Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the book of Nehemiah, chapter
1, and we read for our text, verse 3. Verse 3. 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. Nehemiah 1 and verse 3. What is upon my spirit is that
during these Thursday evenings I'd like to go through the book
of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is a rebuilder and our
text, it states very clearly the condition that Jerusalem
was in at this time And by the time we get to the end of the
book, we have the walls restored physically. There's been much
rebuilding. And also the worship of God has
been restored and repaired as well. In many times we have Nehemiah
as a type of Christ, of course, he cannot be in every type, he
is a man, he is a sinner, and so cannot be a type in every
aspect. But there's many lessons, especially
for personally and as the church of God in the book of Nehemiah,
and especially when we think of the Church of God at this
present time, the condition that we feel our own souls to be in,
the condition that we see the churches generally. You might
say, well, how does that really relate to Jerusalem? But remember, here we have God's
ancient people, and we equate them to God's people in all time. God cares for his people, he
watches over them, he chastens them, he restores them. So whether
we are looking at the typical people of Israel, or whether
we are looking at the Church of God today, we are still looking
at God's people. We have in the Revelation chapter
21 and verse 2, the vision that John saw, the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband. Now, we need to remember that
the bride adorned for the husband, the bride of Christ, is not bricks
and mortar. It is men and women, it is the
Church of God, the redeemed that are in heaven. And so again,
we equate this to Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah. We have a very clear pointing
to gospel days In Hebrews 12, as well, in verse 22, there's
a contrast between Moses or Mount Sinai in verse 21. So terrible was the sight that
Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. Sinai is equated,
of course, with the holy law of God, the law that we have
broken and through that raking the wrath of God is upon us. But verse 22 says, but ye are
come unto Mount Sinai and unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written
in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of
just men, made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new
covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better
things than that of Abel. So it's coming to the new covenant,
it's coming to the gospel days, the gospel of our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ, that speaks very different than the the holy law
of God because Christ has fulfilled that law on behalf of his people. He has endured the wrath of God
and those that believe in him and trust in what he has done
are free from condemnation. And so when we look at Jerusalem
then we can equate to the church in this present day. Before we
look at the word and I want to take chapter by chapter really
and the chapter that we've read first and glean the Lord's message
to us through the word. But I want to just place where
Nehemiah comes, where is the children of Israel at this time? You remember that in the days
of Jeremiah, God brought about what he said, that because they
had transgressed against him, they hadn't listened to the prophets,
they had followed Baal, they had worshipped idols, so he brought
them into 70 years' captivity at Babylon. And then after that
70 years, he brought them out. Well, the year that he brought
them out was 538 before Christ. And it was Zerubbabel
and Joshua that led a small party back to Palestine at that time
at the commandment of King Cyrus. After two years, they started
to rebuild the temple, but then they had a lot of opposition
to that, and so for 16 years, they just built their own houses
instead, and the temple was neglected. The prophets, Haggai and Zechariah,
reproved them, pointed out that God was visiting them with troubles
in their crops and in their own personal affairs because the
house of God was neglected. So they returned back to that.
Four years later, the temple was rebuilt. And when it was
rebuilt, it was exactly 70 years since it had been broken down. So the time then that had elapsed there, that's 70
years captivity in Babylon. You could date it from the time
that the temple was broken down, the time it was restored. You
can also date it from when the first lot of captives went out
of Jerusalem to Babylon and when the first lot with Zerubbabel
and Joshua came back from Babylon, 70 years. in both cases. So then after the temple had
been restored, if we go forward another 38 years, we come to
the time that is recorded in the book of Esther with King
Ahasuerus. Then if we go another 20 years
on, we find Ezra and they are coming with some of the treasures
from Babylon and back again to Palestine. Then we have another
13 years go by and Nehemiah comes and that's where our account
here is placed. So if we kind of date the book
of Nehemiah, we can say it is 445 years before Christ, or 71
years after the temple had been rebuilt. Sometimes we might think,
well, Nehemiah comes very quickly after the Jews had come back
to their own land, but in fact, It is the length of captivity
again, another 70 years or so, or 93 years after that first
return of Zerubbabel and Joshua that we find Nehemiah here. And so this sets the scene here
after the Jews had been scattered amongst the nations after they'd
been in Babylon 70 years. And then 70 years returned, the
temple had been rebuilt for 71 years. But here the walls are
all broken down and the state and condition is very, very deplorable. And this is where we find Nehemiah
then coming in. So he is the Rebuilder at this
time when God's people are very low, very discouraged, very despised. So I want to look at the word
here and basing our thoughts on three things. Firstly, the
report that Nehemiah had of the conditions at Jerusalem, and
then secondly, the effect that that had on Nehemiah, and thirdly,
the first step in rebuilding, which is in this chapter, which
is prayer. But firstly, the report, that is our text, Nehemiah's brother, one of the
brethren, had come, and certain men from Judah come from the
Holy Land. And Nehemiah asked them concerning
the Jews that had escaped. Now, Nehemiah is the cupbearer
of the king. He doesn't bring this out until
the end of this chapter. He could have spoken of it earlier,
but he keeps that till later. And when we read in the first
verse here in the 20th year, as I was in Shushan, the palace,
then we are cleared up as to what he means in chapter two,
when it is in the 20th year of Artaxerxes, the king. So it is
dating from his reign, the 20th year of his reign. So then Nehemiah has those that
come and he's able to ask them about what was happening some
618 miles away in Jerusalem. No telephones, no mobiles, no
quick way of telling, constant way then. But here is a first-hand
account of what the conditions really were. I notice here how
right it is to actually ask. because this was of his brethren. And from what follows, a right
motive of asking. But how often do we ask? Ask brethren, ask those afar
off, how is it with you? How is it going? How are things
where you are? Do we inquire? It wasn't a case
with Nehemiah. Out of sight, out of mind. It wasn't a case of him saying,
well, I've got a nice position of cup bearer here. It doesn't
bother me what is happening in Palestine. He asks, he inquires. And just in the inquiring is
showing that interest and showing that concern. They are not a
forgotten people by him. And so the report then is given
and the report is that here is a remnant, a small number, The
remnant that are left of the captivity implies that the number
had been getting less. A despised remnant in great affliction and reproach. I wonder what kind of report that
we would give of our place of worship here, of our church, of our congregation,
if we were asked like that. Any church and any congregation,
any people, if someone asked us from the next village or from
the other side of the world, What would we say? The report here was an honest
report. And we might say, right at the
very beginning of this book, that deals with the real restoration
and rebuilding, that it was vital that the report actually be an
honest one. so that those things be redressed,
and so that Nehemiah, who had been chosen by God, as is clearly
seen in this account, to be the means of restoring them, would
be so moved to do so. Sometimes we, and it's not altogether
wrong to be able to point out some of the blessings even in
very, very dark times. But sometimes the very making
a breast of something is not the honest and right way of going
on for a full restoration. And so the picture here was a
picture that was not a nice one. But it was a true one, a true
report that had happened. What was going on? A great way
off, and yet amazingly, what was going on here at Shushan
the Palace, a man, Nehemiah, being raised up by God, put right
next to the king, just for this purpose. that he would be the
means of restoring and reviving them again. You know, all things
are known by God. God does know. And may we remember that, that
nothing is hid from the Lord. He knows your heart. He knows
my heart. He knows the condition of our
souls. He knows our need, he knows all
things. But he'd have that report to
be transmitted here to Nehemiah to actually be articulated, actually
be confessed and owned as this is the true condition. There's three ways we could equate
this to the state of the Church. The first is the state and condition
of the Church that by nature has fallen in Adam. The state and condition of man
as he is born into this world is broken down far off from God
alienated from God, we might say, in the words of the text,
in great affliction and reproach. Really, no words can rightly
describe the fallen, terrible state of man under the sentence
of death, under the wrath of God, in a condition that only
God's provision can bring him up out of. I wonder how much has been opened
up to us and shown us of what our true state by nature is. And like we said here that it
needed to be a true report to have that condition addressed,
if we were to minimise the fall of man, if we were to say he's
not quite so bad, he's not altogether fallen, he's not altogether lost,
he's still capable of exercising his faith, there's some good
in him, then really we rule ourselves
out of the salvation of God which is for sinners, those that are
totally depraved and totally lost and totally fallen. It is vital that even in medical
things, if someone is going to be healed of a terrible disease,
that that disease be rightly diagnosed, that it be owned up,
acknowledged, so that the right treatment is given. If a wrong
diagnosis is done first, then the wrong treatment and no healing. And nothing could be more important
than a right diagnosis of the state of fallen man. Our Lord,
He testified that if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall perish
in your sins. In other words, without the Saviour,
without the provision of God, man is lost. He shall perish,
he shall be destroyed. There is only one name given
among men whereby we must be saved, and that is the Lord Jesus
Christ. So in thinking of the report
here that is given and the state of man by nature, may we want
a true report. The scriptures are clear in this. The scriptures give a clear report. God gives a clear report that
all we like sheep have gone astray. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one, that we all become as an unclean thing. There is
no soundness in us. We are full of bruises and wounds
and putrefying sores. We have fallen from God's image. wrath of God is upon us, the
condemnation of God is upon us, a beautiful contrast when we
have in Romans 8, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. But that implies the opposite,
those outside of him are under condemnation. So may our report
May our testimony concerning ourselves, concerning the Fall,
be a true one, and then there is hope that the healing and
blessing that we have will also be true and stand at the last
great judgment day of God. The second way that we may equate
what is here, the report, is that of a backsliding soul. Yes, God's people do backslide. We have the case of David sinning
in the matter of Uriah, Bathsheba, against thee, thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, and his great confession
of sin. But that restoring is needed
to a backsliding soul. A church as well that have left
their first love those who have backslidden to the ways of the
world and gone back to their old sins. Israel were doing this
constantly throughout their history and certainly at this time they
had done so as well. And so the other type is the
church collectively. At any one time in the history
of the church there is a condition of that church. Sometimes it
is healthy, sometimes it is living close to the Lord, in the fear
of the Lord. The ordinances are all in place,
the preaching is the preaching of the word, it's a faithful
ministry, and the people of God are a praying people. And they
walk in a practical way as well as in a spiritual way that magnifies
the grace of God. But alas, how often it gets to
a place where the Word of God is neglected. We think of the
children of Israel, that they could even have a time that they
so lost the Word of God that it was found again in the house
of God. We read that there shall be in
the last days a famine, not of bread and of water, but of hearing
the words of the Lord. And it is a solemn thing when
in the churches in our land, there are many churches that
do not feature much, if anything, of the reading of the word of
God or of the faithful preaching of God. Even in an outward, superficial
way, one could go into an assembly and see many things that would
grieve. Our Lord, when he came in his
day to the temple, he cast out the buyers and the sellers. Why
were they there? Well, they were selling the things
that they needed to offer and sacrifice the doves and the animals
for sacrificing. What was a religious thing? But
he said, my father made There's a house of prayer, ye have made
it a den of thieves. How could God's ancient people,
and even at the time of Christ's coming, so go away from what
God had designed it to be? So we may look upon our churches,
are we what God has designed us to be? And even if the outside
is right, what is it inside? Is it iron sharpeneth iron? Or is it conflicts and tearing
one another apart? Is it then that the world has
crept in, that the worship is just shallow, just outward form,
and that in secret we are far from the Lord, the fear of the
Lord is not there, We're doing like Israel did, secretly, those
things which are grieving to the Lord. I believe at this present
time, the Church is in a very, very low place. It's viewed by
the Lord, it's viewed by the godly. And that's what we must
say, is regard the report here in our text. You know, it needs
one that is exercised. that does have spiritual eyes,
that can compare what we are with the Word of God, that is
able to give a true report. I've no doubt you could go into
many churches in this land and you ask them for a report and
they give you a whole long list of the things that they are doing
and maybe even evangelism, right things, good things. All the
work, all the outward work, but inwardly, what God sees, and maybe even
outwardly as well, what a different report the truly godly and those
that feared the Lord would actually give. I always think of the African
ladies that met us on a beach in Australia years and years
ago. We were not known to them, they
were not known to us, but they came up to us. It was a lonely
beach, we were just going for a walk. And they said, are you
Christians? We said, we were. And they just
unburdened their heart. The church that they were attending
had gone further and further away from the word. They were
starting to have days that they had pet days and bringing in
their dogs and cats and all sorts of things in the Church of God.
And they said, we just sit at the back and we weep. And that
was probably 26, 27 years ago. What kind of a report, how do
we view what is happening in the Church of God. Even when a church, even when
a people is far off and like here with the walls broken down
and in great distress, we may say what a blessing if there
are some in it that are sighing and crying on account of the
abominations done in the land. that there are some that really
see the true state and honestly able to describe it, able to
convey it. They're in the midst of it. May
we remember that. Wherever we may see a church,
we may just see the superficial outside. We could perhaps just
walk in through the door, see enough, and we walk straight
out. But may we remember there may be God's people in that church. and they are weeping, and they
are crying, and they are groaning. May we remember that. God has
his dear people in many strange places, an Obadiah in Ahab's
court, those in Caesar's household, Lot in Sodom. And here we have Nehemiah is
the king's cup bearer at Shushan the palace. You have Daniel,
of course, before, many years before. So we have this report on these
many, many things that are bound up within, a lot of lessons that
we can learn just in the asking of it, in the giving of it, in
the thinking of our condition by nature, a condition as a backsliding
people and a condition as churches collectively. I want to look then secondly at
the effect on Nehemiah. We read in verse 4, A profound
effect. And we may ask ourselves what
effect Does these reports or what we
may discern and see ourselves of our own condition or the Church
of God have upon us? I fear very much we're just able
to brush it off. Sometimes there's a fatalistic
spirit and we say, well, it is a day of small things. There's
nothing we can do. If God will revive us, he will
revive us. And we just go on with no concern
and no sorrow. We can look upon the state of
things and be untouched. And yet we read in the word in
Ezekiel that there is to be a mark set upon all those that sighed
and cried on account of the abominations done in the land. And they were
to be saved, though though in the midst of it, they were to
be blessed, they were to be spared when the destroying angel went
through. How does it affect us? My concern
is if we can acknowledge and even identify or hear others
like Nehemiah, he's hearing another describe the condition of Jerusalem,
and yet it leave us unmoved. What is the effect upon us? On Nehemiah, it was in private,
before the Lord. How easy it is to imitate an
effect before men, and as soon as we're out of their sight,
then it's not there. But you and I know if there's
something that has really affected us, if we've heard something
that has really touched us, it follows us through the day, through
the night, we weep, We cry, we wake up in the night and suddenly
it sweeps over us, we realise it. There's been something in
our families, in our loved ones that has been distressing. We
know what it is, how profoundly it affects us personally. There's
no question about imitating our reaction. The reaction is heartfelt. How much? heartfelt reaction
do we have in viewing our sin, viewing our need, viewing the
state of the churches? Thinking of the three aspects,
whether man by nature or backsliding people in the church, here is
Nehemiah and the effect upon him. A Nehemiah put in a position
where he was able to remedy this. But we think of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. We think of their provision for
the Church of God in being redeemed, saved, restored by the Lord. None can care for the Church
of God as much as Christ. He has purchased it with his
precious blood. The hymn writer says, he saw
me lost and ruined in the fall and loved me notwithstanding
all. The provision of a saviour promised
first in the garden of Eden and the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. The provision in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Here it is. You might say, Nehemiah's
feeling and reaction for his people and what an effect that
had. And what effect it has, the feeling
and reaction our Lord has when he sees his people. We read of
when the children of Israel were in Egypt The Lord saw their groanings,
he saw their bondage, he had respect unto them, they were
the promised seed of Abraham, they were his people, and he
came down to deliver them. And all the instigating was of
the Lord, and the love that the Lord had to his people was because
he would love nothing in them, as subsequent all their rebellions
so proved, and the Lord knowing about those right from the start. So may we go from the thought
of how this report affected Nehemiah to the thought of how our Lord
is moved by the condition of his people, by the condition
of the Church of God. We may say in this account, it
was the Lord that ordered that Nehemiah should be in this position,
that when the Lord wanted a man, there he was, there he was prepared
and prepared to go and in God's providence to Jerusalem to deal
with these matters and to rectify them. May that be a wonderful
encouragement to us. If we feel we are a despised
remnant, we are low, We are far off from the Lord, we are backslidden,
we've sinned against the Lord, that there is a Redeemer, a Saviour, an Advocate
with the Father that looks upon us in our distress, in our need,
and He feels it. He's not unmoved, not unmoved. by the groans and sighs and cries
of his people. I want to look then thirdly at
the first steps in rebuilding, and that is by a path of prayer. In verse four we read at the
end how that he mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before
the God of heaven. Now, it is not just saying prayers. It's prayers that need to be
heard. In verse five we have near mire,
drawing near, and how he draws near to God, how he addresses
him, the Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that
keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe
his commandments. Here is the true fear of the
Lord, which has the balance on one hand, the greatness, the
terribleness. On the other hand, one that keeps
his promises, one that keeps her mercy for those that love
him and observe his commandments. How do we address before God? God is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints, to be had in reverence of all them
that are about him. As the Lord solemnised our hearts
and minds as we come before the God of heaven and earth, he that
cometh to God must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek him. And it's very obvious here
that Nehemiah, with his mourning, his fasting, his prayers, that
he was diligently seeking the Lord. and he didn't want to just
say prayers and then be satisfied with that. He wanted to be heard. Verse six, let thine ear now
be attentive and thine eyes open that thou mayest hear. We come
before the true and living God, not an idol. God that through
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ hears and answers prayer. How impressed upon us is it that
our prayers be heard, our prayers be answered, that the Lord appear,
that we don't just do lip service, but then we are watching in prayer
and looking for the Lord to appear and answer our prayers. In verse seven, we have confession. and verse 6 as well, how there's
confession of sin, but specific sins. In verse 7 it is, we have
dealt very corruptly against thee. That is a specific sin. And then secondly, and have not
kept the commandments nor the statutes nor the judgments which
thou commandest thy servant Moses. And he made confession of specific
sins. Do we do that? Do we identify
specific sins, our sins, the transgression of the law, those
things that we have done we should not do, and those things that
we haven't done that we should do? If we confess our sins, we
read in 1 John 1, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Then there is an acknowledging
in verse eight that God has already fulfilled
part of his word, part of his promises. Remember, I beseech
thee the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, if
he transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations. And the Lord has done that. Nehemiah
is identifying, here is something God has said that he would do,
and he's done it. Though it is scattering around
the nations. When we go back to our first
parent, Adam, God said, in the day that thou eatest thereof
as the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
surely die. And man did die spiritually,
and in process of time, man died literally. And we all must die. And so we can look upon that
which the Lord has said he would do, and he has done it. And that is to be an encouragement
when we come to a God that does what he says that he will do,
even if it is against us. Because in verse 9, he reminds
the Lord of the other side. But if he turn unto me and keep
my commandments and do them, though there were of you cast
out into the uttermost part of heaven, yet will I gather you.
There's the other side of him. And we might say, well, how can
we keep the commandments of the Lord and do them in the perfection
that is required of the Lord? Really, there's two sides to
this, because God's dear people, they will desire to keep the
word of God and to keep the commandments of the Lord. They know that they
cannot keep them perfectly, and they know that their reliance
is on what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. And that should be
ours. As for our title for heaven,
it is our faith in what Christ has done, that he has fulfilled
the law and made it honourable. He has suffered at Calvary without
the shedding of blood. There is no remission. So he
has put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself. And in
his life and perfect obedience, He has wrought out a righteousness
to give to believers. And so it is Christ that is to
be seen instead of us when we approach to God. And when we
see on one side the condemnation under the law, we must look at
God's provision in Christ under the gospel and we see the blessing
there. We see the blessing there. And
we see the blessing upon repentance, and the Lord Jesus Christ is
exalted to give repentance and remission of sins unto Israel,
unto his people. And that's what we have in verse
nine, but if ye turn unto me. That is what repentance is, turning
unto the Lord, acknowledging our sins. When the Lord begins and he blesses
his people with repentance, with turning, that is the path that
they are to walk. The Lord's promise, and I'll
cleanse you from all unrighteousness, forgiving those sins that are
confessed and that are turned from. The Lord said to the woman
that was taken in adultery, and those that brought her said,
rightly, Moses commanded that she should be stoned. But what
sayest thou? What a contrast we have between
Moses and the gospel. When our Lord wrote upon the
ground, saying to them that he that is without sin among you
first cast a stone at her, They all went out. There wasn't one
amongst them that was without sin. All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. The Lord said to the woman, hath
no man condemned thee? No man, Lord. Neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. There is the forgiveness in the
Lord Jesus Christ, not without cost. The Lord Jesus Christ had
died for her sins, put her sins away, or was to, on Calvary's
tree. And so we have near might and
prayer. May we be the same. As off we
can see the Lord, chastening according to his word, dealing
with us according to his word. May we also remember what his
word says about restoring and repentance and mercy and the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has these beautiful
promises. I will gather them from hence
and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set
my name there. This is the Lord's work to restore. May we be encouraged to pray
in this way and to plead before the Lord. Nehemiah's prayer is
not all confession. It is not all doom, gloom with
no ray of hope. There's the ray of the gospel
still on the promises of what God has said he would do. And then in verse 10, we have
the people of God that are identified. Though they have sinned, though
they are backslidden, though the church is far off, their
true church is still the church of God. The Lord will not cast
off his people, those that he has redeemed, those that he has
saved, The typical here, those that the Lord had brought out
of Egypt with the shedding of blood at the Passover, they are
still his people. Not an encouragement for a remnant,
for a despised people. People that are reproached, they
are still his people. He hasn't disowned them. He hasn't
cast them off. Chastened. Corrected, yes. But here is the beginning of
restoring. And it begins with prayer. And all that follows in this
book, before ever there is a move made, before ever there's any
petition to the King, there's prayer. O Lord, I beseech Thee
in verse 11, that now Thine ear Be attentive to the prayer of
thy servants. May the Lord be pleased to renew
the spirit of prayer and supplication amongst us. Here with Nehemiah. When God has a work to do, he
will never want an instrument. Nehemiah is the instrument here. God has an instrument that he
makes sure that he is fit for purpose. He's prepared for the
work, as was Moses prepared for the work that he had to do, as
was Joseph for his before him. And God does have a remnant still. May we be encouraged through
Nehemiah and through this first chapter Despise not the day of
small things. You think how this chapter closes. The state in Jerusalem is still
exactly as it was. But here is one that's heard
the report and prayer has begun to be made. And we know from
the outcome of this book how much it was answered. May the
Lord bless this word and encourage us and help us as we look at
further aspects, if the Lord will, going through this book
with Nehemiah, Nehemiah the Rebuilder.