaxerxes and Hazorus. But when they took him down there,
the king's name was Darius, Nebuchadnezzar, and Belshazzar. So these are
titles given unto these kings. And so let's go back over here
in chapter one, and we'll try to go through this book just
a little bit at a time and see if we can get through this thing
tonight and see how things happen here. Nehemiah, remember, he's
back down in Babylon before he comes up to rebuild the walls
and set up the gates in Jerusalem. He said here, the word of Nehemiah,
the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah, and it came to pass
in the month of Chislew in the twentieth year, I was in Shushan
the palace. Now, you'll find Esther when
we get over there. She's in Shushan the palace. And that Hananiah, one of my
brethren, came, and he and men of Judah, and I asked him concerning
the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and
I asked concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant
that are left of the captivity there in the province are in
great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is
broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And look
at what Nehemiah says. He gets so saddened. And it came
to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and
mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of
heaven. And I said, I beseech thee, Lord God of heaven, give
God all the glory. You're the great and terrible
God. You're the one that keeps covenant
and mercy for them that love Him and observe His commandments.
He turns to God and attributes God all power, all glory, all
authority to Him. And He said, He says here, let
now your ear be attentive. Let your eyes be open to hear
my prayer. that I'm praying day and night
for the children of Israel, your servants, and I'm going to confess
the sins of the children of Israel. I'm going to confess the sins
of the fathers that I and my fathers have sinned. We've dealt
very corruptly against you. We've not kept your commandments,
your judgments, your statutes that you commended Moses. And
then he says, Lord, remember, I beseech you, the word that
you commanded Moses to say, if you transgress, I'll scatter
you abroad among the nations. And he did. He did. He scattered them. Scattered
them abroad. And a lot of them still scattered
abroad. Only 50,000 came down here with
Ezra when they came down out of almost 3 million that went
up there. In fact, when we get to Esther, Esther and Mordecai,
they are Jews that stayed up there in Babylon. They didn't come down. And here
they come, and he says this, he says, he said, you scatter
them abroad. But he said, but you also said, if you turn and
keep my commandments, and do them, though you were cast out
unto the uttermost part of heaven, yet I'll gather you from there
and bring you to the place that I've chosen to set my name. And, oh, beloved, and he prayed
there, and then he said in the last verse, O Lord, I beseech
thee, Let now thine ear be attended to the prayer of thy servant,
to the prayer of thy servant, who desire to fear thy name and
prosper. I pray thee, thy servant, this
day, and grant him mercy, grant him mercy in the sight of this
man, for I was the king's cupbearer." You know what the cupbearer did?
He was supposed to taste everything before he ever gave it to the
king in case it was poison. And then he'd go up in front
of the king, hand him his cup, whatever it was that he wanted
to drink. And this is what Nehemiah did. Well, Nehemiah was saddened
by this. He's such a man of prayer. And
you go through this book, you find him praying over and over
and over again. And he constantly asked God's
direction and help in the work. And his heart was broken at the
sad news of the death of the city. And then look what happens
over here in chapter two. And old Nehemiah, he went up
into the presence of the king, and it says here in verse 10,
he took a wine up to the king, and I have not before been absent
in his presence. For the king said unto me, Why
is he counting his sand? Sin you not seek? This is nothing
else but sorrow of heart. This heathen king knew that this
man had sorrow of heart. His heart was sick over the condition
of Jerusalem, over the condition of God's people, over the condition
of the walls. Then I was very sore afraid and
said unto the king, Let the king live forever. Why should not
my countenance be sad when the city, the place of my father's
sepulcher, lies waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with
fire? And so the king sent him and said, ask what would you
want me to do for you? And he said down here in verse six,
the king said unto me, the queen also said unto him, for how long
shall thy journey be? And when will you return? So
it pleased the king to send me, and I sent him a time. Moreover,
I said unto the king, if it please the king, let letters be given
unto the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me
over till I come to Judah. And a letter unto Asaph, the
keeper of the king's fort, that he may give me timber to make
beams for the gates of the palace, for the house, and the wall of
the city. And the king granted me according to the good hand
of my God upon me." So God turned the hand of this king to send
Nehemiah down there, and so when he arrived, he found things in
a horrible condition. When he got there, what had he
done? He went around by himself at night. He went around Jerusalem
by himself and he walked, saw the gates, saw the walls, and
he just wept as he walked around. Because to him, that would be
just like us watching the church just dwindle away and dwindle
away and dwindle away. You know how many, some folks
are here now, they're not here tonight, but they, those pastors
back there, they attended a church in Florida for years and years
and years, it finally just dwindled away and dwindled away. And they
shut the doors, sold the property, wasn't enough people left to
keep it going. And that would break your heart. to see something
come down like this. And that's the way Nehemiah's
feeling here. This is the place where God dwells.
This is the place where God put His name. This is the place of
worship. This is the place where Christ, this is the place where
David reigned. This is the place where Hezekiah
reigned. This is the place where there
was worship and there was dancing in the streets. And this is the
place where that temple stood, that Solomon built, and people
come from all over the world to see the glory of it. and hear
the wisdom of Solomon, and now it's all just in ruins. And Nehemiah
just walks around and he's weeping and he's heartbroken. And oh,
you see Nehemiah's prayer. And oh, look over here, now with
me in chapter 3. These folks, he sought God to
be gracious and merciful unto those people, not because of
the desperateness of the people, but on the grounds of God's graciousness
and mercy. So Nehemiah was sent by the king
to do the work. And the king didn't think that
Nehemiah or just one man could do this work. And this work involved
everybody who feared God. And these people labored side
by side, one together. And then look what he said here
in verse 1 of chapter 3. Now watch this. Then Elisha,
the high priest, rose up with his brethren, the priests, and
they built him a sheep game. And next unto him, verse 2, build
up the men of Jericho, and next unto them, Zechariah. And you
go down through here, and every other verse, it says, and next
unto them, and next unto them. From the priest to the common
laboring man, from And all these different people, goldsmiths,
rulers, merchants, everybody that was anybody, they all got
together and they worked on that wall, side by side, next to next
to next to next. They just, no one man got up
there and tried to do it all. All these people got together.
And that's why Paul then says that we're laborers, together
with God. And I'll tell you, this is something that I'm a
firm, firm believer in. I don't believe in What do you call it? Clergy and
laity? Clergy and laity. They're lay people. They talk
about lay people. That's the people that don't
preach. I don't know where they got that.
Where do you get stuff like that? I don't have a clue. And then
they call the preacher the clergy. You know, you're a member of
the clergy. You know, you're different from the lay people,
you know. Now, I don't believe in that one hair's breadth. As
far as I'm concerned, we all have a service in the cause of
Christ. We're all servants of God. I just have a particular
calling, and I try to adhere to my calling. And I hope I'm
loved and respected for my labor's sake. But yet, beloved, we're
all servants in the house of God. We've got to labor together
in here. If you wasn't here, I would not have a ministry.
I would not have any reason to preach. If you didn't keep the
lights on, what would we do? If you all didn't pay for this,
work that we have done here, what would we do? If we have
a conference coming up, if we don't have enough money for the
conference, what would we do? So we're all involved in this
business. We're all involved in bringing people to hear the
gospel. We're all involved in prayer. We're all involved in
giving, all involved in worship, all involved in keeping this
thing going. And that's why, is there anybody
here in the vision who could do this without the other? Couldn't
do it. Couldn't do it. And, oh, beloved,
that's what we're talking about. There's all of us working together
for the glory of God. And all these men, and you go
down through here, and I love it when you go down through there
and have another verse next to them, and next to them. And it
named the people next to them, next to them. There's all just
right next together, working together. And then over here
in chapter 4. Here's the enemies. God's people
always has enemies. And these are the descendants
of Samaria. And I'll tell you, the Samaritans,
they were the half-breeds, and they were from that king that started the two
golden calves, Jeroboam. He started the two golden calves,
and that's where Samaria come from. And them half-breeds, and
they come up there and they start an idol worship, and they just
can't stand the true worship of God. And they can't stand
God's people. And whenever you find folks and
they're found out that they're false worshipers of God, and
you don't have to tell them, you just go ahead and worship
God the way you do it, they'll find out soon enough that their
God is false. Just by you being who you are.
But anyway, these may arrest the rabble, and they just constantly,
constantly, and constantly mocked these Jews. And look what he
said here in chapter four. And when it came to pass when
Sanballat heard that we'd builded the wall, he was wroth and took
great indignation and mocked the Jews. And he spake before
his brethren in the army of Samaria and said, What do these feeble
Jews, Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they
make an end of the day? Will they revive the stones out
of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? Now, Tobiah the Ammonite
was buying, and he said this, and even that which they build,
if a fox go up, he shall even break down the stone. Oh, they
made fun of their work. They made fun of the things that
they were doing. Had to be people like people
making fun of our message. And their mockery wouldn't stop.
They wouldn't stop. They just kept hindering the
people. In fact, they conspired to come and fight against Israel,
against Jerusalem. And look what happens down here
in verse 9. And this says in verse 8, And
they conspired all them together to come and fight against Jerusalem
and to hinder it. Now watch what happens here.
Nevertheless, now see, Nehemiah prepared for this. We made our
prayer unto God and set a watch against them, day and night,
because of them. Not only did he set a watch,
but you know what he did? He told everybody to get them
a walk-in safe today and get your guns. He gave them spears. He gave them swords. He gave
them everything. He said, now listen, while some
of your worship, you stand there with your guns ready. If you
don't come over that wall, you go to Blaston. That's what he's
saying here. Look what he says down here, I think it's in verse
18. For the builders, every one had
his sword girded by his side, and so built it. And he that
sounded the trumpet was by me. And I said unto the nobles, and
to the rulers, and the rest of the people, the work is great
and large. And we are separated on the wall,
one from another. In what place thereof ye hear
the sound of the trumpet? Resort ye therein, and our God
shall fight for us." So, I mean, they had their swords girded
on them. I mean, these fellows were ready
to fight if these guys come and want to attack them. And so they come again and try
to get Nehemiah to go and talk to them and that. And they even
come down here in chapter 6, and they're going to try their
best. going to come and slay Nehemiah. And it says here in
verse 10 of chapter 6, after they had tried to get him to
come out, they said, if we can get him out of there, we can
slay him. That's what they intended to do. Tried it four different
times. And here in verse 10, And afterward I came unto the
house of Shimei, the son of Deliah, the son of who was shut up. And he said, Let us meet together
in the house of God within the temple, and let us shut the doors
of the temple, for they will come to slay thee. Yea, and tonight
they will come to slay thee. Now, boy, boy, that fellow is
going to come in here to kill you. What are you going to do?
He said, Come in the temple and let's shut the door. They won't be
able to get you. What did Nehemiah say? And I said, Should such
a man as I flee? Who is there that, being as I
am, should go into the temple to save his life? I will not
go in. I'm not going to do it. I'm not
going to do it. And so the wall was finished
in 52 days. 52 days. And I know this. No matter who opposes the gospel
that we preach, whatever they do to try to hinder, discourage
us, we only have one thing to remember. The battle's not ours,
it's the Lord's. The battle's not ours, it's the
Lord's. God will not let us, but will not let his people be
defeated, and he just won't do it. And then over here in chapter
7, we see about the priesthood. And Christ our priest. They go
down through here and they start giving the genealogy, that came
first from Babylon. And it says down here in verse
64 and 65, talking about the priest, they
came and sought their register. These men and women who claimed
to be priests, the sons of Aaron, they sought their register among
those that were reckoned by genealogy, but it was not found. We couldn't
find them. Therefore were they, as polluted,
put from the priesthood. couldn't find them. And then
the pashatah, that's the governor, said unto them that they should
not eat of the most holy thing until there stood up a priest
with Urim and Thummim. Now what this means is that you're
all unsanctified, you're all unholy, you can't eat of anything
holy, you can't do more work in the priesthood until there's
a priest that stands up. And he has the Urim and the Thummim,
and the Urim and the Thummim If I understand it right, that's
the light and the Word, that you've got the light and the
Word. And this Urim and Thummim is the priest had that, and he
would use those things to seek God with. And beloved, the only
priest that has the Urim and Thummim is our Lord Jesus Christ.
He's got the light and he's got the Word. And he's already, he
gives us, he's the only one that allows us into the interest of
God. He's the only one by whom we can eat the holy things. There's
no other person authorizes his blood, his righteousness, that
makes us worthy to draw near to God. These fellows was polluted
until a priest arose. We're polluted until a priest
arose. Now we come to our high priest,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one that makes
us worthy. It's His name we confess in baptism. It's through His
name and His righteousness that we receive the Lord's table and
have the name of the sons of God. And then, oh, here's something
special. Here's something really wonderful.
I love this here in chapter 8. Look at the play. Christ our
priest, working together, praying, burdened for the cause and work
of Christ, the work of the of the walls and the sad shape of
the people of God. And look at the place that they
give preaching here. Now, Ezra comes and he's an old
man now. And boy, when this work started
happening, these people started getting the revival and they
started having a hunger for God's Word. And it says in verse 1,
And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the
street before the water gate, and they spake unto Ezra the
scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord
had commanded to Israel. Bring the book! Bring it out! They're standing out in the street.
They're hungry. They want revival. They've been stirred up. They
want to find out what God's got to say. And Ezra the priest brought
the law. And look down in verse 4. And
all those men and women stood there, and as the scribes stood
upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose,
and then it told who all stood beside. He had a pulpit of wood,
he stood up above the people. And all those folks gathered
around him. They said, bring out the law, bring out the book
of Moses, bring it to us. And he began to preach. Here's
a man who came in here to set things in order, and here's a
man of prayer. Now we see him expounding the
Word of God. Look what it said in verse 8. So they read in the book, now
listen to it, the law of God distinctly, distinctly. They didn't use generalities.
They didn't talk in ambiguous terms. And not only did they
speak the law of God distinctly, and they gave the sense of it.
They said what it actually meant. They told the understanding of
it, and caused them to understand the reading of it. And that's
what you're supposed to do when the book's open. Read the law
distinctly. Give the understanding of it.
And cause the people to understand. And that's what he did. He stood
up there. And they stood there for hours and hours and hours. And when he read, they stood
up. And the preaching stirred up the people, and look what
it says there in verse 9, and when Nehemiah, which is the Tushatha,
the governor, and Ezra, the priest, the scribe, the Levites, that
taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy
unto the Lord your God. Mourn not and weep, for all the
people wept when they heard the words of the Lord. Why don't
they weep over it? They saw their sin, they saw their weakness,
they saw their inability, they saw their distance from God. But then they said to him, Go
your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, send portions unto
them for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy unto the
Lord your God. Don't be sorry, for the joy of
the Lord is your strength. Hold your peace, for the day
is holy. Don't be grieved. Be rejoicing in the Lord, that's
your strength. That's your strength, the joy
of the Lord. And beloved, great peace that they which love thy
Lord. And the children of Israel here, they entered into a covenant
that they were going to not marry any more heathen women, and men
marry the women, and the women marry the men, the children of
Israel, and they're going to keep the Sabbath and maintain
the worship of God. But in chapter 13, I mean, it
didn't happen no time, and down they went. It didn't take them
any time at all. They went right back. After all
of this worship, after all of this reformation, after all of
this revival, after all of the wall building, after the altar
being restored, what happens? What happens? Well, the first
thing that happens is that they quit reading the book of Moses.
And the second thing, that high priest, That was at that time.
He took that Tobiah, one of the enemies, and took him into the
temple and let him live in the temple. Now, look down in verse
7. But in verse 6, now here's Nehemiah
speaking. And all this time was I not at
Jerusalem, for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes,
king of Babylon, came I unto the king, and after certain days
I obtained leave of the king. He had been gone twelve years.
And he came back at the end of 12 years. And I came to Jerusalem. I came to Jerusalem and understood
of the evil that Elisha did for Tobiah in preparing him a chamber
in the courts of the house of God. And it grieved me sore.
Therefore, I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out
of the chamber. You say, but boy, he's the governor.
He's a holy man. You don't do things like that.
Well, our Lord ran all the money changers and those that sold
and bought, and that's the way he was. He was so angry, he went
in there and started throwing his clothes out. You ain't stand
here, you filthy, you're an ungodly Samaritan and you ain't got no
faith. And the priest let him in there. He was one of them
that mocked him and said, if a fox comes up on this place,
it'll break the wall down. And oh, and may I commend them
that they cleaned the chambers. And these folks just got worse
and worse and worse and worse. And down in verse 21, it says
this, Then I testified against them.
See, they started coming, doing just like they did on our Lord's
Day. And they always did this. They'd come, they'd pursuit the
Sabbath, and they made that a day, a market day. Everybody bring
all their goods inside Jerusalem. They'd bring their fish, they'd
bring their works, they'd bring their food, they'd bring their
cattle, they'd bring their sheep, and they'd bring them in there
on the Sabbath day and show them. Well, Nehemiah got there, and
he shut the gates. He said, You're not going to
do that anymore. They sat outside there with all their goods for
a couple of days, and then they went to the house. And then he
said in verse 21, Then I testified against them. And said of them,
why lodge you against the wall? Now listen to this, if you do
so again, I'll lay hands on you. I'll lay hands on you. From that
time forth, they came to more on the Sabbath. And so you see, that's what happened. They just went back, I mean in
the space, Nehemiah left and was gone for twelve years. And
these folks reserved that back. That back. And beloved, that's
the way, that's the way this flesh is. If it wasn't for the
grace of God upholding us, strengthening us, leading us, guiding us, if
it wasn't for the scriptures, if it wasn't for the gospel and
the grace of God, how long would you and I last? What sin would
we not commit? And what sin would we not justify
ourselves in as if it wasn't for the grace of God teaching
us and keeping us? Time. And remember that the next
time if you ever see a brother or sister fall, or say or do
something they shouldn't do, just remember, the only difference
is the grace of God. And don't be hard, don't be cross,
don't be critical, because I tell you, the righteous fall is seven
times, but the Lord picketh you up. Thank you very much.