Is line upon line, precept upon
precept, here a little in there a little, and it all complements
itself over and over continually. You can turn to one place and
you'll see the Lord delivering his people and saving them. You
can turn to another place and see the Lord delivering his people
and saving them. I'm so thankful for the Lord
being our place of refuge, being our hope in time of trouble,
being our. Our peace in the time of storm,
aren't you? We're in the book of Nehemiah
this morning, if you'd like to turn there. We'll be looking
at chapter six for our text. It's interesting, the book of
Nehemiah is around the same time or the exact same time and era
as Ezekiel, I'm sorry, Ezra. And we looked at Ezra last Sunday
as we've been going through all the books of the Bible one at
a time. We see that Nehemiah, just as
Ezra at the beginning of his book, was in captivity and he
was the king's cup bearer at that time. He begs God for mercy. That's how Nehemiah starts out.
The book starts out with Nehemiah begging God for mercy. He's wanting
to go and fortify, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. The walls
were tore down. Now, Ezra was tasked with building
the temple, as you remember from last week. or the week before,
I guess I should say Christmas was last week, so we didn't have
services, but week before, so bear with me. Ezra was tasked
with building the temple, wasn't he? And he asked the king and
the king gave him permission. The same king, at the same time,
gives Nehemiah permission to fortify the walls, to build them
back up. And so Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem
and begins to build the walls back up. We'll read this in a moment,
but I would want to tell you that the title of the message
is Wraught of Our God, Wraught of Our God. We see that in chapter
two, everything required the king gave unto Nehemiah by word
saying, go tell the men that have the woods, the trees, that
you were to have the wood that you need. Go tell the, any individual
and anything that he needed was supplied according to the word
of the king. He was given permission, if you will, to take whatever
he needed for the building of the wall, the same as Ezra was
whenever he built the temple. Everything required the king
gave. Now, Nehemiah announces unto his brethren, he announces
unto the Israelites the word of the king that he's been given
permission to build the wall. And he's been, obviously at that
point, he would say, who's gonna help me build the wall? Who among
you is gonna help? And so we see the men were willing,
the men were ready, and the men were able to help build this
wall. Nehemiah tells them and says,
let us rise up and build. And they strengthened their hands
for this good work. Now, brethren, the place that
we are worshiping in this morning is bricks and it's wood and it's
nails and it's electrical wires. But this is the place where we
worship the Lord. And have we not? Every time we've had the
opportunity, we've tried to fortify these walls that we have with
our hands, trying to build it up to make it not only presentable,
but more functional, to be more comfortable. This is what the
Lord's given us. And this is where he said he
would meet with us, wherever the Lord's people are. And so
you can imagine the task that Nehemiah is facing, the joy that
they would be feeling. We're gonna build the walls of
Jerusalem. We're gonna have a city again,
a place of refuge. And that's exactly what's taking
place. This is our city of refuge here
in this life. We know that Christ is our city
of refuge. Christ is our sanctuary. He is
our hiding place. But this is where he's promised
to meet us, isn't it? So we do have a physical aspect
of this, and we do have a spiritual aspect of this. Now, as soon
as they begin this work, they were men who were scoffers. The
non Israelites, those who were not chosen, laughed us to scorn,
the scripture says. And Nehemiah responds to their
scoffing. Nehemiah responds to their jesting. They're making fun of them. Whatever
they said, And Nehemiah says, the God of heaven, he will prosper
us. Now he says, therefore, we, his servants will arise and build.
I love the wording. Nehemiah says, he doesn't say
we're going to arise and build. And because we're doing our part,
God will do his part. Now he says, God will bless us
and then we'll build. See, the Lord has to be the first
act, the first one to act upon us in order for us to respond. And that's exactly, he laid it
on Nehemiah's heart, didn't he? From the very beginning to build
the wall. And he did. build the wall back. But he tells these
men that were scoffing, you have no portion, you have no right,
and you have no memorial in Jerusalem. No portion, no right, and no
memorial in Jerusalem. I would remind you that Jerusalem
is the place where worship was to take place. It's the location
of where the mercy seat was. And you remember in Exodus, that's
where the Lord said, here's where I'll meet with you. This is the
only place that you're able to worship me is the mercy seat.
We know that that's a picture of Christ, don't we? But this
Jerusalem is where God said, I will meet with my people. And
he tells these men, you have no portion in it. You have no
right and you have no memorial in Jerusalem. This place is a
type of Zion. David called it the city of God.
That's what David called it. We know that it's New Jerusalem
in Revelation 21. This is where the Lord's people meet to worship
him. He says, in this work, in this
city, in this worship, you have no portion, you have no right,
nor memorial. Why is that? Because it's God's,
isn't it? It's God's doing. The Lord is
the one that does the work. You and I certainly come here
by grace and grace alone, don't we? We come here because He's
put a desire in our heart to be here. Nobody twisted our arm
this morning. We're not obligated to be here because of financial
debt. If we don't show up, they'll lock us up in jail. The Lord
put it in our heart to be here this morning, didn't He? The
Lord's the first cause. This is all for God's glory.
It's by His purpose. It's by His design. It's by His
will. Only His people can worship,
and only His people do worship. In chapter three, we find who
built the walls and how many of them built it, and you don't
have to turn there, I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but we
get the names of the men. We have this man and his sons
are building this section of the wall, and we have this man
and his sons are building this section of the wall, and so on.
And so it was a joint effort, wasn't it? And it wasn't somebody
saying, well, I wanna build that part of the wall, or I wanna
build that part of the wall. Whatever part of the wall was in front
of them to build, they did it with all their heart. Why? Because
God put it in their heart to do so. You can imagine if there
was any contention among them inside where they were building,
on top of the scoffers, on top of the mockers, on top of those
who wanted to kill them, and we're gonna see that in just a second, they
tried to kill them for building this wall. You can imagine if
there was dissension or contention, the wall would not have gotten
built, would it? But amazingly and miraculously, the wall was
built in 52 days. The entire wall of Jerusalem
was built in 52 days. Isn't that amazing? Who's a godlike
unto our God? He gets all the glory for that,
doesn't he? None of those men were looking and saying, we did
a pretty good job. I don't believe that's the way
that it was. They were glorifying God. And it's evident in Nehemiah,
they worshiped God. They didn't pat themselves on
the back for what they had done. Are we patting ourselves on the
back for the church that the Lord's given us? Certainly not.
I come in to this building each time, and I'm like, Lord, I don't
know how we got here. Lord, keep us, please keep us. You kept
us this far. Goodness and mercy has followed
us. Lord, don't leave us to ourself. We've gathered here again to
this place of worship that you've given us. Is that your experience?
That's what these men were saying, wasn't it? Lord, you're the one
that did it, and you get all the glory for it. Chapter four is the construction,
and it says the people had a mind to work. The Lord's people are
hard workers, aren't they? The Lord's people work. We do.
We don't work for salvation. We rest in the finished work
of Christ. But when it comes physically, we know that our
curse is the sweat of our brow. We know we work. We must. We
must work according to what the Lord has given us. And the scripture
tells us whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do it all
to the glory of God. First Corinthians 10 31. Whatever our hands find
to do, do it with all your might. We work, don't we? We work unto
the Lord. May the Lord give us a heart
to do so. May the Lord remind us, you're not working for yourself.
You're working for the furtherance of the gospel. You're working
because I've give you the heart to work, the heart to give, the
heart to labor unto the Lord, not for salvation, but as a servant. Did you know there's there's
three types of servant? Three, just three types. You
have one that serves out of fear. They're called a slave, aren't
they? One that serves out of fear. Then you have one that's
paid to serve, and they're called a hireling. Then you have one
that serves as a son or as a daughter would serve. That's the one I
want to be, isn't it you? Don't you want to serve unto the Lord
gladly? Not because of any out of obligation, but we come before
his presence with singing. We come into his courts with
thanksgiving. We we come trying to do whatsoever it is we can
do that the Lord would enable us to do. That's the heart that
he gives his people, isn't it? We don't give begrudgingly. We
give unto the Lord with all of our mind. Well, when men begin
to hear about this great work going on and it just isn't any
gospel church, you will have. Men that scoff at us, men that
mock us, they'll call us names. I've already been called a cult
since we moved here. I thought that was interesting. But same
as in Nehemiah, an angry men came to fight against Jerusalem
to hinder the work. They literally said, let's hinder
God's work. That was their intention. That
was their motivation. That was what they desired to
do was to hinder. This is all men's response by nature to not
having a part in God's work. Men want to have a part in salvation. Men want to have something to
do. To be very clear, when I was saying we work, I'm not talking
about legalism here. I'm not talking about working
for righteousness here. I'm talking about working unto
the Lord gladly with the heart. Unto Him because of what He's
done for us. No other reason. No other reason. But men believe
that they should have a part in it. They want to work in order
to be recognized. They want it for the popularity,
perhaps, or for the power that it gives them. Men love the praise
of man more than the praise of God, don't they? That's what
the scripture tells us. These men were angry because they didn't
have part in building this wall. And they said, well, they made
fun of him and said, well, he can just slip a fox up there.
He'll tear down the walls. That's no problem. He was referring
to how sly it would be to destroy it and how little their work
seemed to be. Ain't you glad the Lord doesn't measure his
work by the size of it? Think about what I'm saying.
Some people may discredit Holy Grace Church, and that's perfectly
fine. Let them. We're not looking for a pat on the back or in competition
with anyone. We're not trying to prove anything
to anybody. We just want to worship God. That's all we're here for,
isn't it? That's the only reason we got
up this morning and came here is that we may see the Lord's
face. And yet our adversary is always at work trying to devise
trying to sneak in. And that's exactly what these
men did. They snuck into the city and they said, they won't
even notice us and we'll kill them. We'll kill them when they're
not looking. They hated the fact that they couldn't have part.
And that's exactly what men do by nature. So what was their response? What
was Nehemiah and all these men's response? These men and women
that were working, they were laboring. It was a joint effort.
It was all hands on deck. Every person was doing something.
There was nobody kicked back watching everybody else. Everybody
was doing their part. Anything that could be done.
That's the heart that the Lord gives his people. What was their
response? Well, let's quit then, because
we're scared. Nehemiah tells us that they were afraid, but
was that the response? Let's quit because we're afraid?
No. What was their response? They took a trowel in one hand
in a sword in the other all day long. They worked with one hand
and they protected themselves having a sword in the other hand.
That's the type and picture of the Lord's people, isn't it?
We're in this world, we're not working for salvation. We have
the sword of the spirit, but the only way that we can survive
this life is unto Christ and his finished work, nothing that
we have done. The only way that we can live in this life is because
of what he has done. Speaking to somebody on the phone
the other day, he said, I don't understand how people get through
life not knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul even said we'd be
of all men most miserable, and I don't understand either. Every
time we have trouble, we have the sin that does so easily beset
us, our unbelief. We have a place of refuge. We have a city. We have a wall
that's been built that we are sheltered in. Do we see that?
Other men don't have that. Other men don't have that, but
we have a real place to hide from the wrath of God, we have
a place to hide in this life, a city of refuge to run to in
the Lord Jesus Christ. They stayed so busy and didn't,
they didn't even take their clothes off until they washed them. They
would take them off long enough to wash them, put them right
back on. They slept with their boots on. Well, they probably didn't have
boots, they had sandals, but being in Pennsylvania, I wear boots
now a lot more. Now you wear flip-flops, you know what I mean?
They slept with their clothes and their shoes on. They were
prepared for if the trumpet was to sound and they had to get
up and fight, they would get up and fight. If it didn't, they
got up and worked, and they continued to work with a sword in one hand
and a trowel in the other. They were in one mind, one heart. Colossians talks about that,
having our hearts being knit together. That's what they had. That's what we want here, isn't
it? To have our hearts knit together unto the Lord. In chapter five, Nehemiah finds
out that some of the men and some of the women had been taking
mortgages out on their house. They were hungry, so they were
taking mortgages out on their land. And they were being charged
usury, which is the same thing as interest. So you had, under
the Levitical law, under the Mosaic law, that was illegal.
You were not supposed to charge interest to your brother, to
an Israelite. That's just what God said, don't do it. So Nehemiah
had to set forth the ordinance saying, no, you're gonna give
everything back to them and they get to keep whatever you've given
to them. He set forth, he cut down the wickedness. He cut down
the evil in the land. He's called it out and they changed
their ways. The scripture said, Lord gave them repentance. They
said, well, we were wrong. And they did exactly as Nehemiah
told them to do. About this time, Nehemiah has
made the governor over Judah. All the governors before Nehemiah,
they were taking tax of the people, were taking taxes of the people.
They were getting gain from the people's work. Nehemiah didn't
do so. All he took was just that which
was necessary to provide for himself and those who were at
his table. And the scripture says there's
150 at his table. But it's very detailed in what he took each
day and how often he took this or that. And he confesses at
the end of it, says, Lord, remember what I've done for your people.
Lord, I wasn't just taking and hoarding up to myself, but I
was doing this unto you. He wasn't patting himself on
the back. He was bringing it before the Lord, saying, Lord,
I didn't do this for my righteousness, but remember this, Lord, for
your people. And it says that while he was
the governor, he continued to work on the wall. Every person. Every man, every woman, every
child was doing. They were doing everything that
they possibly could to ensure the success of this wall, wasn't
it? Now in Chapter 6, and we're going to come back to this in
a minute, I'm going to read it, but. I'm giving you a summary. I guess
I probably should have prefaced it by saying, I'm gonna give
you a summary of Nehemiah. You know, you learn something every
time you stand. I've talked to Greg and Todd
and other men, and they tell me the same thing. I've learned
something every time I've stood. I totally understand that. Every
time I sit down, I don't think, well, I did a good job that time.
No, quite the contrary. I believe Lord makes his preachers
mercy beggars while they're preaching and after they're preaching and
while they're studying. So chapter six, we find the fear
of man has came to Nehemiah, the fear of man. And it was because
of adversity, because these men wanted to kill him. They wanted
to kill the people. And they devised cunning schemes, and
they tried to send letters of threatenings, and they tried
to send accusations to the king, and they tried to stop God's
work. Every way that they could, they
tried. But to no avail. The wall was still completed
in 52 days. The remaining chapters in Nehemiah
are setting forth rulers. You find genealogies that are
written. Nehemiah finds a genealogy and he reads it. In chapter 8,
it was the reading of the law of Ezra. In Nehemiah, you find
the reading of the law in Ezra, which is also recorded in Ezra
chapter 8. It's the same exact time. It's the same exact thing
happening whenever Ezra read the law. It goes on to appoint rulers
and they cast lots to see who would dwell in Jerusalem. Only
a 10th of the people could dwell in Jerusalem, a 10th. Not everyone
could, everyone else had to dwell in a different city. It continues
to declare the priests and establish the worship and the ridding of
sin throughout the entire nation. Same as Ezra declares, and at
the very end, they cleanse themselves of strangers, non-Jews and false
gods. It's exactly how Ezra ends. The
book of Nehemiah, brethren, gives us great insight to the physical
aspect of how they built the wall, but it also gives us some
spiritual insight. It's the believer's life on this
earth. We're born in captivity and at the word of the King,
the Lord Jesus Christ, we're born again. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the King that has to say the word. We have inevitable struggles
because we're dealing with the world. We're dealing with the
flesh and we're struggling with Satan. We're warfaring against
Satan and. The victory is only found in
Christ Jesus and his finished work by his blood alone. Now we can look at this book
and probably preach a message just on the believers life. But
I believe the Lord showed me the gospel in Nehemiah, and I
would like to declare that to you this morning. And it's found
Nehemiah chapter six, verse one through nine. Now, it came to pass when Sambalat
and Tobah and Geshem, the Arabian and the rest of our enemies had
heard that I builded the wall and that there was no breach
left therein. though at the time I had not
set up the doors upon the gates. Then Sanbalat and Jeshim sent
unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of
the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me
mischief. And I sent messengers 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?
And they sent unto me four times after this sort, and I answered
them after the same manner. Then sent Sambalat his servant
unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his
hand, wherein was written, it is reported among the heathen
and Geshmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel,
for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be
their king according to these words. Thou hast also appointed
prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, there is a
king in Judah, Now shall it be reported to the king according
to these words, come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.
And I sent unto him saying, there is no such things done as thou
sayest, that thou faintest them out of thine own heart. For they
all make us afraid saying, their hands shall be weakened from
the work that it be not done. Now therefore, oh God, strengthen
my hands. We see the picture of these men
giving false accusation to Nehemiah and the people of Jerusalem,
the same as our adversary gives false accusation unto the Father
of us. That's exactly what this is a
picture of. Satan hates God's work. Satan hates God's Gospel. He deceives all men by appearing
as though he's an angel of light. He's the most beautiful thing
you'll ever see in the flesh. The most beautiful thing. He
was the angel of light. He was in charge of the worship
of God. And he became jealous of God's
worship. And he said, I will ascend above
the most high. I will make my throne above the
most high. I will ascend to the heavens. I will be God. That's what Satan said. Because men love darkness rather
than light, they follow after that which is planted in their
heart from birth. And it is certainly the evil
that does so easily beset you and I. It is unbelief. Men will
not come to Christ that they may have life. They would choose
the works of unrighteousness and the pleasures of sin for
a season rather than fleeing to the city of refuge. Jesus
Christ. Men love darkness rather than light, and men try to make
light make their own light before the Lord, thinking that it's
gonna save them, but men's light, all that men's light is, is just
still darkness, isn't it? The very best that we are is
vanity. The very best state we are is
filthy rags, is our righteousness, right? And for this cause, God
shall send them strong delusions, he said in Thessalonians, that
they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who
believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Now understand why Satan hates
God's church so much is because God gets all the glory in salvation,
all the glory in sanctification, all the glory and redemption,
all the glory and glorification. He gets all the glory as God
and Satan hates that. Anything God has ever accomplished,
Satan has always tried to prevent it. He's tried to destroy it.
He's tried to thwart it. He's tried to get rid of it.
He's tried to disavow it. And he's tried to get the glory
for it. Anything that the Lord's ever accomplished, you notice
I didn't say try there. The Lord's never tried anything,
has he? Satan tries. Satan tries all the time. And
he is a frustrated devil because he cannot even, think about the
dogs that were in Egypt. When the children of Israel left
Egypt's bondage, it says a dog won't even bark at you. I'm not
gonna allow a dog to speak to you. See, God, the devil's God's
devil. And he cannot even speak against
an elect unless the Lord gives permission to do so. You imagine
how frustrating that is for him? I'm thankful, aren't you? Satan
is a liar. He's a thief. And what did Christ
say about the thief? He come not but for to steal
and to kill and to destroy. That's what his purpose is, is
for the Lord to get all the glory and salvation. Everything he
tries to do, the disannulment of this building of the wall,
he couldn't stop it, could he? Satan couldn't, even though he
planted in these men's heart and they fed off of their own
jealousy, they fed off their own frustration and he just keeps
on whispering to them. They couldn't stop it, could
they? No matter what they did, they couldn't stop it. 52 days, the walls were fortified. They finished the work and they
cast down the enemy. They finished the work and they
cast down an enemy. How did that happen? Or why did
it happen? Well, the answer is found in
chapter six in verse 15. The wall was finished in the
twenty and fifth day of the month, Elul, in fifty and two days. It came to pass that when our
enemies heard thereof and all the heathen that were about us
saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes,
for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God. That's our that's our title,
wrought. of our God. All the glory goes to God because
he is the one that did the work. He is the one that accomplished
the work. He is the one that finished the
work. He started it. First of all, he counseled with
himself. The scripture says in Acts chapter
2 verse 23 says Christ talking about Christ him being delivered
by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. You have
taken him with wicked hands of crucified and slain him the king
of glory. So we see that it was all by the determinate counsel
of God. So this hour I want us to see three things. Number one,
God cannot be prevented. God's purpose standeth sure.
Having this seal, the promise of God standeth sure. Having
this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. Aren't you glad
you have a sure thing to believe in? A sure thing, we have a surety
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our sure wall that hedges
us about. Number two, God cannot be threatened.
God cannot be hindered. God cannot be destroyed. God
cannot be thwarted. God cannot be tempted. And God
always gets the glory. Now this wall I want to examine
for a moment as the Lord's kingdom being built by the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord being the one that built
this wall for the Lord's glory. We know that it's all built by
the Lord, don't we? Salvation's of the Lord. We had
no part in salvation. And yet in time, the Lord calls
men by the foolishness of preaching. So you can hear this type of
talk and men would say, well, what's the point of even coming
to church? What's the point of doing this? What's the point
of doing that? That's one response to it. That's called antinomianism.
It's even called hyper-Calvinism. Men's like, whatever's going
to happen is going to happen. Well, the scriptures, it doesn't tell us
that, does it? I mean, yes, in a way, but that
doesn't excuse us. The scripture says, oh man, you're
inexcusable. The lot falls in the lap, but
the whole disposing is of the Lord. What is he saying? Take
the trowel and build the wall and the whole disposing thereof
is of the Lord. He gets all the glory for it. And we don't do it in
salvation, do we? But we certainly, we're gonna
have a work day here in a few, a couple weeks. We're gonna come
in here and put plastic over these windows because it gets
really cold in Pennsylvania. We're gonna do that under the
Lord, aren't we? It's not gonna get done unless
we do it. We're not foolish to sit here and say, well, if the
Lord wants that done, he'll do it. That's silly, isn't it? We don't think
that way. That's what men say though, isn't
it? We don't believe that. The Lord says, seek. Seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Seek, that's
an action, isn't it? Not for salvation, we seek by
because he said seek. Do we see that? It's a cause
and effect. We don't seek in order to be saved. We seek because
we are saved, because he saved us. And he calls us and then
we seek. He said, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For
everyone that asketh, receive it. To him that seeketh, find
it. To him that knocketh, it shall be opened. This is the call that
goes forth because he reveals himself in time. That's why we
do what we do unto him. From the very beginning, brethren,
from the very beginning, Satan tried to stop God's gospel. The moment that Christ Jesus
was born, his life was in danger because of a king named Herod.
It really wasn't in any danger, and you and I know that, but
to man's perspective, it says the king wanted to kill Jesus
Christ, didn't he? The king wanted to kill the Lord
Jesus Christ, the baby, because it was a threat to his glory,
to his popularity, to his power, to his money. It was a threat
to everything he was, that Christ would be the king. When he couldn't
find him, what did the king do? And you better believe Satan
had part to do with this. Now understand, when I say that,
we don't get to say the devil made me do it. It doesn't work
that way. We're not like other men that say those things. The
devil doesn't make us do anything. We're completely guilty for the
sin that we do. And yet, we do have our adversary
sitting there, whispering and trying to get us and trying to
cause us to stumble. Paul called them the fiery darts,
didn't he? The fiery darts of the wicked. So what did Herod
do? He killed every baby boy from
two years and under in the area. Why? Because Christ was a threat
to him. Just as this wall was a threat
to these heathen that surrounded the city. Satan tried from the
very beginning to thwart God's gospel. And he still is, did
you know that? He still is. What does the scripture
say when David was, he sinned with Bathsheba, what did Nathan
say? He said, you've given great occasion to our enemy to blaspheme
the name of the Lord. You've given great occasion.
That's what he said. Satan's still at work trying
to get you and I distracted from Christ, trying to get a claim
on people, thanks be to God, he can't touch the elect of God
unless the Lord says you may. Isn't that exactly what happened
with Job? It says that the sons of God appeared unto the Lord.
What does that mean? Well, if you're a believer, if
you're elect of God, every time you pray, your prayer is going
into the throne room of God. And whenever that happened, you
know who else was present? Satan. And he's called the accuser
of the brethren. And he's called the one that
says, You can't hear, he's accusing you and I of sin is what he's
doing. In the throne room of God, he's saying, well, he's
a sinner. You can't hear his prayer. And
the Lord says, I don't see a sinner. I see one that's perfectly righteous.
And he hears our prayer. No matter what he says, no matter
what Satan says, he cannot thwart what God's gospel has done in
bringing in his people. No matter how angry he gets,
no matter how frustrated he gets, The scripture says that the Lord's
given us the shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts
of the wicked. What does that mean? Look to Christ, look to
Christ. We're not really carrying around
a shield that you can see. This is a spiritual thing. He's
given us the only thing for combat we have is the word of God. And
the only defense that we have is the helmet of salvation that
he's given us, the breastplate of his righteousness, the feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace and the shield
of faith. The shield of faith and all of
those come from the Lord, don't they? All of those are bestowed.
The fullness of time came. Christ became a man by the determinate
counsel of God by the king, just as the king gave permission to
Nehemiah here to go build the wall, God. Caused his son to
be born according to his determinate counsel. By the word of the King
Christ, Jesus was born. Christ was born to fulfill the
covenant of grace. The covenant of grace for his
people from the foundation of the world. Christ was born to
build God's kingdom. He constantly told them, he says,
my kingdom's not of this world. If it were, you would believe
me. He said, but my kingdom's not this world, you can't see
it. I do my father's business. It's a spiritual kingdom, isn't
it? That's what Christ Jesus came through to build. It's the
city of God, it's New Jerusalem, it's salvation. And all the time
he's doing that, Satan is trying to kill him. How many times did
the Pharisees take up stones against the Lord? They wanted
to kill, literally said, and they tried to kill him. And they would
have pushed him off the cliff had he not passed through them.
Think about that. His time had not come. His time
had not come. Satan continually tried to kill
the Lord Jesus Christ just as these men were trying to stop
the wall from being built, trying to kill Nehemiah because it was
God's work and they got no glory in it. This is how they treated
the Lord. Pharisees tried to deceive men,
didn't they? They lied on the Lord Jesus Christ
just as these men lied. They gave false accounts of the
Lord unto Pilate, unto Herod, and yet the Lord opened not his
mouth. Satan even tempted our Lord, didn't he? tempted him
three times, tempted him with power, tempted him with popularity,
tempted him with pleasure. The things that men fall because
of, because of the lust that's in our heart. And yet the Lord
remained faithful in building his wall. The Lord remained faithful
in building his kingdom. He stood before Pilate and Pilate
said, I have the power. Where do you think that came
from? Men at his very best state. Brethren, we're just full of
self-righteousness in ourself. If we're left to ourself, we're
full of pride. We're full of lies. We're full
of thinking that we are good enough. And Pilate said, you
don't, do you know who you're talking to? That's what Pilate
was saying. You know who you're talking to? And the Lord said, you know,
it's amazing that the Lord never opened his mouth of all the accusations
that they continually gave unto the Lord, all the accusations.
He opened not his mouth until He said, I have the power and
God does not. Then Christ rebuked him, didn't
he? He says, you would have no power at all, but be given to
my father. The world hates Jesus Christ
and this glorious message. Satan hates God's gospel, God's
people. Satan hates God. Satan hates
the Lord Jesus Christ and everything about him. He's going to try
to do whatever he can to distract us, to cause us to falter, to
cause us to fumble and fail. And sometimes we do. You remember
Peter. Peter denied the Lord, didn't
he? He did it out of fear to the same fear that Nehemiah had
fear of man. He denied the Lord. And yet did
the Lord not get all the glory and all of that? Did it? Do we
not see Peter being the one given the keys of the kingdom? How
can that be? Because God's promise standeth
sure God's purpose cannot be stopped or prevented. God will
accomplish that which he set out to do, and he did. It is
finished. Satan tried everything he could.
I want to bring your attention
to v. 9 of Nehemiah 6. When Nehemiah responds to these
men, he says these words, the very last part, v. 9, it says, Now therefore, O
God, strengthen my hands. I'm reminded when the Lord Jesus
Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew the work that he had
been sent to do was about to be accomplished. He knew that
in doing so, he had to drink of the cup, the cup of damnation,
the cup of sin for his people. And he did. Cup of woe, the cup
of suffering, the separation. Do you know, as soon as he drank
of that cup, he was separated from his father until all the
sin of his people were put away. That's the first time he'd ever
been separated from his father. He was separated because of your
and I's sin. And what did he pray in the garden?
What did he pray? Father, not my will, but thy
be done. He said, Father, let this cup
pass for me if there be any way. Nevertheless, not my will, thine
be done. And it was the Lord's will for
him to drink that cup. Can you imagine the moment that
he drank that and separation happened? Now understand something,
the absence of God's presence is evil. If God's presence is
not there, it's evil. It's not light, it's darkness.
It's the opposite, right? So as soon as he lost presence
with his father, you better believe who was present. The one that
is our adversary, the accuser. And he was sitting there accusing
the Lord himself just as much as these Pharisees were accusing
the Lord. And yet the Lord did not open his mouth. He continually
looked unto the Lord as his strength, as his strength and his hope
that God would keep his promise to his son. Just as Nehemiah
prayed, Lord strengthen my hands, the Lord knew that if he was
left to himself, left to himself, that it was this, this agony that he would have
to face alone, alone, so that you and I would be able to have
the strength of the Lord, that the Lord would strengthen our
hands. No doubt Satan would have said,
now I have him. Now I'm able to take charge. Now I'm able
to, he entered in Judas's heart, didn't he? to betray the Lord. He entered in Judas's heart,
and he did, he betrayed the Lord. And they took him, they took
him away, and they beat him, they put a crown of thorn upon
his head, and he carried the cross up Gatha's brow, and he
was hanging there naked before the world, and they were spitting
upon him, they were mocking him, and they were all of these things,
and yet we see the contrast here, brethren, that he did that so
that you and I could have this refuge, so that you and I could
have this wall, so that you and I could have this shelter, from
the blasts of our adversary and from the wrath of God. That's
why he did this. No matter what took place, Christ
could not be stopped. Christ could not be slowed. Christ
could not be hindered. He came to earth to save his
people and he did so. Even as the terrors of God passed
him about the wrath of God being poured out upon him, he did not
waver in his work. He continued to build that which
God had sent him to do the work that he had been given. That's
what this is a picture of in Nehemiah. It's the Lord building
us a city, the Lord building us a sanctuary, the Lord building
us a place of refuge. Does he not hedge us about? Did
we not read from Psalm just a few minutes ago about how the Lord
hedges about his people? How he is our refuge in the city
of Zion. That's the city of God. This
is what he was doing. He just kept fulfilling the prophecies. He fulfilled the law. He satisfied
God's justice. This is what he was doing on
the cross for his people. And as he breathed out his last
breath, he said, father, forgive them for they know not what they
do. Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ
had been praying for everyone that was present, everyone that
was present at that moment, The Lord would have saved them. The
Lord would have, because of who was praying, am I right? And
yet we know that he prayed only for those for whom he loved,
for those for whom he died. And he said, into thy hands,
I commend my spirit. And with a loud voice, he cried,
it is finished. What's finished? The place where you can worship,
the place where you can rest. Your salvation is finished. It is accomplished. It is complete
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan can do nothing against
the elect of God unless allowed. And don't misunderstand, we're
no match for the devil. I'm not patting him on the back and I'm
not giving him any glory, any praise whatsoever. But we are
no match for the devil in and of ourself. Thanks be to God,
we don't have to be. Christ shut him up. Christ bruised
his head. And one of these days, the Lord's
gonna throw him in the lake of fire forever and ever. See, hell
was created for the devil and his angels. Is that not true?
So the devil's locked out of his own house. Christ has the
keys of that hell in the grave, doesn't he? The Lord took his
keys. He don't even have the ability to go to the lowest parts
unless the Lord gives him leave to do so. See, he's on a short
leash, brethren. He doesn't have any power unless
God gives it to him. Sometimes whenever circumstances
of our life are overwhelming, sometimes when we take our eyes
off of the wall that the Lord's built for us, it's his salvation.
I think I've been clear on that. It's the Lord's salvation, his
wall, his kingdom. When we take our minds off of Christ, our
eyes off of Christ for a brief moment, the Lord leaves us to
ourself. The Lord will allow our adversary to give us temptations
and we'll be led away by the lust of our flesh, ourself and
temptations and we'll falter and we'll fall on our face. And
yet we see time and time again, goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life. The Lord uses that for him to
get the glory. Can you imagine the devil being
really excited because you've messed up and yet in the end
of it, all you do is look to Christ and it makes him angry
again all over. You see, it's just over and over again. That's
exactly what it is. I love that. The devil can't
do anything unless the Lord causes it and allows it to be so. It's all for our good. and His
glory and for the salvation of His people. The scripture tells
us the tribulation of our faith worketh patience and patience
experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed of
the gospel. So it's a continual tribulation that keeps driving
us to Christ over and over. We're contending with the world,
we're contending with our flesh and our adversary is the accuser
of the brethren. And we would have no hope whatsoever in this
this work that we have been given to us in the proclaiming of the
gospel, save the Lord Jesus Christ, accomplishing salvation, save
his blood alone. That's our only hope. This faith that we have one day
will end in sight. It'll end in sight. Our brother Terry no longer has
faith. Did you know that? His faith ended in sight. See,
with your sight and seeing Christ, You no longer need faith to believe
Him. You just look to Him spiritually at that point. You're there looking
at Him. And He says, when it does not yet appear what we shall
be, what we know, and He shall appear, we shall be like Him,
for we shall see Him as He is. As soon as we see Him, we'll
be made just like Him. Made just like Him, that's our hope. Our
faith's gonna end in sight. Turn with me to 1 Peter. In closing,
I have two places I want us to turn to quickly. 1 Peter chapter
one. 1 Peter 1 and verse 6, wherein you rejoice greatly,
wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need
be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the
trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that
perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto
the praise and honor in glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Whom having not seen you love in whom though now you see him
not you believing. You rejoice with joy, unspeakable
and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls. Isn't that glorious? We believe. the Lord Jesus Christ,
because he's given us the faith to believe him. We have been
made to rest in him, knowing that we will have the end of
our faith when he appears, even the salvation of our souls. But
until this happens, until the end of our faith happens, we
are still contending in this warfare, still contending with
this flesh, still contending with ourself and our adversary. So what do we do? We look to
Christ. And we cry out the same as found
in Revelation 12. Turn over just a few pages, Revelation
12. Revelation 12, 9. And the great dragon was cast
out, the old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world. He was cast out into the earth
and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud
voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength and
the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser
of our brethren is cast down, which accuseth them before our
God day and night. And they overcame him, how? By
the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony,
What is our testimony, brethren? Christ is all. Christ is all. And they love not their lives
unto death. They love not their lives. Who
did they love? They love Christ, didn't they? We love Christ because
He first loved us. The wall was finished. His kingdom.
He just told us His kingdom came right there. The wall was finished. The enemy cast down. Why? Because
it was wrought of God and He gets all the glory. Everything
In life is all because it is wrought of God. He is the first
cause of all things. Rest. Rest in his wall. Rest in his finished work. Rest
in his Christ. Amen. Father, thank you for building
a wall for your people to hedge us about a kingdom, a glorious
salvation. Pray that you would bless your
word in Christ name. Amen.